The Shadow of Death

Rainbow Dash and Soarin walked down the still darkened halls of the compound, continuously calling out the names of their missing friends. They had checked several other rooms including the gyms, storage room, and a few of the training classrooms, but still found no trace of anypony. Eventually they arrived outside of the locker rooms.

"Well, do you wanna search the Mare's locker room while I search the Stallion's?" Soarin asked as he made his way towards the Stallion locker room. Dash shook her head and followed him.

"I'd rather we search together, not that I'm scared or anything!" Dash quickly said, shaking her head, "I'm just worried about you, that's all." Rainbow quickly recovered. Soarin smiled.

"Okay, thanks Dash." Soarin said as the two of them entered the Stallion's locker room. It was just as empty and quiet as the rest of the compound was.

"You check the rows of lockers, I'll go check the bathroom stalls and showers, okay?" Soarin asked as he pointed to where they should look. Rainbow was still a bit hesitant to split up, even though they were still in the same locker room, but she nodded.

"Okay." she said quietly before she began walking down the first row of lockers. Soarin walked to the bathroom area and approached the first of the 4 stall doors. He slowly and methodically checked each one, just checking to see if Lightning Streak had gotten drunk and just collapsed in a stall. He eventually checked the last stall, finding it empty, and turned to the shower stalls.

Rainbow Dash turned down to the next row of lockers, again, not seeing anything to out of the ordinary, apart from the blackout of course. She focused on how quiet the locker room was, and in turn, how loud her hoofsteps were against the silence of the locker room. She could still hear Soarin moving around in the back, which made her feel a little better, until she noticed something...

Something dripping out of a locker....

Rainbow tensed and froze on the spot where she stood, her fur stood on end and she could feel goosebumps all over her body. Rainbow stared at the fluid dripping from the bottom of one of the lockers. It was a deep color of red, and it has dripping onto an already fairly large puddle at on the floor. Rainbow finally found her voice.

"Soarin!" Rainbow shouted loudly. Soarin, who was searching the showers, quickly turned and rushed back to the locker rows and quickly found the row where Rainbow was standing in. She was visibly shaking.

"Dash? What's wro-?" Soarin began, but quickly cut himself off after seeing what Rainbow was pointing at, a locker dripping what looked like blood.

"I...Is...is that?" Rainbow stammered out in fear. Soarin took a deep breath and stepped around Dash and stood in front of the locker.

Soarin slowly reached out and placed his hoof on the locker. He glanced at Dash, he could still see the terror in her eyes, but they needed to know what was happening. Soarin opened the locker, and something fell out of it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Dash let out a blood curdling scream after seeing a yellow and white colored thing roll out of the locker and onto the floor in front of Soarin. He looked down at what just fell out and fell against his leg. He let out a frightened gasp and stumbled back.

There on the floor in front of them...

Was the decapitated head of Surprise. An expression of frozen terror on her face, as the blood kept seeping from the stump that used to be her neck, turning her now flat yellow mane red with blood.

Soarin stumbled back from the locker and into the locker across from the one Surprise's head rolled out of. As soon as he bumped the locker behind him, he felt it shift and begin to open quickly. He gasped again and stepped back over to Dash.....

Just in time to see the body of Lightning Streak fall out of the locker.

"AAAAHHH!" Rainbow screamed again. Soarin stared at disbelief. Two fellow Wonderbolts that they saw mere hours ago, now dead right in front of them. And from the fact that Surprise was beheaded, and Lightning's eye was gouged, he knew this wasn't any accident.

Soarin quickly turned and shielded Dash from the carnage and quickly lead her out of the Locker room. The two stumbled out of the door and back against the wall opposite the locker rooms and slumped to the ground. Rainbow buried her muzzle in Soarin's chest, horrified and desperately in need of anything to make her feel better.

Soarin returned Dash's desperate embrace and stared dumbfounded at the door to the locker room, trying in vain to process what they just witnessed. They were dead, and it didn't look like anything natural..

"We need to get out, we need to get help." Soarin said aloud as he tried to stand, supporting Dash still. Dash was still buried in Soarin's chest. Soarin placed a hoof beneath Dash's chin and leaned her head up to make her look him in the eyes.

"Dash, we need to remain calm. We can't break down now. We need to find the others and get help, okay?" Soarin carefully and calmly explained. Dash nodded slightly and stood up on her own, quickly followed by Soarin standing up.

"Let's go." Dash said, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. Soarin nodded and started leading her towards the entrance to the compound.

Spitfire flew quickly through the maintenance halls before bursting through the door leading into the hallways of the rest of the compound. She made several more turns before finally arriving at the hallway where the rec room was.

"Wave Chill!" Spitfire shouted as she approached, hoping to get his attention. She got no answer. She landed by the door and moved to open it.

"Wave Chill!?" Spitfire called again. She reached and turned the knob to the room, but it didn't turn.

"Is this Locked?" Spitfire asked aloud. "WAVE CHILL!" Spitfire shouted in frustration. She tried pushing against the door, it still not budging.

"That's it!" Spitfire said in frustration. She turned around, reared up, pulled her hind legs forward and bucked the door clear off its hinges. Spitfire instantly entered the dark rec room.

"Wave Chill! You better have a good explanation for locking the damn door!" Spitfire shouted angrily. There was still no response, she couldn't even hear any physical response like the sound of shuffling or hooves clopping.

"Wave? We're on high alert, somepony's in the base, they sabotaged the generator. Where are you?" Spitfire explained as she walked into the room, barely able to make anything out. She scanned the room when her eyes landed on the corner, where the ping pong table was, it was now destroyed. Spitfire quickly made her way around the couch.

"What the hell hap-?" Spitfire began, but stopped in her tracks when she saw what destroyed the table.

Wave Chill lay in the broken remains of the ping pong table, with a fire ax lodged in his head. A puddle of blood forming around him. Spitfire began to take deep breaths as she stared in disbelief at the body.

"Shit....." Spitfire said before quickly darting out of the room and flew down the hallway, doing her best to keep her composure and not scream in terror.

Fleetfoot opened the door to another dorm room and once again found it completely empty. She sighed and closed the door before continuing down the corridor.

"Hello!?" Fleetfoot called out in vain again. She waited for a few seconds, getting no answer.

"Oh, more silence? Big Woop! If this is another prank Surprise, Spitfire's gonna kick your ass!" Fleetfoot shouted out into the corridor. She was still met with nothing but silence.

Fleetfoot groaned and kept making her way down the corridor, before arriving at the next room, which unlike the others, was open a crack. She looked up at the room number.

It was the Streak Twin's room.

Fleetfoot audibly groaned again before going to push open the door.

"If I see your dick Fire, I swear to Luna." Fleetfoot mumbled under her breath as she reached the door and pushed it open.

Soarin and Rainbow Dash finally reached the end of another hallway and entered the large lobby of the compound. They quickly made their way across the lobby and over to the front door. They attempted to push the doors open, but they wouldn't budge.

"What the? Are these doors locked?" Dash asked. Soarin shook his head, they were supposed to remain unlocked while they were there that night. Soarin looked closer and saw something just outside the door.

A large chain was looped around the exterior door handles, tightly. Soarin stepped back in shock.

"Whoever's here, whoever killed Lightning and Surprise, doesn't want us to leave." Soarin said aloud, his voice shaking a little. Dash stepped back from the doors as well.

"Why don't we just break one of the windows and fly out?" Dash suggested. Soarin was about to agree, when Spitfire suddenly flew into the lobby.

"I don't think that will work Dash. This storm is unlike anything I've seen in a long time. It's too dangerous to try to fly through." Spitfire explained. Dash looked back outside at the swirling winds and snow piling up outside, reaching at least 5 inches by now, and continuing to come down hard.

"What happened, did you find anypony?" Spitfire asked, uneasily, since she knew what happened to Wave Chill wasn't any kind of accident. Dash gasped after Spitfire asked, but Soarin quickly spoke up so she didn't have to.

"We found Surprise and Lightning Streak in the Locker room. They're.....dead." Soarin explained. Spitfire's eyes widened for a second before shaking her head out and looking back at Soarin. "What about you? Anything?" Soarin asked.

"The generator was sabotaged. The fuse was smashed along with all the spares we have. I went back to the rec room, but..." Spitfire trailed off, remembering the horrifying sight of Wave's body.

"What?" Rainbow asked. Spitfire looked back up at the two.

"Wave Chill is dead." Spitfire said loud and clear. Rainbow covered her muzzle and leaned into Soarin. Soarin gasped.

"Where's Fleetfoot?" Soarin asked. Spitfire then suddenly tensed and gasped.

"I told her to look for the others in the dorms. We need to get her and find a way to get out now!" Spitfire ordered. The two nodded and followed her back into the compound.

"If we can't get out through a window, then how can we get out of this?" Soarin asked Spitfire as they flew.

"We can use the emergency flare!" Spitfire said after coming to the realization. Soarin nodded and even smiled. Rainbow looked confused.

"What's a flare gonna do?" Rainbow asked. Spitfire turned to face her.

"It's not just any flare, it's a HUGE flare, one that can be seen for miles. The Cloudsdale royal legion have been told that if they see that flare, it means we're in trouble. With any luck, they can be alerted to start clearing the storm and come help." Spitfire explained. Dash nodded.

"If it's our only option, then I'll take it." Dash said.

"But for now, let's find Fleetfoot." Soarin suggested. The other two nodded and kept flying.

Fleetfoot opened the door to the Streak Twin's room and stepped inside. She could see two lumps under Fire Streak's bed.

"Fire? Misty?" Fleetfoot asked. Neither lump moved.

The killer grinned to herself as she laid perfectly still next to Fire Streak's corpse, waiting for the moment to strike...