We were all silent after the explosion died down. We barely noticed the red light on the RED blink out, indicating that it was likely functional once more. After a while, Uno was the one to snap us out of it by walking towards the door and knocking on it. “...Cloud?”

No response came. Growing visibly worried, Uno stepped over to the RED and put his hoof on the screen, scanning his bracelet. He looked back at me silently, and I got the message. Stepping forward, I scanned my bracelet as well. Hooves followed up.

The door screeched open, and in front of us, we saw a sight that would haunt our dreams until the grave.

The walls around the entrance were absolutely soaked with blood, to the point where for a good three feet, it looked like the walls had been painted dark red in the first place. Internal organs had been flung around the hallway like large pieces of confetti, decorating the hallway like an insane psychopath’s idea of a party.

In the middle of it all lay Cloud...or, at least, what was left of him. His torso was shredded, the entire front and most of the sides and back being completely gone. Bones stuck out, almost all of them broken, and three of his legs had been completely detached from his body. His right hindleg held on by a few strands of skin. His head was tilted at a horrific angle, making it obvious that if the explosion had somehow not killed him, he would have died of a broken neck anyway. His bracelet lay several feet away, detached from his leg but still emblazoned with the number 9. But what creeped me out the most were his eyes. They were wide open, but they were just as dead as the rest of him, staring forward at nothing.

We all gaped, unable to move. Finally, the door began to close automatically, hiding the scene from us. None of us moved to stop it.

“He...” Thursday stammered. “...he blew up...”

This statement, as obvious as it was, seemed to kick the rest of us back to reality. Element excused himself to go around the corner and throw up, while Dawn didn’t even bother leaving to do so. Uno and Thursday shuddered while obviously trying to keep the contents of their stomach as such. Coin, Angle, and Hooves only closed their eyes, either in mourning or trying to sort out what just happened.

I think I just sat down and stared at the floor. Eventually, a hoof on my shoulder caused me to jump, and I looked at it. It led to Thursday.

“We need to keep going,” she said quietly. “We...we can’t end up like he did.”

I looked back to the floor. As much as I wanted to get out of here - hell, that incident only made me want out even more - I suddenly lacked the urge to do so. I wanted to just lie down and wait to die as well, as though it was a preferable option to potentially ending up as Cloud did.

Hooves walked up to us. “Thursday...”

“What?” she asked. She sounded like she was trying to snap at him, but didn’t have the energy for it.

“Leave her be. I think we all need a moment before we can press onward.”

She seemed to agree, and the two of them left me to examine the floor. I heard them, along with the rest of the group, conversing with one another about what to do now. From what I heard, they all wanted to take the time to gather themselves before continuing, but they still wanted to continue.

One of them - Coin, if I recognized his voice properly - suggested looking for another numbered door, so we could have two teams going around. A few of them left to search for such a door, and only a couple of us were left behind.

Once I had collected myself, I stood up, albeit on trembling legs. When I turned, I saw exactly who was left: myself, Uno, and Hooves. Naturally, the ones chosen to go through the door.

“S-So...should we go?” I asked. Hooves nodded, a gesture that Uno mimicked after a moment of hesitation.

We went through the process of scanning our bracelets with the RED, opened the door, and walked through. Only after stepping through (and having to step carefully to not walk in the blood) did we realize what we had done.

The door closed, and instantly, we heard a quiet beeping from our bracelets. A skull had appeared on the screen along with our number. Panicking, we started to search for the DEAD.

Of course, none of us had any idea what the DEAD looked like. We presumed it would be similar to the RED, but making assumptions would only waste time. Finally, Uno cried out and dashed for a device on the wall a short distance from the door. Hooves and I followed.

The DEAD looked very much like the RED after all, but it had a blue and white theme to it. Uno scanned his hoof first, then stepped back to let us go. Hooves scanned, and I followed suit. With one final beep, the skulls on our bracelets vanished.

We all sighed in relief. Uno took the time to speak. “You know, if we keep getting this freaked out, getting our heart rate to zero is gonna be impossible.”

Despite the tense situation, we all chuckled a bit before examining the hallway. I made sure not to look directly at Cloud’s corpse, even though part of me wanted to search it for clues. Hooves surprised me by walking right over to Cloud and poking at his body.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Never trust a corpse unless you made it one,” he replied vaguely. I raised an eyebrow, and Uno seemed similarly confused.

After a bit, he came back to us, apparently satisfied. We walked down the hallway to the intersection, where it branched off into two paths.

“Do we split up and search both, or go one at a time?” Uno asked.

“One at a time,” Hooves and I answered at once. I elaborated. “Splitting up in a situation like this is just asking for trouble.”

They agreed, and after some quick discussion, we went down the left path first. It led on for a while, taking us past a few wooden doors that attempts to open revealed to be locked. Surprisingly, despite their apparently weak material, they were exceptionally sturdy - Hooves tried bucking one several times and did nothing to it.

So we just ignored the doors as we went, mostly quiet, until Uno decided to try starting a conversation to break the silence. “So...Note, you said you knew Arrell?”

I nodded, while Hooves scoffed. I heard him mumble “Here we go again…”

“How did you meet him?” Uno asked, ignoring Hooves.

I sighed a bit, thinking back and trying to remember exactly what happened. It was well over a year ago, so my memory was hazy. “Some ponies kidnapped me, and while they had me, they tried to attack a town called Smooth Grove...Arrell was there, stopped them, and saved me. Not much else to it...”

“Smooth Grove...” the burgundy stallion muttered to himself, before continuing on out loud. “Did he ask you to travel with him, or did you just follow him? You said you were one of his companions...well, friends, I mean.”

I nodded. “He asked me to come with him, and I agreed.”

“Sounds like you just had a weird dream to me,” Hooves grunted. “Arrell travels alone. That’s what I always heard.”

“What kinds of newspapers have you been reading?” Uno asked, sounding a little irked.

“None, for the past year or so.”

“Then there’s your problem. I don’t think it was until after the Cloudsdale Killer incident when they started referring to ‘Arrell and the Winter Solstice’, or ‘Arrell and his friends’.”

I winced. I knew exactly what he was referring to when he mentioned the Cloudsdale Killer incident. I started to feel sad again, remembering how it was during that time when we actually got together…

“...Asylum?”

I looked up as Uno spoke. “Yes?”

Suddenly, my eyes widened as I realized what he said. He looked at Hooves, who seemed incredulous. “Told you.”

“...well then.” Hooves was still for a moment, then shrugged and continued walking. Uno slowed down so he was walking beside me.

“How did you...” I began, trying to figure out how to form my question.

“You looked like you were lost in thought when I mentioned the Cloudsdale Killer, and when I heard about that, I learned that the only pony working with Arrell besides the guards was named Asylum. I just put two and two together, but Hooves didn’t believe me.” He shrugged. “I just didn’t like the idea of him thinking you were crazy. Sorry about that...”

I looked him in the eye, then down at the floor as I kept walking. “It’s fine...but...just call me Note, okay? Until we get out of here...”

He nodded. “I understand.”

Our conversation was interrupted when Hooves called back to us. Snapping our heads toward him, we saw what had garnered his attention: another wooden door. But unlike the ones we had passed, this one was unlocked and open.

Our paced trots turned to a fast gallop as we ran to catch up, both curious and worried about what might lie in store for us.