Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Everyone quickly ran through the torture chamber and out into the corridor, desperate to reach their friend. However, as they all skidded to a halt and scanned their lights around, they found no trace of the gray pegasus.

“Wh...what the-” Gale blinked rapidly in stunned shock. “He was right here a minute ago.”

“Snap? Are you ok?” Blank Page called out while trailing his eyes around. He and the others slowly walked forward, briefly checking the rooms as they went. “Snapshot?”

“This isn’t funny, kid!” Pathfinder said, his voice growing more concerned the longer things in the hallway remained silent. “Quit messin’ around and get out here.”

Scribble could feel a knot developing in her stomach. No matter how hard she wished that they would immediately find the stallion, their search remained fruitless. Just as the dread was about to make her nerves explode, she noticed something glinting in her light over by the secret door into the first room they found.

“Guys, look over there!” She announced.

The ponies walked over to the strange glinting on the floor, slowing down as they got closer and noticed a red tint. Sure enough, as their lights fell on the substance clearly, it was revealed to be red liquid.

“Is that blood?” Scribble gulped, her eyes trembling as her heart began to race.

Blank Page could tell that his sibling was descending into a panic, and he couldn’t blame her. “M-maybe it’s from his wound?” He suggested optimistically, though it seemed even he knew how unlikely it sounded.

The blood on the floor was an admittedly small amount, not that a few droplets looked much more comforting than a puddle. The drops seemed to lead further down the hall until they turned off into a room on the right.

As the group moved to follow the trail, Gale took a brief look into the exposed room with the collapsed ceiling. She looked away, only to do a double-take and focus her eyes. Somehow, her nerves must have been getting to her, because she remembered being able to see the corpse of the alicorn from the doorway, even though she clearly couldn’t. Shaking her head, she swiftly turned her attention back to her companions as they walked forward.

Scribble and Page took the lead, with Pathfinder and Gale not far behind as they all neared the room where the blood was going. As they got closer, they started to hear a strange noise. It was faint, and they couldn’t tell what it was, but it sounded wet.

“Snapshot?” Scribble spoke as she neared the doorway. Her voice was a little shaky, as were her legs. Somehow, a wave of unease hit her as she kept going. Taking a look at her companions, she could see that they felt something similar, and she wasn’t sure if she should be comforted by this fact.

The sound kept going, sloshing and dripping like someone was messily crushing a watermelon and playing with the inner contents. Scribble swallowed nervously as she peered around the corner and shined a light into the room.

The area was pitch black, but somehow there was another light in the room. A red-tinted beam of light shone back at the wall near the onlooking ponies, and the source was immediately clear. A lone flashlight sat abandoned in the middle of the room, with a spray of blood painted onto the bulb. Before the morbid sight could fully register in their minds, the group noticed a dark silhouette moving off to the side, seemingly the source of the noise they had been hearing.

Blank Page and Gale silently maneuvered to the front of the group and stepped into the room, their eyes fixed on the shadow. The shape was roughly pony-sized. It was moving back and forth, making jittery and sometimes erratic movements, but it seemed like it was crouching near something else.

“Snap?” Page spoke hesitantly, lifting his shaky hoof and pointing his flashlight up.

As the light fell on the figure, a cold chill violently shot down the ponies’ spines. They had found Snapshot, but not as they had expected.

The stallion was on the ground, lying motionless and facing away from them. His neck region was soaked in blood, with more of the crimson fluid pooling around him. And above him, the figure that the group had seen before, was another pony. At least, it resembled a pony.

Its wrinkled skin and skeletal frame were familiar to the group, with a frail horn and wings all but confirming the seemingly impossible observation. It was the dead alicorn from the other room. However, now it was crouched over the motionless pegasus, its head buried in Snapshot’s neck.

Much to the watching group’s horror, the figure ripped its head back, sending a gush of blood into the air as it pulled a chunk of soaked flesh out with its sharp teeth. Strangely, it seemed to avoid chewing or otherwise doing anything with the piece of flesh. Instead, it looked to be messily drinking the blood from the pegasus’ wounds.

Blank Page and the others could feel their hearts collectively skipping a beat as they stared ahead in shock. The young stallion was shaking so much he could hardly keep the flashlight steady, while Scribble’s jaw trembled uncontrollably, her face frozen in a horrified and silent scream.

Suddenly, the frail pony stopped what it was doing. It let out a deep and feral-sounding groan. Slowly but deliberately, it moved its head over to look at the ponies across the room. A dim red glow caught in the flashlight beam trained on the creature, coming from the hollow pits that once were its eyes.

Scribble let loose a terrified scream and jerked backward. It didn’t take long for everyone else to get on the same page as her. They had to run.

“L-LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” Page shouted frantically. His hooves practically skidded on the stone floor as he spun around and darted out of the room with his companions.

Like a bat out of Tartarus, the ponies sprinted as fast as they could down the corridor, running toward something, anything that could get them away from the monstrosity they just saw.

Scribble glanced behind her as she ran, fearing that she would catch a glimpse of the creature in hot pursuit. Thankfully, she could only see her brother running behind her and the dark corridor they were leaving behind. “W-what was that thing?!” She asked in a broken voice. “Sweet Celestia… it… i-it killed Snapshot.” She stammered. The more she thought about the gruesome scene she just ran from, the more tears began to well up in her eyes.

“Just keep running,” Blank Page said somberly. He could tell that his sister was starting to feel the shock of everything that just happened. He couldn’t rightly blame her for being a nervous wreck after witnessing that, but they couldn’t linger for an instant. This was about surviving now.

Hearing the peach mare crying softly, Gale turned and saw the younger pony barely holding it together. Scribble seemed to be crying tears of sadness more so than fear, and she looked very distraught and remorseful. “Kid, there’s nothing we can do for him now. We need to get out of this castle. Nighttime or not, anywhere is safer than here.” She explained.

“I hate to ruin good plans, but how in the blue blazes are we going to get out of this basement?!” Pathfinder asked from the front of the group. As far as the eye could see, there was just darkness and endless rooms.

As they turned another corner and looked ahead, Gale smiled eagerly as she spotted a staircase leading up. “Pathfinder, I love it when your dumb luck kicks in!” She chuckled triumphantly, picking up her pace in a sprint for the way to freedom.

Everyone started to turn to head up the stairs. They could already see the levels of light increasing slightly, filling them with relieved smiles. However, just as they were starting onto the first steps, something happened to erase their bright expressions.

Pathfinder suddenly felt something cold and thin wrapping around his back leg. As he looked down, he scarcely had time to catch a glimpse of red before he was violently tugged backward.

“What the- AHH!” He yelped in fright as he got pulled to the floor and kept going, hitting his chin on the stairs roughly and skidding along the stone flooring as the thing grabbing him kept pulling.

The others froze and turned, only to see the stallion sliding back down and around until he was facing the corridor again. In the frantic chaos, they could faintly see a thin and spindly-looking tendril of some sort stretching from down the hall and wrapping tightly around his back leg.

Gale gasped as she saw her friend being pulled away. “Pathfinder!” She yelled. Throwing all caution to the wind, she hopped off the stairs and reached to grab his outstretched foreleg, only to catch thin air as he was yanked away.

Pathfinder yelled frantically as he struggled to free himself from the tendril’s hold. No matter how hard he pulled or tugged, he couldn’t get free, and he was only getting pulled further away. The last the group saw of the stallion before he got dragged into the darkness was him making a failed attempt at digging his forelegs into the floor to stop himself. He let out a terrified scream that faded along with his silhouette into the corridor.

Gale was still staring ahead, her eyes wide with shock as the unicorn vanished from sight. Eventually, his screams died down, either from him getting pulled out of earshot, or something worse.

Scribble and Blank Page were still on the stairs, anxiously hoping for the yellow mare to run with them. Still, she was frozen in place, with no sign of snapping out of her stunned trance.

“Gale!” Page yelled to get her attention. Failing this, the white pony hopped off of the stairs and firmly grabbed her by the shoulder. “He’s already gone, Gale! We need to run!” He pleaded desperately, starting to shake her.

Gale blinked a few times before finally looking at the two siblings. They were terrified beyond belief, and they had every right to be. She had to get them to safety.

After shaking herself out of her stunned shock, the pegasus joined Blank Page in scrambling back up the stairs. She pushed ahead of the pair and led them up onto the first floor.

The ponies darted out onto the landing of yet another small and barren room. Scribble turned to look back down the stairs, fully convinced that the withered creature was right behind them.

“Where do we go now?!” She asked, desperately looking around the room for an exit. Unfortunately, there were three doorways to the room, and they all seemed to lead nowhere but further into the castle.

Blank Page stepped closer to one of the doorways, his eyes narrowed as he spotted something. His expression suddenly brightened as he moved more to the side and confirmed his suspicions. He could see snow streaming into the next room, which meant that it led out into the courtyard they had seen before.

“This way!” He announced, waving the others over. The two mares wasted no time in following the stallion as he bolted into the next room.

Up ahead, the trio could clearly see the barren ground of the courtyard through another open doorway. Apparently, the snow falling down had intensified during their time in the basement, covering many of the railings and statues outside in a blanket of white.

“If we cut through here, the entrance won’t be far.” Page suggested. Judging from the angle of the courtyard he could see, it was safe to assume that they were at the back right corner from where they had initially entered the basement.

Gale and Scribble started to follow Page through the room toward the courtyard, eager to finally be heading toward an escape from this madhouse. However, fate seemed to have other plans in mind for them.

The ground beneath them let out a mighty crack as they ran across it. Fissures in the stone started spiraling out toward the two mares, coming from underneath the stallion. Before they could give more of a reaction than a horrified gasp, Blank Page started to fall as the floor opened up underneath him.

“Page!” Scribble shouted. She dove to the floor and reached out for her sibling, but she couldn’t reach him before he fell down.

The stallion’s scream was cut short as he smacked into hard stone in another room below. The hole was smaller than the one Snapshot had made, but it led to the same place. A dark and lonely room in the basement.

Blank Page lifted his sore head up, groaning softly as he adjusted to all the new pains present in his body. Strangely and concerningly enough, his back leg seemed to hurt more than everything else. And as he trailed his eyes down, he noticed the problem.

“Page, are you ok?!” Scribble’s voice came from above. The stallion briefly looked up to see the two mares looking down at him from above.

Gale turned back behind her to see if they were still alone before looking down at the white pony. “Hang on, kid. I’ll come pick you up.” She explained reassuringly, preparing to jump down to carry the stallion back up.

“Guys… I can’t move my leg.” Page said in a small voice.

Scribble blinked, the full weight of her brother’s words not reaching her yet. “What?” She muttered hesitantly.

As the dust and debris cleared from the room below, the pair could finally see their friend, and they could understand what he meant.

Blank Page was lying on top of a pile of rubble, doubtlessly from the initial collapse of the floor. However, he was seemingly struggling to pull his leg free of something, and the source of his struggle shocked the two mares into a panicked silence. Two large stones had fallen on top of his back leg, wedging it down and preventing him from moving it. “I think I’m stuck… I can’t get free!”

Scribble covered her mouth, a shrill whimper escaping her as her heart started racing. She glanced behind her, turning her thoughts to the horrific creature still giving chase somewhere behind them. If it caught up to them, then they would suffer similar fates to their friends. The mere thought of her brother being killed by that thing made her eyes start to water.

Hearing a noise behind her, Scribble turned back around just in time to see Gale jumping down to the floor below. “G...Gale?”

Page grunted and heaved as he tried to squirm and pull his leg out of the crevice holding him. He stopped abruptly as he heard the pegasus landing nearby and rushing up to him, a determined expression on her face. “Gale…?”

Gale briefly examined the state the stallion’s leg was in before turning to him. “Come on, kid. I’m not letting anyone else die tonight.” She stated. Without even further coordinating with him, she rushed over and started pulling on the rocks on top of his leg.

Scribble watched from above as the pair desperately struggled down below. It seemed like Gale’s efforts were helping, but they still weren’t enough to move either the rocks or Page’s leg. Come on, guys… please hurry. She bit her lip anxiously. Suddenly, her ears pricked up as she heard something behind her.

Turning her head, Scribble started to see a shadow moving up the stairs from the other room. A faint and animalistic growl came from the shadow, and soon enough she could see a pair of piercing red eyes staring her way. Her blood nearly froze in her veins.

Down in the basement room, Page and Gale continued their struggle to free the white pony’s leg. Page strained and pulled with all his might, wriggling his trapped appendage in the hopes of loosing it somehow from underneath the rocks, while Gale heaved and groaned as she pushed all of her muscles to their limits by pulling on the hefty fragments of stone.

“This isn’t good.” Page strained through clenched teeth. His leg showed signs of moving, but not nearly enough to get free.

Gale drew air between her teeth before making another attempt at pulling. “Just keep trying, kid!” She insisted.

“Guys!” Scribble’s voice called from above. As they looked up, the pair noticed the peach mare wearing a panicked expression. “It’s here!”

As soon as they processed what their friend was saying, their faces paled.

“Oh no… you’ve got to be kidding me!” Gale vented anxiously. With a rush of adrenaline kicking in, she returned to her efforts to free the trapped stallion.

Blank Page looked between the determined pegasus and his terrified sibling above. He could already see her staring ahead fearfully and slowly backing up. Finally, he turned to the yellow mare beside him and grabbed her foreleg. “Gale, you need to get out of here.” He instructed somberly.

“W-what?!” Gale shook her head in disbelief. “What are you saying?! There’s no way I’m leaving you!” She stated before giving the two rocks a few more tugs. Suddenly, a low growl coming from up above made her pause and look up.

“Gale, listen to me,” Page said, offering the pegasus a pleading expression as she turned to face him. “There’s no time to argue. You need to take Scribble and get her out of here.”

Gale felt her heart racing and cold sweat pouring from her face. She thought back to a few moments ago when Pathfinder was dragged away before her very eyes, and to Snapshot being torn apart. She shuddered as she pictured what was going to happen to the young stallion if he was left here alone. Before she could speak up again, however, an outraged voice came from above.

“What?!” Scribble stammered. She rushed up to the opening and looked down at the pair with a desperate expression. “Page, you can’t be serious! We can’t just leave you here!”

“I don’t want you two to die with me!” Page replied, causing the peach mare to fall silent from shock. Finally, he turned back to Gale and rested a hoof on her shoulder. “Gale, I’m begging you… take Scribble and run. There isn’t enough time to get my leg free. Please… save her.”

Gale stared ahead blankly, the stallion’s pleading expression barely even registering amid her racing thoughts. She glanced to his pinned leg and up to the mare waiting above. If she had more time, she could probably free Page’s leg, but the creature would be on top of them in mere moments.

Meanwhile, Scribble darted her eyes up, her pupils shrinking as she saw the shadowed creature getting closer. Now it was approaching the room she was in, and it showed no signs of stopping. “Gale! Please do something! There’s got to be some way you can save him!” She pleaded, her eyes on the verge of tears.

After a few seconds that seemed to last an eternity, Gale looked down to the white stallion and lowered her expression sadly. “I’m so sorry.” She said, briefly grabbing his hoof and holding it tightly before letting go and turning her attention upwards.

Scribble gasped as the pegasus kicked off the ground and flew back up to her. “No!” She yelled. Throwing caution to the wind, the peach mare dove forward, fully prepared to fall into the hole with her brother and try herself to free him, until she was caught by Gale.

Gale held the struggling mare in her forelegs, keeping the earth pony from moving any closer to the hole. As she turned her head, she widened her eyes as she saw the creature still stalking towards them. “Kid, we’ve got to go!” She exclaimed, forcibly dragging the reluctant mare behind her as she ran for the courtyard.

Scribble tried her best to yank her hoof out of the pegasus’ grasp, but Gale was stronger than her. “No! Let me go!” She pleaded, her voice already breaking as they got further away from the hole and her brother. “PAGE!” She yelled, reaching toward the opening in the ground. She could see the withered alicorn getting closer and closer to her helpless sibling before she was yanked out of the room and out of sight.

Meanwhile, Blank Page looked up into the opening above as the sounds of the pair’s footsteps got further away. He couldn’t help but smile slightly as his sister was being whisked away to safety. Looking back down to his trapped leg, he sighed anxiously and tried once more to free himself. Much to his surprise, he seemed to be making some headway in wiggling his leg free. Before he could finish his escape efforts, he looked up slowly as a shadow fell on him from above, a cold feeling cemented in his gut.
.
..
…
Out in the courtyard, Gale and Scribble had managed to cross the open area all the way to where they initially fell into the basement. The pegasus had to forcibly drag the peach mare as she was struggling and crying out for her lost brother.

“Let me go!” Scribble pleaded. No matter how hard she fought to break free of Gale’s grip, the stubborn pony refused to relent.

Finally, Gale sighed and pulled the distraught mare closer, turning her around so they could be at eye level. ”Scribble… Scribble, listen to me.” Gale said, using as soft and sincere a voice as she was capable of producing. Perhaps hearing the severity in the pegasus’ voice, Scribble temporarily quieted down and looked to her with teary eyes. “I’m sorry that this happened, but there is nothing we can do for Page now.”

Hearing this, Scribble sobbed quietly, briefly taking a moment to cry into the yellow mare’s fur as she hugged her. After a few seconds of Gale patting her back and letting her vent her emotions, she backed up and rested a hoof on her muzzle. “We’re going to die here, aren’t we?” She asked hopelessly, more rhetorically than anything.

“Hey,” Gale grabbed the distraught pony’s hoof and pulled it away from her face, holding it tightly. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” She assured sincerely.

Turning her thoughts to the creature giving chase to them, Gale looked behind her, raising an eyebrow briefly as she saw no signs of the alicorn. She briefly entertained the thought of flying them out through the courtyard, but the snow whipping down from the blizzard above dissuaded her from trying. No, they would have to leave the way they came.

“The entrance isn’t far. Come on, we need to get out of here.” The pegasus tugged Scribble along behind her, making sure that the earth pony was following closely. Scribble seemed more willing to go along with her companion now, hurrying her pace to match Gale’s.

The two mares ran out of the courtyard, cutting through the room with the hole in it and out into the entrance hallway, heading straight for the front doors. Soon enough, they could start to see the entrance to the castle, smiling through their exhaustion and shocked nerves. However, as they got closer to the large doors, their smiles faded as they realized that something had changed since they last passed through this area.

The gigantic doors that were formerly letting the blowing wind and snow into the castle were now closed tightly.

Gale stopped running and shot her forelegs onto the doors, pushing them forcefully. “What the hay?!”

“Why are they closed?!” Scribble yelled in confused and fearful frustration.

No matter how hard Gale tried opening the hefty doors, they refused to budge. They almost seemed like they were locked rather than stuck. After giving a frustrated yell and a kick, the pegasus looked around pensively, letting her gaze settle on one of the doorways nearby, remembering it to lead into the dining room.

“Hay with this.” She muttered with an annoyed expression.

Scribble turned and saw the pegasus moving into the dining room. She quickly trotted after her companion, a confused look on her face. “Gale, where are you going?” She asked, a bit of anxiousness in her voice as she glanced down the hall in a paranoid fashion. Peering into the room, she spotted the yellow mare walking up to some of the windows along the side of the room.

Gale walked up to the first window in a long row. There were at least a dozen of them across the grand dining hall between both outside walls, most of which were broken. “We’re going to have to go out a window.” She explained while trotting further down, making her way over to a window with almost no glass. As she felt the cold wind hitting her face, she climbed onto the windowsill and peered out, noting the sheer cliff outside and the growing blizzard raging around them.

“You’ll have to hold on tight, but I should be able to get us to the ground,” Gale assured, turning back to look at the peach mare across the room. As she locked eyes with Scribble, who was still standing idly at the doorway, the color drained from her face as she saw something behind the younger mare.

“B...behind you!” She exclaimed, pointing forward frantically.

Scribble darted around, only to have her eyes met with a terrifying visage of sharp teeth and glowing red eyes. It was the withered alicorn. Somehow, without her even hearing so much as a hoofstep, the creature had snuck up on her in an instant. Before she could even let out a frightful yelp, the alicorn shoved an emaciated hoof into her throat and pushed her into the nearby wall, lifting her off of her hooves.

Letting out a cry for help, which only came out as a choked noise, Scribble reached for her throat and clutched at the chillingly cold and withered foreleg holding her up. However old the former corpse was, it was not lacking in strength as it easily shrugged off the mare’s feeble struggles.

Strangely enough, the alicorn looked different than it did when it was lying motionlessly under the rubble in the secret room. Its skin looked a little fuller, with a bit more color to it. A brown fur coat could actually be distinguished, though it was still a bit matted and patchy. And, stunningly enough, it seemed like it had more hair on its head than before, with the original coloring of silver seemingly showing through.

The alicorn exhaled through its mouth, letting out a cold and stale breath into her face as it looked her over curiously. Scribble could see that its front teeth were longer and sharper than the rest, resembling fangs. The long dried slash wound across its neck twitched and moved along with its head, giving the mare a disturbing glimpse of its inside every now and again.

“SCRIBBLE!” Gale shouted from off to the side.

Scribble turned her head as much as she could. She spotted the yellow pegasus boldly running toward her. Gale had a sense of determination to save her only remaining companion burning in her eyes.

Catching a glimpse of movement, Scribble turned and saw the alicorn turning its head to look toward the speeding pegasus. Just then, the shaken pony saw something that stunned her into silence.

What looked to be a stream of blood slowly poured out of the alicorn’s neck wound. The crimson fluid defied gravity, slowly ebbing and flowing into the air almost like it had a life of its own. The stream traveled out and to the side, lowering down to the floor away from them. As Gale looked down to the odd occurrence in mid-stride, the blood suddenly shot towards her quicker than she could react.

Scribble watched, almost in slow motion, as the stream of blood shrank its tip into a spear shape and zipped straight into the pegasus’ neck, seemingly piercing through her as if it were solid.

Gale let out an abrupt noise of pain, a spray of her own blood shooting out the front and back of her neck as the stream pierced out through the other side. Her body got lifted up and backward, sending her sailing onto the tables where she rolled back and crashed onto the floor.

Looking through the gaps in the chairs, Scribble could just barely see the yellow mare on the floor. A sizable pool of blood was forming underneath her as she clutched at her wound and struggled to move.

“Gh… G..ale…!” Still clutched in the alicorn’s grasp, Scribble cried out and reached a hoof toward the pegasus, despite the difficulty she had in speaking. Tears streamed down her face as she watched Gale’s struggles lessen. Soon, the dying mare’s choked coughs and pained noises fell silent as she grew still.

The monstrous alicorn turned its head back toward its captured prey. It stared at her quietly, seemingly paying no attention as the stream of blood it just used as a weapon slowly retracted back into its body. Scribble whined and struggled to free herself, causing the creature to tighten its grip on her neck and let out an agitated hiss.

Suddenly, the alicorn lifted its free foreleg. Scribble looked at it wide-eyed, expecting the beast to strike her. However, it seemed to have something else in mind. The mare quickly realized that it was exposing the slash wound on its wrist to her, letting her see it as blood started flowing out of it in a familiar and unnatural manner.

“No… please!” Scribble pleaded in a choked voice, shaking her head desperately. Ignoring her protests, the alicorn continued producing a fluid stream of blood, letting it float in the air menacingly in front of her like a snake preparing to strike.

Her heart was racing in her chest, and every part of her was swimming in adrenaline, but she could do nothing but watch helplessly. Amid her struggles, she could almost swear that she could see the corners of the creature’s mouth twitching up into a twisted smile before it flicked its hoof to the side.

*Swish*

In the blink of an eye, the stream of blood followed the alicorn’s motion. Scribble felt a burning sensation across her neck, followed by a warm spray of liquid shooting out. She let out a strangled yelp and clenched her eyes shut before blinking rapidly.

She could already feel the strength leaving her body as she let her hooves fall down onto her neck, confirming what she already knew. A nasty gash had been made, letting blood gush out and paint her hooves.

This… this can’t be… happening…

Scribble coughed and sputtered, still fighting to grasp at the alicorn’s foreleg and pull it away or kick at the floor or wall to free herself. Soon, her movements became more and more sluggish. She could feel a thick haze enveloping her.

Her vision became blurry, and the world started to fade away as her forelegs finally fell away from the hoof clutching her throat. Her thoughts shifted to her brother and her friends. She could still see them in her mind, memories of their brief journey fading into the fog that was quickly overshadowing her.

The last thing the peach mare could see, as her tears and whimpers fell on deaf silence, was the sight of blood from her wound being drawn toward the alicorn, seemingly traveling into the three wounds across its neck and wrists.

And then, everything went dark.