The ponies listened nervously as the sounds drew closer to their safe haven. They stared anxiously at the door and waited for something to open it or break it down. The knob suddenly turned and the door opened, letting a familiar figure in blue step into the room.

“Tom!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise as she watched the human enter the room and walk over to them. He seemed surprised to see an injured yellow pegasus lying on the floor behind the three ponies.

“Girls… what happened? I heard screaming from across the school and sensed something in this direction… What’s wrong with Fluttershy?” Tom asked with concern in his voice as he knelt down to examine the pale pony.

Twilight shrugged sadly as she looked back at the injured pegasus. She turned back to the human and prepared to explain the frightening turn of events that had led up to this point.

“We were attacked by this invisible thing that tried to drown us. It would grab us whenever we got into the water, and then it tried to knock us into the water by ramming into the floor. After Rarity and Pinkie Pie came to help us, it…” The unicorn shuddered as she remembered the appearance of the bloody monster. She could still see the gaping black holes that it used for eyes as it stared at her with a disturbing grin.

“It came out of the water and attacked me, but Fluttershy pushed me out of the way and took the blow. It cut her side open and drained her blood out… If we don’t get her some help, she isn’t going to last long.” Twilight frowned sadly as she looked down to her injured friend. She still couldn’t believe that the timid mare would do something so brash just to save her.

Tom sighed in concern as he listened to the frantic unicorn explain their problems. He knew that he shouldn’t have left them on their own in a situation like this. Despite how bad he felt, this was not the time for self-criticism.

“We can deal with that water monster later, for now I need you to back up and give me some room.” The human instructed calmly while scooting closer to the pegasus.

Everyone looked at the boy with confused expressions, but obeyed his commands and backed away from their friend. Twilight was puzzled as she watched the human taking in a few deep breaths to prepare for something.

“What are you going to do?” The purple mare asked quizzically while looking to her friend with concern for her health.

“I’m going to try to heal her… but it takes a lot of energy so, I might pass out.” Tom turned to explain to the confused ponies.

“What…? You can do that?” Pinkie asked curiously while looking between the two.

“Yeah… but I haven’t done it that many times, so I might pass out for a little while. And if that happens, you’re going to have to leave me here if something dangerous comes along.” Tom looked serious and matter of fact as he explained what could happen.

Before the others could question the human any further, he placed a finger up to silence them. He then breathed in a few more times before placing his hands over Fluttershy’s wound and closing his eyes. Tom breathed deeply while concentrating for a moment. Soon, blue rays of light started emitting from his hand.

The beam was a slightly darker shade of blue than the light Tom used to fight the shadow creatures out in the forest. Fluttershy felt warmness surging through her body as the light flowed into her. She heard her friends gasping in amazement as she suddenly felt an odd tingling sensation where her wound was. The pegasus looked back to her injury and noticed that it was closing up slowly.

Tom shrugged weakly as he struggled to maintain the energy streaming out of his hand. He ignored his rapidly draining energy and waited until the wound was closed up entirely. After giving a few extra minutes to restore the pony’s strength completely, Tom shut the light off and collapsed to the side of the pegasus.

Everyone went over to the human and watched as he breathed rapidly. He gave them a thumbs up to give them the freedom to check on their friend.

“How do you feel Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curiously while observing the newly restored color in the pegasus’s face.

Fluttershy moved her limbs around and breathed in a few times to test her health. Much to her surprise, she didn’t feel anything to indicate that she had even been injured in the first place.

“I feel good… great even.” The yellow mare smiled happily while looking over to the human as he hyperventilated on the ground. Her cheerful smile suddenly shifted to a concerned frown as she noticed how exhausted the boy seemed.

“Are you ok Tom? I hope that wasn’t too hard on you.” Fluttershy looked sympathetically to the human as he recuperated on the ground.

“I’m good… just give me a minute.” Tom wheezed while working his way to his knees. He paused for a moment before getting up completely.

“Now then, on to business… Did any of you find anything of note?” The human asked curiously while surveying the group of ponies.

“Well, we found Ms. Cheerilee and the other children. We told them to stay in the library while we searched for you guys.” Twilight informed the group on their progress.

“That’s good… how about you two?” Tom asked Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

“No luck I’m afraid. We have been around this entire floor, and they aren’t up here. We think the girls might be in the basement, but the door is stuck.” Rarity droned sadly at her lack of progress in finding her sister.

“Alright, we should head down there next. We need to find the girls and stop whatever is causing all of this.” The human spoke with determination to inspire the ponies. Everyone nodded confidently before getting up.

Rarity and Pinkie led their friends out of the room on the way to the other side of the school towards the basement. The group was sure to avoid any patch of water now that they knew that the bloody monster was lurking just beneath the surface.

Once the ponies made it to the metal door, they stepped aside and let Tom inspect it. He tugged at it a few times to ensure that it was in fact stuck. As expected, the door remained firmly in place.

“Yep… that is one stuck door. Let me see if I can’t get it open.” Tom rubbed his hands together to prepare himself for the task at hand. He grabbed the door firmly with both hands and pulled hard. After a few moments of tugging progressively harder, the door popped open.

The ponies peered inside and looked into the darkness to get an idea of what the basement would look like. Water was rapidly running down from the ceiling and falling down the stairs like a waterfall. The water coming off of the stairs was splashing into a thin layer of water that covered the entire basement floor. Tom walked down the stairs first and tested to see if the water was too deep.

“Be careful where you step down here. It’s hard to tell what is five inches deep and what is five feet.” Tom stated while carefully placing his foot around to test the ground in front of him.

The ponies nodded while stepping forward through the small wall of water at the top of the stairs. They squeaked in surprise as the chilly liquid covered their bodies. After stepping out the other side and shaking themselves dry, the group noticed that they were short one member.

Twilight turned around and noticed Rarity sizing up the water streaming down in front of her. She seemed to be deciding whether or not she would step forward or run away entirely.

“Rarity, what’s wrong?” The purple mare asked curiously.

“I can’t just walk through this! I just got my hair dry from the last time it got wet.” The white unicorn stated while gently patting her slightly moist mane. Twilight rolled her eyes and shrugged in disbelief at her friend’s behavior. She figured that she would put her obsession with beauty aside considering that they were in a survival situation.

“Rarity, we don’t have time for this! Your hair will be fine once it dries, I promise.” Twilight pleaded for the unicorn to put her apprehensions behind her. Rarity gently placed a hoof through the waterfall and squeaked in shock at the cold temperature.

“Maybe I can find something to block the water… you all go on ahead without me, I will join you if I am able.” The white mare said with slight disappointment while turning around to walk away.

“What about Sweetie Belle?” Twilight spoke up, causing the unicorn to stop midstride. “She needs you right now Rarity. What is more important to you, your hair or your sister?” She reasoned in a serious tone.

Rarity lowered her head sadly at the mention of her sister. She turned around and glanced at the wall of water with a determined expression. She wasn’t about to put the lives of innocent ponies before her own good looks, especially not her sister.

“You’re right… I’m not letting something like this keep me from saving my darling Sweetie Belle.” Rarity announced with confidence. Everyone watched as the white mare closed her eyes and jumped forward.

“Heeyah!” Rarity yelled as she rushed through the wall of water. She immediately regretted her decision as the freezing liquid splashed onto her and made her muscles tense up, but she kept going. Before she knew it, she was down the stairs with her friends.

Twilight and the others walked up to the unicorn as she scrambled to brush her soaked hair out of her face. They smiled at her as she looked around with a surprised expression.

“Good job Rarity. I knew you could do it.” Twilight said in a praising tone while putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.

“Thanks Twilight… now let’s get moving.” Rarity stated while turning her attention forward to the human waiting at the doorway to the next room. The darkness of the large room sitting before the ponies made them tense up in fear again. It also didn’t help that they were standing in freezing cold water. Despite their apprehensions, the group slowly walked into the large room.

The constant sound of water splashing onto the submerged floor from the spouts on the ceiling mingled with the pitch black darkness that pervaded the entire room, covering it in an intense atmosphere of dread and loneliness that filled the ponies with unease.

As Twilight hesitantly walked forward into the center of the room, she stuck close to her small group of friends in an instinctive attempt to feel safer. Even though the water on the floor was only high enough to barely submerge the tip of her hooves, she was still worried about the possibility that they were not alone.

“I hope that thing isn’t down here…” Twilight shivered at the thought of getting farther away from dry land. She knew that if the creature decided to follow them, there would be little to no chance of escaping it with so much water around.

“What did you say that thing looked like?” Tom asked curiously while looking back to the unicorn. If he was going to be fighting this monster, he at least wanted to know what it looked like.

“It can hide in the water and turn invisible, but when it comes out onto land it looks horrible!” Twilight recoiled mentally from having the image of the creature in her head.

“It’s true, I saw it myself darling.” Rarity cut in to save Twilight the trouble of remembering the monster. “It was a horrific pile of what looked like… blood. It made these ghastly noises and tried to kill poor Fluttershy!” She shuddered in disgust at the thought of the mass of blood like fluid.

“Wow… that bad huh? Guess I got my work cut out for me.” Tom added sarcastically in an attempt to lighten the mood. In the back of his head, he felt slightly nervous from not immediately recognizing the description of the creature, but he kept a strong composure to ease the ponies’ nerves.

Rarity shrugged sadly as she looked around them into the three other doorways. She couldn’t imagine how scared the three crusaders must be from being lost down here in the cold darkness. The thought of her sister needing her help made the unicorn slightly less afraid of the eerie basement.

“We’re not getting any closer to finding the girls and putting a stop to this mess from here. Let’s pick a door and start searching this dreadful place.” Rarity exclaimed confidently while steeling her nerves and putting on a determined expression.

The others were surprised at the white mare’s sudden bravery. Even Tom was starting to get chills from the bleak atmosphere of the basement, so to see such determination arise from the unicorn filled the others with confidence of their own. They nodded to the brave pony before walking over to the doorway to the left of the large room. The group let Tom go first, still feeling slightly apprehensive about walking further into the darkness.

The door led the group into a long winding corridor. The thick veil of shadows prevented the ponies from seeing to the end of the tunnel, leaving its size up to their own predictions. They slowly walked through the darkness while keeping their ears open for any sign of the three fillies, or worse yet, any sign that the creature was just behind them getting ready to pounce.

The tunnel stretched onward for what seemed like an eternity. The constant echo of the ponies’ own hooves splashing around in the water made them pause occasionally to look behind them for fear of being followed.

Just when the group thought they would be wandering the eerie corridor all day, a doorway came into view on the left. Twilight looked back to her friends for a vote of confidence before cautiously stepping into the room. Much to her surprise, she felt her hooves coming into contact with dry flooring.

“Wow… nice to see dry land for once.” Twilight remarked while looking around at the wooden flooring. Upon closer inspection, she discovered the reason why the floor was lacking water.

A short distance from the group, several gaping holes in the ground were barely visible amidst the darkness. Streams of water were pouring into the holes, forming a steady wall of water that was falling into the barely visible bottom.

“What the…? Why are there so many holes in the floorboards? Actually… now that I think about it, why are there floorboards down here?” The purple unicorn asked in befuddlement. Everywhere else in the basement had stone flooring, but this one room had wooden flooring similar to the school upstairs.

Tom examined the odd flooring closer. It seemed like a different type of wood than what was used upstairs. It almost reminded him of something that would have been used in human times.

“Water isn’t the only change that could have been made to the school. Large supernatural events like this can sometimes warp how a building is structured. Doorways can lead to nowhere or new rooms entirely, there can be endless mazes of seemingly random room layouts, or there can be a lot of water and new floors.” The boy explained while looking around the flooded room curiously.

“So all of this water, and the wooden floor… that monster brought them here?” Pinkie asked with confusion and intrigue at the human’s statement. He turned to her and nodded in response.

“In a manner of speaking it did. All of this water and the new décor is probably where it feels comfortable. Whether it brought it all here by itself or if the spell did it I don’t know. Summoning spells are confusing sometimes.” Tom rolled his eyes in frustration as he tried to think of a way to rationalize his surroundings.

“Wait… summoning spells? You think someone made all of this happen? Like, someone put that monster here on purpose?” Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously at the boy’s statement. She didn’t like the thought that someone did all of this intentionally.

“I’m fairly confident that even though this place is vastly different from my own time, that schools do not spontaneously flood with unnatural amounts of water and get inhabited by invisible water monsters that like to drown people. So yes, I think somebody with a sick mind did this on purpose.” Tom sighed at the thought of evil individuals being possible in a seemingly peaceful society like this.

The ponies felt disgusted knowing that someone living in Equestria could take such enjoyment in the suffering of others, and that they would do something like this to a school filled with children.

Suddenly, a noise from the bottom of one of the holes caught the group’s attention. It sounded like a young filly groaning sleepily, as if they just woke up. The ponies took another look into the gaping pit and discovered that they could actually see the bottom. Amid the shadowy outline of the floor, the group could see two colorful shapes lying in a puddle of water. One of the shapes was moving around, confirming the group’s suspicions that they were living creatures.

Rarity leaned in closer to the pit to examine the two fillies. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized that the two shapes were in fact Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.

“Sweetie Belle…? Are you okay darling?” The white mare raised her voice to be heard inside of the gaping pit. Sweetie Belle looked around for a moment before turning upwards to look at the group.

“Rarity…? What’s going on?” She asked in a drowsy tone. The young unicorn seemed to be groggy and confused as she looked up to the group. She then looked over to her friend lying in the water beside her and gasped.

“Applebloom!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in alarm. The frightened filly gently rolled the unconscious earth pony onto her side and examined her injuries.

The ponies looking on from the top of the hole could barely see the two, so they could not determine if either of the fillies were injured when they fell into the pit.

“Are you two ok?” Twilight asked with concern as she looked down at the pair. Sweetie Belle looked up to the group and appeared distraught with worry.

“I think we hit our heads when we fell down here, and Applebloom’s leg looks really bad.” The white filly listed off whatever details she could think of concerning their health as she looked at her friend’s oddly positioned limb.

Rarity couldn’t stand to see her sister in such a situation. She looked to the others with concern and fear.

“We need to get them out of there!” The white mare stated in a panicked tone to the others before turning back to the hole. Twilight raced her mind to think of a way to rescue the trapped crusaders.

“It’s too small of an opening for Fluttershy to fly down there to grab them, and I don’t think I can grab them that far down.” The purple unicorn frowned as she surveyed the height of the pit and compared it to her own magical reach. On any normal day, she would have been able to reach the fillies with little issue, but with her shot nerves and exhaustion from earlier still in strong effect, she was afraid that she might drop the fillies even if she could reach them.

“I might be able to lift them up, but I would need to take it slow to make sure I don’t drop them. Besides… if Applebloom’s leg really is broken, I don’t want to make it any worse.” Rarity stated uneasily.

“Well that seems like the only option we have. Just take your time and be careful.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while backing up to give the white unicorn some room.

Just before Rarity had a chance to start concentrating on rescuing the two fillies, a noise erupted from the back of the room that sent chills up the ponies’ spines. A low gurgling sound started bubbling up from the pool of water draining into one of the holes closer to the back wall. Twilight aimed her horn to light up the area where the noise was coming from.

Off in the corner of the room, a patch of red liquid was rising up to the surface of the water. The liquid started climbing on top of itself in order to start forming the all too familiar bloody creature that had attacked the ponies before. After spending a few moments staring in profound horror at the moving goop, the ponies found themselves staring at the hideous monster once more.

“Yikes… you weren’t kidding were you?” Tom felt his stomach churning from looking at the disturbing mound of blood like fluid that had formed into the beast before him. The others were too busy dealing with their own senses of terror and disgust to pay any attention to the cynical remarks of the human.

Sweetie Belle moved around while looking up at the silent group above her. She felt confused as to why they had stopped speaking.

“Are you guys still there? What’s wrong?” The filly spoke loudly while adjusting her position in the water. Suddenly, the creature jerked its head forward and stared down towards the hole in front of the group. The ponies looked at the creature in shock as it looked back up to them and tilted its head to the side oddly. It then sunk into the water and changed back into liquid before flowing towards the group and disappearing.

The ponies all tensed up with fear as they watched the red mass vanish into the water while coming towards them. They needed to leave immediately, but they couldn’t leave the two fillies to fend for themselves.

“Get them out of there Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic to the white unicorn. Rarity shook herself out of her shock and started concentrating on the two fillies. She wrapped her magic around them and started lifting them upwards as carefully as she could manage.

Tom used his senses a few times while scanning the water in front of them. He let out a frustrated groan as he failed to pinpoint the creature’s exact location.

“You guys hurry up and get them out of that hole.” The human instructed seriously while taking a few steps forward. Twilight was concerned with the way he said that. It was like he planned on using himself as bait for the creature while they grabbed the two fillies and ran.

“What are you planning on doing?” Twilight asked in a fretful tone while putting her hoof in front of him to stop him from moving. “That thing is way too strong to fight. We need to get them out and run!” She exclaimed frantically while eyeing the water in front of them.

Tom looked back and forth to the worried ponies around him. He racked his mind in an attempt to find any other solution to the situation that ended favorably, but failed to come up with anything. He would have to try his hardest to get the creature’s attention and hope that he could keep it busy or destroy it.

“I need to try! It’s the only way to buy you enough time to get them to safety!” Tom yelled back at the unicorn in frustration before moving around her outstretched arm and running out into the water.

He kicked his feet around frantically in an attempt to lure the beast out. He swiveled his head around in a desperate effort to find any sign of movement. Rarity tried to keep her attention on keeping the two fillies stable in the air while maintaining a grip on them. She looked up occasionally to see what was going on in front of her.

The ponies looked on nervously as they waited for any sign of movement near them. Even though they were concerned for Tom’s safety, a part of them secretly hoped that the creature would leave them alone, even if that meant going for the human instead of them.

Suddenly, Tom was knocked off of his feet by a surge of water sweeping his legs out from under him. As he caught himself and looked around him to see what happened, he noticed a blob of red near his face that was slowly forming upwards into a solid form. He quickly got to his feet and prepared himself to fight the newly formed creature.

“Alright ugly, have some of this!” Tom yelled angrily while reaching for his sword. He quickly whipped the blade out and swung it vertically as hard as he could at the creature. Much to his surprise, the sword passed through the beast with little resistance. Droplets of translucent red liquid were flying off the creature as the blade sent ripples through the beast’s body. It was like Tom was swinging at water.

Tom held the sword in the air and looked at it for a moment in disbelief as red water streamed off of it in drops. He then looked at the un-phased creature with astonishment and slight fear.

“Well that’s not fair at all…” He muttered to himself nervously before quickly holstering his sword. The creature pulled back one of its arms to swing at Tom, but the human quickly ducked under the attack and side stepped around the beast.

Before the creature could react, Tom held out his hand and shot out a rapid flash of blue light at the bloody mass in front of him. As the light faded, the creature showed no signs of injury as it spun around to face the human.

The ponies looked on fearfully as the creature shot out one of its arms towards the slayer. The limb changed to liquid and gushed forward as the clawed hand of the creature impacted with the human and sent him flying across the room. The boy was slammed against the far wall and pinned by the force of the monster’s arm.

He yelped in pain from the impact driving the beast’s claws into his chest. He desperately grasped at the arm as it adjusted its size to fit around him and keep him trapped. Tom’s attempts at gripping the red mass surrounding him were only met with his hands passing through the surface of the arm as if it were liquid.

“Tom!” Twilight exclaimed loudly as she watched the boy struggle against the creature’s grasp. She anxiously looked back and forth between the battle and Rarity to see how close she was to getting Sweetie Belle and Applebloom out of the hole.

Tom stopped flailing around for a moment to think logically about his situation. He then summoned forth his claws and prepared to swipe at the creature. The blades caused the creature’s skin to smoke as they collided with it, but the skin seemed to move out of the way and flow around the claws before they could do any serious damage.

“I almost have them!” Rarity exclaimed as she brought the two fillies closer to the opening of the hole. Suddenly the creature diverted its attention from Tom and jerked its head around unnaturally to face the ponies.

It released Tom and reeled in its arm before turning its body around towards the group of mares. It then started gurgling fiercely while shuffling towards the terrified bunch.

Rarity’s pupils shrank to tiny dots as she stared fearfully at the rapidly approaching monster. Her legs began to shake uncontrollably and she struggled to keep from dropping the two fillies.

“Tom! Please do something!” The white mare yelled in a distraught panic without moving her frightened gaze off of the creature.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie held each other in an attempt to comfort themselves. They were unable to prevent their muscles from seizing up in fear as they watched their approaching doom.

Twilight looked to Tom pleadingly as she felt herself tensing up in fear. She was surprised however to see the human staring at the scene in front of him horrified. He seemed frozen in place as he had a defeated expression on his pale face.

“Tom!” The purple mare yelled frantically in a last ditch attempt at snapping the human out of his dazed state.

Seeing no change in Tom’s behavior, Twilight returned her gaze to the monster as it rapidly gained ground on the ponies. It seemed as if it would trip over as it eagerly tried overstepping the limits of its puddle with its half formed legs to get at the ponies.

The purple unicorn took a moment to steel her nerves. She dug down deep to muster up enough energy to fight off the creature. She lit up her horn and shot out the same variety of energy that had worked before.

The creature seemed to have learned from its past encounter with the unicorn. It forced the fluid in the middle of its body outward to form a hole for the energy blast to fly through. Twilight’s face grew pale as she watched her attack fail.

She quickly found the strength to fire another blast, but decided to aim it downwards at the creature’s nonexistent feet. The blast impacted too fast for the beast to react and splattered it into pieces as it had done before.

The purple unicorn let out a sigh of relief before looking over to view Rarity’s progress. Amid the chaos, she had managed to lift the two fillies out of the hole and onto her back.

“Tom! Let’s go!” Twilight cried out to the human as her friends eagerly ran out of the door.

Tom blinked his eyes a few times before shaking his head rapidly to return to his senses. He quickly leapt forward and started running towards the group of escaping ponies. Twilight turned around to view the human catching up to her and managed to catch a glimpse of the pieces of red fluid slowly reforming back into one mass. She then whipped her head back around and ran out of the door to join her friends in running down the corridor.