The hooks of the Entity dig into my flesh, and I grit my teeth into a hard, angry smile. Whatever Twilight Sparkle thinks, I’m starting to enjoy my time here. The bite of the Entity means another Trial, it means another chance to survive. To prove myself in a ring where the only thing that matters is me.

I can’t help but still be a little worried about Aria’s reaction though. That was a little alarming. I figured she was more like me, accepting of the role she’d been given. After all, we aren’t getting out of this place anytime soon. Might as well have a little fun.

Oh well, I’ll find her when I land.

The darkness peels away from me and it leaves me feeling… exposed. I drop to a crouch and survey my surroundings. The fog is thicker here than normal, one of the others might have poured in one of those bottles of tarry blackness. It’s a mixed bag, the heartbeat tells us where the crazy murder hobo of the day is, but I still prefer seeing it before I hear it. On the other hand, the thicker mist does mean that it’s easier to hide, even in the open.

There are ruined walls all around me, half-held-together structures of brick and rotting mortar. One large structure dominates what I presume is the center of the trial realm, a two-story, crumbling edifice. Tempest comes around a corner a moment later and gestures for me to follow, so I latch the Medkit I’d chosen to bring in with me to my belt and move.

“Have you been here before?” I ask quietly as we move through the fog towards a nearby light tower. “I don’t recognize this place.”

“It’s the Crotus Asylum,” Tempest answers gravely. “And it’s Aria’s worst nightmare.”

I get on the generator, doing a quick scan around us to make sure we’re not being approached before giving up on the endeavor and hoping the fog covers our operations.

“Why?” I ask as I wrench away a side plate as quietly as I can and reach in to start reconnecting wires. “She seems pretty even-headed most of the time. What’s the deal with this specific realm?”

Tempest just shakes her head. “It’s not the realm… not exactly.”

I’m about to ask what she means when an ear-piercing, choked scream splits the air. I stop working for a moment, looking around and searching for the hard, fast motions of the Killer. There’s nothing. Another scream splits the air, it sounds… sick.

“What is that thing?” I ask, a little unnerved as I get back to work.

Another round of cylinders fires up as Tempest cranks some internal part into place. “It’s the Nurse. She seems slow, but don’t underestimate her.”

I’m about to answer scathingly when I see a disturbance in the fog. It’s Starlight, she’s fleeing in our direction with a look of terror on her face.

“Scram!” I hiss at Tempest as I back off of the generator and retreat behind some broken stonework. Tempest retreats in the other direction, towards what I assume is the asylum, and presses flush to the wall.

I hear the heartbeat approach. She sounds relatively distant, but Starlight is running like the Killer, the Nurse, is right on her ass. What the hell is she- WOAH!

That scream cracks through the air again and there’s a snap of displaced air as a floating, woman in an old nurse’s outfit erupts into the space directly behind Starlight and swings what looks like a rusty bonesaw hard at her. Starlight ducks and spins hard on her heel, though, managing to sprint right past the Nurse on her left as the murderous weapon cuts through empty air. I can’t help but grin a little.

That was good.

Ballsy, but good.

The nurse turns but staggers for a moment, like clawing at her chest like she’s choking. There’s something about her that’s strange… I can’t put my finger on it. Her mask is a burlap cloth bag wrapped tightly around her face, and faded strands of arctic blue and violet hair spill out of the gaps at the back of her head. The Nurse recovers a moment later and holds out a pale, blue hand. Light spills from the cracks in her flesh and she grips her fingers tight like she’s throttling something and suddenly she’s gone. I see Starlight in the distance and I grimace.

I know what’s going to happen.

The bonesaw falls just as a generator goes online on the other side of the realm. Starlight screams out as the cruel teeth of the saw bite into her back and she bolts away as the nurse raises the saw, staring at it lazily, entranced by the new ruby droplets on it before staggering again to catch her breath.

Still, she’s clearly in no hurry, why should she be? She can blink short distances as far as I can read, but I’d have to watch her more. Tempest is already back on the generator, and close in as well.

“Go to the building,” Tempest says tersely, pointing up at the asylum second floor. “There’s always a generator there and it’s best we get it early, otherwise it becomes easy for her to protect.”

I nod and make a run for the entrance, the Nurse is already drifting away in search of Starlight. I trust Tempest to make a run for her if she gets hooked. The asylum is a run down and ugly building, with holes in the ceiling and shattered windows. I eyeball a few of them, fixing their locations in my memory since they'll probably make good escape routes if I get caught out. Crouching to keep my profile low and hugging against the wall in case the Nurse looks in through the windows, I make my way to the staircase.

It’s in just as bad of a condition as everything else in this place, but I trust whatever dark magic the Entity works to craft these realms to hold my weight, like always. He’s a reliable sort, that Entity.

I get up to the second floor and pad around, looking for the generator and trying not to get too close to the windows, I don’t want the Nurse noticing me. As I weave around some debris, though, I almost smack into Aria’s back.

“Woah, hey Ari’, guess we had the same plan,” I say, as I sidle around her. SHe looks over at me and I notice how sickly and pale she looks.

She moves past me, towards an entrance leading slightly deeper into the upper floor, holding a finger to her mouth. “Ssh, we’re getting out of here now, Sunny, I’m not staying here any longer than I have to.”

I nod, “yeah, that’s kinda the deal in general,” I respond as I follow her in and smile, noticing the generator. “Yahtzee, let’s do this.” I get on a side opposite Aria and start working.

Then we hear another one of those choked screams, and Aria flinches. I hear a part crank out of place but thankfully, Aria’s practiced hands keep it from popping and giving away our position. The scream that follows the Nurse’s cry, though, makes me grimace. Starlight got caught.

Seconds later a generator goes live, the one Tempest and I were originally working on if I’m not wrong. That’s one more, and that means Aria and I have probably got at least a minute of grace while the Nurse investigates that one and scans around for Tempest who, I hope, is long gone.

“So what’s your deal, Ari’?” I ask quietly. “You’re never this skittish.”

“There are only four Killers in the lineup I don’t wanna fight, Red,” Aria says shakily. “For different reasons.”

“Why this one though?”

Aria shakes her head. “I’ve been to this Asylum before, a few times actually. It’s a real place. Most of the realms are. It’s… it was bad. I’ve got some real bad memories, from the real world and this shit hole, when it comes to Crotus Asylum.”

“Huh,” I grunt noncommittally. “I hadn’t realised they were real places, I guess.”

The choked scream and a second of heartbeat is literally our only warning as the Nurse suddenly rips through the air right near me, I scream as I roll away from the generator, it sparks and spits at my sudden egress and I start to sprint away. I barely get two steps before the Nurse’s saw bites into my side and I scream again, spitting blood as I stagger and slam into the wall. I see her stagger again, recovering from whatever magic lets her blink, and I try to run, I’m in a bad place, though. I work around some debris towards the exit but I know it’s not going to be enough.

She’s already on me. She’s-

“LET HER GO!” Aria’s voice cuts through the air and I look back and my blood freezes.

The Nurse is hovering just behind me, inches behind me. Her saw is gripped in a hand that’s white-knuckled and pallid. Her choked breathing is filling my ears. She’s got me dead to rights but… then she turns. Her eyeless visage fixes on Aria and there’s something… else that surrounds her. Like a rage. An uncountable fury seems to animate the Nurse’s frail-looking frame.

Aria is crying. Tears spilling freely from her eyes as she stares back at the Nurse. She glances at me and mouths ‘run’ and then turns back to the Nurse.

“I’m sorry…” Aria says in a soft whisper, “I’m so sorry.”

Then she turns and sprints away and the Nurse screams, this time with more vigor and fury than I’d heard prior. I back-peddle and sprint in the opposite direction as I hear Aria scream in pain. The Nurse caught her, hopefully Aria could lose that creature through some of the blind turns of the Asylum.

I duck behind some debris and pull the Medkit off of my belt, retrieving some of the necessities, including some clean stitching, well, needle and thread technically but it counted. I fix myself up a little shakily, but quickly and move back to the generator that Aria and I had been fixing up. As I get back to work I think about what I just saw.

Aria had distracted the Nurse in a way I’d never seen before. The Killers were single-minded tools of the Entity. Glorified butchers and chefs serving up fresh veal to their hungry master. The Nurse had shown something different though… something almost like recognition. I wondered if the Wraith recognised me. If they would all start to recognise me. Was that it? Was it just that Aria was a familiar and hated enemy?

No, there was something else there. Aria had apologised. Not to Sunset, no, Aria had been apologising to the Nurse.

But… why?

I crank the last piece into place and the generator roars to life. I move to the widows talk around the edge of the building and look down, scanning for movement. I see it, or them I should say, Aria is darting through the blind corners of a long section of broken buildings clutching a bleeding wound on her arm. The Nurse is drifting around behind her, barely keeping up, and I can see what Tempest meant when she warned me not to underestimate her.

From a distant view, she looks slow and almost ponderous.

Her speed isn’t her movement, though. It’s her ability to simply be there. And Aria is about to get caught. I can see her path, there’s only one way for her to go and it involves cutting through the open in plain view of the Nurse. I drop down from the second floor, hissing as I hit the ground hard. I recover my footing, though, just as Aria makes a break for it, I see the Nurse raise her hand, the sickly light spilling from her palm as she charges her sorcerous movement. I’ll only have one chance. I put on a burst of speed, sprint forward, banking on my predictive ability.

The Nurse vanishes and I dive in behind Aria just as she reappears swinging. I take the hit and scream as the brittle, rusty teeth rip through my flesh, spilling a spray of blood across the ground. The Nurse screeched raspily and shook the blood from her saw before staggering and gasping. Aria sprinted into the building, and I went back to the loop she’d vacated.

“Hey! Chokey!” I shout back at her. “Come get me!” I dive into the maze, glancing back to track her movement.

She’s not following, she’s just staring after me and I get a tingle up my spine. It almost feels like she knows who I am. She’s not following. The Nurse turns and fixes her faceless burlap features on the asylum, seeming to measure with her gaze where she needs to go. Then she holds out her hand. Lights the little light in her palm.

Then she screams.

Then Aria screams.

“Why,” I whisper. “Why won’t she chase me?”

I run around the Asylum, scanning the area, I see them, Aria had made it almost to the other side before the Nurse caught her. Aria is struggling feebly, trying to break the grip of the killer. It’s pointless though. There’s a hook right there. Right next to the Asylum. There’s several posted around the circumference of the decrepit building actually. I brace myself. I hate this part.

Aria screams again as she’s brutally impaled on the hook. A scream that’s drowned out by the remaining generators exploding into luminous life. The Exit doors growl out their electronic screech as they go fully active and the Nurse turns, fury pulsing off of her like waves.

I duck down as she spins in place, floating idly above the decaying grass, searching with her red-stained gaze. Then she screams and vanishes.

I run for the hook. It takes the Nurse time to recover from a blink. Even if she thinks to come immediately back I’ll have enough time to pull Aria from the brutal spike. I get under her and brace her kicking feet against my shoulders.

“Deep breath, Ari’ time to go!” I say, straining as I heave upwards. Aria groans in pain as our dual efforts tear her free of the Entity’s feeding spike. “Let’s go!” I hiss.

Aria coughs up a gob of phlegm and blood but nods and we sprint for the nearest exit. I can hear the flanged metallic groaning of the rusty mechanisms desperately powering the doors. I swivel around as we run, keeping an eye out for the Nurse. I come around the corner to see Starlight holding down the lever.

“C’mon you two!” Star shouts, gesturing with one hand while keeping the switch pinned with the other. “Tempest is at the other gate, get your asses over here.”

The old metal door shrieks as it opens, the gears turning to pry the heavy slats of steel to one side. We’re out.

We made it.

The Nurse screams.

I spin on my heel. Aria was behind me.

WHY WAS SHE BEHIND ME?!

I screwed up. It’s basic, take a hit for the hurt one. Stupid, stupid Sunset! I turn just in time to see the Nurse drive her bonesaw hard into Aria’s collarbone and drive her to the ground. I slip to the side, behind one of the old red-brick pillars. She’ll pick Aria up. I might be able to shadow her and… and…

“What the fuck is she doing?” I whisper, horrified.

The Nurse brutally flips Aria over, and throws her bonesaw down.

“I’m sorry,” Aria sobs, bringing her hands up, flailing weakly to try and fend off the Nurse. “I’m so, so sorry!”

Knocking Aria's hands away, the Nurse fixes her own hands around Aria’s throat and grips hard. Aria spasms, grabbing at something. Anything. Her thrashing grip finally finds the Nurse’s mask, yanking and pulling. More blue and violet hair falls free and a moment later the mask comes off, the burlap falls to the ground and my jaw drops with it.

I know her face.

I know her name.

Sonata. Dusk.

She’s dead… she looks dead. The ditzy siren sister’s face is pallid and wan, her lips cracked and parched. Every breath she takes is a wheezing, croaking, guttural heave of air. Her arms are strong though. Her eyes are wide and burning with hate and killing glee. They are bright with madness. Sonata, or whatever is left of her, grips Aria’s throat hard and squeezes. Weezing over her dying sister, the softest and silliest siren shakes Aria by the throat, gripping and squeezing and throttling.

Through it all Aria wheezes out the words. “I’m sorry. I l-love you, I’m s-sor-ry…”

There’s a sickening CRACK.

I let out a cry and sprint out of the Trial grounds. Far away from the wheezing, heaving thing that was once Sonata Dusk, who I leave sitting, crouched over her sister whose head was twisted at an odd angle, and whose last breath was croaking out of her like a stridor.

I stumble out of the Fog and to the ground by the campfire, breathing hard and staring into the dancing flames. What had I just seen? Sonata Dusk was a Killer? One of the monsters that tormented us? That fed the Entity?

Tempest and Starlight were both sitting by the fire looking somber

“Alright, you soggy, black, stain!” I scream as I shake free of the shock. “Time’s up! Give her back!” I glare up at the roiling black clouds in the sky and wait, tapping my foot.

I’m not even sure what I’m waiting for, but after a moment of tension, a thunderclap resounds through the air and I see the faint, foggy outline of a humanoid figure drift own from the sky in a translucent cradle of claws and spines. I move under her before any of the others can even get up and moment Aria resolves fully she drops into my arms. I cradle her close, feeling her shudder in familiar nightmares.

“Well?” I glare back at my ‘companions’ by the campfire. “What the fuck was that?”

Tempest lets out a weary breath, and gestures for me to sit down. I nod and carry Aria over to where Tempest directed, and take a seat. Aria is collapsed against me, shaking and still locked in the throes of the Entity’s mind-fuckery. The leftovers of its feeding process, I gather.

“What you saw…” Tempest starts, trailing off as she scrapes for the words. “You saw what happens when a Survivor truly loses hope.” Starlight Glimmer and Sour Sweet both nod in response, looking sad. “Sonata was not the first to succumb, and will not be the last. It’s why it is so crucial for us to keep our hope alive. If we don’t…”

“We risk becoming the Killer,” I finish, feeling a little hollow at the idea. “That’s… so will Spruce…?”

Tempest just shrugs. “I don’t know, chica, it doesn’t always happen. Some of us are taken and never come back, others… others do but they come back like poor Sonata; twisted and hungry just like their new master.”

I can’t do anything but nod again. “So that’s why you thought I might be one of the Entity’s tricks, huh?” I say to Starlight, who flinches but nods. “Because you already knew full well that the Entity was capable of twisting one of us into a murderous Killer.”

“Pretty much,” Starlight responds glumly. “Sorry… about that, by the way. I get… really stubborn and scared easily. I latch onto something and it’s like my fear just spins out of control. I… I don’t think you are anymore, I just didn’t know how to say it. I’m not good at apologies and I’m even worse at admitting I was wrong.”

“Yeah…” I open my mouth to accept the apology, to do what I’m supposed to do but… “Keep thinking that then, I don’t give a damn either way.”

All three of them look pained at my response, but Tempest finally speaks up. “Chica… Sonata wasn’t the only one, before the sisters arrived here, before Sweet and L’strella, I was taken with… someone else.”

“Have I met them?” I ask with a grim smile.

Tempest nods.

“Before this place, before she met me… she was a quiet, kind girl,” Tempest explains softly, “We were… very close. Some of mi familia thought we were too close. They were… not wrong. We didn’t care though, we were happy with each other.”

“What was her name?” I asked, feeling some of my now familiar anger ebbing a little.

Tempest sighs and hangs her head. “Her name was Summer Wind, we were in a gang together in Las Pegasus, we did… a lot of bad things to a lot of people. One day, our boss bit off more than he could chew.”

“Storm was always a boisterous, loud, and obnoxious man, but he was smart,” Tempest scowled then shook her head. “No, not smart, clever would be a better way to describe him. He knew who to hit and where and how hard. He knew a good mark from a bad, but he was greedy. He overreached and… someone died who shouldn’t have.”

Tempest was a gangbanger? I almost laugh. It fit, actually. She has the build, the reflexes, it definitely explains her weird collection of seemingly unrelated skills and knowledge. So… gangbanger and murderer?

“You killed someone?” I ask slowly.

“I’ve killed several people,” Tempest says darkly. “We had several rival gangs, shoot-outs weren’t uncommon. Drive-bys, turf wars, it happens. Not everywhere is as peaceful as Canterlot. The Barrio’s of Las Pegasus aren’t a good place to grow up.”

I’m not sure how I feel about that but I guess, here, it doesn’t really matter does it. “That’s fair, can’t blame you, I should have more than a couple ‘attempted murder’ charges on my own rap sheet. So what happened?”

Tempest raises an eyebrow but doesn’t pursue the question, instead she answers. “Storm marked us for a hit on an upscale bank on the edge of our turf; said he had an inside guy. We’d be rolling in it for weeks if we pulled it off. We were all amped to hit a spot like that. Show the gringos their little oases near our territory weren’t safe. Show them they weren’t welcome.”

“I guess it went wrong?” I say with a dark expression, and Tempest’s expression goes hollow.

“The hit went smoothly, actually,” Tempest says, her voice going low. “We rolled up, opened fire, aiming high to get heads down, and bolted in. Storm’s guy was a scummy, short man who worked there, he passed the keys and we got the cash. Problem was… in that first volley… we hit someone.”

Hanging her head between her tucked legs, Tempest lets out a sigh. “It could’ve been any of us, aiming a little too low maybe. Or maybe it was just an unlucky ricochet or something. Didn’t matter, we killed the son of a prominent politician and suddenly we were public enemy number one. A day later a SWAT brigade stormed our little headquarters. Whoever was at the front didn’t have the good sense to give up and opened fire.”

I grimace. “And it turned into a bloodbath, huh?

“Si, a massacre,” Tempest’s eyes became distant and haunted. “Summer and I, we ran, fired behind us, hid, but there was no way out. We were cornered in our room, I kissed her, told her not to look, then… then I heard the thunder.”

“The Entity,” I scowl, I get it though, they were probably the last ones alive, they fulfilled it’s esoteric requirements. It needed them to be alone, in despair, ready to die. “So… who is she?”

“The Hag,” Tempest says. “Summer grew up in the bayous of New Chevalean, moved to Las Pegasus to make it big and get away from her empty little town with its judgmental persecution. I fell in love with her accent and… it was my fault she ended up in the Kings in the first place. Even if the rest of mi familia thought it was odd, she was my jeina, my girl, and no one messed with her. But now she’s worse than dead.”

“So, are all of them… all of the Killers…?” I trail off, not really knowing how to finish that, but Tempest just shrugs.

“Probablamente, chica, but they aren’t anyone I know,” Tempest says, “but now… we have a new problem.”

“Sonata never hunts alone,” Aria’s voice comes from my arms and I look down. She looks worn out and haggard, but she still has the fire in her eyes that I admire as she pulls herself up. “I didn’t come here with one sister, I came with two, and wherever Sonata goes…”

The peal of thunder rips through the air and Aria clenches her eyes shut. “Here she comes… big sis…”

I hear something… not a scream… no, it's…

What is that?

La-la la-la la-la-la~