I'm coming.

The ghostly whisper went through Starlight's ear chillingly. It was impossible for her to not be unnerved by the message, but Trixie took it far worse.

She even got to the ground and hugged Starlight's leg, which almost made her lose her balance.

"Trixie wants to go home." Trixie whispered. "I wish we were at my wagon, or Twilight's castle. With peanut butter crackers." she was on the verge of tears.

Starlight pitied her even more. She had never seen Trixie this scared. She wasn't even this scared when she joined Starlight and the others to defeat Queen Chrysalis.

"We'll be fine as long as we're together." Starlight soothed. "Maybe when we get out of here then we can have a peanut butter cracker marathon. How's that?"

Trixie still wasn't convinced, but let go of Starlight's leg and straightened herself up.

"Trixie." Starlight began. "I'm so sorry that you're going through with this." she said regretfully. "I didn't know that this would happen to us." she looked away, ashamed.

Trixie looked at her friend. "How can anyone expect this to happen to us?" she asked.

Starlight shrugged. "I guess we're the lucky ones."

Starlight then took out the note they found in the kitchen and read it. With Trixie reading at her side. But what they read shocked them both.

Its coming. Run and flee. Its the only way you will find number 3.

Starlight and Trixie looked at each other. "Who's coming?" they said at the same time.

Just then the speakers suddenly turned on.

"Hello again my beautiful mares. I hope you are enjoying the game."

"You again." Trixie's tone was covered with hate.

"Yes it's me, your favorite host of the show." he said with joy. "And a host loves to give its guests some challenges!" he cleared his throat.

"I hope that you enjoy playing with a creature that I found." he said. Then it was silent again.

Just then a door next to them started banging loudly.

Starlight stepped back and lit up her horn, ready for a fight. But Trixie did something else. She ran to the door and barricaded it with her body.

"Trixie are you mad?" Starlight couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"You don't know what's in there." Trixie panted. "We don't know what that lunatic has planned us."

"But he said that we need to face the creature to get the third note. That might be it!" Why wasn't Trixie seeing the facts?

"You think I don't know that-" she suddenly stopped when the door swung open and slammed Trixie to the wall.

"Trixie!"

"Ow." Trixie said as she regained consciousness. She shook her head and turned to the monster, which had a white bear head and a body that had the colors and a stinger of a hornet. It let out a deafening roar.

"Bugbear!" she yelped and ran off.

"Dammit, Trixie!" Starlight said with annoyance.

She turned and saw the bugbear about to attack her. She quickly teleported away from the beast before it could harm her, and respawned where Trixie was running away.

"What was up with the 'Dammit, Trixie' response I got?" Trixie looked annoyed as she stopped running. "What else was I supposed to do? Let it chew me up like a toy?"

A roar was heard in the distance as it sounded like the creature was getting closer.

"Well I suppose I should thank you for ditching me." Starlight shot back.

The conversation was interrupted as the bugbear poked its head through one of the shelves that were besides the two. Luckily, Starlight and Trixie managed to dodge the killer bite.

"How do we defeat this thing?" Trixie said to her, not taking her eyes off the creature that was thrashing wildly. "And where is the note? Did that bastard lie to us?"

This is like the supermarket from Tartarus.

"What we need to work on is defeating it." Starlight said to Trixie. But how.

Once again the bugbear charged at them, but this time it charged with its stinger.

Starlight was tired of running.

She shot a powerful beam at the creature, and it flew backwards and crashed into the of the shelves. It just made it even more angry.

"Don't like that, huh?" Starlight said with a smug smile.

Trixie crawled behind the bugbear to shoot the beam at its back. But instead she found a note that was taped on the bugbear's skin.

"I found the note!"

"You did?"

Just when Starlight got distracted, the vicious bugbear flew at Starlight and grabbed her with one of its four arms and threw her across the room.

However, Starlight levitated herself before she hit the ground. "That all you got?"

The bugbear roared defiantly at the purple mare, but was taken aback as it suddenly felt weight on its back. Trixie launched herself at its back and held onto the bugbear's shoulders and grabbed the note with her mouth.

"Trixie could use some assistance!" Trixie wailed.

"On it."

Starlight put herself onto the ground and cast a magical lasso and roped down one of the bugbear's legs. The bugbear noticed the rope and tried to break it free, but its mouth burned as it touched it. Starlight peered at the bugbear's side to see Trixie still struggling. Then she heard something rip.

"Um, Starlight?"

"What did you do?"

Trixie showed the ripped paper. "What do you think?"

Seizing the chance, the bugbear charged at Starlight and finally stabbed her with its stinger. Starlight felt a burst of pain as the bugbear stabbed her arm. And she was shoved to the wall.

"No!" Trixie heaved upwards and pulled the bugbear's eyelids back. Causing it to heave itself backwards, and accidentally snapping it's stinger right off.

Starlight opened her eyes slightly to see the bugbear wrestling with Trixie. While the stinger is no longer in use at the moment, it can still hurt her with its claws.

Starlight narrowed her eyes and pulled off the stinger with her magic. She slowly got to her feet and with all the energy she had, she charged up a beam and blasted it towards the bugbear. The bugbear turned back to see the sudden light, but it was too late. It hit the creature and it crashed into one of the walls, and fell on top of a pyramid of cans.

This time, it didn't get up.

A few moments later, her vision blacked out.

Author's Note

The more notes they find, the harder the challenges are going to be. And a bugbear attack is just the beginning.

And of course, to build up tension, some of the chapters will be longer.