Glitterball and her diligent search party wasted no time in going through room after room of the hallway that Sargent Fireside’s team went through. There was no sign of the guards out in the hallway, so the group had to go through each room individually to see if they were still searching.

Each room they checked was empty, and each empty room they found lowered their spirits and made them feel uneasy. Surely they should have at least found one of the ponies by now. The guards hadn’t been searching for long, so they couldn’t have gotten very far.

“Where the hay are they?” Applejack shrugged in frustration as she looked in the second to last door in the hallway. The room was another small makeshift dorm area with sleeping bags strewn along the floor, but it was devoid of life just like all the other rooms.

“Maybe they’re still searching further up ahead.” Rarity suggested in a hopeful tone.

“I doubt they would have kept searching after the house started shaking. They would have come back to the main room… especially since they don’t have one of us to relay messages.” Glitterball stated uneasily.

“Well unless they rushed through here recklessly without checking rooms, they couldn’t have gotten much further.” Applejack said while coming to the last unlocked door in the hallway. She turned to her three companions, who offered a silent nod of confirmation, before opening the door.

As expected, the door led into another hallway. Unlike the hallway the ponies were currently in, there were absolutely no sources of light. Any candles that might have been placed on tables were unlit, and there were no windows, so the occasional flash of lightning from outside was out of the question.

“Yikes…” Applejack muttered uncomfortably as she stared into the pitch black void. Glitterball moved to the front of the pack and lit up her horn to shine into the darkness.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” The unicorn said with a slight smirk while stepping forward into the hallway. Everyone took one last look at the comforting flicker of the relatively well lit hallway they came from before following the mare through the door.

While Glitterball took the lead, Rarity lit up her own horn and decided to proactively search a few of the rooms they passed. Opening a door on the left, she walked into what seemed to be a guest bedroom. There were two identical beds in the room, each with decoratively carved bedposts and green sheets with moth holes in them. All of the furniture in the room had a thin layer of dust on it. The entire room looked like it hadn’t been used in years.

“No sign of them in here.” The white mare shrugged before closing the door.

“It doesn’t look like anypony has been through here for a long time…” Applejack stated while observing the surrounding area. There weren’t even any candles or other recently placed items on the nearby tables.

“Well they had to have come through here, and we have about fifteen minutes to find them before we have to head back.” Glitterball said uneasily.

With the growing concern for the wellbeing of Sargent Fireside and his team building stronger by the minute, the group continued pressing forward with their search. Room after room turned up as another eerie insight as to what an abandoned mansion looks like on the inside. Another bedroom, a bathroom or two, and a storage closet, all yielding no signs of the team of guards.

“Glitter… Ah don’t like this. We should have found them by now.” Applejack said in a troubled tone. The unicorn looked at the orange mare and frowned uncomfortably. The chances that something bad happened were rapidly increasing.

“If we don’t find them in this hallway, we’ll turn back and get some help.” Glitterball explained with a troubled sigh.

“I just hope they’re alright.” Rarity stated in a concerned tone.

“I think they can take care of themselves.” The unicorn guard spoke up from behind the three mares. He seemed to be confident in his fellow guards’ ability to stand up against anything that was thrown at them.

“Ah certainly hope so… considering we don’t even know what’s going on anymore, we can’t afford for anyone to get hurt.” Applejack shrugged and shook her head uneasily.

As the group continued down the dark hallway, something caught Glitterball’s eye further down the hall. What appeared to be a dark patch on the floor was slowly coming into view beyond the veil of light. As the ponies drew closer to the odd patch, they realized that it was some sort of liquid on the floor in front of a door.

Everyone immediately paused and slowed down to an anxious crawl as they looked at the liquid on the floor. The ponies glanced at each other nervously, apprehensive to press forward. Glitterball and Applejack found the nerve to take a few steps forward. Their hearts sank to their feet as the dark stain on the floor showed a red tint when the light fell on it more.

Sure enough, the red tint grew in brightness until it was solid red. The ponies gasped as they stared down at the red liquid in front of them. There was no doubt about it anymore. There was blood on the floor.

“Oh my…” Rarity covered her mouth to hold back another gasp as she examined the grim sight before her. The blood was still wet, seemingly having been made some time in the last half hour. Instead of lying in a puddle on the ground, the blood was spattered along the ground in streams that pointed to the door.

Applejack and Glitterball glanced at each other nervously before observing their two companions. The guard’s face was pale. He had probably never seen blood outside of the body in such a large quantity before. Rarity was far too mortified to even move. She seemed to be frozen in place as she stared at the crimson stains in front of her. If anyone was going to move forward to investigate the source of the blood, it would have to be the orange mare and the rainbow haired unicorn.

Figuring that she held some sort of responsibility, Glitterball slowly inched forward towards the door. Being careful not to step in the blood, the unicorn shakily placed her hoof on the doorknob. The metal felt cold in her grasp. Taking a nervous glance beside her, she saw Applejack standing beside her with an equally uneasy expression on her face.

Offering a slow nod of reassurance, the orange mare waited for the unicorn to head inside. Glitterball gulped down her apprehensions and forced herself to turn the knob. She cringed as she slowly opened the door and let it glide the rest of the way by itself.

“*Gasp*…!” Glitterball felt a startled outcry die out in her throat as she took a frightened step back. Everyone felt their eyes widen and their blood run cold as they saw what was inside of the room.

The trail of blood spatters grew into a solid trail that led a short ways into the room before settling into a puddle, a puddle that was rapidly spreading out from a pony on the ground. As their eyes darted around the room, the group saw several more bodies strewn around the area.

As much as they didn’t want to believe it, these ponies were definitely the missing guards that they were searching for. All of them were still clad in their armor, but there were numerous gashes and cuts strewn across their bodies. Some of the guards were slumped against walls, while others were strewn across the floor. One body was even lying on top of a broken glass table.

“Ah!” Rarity yelped in fright while scrambling backwards. She slid to the floor once her body hit the wall behind her.

“Oh my gosh!” Applejack exclaimed in shock while holding back the urge to vomit. The ponies felt sick to their stomachs as they stared at the sight before them.

Taking it upon herself to investigate further, Glitterball stepped into the room slowly. The unicorn felt her legs wobbling in refusal of walking forward. She looked around at the bodies of the guards to find out what could have happened to them.

“What… what happened?!” Rarity exclaimed in shock while reluctantly stepping into the room with her friends. She felt safer in the disgusting atmosphere of the room than out in the dark hallway by herself.

Applejack stood over one of the bodies and started to check for signs of life before stopping herself. As much as she wanted to entertain the idea that some of the guards survived, there was no way that any of them were alive. Some of them had deep gashes in their necks, as if they were stabbed and cut repeatedly by some sharp object.

“It looks like they were attacked by something.” Applejack stated uneasily.

Glitterball glanced over to the side of the room and lowered her head sadly. She recognized Sargent Fireside’s body slumped up against the wall with several stab wounds in his chest. His eyes were glazed over, much like the other bodies in the room.

Shifting her glance away from the death scattered around the room, the vested mare noticed a trail of blood leading away from one of the bodies. The blood trail went along the floor until it traveled up to a table. One look at the table revealed the source of all of this carnage. On top of the table, there was a large pair of scissors drenched in blood.

“I think they were… killed… by this.” Glitterball said uncomfortably while pointing to the scissors. She felt herself pause whenever she had to verbally acknowledge the situation around her.

“Do you think that one of the hooded ponies did this?” Applejack asked while eyeing the gruesome weapon and cringing slightly at the thoughts drifting through her head.

“I doubt that any of the regular hoods could have overpowered an entire group of guards like this.” The unicorn guard stated while shaking his head doubtfully.

“Maybe it was Raincloud? Something terrible like this seems right up her alley.” Rarity suggested while contorting her face into an appalled expression. The mere thought of the pale blue pegasus slaughtering the team of guards made her sick.

“No… Ah don’t think it was her. If Raincloud killed them, she would have used her shadow to do it.” Applejack stated while shaking her head uneasily. Not knowing what happened was almost as bad as knowing what happened.

“And I’m pretty sure that Raven Feather and her followers would have used shadow magic instead of scissors.” Glitterball added while briefly picking up the scissors with her magic. She paled as she further examined the bloody blades, eventually deciding to put the disgusting item back on the table.

“Well… who did this?” Rarity asked uncomfortably.

“I don’t know… but we should definitely head back and tell the others.” Glitterball suggested while moving to the other side of the room closer to the door. The others nodded somberly while taking one last look at their fallen comrades. They only hoped that they could prevent anyone else from falling to the same fate.

As she was turning to leave, Rarity’s ears perked up as she heard the harsh sound of metal briefly scraping against metal. She darted her head in the direction of the noise, only to find that the only metal item in view was the pair of scissors. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she almost thought that the blades were spread apart slightly further than they were before.

“What the…?” Rarity muttered in a confused tone while eyeing the scissors with a suspicious leer. The air in the room felt cold and icy, cementing the uncomfortable feeling that the ponies were already feeling.

“What’s wrong Rarity?” Glitterball asked from the other side of the room. Rarity turned to see her friends waiting for her over by the door. The white mare thought for a moment before shrugging.

“Oh it’s nothing… I just thought I heard something is all.” Rarity explained with a brief chuckle at the ridiculous thoughts she was having just a few moments ago. Meanwhile, the three ponies over by the door noticed something terrifying behind the unicorn.

The bloody pair of scissors slowly yet deliberately lifted into the air by themselves and spun around to face Rarity. The blades slowly spread apart and closed together once, causing a bone chilling snip to fill the air before falling into dead silence. Rarity froze up as she heard the noise and saw her friend’s reactions. Even before they started to warn her, she already had an idea that something bad was about to happen.

“Rarity look out!” Applejack shouted while rushing forward.

“*Gasp*!” Rarity spun around and widened her eyes as she saw the scissors pointing at her in the air. The bloody weapon was floating up and down gently, but it almost had a sinister sort of appearance to it, as if it had a mind of its own. Before she could react, the scissors shot forward and sailed straight for her neck.

“AHH!” The white mare screamed and flinched her eyes shut. She suddenly felt Applejack tackling her to the side to get her away from the attacking cutting implement.

“AGH!” Applejack yelled in pain as the scissors clipped across her back as she went to the floor with her friend in her arms. The scissors darted through the air until they paused just above the ground.

The ponies turned their attention to the weapon still floating in the air. The scissors quickly pointed towards the two ponies standing by the door. Glitterball and the unicorn guard immediately prepared themselves to jump out of the way.

The scissors darted forward once again, sailing straight for the vested mare. Glitterball barely managed to duck to the side before the blades impaled themselves into the wall where her body was standing just moments ago.

“Let’s get out of here!” Applejack suggested while getting Rarity up from the floor. The orange mare yelped in pain as the wound on her back sent twinges of suffering through her body. Rarity helped the farm pony walk as fast as she could towards the door.

The ponies’ hearts sank as the scissors pulled themselves out of the wall and floated in the air again. It was like some unseen force wanted them dead, and it didn’t seem like Shadow Mist was the cause of the assault. The scissors were moving much too fast and fluidly for a pony to be holding them.

“Look out!” The unicorn guard yelled as the scissors spun around again to face Applejack and Rarity. The brown stallion quickly lit up his horn and wrapped his magic around the flying weapon in an attempt at restraining it.

The others quickly rushed to the door while the stallion struggled to keep the scissors from moving. They could tell that he was having a hard time of it due to the scissors trying to break free. As soon as the others made it out of the door, the guard slowly followed them while keeping his magical grip on the scissors.

“Come on!” Glitterball said while frantically motioning for the stallion to hurry. She was going to slam the door closed and leave the scissors to rot in the room where they were found.

Suddenly, the scissors stopped jostling around in the air, as if they stopped struggling. The ponies gasped in shock as the bloody blades shot forward, completely ignoring the unicorn’s magic holding it in place.

The blades flew forward at a blinding speed, until they slammed straight into the guard’s chest. The gilded armor piece on his chest cracked from the force of the impact, and the guard sputtered in pain as the scissors pierced his body slightly.

Glitterball and the others watched in horror as the guard was sent to the floor and landed on his back. He yelled in pain as the blades dug themselves in further.

“Oh my gosh!” Glitterball exclaimed while rushing forward to help the stallion. She was forced to recoil when the scissors suddenly pulled themselves out of his body. The ponies watched with wide eyes as the scissors drove themselves back down into the unarmored portion of the stallion’s stomach.

“GAH!” The guard’s outcry of pain was shortened by blood spurting from his mouth. He desperately grasped at the scissors in an attempt at preventing them from doing any more damage.

The ponies heard the faint sound of female laughter echoing through the room and sending a chill down their spines. The scissors effortlessly lifted themselves out of the stallion again before crashing back down in a stabbing motion. The guard cried out in pain as the blades pierced his body again.

The scissors rapidly pulled themselves out and drove themselves back down. It was like someone was sitting on top of the guard holding the scissors and stabbing him with them violently. The force of the stabs sent sprays of blood outwards like a macabre geyser. The wet and gut wrenching sound of blades piercing flesh filled the air as the scissors continued their onslaught.

“AGHH!” The guard screamed in pain as the brutal assault continued. Glitterball and the others backed away fearfully as the stallion’s cries diminished. Before long, the brown unicorn rolled his head to the side and ceased all struggles. Despite the death of the stallion, the scissors kept stabbing into his body violently.

With one last stab of finality, the scissors paused in the dead pony’s body. There was blood everywhere now, with streams of the crimson liquid freely flowing out of the many gashes in the stallion’s corpse. The three mare’s felt their blood running cold as the scissors slowly lifted into the air and pointed towards them menacingly.

“AHH!” Rarity and Applejack screamed in terror while holding each other tightly. Glitterball frantically lit up her horn and wrapped her magic around the door. The unicorn slammed the door shut just as the blades shook in the air. The ponies flinched as they heard the loud sound of the door closing, followed by the solid thud of the scissors slamming into the wooden barrier.

“L-let’s get to the others!” Glitterball stammered fearfully. She wanted to get the two mares along with herself to the safety of her teammates. Brimstoke and the others would be able to act without the hindrance of fear getting in the way.

The ponies bolted as fast as they could down the hallway. They ran like they were being chased by pure evil itself, which likely wasn’t far off from the danger possibly lurking behind them. Whatever Shadow Mist had unleashed in the basement, it was capable of killing, and it thoroughly enjoyed bloodshed. The faint laughter echoed in the mares’ heads. It sounded like whoever was laughing was genuinely enjoying the suffering that they were causing. The group wondered if it was in their mind, but it was far too real to have been imagined.

Finally, the three ponies reached the end of the hallway. Glitterball feverishly reached for the door and turned the handle. Before she could open the door however, the trio heard the laughter from before returning louder than ever. It sounded like it was fading in and out all around them before traveling in front of them.

The sound of loud footsteps came from behind the door. The flashlight on Glitterball’s vest switched on by itself and started flickering violently. Judging from the pause between footsteps, the ponies surmised that something with only two feet was walking around, almost like their human friend Tom.

Glitterball suddenly felt the door handle jostling as something from the other side tried opening it. The unicorn held the door in place while glancing back to her two companions.

“Someone is behind the door…” Glitterball muttered in quiet terror.

“Do you think it’s Tom?” Rarity asked with false optimism.

“No… Glimmer Shine and the others would have called me if they found him… and I doubt he would have made his way around the long way to that locked door at the end of the hall.” Glitterball explained uneasily.

The eerie laughter came again from behind the door, only it sounded much more defined. Before, it had been echoed and distorted, but now it sounded like someone was giggling sinisterly from the other side of the door. The sound of the laughter made the ponies freeze up with fear. Rarity and Applejack started shivering uncontrollably as they listened to the ghostly noise.

Suddenly, Glitter felt the door handle shaking violently. The force on the other side of the door was jostling the door with immense strength. The door handle was banging against the rest of the door due to how much it was being knocked around.

“Glitter… Ah think we should find another way back to the entrance.” Applejack suggested in a nervous tone. She couldn’t even bring herself to emote from how frightened she was.

Glitterball quickly turned the lock on the door and backed away slowly. As if in response to the ponies trying to get away, a loud bang filled the air as the door jolted slightly. The sound made the group jump in fright.

Taking this as a hint to leave, the ponies started running as fast as they could down the hallway. They had to keep moving to evade their new unseen foe. They hoped that they could find another way through the mansion to reach their friends.

Meanwhile, outside of the house, Sunspot was still waiting patiently for her teammates to finish the mission while trying to stay warm. She at least hoped that they would find a way to open the door so she could head into the warm and dry mansion, but her patience was wearing thin.

The rain hadn’t relented one bit since it started, although it hadn’t intensified either. If it wasn’t for the large overhang above the ponies, they would have been much wetter and much more miserable than they already were.

Sunspot shrugged and glanced around at the team of pegasi that she was supposed to be leading. They all seemed to be just as irritated as she was. Most of the stallions were looking down at the floor while trying to stay warm, while others stared off into the torrential downpour that surrounded them.

“Ugh… this is not how I planned on spending the night.” One of the guards groaned uneasily.

“Well maybe if they would hurry up in there, we could head inside.” Another stallion muttered in annoyance while glancing over to Sunspot. It didn’t take much to see that he wasn’t exactly keen on the orange mare’s team taking the lead while he just sat out in the cold.

“Hey… if you have any ideas on getting inside, be my guest.” Sunspot stated while returning the glare that the pegasus was giving her.

“Have you considered breaking a window?” The guard replied in a condescending tone while pointing to the many windows on the side of the mansion. Sunspot hummed with intrigue as she thought further about the idea.

“Well… that might work, but unless you want to volunteer for us to use you as a battering ram, I think we need to find something to break them.” The orange mare said while shifting her eyes around the area to find something to use. Although she had broken into windows more than a couple of times using her own body, the windows here looked a bit too thick to even attempt something like that without the added protection of her suit.

“Aha!” Sunspot exclaimed in revelation while turning her attention to the stump at the side of the house. “We can use the… what the…?” She furrowed her brow in confusion as she laid eyes on the stump. There wasn’t anything sticking out of it, even though she had remembered seeing an axe in place earlier.

“What is it?” One of the guards asked curiously while noting the mare’s confusion.

“I could have sworn that I saw an axe in that stump earlier…” Sunspot muttered while scratching her head in thought. She could barely make out the outline of the notch that the axe would have made in the stump through the rain, but she couldn’t see it clearly enough to confirm her suspicions.

Deciding that her mind must have been playing tricks on her, the pegasus shrugged before turning her attention to the old shed on the edge of the garden. If there was something on the property that could be used to break a window, then it would surely be in there.

After taking a few steps forward, Sunspot paused as she came to the edge of the overhang. She looked up at the pouring rain as it flew past and exploded into the ground. Her body shivered just from the thought of heading out into the rain.

“Ugh… I’m never getting dry am I?” Sunspot asked herself while shaking her head sadly. Steeling her nerves and taking a breath, the orange pegasus walked forward into the rain.

“Gah!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock as she froze in place from the cold rain hitting her directly. She waited for a moment until her body adjusted slightly to the drastic change in temperature. She then slowly shambled forward while trying to keep her muscles from locking up.

The guards watched the freezing mare as she walked over to the garden shed. They were thankful that she was the one to take the initiative and walk out into the cold rain, rather than one of them having to go.

Sunspot paused in front of the wooden structure. The cracked window still offered nothing more than blackness. She shrugged anxiously before rubbing her hooves together and grabbing the door handle. Much to her relief, the door opened immediately.

As she stepped inside, the pegasus switched on her flashlight and shook the excess water from her body. She was thankful to be somewhere relatively dry, even if the roof was leaking slightly.

There wasn’t much in the old shed. Two racks lay on either side of the building to be used for storing tools, though both of them were empty. The only thing that looked like it could serve the orange mare’s purpose was a broken hoe lying on the ground.

“I guess this will do.” Sunspot stated while picking up the wooden handle of the tool. The iron tip had broken off and was lying on the ground beside the handle, but it could only be thrown at the window, so the pegasus decided that the wooden pole would be better.

Heading out of the shed and trotting through the rain, Sunspot tried to get back to the dry front steps as fast as possible. She panted heavily as she stopped in front of the group of guards watching her. They were impressed to see that she had found a tool to be used to break into the house.

“Not bad kid… now let’s hurry up and get in there.” The guard that suggested the idea of window breaking stated with a smirk. Sunspot paused and held out the pole in front of his face. The stallion seemed confused, until he realized what she was implying.

“You can’t be serious…” He muttered in annoyance.

“Hey… it was your idea in the first place. Besides, I think I’ve gotten wet enough for tonight.” Sunspot said with a smirk while handing the pole over to the guard. The stallion reluctantly accepted the tool before turning and walking over to the edge of the steps.

Everyone watched as the pegasus sighed before walking out into the rain. He spread his wings and hovered in the air a short ways to get easier access to the first window he saw. The stallion cracked his neck and prepared to swing at the window as hard as he could.

“Rrrah!” The guard yelled as he swung the pole into the window. A loud crack sounded out as the glass gave way. Much to the surprise of the stallion, the window didn’t completely shatter. A large circular impact zone with many cracks spiraling out from it was clearly visible, but the window held fast.

The pegasus prepared to take another swing at the window. Although it hadn’t shattered, the glass felt like it would give way from another strike. Just before he could swing again however, a peculiar sight made the stallion pause.

“Huh?” He muttered in confusion while backing away from the window. The cracks in the window suddenly started mending themselves. The large crushed area slowly reformed until a pristine pane of glass was left. It was like nothing had even happened.

Frustrated at this strange event, the stallion yelled and smacked the pole into the glass again. Another series of cracks formed around the impact zone, but they immediately started to disappear as well. The group watched anxiously as the pegasus rapidly threw blow after blow at the window in an attempt at breaking it before it could mend.

“*Pant*… *Wheeze*…” The guard dropped the pole and descended to the ground. He slowly walked back up the steps with a defeated expression.

“What the hay was all that about?” Sunspot asked in a bewildered tone. She could see what happened from where she was, but she wasn’t sure if she believed her eyes.

“I don’t know… but that window isn’t going anywhere. It keeps fixing itself… what the heck is going on?” The guard asked with a shocked expression.

The revelation that they couldn’t force entry into the mansion made Sunspot extremely nervous. Now, she had to face the fact that her friends were on their own. She couldn’t help them even if she wanted to.

“I don’t know… I just hope everyone is alright in there.” The orange mare stated uneasily while shifting her gaze to the front door. She wondered what was happening within the walls of the mansion, and whether or not the others were safe.