The Discovery

Vinyl entered the rec room, slightly startling the other occupants. Rarity stood up from the stool at the bar.

"Vinyl, what happened, where are the others?" Rarity asked, concerned. Vinyl then gave the room a sad look.

"Whooves is dead, we found his body burned to a crisp, we have no idea what happened, but the others are checking AJ's tower, the lights are on." Vinyl explained, making the others confused.

"Well, nopony has left to turn on those lights, so who could've done it?" Maud asked. Everyone else responded with simple shrugs and confused looks.

"Let's just wait for them to get back." Soarin said as he stared out the window.

About 20 minutes passed before the crew became too anxious, a storm moved in over the compound and snow began to fall and cut down visibility out the windows. The winds also began to pick up even more, making it unlikely that Applejack and Pinkie were still alive out there.

"They've been gone too long, we should barricade the exterior doors." Rarity suggested, the others reluctantly agreed and went about barricading the exterior doors. When Maud was busy barricading one of the doors, she looked out of the small window next to the door and saw a figure moving towards the base with a flare lit. Eventually she recognized the figure as Pinkie.

"Guys, Over here!" Maud shouted as loud as she could, bringing the rest of the crew to the door. Banging sounds began to emit from the door.

"Guys, open up, it's me Pinkie!" Pinkie's voice came from the other side of the door. Rarity showed up with a flamethrower.

"Open the door, if she's a thing, I'll torch her." Rarity said before nodding to Maud to let her in. Maud then unlatched the lock and let Pinkie in who stumbled to the ground covered in snow.

"Where were you Pinkie?" Soarin asked. Pinkie panted as she took a piece of fabric from her jacket pocket.

"We were checking out her tower, and I found this sticking out from under her bed." Pinkie said out of breath. Soarin took the fabric, it had Applejack's initials on it.

"So, she's a one of them?" Soarin asked.

"I got out of the tower as fast as I could, I made sure to get far enough ahead of her." Pinkie said.

"When do you think it got to her?" Vinyl asked.

Before anyone could answer, there was a banging on the door. The crew looked at each other, unsure of what they should do.

"I think we should let her in." Soarin suggested.

"Why?" Rarity asked.

"If she is one of those things, this is the perfect opportunity to torch it." Soarin said.

"No, lets just let it freeze out there, it'll be dead soon enough." Rarity said. Suddenly, there was a crash of glass heard from down the hallway.

"The storage room!" Rarity exclaimed.

Applejack quickly climbed through the broken window and lit a flare, finding herself in a storage room. She could hear the sounds of the other's hoofsteps coming down the hallway. Thinking fast, she grabbed a bundle of dynamite and held the fuse dangerously close to the flare.

Rarity attempted to open the door, but it was locked from the inside and Applejack had the keys.

"Soarin, hand me that ax." Rarity said, pointing to the fire ax hung on the wall. Soarin grabbed the ax and gave it to Rarity, who began to hack the door down.

"You're a dead mare Applejack, or whatever you are!" Rarity shouted as she chopped down the door.

They finally broke open the door and silence filled the air as they stood in a peculiar standoff.

"Now, everypony is going to calm down, take a deep breath, and head back to the rec room." Applejack said calmly and carefully as she held the dynamite and the lit flare. Soarin stepped forward,

"I'm afraid we can't take that chance." Soarin said. Applejack just held the flare closer to the fuse, getting Soarin to step back.

"If anypony tries, we all go." Applejack said threateningly. "Now take off the flamethrowers, put them down, and step back." Applejack ordered.

Rarity and Soarin reluctantly complied and slipped off their flamethrowers and stepped back into the hallway. Applejack slowly followed them out, eventually standing in the doorway, looking at Rarity, Soarin and Vinyl.

"Where are the others?" Applejack asked, she was then suddenly grabbed by the Pie sisters, who tried to restrain her, but she fought back, shoving Pinkie off and kicking Maud into a shelf unit.

"Woah, Applejack, just chill okay." Pinkie said, raising her hooves trying to diffuse the situation.

Applejack looked over at Maud, who was laying down by the shelf, not responding. Pinkie moved over to Maud and put a hoof on her chest, before putting her ear to her chest. Pinkie gasped and gave the others a frightened look.

"She's not breathing!" Pinkie screamed, Applejack then immediately spoke up.

"Untie the doc and the others, and get Maud to the infirmary, do it NOW!" Applejack yelled, before the others reluctantly complied and rushed Maud to the infirmary.

Pinkie and Vinyl carried Maud into the infirmary and laid her down on the table. Then the others, now consisting of Dr. Stables, Shining and Fluttershy, also came into the infirmary. Finally, Applejack came in, now with a flamethrower and still holding the dynamite. Stables immediately stepped forward and with the assistance of Pinkie and Vinyl, removed Maud's jacket and shirt so he could perform CPR.

Applejack was in the corner, using the flamethrower to warm herself up after being out in the snow.

"You pricks, don't you think anypony could've stolen some of my clothes and stuck them under my mattress?" Applejack asked in an angry tone.

"We aren't buying that." Rarity argued.

"Stop bickering over there, I'm trying to save Maud here." Stables shouted as he performed the chest pump.

When the chest pump technique didn't work, Pinkie grabbed the defibrillator and handed it to Stables, who immediately started charging it up.

"Clear." Stables said before placing down the defibrillator on Maud's chest and delivering the shock. After, Stables checked her pulse again, still no response.

"Again." Stables said as he began to charge up the defibrillator again.

"Clear." Stables said again, but before he could place the chest paddles down, Maud's chest opened up into a large mouth, allowing Stables arms to plunge inside, before snapping shut on Stables' arms. He let out a scream as the chest tore off his arms from the elbow down. Stables screamed more before falling over dead. Applejack then quickly swung open the door and motioned for the crew to get out.

Then, Maud's body began to shake before a fountain of viscera erupted from the large chest mouth to reveal a weird spider like creature sticking out of her. Applejack immediately aimed and fired the flamethrower and burned the abomination. But then, Maud's head began to detach from the rest of the body and fall off the table. The head's tongue then latched on to a nearby chair and began to scoot itself away from the fire.

The crew looked on in shock as the fire raged, but then Soarin noticed the head, and watched as it sprouted 6 little legs and tried to run away. "You've gotta be fucking kidding." Soarin said, staring at the head, Applejack turned and saw the head running away. She raised the flamethrower, and fired it again, roasting the last bit of the Maud thing.

After Vinyl and Shining ran in and extinguished the fires, Applejack spoke up, "Okay, back to the rec room, I have an idea on how we can test who's a thing..."