Author's Note

Here's the flashback chapter to explain the murder, and after this they'll be in order after the most recent last chapter.

15. Snack Time

Wednesday, 6/29/2078 (before second murder)
POV: Dangerous Magic

Danger hadn't eaten a thing, too afraid to consume any food after being told that it had some unknown something inside it, but it was getting to her. Her stomach rumbled and tensed up in pain, and the stress of being here didn't help her desire to stuff her face.

Enough was enough. She needed something to eat now.

But she also needed to be alone for a full eight hours, and she couldn't get to the kitchen without passing by the guards. Unless...

Her eyes shifted up to the vent in the corner near the floor of her room. Stable-Tec always made their vents huge so she could probably crawl into it. Her room was second-closest to the kitchen, but the vent might go all the way there. Of course, someone might also be in the kitchen.

Well, there was one way to find out, possibly.

"Paper?" Danger whispered aloud.

Paper Cut peeked above the bottom edge of the monitor displaying everyone's living or not-living status as if she were always waiting.

"Daaaaanger," Paper Cut whispered back, more dramatic than necessary as if trying to sound like a ghost.

"Do you know if anyone in the kitchen?" Danger asked, still with a whisper.

"I do know that!" Paper popped her head up but then ducked back down. "But I can't tell you, silly, that's cheating!"

"Fine," Danger signed. "How about this, if I crawled through the vent and peaked into the dining hall to see if anypony was there, saw someone, then didn't go into the room, would it count as me not being alone?"

"Hmm," Paper tapped her chin. "I don't know. If you broke any rules while you're inside the vent, I couldn't see, and that would be very not good!"

"What rule would I break inside the vent alone?" asked Danger. "There's not anyone in there to ask me for sex and I just want to go get a snack okay? I mean they should be off searching the rest of the wing, anyway; I wanted to be sure is all."

"Fine, fine," shrugged Paper Cut. "I'll allow it, I actually can see you in the vent with the magical x-ray function on the cameras too. But promise to pretend you're a super secret agent of S.M.I.L.E. while crawling through the air vents!"

"Fine," Danger rolled her eyes. It would be so much easier if it were a less silly psychopathic AI holding them hostage.

Danger felt silly pulling the vent open and crawling inside, even if she had no intention of playing spy while inside. She looked back and forth once inside, noting that the same vent went down to the other rooms on her side. She wondered which was Devil's room; if she knew she could return his knife discreetly through the vent.

The thought reminded her that perhaps she should take that with her in case she needed protection. She didn't want to be by herself outside of her room with no protection at all, so she went back and grabbed the knife. Holding it in her muzzle, she crawled inside, tugging herself alone. It wasn't easy with her one hoof still in agony from having stabbed herself in an attempt not to orgasm.

She made her way to the dining hall and peered out of the vent, but from her current angle she couldn't see the entire thing. After listening for a moment to make sure no one was there, Danger quietly pushed the vent cover off and crawled out into the kitchen.

Danger wasted no time looking around for food, and she saw a stack of the meals and colas on one table across the room. She rushed over to it, grabbing hold of a meal and drink, and turned to head back.

But then she paused as her eyes fell upon something else. There at the kitchen door was Cream, sitting on her haunches against the door. She shivered as she looked at Danger in confusion, unsure of why she was here.

"Um, hello?" Cream asked.

"Uh, hi," Danger froze in place.

"I thought you were sleeping?" Cream asked. "I didn't even see you come in..."

"S-shouldn't you be with the others?" Danger asked.

"Um, they're... busy," said Cream with wide eyes. "W-why do you have a knife?"

Cream leaned aside, reaching for a nearby fork that had fallen onto the floor as if to defend herself with it. She stayed as close to the door as she could as if blocking entry. Well, it wasn't the end of the world. Maybe Danger could just refuse to leave her room for a few hours after her scheduled sleep to stay alone for the full required eight hours.

"W-what? No," Danger shook her head. "I'm just horny and wanted to get something to eat."

"Horny?" asked Cream, clenching the fork between her teeth and backing against the door again as she brandished it. "Just stay away! I don't want any trouble!"

"Hungry!" Danger corrected herself. "I'm... buck I am horny."

Danger slowly put the food on her back to carry, but she really was getting aroused. It was all of a sudden too, hitting her like a train into a bus full of filly guides. She pressed her legs together to stifle the heat, but couldn't keep her eyes off a certain part of Cream. Cream's slit drooled with fresh spunk, and given that Smokey wasn't likely to put it in a pussy, it was probably Button's. That would normally disturb Danger, but now it just made her hot.

"Stop staring at me!" Cream stammered, panting heavily as if she was feeling sudden arousal. "Just take your things and go."

Danger felt her mind grow hazy and there was an odd smell in the dining hall that wasn't there before. Juice poured down her thighs, and it couldn't just be from seeing a freshly bucked milf. Her breathing was so heavy that she had to brace herself against the nearest table as she dropped the food off her back..

"A-are you okay?" Cream pushed her own hind legs more tightly together as if stifling heat as well.

Danger glanced at the monitor nearby to see Paper Cut peeking around one corner of the screen, quiet but stifling a giggle. She glanced up at the vents and noted the very lightest hint of a pink mist. Damn it. So going hungry had been pointless to begin with because that thing was gassing them. She had to get back to her room right now!

That's what she thought at least, but Danger staggered towards Cream instead. Cream brandished the fork more, looking as if she wanted to charge but was afraid to leave the vicinity of the door.When Danger got into range, Cream lunged, only missing because Danger staggered out of the way. Danger knocked the fork out of Cream's muzzle and across the room, equally on accident, but it must have looked deceptively skillful to Cream.

"Don't hurt my son," Cream teared up, but also undulated her hips as Danger drew closer.

"Shh," Danger said. She then realized she was holding Devil's knife against Cream's throat, but couldn't make herself pull it away. "I won't hurt your son if you're quiet... I'm sorry... I need to... take the edge off."

"Bucking pervert," Cream said between clenched teeth, but didn't scream for the others as Danger pinned her onto her back in front of the kitchen door.

"Says the colt-fiddler that bucked her own son," panted Danger. "Super hot by the way."

Danger knew this was unlike her. She should run back to her room, not indulging and breathing in more of the gas. She was risking everything by taking a chance at breaking her 'no orgasm' rule. But her brain was so cloudy that she couldn't focus on anything that she should.

She pushed Cream's hind legs apart, straddling the lower one and pressing her own sopping wet slit against Cream's. The wet flesh felt so hot against her, she'd think she was grinding on Daybreaker. Before she was dead, obviously. She shivered at the slippery flesh against her as she rotated her hips. Cream couldn't keep herself from returning the motions, and soon their sloppy labia were smudging together, flicking their clits against one another.

Her whole existence felt like a haze now, like Danger wasn't in control of her own body. She screamed in her head that she had to stop, that that pressure building rapidly within her was an invitation for disaster, but she couldn't. Even Cream got into it, holding Danger closer even as she traced the blade along Cream's face. It was hard not to cut, and even the barest touch left red streaks beneath her fur.

With the drug in her system, Danger never felt anything so amazing. Cream's muffled moan brought her back to her senses as milf juice splattered over their bellies, drooling into the puddle they were making on the floor. That drew Danger's attention to how close she was to her own orgasm, but she couldn't afford to go over! She drew back Devil's knife and stabbed as hard as she could.

It took a few seconds to realize though that she hadn't stabbed herself. Cream muffled a scream as the black rammed into her own foreleg. She clenched her teeth to not cry out, still terrified that drawing Button's attention would cause the out-of-control Danger to target him as well.

Danger almost apologized, but was distracted by how amazing the blade felt in her mouth as it pushed through flesh. That beautiful sound of flesh parting followed by the light scraping sound as it dragged against the bone. By Break's flaming tits, she wanted more of that.

"Please don't," Cream gurgled those last words as Danger pulled her body away.

But Danger wasn't listening to reason. She rammed the blade again, Cream's eyes going wide as it sank into her chest, puncturing a lung. The next time Cream tried to speak, all she did was bubble blood from her muzzle. She shook her head weakly, but the sound of slicing flesh had enamored Danger.

She kept lunging over and over, completely out of control. Blood splattered all over her as she found every undamaged piece of the torso she could find to sink the blade into. Cream convulsed, vomiting a fountain of blood all over herself and Danger, painting their fur a shiny red as she kept going. Even after Cream's convulsions stopped, Danger kept plunging the knife.

As she continued, Danger moved downward. She stabbed each breast right at the nipple, twisting the blade and watching the spongy flesh come apart, leaving a swirl of milky white in the red pouring from the body. She didn't come to her senses until she was ramming the blade hilt deep into Cream's pussy.

Danger only brought herself out of it by slamming her own hoof into her head, knocking herself away and leaving the blade hilt deep inside Cream. She took a moment to stare at the freshly butchered corpse before fully recognizing what she'd done.

"Oops!" Paper Cut said from the monitor. "Did you slip and nick her with the knife? I hate it when that happens!.... okay, I'm lying. I actually love it when that happens!"

"No," Danger shook her head, trying to come to her senses. "Oh Celestia I did not do that, why the buck did I do that?!"

"Touch is one amazing drug!" Paper Cut chuckled. "It really encourages a girl to let loose! Silver lining: You don't have to worry about your eight hours of alone time for the day. You committed murder so you're all good!"

"How can this be happening?" Danger whispered. She didn't have the energy to scream, which was probably best when standing next to the corpse of somepony she murdered.

"I know, right?" Paper rolled across the screen. "That was a 4 out of 10 at best. She was already dead when you fucked her with the knife! You should see Tella about that: she can give you some primo murder advice about how to keep them alive longer."

This was it. When the others saw this, they would think Danger was the traitor, but she definitely wasn't! Wait, was she? No! The drug was just messing with her to the point that not even sh e was sure!

"I know that look," Paper Cut advised. "You're wondering what to do now so they don't think you're the traitor. Well the obvious solution is 'frame the actual traitor for the murder!'."

"B-but who is the traitor?" Danger was still far gone enough to even have this conversation. "It's Devil's knife but... I don't think he's... is he?"

"Will others believe he's the traitor?" Paper tapped her chin. "I wonder who most think the traitor is?"

"Probably Night Light," sighed Danger. "But he can't be. That's too obvious, and I know him enough to know he's not."

"Or maybe it's too not-obvious by being obvious!" Paper suggested. "You never know! In the games, it was often one of the last people you'd expect that ended up being the traitor. Even when the traitor wasn't really a traitor!"

Danger didn't know what Paper was talking about, but she was just far gone enough to listen.

"H-help me," Danger was too far into this. As much as Danger hated her, the only one that might help and not tell anyone was Paper Cut. "You know who the traitor is, and this is all your fault! So help me frame the traitor!"

"You have quite the talent for passing the buck!" snickered Paper Cut. "It'd be against the spirit of the game for me to tell you who the traitor is, but I guess there's no rule against asking for my help, and I do love a good mystery."

"So TELL me what to do!" Danger squeaked in exasperation.

"Okay, step one," said Paper. "Leave a bloody imprint of Devil's knife on the floor."

"W-we're accusing Devil?" asked Danger.

"Nope!" Paper chuckled. "Trust me, not like you have a choice."

She didn't trust Paper, but Paper was right. Danger had no choice.

She yanked the knife from Cream's still-warm cooch, laying it on the floor in a spot that had somehow avoided blood splatter. She lifted Cream, dragging her just enough to spill more of the oozing blood onto the knife, then tossed her back.

It wasn't easy with the drug still buzzing through her head. As she put Cream back, she gave her one final kiss, slurping her limp tongue around. She took time to lick tears from her wide-open eyes before leaving her be. Danger resisted the urge to grind on the corpse and picked up the knife again; it left an imprint of it there in the blood that should be easy to identify.

"Good," Paper instructed. "Now take the knife and two table cloths with you back through the vent. Carry the table cloth on your back so it doesn't keep you from leaving a trail of blood."

Danger didn't question it. She wasn't in a stable enough mental state to do so and it wasn't like she could get away with it any better herself. So she did what Paper said. She took the knife in her muzzle, shying her tongue away from the bloody surface, and carried two folded tablecloths on her back as she went back to the vent. The food she'd wanted to take back with her remained on the table; she was no longer hungry.

"Don't go all the way to your room yet," whispered Paper, the voice coming from Danger's pipbuck. "Unlatch the vent and leave the knife in the first room we get to."

Danger tried to remember who was in which room, but her mind was so foggy and she wasn't sure she noted it to begin with. So she did what it told her. She ignored the pain in her leg and throbbing panic in her head as she made her way to the first vent.

The vent in the other room was so easy to unlatch from the inside it made Danger wonder how much preparation someone had put into this. Had whoever did this taken the time to replace them with more easy-to-remove vents? Who would put this much thought into such a scenario? Who would even know enough about this area to do that?

Well, it wasn't like her mind was in any shape to ponder such things. She unhooked the vent, trying to be as quiet as possible as it came free. She couldn't see the occupant of the room well, covered with a blanket and sound asleep. Who knew how they slept in this kind of situation; maybe it was one of the soldiers that had slept through worse.

"Put it under the bed," whispered Paper. "Then get back in the vent and use the tablecloths to keep from leaving a bloody trail the rest of the way."

That made sense, and her addled mind didn't even consider the obvious problem of what to do with the bloody tablecloths after. She staggered to the bed, dropping the knife under it quickly and refusing to look at the occupant. She unfolded the tablecloths, wrapping them around her bloody body, then used her relatively unbloodied hind hooves to push the rest of her body back to the vent.

"Attach the vent back on loosely," said Paper once they were in the vent. "Then go the rest of the way, past your own vent; we're not done yet!"

Danger did as it told her. It was awkward, but she pulled the tablecloth around her more tightly and wormed through the vent to her room, careful not to leave marks. She moved past her own room to the room on the other side of it.

"Okay then," Paper said. "You put the bloodier tablecloth in their trash, then keep the last one wrapped around you on the way back to your room.

Danger quickly did as it told her. Her mind was still clouded enough she didn't fully comprehend the 'why' of the orders, so she followed them like a robot would its programming. She wormed her way to the next room, loosening the vent. Thankfully the trash was close to it, so it didn't take long to tug the inner table cloth from around her and leave it in the trash.

She headed back to her own room, wrapping the last tablecloth around her and leaving the third room's vent loose. When she got into her own room, she tightened her vent much more.

"Great!" Paper spoke to her from the view screen in her own room now. "Then shower the blood off of yourself and hide that tablecloth where it won't be found. Between the mattresses of your bed might be a good idea."

Her mind cleared now that she wasn't in the kitchen where the gas had pumped in. As she washed herself off, she realized that the room she left the knife in was probably Devil's, and she was framing whichever pony was in the other room for doing it. She was glad she didn't get a good look at who she was framing, but she'd have to face them when everyone woke up regardless.

She tried to rationalize to make herself feel better. It wasn't like they'd kill the accused traitor if they had to not kill anyone for three days to be released. They'd just lock them up somewhere is all, and then no harm would befall them. No additional harm at least. Maybe?

It wasn't like she had a choice, so she finished showering and quickly hid the last tablecloth between her mattresses. Her tasks done, she crawled into bed, though it wasn't like she'd get any sleep.

Her stomach growled. All that and she'd forgotten to actually bring food back with her.

Surviving Participants: 14