Author's Note

Just to let everyone know right now....

Only The Prologue Is Written In First Person!

THE REST WILL BE WRITTEN IN THIRD PERSON!

Just letting you know...Enjoy! ;)

Prologue: Another Day in The Fog

Ba-Bump...

Ba-Bump...

Ba-Bump...

Ba-Bump...

The heartbeat...

Celestia no....the heartbeat.....

Whenever I feel it, a chill goes up my back, my teeth begin to chatter and my fur stands on end. No matter how many times it happens, or who it is this time, whenever I feel the heartbeat, my blood runs cold and my anxiety begins to set in.

I glance around the immediate area from the generator I was working on, this time I managed to wake up right next to one, starting this "game" in a good spot. It is surrounded on all sides by old crumbling brick walls, like another building stood in place of this one at some point, but had been abandoned and destroyed over time. The greater area surrounding me is covered in patches of long dark grass and dotted with twisted and deformed trees that all look like they would fit in the Everfree forest back home.

Ba-Bump...

Ba-Bump...

Ba-Bump...

The heartbeat gets faster and I begin breath faster, almost to hyperventilating levels, still unable to tell whether or not the heartbeat I hear is my own....or somehow....theirs.

They change every "game", sometimes it's that same one, sometimes it is a different one that I've faced before, and rarely, it is one that I've never seen before. But no matter how many times I've faced them, they always do the same thing....hunt me and the other ponies trapped in here.

I know it isn't the bunny mask wearing mare, as her humming would be heard by now, but other than that, I don't know who it is, all I know, is that they're getting closer....

Ba-Bump...
Ba-Bump...
Ba-Bump...
Ba-Bump...

I regain my composure, knowing that I have but seconds until they're on me. I quickly turn the corner and luckily, a red locker is nearby. I swiftly reach it and carefully, without making any noise, I get inside.

I hold my breath as the heartbeat is at its fastest now, and I can hear the hoofsteps of the killer moving around the generator I was just at. I hate those damned generators. They are the only way to escape the game through the gates, or even the hatch, and they make so much noise that if you ain't careful, you'll attract them right to you.

I continue to hide in the locker as the heartbeats begin to fade. I also realize that I have yet run into any of my teammates. Though, it is always random, sometimes we all start together, sometimes we all start apart.

I've run into my fair share of ponies in here, all of them strangers. Except for one.....the one I was brought here with, my beloved...

When we were first brought here, we thought we had been taken to Tartarus. As it would turn out, we were in a worse place than Tartarus and we had to take on our first "game" together at least. After that, we were separated, forced to survive in this place of living nightmares for.......I can't even tell how long its been since we were brought here, I don't even now if time exists here.

I've seen him occasionally though, in a few other places since then, and always we are happy to be together again, but the time always runs out, and we are forced apart again.

My love, wherever you are, I hope that you are safe. And I pray every damn day to Celestia that nopony I knew before coming here ends up here too, because I couldn't take seeing another pony that I love getting tortured like we are.

"AAAAHHHH!"

I'm brought out of my thoughts by a scream, I look through the tiny slits in the locker and see a pony crawling on the ground, most likely the killers recent victim, and the emitter of the scream. I see another shape pick them up, most likely the killer, but there's to much fog to see clearly who it is.

After the killer picks up the pony, a few seconds later I hear yet another scream emanate from them, and It sounds very close, to close for comfort.

After they are hooked, the heartbeat doesn't go away, but luckily, I hear the sound of two generators being completed, and I smile to myself, looks like I was in with some experienced ponies. Sometimes I'm put into "games" with new ponies, and it doesn't usually end well.

The heartbeat begins to die down, and I realize that I have a chance at altruism. I get out of my locker and begin to move over to where the hook is, passing by more pieces of debris, ruins, and old trees with contorted branches. The hook is in the middle of a large open area with several walls and bits of debris that give us some cover. I begin to run towards the hook and finally see one of the other three poor souls I got stuck with this time.

The pony on the hook is an unicorn mare, brown coat, dark red mane, and a notepad and pencil for a cutie mark. If I had to guess, probably a journalist. I begin to approach the hook and she sees me. As I get close, she suddenly moves and waves her hooves, wincing in pain as she does it, clearly signaling me to not come closer. I give her a confused look and she points a hoof to the ground around her. I look, and my eyes widen, and my heart begins to beat.

Traps.....

Bear Traps.....

Now I know who it is and my blood runs cold again. I've run into him a few times, in fact, he was the first killer I had to face, with my husband. As memories began to flood back to me I heard the sound of another generator being completed. I realized that this was my chance.

I get low to the ground and move over to the trap. I sit down and carefully lower my hoof towards the trap on the ground. I touch the center and quickly retract my hoof and it snaps shut. I sigh in relief and look back at the mare with a smile and a nod.

I reach up and with my strength, I hoist her off the hook and we run away from the site as fast as we can. I look behind me and sure enough, she is keeping up with me, still injured and bleeding, but still following. Unfortunately, though she is a unicorn, there is little she can do to help me, with me being an earth pony. In this place, everypony may as well be an earth pony. Unicorns can only use their magic to hold things, work on generators, and hoist other ponies off the hooks. They have to use their hooves for everything else. Same thing with Pegasi, they can't fly here, and I've seen one try desperately to do it.

After running for about a minute, we stop to catch out breath, and in the meantime, I tend to the pony's wounds. Though I was once an amateur, now i can at least patch up injuries, though it takes longer than if I had a medkit.

After successfully healing, we walk over to the nearby building and head inside. Inside is another generator, and stairs leading down into the basement.

I know about the basement, it's a place where the hooks regenerate, even if somepony has already been.....sacrificed with them. Everywhere else, once the hook is used, it's destroyed. But in the basement, they can be reused. I hear the other mare begin to work on the generator and I begin to head into the basement, because if I remember correctly, the basement also has a chest, one that hopefully obtains an item that can help me here, or in the future if I make it out with it.

I walk all the way down the stairs, my hooves clopping on the the stone floor as I move past the bloody hooks, the churning and groaning noises emanating from them making my skin curl beneath my coat and making my curly main stand on end.

I finally find the chest in the back of the basement, and quickly open it, I rummage through the chest for a few seconds before finally pulling out....a flashlight.

It's not much, and I would have preferred a tool box or a med kit, but I'll take it. I turn back from the chest and head out of the basement, just in time for my friend to complete the generator, and at the same time she completes it, another generator is completed, and the horn is alerted, and we see where the exit gates are located.

The mare gives me a hopeful look and I shoot her a grin right back before leaving the building and heading for the nearest gate.

Luckily, we both reach it without much happening. And as soon as I reach the gate, I pull down on the handle to open the gate, unfortunately, it is PAINFULLY slow and makes loud scraping sounds as it unlocks.

After about the halfway point....the heartbeat returns.

I look at her, and she too has a terrified expression on her face, giving me a look to "hurry up", but she knows as well as I do that I can't.

As the third lock unlocks, we see another pony approaching, this one is a stallion, he has a brown coat and a blonde mane, but I can't see his cutie mark. He's still about 30 feet from the gate when I hear the sound of a trap being set off and the stallion stops in his tracks and lurches over.

"AAAAHHHHH!" The stallions screams in pain as he struggles to get his hind leg out of the bear trap he stepped in. The mare I'm with quickly leaves my side and runs over to assist the stallion, but as she reaches him and starts to assist him, the heartbeat returns, and another pony appears from the fog....

The monster......

The Killer......

The Trapper.

He's a large stallion, taller than any other Stallion I've seen, though that's the case with all of the killers here. He's wearing rubber overalls and a white deformed mask of a foal, where his piercing glowing eyes shine out. There are pieces of metal sticking out from his body. His coat is smeared with blood, and he wields a large cleaver, also smeared with blood.

He runs straight for the mare and the stallion, and as he attacks them, the door opens behind me, and I make a decision...

I Run....

I turn and quickly move out of the opening door. Behind me I can hear the swing of the cleaver, the slicing of skin, and the cry of pain emitted by the Unicorn mare. I run as fast as I can until I am through the barrier that the killer cannot cross and run into the open field beyond the arena.

As I run, I begin to berate myself. This isn't the first time I've been selfish like this in one of the "games". I've left ponies behind before, sometimes out of fear like just now, sometimes out of circumstance, and sometimes because the pony is a rotten apple that has fallen VERY far from the tree.

I continue to run, hoping that this time it will be different, and that this time I will be free, or at the very least, this time I will go someplace else, to be free of this horrible world that makes Tartarus look like a nice Hearth's Warming Eve in front of a fire place while sipping hot cider.

After running for what feels like forever, the fog in front of me lifts, and.....I see the campfire.

"Dammit!" I shout aloud. It's happened again, like it does every single time. After every game, no matter if your sacrificed, or if you escape I always end up here. Death is not an escape, escaping isn't even an escape, so what's the damn point!

Angry, I trudge up to the fire and sit on the log laying next to it to rest. I know it still isn't over. I don't know when I will be placed in my next "game", but I know it'll happen, hopefully not so soon.

I look down at the flashlight in my hooves, at least I got away with something useful, even if it is situational.

I look over and see an unexpected sight. A guitar is resting against the log I'm sitting on. It isn't mine, and I don't see anypony else around. I scoff.

"You want another show?!" I ask into the open air. The mist marking off the edge of the fire's light doesn't change, and I get no answer, like usual.

"Okay." I say as I take the guitar and cradle it in my hooves. I place my hooves in the correct positions, and begin to play.

"Just another day in the fog...."

Dead By Daylight: The New Blood

Written by CeasarTwain31