“Ughhh… this is taking so long. We have been all over this school and haven’t found a trace of anyone!” Rarity huffed in frustration as she scanned her eyes from left to right to search any open room they came to. “Not the girls, not Twilight and Fluttershy, not Tom, not even any of the other children!”

Pinkie Pie placed a hoof on the stressed unicorn’s shoulder. She smiled at her in a cheerful manner and tried to get Rarity to do the same.

“Aww, cheer up Rarity. I mean come on… they have to be in here somewhere, so that must mean that we’re running out of places to not find them!” The pink pony exclaimed in a chipper tone of voice as she tried to lift her friend’s morale.

Rarity wanted to be upset at the party pony’s upbeat attitude. After all of this tedious searching, even she should have been a little bit frustrated. But the unicorn couldn’t find it in her to resist Pinkie’s uplifting smile. She sighed in defeat before offering a small smile of her own.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm dear, but if we don’t find them soon I think I’m going to break down and cry.” Rarity spoke softly so as to not hurt Pinkie’s feelings. As much as she wanted to cheer up, she was still concerned for the safety of her sister and her troop of friends.

Pinkie Pie gave her a sympathetic look. She decided that it would be best to not attempt to bring up the subject any further to remind the worried unicorn of the danger her sister could be in. So the two walked down the hallway in silence as Rarity trailed her eyes off sadly.

After a few minutes of walking, the pair came to a stop at the back of the school. They had already been to where the hallway on the left had led, and there had been no sign of the crusaders anywhere they had searched previously. Rarity was prepared to hang her head and sulk at their lack of progress, when she suddenly noticed a door beside them. The door appeared different from the usual wooden doors prevalent throughout the school. It was metallic and had rust all over it with water trickling down from the top of its frame.

“Where does this door lead?” Rarity asked quizzically while gripping the handle to open it. She tugged on it with all of her might, but failed to make it budge.

“It must lead down into the basement… maybe the girls are down there? They did mention checking out the leaking pipes.” Pinkie stated optimistically while waiting for the unicorn to open the door.

“*Sigh* well this door is either stuck or locked… would you mind helping me out darling?” Rarity asked courteously. She moved over to make room for the pink pony as she looked to her pleadingly.

“Okie dokey lokie.” Pinkie smiled at the opportunity to help out and gripped the handle beside the unicorn. The two counted down from three and heaved with every ounce of strength they could muster. Despite their combined efforts, the pair couldn’t get the door open.

After a few attempts at forcing the door open, the two let go and slid to the floor in exhaustion. Rarity wiped the sweat from her face and panted while leaning on the wall next to her friend.

“*Pant*… *Huff*… I don’t think that door is opening anytime soon.” The unicorn wheezed in between breaths. Pinkie Pie looked to her and took a few moments to breathe herself before talking.

“Maybe…*Huff*… maybe Tom could get it open?” The pink mare suggested while catching her breath. Rarity nodded to communicate her agreement without talking. She then got up and offered to help her friend up.

Once the two had gotten to their feet, they looked back down the hall and contemplated which way to go in order to meet back up with the others. The ponies walked to their right to go to the other side of the school and make their way back.

After a few minutes of walking, the two started snaking their way through various rooms in order to avoid the growing number of water pits. Having just nearly drowned, Pinkie did not want to go anywhere near the smallest puddle, and Rarity shared her opinion.

Suddenly, the two could hear someone yelling frantically from somewhere up ahead. The sound was muffled and distorted as it carried through the rooms, but the ponies could distinguish the noise as being slightly familiar.

“*Gasp* that sounds like Twilight and Fluttershy!” Rarity was shocked to hear her friends in distress. She tried to determine the direction of the noise as quickly as possible.

“Come on! They sound like they need help!” Pinkie exclaimed seriously as she tried to curb her sense of worry to think logically.

The two rushed through the corridors until they came to a room that had two doors on each side. Through the other door, the pair could see across the hall into a classroom with two fearful looking ponies stuck on a patch of floor.

“Girls!” Rarity exclaimed to her friends to alert them to her presence. The trapped mares turned to look at the two across the hall.

“Rarity! Pinkie! Help us!” Twilight yelled frantically as she tried to steady herself to stay upright as their patch of floor shook violently. Something from beneath the floor was ramming itself against the bottom of the boards.

“We’re coming girls! Hold on!” Pinkie exclaimed with determination before stepping forward. Suddenly Twilight stuck a hoof out to stop her from charging forward.

“Wait, don’t go in the water! There’s something down there!” The unicorn cried frantically while pointing to the trench that separated the two groups.

The pink pony backed up as she noticed the expanse of water before her. Although the distance between them seemed like a couple of steps, with the invisible force lurking in the water, waiting for something to fall in to drag to the bottom, the small distance seemed much larger.

“We know… it tried to drown me earlier.” Pinkie stated grimly while looking to the splashes of water coming from the sides of the floor. The force of the impacts was forcing water out of the sides. Judging from the repeated assaults on the floor, Pinkie figured that whatever was down there did not want to wait for them to slip up and fall in the water by accident again.

Rarity frantically racked her mind to find a way to help her friends. With her current state of exhaustion from wrestling Pinkie out of the water, she couldn’t lift the two over the water with her magic. She turned to them and tried to put on a determined expression to reassure them that she was in control of the situation.

“Don’t worry! We’ll find something to bridge over the water so you can cross safely!” The white mare shouted with a false sense of confidence, but on the inside she was panicking just as much as the two trapped ponies. She motioned for Pinkie to follow her as she went around the room to find something large enough to bridge the gap. Twilight and Fluttershy waited anxiously as the two left the doorway. They felt just as helpless and alone as they were before, even knowing that their friends were just in the other room.

Rarity and Pinkie quickly darted their eyes around the room to find something that was suitable for pushing across the water. After a few seconds of thinking, the unicorn finally glanced to a shelf that seemed like it would do the job.

“Pinkie, get on the other side of this and pull!” Rarity instructed enthusiastically while running to the front of the shelf to push.

Pinkie Pie nodded and quickly jumped on the other end and started pulling. The two managed to slide the shelf across the floor rapidly. After a few moments, Pinkie was facing the doorway and decided to turn to update her friends on their progress.

“Don’t worry girls! We…” The pink pony was cut off suddenly as her face paled and her jaw hung open in shock.

Twilight and Fluttershy were just as puzzled at the speechless pony as Rarity was. They had no idea what could have made her freeze up in such a desperate situation.

“What’s wrong darling? Why did you stop pulling?” The white unicorn asked in confusion to the pink pony. She didn’t turn to respond and merely kept staring at her two friends. Rarity quickly walked over to the pink pony and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“Come on Pinkie, we need to get this thing mo- Oh my!” Rarity gasped in surprise as she looked to where Pinkie was staring.

Twilight and Fluttershy looked confused at the two dumbfounded ponies. They were staring past them with pale faces and wide eyes.

“What is it…? What’s wr-” Twilight was interrupted by a gurgling noise that sent chills up her spine. Finally the purple pony and yellow pegasus turned around to discover what had silenced their friends in shock.

The color drained from their faces as they laid eyes on what the problem was. At the far end of the room near the wall, a red mass was floating at the top of the water. The mass looked like a bloody mess had been spilled into the water, only it was moving. Chunks of gelatinous pulp seemed to be undulating around the red liquid as it floated in place next to the floor. The sight of the meaty blob immediately made the ponies’ stomachs churn uncomfortably.

Twilight suddenly realized that the constant banging on the floorboards had ceased. She came to the grim conclusion that the red mass before her was the cause of their problems. The bloody puddle remained motionless save for its constant wriggling. The chunks on top of it seemed to be undulating and melding back into the puddle before resurfacing in a disturbing display.

Twilight and Fluttershy contemplated moving closer to investigate the red mass, but they both came to the conclusion that they were better off at a distance. Still, they felt like they had to get a closer look. The pair cautiously walked over to the side of the room that the puddle was on while keeping far away from the water.

The two mares leaned slightly closer to get a better look at the disturbing puddle. At this distance, they could smell a foul odor coming off of the gurgling mass that made them crinkle up their faces in disgust. They felt oddly compelled to get closer to the mass by a sense of morbid curiosity.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked nervously while glancing beside her to her more knowledgeable friend.

“I don’t know… but it smells horrible.” Twilight stated while covering her mouth with her arm. The air coming off of the puddle was almost thick enough to taste, and the unicorn didn’t want to experience that for herself.

“Be careful you two!” Rarity yelled over to the two mares, causing them to look over to the other side of the room to face her.

Twilight started to say something, but then realized that she didn’t have anything to say to comfort the white mare. What they were doing was stupid and dangerous, and she knew it. Despite the danger, she at least had to examine the strange puddle.

Suddenly, the sound of something breaching the water rang out and an arm shot out of the center of the puddle. Twilight and Fluttershy screamed in terror and recoiled as fast as they could from the horrific sight. The arm seemed to be made out of a slightly more solid looking variety of the red goo. The arm twitched and wriggled around in place, as if it was exploring the world for the first time.

The ponies watched with wide eyes and gaping mouths as the bloody appendage shook violently. Every erratic movement it made sent a cold chill down their spines. Their fear only got worse when streams of the crimson liquid started flowing up the arm.

The red fluid seemed to flow into the arm and fill it out. Sections of it that were thin and barely formed before were now becoming more solid. Eventually, a hand and five fingers started forming at the top of the arm. The digits articulated and twitched as more of the red puddle flowed over them and up to their tips.

Soon enough, sharp claws had formed at the tip of each finger. The claws seemed to be made out of a darker red than the rest of the blood red arm, and they appeared more solid and less fluid like.

Before the ponies could think of anything to do, the arm stretched upwards and slapped onto the floor. The loud thump that resulted made the four mares jump in fright. Twilight and Fluttershy backed up a little more from their initial jump. They had recoiled in fear when the hand reached up, but now they had run out of room to run as they hit the edge of the classroom. The sharp claws of the crimson hand dug into the wood and scrapped it as it tried to find a solid hold. The shrill sound of the claws scratching into the floor made the group cringe uncomfortably.

The rest of the puddle started flowing upwards and climbing over the arm, moving out of the water and up the side of the ledge onto the floor. The bloody appendage disappeared into the crimson mass as it settled into a deep red puddle on the floor.

“W…w..wha….” Twilight stuttered in fear and bewilderment as she tried to form coherent words. She looked over to see Fluttershy trembling in horror as she stared at the moving puddle with widened eyes.

The puddle wriggled around while making a strange noise that sounded like a mixture of bubbling and gurgling. It was as if some kind of creature was trapped in the puddle and was trying to escape. Suddenly, the red liquid started climbing upwards into the air.

The strange goo rose into the air and formed into a solid blob. The gurgling sound got louder and more pronounced as the red liquid climbed on top of itself to fill in the disturbing mass. Soon enough, two sections of the mass started branching off of the blob and reached out to the sides. The two sections formed into appendage-like shapes as more of the liquid flowed over them and filled them out. The ponies all made a grim discovery about the terrifying mass. It was starting to resemble a humanoid creature.

Soon enough, the bloody mass started forming more identifiable features, like a head and hands. All of the features on the creature seemed to be made entirely out of blood, even the claws on its hand and the stringy hair on its head seemed to be made out of a dark shade of red.

Strangely enough, the creature didn’t smell like blood, although it still smelled horrific. It almost smelled like a stagnated pool of water that had been sitting out in some misty and murky swamp for years on end.

The humanoid figure shifted around in place as it adopted more fluidic movements. The lower half of the creature had not formed legs, although there was what appeared to be the start of two legs underneath its torso. Instead, the rest of the creature was merely a solid blob with a red puddle underneath of it.

The ponies stood frozen in fear while staring into the gaunt skull like face of the crimson beast. The empty black holes it used for eyes seemed transfixed on the frightened animals standing on the other side of the room as they trembled at the sight of it.

Rarity managed to snap herself out of the horrified trance she had been in while watching the creature form. She shook Pinkie forcefully before running to the other side of the shelf.

“Come on Pinkie! We need to get them out of there now!” The unicorn yelled back to her friend to grab her attention. Pinkie grasped for the shelf in a daze as she turned her head to focus on her task. The two slid the shelf sideways across the room to make it fit through the door.

While the two ponies across the hall sprang into action, Twilight and Fluttershy were left staring at the creature before them. The beast twitched its head as it suddenly laid eyes on Twilight’s chest wound. It seemed fascinated by the almost healed up opening in the unicorn.

It let out a loud growl that sounded garbled and disgusting as the bloody mass vibrated to create the unnatural sound. The beast put one of its legs forward and lurched downward as it tried to walk upright using bipedal movement. While the creature fumbled forward in an attempt to walk, the puddle underneath it started to locomote forward, allowing the creature to move in an awkwardly horrific fashion.

As the creature reached forward for the unicorn, Fluttershy looked up and noticed that Twilight was frozen in fear while staring at the approaching monster. She seemed unable to think clearly as the creature paused and shifted its puddle around. Suddenly, the creature’s arm shot out from its body. The arm seemed to return to a more fluid like state as it sprayed forward toward the hapless pony like a geyser of water.

“Twilight look out!” Fluttershy exclaimed in surprise. All fear she had of the creature dissolved as she jumped into the unicorn to push her aside. Twilight was pushed to the floor and slid to the wall as she snapped out of her fear induced trance. She watched in horror as the clawed appendage slammed into the pegasus and kept going, pinning the yellow mare to the wall sideways as it landed on her midsection.

“Ack!” Fluttershy’s cry of pain and surprise was cut short as she slammed into the wall. She felt the monster’s claws digging in further from the impact.

“Fluttershy!” The unicorn cried out frantically as she watched blood start to drip from the pegasus as the claws undoubtedly dug into her side. Fluttershy screamed in pain as she felt the cold liquid of the creature interacting with her open wound.

Twilight could faintly see through the arm as it was in a more liquid like state. She could just barely make out an open wound on Fluttershy’s side through the liquid skin of the creature. The creature sat still as its arm stretched thinly across the room, it then shook the liquid of its arm as it started putting some sort of effort into it.

Suddenly, the unicorn noticed another red fluid flowing out of Fluttershy’s wound. She quickly realized that the monster was actually somehow draining the blood out of her.

Fluttershy started groaning in a sort of painful horror as she felt the blood from her body being siphoned out into the crimson liquid holding her in place. She grew progressively weaker as the creature drained her lifeblood out of her.

Twilight got to her feet and stood between them with determination. She wasn’t about to let some kind of living puddle hurt her friend. Not while she had anything to say about the matter.

“You leave her alone!” The purple mare yelled angrily while rearing up to kick the arm away from her friend. Twilight heaved and shot her back legs out at the stretchy appendage, but was surprised when they passed right through it. She could feel the cold wet sensation of her legs slowing down and hitting something that felt like water, and then passing out the other side and speeding up as they hit air.

“What the…?” Twilight exclaimed in utter confusion. The creature almost seemed to smirk at the unicorn with its deformed mouth as it continued to feed on the pegasus. The unicorn looked horrified at her friend as her head started dipping down from weakness.

The lavender pony scowled in anger at the creature. She decided to ignore her own exhaustion and lit up her horn to use a spell on the beast.

“Take this you... thing you!” Twilight growled angrily as she shot out a blast of concentrated energy from her horn. The ball flew across the room and collided with the monster. It exploded into the liquid mass of the beast and sprayed the red liquid everywhere, scattering the beast around the room.

Fluttershy slid down the wall as the stretchy arm fell to the ground and turned into red fluid. She limply sprawled out across the floor and weakly lifted her head to view the situation. The creature had been reduced to piles of red liquid scattered around the room, ranging from medium sized puddles on the floor, to small droplets of red splattered on the wall that started to drip down.

Twilight immediately rushed to the injured pegasus and assessed her wound. A large gash had been opened up into her side, yet the deep wound strangely did not bleed and appeared very dry. Fluttershy had lost a lot of color as her blood had been sucked out of her body.

“Come on Fluttershy, I’m going to get you up ok?” Twilight spoke softly to the yellow mare, who offered a weak nod in return as the unicorn started to pick up the sickly pony. After the two had gotten up, they slowly walked over to the doorway and looked across the hallway and into the next room.

“Hurry up girls! Fluttershy is hurt badly… we need to get out of here!” Twilight yelled fearfully at the two as they were working on the shelf. They had gotten the shelf lined up with the door, and were quickly pushing it over.

Rarity looked over from her spot at the side of the shelf. She gasped when she saw the shape her friend was in. Fluttershy weakly smiled at the two to assure them that she was ok, but the pegasus quickly dipped her head and started to faint from weakness. She would have fallen had Twilight not been supporting her.

“We’re almost there Twilight, just hang in there!” the white mare stated as calmly as she could, given the circumstances.

Twilight glanced around at the pieces of red liquid around the room. They had all started moving from where they were to head into the water. The droplets and pools of crimson seemed to disappear once they hit the water, as if they could dive underneath the surface.

The unicorn was going to make an observation on this occurrence, when the shelf was suddenly pushed forward into the water. Rarity and Pinkie Pie quickly pushed the shelf across the water to reach the other side, they then held onto it firmly to prevent it from moving.

“Come on! We’ll steady it while you cross!” Pinkie shouted across the hall to the two ponies trapped in the other room.

Twilight looked to Fluttershy and lifted her head up. She then gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up and get her attention.

“Fluttershy, I need you to try and climb onto this shelf ok…? Can you do that for me?” Twilight spoke softly and calmly to the pale pegasus. Fluttershy weakly lifted her head and tried to look at her friend with determination.

“Y..yeah… I think so.” Fluttershy whispered faintly as she struggled to walk forward. The yellow mare flopped onto the shelf and started crawling across. Rarity and Pinkie waited patiently for her to get within reach for them to help. Slowly but surely, Fluttershy managed to shimmy across the shelf as it bobbed in the water.

Pinkie reached forward and helped the pegasus the rest of the way across. She then carried her to the side and laid her down gently. While Pinkie stayed by the injured pegasus’s side, Rarity turned her attention back to Twilight.

“Come on darling, your turn to cross!” Rarity eagerly beckoned with her hoof to the unicorn to get her to cross. Twilight nodded and carefully stepped onto the rickety shelf.

She placed her entire weight on the shelf and took a few moments to balance herself. She then cautiously walked forward across the makeshift platform. After a few minutes of steady walking, Twilight reached out to Rarity to support herself as she jumped over to the other side.

The white mare reached out to grab her friend’s hoof, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of something breaching the surface of the water. Twilight cried out in surprise as a crimson red arm shot out from between the rungs of the shelf and grabbed onto her. The appendage quickly pulled the unicorn flat onto the shelf and tried to tip her over.

“AHH!” Twilight screamed in fright as she felt herself being yanked sideways. She desperately tried to grab onto the shelf to steady herself and somehow prevent the monster from dragging her into the water.

“Twilight!” Rarity yelled frantically as she watched the unicorn struggle against the ghastly blood red arm gripping onto her side. Just as the creature pulled the unicorn sideways off the shelf, Rarity reached out and grabbed her arm firmly.

“Pinkie! Help me pull her up!” The white unicorn cried frantically to her friend as she struggled to keep Twilight above the water line. The creature latched onto her legs and sank back down under the water to conceal its appearance.

Pinkie Pie quickly ran over to the doorway and grabbed onto Twilight’s other arm. The two pulled hard on the unicorn and wrestled her out of the creature’s grasp. Once firmly on land, the three looked down to the water in a panic. The trio could just barely see a dark shape moving upwards under the surface.

“Come on! Let’s get out of here!” Twilight cried frantically before getting to her feet and running over to Fluttershy. Pinkie ran over and helped the unicorn carry their friend. The group then quickly ran out of the room and rapidly made headway down the hall.

Once the group felt that they had gotten far enough away from any sizable source of water, they ducked into the nearest room and closed the door. They then took Fluttershy and set her down gently to investigate her wounds more thoroughly.

Twilight was filled with dread upon looking at the weak state her friend was in. She was the more sensitive member of the group, and yet she had gotten into harm’s way to prevent her friend from getting hurt.

“Are you ok Fluttershy?” The unicorn asked sadly while observing the sickly pegasus moving around weakly.

Rarity looked over her wounds closely. As the white mare was inspecting her state of health, Fluttershy looked up to Twilight slowly and smiled weakly.

“I think I have seen better days… hehe” Fluttershy laughed before trailing her voice off weakly. The pegasus’s chipper attitude made Twilight feel even worse.

“Why did you do that Fluttershy? That thing was after me, not you!” the purple mare stated gingerly with worry. Fluttershy smiled again as she trembled while moving.

“I didn’t want you to get hurt… I saw you standing there frozen in fear, and I saw that thing try to attack you, and I just… moved.” The pegasus spoke softly while trying to look less sick than she actually was.

Rarity looked up from the pegasus’s side and shook her head sadly.

“She has lost a lot of blood… if we don’t get her some serious medical attention soon, she is going to die.” The white mare trailed her eyes off sadly while delivering the grim news. Pinkie and Twilight placed a hoof up to their mouths to catch a gasp.

Everyone looked sadly to the pegasus and tried their best to comfort her, when suddenly they heard the noise of something approaching from outside the room.