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Silent Ponyville, The Crimson Bond

by RaisingShad0ws

Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Lost Happiness

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Silent Ponyville: The Crimson Bond



Chapter 1: Lost Happiness

WARNING: This story is a grimdark horror survival scenario, with extreme amounts of violence. This story is also an Alternate Universe to another fan fiction that has already been completed: Silent Ponyville. This Story also has a few completely Original Characters, and will explain everything as time goes on. Any one who does not like this sort of story should please go view something else for their own safety.

----

“Hello?” Raze called out, staring into the dense fog that carried off into the distance. Something in the pit of his stomach warned him that this was no place to be, but he knew that there wasn’t too much else for him to do. “Heeeeellllloooooo? Is anypony out there?” He asked, looking around and hearing nothing but deafening silence.

He shivered, the temperature of the area had gotten significantly colder as he got his bearings and made it so that Raze could see his own breath. Raze didn’t pay it any attention as he was more focused on getting his bearings more than the surrounding area. After looking around and seeing the dense fog surrounding him on all sides, Raze took a deep breath and calmed down.

“Easy there... This isn’t your first time being in a place with heavy fog.” Raze said to himself. He stamped his hooves, taking a closer look at his surroundings before looking skyward. “This fog kinda makes me wish that I learned how to fly.” He said, sighing slightly. “Oh well; I’m not going to find anything by just standing around and not doing a thing.” He said before lifting up his prosthetic hoof and spinning around in a circle with his eyes closed. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and watched as his prosthetic hoof pointed in a random direction and nodded. “All right, it looks like we have a winner.” He said, walking forward.

As Raze quietly wandered through the fog, he could see shadows and dark blobs of what seemed to be ponies off in the distance in directions that he wasn’t heading. He stopped a few times, tensing up out of instinct as they all seemed to run off and away from Raze. What’s their problem? Raze thought, relaxing a little before pressing onward. He could hear some growling from the shapes in the distance, but it wasn’t loud enough to discern where they were or if they were an immediate threat to his safety. But that was one on the many growing list of concerns that he had to address later.

It wasn’t long until Raze stumbled across something that resembled a structure, well at least one that had seen better days. In front of him, off to either side, were a pair of buildings that were built with the same design scheme to Ponyville. In fact, they looked exactly like the buildings that led to the Library from the Mayor’s Office in Ponyville with the exception that the windows and doors were boarded shut. He could see what was left of a sign above and between both buildings, but it was so worn out and faded with age that Raze couldn’t tell what it said.

“Now what in Equestria would make a pony board up their house?” Raze asked, walking over to the building on his right and looking it over. He couldn’t see anything from beyond the boards over one of the windows, and the door was also a no-go as it too was completely shut. As Raze turned to leave, he noticed that the thing he thought was a sign was actually a wall of what remained of a room bridge that connected the two houses. He looked to where the wall connected the pair of houses and saw that both sides were completely boarded shut. He looked along the ground and saw that there wasn’t a sign of any kind of debris and scratched his mane with his hoof.

“Where’s the rest of it?” Raze asked to no one in particular. “There’d be some kind of debris or something, wouldn’t there?” He said, looking around and not seeing anything that indicated that a connector would even be there. After a few moments he shrugged and continued to walk down the street.

There was a certain chilling factor to actually seeing the buildings on either side of the street that he was walking on as opposed to walking in the fog. Like the first two buildings that he came across every building had some signs of damage and age, but they also had boarded their windows and doors up and even some went so far as to put barbed wire fencing around their front stoops to keep intruders away. Raze could see that there were several burned out holes in the straw roofs that made the buildings look like the ones back in Ponyville, but they were more intimidating than the originals.

Raze silently wandered into an intersection, stopping when he got to the middle. He looked to either side of him, and shook his head. I don’t have too much of a choice. Raze thought as he stared at a huge black mass in the fog in front of him. That direction looks too dangerous for now. And I don’t think that it would be too smart to keep going that way. He thought, turning to his left. It doesn’t look like I can go that way either. He thought, staring at a huge and crudely constructed wall that went to both ends of the intersection. He felt that there was something over on the other side of the wall, but it seemed to him that going that way was more of asking for trouble than what it was worth.

Raze turned away from the wall and didn’t see anything that immediately looked dangerous down the path directly behind him, and ultimately decided that it was the safest route. He shivered a little before beginning to move, heading down the path before him. Man, this had better be worth it. Raze thought, calmly walking into the fog. As he started to walk down the path on the intersecting street, he listened closely as he heard something that threw him for a loop. “That can’t be... Can it?” Raze thought, stopping as he heard the sounds of young foals laughing together. It was faint but he could hear plenty of it, and he could hear it clearer than the growling that he heard earlier.

Raze’s pace quickened. There can’t be foals here? He thought, continuing to head down the street as a building loomed in front of him in the fog. Raze could hear that the laughter was getting louder as he approached, and he could also see that the building he was running towards didn’t look like something a pony would see in Ponyville. Raze immediately stopped running, and stared in stunned disbelief as the building came into complete focus.

It stood tall, three stories at Raze’s best guess, and had the looks of a building in Canterlot more than anything else. The small front walk of the building was in significant disrepair as it swept down into a front lawn that made it look more like an insane asylum than anything Raze had seen. The roof appeared to be a once beautiful shade of purple, but was in such a state that made it look more like a brighter shade of black than anything else. Raze could see that several parts of a few decorative columns were both fallen and shattered on the ground, or missing all together. The front lawn was almost devoid of life, looking like a desert where things went to die than a place for foals to play. Sitting in the middle of the front lawn was a sign that would have told anypony what building stood there, but was also in a heavy state of misuse like the rest of the building.

“All right!” Raze snapped in spite of himself. “What in the hay is going on around here?” He asked, not receiving a response. He could still hear the sounds of foal’s laughing, but he couldn’t see any foals around the front of the building. He took a nervous step forward, continuing to look for a sign of any foals as he advanced on to the front lawn. This building can’t be here. Raze thought, keeping his guard up all the while. I mean it should be-

Raze immediately looked up, hearing a quiet giggle from a foal that sat on the top steps of the building. The foal was a similar coloration to the one Raze had seen in his dream several nights ago, a pale white coat with a bright green mane and tail. Raze had to rub his eyes several times as he could clearly see through the foal. The foal smiled at Raze, before turning its back away from him and walking through the door it stood in front of. “Wait don’t-” Raze shouted, stopping in mid-sentence as the foal’s tail disappeared on the other side of the door. He stared at the building nervously before shaking him self.

“What in the buck am I getting so nervous for?” Raze snapped, calming down. He fumed a little, walking up to the front door of the building and snorting. “I’ve been in scarier places than this before.” He snapped, using his claw to grab the door handle and fling it open. A blast of stale warm air slammed into his face like a gust of wind, causing him to recoil for a split-second before staring into the dark halls that were presented in front of him.

Raze heard another giggle of a foal from within the building and tensed up, walking over the threshold of the door and into the darkness in front of him. He closed the door quickly, feeling a wave of warm, but dry air wash over his body and reinvigorate him to the core. That feels better. He thought, looking around the pitch-black hallway before shaking his head. After a few moments, Raze concentrated and held out a hoof before making a small fireball pop out onto it. The light of the fireball filled only a small portion of where he was standing, it was nothing to the light that Manson and Twilight produced with their magic, but it was better than nothing.

From what Raze could see in the light, the inside of the building was in just as bad a shape as it was on the outside. The tile floor was colored a dark and grimy brown, and seemed to look like something or somepony was killed and dragged off somewhere. There were small pages of paper still attached to the walls, some with hardly visible writing and others with faded images. He could see small lantern posts where lights would be if electricity went to power the building, and could see a doorway that led into an opened room. I wonder what’s in there. Raze thought, cautiously walking into the room.

The room itself had the same state of disrepair as the hallway, the tile floor a darker shade of brown while the walls were a pale white. Raze could see what was left of the receptionist’s desk on the side of the room that was furthest away from him. As Raze walked closer to the desk, he could see a small lantern and a rectangular object resting on its surface. He walked closer, gently picking up the lantern with his mouth and placing the fireball inside. Great, I have a good source of light but I can’t expect to fight with it in my mouth. Raze thought, looking around the desk. After a few moments Raze found a decently sized piece of rope dangling out of one of the drawers in the desk. This’ll work. Raze thought, setting the lantern back down on the desk and grabbing the rope with his prosthetic hoof.

After several failed attempts of trying to attach the rope to the lantern, Raze managed to get it worked in such a way that he could wear it like a necklace. After throwing the rope with the lantern over his neck, Raze took a second look at the rectangular object. It looked like one of those speakers that were littered throughout the Manehatten Police Department. He could also see a small knob underneath the speaker on the bottom side of the box, and a clip on the bottom end of the box. He picked up the box suspiciously and flipped it over with his prosthetic hoof. Is this a radio? He thought, standing the box on the bottom end and looked it over. After a few seconds, he grabbed it with his hoof. Using the claws on his prosthetic hoof, Raze twisted the knob on the top half of the box and listened in for a sound. He waited patiently for a few moments, and cringed as the sounds of loud and screeching static fuzz echoed throughout the room. He jumped, scrunching his face as he turned the knob back down and listened down as the screeching fuzz died down to less than a dull roar.

As Raze continued to examine the strange device, a low roar emanated from the only other doorway in the room. Raze clipped the radio to one of the pockets in his jacket and turned, grabbing his claymore and unsheathing it nervously. Raze walked towards the source of the sound, hearing the static fuzz on the radio get louder and even more furious as he entered the room. The room inside looked just like a standard office, if a standard office were to the point of being unsafe for ponies to work inside due to the rank smell, with a pair of empty bookshelves standing haphazardly behind what appeared to be the remains of a pony sitting in a chair, but that wasn’t what got Raze’s attention.

Great, more of you guys. Raze groaned mentally watching as another pony, similar to the ones that destroyed his apartment, relatively ignored him and continued to eat the carcass. Raze did his best to step backwards without being seen, but froze as the pony stopped and immediately wheeled around on him. Raze could see the blood and flesh that dribbled from its mouth as the pony began its advance on him, closing the distance in seconds. Raze had barely enough time to react, moving to block as the pony reeled back and brought its blades down onto Raze’s sword. Both combatants held their positions for a few moments, before Raze shoved the pony backwards and onto the floor.

Raze immediately charged forward, doing his best to compensate for the lantern dangling around his neck, and brought the blade down on the pony in its exposed gash. The pony let out a fierce roar as Raze removed the blade from his adversary and watched as it let out another croak before lying still. As Raze sheathed his claymore, he could hear the static fuzz from the radio fall silent and nodded calmly. Oh, that’s cool. I’m actually glad I picked this up. Raze thought, looking at the radio closely as it fell completely silent. He then turned to the corpse of the pony and shook his head. Poor bastard... He didn’t have a chance. Raze thought, looking over the corpse. Against all of the blood that slowly oozed out of his wounds, Raze could see that the pony had a stone gray coat with a red mane and tail. Raze could also see that the Seal of the Three Times was emblazoned in red in the place of where a horn would be. Raze continued looking over the body and blinked, seeing a crumpled piece of paper clenched in between one of its hooves and the hoof rest of the chair. “What’s this?” Raze asked, using his prosthetic hoof to grab the paper. After smoothing it out, it read:

My love, my dearest love, I have searched high and low through this accursed town and have not had any assistance to your location except your letter. I have however, a better understanding to how this town works and why some things are the way they are.

First, the life of our heartbeats will guide us through the darkness. It is a signal that guides the weary onto the path of joy and through the sea of despair.

Second, the sounds of the dangers that roam this place are not heard by the normal ear. However, the breath of our love shall reveal the harshness of the storm.

And finally, the minions of hate that linger here are as restless as the tides. The strength and forces of Equestria pale in comparison to our combined love, and are necessary to survive in this place.

I am sorry my darling, I was not able to find you. It pains me to say this as I draw upon the last few breaths of life. You were the center of my galaxy, the sun to my moon, and with out you-

Raze blinked, staring at the bottom of the page as it was completely covered in blood. Is it a riddle? He thought, looking at the paper and shaking his head. “If it is, it’s not a very good one.” He said, looking over the paper again before setting it back down on the corpse. He took a closer look around the room and stopped at the bookshelf. In the middle shelf he could see another piece of paper, neatly folded up and surprisingly free of any blood that seemed to splatter throughout the room. After grabbing the piece of paper with his prosthetic hoof and unfolding it with his other, Raze was actually staring at what appeared to be a map of the area. He had to close his eyes and reopen them at least twice as the top of the map read in bold black letters: “Canterlot Elementary School First Floor.”

Raze stared at the title for a few moments before shaking his head. So this building is supposed to be the school I went to... He thought, looking around the room a bit. He quietly walked back into the first room where he found the radio and the lantern and nodded. It really takes me back though. Especially back to before then...

----

-Twelve Years ago-

A loud trumpet blasted out from the skies as Princess Celestia’s golden Chariot descended. A huge crowd of ponies were gathered for her arrival, and the fillies that were outside at the front of Canterlot’s finest Elementary School did their best to not stare in awe as she dismounted the chariot.

“Presenting her Royal Highness of the Dawn, Princess Celestia!” One of the soldiers that didn’t pull her chariot declared, bowing low as the Princess passed him. Everypony followed suit, some coming close to kissing the pavement as she stopped several feet away from the chariot.

“Holodwyn?” Princess Celestia asked turning her head and seeing a sea foam green pegasus colt curled up in a ball in the chariot. “Holodwyn, what’s the matter?” She asked, turning right around and walking to the chariot.

“.....” The colt mumbled, shuddering a little as he shook his head.

“Holodwyn what’s the matter?” Princess Celestia asked gingerly, walking back over to the chariot and nuzzling the colt gently.

“The ride was too scary mommy....” The little colt answered, looking back up to the Princess with beady eyes.

“Was it really that bad?” She asked gently, watching the colt nod. “Well how about this, we can walk back home when we’re done here. Is that okay with you?”

The colt smiled, nodding at her. “You promise to stay with me?” He asked. “I don’t want to be all alone.”

“And why would you think that I would leave you all alone?” Princess Celestia asked, eyeing the colt curiously. “You know that I love you, and I will always be there for you no matter what you do.” She said, watching the colt’s face beam as he got off of the chariot. “Now come on, let’s go meet some new friends.” She said encouragingly as they both turned to face the crowd.

----

Raze took a deep breath, looking at his surroundings. “Wow, this place looks like Nightmare Moon had a field day with it.” Raze said finally before folding the map up and looking around. He stepped out into the hallway and began walking down the hall. He stopped only once, hearing the sounds of foals running down the hallways upstairs and shook his head. I heard that this place got closed for a while... But why would foals be here? Especially with those extremely dangerous things out. He turned to the left and walked over to a door that led into a classroom. He could see several foals inside the room, dancing and wrestling with each other, and tried to go in the room only to find that the door handle wouldn’t turn. He focused his attention on the door and groaned as it refused to move no matter how he wiggled it. Horsefeathers... He growled; looking back into the window and shaking his head as the foals were no longer there.

“Where in the hay...” Raze said, scanning the empty classroom for any sign of the foals. There wasn’t a desk for them to hide under, or any form of table that would serve the same purpose. The bookshelves also weren’t any good for hiding as there wasn’t anything shielding the shelves themselves, and there wasn’t anything on the saddle bag rack for the foals to hide in or behind. Foals don’t disappear on their own. Raze thought, looking up from the door as he heard a small giggle from his right.

Raze turned and saw the foal from earlier watching him closely. “Hey there little one, what are you doing in a place like this?” He asked, watching the foal giggle again before turning around and running off. Raze immediately gave chase, following the little foal climb up a flight of stairs and pass through another door that led to the upper floors. He followed the foal, staring at the door and grabbing the knob. Hmm... This doesn’t seem to be jammed... Raze thought, staring at the relatively new doorknob and giving it a twist. After a few attempts to turn the knob on the door, and ultimately not making it move, Raze snorted. Darn, it looks like I need a key. He thought, seeing a key hole in the center of the door knob. He turned away from the door, descending the reasonably aged stairs back down to the first floor and began to look around. There was a hallway to his left that seemed to look more dangerous than the hallway he was standing in.

Raze stood in relative silence, trying to figure out what to do until he heard an extremely loud flush coming from further down the hallway. Raze headed towards the sound, passing another empty classroom in the process as he rounded the corner and stopped at a pair of restroom doors that had obviously seen better days. The door on his right had the picture of a stallion, but the door looked like it was going to fall apart if he touched it in the wrong way. The door on his left was in just as bad a shape, with the picture of a mare barely clinging on to the surface of the door while it took on a warped shape as water leaked out from underneath the door and formed a puddle in the floor. Raze walked forward and knocked on the door with a hoof, hearing the sound of flushing again.

“It’s occupied.” A voice said on the other side.

“Excuse me?” Raze asked.

“I said that it’s occupied. You can wait until I’m done in here.” The voice repeated, in a commanding tone.

Raze scratched his head with his prosthetic hoof. “Excuse me, but are you the only one here?” He asked, hearing the sounds of a hoof stamping on the ground.

“Ugh... Do you mind?” The voice snapped, the sound of another toilet in the bathroom being flushed started ringing Raze’s ears. “Didn’t your parents teach you that it’s impolite to talk to a mare when they’re doing their business? Sheesh, some ponies...”

Raze clenched his teeth. “I’m sorry, but I’m actually trying to figure out what happened here.” He said in his best polite voice.

“Yeah, and I’m trying to use the restroom here.” The voice answered. “I can’t do two things at once, so buck off buddy.”

Raze was about to say something else before deeming that it wasn’t appropriate. He turned away from the bathrooms and headed back further down the hall. What a... Ooooh that was really messed up... He fumed, looking down both ends of the hall. Raze turned to his left, hearing the splitting sounds of static that began to buzz on his radio. Raze tensed up, his eyes darting every which way as he calmly advanced down the hallway. The buzzing was low, and as he continued to head down the new path the radio slowly fell silent. That’s strange... Raze thought, looking down at the radio calmly. There has to be something extremely dangerous here, but why did the radio shut off? He said mentally, looking around and seeing several classroom doors on either side of him. Directly in front of Raze was a sign that indicated where the door to the Gym would have been but the doorway was bricked off letting him know that he couldn’t go that way.

“All right, let’s try door number one.” Raze muttered, walking to the classroom door that was closest to the gym. After grabbing the doorknob with his prosthetic hoof and giving it a twist, Raze was unable to move the doorknob beyond its staring position let alone open the door. He began pushing on the door several times, but realized that the door wasn’t going anywhere and stopped messing with it. Well, that’s one down and two to go. He thought, doing an about face on the door and walking over to the other two. After testing both doors and getting the same results, Raze snorted. Well that got me no where. He thought, turning back around and heading down the hallway.

Raze immediately got on his guard as he entered the intersection as the static fuzz began blaring from the radio. He drew his claymore and continued to advance as the fuzz began to blare to the point where anything in the school building could hear it. There’s something here... Raze thought, holding his claymore level and taking several nervous steps forward. Off to his right he could hear the sounds of some ponies having a fight and stared at the solid wall next to him. Just barely from behind the wall paper, Raze could see the outline of a door with a window and could see light that filtered through it. He advanced cautiously, resheathing his claymore and pressing himself flat against the wall. He couldn’t hear anything being said, but could hear the dull sounds of metal scraping the tile floor and the sounds of hoof steps that sounded extremely labor intensive.

What is that? Raze thought, continuing to listen to the sound as it got closer. His radio was quite literally going berserk, rapidly emitting sounds and fuzz as the grinding and hoof steps got closer. And closer. And closer. And closer. After a few moments, Raze could have sworn that the sound of the metal grinding had stopped before realizing what was going on. With the speed of a lightning bolt, Raze jumped away from the wall, watching as a crooked and curved blade forced itself through the door with a shattering, “THWACK.” Raze could see that the end of the blade was heavily worn and looked as though it had seen better days, but it was the fact that it was stuck about a half foot outwards to where he was standing and covered in fresh blood that made him wary. He could hear a deep almost gurgling sound come from the other side of the wall as the blade was dragged back into the room, and saw a piercing red eye in the light glare maliciously at him from the hole the blade made with the light of his lantern.

Raze knew that whatever was on the other side of that wall wanted him dead, and immediately turned away from the gaze of the eye and ran further down into the corridor. After stopping dead at another boarded off door in front of him, Raze turned to the right and made for the door faster than a wild fire and opened it quickly. After bolting into the room and slamming the door shut, Raze slid down the door and began breathing hard. He stopped, as he heard the dull sounds of hoof steps of whatever was in that room and the grinding of the metal blade against the floor. Raze immediately moved away from the door as the sounds of the grinding stopped and flung himself to the other side of the room as nearly half of the door exploded when the tremendous blade crashed through it. Raze knew that whatever this pony was, reasonable was far from it. He could see a pair of heavy, black iron horse shoes stand cold from underneath an all black cloak that covered most of the ponies features. He could see the end of what appeared to be a gray tail sit calmly from underneath the cloak. Raze nearly gagged from the smell of fresh blood that emanated from the creature, and seeing what appeared to be the end of a griffon-made double-bladed scythe rest nonchalantly on the creature’s shoulder, made it seem more like a monster than what it really was.

Raze and the pony, if you could call it that, remained where they were for a tense few moments. Raze never made a sound he knew that one wrong move would be the end of his life, and yet at the same time the scythe that the creature had seemed to be positioned in such a way that he could at least try to do some damage before the end. After another minute of silence the creature turned and slowly walked away, dragging its scythe with it.

The static of the radio died down as the creature’s hoof steps seemingly disappeared. Raze didn’t dare move however. His body trembled sure he’s stared at undead dragons and monstrous demons from the abyss itself, but even when they came to mind there was always a way out of it. That thing was carrying a scythe. Raze thought, continuing to tremble as he set the lantern off of his chest. Sure, I have a claymore but that thing had way more reach on me than I did on it. He thought, wiping the sweat from his brow before staring at his hooves. Whatever angle that Raze played in his head, it would always wind up with him lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood. Griffon steel was the best kind of steel in all of Equestria, and those who knew how to wield scythes were nearly doubly effective on the battlefield, more so than the Princess’s Personal Knights and Advanced Guard.

Raze got to his hooves and examined the room that he tucked into. It was extremely small not the best of places for him to fight, but it wasn’t the best place to be swinging a full-sized scythe either. He also had to contend with the fact that there was a small desk in the way. Raze could have shoved the desk into the pony and used it as a diversion to escape, but to where? There wasn’t any place else to go, and the pony would have came after him and eventually have found him. There was the other side of the school; but there was the possibility that there would have been others that were allies to the pony, and he could have been walking right into a situation to where he would have been outnumbered. And just fighting the pony would have been a bad idea even if it didn’t have the scythe in the first place; the boots were an indication that it was completely covered in armor and appeared to not take defeat for an answer.

There was the door on his right though but, much to Raze’s dismay as he got up to check it, it was completely and totally jammed. There really wasn’t a way out of that situation... He thought, lowering his hoof and falling slightly. I was going to die, and there wasn’t a damn thing that I could do about it... Raze looked back outside and saw a part of the trail of blood that led to the room he now stood in. I guess he knew that too. Raze thought, looking quietly at the bits of shrapnel that were scattered throughout the halls. Raze wanted to say something, to scream or shout or do something to vent but couldn’t find anything. His life was spared by some form of principal or honor code or something that the pony had.

Raze ran one of his hooves through his mane. No, I can’t think like that. He thought, walking to the remains of the door. After touching it with one of his hooves, Raze stepped back as it fell to the ground with a loud thunk. Raze then carefully looked out into the hall and checked to make sure that the coast was clear. The radio at his side was silent as he checked it before walking cautiously out into the hall. Raze breathed a sigh of relief and stared at the lantern around his neck. The flame was significantly smaller than when he first lit it up, but it surprisingly gave about just as much light. He nodded calmly, looking down the hallway and staring into the darkness in front of him. I can’t be moving like that and expect it to stay perfectly lit. Raze thought, taking several steps forward.

Raze calmly followed the trail of blood, watching as it disappeared further down into the darkness in the direction of the Gym. As he remained where he was, Raze focused his attention to a second trail of blood that had veered off of the first trail and had ended up heading underneath a door. Raze blinked, examining the door as it had no damaging marks on it at all. It was simply an all black door with a silver doorknob that was level with Raze’s face. Raze approached the door and grabbed the doorknob with his prosthetic hoof only to find it locked. Raze stamped his hooves in frustration, and turned away from the door angrily. I guess I need to find a key. He thought, heading back down the hallway.

Raze stopped at the restrooms, still hearing the sounds of something being flushed down a toilet in the fillies restroom, but ignored it as he didn’t want to get into a shouting match with whoever was on the other side and attract anything to his location. He continued into the central hallway of the school and headed to the other hallway that he hadn’t explored to yet.

As soon as he was halfway in the hallway, Raze jumped as the radio immediately began to blare with static fuzz. He heard a dull growl come from around the corner and drew his claymore in anticipation of whatever it was that wanted his blood. Raze tensed up watching as another pony advanced on him, dragging the blades that made it’s hooves across the tile floor with a dull screech. Raze clenched his teeth, trying to remain focused against the sounds of the pony’s movement combined with the sounds of the static that came from the radio and began to position himself in a way that would let him score a hit on the pony. The beast seemed to be tracing Raze’s movements as he followed Raze’s positioning and let out another growl.

Damn... What in the hay’s wrong with me? Raze thought, trying to get into a better position to strike, but watching as his adversary moved out of his striking zone. Raze backed up slowly for a few seconds, and stopped as he felt a door on the wall behind him. He looked over his shoulder, and gulped, but reacted too slow as the pony had already begun his attack. Raze cried out in pain as one of the blades on the pony’s hooves slashed down the side of one of his legs and carved shallowly into his flesh. Raze retaliated with a slash of his own which sent the pony reeling backwards and skidding to the other wall. Raze then grabbed the claymore with his injured hoof and charged, zeroing in on the gash on the underside of the pony. His strike was deadly accurate as the blade pierced deeply into the gash of the pony and into the wall on the other side. The pony let out a high pitched wail into the building as Raze removed the sword from its body before collapsing onto the ground, lying dead in a puddle of blood.

Raze took several steps back and slid along his side of the wall with the door. Raze looked over to his right leg and saw that it was steadily oozing out blood from the knee to about half-way down. He never made such rookie mistakes before in all of his years of being a Supernatural Bounty Hunter, so why was this so different?

Raze groaned as a fire of signals shot to his brain and immediately began tearing off strips of his jacket to wrap the hoof with. After getting some sizeable pieces, Raze set out to work in binding the injury before he lost anymore blood. After a few minutes, and at least one try per strip, Raze could safely say that his hoof was bound. I’m not out of the woods yet though, I need to get this cleaned up and closed if I want it to heal. Raze thought, unsteadily getting to his hooves and doing his best to not put too much weight on it.

Raze nearly let out a scream as an even stronger rush of pain shot to his head. He staggered forward a little, and groaned but gingerly put the hoof back down on the floor. I know that this is going to hurt for a while, but I have to fight through this... Raze thought, turning around and staring at the door. It didn’t have anything on it, and there was nothing about the doorknob that made it look out of the ordinary but it seemed odd to Raze. He limped over to the door and grabbed it with his prosthetic hoof, fighting the urge to let out another scream as he did so, and turned the knob on the door until it opened.

Raze stepped into the small room and closed the door behind him. He could tell that the room he was in appeared to be a medical closet of some kind as it was lined with enough supplies that would last a nurse in any school a life time if the conditions were right. Raze looked around, seeing that most of the supplies in the closet weren’t exactly the freshest and easily usable of what was offered. Some even went so far as to only provide instructions for how to treat the injuries of a unicorn or a pegasus. Just as soon as Raze was about to leave the room, something caught his eye.

On a metal shelf, sitting the furthest away from the door, was a small bottle with a green medical sign painted on its face. Raze walked closer to the bottle and saw that it was full of a dark pink, almost red liquid and appeared to be capped off with a blue lid. Raze grabbed the bottle and looked it over, rotating it in the claw of his prosthetic hoof. Health Drink huh? Raze thought, looking at the label above the medical sign. He set the bottle back down on the shelf before unscrewing the cap and taking a whiff from the smell that slowly wafted out of the bottle. Smells like drugs and... Strawberries? Raze thought, getting a second whiff from the bottle. It did indeed smell like strawberries, and after a few seconds Raze could feel his entire body start to relax a little. “Well, it doesn’t look all that bad.” Raze said, looking at the bottle before grabbing the bottle again and bringing it to his mouth. Down the hatch I guess... Raze thought, taking a swig of the liquid in the bottle and nearly gagging.

The taste of the contents of the bottle was like a mix of Strawberry juice and ground up pain-killers. He wanted to spit the liquid out, and almost did, but fought the urge and swallowed. Raze staggered a little, setting the bottle down and gulping down air in a futile attempt to rid his mouth of the drink’s foul taste. He stopped however, and remained calm as the burning signals from his leg immediately began to cease. That’s some good medicine. Raze thought, as the pain from his recent injury began to ebb away into nonexistence. It doesn’t taste very well, but I’m taking it with me. Raze thought, grabbing the cap from the shelf and screwing it back onto the bottle. After placing the Health Drink into one of his jacket pockets and making sure that it was secure, Raze immediately turned around and opened the door before leaving the room.

Raze walked calmly back into the hallway and scrunched his nose at the smell of the dead pony lying against the opposing wall. “You got what was coming to you, you know that right?” Raze asked, looking at the pony before turning away. “Bucking get me in the leg. Why did that happen?” He grumbled before stopping. He turned away from the dead pony and looked down deeper into the hall. It was that other pony. Raze thought. I was too focused on how I could have survived my encounter with that thing that made it nearly impossible for me to focus. Raze shook his head and stared at his injury. Well, I can’t afford to make any more of those kinds of mistakes. I could get killed if anything else like that happens again. He took a calming breath before pressing onward.

Raze headed around the following corner and down another hallway, in almost complete silence, keeping an ear out if the radio that he was carrying began buzzing again. He stopped only once, drawing his claymore at the sound of an extremely loud crash that erupted from somewhere behind him, and immediately regretted it as a dulled but extremely sharp pain shot to his brain from his leg and caused him to slow down. After a few moments of waiting in the dark and not hearing another sound, Raze sheathed his claymore and relaxed himself before continuing on. He came on another set of doors about halfway down the hallway, and checked them both. Locked, just like anything else in this place. Raze thought angrily, walking away from both doors and growling in frustration.

Raze stopped, staring at another door as he came across another corner that led deeper into the building. It too appeared to be barred off from entrance as he could see several wooden boards nailed in place over said door that would have prevented him from getting in unless he really wanted to. He ignored that door and rounded the corner and passed the barred door from with out a second thought.

Raze took several steps before stopping seeing a sign that read Nurse’s Office but saw that the door itself was nowhere to be seen, a wall having taken the place of the door instead, and nodded. Okay, so I can’t go down this way. He said, turning and blinking as a pair of completely unassuming and normal, but rotten, doors stood side by side to his right. Raze walked over to the first door to his left and checked the doorknob before looking in the room. All right! Raze thought excitedly as he saw the doorknob turn over and open the door in front of him. He peeked inside the window of the door, seeing a small desk sit innocently in the middle of a very barren and desolate classroom. Raze opened the door all of the way and coughed as the dry and dust-filled air blasted him in the face and stunned him for a second. After waving the dust away and stepping into the classroom, Raze walked over to the desk and saw a belt that looked like it could carry several bottles. He could also see that there was a key ring attached to the belt, and that a small pouch for holding anything else that wasn’t bigger than a book hung on the other side of the belt. Raze looked around, checking to see if there was an owner of the belt but instead saw a note hanging on the chalkboard of the classroom.

Raze walked over to the chalkboard, grabbing it with his prosthetic hoof and pulling it down. After running his free hoof through his mane, and groaning slightly, Raze took a second look at the paper as it read:

Teacher says that this isn’t an appropriate thing to bring to school. Mommy says that this isn’t something that I can bring to school. Daddy says that he wants to get rid of it.

But I don’t want to get rid of my saddlebag. What if the other students get hurt on the playground? I can fix it right up with one of the potions that I brewed back home! But, the grown-ups say that my potions are very dangerous and that I can’t use them... So If I can’t use my saddlebag, I’ll let someone else use it. That way it gets the same attention that it got from me.

Raze turned back to the, “saddlebag,” and looked it over. It sure looks better than stuffing everything that I have in my jacket. Raze thought, mulling what the paper said over in his mind. And it sure beats having to waste time in looking through my jacket for stuff. But on the other hand, it doesn’t look like it can’t carry too much in the form of supplies. Raze thought about the other option that he had, and shook his head. I know my leg’s going to kill me, but I have a golden opportunity to put my stuff where I need it. He thought, walking back over to the desk and setting the letter down.

After taking everything he owned save his jacket, off and placing the Health Drink in one of the potion pouches on the belt and the note in the bag, Raze put everything he had back on and looked back around the classroom. The Radio still remained in his jacket pocket where he could hear it easily, but everything else seemed to fit all together almost perfectly. After taking another quick look around in the classroom, Raze calmly walked out and back into the hallway that he came from.

Raze stepped cautiously out into the other hallway and looked down both sides before heading to the other door. He grabbed the doorknob and watched as it too wasn’t jammed or locked and opened after and easily opened before him. The second room was just as small as the room with the Health Drink, and much to his surprise there were two more Health Drinks waiting for him on a smaller shelf on the opposing side of the room. This must be a coincidence. Raze thought, grabbing both Health Drinks and putting them in two of the three remaining pouches in his belt. However as soon as Raze turned around he heard a set of low growls rumble from outside the room he stood in.

The radio that Raze had immediately erupted into a flurry of static sound and fuzz as another pony stepped forward into the light of Raze’s lantern. Raze drew his claymore, glaring at the pony as it made the already crammed space even smaller. Great, I can’t fight that thing in here. Raze thought, stretching his wings out and touching the walls on his sides. After closing his wings and taking another deep breath, Raze concentrated and watched as the pony reeled itself onto its back legs and prepared to strike him with the blades it called hooves. Raze charged forward, thrusting the blade of his sword deep into the gash that the pony had and ran him right out of the room. With a powerful yank, Raze removed the blade from the pony and swung the blade around in a near full spin and blocked an attack that came from a pony at his side. Raze looked over his shoulder and saw that two more ponies advanced on him from behind the pony that he protected himself with his blade from, and shoved the pony off with a heavy push from his claymore.

Raze immediately turned to face the three threats head on, getting on his guard as the pony’s compatriots continued their advance. Reacting as quickly as his injured leg would allow, Raze charged at the recovering pony and swung his claymore deep into the gash in its chest. The pony let out a stifled roar as it choked on its own blood and collapsed as the other two continued their advance on Raze. Raze remained calm, backing up slightly as both ponies stepped over their fallen ally and closed the distance on him. The pony directly in front of Raze let out a roar and went to buck him with its blades only to be blocked by Raze’s sword. Raze threw the pony backwards, exposing the injury on its belly before slashing at it with another quick move.

Raze took a deep breath and watched as the remaining pony began sidestepping Raze and moved away from its fallen comrade. Well well well, it seems like these guys are getting a little smarter. Raze thought, watching as the last pony backpedaled into the hallway that led away from where Raze stood. Raze shook his head as the pony then broke out into a sort of hobbling run at him, leaping at him with both blades aimed at his throat. Without any other reaction from anything else, Raze impaled the last pony on the end of his claymore. He gulped a little as the beast let out a gurgling squelch before dying on his blade, and set the sword down before removing the pony. Then again, I could be wrong. Raze thought, wiping the blood on his claymore clean before sheathing it.

After taking a breather, and taking another swig from the Health Drink that he had gotten first, Raze calmed down and stretched for a second. He immediately took the map of the school from out of the bag on the belt and looked it over as he could see that several doors that were on the map were colored over for him. Well, it seems that I looked at virtually everything on this floor of this place. Raze thought, staring at the only things remaining on the map that hadn’t been touched at all. I can’t get beyond that black door over here... Raze thought, looking at the room that was the furthest from where he was standing on the map. And I haven’t been in the bathrooms at all, but I don’t think that I’m going to find anything in there anyways. He said mentally. But whoever was in there should have been done in there by now right? I mean, how long does one take to use the mare’s restroom? Raze thought before closing his map. He took one last look at his surroundings and nodded, moving on.

It took only five minutes to make it back to the main hallway, and back to the bathrooms from where Raze was in the school. He remained on his toes however as he wasn’t going to let anything get the jump on him. The radio remained silent, and continued to do so as Raze wandered into the hallway with the bathrooms and into a huge puddle of water.

Somepony’s been busy... Raze thought before grabbing his nose and clenching it. A putrid stench now began to flow through the entire hallway, and seemed to be coming from the filly’s bathroom itself. “Ah... Sweet Celestia...” Raze mumbled, walking up to the door and gagging as the smell got even stronger. “Hello?” Raze said, knocking on the door. “Is somepony in there?” Raze asked, hearing no response.

Raze noticed that the door to the filly’s restroom was in extremely bad shape now, worse than when he saw it the first time. The entire door was soaked from top to bottom, with the bottom half of the door looking grotesque and swollen. It was surprising to him that the door still stood. He gently knocked on the door again, hoping that it wouldn’t be knocked down just by touching it. “Helllllooooooo? Is somepony in there?” Raze asked, watching the door slowly swing open. He looked inside, seeing water gush out from the sinks that lined the wall on his right. On his left, several stall doors hugged the wall and seemed to be in the same condition as the door that guarded the entrance to the filly’s restroom. It doesn’t look like anypony is in there... Raze thought, taking several steps into the flooded bathroom. He quickly walked over to the sinks in the bathroom and shut them off, before turning to the stalls in the bathroom. He could see that most of them were clean, save for one.

If there was any indication, the source of the smell was coming from the fifth toilet in the bathroom. Raze nearly blew groceries at the sight, seeing that it was covered in a brown substance that looked like chocolate ice cream that had gone bad. Raze could also see that there was also a dark red substance that floated within the toilet bowl and made it unappealing to look at. What in the buck... Seriously, that’s just not right... Raze thought, doing his best to ignore the toilet and leave. He turned to go, walking towards the door and jumped slightly as he heard the sounds of a door slam behind him. Raze wheeled around, blinking as the stall door to that toilet was closed. Raze, regretting his actions as he made them, walked back over to the fifth stall and opened the door. He lifted an eyebrow as the foul smelling toilet was completely clean and free of any forms of debris in the bowl. Above the toilet were the words, “Mares only. Check the Colts Restroom,” in bright red.

Raze turned to leave the girls bathroom, only to clutch his head in pain. He closed his eyes, shaking his head and staggering a little before opening them and blinking. The bathroom appeared to return to its former pristine glory as transparent fillies of all kinds appeared before his eyes. Raze rubbed his eyes and stared as the memory came back to him.

----

Ten Years Ago

Several unicorn fillies were staring at the flank of another one as a picture of a set of stars was depicted on its surface. Others seemed not to pay any notice, only sneaking glances at the mark on the lucky filly’s flank.

“Wow Sparkler! You got your Cutie Mark!” One of the unicorn fillies, a navy one with a sky blue mane and tail exclaimed.

“Ooh! Ooh! What’s it mean? What’s it mean?” Another unicorn filly, a bright pink one with an all black mane asked.

The unicorn filly known as Sparkler, a pale red filly with a pink mane, flipped some of the hairs of her mane out of her face. “I don’t really know. I got it while helping out at the Summer Sun Celebration’s Fireworks display.” She answered, grinning.

“But Sparkler, isn’t putting on fireworks kind of unnecessary?” The navy blue pony asked, hearing Sparkler giggle a little.

“Well we didn’t do it during the raising of the sun silly.” Sparkler answered. “We did it be-”

She was cut off as a loud bang echoed throughout the hallway. Every filly turned as a sea foam pegasus colt was thrown into the bathroom by several stronger looking pegasus colts. The pegasus was looking pretty beat up, and immediately curled up into a ball.

“Heh serves you right for not payin’ up.” One of the colts, a dark red pegasus with a white mane snapped.

“B-b-b-but wh-wh-what did I do?” The sea foam pegasus answered. “It was my money that my mommy gave to me.”

A dark blue pegasus chuckled a little. “Aww... Is the little baby gonna cry for his mommy now? What’s the matter, if you want it; take it from us if you can.” He challenged fiercely.

Everypony remained quiet as the sea foam pegasus refused to move at all, crying a little as the other pegasi continued laughing. “Come on guys, let’s get outta here.” A dark green pegasus with a black mane said calmly. “We don’t need to waste our time with this chump.” He said, as the other ponies nodded in agreement.

“We’ll see you around loser.” The red pegasus colt snapped leading the other pegasi away from the filly’s restroom, laughing all the way.

Everypony watched quietly as the sea foam pegasus staggered to his feet before limping out of the filly’s room, continuing to cry the whole way. Sparkler stepped forward, feeling sorry for the pegasus before chasing after him. “Wait!”

----

Raze shuddered, watching as the images of the memory faded from his vision and left him standing back in the cold and damp bathroom. That’s right... I was a poor excuse for a pegasus. Raze thought, walking over to the spot where he saw himself get thrown. He shuddered a little before calming himself down. He turned to go, walking to the door before hearing the sounds of something refusing to be flushed down a toilet. Raze turned back around, following the trace of the sound and stopping back at the fifth stall in the bathroom. The toilet in the stall was now back to the same condition as to when he first found it, but Raze could see something glinting in the pale light of his lantern. “What’s this?” Raze commented, holding his breath and looking into the vat of putrid liquid that swirled on the inside of the bowl.

Floating on the surface of the disgusting liquid was a small key on a small chain. Raze could see that on the other end of the chain was a tag that labeled the key as, “2nd Floor Key.” Raze groaned, wishing that he was a unicorn instead of a pegasus before reaching in and grabbing the key with his prosthetic hoof. Ugh... what the buck mare... Raze thought, hearing a disgusting squelching noise as he withdrew his prosthetic hoof from the toilet and held the key between his claws. After resisting the urge to hurl, and shaking the key a little, Raze put the key on the chain on the belt he had.

Raze quickly walked out of the filly’s bathroom before he actually threw up, and stared at the door to the colt’s restroom. He walked calmly over to it expecting either the door to be locked or jammed, but as he touched the doorknob it appeared to open gently. Raze stepped back a little bit, staring at a blood trail that led from the entrance of the restroom to the decapitated body of a pegasus pony on the opposing wall. Raze quickly walked over to the body, seeing that the pony’s body was a dark green underneath the layer of blood that covered its coat. Raze could also see that the Seal of the Three Times was drawn on the wall above where the pony’s head would have been and on the stall doors of the bathroom. Raze clenched his head as another headache rocked through his body, but quickly passed as he staggered backwards. Raze turned his attention to the sinks on the right hand side of the bathroom before shaking his head. Who would do something like this? Raze thought, walking over to the dead body and closing his eyes. Whoever you were, may you rest in peace. He thought, remaining silent for a few moments before turning away.

Raze found himself at the door at the top of the stairs that led to the second floor moments later. The door itself didn’t appear to be any different than any of the other doors in the building, and as Raze reached for the key he could feel he didn’t feel that there was anything dangerous waiting for him on the other side. Raze slid the key into the doorknob and unlocked the door without any problems, pulling the door back and stepping into the second floor.

Unlike the first floor which seemed warm and slightly comfortable to Raze, the second floor seemed to have the heater turned up a notch as sweat ran down the sides of his face. He immediately walked into the hall of the second floor and turned to the stairs, seeing rubble blocking his way from going up any further, and stamped his hooves. Well, I guess that I can’t go up any further. Raze thought, taking a closer look at his surroundings. The floors were just as dirty as the first floor, and seemed to take on a more reddish color than that the first floor had. The walls were barren, and didn’t seem to have any color to them except for a dark grey. The light from his lantern seemed to brighten the walls up slightly, but didn’t appear any better than the walls down stairs. A long hallway extended out in front of Raze and seemed to dare him into taking another set of steps forward.

Is it me or is it bucking hot in here? Raze thought, adjusting his equipment before walking down the hallway that led to the right. After a few paces Raze stopped seeing a hastily cobbled fence of desks, shelves, and other objects one would find in a school building. Raze nodded, seeing the barricade and turned around. Well, it looks like I can’t go that way. He thought, turning around and heading back to the intersection in front of the stairs. Raze looked down the long hallway now on his left. There was something about it that made him want to stay back, but there weren’t any indications for him to keep him back. I just hope that thing doesn’t show itself... Raze thought nervously, remembering the armored pony that he saw down on the previous floor.

Raze calmly wandered into the hall; his eyes constantly moving as he saw that the doors that were immediately on either side of him were all locked shut or had broken locks. Raze maintained his visual sweep of the area, looking around and listening for any sign of trouble as he passed two more sets of doors and stopped at another intersection. Raze turned to his right, looking down the hallway as it too didn’t seem to be dangerous and started to walk down it only to be stopped by another barricade.

“Aw come on!” Raze said, stamping his injured hoof by mistake before clutching it in pain. Come on now Raze; use the brain that was given to you. Raze said mentally, setting his hoof down and grabbing the used Health Drink from his belt and opening it. After taking another swig and feeling the pain subside, Raze looked at the bottle and saw that it was half-empty. I still have two more bottles of this stuff... but I guess I can take a little more. Raze thought before taking another swig. After feeling completely satisfied that the pain had subsided; Raze closed the Health Drink bottle and stowed it back in his belt before scratching his head. I wonder if this entire area’s going to be closed off... That would be pretty dumb if it was wouldn’t it? He thought, walking back into the main hallway. And my map only has the area of the first floor... I’ll need to find one of this area. Raze thought before hearing a rustling noise behind him. Raze turned and headed in the direction of the sound. He stopped; a small paper began rustling on the other side of the barricade that was in his way and tempted him into getting it. What in the hay’s that? Raze thought as he watched the paper move. He couldn’t get a good look at the page, and shook his head. I would say that I would have to go around, but both ways to get in there are blocked off... What in Equestria would make a pony do that though? He thought, walking back to the main hall.

Raze immediately turned right and headed down what was left of the hallway, and stopped as he saw a gaping hole that led into an empty classroom. Raze cautiously stepped inside room, keeping his eyes and ears out for any hostile activity. He could see that the room had obviously been fully equipped to handle a large class of foals for a long while, but as he continued to look around, there was no sign of a desk or chair to be found. He could see huge slashes in the floor that went all the way to the walls in the direction that they faced, and he could also see splinters where a teacher’s desk would have been. Raze couldn’t see any blood of anything that could have been hit by any of the strikes, but shuddered as visions of the armored pony from downstairs entered his brain.

There’s no way that a pony could swing a big enough scythe to make slashes like this... Raze thought, using his injured hoof to follow along one of the slashes to the chalkboard. A pony would need more power than both Princesses combined to lift and swing a scythe this big. Raze looked up from the carnage, feeling uneasy. He looked up to the only door that was in the room and saw a precise strike in the dead center of the door. He shuddered, trying to remain calm as he walked over to it. The hole in the door was at such an angle that made it point down to the floor on the other side of the door. He could see a small puddle of blood that was in his immediate line of sight from the door, and shook his head. That doesn’t make any sense... Raze thought, continuing to look around the room. All of this carnage and only a small puddle outside, something doesn’t feel right here. Raze thought, seeing the shadows of the room dance on the walls. He turned back to the door and grabbed the doorknob with his prosthetic hoof. He gulped nervously, twisting the doorknob and opening the door with relative ease. He calmly stepped into the hallway behind the barricade and gasped.

There wasn’t anything there. Raze looked around and saw that there wasn’t any more blood, let alone a body, of anypony to be found. Just what in the hay’s going on here? Raze thought, stepping over the puddle of blood and looking around. He shook his head; looking at everything from the walls, to the ceiling and the floor, and found nothing. Whatever happened, that couldn’t have been a lethal blow. Raze thought, looking down at the puddle. Plus, Scythes aren’t totally precise in an amateur’s hands. This could have been done by one of those creatures skulking around here. Raze thought about it for a second and shook his head. No it couldn’t have. Those creatures cause a lot of damage, and they aren’t necessarily the best on cleaning up what they’ve done. He thought, scratching his head.

His thoughts were broken by the sounds of foals giggling behind him. Raze turned around and walked towards the barricade as several foals ran past where he stood and out of sight. Raze wanted to say something but decided against it, remembering his previous encounters with the foals in this place. He turned away from the barricade, seeing the piece of paper that taunted him from earlier hung up on the wall.

Let’s see what you say... Raze thought, picking up the paper from the wall and reading it. “Check your map dumb-dumb...” Raze read, seeing it written out on the page in red crayon. Raze blinked and set the paper on the floor before grabbing his map. After opening it he could see that it was changed. Instead of saying that it was the first floor the map now read, “Canterlot Elementary School Second floor,” in place of the first floor. He could also see that the layout of the map had significantly changed, showing the floor plan of the second floor as opposed to the first floor. He nodded, picking up the paper from the floor after putting his map away and stowed it away for safekeeping.

Raze looked back down the hallway that he was standing in before beginning to walk down it. There wasn’t anything that screamed at him to be looked at, and as he stopped at the corner, he could feel that the heat of the building was starting to climb slightly. Raze wiped the sweat from his brow with his prosthetic hoof, walking down the following hallway a little bit faster than the other hallways that he had been through already. Most of the doors that were down the hallway either had the locks on their doorknobs broken, or weren’t able to be forced open due to something blocking the door. After finding the other end of the hallway and testing the last door to find it was also locked, which didn’t seem to surprise him, Raze turned corner and saw the first barricade that he encountered when he first arrived on the floor.

“Well, let’s hope that this whole trip wasn’t a bust.” Raze thought, grabbing the doorknob with his prosthetic hoof and twisting it. The door opened easily, as Raze walked into a relatively cooler room than what was outside. He could see a table sitting in the center of the room that took up most of the room’s space. Raze could see that the windows on the wall that sat on the opposite side of the room were completely non-existent, and that an all black safe sat on the left-most side of the table that was furthest away from him.

Raze walked over to the safe, seeing that there was a sort of keypad that sat underneath a latch that opened the safe. The keypad wasn’t anything like Raze had seen before, instead of having numbers like the ones that the Officer Lockers had in the Manehatten Police Department, the keypad had letters A to Z where the numbers would be, and a small enter button on the bottom. Raze could also see that there were four blank slots above the keys on the keypad that seemed to display the letter that was input on the keypad.

Raze nodded, punching in several combinations on the keypad and hearing an angry buzz that emitted from the speaker its side. “Stupid safe...” Raze fumed, glaring at it. Raze turned on his heel, hearing the crinkling of paper from underneath his hooves and looking down. Under his injured hoof looked like one of the grading sheets that a teacher could use during a test. Raze moved his hoof and picked up the sheet with his prosthetic hoof and looked over it curiously. Hmm... It looks like the scores of a sort of major test or something... Raze thought, looking at the scores closely which read:
Standard Final Exams, Canterlot Elementary School, Mrs. Perfection’s 3rd Grade Class

Student 1 Score:

Student 2 Score: 72

Student 3 Score: 96

Student 4 Score: 16

Student 5 Score: 25

Student 6 Score: 100

Student 7 Score:


Student 8 Score: 94

Student 9 Score: 70

Student 10 Score: 71

Student 11 Score: 87

Student 12 Score: 82

Student 13 Score: 30

Student 14 Score: 96

Student 15 Score: 80

Student 16 Score: 76

Student 17 Score: 77

Student 18 Score: 40

Student 19 Score:

Student 20 Score: 89

Student 21 Score: 79

Student 22 Score:

Student 23 Score: 88

Student 24 Score: 90

Student 25 Score: 100

Student 26 Score: 74

Student 27 Score: 55

Student 28 Score: 69

Student 29 Score: 27

Student 30 Score: 30

Scoring system is as follows:

A 100 – 90
B 89 – 80
C 79 – 75
D 74 – 70
F 69 and Below

Raze looked over the grade sheet curiously. Four students’ final grades haven’t been taken down. Raze thought, looking over the sheet. Raze turned to the safe and scratched his head with his prosthetic hoof. “Is this some kind of hint or something?” Raze asked, looking at the keypad then to the grading sheet, then to the keypad again. “I might as well keep it for later. There really isn’t a need for this now.” Raze said to no one as he put the grading sheet in the bag on his belt. After checking the room for anything else that could help him find the code to the safe, Raze shrugged and calmly walked out of the room.

Immediately when he stepped back out into the hallway, Raze heard the sounds of static fuzz erupt from the Radio, Raze immediately jumped on his guard. He could hear the sounds of growling come from down the other side of the building, but he could also hear the sounds of metal grinding on the tile floors of the school floor. Raze looked to his left and headed towards the barricade and saw that at least two of the same kind of ponies that attacked him at his apartment were standing in front of the stairs. A third pony lay in a puddle of its own blood as Raze could see that it was filled with several well placed holes around where its gash was exposed. Both of the living ponies turned to face where Raze stood and let out an ear splitting roar before striking at the barricade with their hooves. Raze stepped a few paces backwards, hearing the dull thunks of the ponies bladed hooves against the wood that made some of the desks and chairs. After feeling that the ponies weren’t going to make it through the barricade to get at him, Raze turned around and walked as calmly as he could away from the barricade.

Raze’s guard was still up as the Radio continued to sound filled with static, even when he rounded the corner that led to the second barricade on this side of the hall. He heard a loud crash coming from the end of the hall as he opened the door with his prosthetic hoof, and jumped at the sound just as two more ponies appeared in the light of his lantern as it lit up the classroom. Great, I have at least two on my tail and I have you guys to deal with. Raze cursed mentally, drawing his claymore from its sheath.

The pony that was closest to Raze reeled back on its hooves, bringing the blades down on Raze with near-deadly efficiency. Raze blocked the attack, gritting his teeth as his hoof burned in protest, throwing his attacker off balance before thrusting the blade deep into the exposed gash that was in its chest. Raze had little time to revel in his small victory as the other pony was already to attack him as he removed the blade. Raze stepped out of the way, crying out a little as the edges of the pony’s blades shallowly slashed into his side. Raze turned to face his attacker, stepping over the slain body of the first pony to give himself room to maneuver, and brought the blade of his claymore down on his attacker to prevent him from striking him a second time.

It was the pony’s turn to throw Raze off using the blades that it used for hooves to stagger Raze backwards, but it wasn’t enough to knock him off of his hooves. Raze used the exact moment to swing his claymore downward and through the pony’s defense, scoring a vertical cut on its gash and causing it to roar in pain. The pony took several steps backwards, clutching the injury before returning to walking on all hooves and advancing on Raze. The pony got within striking distance to Raze and reeled back a second time, with the intent to kill. Raze saw the opportunity, grabbing his claymore with both of his hooves and swinging the blade at the exposed injury. The pony staggered, showering Raze in a splash of blood after the hit before collapsing.

Raze sheathed his claymore, and looked at the injury that he was dealt. That doesn’t look so bad. Raze said, staring at the two cuts that went almost perfectly parallel to each other. They didn’t look too bad either, just like Raze had estimated, looking smaller than they actually were. I still need a thing of bandages though. I can’t keep walking around with these injuries and without something to treat them. Raze thought, looking nervously at the small drops of his blood that were falling to the ground. He looked at his jacket, which was already torn from being used as a form of a bandage, and not to mention the newest additions in the forms of tears and cuts that were in the right hoofed sleeve and the left side of his jacket. Raze groaned, trying to stretch out his wings only to find that a sharp pain ripped through the left wing. Ah, hay... The damn thing got my wing too. Raze thought, closing his wings back up. He looked around for a few moments, for something to show his reflection, and shook his head as nothing was to be found.

I guess that I’ll have to let the injuries close up on their own. Raze thought, grabbing the half-empty Health Drink Bottle and opening it. After taking a swig and feeling the pain of his newer injuries closing up, Raze closed the bottle and put it back into the pouch on his belt. It’s almost empty, but I can’t think about that now I have at least two more of those things to deal with. He thought, calmly walking out of the classroom while fighting through the extra pain of his injuries.

Raze entered the main hallway of the building and headed towards the stairs, continuing to hear the sounds of the static on the Radio. Raze remained on guard, and drew his claymore carefully, watching as both ponies were still trying to get through the first barricade to where he was originally. Both ponies turned, hearing him take a step forward and roared in his direction. Before anypony could react however, the sounds of gunfire rang out through the hallway. Raze watched with stunned disbelief as both ponies immediately dropped to the ground after a pair of bullets entered their temples, dropping them both instantly. Raze turned as the sounds of a gun clicking could be heard in the darkness. Raze looked down, seeing the shine of a stronger light as a voice commanded, “Whoever the hay you are, drop your weapon and let me see your hooves.”

“Excuse me?” Raze asked, setting the claymore down and staring at the light. He recognized the voice as the voice from the bathroom down stairs and glared. “Who’s there, trying to order me around?” He asked, watching as a light blue unicorn pony stepped into the light, with a bright red braided mane and tail stepped into Raze’s lantern light. The unicorn wore what appeared to be a heavily armored police pony’s uniform, and she seemed to carry a standard issue handgun and a flashlight with her magic which seemed to take on a green aura.

“Lisa. I am Lisa Montblanc from Canterlot.” The unicorn pony answered, continuing to hold the gun with her magic. She looked down, seeing that a small puddle of blood was forming underneath Raze, and that his front right hoof was completely bound by what appeared to be the same material that his jacket was made from. “What in the hay are you doing in here? And how did you get those injuries?” She asked, lowering her weapon.

Somepony’s got some of her priorities mixed up Raze thought. “I got here because I was investigating several incidents in Ponyville at the request of Princess Celestia. I’m the Supernatural Bounty Hunter Raising Shadows.” Raze answered, watching Lisa’s weapon return to the holster that she carried.

“Incidents in Ponyville?” Lisa asked, remaining calm but ready to draw her weapon. “What kind of incidents?”

“Well actually that’s kind of between me and her.” Raze answered politely. “I have confidentiality to keep towards my clients. You understand right?” He asked, watching as Lisa nodded.

“Well that’s something that I can respect. “ Lisa said. “I’m hear trying to investigate what happened to a family’s little girl if you can believe it. I’d tell you more, but really I have the same rules to follow.” She watched Raze pick up his claymore and immediately went for her handgun.

“Easy... Easy...” Raze said, slowly putting the sword back in its sheath. “I’m just putting my weapon away... I’m not going to do anything terrible.” Raze watched as Lisa carefully put her handgun back into its holster before calming down.

“Okay, but do you think that oversized butter knife is going to keep you protected?” Lisa asked.

“Actually, this oversized butter knife’s been doing me plenty good for how long I’ve been here.” Raze answered. “What about you? That pea-shooter of yours good enough to protect you from the things here?”

Lisa chuckled a little. “This pea-shooter is able to cut through that illusion those things have. Unlike you, I’m able to get at them without the need of endangering myself to one of their attacks.” She said.

“Oh, I see.” Raze said quietly. “You do realize that there’s a lot more of those things lurking around here.” He said, watching Lisa nod.

“Yep, but there’s something that I have that you don’t.” She said, concentrating as her horn erupted with a green light a second time. Raze stepped back and watched as a stream of green energy erupted from her horn and enveloped his body. After a few moments, Raze could no longer feel the light sting from the injuries on his wing and the side of his body. Raze looked, seeing that they were all closed up, and looked like they were scarred over. Raze could also feel that the injury on his hoof was feeling better, but it wasn’t exactly back to perfect health either.

“Restoration huh? Nice.” Raze commented, looking at his injuries before looking at Lisa. “You know that I have to pay you back right?” He said, watching Lisa chuckle again.

“Don’t worry about it.” She said, turning around and heading to the stairs. “I’m sure that we’ll meet back with each other a second time. If we do, you can pay me back Mr. Shadows.” And with that she passed beyond the door at the bottom of the second floor stairs and stepped out of sight.

Lisa Montblanc huh... Something seems off about you. I don’t think that there’s a pony with that kind of name in Equestria, but really I can’t really judge her right now. She did just heal some of my injuries. Raze thought, turning down the hallway where Lisa had come from. After stretching his wings out a little and feeling that his left wing was extremely sore, Raze calmly began to walk down the hall.

Lisa was still on Raze’s mind as he began to explore the hallway that Lisa came from. It wasn’t really easy for Raze to forget her, with him bumping into the first door that was completely unmovable for any reason. Raze shook his head, and glared at the wooden door that was in front of him. That was dumb of me. Raze thought before testing the door. Even better, I walk into a locked door. Raze thought, turning away from the door and continuing down the hallway. After coming across two more doors that were completely locked, Raze decided to put Lisa out of his mind and continue with his exploration of the school.

Raze turned down another corridor at the first intersection he came across after trying the last locked door down the hall and was met with surprisingly an unlocked and un-jammed door. Raze opened the door calmly, Taking a step into what appeared to be a supply closet for a science class and walked calmly through the hole in the wall that was in front of him.

“Now isn’t this something.” Raze said quietly, looking around the room. The classroom appeared to be a sort of science lab, with small lab tables that were almost perfectly aligned with the teacher’s desk. The desks sat in rows of 4 with the exception of the last row with only having two rows. Four stacks of chairs sat in the back of the classroom, covering the door that actually led into the classroom and seemed to be the only thing other than the teacher’s desk that was in decent condition.

Raze walked over to the teacher’s desk and saw a piece of paper on its surface. Raze picked up the paper with his prosthetic hoof and began to read, remaining quiet as he tried to absorb it all:

Of Thirty students, twenty three passed the final exam. Of those twenty three, four sit in the very front. Six Students passed with flying colors, five got good scores, four students got average scores, and four barely passed.

Intelligent students don’t necessarily sit in the front, nor do students with poor scores. Average students sit in the middle, but tend to sit towards the front of the class, and only two students sit in the back.

School is about to start for next term. Where did everypony sit?

Raze looked around the desk, and the room before nodding his head. Part of this thing is talking about the class’s scores during the final exam. Raze thought, setting the piece of paper with the riddle down before dragging out the grades sheet that he found earlier. After setting down the grades sheet on the table, Raze looked at both papers closely. So, we have a riddle involving a class’s grades, and where the students will sit for next year based on where they stood on the final. There’s still a bunch of things missing though. He thought, looking over at both pages. And there’s those 4 students whose scores are actually missing. That complicates things. He thought, looking at both pages.

Raze looked up, staring at the chairs at the back of the class and looking curiously at them. I wonder if those have anything to do with this whole thing. Raze thought, walking around the desk and heading towards the chairs. He looked at them closely, and blinked as he could see something carved in on the bottom edge of the chairs. What’s this here? Raze thought, standing on his hind legs and looking at the carvings at their bases. Seventy-six? What’s that supposed to mean? Raze thought, getting back down on all fours and racking his brain for an answer. He stared at the other chairs underneath the topmost chair on the stack, and saw that only one of them had no carvings on them whatsoever. Do they reflect the grades of the students on the final exam? Raze thought, continuing to look at the chairs. They must have to, but there’s still something missing from this place here. Raze turned to one of the desks in the back of the class room. He looked over the desk on his right and began searching it. If my hunch is right, then this puzzle should be a cinch... Aha! Raze thought, finding another carving at the base edge of the desk.

Raze set his lantern down on the floor to where he could see it and nodded. So, this means that I need the grade sheet and the chairs here to solve this riddle... Hmm less than thirty, but its bigger than fifteen. Raze thought, picking his lantern up and walking back over to the teacher’s desk. He picked the grade sheet up and looked down the list. I’m assuming that they’re talking about the grades themselves, but let’s check to be sure. Raze thought, beginning his search of the marks on the desks that were in the room. His hunch was right on the first desk, requiring that a chair with the mark of seventy-seven to be placed in that spot. He continued looking down the rows, finding the carvings on all but four spots on the desks and nodding when he got to the last desk on the back. I’ve got it now. The chairs need to be put in their appropriate places so class can start. Raze thought, getting back on both of his back hooves and grabbing the top chair with the number seventy-six carved on its face. After walking over to the spot that had another comparison clue, less than eighty but greater than seventy five, Raze set the chair down and heard a gentle click come from the desk.

Raze looked at the desk and opened it finding nothing inside, and nodded. I see what’s going on. Let’s get to work. He thought, turning back to the chairs that were behind him.

After some time working around with the chairs in the classroom, and finding nothing in a good majority of the desks that were in the classroom, Raze was left with a completed classroom and a set of four cards that came from the chairs that had no carvings on them. He had them laid out across the teacher’s desk and looked at them closely, seeing that they each had a letter in bold black ink: S, G, V, and A respectively. Well, there’s at least 24 possible combinations here... but what’s this really getting at? Raze thought, repositioning the cards a couple of times before shaking his head frustratedly. No combination of letters made a coherent pattern, and it wasn’t until Raze was about to throw up his hands that he saw something.

It was faint, but Raze could see the outlines of a circle that appeared to be drawn in a very faint red ink. He organized the cards in a two by two pattern and nodded, staring at the cards in understanding. I see... So that’s the proper order. AVGS, that’s supposed to be short hand for averages if my guess is correct. Raze thought, wiping the sweat from his brow and taking up the cards and putting them together. He took one last look at the classroom and smiled a little, staring at the middle left seat that was closest to the teacher’s desk. Huh, it takes me back...

----

-Eight years ago-

“Come on Raising Shadows!” A young lavender unicorn moaned, stamping her hooves a little. “Let’s make a diagram of the stars in the sky!”

“Well... I don’t really want to make a diagram though...” A younger version of Raze uttered. The lavender unicorn gave Raze a curious look.

“Those colts beat you up again because you can’t fly didn’t they?” The lavender unicorn asked, watching Raze look away from her. “You know that I can get my cousin Sparkler and we can get those guys to stop-”

“No Twilight... I don’t want to get you or your cousin involved.” The Little version of Raze mumbled, looking away from Twilight. “I don’t want to get anypony hurt...” He said miserably.

“But why though?” Twilight asked. “Why don’t you want to stand up for yourself? You know that you’re only just going to get hurt even more.” She blinked, seeing a bruise from underneath one of Raze’s eyes. Twilight slid her chair over to Raze, moving a part of his mane from his face and seeing that his left eye was heavily blackened, and that a bruise was beginning to form underneath the eye. “Raising Shadows... Why didn’t you tell anypony? You need to take care of yourself... No, this needs to stop right now.” Twilight said firmly, glaring at the three pegasus colts that sat in the back of the classroom and continued to laugh and joke with each other.

“Twilight... please don’t get started with them...” Little Raze said quietly, feeling Twilight turn towards him.

“Well why not?” Twilight snapped. “Something has to be done; you could lose your eyesight if this keeps up!”

Little Raze shook his head. “It’s not about me.” He said, turning towards a heavily freckled white unicorn with a red mane sitting right across from the pegasus colts in the back alone. “That’s Morning Dew, and he got most of their attention last year because nopony did anything. He’s not really good with magic at all from what I hear, but he doesn’t deserve to get beaten up over something he can’t control.” Little Raze explained, turning to Twilight. “If you get anypony involved, Morning Dew won’t hear the end of it. Not only is he going to get beat up here at school, but he’s going to get hit at home. His father’s one of the recruit trainers for the Equestrian Army and from what I hear he doesn’t take to well to actually hearing that his son got beat up at school.”

Twilight shook her head, some of her purple mane moving out of her eyes as she stared at Little Raze quietly. “But you wouldn’t be able to fly if you lose that eye...” She mumbled, watching Little Raze shake his head.

“I don’t care about that. I could lose both of my eyes and the ability to fly and it wouldn’t matter to me so long as he’s happy.” Little Raze said. “It’s my job as a defender of this world, and I’m going to have to make a sacrifice if I’m going to one day be a true Knight.” He said proudly.

“A true... Knight?” Twilight said skeptically. “You know that’s nearly impossible. Princess Celestia hasn’t knighted anypony since the last Great War over a hundred years ago.”

Little Raze shook his head. “I know what momma’s done in her past; and I also know that I can become a true Knight, you just watch.” He said firmly. “Besides, there’ve been ponies out there that have done really, really good works for Equestria.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Nuh-uh times infinity.” Twilight said, watching Little Raze shake his hoof.

“Uh-huh times infinity.” Little Raze countered, hearing an audible gasp from every foal in the classroom.

“Raising Shadows, Twilight Sparkle, both of you need to be concentrating on your science projects. You can continue your discussion at Recess after lunch, and not during my class.” The teacher said, causing everypony to freeze and look up at her.

“We’re sorry Mrs. Fit. It won’t happen again.” Little Raze and Twilight replied, looking up at the bright orange pegasus that walked up to their table. Mrs. Fit smiled and nodded, gently brushing the side of Little Raze’s chair with her wing as she walked past them both.

“So, what do you want to do for the science project?” Twilight asked again, watching Little Raze smile.

“Well what about a volcano?”

----

Raze chuckled a little, staring at the classroom once more before turning away. Silly fillies were we both. He thought, walking towards the supply closet and through the door on the other side.

Raze turned to his right and looked further down the hall. There still was the matter of getting that safe open, and he assumed that there wasn’t anything else that could be down in that direction; something nagged at him to go that way. He sighed, getting the feeling that something was going to happen if he went down in that direction, but began walking down it anyways. It’s not going to hurt if I just take a quick look is it? He thought, listening for anything on his radio that might indicate danger.

Raze found several doors as he went down the hall, checking as most of them were either sealed shut, or had broken locks on the doorknobs. He had taken several steps towards the corner that, at his assumption led around to the actual entrance to the classroom, when a wave of unfriendly hot air had blasted into him and knocked him to his back. What in the hay... Did it just get hotter in here? Raze asked, looking around and looking as the doorknobs were starting to become a bright white with heat. It’s not going to hurt I say... Sheesh, I feel like I’m in a sauna that was left on for a second. Raze thought, walking over to the door in front of him and grabbing the knob with his prosthetic hoof. After taking note of how unpleasant the door would have felt if he had grabbed it with either his mouth or his other hoof, Raze opened the door and felt a soothing rush of cold air blast into him.

As he entered the room, it looked like the many classrooms that filled the school, with a round table that students could sit down at on Raze’s right, and what appeared to be an extremely large globe of the world right in front of him. Raze looked at the globe curiously, seeing that the only continent on the globe had Equestria and it’s major cities on it’s surface plus any other outlining islands that would make up the surrounding area. I think that would make any non-pony’s parents pissed. Raze thought, spinning the globe and only seeing a huge amount of blue oceans on the rest of its surface. Raze turned his attention to the table and saw that there was another page of paper resting calmly in the middle of the table. Raze walked over to the table and looked over it. It read:

We love our world; it’s so nice and green. We love our world, and love to keep it clean.

North from Canterlot, one day’s run.

We love our world; from the forests to the trees, and from the Dragons to the bees.

West from Point A, Seven days run.

We love our world, and all of it’s creatures, from the Dragons in the mountains to the Beasts with nameless features.

South from Point B until Point A is at an angle from Point C.

Raze blinked, staring at the writing on the page. Is it referring to a specific point on the globe? He thought, turning around and staring at the globe curiously. He took several steps towards the globe and followed the obvious directions on the globe, putting the claws on his prosthetic hoof on the specified points on the globe. I think that’s right. Raze thought, looking at the indentations of his claws on the globe’s surface. What’s it mean though? Raze thought, staring at the globe before looking at the surface of the globe curiously. “What’s this?” Raze thought, looking at the globe and seeing a faint indentation on its surface. He tapped the indentation, hearing a small tinkling sound from the other side of the globe’s surface and nodded. I see... Those were the clues on the globe for something on the inside. Clever I guess... Raze thought, running one of his hoof’s claws down a separation between the indentation and the rest of the globe before opening the indentation and revealing a small hatch with a dirty key inside the globe. Hmm... Wonder what this opens? He thought, picking up the key and holding it in his prosthetic hoof. 1st Floor Art Room Key huh? He said mentally, reading the label on the chain that it was attached to. There wasn’t an Art Room downstairs was there? He thought, closing his eyes and mentally retracing his steps. Unless that pony was guarding the Art Room, and was in the middle of taking care of business when I came on it... Raze thought, shuddering a little. He shook his head and put the key on the chain. Raze looked around the classroom a second time and sighed. He wanted to say something, but decided against it and walked to the door and out into the hall.

Raze ignored the heat of the hall as he stepped inside. Raze turned to his left and looked down the hall and felt that he wasn’t supposed to head down that way. He immediately did an about face, meeting another door along the wall of the intersecting hallway. Raze walked to the door, grabbing the doorknob and giving it a twist as it opened just as easily as the last one. He couldn’t see anything wrong with the inside, only seeing that it looked like a normal classroom like the others in the building, and as Raze stepped inside he turned as he heard another giggle from one of the foals that was inside the building. Raze took a step towards the foal, watching as it turned in his direction and smiled before turning around and running through the wall. Raze groaned, looking to where the foal disappeared and shook his head. Figures that would happen. Raze thought before walking over to the spot where the foal disappeared. After finding nothing that would have been of any interest to him, Raze eventually left the classroom and closed the door.

The trip back to the safe went a lot shorter than how Raze actually felt it went as he stepped back into the relatively cool room. He approached the safe carefully, keeping his guard incase any more ponies were to show up in an ambush. After stopping and feeling that the room was relatively secure, Raze pulled the four cards out from the bag on his belt and looked at the keypad. Okay, so the answer to this passcode must be A, V, G, and S for averages. Raze thought; punching in the code and pressing enter on the keypad. After hearing a friendly click sound from the inside of the safe, Raze watched as the latch twisted on its own to open the safe door in front of him. He looked inside, spotting a small key on the bottom shelf of the safe and grabbed it with his prosthetic hoof. He looked it over, reading the small inscription that read, “Toolbox Key,” and nodded, attaching it to the keychain on his belt. I haven’t seen any toolboxes around here yet though... Maybe I will. Raze thought, cracking his neck slightly. In any case, there is that other key that I just got. And there’s only that one locked door on the first floor... Raze thought, looking back at the safe before closing it. Well, let’s check it out. He thought calmly, walking towards the door and opening it.

----

The trip back downstairs was surprisingly a quiet one, too quiet if you asked Raze. But no matter how many times he checked his radio, it didn’t make any sounds at all. Raze made it back down to the first floor and passed the bathrooms quickly as the smell was really unpleasant, before stopping at the door to one of the only rooms that he hadn’t explored. Raze reached for the key to the door, feeling an unnatural chill down his spine as he looked up and saw the hole where the pony’s scythe was earlier. Raze tried to shake himself back into his senses and reached for the key hole with the key. Without a second’s hesitation, Raze slid the key into the hole and heard a satisfying click as he turned the knob. Raze then withdrew the key from the hole as he took a couple of steps into the room, recoiling a little as the smell of blood hung in the air and emanated from a huge puddle in the center of the classroom.

What in Equestria... Raze thought, looking at the puddle as it seemed to take up most of his attention in the classroom. He could see that splinters of desks were what was left of the class, some floating in the puddle of blood while others were embedded into the walls and bookshelves, and any other thing that could have been hit by what seemed to be an explosion. Raze looked around, the puddle leaving his attention as more and more of the gruesome scene assaulted his eyes. Several shelves that would have held art supplies were reduced to nothing more than a gruesome form of psychotic torture device; several mangled body parts were left hanging and dangling on the edges of some of these shelves. He could also see that there was blood not only on the floor, but on anything that would make a psychological Neighponesian Nann-ga seem like a fairy tail. Raze nearly lost his lunch, seeing feathers and scraps of skin dot the room every which-a-way.

There were a couple of things that Raze could tell from the scene right away. The mess that he was quite literally standing in couldn’t have been made just from killing one pony. Raze had quite the number of encounters with having to, “Deal,” with psychotic ponies that threatened the public safety of the citizens of Manehatten, so he didn’t have too much of a problem to know how many versus how many. The particular spot that Raze stood on however seemed to have less blood than the whole rest of the room combined, though it wasn’t saying anything at all; in fact it was really only proving the fact that whoever did this was particularly skilled in combat. This doesn’t bode well... But one pony couldn’t have done all of this. There has to be enough blood in here to account for at least eight or nine ponies all together! Raze thought, surveying the scene. And it does seem like that they all tried to stay to the other side of the room, though really I don’t know how that would have helped based on the carnage.

Cringing a little, Raze took a step forward and saw the remains of a hoof lying across a piece of blood-soaked paper. He moved the hoof off of the paper and grabbed it with his prosthetic hoof, watching it as it threatened to fall apart in his claws. He could barely make out what most of it said, but could see that one sentence was still legible. It read:

...Our team leader in this place has been taken down by that thing, but the last thing said that the cards from the safe were a form of a short hand word...

That would have helped earlier... Raze thought, looking over the page again and letting go of it. He watched it calmly drop back into the puddle of blood and continued to look around, his curiosity of the aftermath getting the better of him. He checked the room, and stopped on the only thing besides the door that looked completely untouched: An all black, wardrobe sized bookcase. He walked quickly over to it, hearing a light splash as his hooves stepped into and through the puddle. It didn’t look any different than the ones he was used to seeing in hotels and in rich ponies places when he was on other assignments; but he felt that there was something else to the wardrobe that met the eye. He opened the wardrobe and found nothing that would come out to have him for lunch, but something caught his eye.

Down at the base of the wardrobe, where its bottom touched the floor were a set of four nuts that were attached to four bolts that appeared to be holding it down. Raze made a grab at it with the claws on his hoof, but was unable to move the nuts at all. He snorted, making a second attempt to move the nuts and grumbled as they didn’t move an inch. Well it seems like I’m going to need a wrench or something... Damn, I haven’t found one yet. Raze thought as he stared at the nuts that seemed to taunt him.

Just then a loud and very noisy crash came up from the floor above Raze. He looked up after jumping, staring at the ceiling calmly. Something must’ve broken through the upper floor... Raze thought, turning back to the nuts at the bottom of the wardrobe. Hopefully there’s something up there that I can use... Otherwise I’ll be stuck here on this for a good long while. He thought, before turning to go. Let’s just hope that I’m right, and not a foal on this... He thought, walking back to the door he came from and opening it.

----

Just like his trip back downstairs, Raze’s trip upstairs was quite literally uneventful. There weren’t any dangerous ponies trying to show up on the Radio, and there wasn’t anything really for him to examine a little closer as he had already gone through most of the Second Floor.

Raze rounded the corner on his right and continued to head to the room that was directly above the one downstairs. He felt a little nervous, doing another wipe from the sweat on his brow and heading towards door to the empty room. There’s something weird going on around here... And I don’t like it. Raze thought, walking into the room and looking around. Unlike the last time he was inside, there was a small pile of rubble that led to a ladder that led upwards. The classroom itself was covered in dust, and Raze could see that everything behind the teacher’s desk was virtually left untouched.

Well, this is a new development... Raze thought, walking over to the ladder and looking up into the floor above. He didn’t hear anything from the Radio that would warn him from any sort of dangerous pony that was around, and the ladder really wasn’t going to climb itself in his mind, so Raze grabbed hold of one of the steps and began to climb.

That was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. Raze thought, climbing off of the ladder into what appeared to be a small choir room. He looked around seeing that it didn’t resemble a choir room all too much, several regular school desks were where seats for the choir would sit, and several chairs looked like they had been taken apart all together. The teacher’s desk had been flipped over it’s end, as the rest of the room was covered in trampled school supplies by something that wanted to get out of there.

Raze took a deep breath, walking towards the only door in the choir room and opened it, feeling a rush of even hotter air blast him in the face. Raze immediately shut the door and shook his head, taking a couple of breaths of the cooler air and shuddered. Man... Is there a dragon in the building up here or something? Raze thought, letting go of the door and shaking his head. I can’t go out there, I could get killed! He thought angrily, kicking some of the supplies to one of the music rooms walls and watching it hit a piece of paper. Raze opened the door and was met with another angry blast of hot air before shutting it again. He then turned back to the music room and groaned. There wasn’t anything back down stairs that could solve his heat dilemma, and this was the only floor in the building that he hadn’t explored yet.

Raze looked through what he had on him, checking everything until he stopped at the Health Drink bottle Labels which read:

Tired of feeling unhealthy, miserable, and just too weak to stand up for yourself? Are you trying to beat the heat, but can’t find anything that can cool you down fast enough?

Well then dear survivor have we got the new hot product for you! Introducing the new Sub-Zero Flavors to the Health Drink Family!

Use them for Parties, Adventuring, Yard-work, and Anything that could involve strenuous hours of activity!

Cheap imitations will claim to give you the boost you need to get you through the day, but not us. We know that you’ll be exhausted, and need that extra boost to get you through even the hottest of temperatures.

We guarantee that you will be safe in extremely hot climates, that we’ve tested them in Volcanic Climates! Now that’s hot!

And if you think that we’ve forgotten about the quality of products to push this new innovation out onto the masses, you are sadly mistaken. We still keep the same quality control on these as we do all our products!

Now come on, what are you waiting for? You’ll have all of the energy you need, plus all of the refreshing taste of an ice-cold beverage when you drink Health Drink Sub-Zero! Now Available in Strawberry and Blueberry Flavors!

Raze looked at the bottle then looked to the door. The other bottle was still opened and almost gone from the last encounters of those ponies that wandered the schools halls, but he was really going to need to explore the hallways of this floor. I guess that I have no other choice. He thought, opening the bottle with his prosthetic hoof. After getting an extremely minty smell from the bottle, Raze took a swig from it and somehow managed to swallow without spitting it back up.

If the other bottle of the health drink was too chalky, this bottle was way too minty. It drinks like someone put toothpaste and mixed it with table mints and a bunch of strawberries... Raze thought, closing the cap on the bottle and shuddering. Almost instantly he could feel that his body was getting significantly colder, and felt like he was actually walking in a regular conditioned room as opposed to a malfunctioning sauna. Raze then walked back over to the door and opened it, feeling the blast of hot air wash over him like it was a refreshing breeze. Well, the stuff works at least. He thought, stepping outside.

The hallways were in a worse condition in the third floor than the second or first floors. Raze could see that there were several holes in the walls, and that said walls appeared to be covered in soot. Raze saw that there were several doors around the area, all of which were locked or jammed in some way, and immediately walked into the main hall. The main hall was in just as bad a shape as the hallway that he had came in from. He could even see the insides of several classrooms and the fate that they shared with the halls outside. Raze could see that there were several things that were stuck into the wall, like pencils and rulers and anything that had a sharp enough edge, daring him to come anywhere near some of the classrooms that were in front of him. The doors that Raze could go near were completely shut, like every other door that he figured he wasn’t allowed into, and refused to budge open no matter what he tried to do to the door. Aww heck, I don’t have time for this. Raze thought after failing to open one of the four doors that stood in his way. The toolbox probably wouldn’t be in there. He thought, turning away from the doors and continuing on down the hall.

Raze stopped when he got to the only intersection in the hall that he assumed led to what was left of the stairs. He could see that the set of stairs that was closest to him was missing, and immediately thought of the rubble that blocked his way up here. Well imagine that... This place is liable to fall apart at any minute... He thought looking closer and seeing that they had appeared to be in a declining state of repair even before he had gotten there, and saw only splinters of some of the supports in the casing itself.

As Raze was looking at the set of stairs, he could feel a pair of eyes staring at him from behind. He turned, and immediately drew his claymore at the sight of the black cloaked pony from downstairs staring at him from behind a metal barred fence. The pony’s scythe rested on its shoulder casually, and Raze noticed that it along with the pony’s metal boots were stained with fresh blood. Raze could see that an all black horn was poised to activate and swing the scythe right then and there, but he could see that the pony was just staring at him curiously. He couldn’t tell that there was too much going on with the pony; the blood red eyes just seemed completely lifeless.

They both stood on opposing sides of the fence for a good couple of minutes until the pony’s horn began to flare up. Here it comes... Raze thought, watching as a dark purple aura began to surround the pony’s horn and its scythe. Raze couldn’t believe his eyes however as the pony turned around, wrapping one of its hooves around the body of the scythe and began to drag it away. He could see the grey tail swish calmly few times as it and the pony it was attached to disappear into the darkness of the intersecting hall. Raze waited for a few moments, continuing to hear the loud grinding of the metal against the tile floor and shook his head. Okay... What was all that about? He thought, carefully sheathing his claymore and looking out into the direction of the armored pony. Why didn’t it attack? Was it because of the fence in the way? Raze asked mentally before shaking his head. No, that blade could have cut through those metal bars with no problem, especially with magic backing the swing of the scythe. He thought, walking over to the metal bars and looking them over and seeing that they were less than an inch thick. Raze turned away from the fence and shuddered, feeling that this also wasn’t the place for him to fight that pony. It must be waiting for an appropriate moment. Otherwise that would have been the second time that I could have been killed in here. He thought before moving on.

The left side of the third floor wasn’t in any better condition than that of the right side. One might have even gone so far as to say that they were in a worse condition than what might have happened on the other side of the school, all of the holes in the walls were in a much larger spread than what was on the opposite side of the school. A huge puddle of what Raze assumed was water leaked out from underneath the door on his right, and just like the others it too was locked shut. Raze came to the end of the hall after a few moments of walking through the puddle and feeling the heat of the floor coming back to him. He turned to the only door that was left on the main hall and walked towards it quickly, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it as he felt the temperature start to skyrocket. He felt a little relief as the doorknob easily turned opened, and stepped forward, feeling that the room inside was significantly cooler if not the coolest room on this floor.

It was simple, looking more like an average Janitor’s closet than anything else, and had a slight white wash underneath all of the age and damage that seemed to go with everything else on the third floor. Raze looked around, seeing a bright red toolbox that was well beyond familiar to him, and walked over to it. This looks like the box that Morning Dew had... He thought as the memory came to him.

----

-Eight Years ago-

“Oh wow Morning Dew! That looks really amazing!” Little Raze said, looking at a bright red toolbox that looked to be almost as big as he was. He and Twilight were standing with the unicorn at the most secure place that they could find, the janitor’s closet where Morning Dew supposedly was getting his tools for his magical science project.

“Not really... It’s just a few broken things that my dad doesn’t use when he’s off on weekends.” Morning Dew answered, grabbing a smaller wrench with his mouth and setting it in his school bag. “Because of what you were doing for me Raising Shadows, My dad let me use his tools for the science project.” He said half-heartedly.

“That’s great news!” Twilight said happily, looking at Morning Dew as he looked away. “Morning Dew?” She asked, looking at him closely. “What’s wrong?”

The little unicorn shook his head, looking away from Little Raze and Twilight. Little Raze put his hoof on Morning Dew and smiled, watching the unicorn look at them both. “It’s because of me isn’t it?” Little Raze asked, watching Morning Dew closely.

“Why?” Morning Dew asked, shuddering a little.

“Why what?” Twilight asked, watching Morning Dew tremble.

“Why do you have care so much Raising Shadows?” Morning Dew asked with a whimper. “Nopony’s ever been so nice to me, nopony’s stood up for me before so why did you do it today?” He asked turning to Little Raze, who smiled.

“I care because if I don’t, who will?” Little Raze answered, smiling at Morning Dew. “I saw that you needed help, and I didn’t want to see you get picked on. And if that makes you smile, that’s all I need to keep up with those bullies.” He said, watching Twilight and Morning Dew closely. “Besides, its something that momma would be proud of me for if she found out. But that makes me feel even better even if I don’t tell anypony, especially if you get into any trouble.” He answered, moving some of his mane out of his face and showing that his right eye had significantly healed but was still bruised.

“You know that this can’t be kept up forever.” Morning Dew said quietly.

“And?” Little Raze asked. “I don’t care if it can’t be kept up forever; I’m still going to do it anyways.” He said proudly. Everypony heard a gentle knock on the door and turned as the door opened and revealed Twilight’s older cousin Sparkler.

“What are you foals doing in here?” Sparkler asked, giving them all a stern look.

“We were just helping Morning Dew get some tools for his Science Project.” Twilight answered, watching her older cousin nod. “I’m being honest.” She said, watching her cousin nod again.

After a few seconds she smiled and nodded. “All right, well you need to get outside. Recess is half over, and it isn’t good nor is it safe for you all to be in here.” Sparkler commanded, watching as the three foals nodded before grabbing a few more tools before heading out of the closet. Sparkler planted one of her hooves in Little Raze’s way, watching him stop before looking down at him.

“Is there something that you wanted Sparkler?” Little Raze asked looking up at the unicorn, who nodded calmly.

“Yes actually.” She answered, watching Little Raze remain quiet. “I’m glad that you and my cousin Twilight are friends, its really good to see that somepony is interested in the things that she likes too.” She said.

“Uh Sparkler, you sound like one of the adults.” Little Raze said calmly, watching Sparkler chuckle a little.

“Oh, well I’m sorry.” Sparkler said, watching out of the corner of her eye as Morning Dew and her cousin stood waiting for Little Raze at the top of the stairs. “Anyways, I’m counting on you to protect her. I’m not going to be around all the time for her, and I want you to promise me that she’ll be in safe hooves.”

Little Raze looked up at Sparkler and tilted his head to the side slightly. “What, are you going away somewhere Sparkler?” He asked

“Promise me Raising Shadows.” Sparkler said firmly, but gently looking down on the sea foam green pegasus. “You have to promise me that she’ll be fine.” She said, watching Little Raze nod.

“Sure Sparkler, but why do you want me to promise you to protect Twilight?” Little Raze asked.

Sparkler remained silent, smiling at the Little Pegasus gently. After a few moments of silence she turned away from him. “Thanks Raising Shadows...” She said quietly. She then turned back to him and grinned. “Now why don’t you go out and play, it’s a nice day to be outside with your friends right?”

----

The memory seemed to hit home for Raze. As he sat in the closet and stared at the toolbox, his senses came back to him slowly and reminded him of why he was there in the first place. He walked over to the toolbox, pulling the key from the key ring on his belt and unlocking the lock on the box. He stopped, staring at a small claw wrench in the bottom of the toolbox. Without a second thought, Raze grabbed the wrench and smiled as he stared at the inside of the now empty toolbox. Heh, that was easy. Raze thought, grabbing the bottle of the Health Drink Sub-Zero and opening. After taking a swig and putting the bottle away, Raze opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

Raze headed down the hallway directly in front of him, in his mind he was doing a mental cover of the entire third floor before heading back down stairs, and checked the two doors that were down the hall. It figures. Raze thought, as he tested the one closest to the corner and found it to be jammed shut. He immediately went down to the end of the hall and tested the door there and got the same result before stamping his prosthetic hoof. Well that’s bogus. Raze thought, turning around and heading back to the main hall.

----

The trip back to the first floor was almost as smooth as his trip back down the first time. He almost slipped on the ladder before catching himself quickly and getting to the floor faster than what he thought was possible. Raze had also went down the wrong hallway on the second floor, and saw the real door to the classroom with the desk puzzle that he had solved earlier. He still had to go through the rotten smelling cloud that seemed to now fill out the area that surrounded the bathrooms, and ran through it as fast as he possibly could and into the room with the huge puddle of blood.

Raze stared at the wardrobe at the back of the classroom, seeing the bolts still fastened to its bottom as he approached it. Raze pulled out the wrench from his bag and began working on unfastening the nut from the bolt. After at least a full minute of grunting against the nut, Raze could feel the nut move slowly, but surely, off of the bolt. He worked at it for another few seconds, feeling the nut getting progressively looser as he worked at it. After close to two minutes of working at the first bolt, Raze began to undo the nut from the bolt with the claws on his prosthetic hoof before pulling the bolt out of the slot.

Raze continued the process for several minutes, undoing each of the bolts in sequence until he had gotten the last one freed. After putting the nuts and bolts back into his bag with the wrench and stared at the wardrobe calmly. He could still feel that something was hiding behind it, and that there was obviously something that he needed to see. Raze took a deep breath, walking over to one of the sides of the wardrobe and began to push it away. He stopped slightly, staring as a hole that would have been big enough to fit a pony his size appeared from behind the wardrobe. Raze looked into the hole, seeing that the room inside had nothing in it save a few bits and pieces of garbage that seemed to be left and long forgotten by a foal somewhere.

He returned to pushing the wardrobe out of the way, the gap wasn’t anywhere near wide enough for Raze to crawl into the other room; and after a few grunts and groans the wardrobe was far enough out of the way to where Raze could crawl inside. Well, here goes nothing. Raze said in his mind after taking a breather and taking a step through the hole and into the other room. Using his prosthetic hoof, Raze slid his claymore into a straighter position before taking another step into the room. After managing to get his back hooves through the hole, Raze looked calmly inside and shook his head.

I went through all of that bull crap for an empty room? Raze thought, looking around and seeing the edge of a huge table through a pair of knocked out walls to his right. He walked towards the table, watching as the light from his lantern began to reveal more and more of the table until he saw a tiny golden key and the hardcover spine of what appeared to be a heavily worn-out book. Raze walked closer to the table and picked up the key with his prosthetic hoof. Ponyville Library? Why would the key to the Library in Ponyville be here? Raze thought, looking it over. He put the key on the key ring for later, hoping that she was going to be in the Library with everypony else that was there.

What’s this here now? Raze thought, turning his attention to the book spine that sat alone on the edge of the table. He pulled it closer to himself, seeing that there were several indentations on the surface of the book that formed a sort of ring on it’s cover. Raze could also see that the cover was at one point covered in gold, and appeared to have seen better days. He could barely make out the title which read, “The Legend of the Knightmare. The True History of Equestria Volume One.” Raze opened the spine of the book, looking at the inside of the book as quite literally the whole thing was missing. This seems important, though I don’t really need to carry it with me... Raze thought, closing the spine of the book shut and looking in his bag. He still had plenty of room inside the bag, and there really wasn’t too much in the form of weight for him to be worried about, so Raze stuffed as neatly as he could inside.

Just then Raze lurched forward, a huge blast of pain seared through his forehead. He clutched it tightly with both hooves, letting out a scream as his head began aching even worse than before. He looked around, watching as the room seemed to decay and age faster than anything that he had seen before. Raze staggered backwards, leaning against one of the walls in the room as he continued to clutch his aching head. Somewhere in the distance he could hear the sounds of a horn blaring out a warning sound, but it didn’t matter as the pain in his forehead forced Raze to black out.

----

Raze woke up several moments later, his forehead was still very sore and throbbed as he got up and looked around. What in the hay... Where am I? He thought, taking a look at his surroundings.

The room that he stood in was drastically different in almost every way. He could see through what was left of the ceiling into the floors of the school that were above him, and could see that the sky above had taken on a darker turn. Raze looked around and saw a huge splash of blood thrown across the wall behind him as a pair of chains dangled from the center of said wall. The walls themselves took on a pale fleshy color, which looked yellow that came from the light that was being emanated from some source of light that was far beneath him. The flooring that Raze stood on reminded him of some form of factory, with metal grating that seemed to have seen better days most of the time. He could see pipes that were similar to the ones that he saw while he was in the church, and saw the strange bat-like creatures fighting over some of the valves on those pipes.

That wasn’t the only thing that got his attention though. Almost immediately, Raze opened the Health Drink Sub-Zero and swallowed a good bit of it. The room he stood in before the Health Drink took effect was significantly hotter than anything he could have experienced so far in this place, and Raze wasn’t about to take any chances at all. After feeling that his body had significantly cooled down, Raze could see that the table in the room he was in was still largely in tact. He could see that there was a newspaper article lying next to a very beat-up looking face mask that fire ponies would use in the middle of a rescue during a fire. Let’s see what this says... Raze thought, picking up the newspaper article and reading it.

STORY OF THE LIFETIME! WHEN TRAGEDY STRIKES!

Here in the charred ruins of what was once Canterlot Elementary School, families mourn for the passing of young life.

Two fourth grade foals, whose names will not be disclosed to protect their names by their parents’ request, were among the bodies found in the ruins of what was once the place that some foals called their home away from home.

“The teachers and staff here are wonderful.” Says one Sparkling Wine, a parent whose eight-year old daughter had just entered the third grade, looking on what was once a marvel of unicorn and pegasus engineering. “I had hoped to let all of my foals learn their fundamental magic here. Now I’m just glad that she’s out of that deathtrap safe and sound.”

The fire was reported to have started on Thursday, just before lunch when most of the fourth grade class was in the cafeteria at the back of the school. A fifth grade hall monitor had discovered a fight between two fourth graders and went to break it up when the fire started.

“I was just doing my duty to the school, making sure that nopony would cause any kind of trouble here then boom. I was running from classroom to classroom telling everypony I could that a fire had broken out, and that we needed to get out of there.” Bold Faced, the hall monitor in charge at that time reported to us after getting an okay from his parents. “I didn’t even see it coming. I don’t think any of those foals did. It was like was a volcano that just blew its top or something. And I know that no pegasus pony’s able to start fires. My pa tells me that we can move clouds and start rain and stuff, but nopony’s been able to start a fire that weren’t a unicorn.”

The pony that is accused of starting the blaze, one Raising Shadows, is the Princess’s adopted son, and was found in the epicenter of the fire. While we did try to question both the Princess and Raising Shadows himself, we were unable to speak with either of them due to the Guards that were on duty.

One of the few foals that managed to survive the blaze, Morning Dew, had this to say in Raising Shadows’ defense, “He didn’t mean to. Raising Shadows did what he did to protect me. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a hero in my book.”

“Hero? Murderer? A ten-year old pegasus with obviously no control over his own actions and powers is what Raising Shadows is.” Morning Dew’s father, Onslaught, tells us. “That boy’s been a bad influence on my son ever since they met. I don’t care if he’s the adopted son of the Princess; no son of mine’s going to be a weak-hearted pansy.”

While some parents share Onslaught’s sentiments, several ponies feel differently about the situation.

“He was doing the right thing. Morning Dew needed somepony to be a friend and help him when he needed it.” Mrs. Twinkle, the mother of one of Raising Shadows’ friends Twilight Sparkle, and aunt of one of the deceased foals explained to us during a candle light vigil. “From what Twilight told us, Raising Shadows is more of a pony than any of us put together. It’s no wonder why the Princess took him in.”

While Raising Shadows is still under the legal age to be placed in juvenile hall, local law enforcement has told us that he will be removed from the school system and will be given an examination of his mental stability. Reports say that the pegasus has been forbidden to leave Canterlot Castle, and only time can tell when he will be allowed to return.

Several tears formed in Raze’s eyes as he finished reading the newspaper article. He had heard that Morning Dew had to be hospitalized and put under close watch in the intensive care unit for several weeks due to the extreme burns that he had suffered through Raze’s power. He had also not seen the Princess so angry, and remembered that there were times when he just needed her to hold him and to tell him that it would be okay.

Raze heard a quiet sizzle from the floor as his tears struck the ground. Gotta stay focused here... He thought, stowing the article away in his pocket. Raze turned to the face mask and picked it up, looking it over closely. He nodded, seeing a peculiar set of white runes on the inside of the mask that he couldn’t read but had an idea of what they meant, and put it on, taking several breaths of air and feeling his body cool down. Hmm... It seems to me that I’ve actually found my own air-conditioner. That’s pretty cool. He thought, taking another deep breath. He looked around the room a second time, seeing a door directly across from him and nodded, walking around the table and towards it. He grabbed the door handle, testing it and checking to see if it wasn’t locked, and smiled a little as it turned easily. He then quickly opened the door and proceeded to the room beyond.

The room that Raze stepped into had the same design as the Secretary’s room for the Principal’s office, but everything that was in there was completely missing. Instead Raze could see that the walls of the room were also colored in such a way that made them look like flesh instead of ordinary walls. Raze looked around the room and saw that there were pieces of what appeared to be the ponies that Raze seemed to encounter the most, scattered all over the place like somepony else’s waste. On the wall across from him Raze could see that somepony had something to say as a sentence appeared to be painted in blood on its surface. It read:

To seek the way forward, thou shalt find the key to the gate. God watches those lost on the tides of despair, and guides them back to the seas of hope with his grace.

Raze blinked, staring at the cryptic clue ahead of him. There’s some ways to say things, and there’s other ways. He thought, looking at the sentence ahead of him. This would fall under the category of being those other ways. Raze thought, turning to the other door in the room. Looks like that’s going to be my only way out of this room here. Raze thought, walking to the door and grabbing the handle with his prosthetic hoof. After it too opened, Raze stepped out into the hall and gasped at what he found.

Raze blinked, staring at what appeared to be a wall of pulsating flesh. He could see that there were several veins that went from the top of the hall, all the way to the bottom of the hall in a fashion that was similar to a river. Raze could also smell something through the mask that appeared to be a cross between rotten eggs and a lot of gunpowder. He choked a little, taking a deep breath and exhaling as he breathed in a little purified air. He could also see that, even though there was a need for his lantern, it wasn’t as great as it was before as the light from down below was plenty good enough to see at least around his general area.

He walked over to the wall and put his real hoof onto its surface. Whoa, this actually feels like it’s alive. Raze thought, setting the hoof down and looking around. The area he was in seemed to be familiar, and he knew that there was a door about right where he stood but as he looked up and down the wall, there was none to be found. Great, now I’ve got to watch out for doors that really aren’t there too? He thought, pulling out his map. He looked it over, watching as it read, “Canterlot Elementary School 1st Floor,” like it did the first time but in red letters instead of black. Raze looked up from his map to the solid wall, shaking his head as the door that was depicted on the map was still nowhere to be found. Great, I can’t even rely on my damn map. This is just bucking perfect. He thought, turning away from the wall in frustration. After stowing it away, he headed further down.

After finding another instance of a wall where his map said that a door should have been, Raze did an about face and walked past the door he had entered the hallway from. He could hear his radio flare up with a little bit of static as he approached an intersection of the hall, but as he continued onward, Raze could hear that it had fallen silent again.

As he had gotten to the other side of the intersection, Raze could feel that his entire body began to get significantly hotter again and that the mask had significantly seemed to wear off its effects. He immediately began to search the hall and found an all metal door that appeared to be carved into the fleshy wall and quickly walked over to it, grabbing the door handle and walking inside.

As Raze stepped into the following room, he could see that the tile floor had somehow managed to keep up through the session of decay of the rest of the building and that it was significantly darker due to that effect. He could also feel that the temperature of the room was also significantly cooler than what was outside as he could feel that it was at least livable in consideration of the room temperature.

The room itself was a drastic change from the classrooms that Raze had encountered previously. He could see a huge, dark brown table sitting in the center of the room with the Seal of the Three Times drawn in the center and like the room he woke up in, he could see foal-sized chains that lined the classroom’s walls. Raze stepped forward, watching as the light from his lantern immediately shined on a key that was on the farthest end of the table, but that wasn’t what got Raze’s attention.

Just barely above the top of the table Raze could see a pale pink mane tremble and quiver in what he assumed was fear. Raze immediately removed the face mask, thinking that it might scare the source of the mane off, and approached cautiously against his inner sense of danger. “Hello?” Raze asked, looking in the mane’s direction. “Is somepony there?”

There was silence as Raze continued to approach, nothing made a sound except for Raze’s hooves hitting the tile floor. “Hello? Are you hurt?” He asked, getting no response at all. All right, Raze thought, getting about halfway across the room before stopping. This is getting me nowhere. I didn’t think that there would be another pony here in this hell-hole, but once again this place begs to differ.

“Stay back...” A quiet voice said on the other side of the table. Raze nearly did a double take on how young the voice was as it almost sounded like the owner wasn’t older than eleven.

“Excuse me?” Raze asked. “I’m not going to hurt you, why did you just tell me to stay back?” He watched the mane as it bobbed from side to side before hearing another whimper from the voice.

“I want my mommy...” The voice whined, which caused Raze to feel an extreme pang of guilt. “The nice stallion said that if I went with him, my mommy could come back...” It said through a fit of sniffles. “But it all hurts now, they kick me and hit me and call me names, but I just want my mommy...”

“What nice stallion?” Raze asked, taking another step forward and continuing to hear the voice sniffle.

“The nice stallion Angelus...” The voice answered. “He told me that if I followed him, my mommy could come back...” The voice stopped, and Raze could hear a shuffling of hooves from the floor. As he listened, he couldn’t hear the sounds of somepony walking on the floor. Instead he could hear the sounds of a sort of grinding shuffle, and immediately jumped on his guard as the owner of the voice slowly walked around the table to face Raze.

The sight of the creature that Raze beheld was almost unbelievable. He could see that the foal was at one point a unicorn, only though it was now without its horn and had the Seal of the Three Times in its place. One of its front hooves was completely missing, appearing to have been torn or slashed off by something extremely sharp. He could also see that on the other hoof was a smaller blade that looked more like a heavily bloodied axe than anything else. The mane of the creature was extremely disheveled, covering most of the scars that it bore, and Raze could see that one of its ears was missing. The creature’s flank was also heavily scarred, which almost appeared to Raze that it wouldn’t ever be able to reveal its special talent to the poor thing.

Raze took several steps backwards as the creature advanced, his conscience getting the better of him, and backed off in front of the door. His radio began to blare loudly with static as he continued to fall back. That bastard... Raze thought angrily, trying to keep a straight face as the creature continued its advance. Using foals as a part of his plan? What the buck is that son-of-a... Never mind, I have to stay focused here. It’s just another monster right? He thought, drawing his claymore. From where the creature easily stood, Raze could run the blade through its body with out it coming anywhere near him. But something held him back as the creature continued its advance.

“I don’t want to be alone any more...” The foal pleaded, continuing to advance well into Raze’s weapon’s effective range. “I just want to be with my mommy... My friends do too...” It said, remaining unflinching as Raze’s Radio speaker exploded with static.

Raze looked out from the corner of his eye and saw that several more foals began to slowly appear from some of the gaps that were in the walls that were behind him. He dodged, narrowly avoiding a brutal swipe from a dark blue foal and continued to remain on his guard. He counted at least eight of the foals, and nervously held his ground closely to the table and glared at them all as they continued their slow advance, saying that they, “Wanted to see their mommy,” and that they, “Just wanted to be loved,” all the while continuing their advance on him.

Damn... I can’t attack these things! Raze thought, finding himself backed into a corner. It doesn’t matter if they’re monsters now, they were once foals and I can’t kill a foal.

Raze blocked a hit swung by one of the creatures that had formed up on his right and pushed it away. He quickly went to block another attack, throwing another foal off with ease as they continued to close their semi-circle on him. Raze took several steps backwards trying to think of something, anything to keep him from fighting back but nothing came to him. He was going to have to do it.

I didn’t want for it to be this way... He thought, closing his eyes somberly. In one quick move, without thinking at all, Raze swung his claymore with impressive speed and felt the blade sink into and through the necks of the eight foals that almost did nothing to prevent the attack from happening. He turned his head, looking away from the carnage as he dropped his claymore from his prosthetic hoof and began breathing hard.

----

Ten Years Ago

“Ease up on your grip!” One of the Soldiers to the Princess’s Army, True Strike, said in a commanding, but gentle manner. “If you grip too hard on your sword, you won’t be able to feel the flow of blade rushing through the air.”

“I’m trying Commander True Strike, but these helmets are too weird.” Little Raze moaned, his face covered in a copy of one of the smallest guard helmets available. “It still doesn’t fit right. And why can’t I hold the sword with my mouth? It’s the same as holding it with magic isn’t it?” He asked.

The Commander shook his head, removing his helmet to reveal the face of a battle-hardened steel gray pegasus with a blue mane and black eyes. “Silly Filly, if you hold the sword with your mouth, how are you going to talk to your friends? And how is anypony going to understand what you’re saying if there’s a hilt stuck in your mouth.” True Strike said, giving a warm smile to the sea foam green pegasus. “Plus we don’t use our mouths out of respect to our weapons.”

“Respect to our weapons?” Little Raze asked as another soldier walked up to him and helped the colt remove his helmet.

“Yes, just like respecting everypony and every living thing on Equestria, we must respect the weapons that protect our lives.” Commander True Strike explained. “If we treat our weapons the way that we ourselves would want to be treated, then they would provide us with the means necessary to come back home from the battlefield.” He smiled as Little Raze made an, “o,” with his mouth and stared at a little wooden sword that was lying next to him. “I’ll explain more of this when you’re older.” The Commander added, watching Little Raze grab the sword with both hooves before it slipped out of them.

“Well it seems silly to me.” He said, trying to pick up the sword again and dropping it again.

“Well, you’ll learn to understand it when you’re older.” Commander True Strike said calmly before walking over to him. Little Raze looked up, seeing the Commander tower over him and immediately stopped trying to pick up the sword and began to pay attention. “Holodwyn, there’s something I need you to promise me.”

Little Raze opened his mouth, nopony except Princess Celestia called him by his real name. They all just referred to him by his mane that she had specifically picked out for him. “Yes Commander?” He asked quietly.

“I need you to promise me that you will never use the sword on any innocent for what ever reason.” Commander True Strike said, being as gentle as he could. He could see that the foal was trying to understand what he had just said and smiled.

“Why would I wanna do that?” Little Raze asked, staring at the Commander innocently.

Commander True Strike chuckled a little before getting serious. “Because, there are times in your life that will make you want to use the sword on somepony so much that it could seriously hurt or even kill them.” He explained. “I want you to promise me that no matter what anypony says, be it me or some other pony that makes you go down that road, you will not use the sword unless you absolutely have to. And that you will not use it on any of your fellow ponies.”

Little Raze remained quiet for a few moments before getting up on his hooves and putting one of them over his heart. “I swear that I will keep my promise to you no matter what!” He said, seeing Commander True Strike smile.

“All right then, let’s get you cleaned up. You don’t want to be smelling like you just came from here when your with your mother right?” Commander True Strike said, smiling as the little foal nodded and grabbed the sword before scampering off. Commander True Strike then turned to the few soldiers who were out in the practice field and cleared his throat. “The same goes for you meat bags! If I catch you breaking this promise, I will personally see to it that you are sent to the dungeons of Canterlot for as long as its physically possible! Do I make myself clear?” He roared.

“SIR, YES SIR!” The other ponies shouted as they jumped.

----

The room was deathly quiet as Raze turned to the carnage. There’s no way any pony could justify this... Raze thought, staring at the bodies of what were once eight foals that were misled by Angelus. Even Nightmare Moon wouldn’t be able to find a reason to force eight foals to be treated this way... Raze sighed, picking up his claymore apprehensively before cleaning the blood off with his jacket. This is just... Beyond what a pony is capable of. He sheathed his claymore and stared at the foal’s bodies quietly. He turned away from the bodies after a moment longer, unable to look at their broken forms, and headed to the key on the table. After picking it up and putting it on the Key Ring on his belt, Raze turned back to the foals and shook his head. Commander True Strike... I’m sorry, but this is one injustice that will keep me from my promise to you. Raze thought, heading to the door that was across from their bodies.

Raze pulled the face mask from his bag and looked at it before opening the door. The runes that were on the face mask had changed from white to black. He remained calm for a few seconds, thinking about what it meant and nodded after seeing that the runes seemed to look like Sub-Zero. He placed the mask back into his bag and grabbed the bottle of the Health Drink Sub-Zero before taking another swig. After replacing it and grabbing the mask, Raze could see that it had changed back to its original white color as the Health Drink Sub-Zero began to take effect. I thought so. Raze thought, putting the face mask back on before turning back to the bodies of the foals from earlier. I’m sorry... I hope that all of you find your parents soon, in a better place than here... He thought, another guilty tear slipping from one of his eyes and onto the floor. He turned back to the door and opened it, walking back into the hall quietly.

Raze did his best to return his attention back to the matter at hand, and quietly walked further down the hall, stopping as another flesh colored wall ended his progress forward. Raze turned to his left, finding another door just like the last door he entered, and walked towards it. He reached out and opened it, finding another room that was similar to the classroom only smaller. He could see that there was another bottle of the Health Drink Sub-Zero on the opposing side of the table, but approached it cautiously in case there were more of the foals from earlier.

After grabbing the bottle and looking around, Raze waited silently for a few moments before placing the bottle of the Health Drink Sub-Zero in the remaining spot on his belt. He turned to leave the room, stopping as he thought he heard the sounds of a foal crying somewhere, and nervously shrugged it off before returning to the hall.

Raze followed the hallway back down to the intersection, and turned to face it. Light seemed to emanate from deeper down the hall, but it wasn’t the warm or friendly kind. He could also feel that the heat was extreme even as he stood on the furthest end of the hall, but could also feel that something was off with the hall on its own. Raze stepped out of the intersection, feeling the temperature change significantly, and turned around to find another door behind him.

Unlike the other doors that Raze had previously encountered, the door that Raze stood in front of was a bright emerald green. He could see that there was a slot for a hard-bound book in the middle of the door, and that a set of six depressions surrounded the book slot. Raze stared at the door curiously before blinking a little. This wasn’t here when I first walked past here... Raze thought before digging around in his bag before pulling out the hard bound book spine. Raze placed the spine of the book into the slot and stepped back. The metallic flooring beneath Raze’s hooves began to tremble and shake as the door began dissolving around the book spine until there was nothing left but the book spine.

Raze picked the book spine up, seeing that it had taken on the colors of the door. He could also see that the spots on the spine where the gold was missing had been fixed, and it almost looked brand new. Raze then felt a refreshing breeze that was completely unnatural for the area and looked up from the book spine, finding what appeared to be an all dark room in front of him. What in the hay is this? Raze thought mentally, walking into the room and looking around.

The room that Raze stepped in was completely pitch-black. He could see what was in his general vicinity, but Raze was unable to get any detail from the room that he currently stood in. Raze immediately jumped and turned on his heel, staring as the door that had dissolved had reappeared as though nothing had happened. The room then began to tremble and shake violently, forcing Raze to turn back around and watch as a handful of pages that rested on a pedestal rose from underneath the floor on the opposite side of the room. After a few minutes, Raze could see that the only light that wasn’t his own was a light that seemed to emanate from the floor around the pedestal.

“YOU WHO SEEK KNOWLEDGE! PRESENT THYSELF AND BE COUNTED!” A loud and booming voice echoed throughout the room, making it feel larger than it already was. Raze hesitated, looking around the room for the voice’s source and jumped as the voice said, “COME NOW, THOU WHO WISHES TO SEEK THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST PRESENT THYSELF AND BE COUNTED!”

Raze shuddered. After staring at the pedestal for a few moments, and letting the ringing in his ears subside, he calmly took a deep breath before beginning to speak. “I am the Supernatural Bounty Hunter Raising Shadows.” Raze said calmly into the darkness.

The room was deathly silent as the only thing that Raze heard was the sound of his own breath. He could feel the room tremble and shake, and stopped as sections of the floor gave way in front of him until it revealed an all white path leading to the pedestal in the middle of the room. Raze could see an unnatural golden glow echo from beneath the path before him that also reflected its light onto the stone that held up the pedestal.

“SO... A SELL-SWORD SEEKS THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST...” The voice boomed, causing Raze to jump a little. “SO BE IT. TO OBTAIN THE TRUEST TREASURE OF EQUESTRIAN LORE, THOU MUST BE READY TO MAKE A SACRIFICE OF THINE OWN. LEAVE THINE PAINS OF THE SOUL BEHIND SELL-SWORD, AND ADVANCE.” The voice challenged before falling silent.

Raze remained quiet, taking a step towards the pedestal before being stopped by a golden wall of flame. “THE ARTIFACTS OF THIS WORLD. THOU NEEDS NOT BRING THEM, AS THEY WILT DISTRACT THINE MIND FROM KNOWLEDGE. LEAVE THEM WHERE THOU STANDS, AND RETRIEVE THEM WHEN THOU’S THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN SATIATED.” The voice ordered as the wall of flame faded away. Raze nodded as if he understood the voice, before removing the facemask and the belt he carried and set them aside. He also placed the lantern close to where he set his other gear down and nodded before taking a step forwards. He remained as calm as he could, but cringed slightly as he thought that the flame that shot up earlier would roast him alive, only to find that it didn’t come. Raze continued to remain calm, taking several steps forward, looking over the side only once to see a mass of golden energy far beneath from where he stood. After looking back up to the pedestal, Raze could feel himself walking closer and closer to it. Within less than a minute Raze had gotten to the pedestal itself and stared at the pages on its surface. He watched it closely for a few seconds, jumping to his guard as the front of the sixty or so pages began to radiate the same golden energy that was flowing beneath him, before cringing as a the pages blasted him with the force of a hurricane.

----

Millennia ago....

“The world that thou knowest of, Equestria as thou hast come to call it, was not the home that thou wouldst recognize it.”

“A vile being, more terrifying than any that thou hast heard of in thine nightmares, ruled the land with a most foul and horrible reign. He ruled the land for centuries, claiming it as his own. This land that was under his control was to be known as the Dead Zone.”

Raze found himself lying on his back, getting to his hooves and looking around an area that seemed to be where Ponyville would have been. He could see that there wasn’t any signs of life however, and that the skies were nothing but dark and ominous clouds.

“Ponies everywhere were frightened, at the fear caused by the foul tyrant’s deeds. High above the Dead Zone, the tyrant ruled the land with an iron hoof and commanded an army of even more terrible Nightmares to aid in his conquest and domination of the ponies of his lands.”

Raze instantly felt a shuddering chill down his spine and turned, looking up and seeing an all black tower that seemed to be the only thing that dominated the landscape. With a loud bang of thunder, and a huge flash of lightning, Raze watched in unexplainable terror as several streams of what appeared to be black clouds began to form from the sides of the top most point in the tower. Raze went to draw his claymore, only to find that it wasn’t there. He looked nervously back up to the clouds as they then began to form a ring around the topmost part of the tower, getting bigger before Raze’s eyes, until he could no longer see the top. Raze thought about trying to run, but some part of his body wanted him to stay and see what was going on.

He watched with awe as hundreds of tendrils immediately began to shoot out from the gigantic cloud, each one twisting and writhing like a serpent, until they hit the surface of the earth around Raze. The sight that Raze beheld was beyond impressive. He could see that after one of the tendrils hit a spot on the ground directly in front of him; a group of what could only be described as demonic ponies stood boldly in front of him in all black armor. They all seemed to have black, bat-like wings, and the horns on their heads were more dangerous than what a normal unicorn would have. The manes that were visible on some of the ponies wildly danced around on their own accord like fire, and seemed just as dangerous as the rest of their bodies. Raze could see that one of the ponies had no emotion in its eyes, only appearing to see everything in solid red.

“The Nightmares were the tyrant’s heralds, following his orders without question, killing all who opposed his will. Each one spent their lives following in the service of the tyrant, and some even took pleasure in torturing his enemies.”

Raze watched, looking from the group of ponies to the tower and saw that what was left of the cloud began to form in the shape of a body. Raze immediately recognized the form, watching as two elongated claws exploded out of its sides before pointing out in a commanding manner. Raze froze up, looking back down as the demonic ponies charged forward towards his position like a pack of hungry wolves.

“This trend of violence and killing hath been recorded to even long before the great sorcerer Star-Swirl the Bearded had come onto the planet. However, not all of the tyrants minions were as vile, and black-hearted as he was known to be.”

Raze shielded his eyes as a blinding light consumed everything he saw. After a few moments he reopened them to find that he stood inside what was now the ruins of a destroyed town. He heard the sounds of somepony crying and turned, seeing a unicorn and her foal running from several of the demonic ponies that he had seen earlier. Raze took a step forward only to stop, watching as a wave of all black energy cut the unicorns pursuers off and prevented them from taking a step forward. The demonic ponies turned glaring fiercely as one of their own, only wearing a suit of shiny metallic armor and wielding an impossibly huge sword in what Raze assumed was both of his front claws, stepped forward to challenge them.

“There were few who actually went against the tyrant’s nightmares, and those who did were struck down on the spot without his notice. But one was able to quell the tide and seek justice. And it was one of their own, and he went by the name of Telemicus.”

Raze watched as the pony in armor charged, but before he could see the results of the initial clash, another bright white light began to consume everything around him and caused everything to disappear.

----

Raze blinked, looking at an all black ceiling from where he was. What in the hay... Raze thought, sitting up before climbing to his hooves, looking around and finding himself back in the room he was in and back on the opposite side of the bridge. He placed his prosthetic hoof on a random spot on the floor and felt that the book spine was out right in front of the other stuff.

He looked down, staring at the spine of the book and blinked as it looked to be in a lot better condition than when he got in there, and saw that several pages were now inside the book as well. Well that’s interesting. Raze thought, looking up from the book and to the pedestal. Hmm... It seems that this book and this pedestal are connected. Raze thought, opening the book and only seeing that most of the book was still missing. I wonder if there are more rooms in this place that are like that. He thought before stowing the now partially completed book back into the bag on his belt before putting the belt back on. Raze then replaced the lantern back from around his neck, blinking as the flame was back to the size it was from when he had first gotten it lit, and nodded before putting the face mask back on. That was an interesting lesson. Raze said mentally turning to the pedestal and nodding. “Thank you.” He said, giving a short bow to the pedestal before turning and leaving from the room through the now open door that was behind him.

It was only a short trip for Raze to return back to what was once the secretaries office. He could still see the message that was on the wall, but underneath it was a small key hole. Something inside Raze’s subconscious clicked as he grabbed the key that he had gotten from earlier and placed it in the hole.

It took a few seconds, but Raze could hear a gentle clicking sound. The room then began to tremble as dust from a huge section of the wall began to fall from it. After the clicking stopped, the section of the wall slid under a slot in the floor as did another one on the left wall of what Raze assumed was the world’s twisted version of the bathroom, making a grinding sound all of the way down until it fully disappeared. Raze felt lucky that he still had his face mask still on as a blast of hot and stale air slammed into him, that would have seriously hurt him if he hadn’t been monitoring his body heat and had the face mask to breath in.

Wow, that’s hot... Raze said, taking a step forward into the bathroom and freezing. Amongst the heat Raze could feel an extremely cold presence and turned, staring at the heavily armored pony from earlier as it stood from the other side of a bridge that appeared to cross a huge chasm. He could see that the pony’s face was concealed behind a fully-faced helm, and that the eyes were still completely obscured by the visor. Raze could also see that the black horn was built into the helmet which clued him into thinking that the pony wasn’t a unicorn at least.

Before Raze could speak a word he could hear the sounds of metal grinding on the tile from behind him. The radio began to sound out with static which caused him to tense up. Raze turned around and drew his claymore as several ponies that were similar to the ones that attacked him at his apartment appeared with at least ten or so foals from behind them. Raze took several steps backwards, feeling the heat increase significantly, but stood firm as the ponies and foals advanced on him. A pony that was closest to him lifted itself on its hind legs and brought them down rapidly, forcing Raze to block the hit.

After throwing the pony backwards and retaliating with a thrust of his own into its gash, Raze turned to see that the armored pony was leaving, and that it dragged its scythe in a non-chalant manner. Raze heard a dull growl and turned away from the pony, he immediately began blocking and throwing the attacks of several foals that were directed at him. Raze sidestepped another foal that charged at him, watching as it unfortunately was unable to stop itself before falling into the chasm. Raze ran to the edge and saw that a huge river of bright red and yellow lava had formed a river that seemed to split the school across. He turned a second time, narrowly avoiding an attack from one of the ponies that had gotten closer to him without him paying attention, and glared at the crowd of things that were closing in to try and kill him.

This is a fine mess that I’ve gotten myself into. Raze thought, blocking an attack from another pony and pushing it into several of the foals. He did a leaping dive into the pony and thrust his claymore into its injury before ripping it out. That bridge seems to be my only way out of here... Raze thought, taking a deep breath and feeling that the air had gotten hotter. Great, now I have the heat to worry about. He thought, feeling the temperature get significantly hotter again. Raze turned his attention back to the fight at hand and nodded, blocking another attack from another foal before sheathing his claymore and making a run for the bridge.

He could hear the growling and groaning of the foals and ponies that were behind him, but Raze didn’t care. He could also feel the heat of the lava that was far below him as he began to cross what was in a sense a bunch of rotten planks tied to a pair of ropes in between the two edges. Oh boy... Raze thought taking a quick, but nervous step out onto the first segment onto the bridge. After feeling that it was secure, Raze proceeded to walk out onto the bridge, carefully putting one hoof in front of the other while staring into what was an even larger pool of lava than what he originally thought.

Raze had gotten about three-quarters of the way across the bridge when he heard a loud, but pained roar. He turned, watching with shock as the foals and ponies began advancing out onto the bridge behind him. This is great... Raze thought, hurrying along as fast as he could with out trying to break the boards that he stood on. He was only several steps away when he heard a loud, SNAP, from one of the ropes holding the bridge, and immediately leapt to the side of the crevice, getting both of his front hooves on the edge. Crap, crap, crap, crap... Raze thought, struggling to pull himself up for a few minutes before hearing the other rope snap. He wanted to look back and see what was happening to his pursuers, but didn’t dare as he dangled from the side of the crevice. On three then... Raze thought nervously, hearing the screams and roars of pain from the ponies and foals that had fallen in.

One... Two... Three! Raze thought, swinging his back hooves over the edge and feeling them hit solid ground. Raze then immediately began to slide back to the wall on the other side of the hallway, and took several deep breaths. After a few moments Raze grabbed one of the Health Drink Sub-Zero bottles and removed the facemask he wore just enough so that he could take a swig. “That... Huff... Was too close...” Raze said, placing the facemask back on and feeling the temperature decrease on his body before getting up. He walked back over to the crevice and watched as the bridge had begun to catch fire, and shook his head. The things I get into for bits... He thought, turning away before following the path where the armored pony went.

Raze shook his head in stunned disbelief at what he saw next. He was staring at, well in the best definition, the ruins of the stairs that led to the second floor of the school or lack thereof. He could only see a set of chain linked fencing that blocked off empty air that was an obvious trap from where he stood, which led into the lava pit below. Oh for buck’s sake... Raze thought, staring at the empty stair-less case before stamping his prosthetic hoof. Now how am I supposed to get up to the next floor? He thought, turning away from the crevice and staring into the hall. He could see that the walls on this side of the chasm were covered with just as many veins and the same flesh color as the other side. He could also see that instead of metallic bars and remnants of a school floor, Raze was actually standing on a path made entirely from chain link fencing. This doesn’t bode well at all... Raze thought, walking over to one of the two doors that appeared to only be there to serve as decoration and touched it. He could feel an unnatural cold that resonated throughout his body and backed off, feeling the jingle of the fencing from underneath his hooves. Raze immediately continued to walk down the hallway, hearing the radio start up with static again before dying away after he got a safe enough distance away.

The second that Raze got around the corner, he could feel that the temperature had died down to almost normal levels. Well as normal as they were when he was away from the lava crevice. He could hear a quiet drip from one of the rooms that was on his left and immediately followed the sound to a black door that was several paces away from him. After testing the door and finding it unlocked, Raze stepped in and felt a refreshing blast of cool air that had made its residence inside.

Raze looked around and saw that he was in a different room than what he expected entirely. He thought that it was going to be a sort of classroom that would have followed the same looks as the previous rooms that he visited. Instead he was standing in would have gotten the Manehatten award for the most disturbing doctor’s office in Equestria.

The tile floor that Raze stood on was covered in blood and dirt, which immediately made his stomach feel queasy. He could see a lone sink that sat across from him, and that its faucet was spewing a vile looking brownish liquid that over filled the sink and spilled onto the floor. The walls were splashed with blood, as though a surgery that had gone horribly wrong had taken place, and even the ceiling of the room was covered in drying blood. An all glass mirror sat calmly above the sink, and showed Raze’s sweaty and exhausted form as he approached a heavily damaged operating table.

On the table’s surface lay several bolts that were similar to the ones that Raze had on him at the time. More bolts? What am I, this place’s handy mare? Raze thought, grabbing the bolts with his prosthetic hoof and examining them. He shrugged, placing the other bolts in the bag with his first set before turning to go. He heard the sounds of a loud crash from behind him and turned to see that the floor in the room’s reflection had collapsed, as the walls and ceiling took on an orange glow, with Raze staring at his reflection with worry. Okay... Raze thought, taking several steps towards the door and feeling significantly unnerved. He turned, placing his facemask back on his face.

Raze stepped out into the hall, turning back to his left and seeing the other door that was closest to where he stood. It too was black, and had the Seal of the Three Times painted in the dead center. He could see the heavily bloodied handle that threatened to fall from the door if he touched it, but walked over to it and grabbed it gingerly with his prosthetic hoof. After twisting the doorknob and opening the door, Raze stepped into a much larger room than what was next door. Immediately to his right he could see that there was a wheel with a lever that appeared to be heavily rusted over, but was attached to an extremely well-oiled but very brittle-looking gear and pulley system. He could see that at least two columns were lined perfectly together, and looked up to see that a platform that led to a door directly above him was in the same alignment.

Raze looked down at the floor and saw several rises in the tiled floor, each of which he assumed was a bridge that would help him get across to the other side of the room. Raze could also see that there were a bunch of bodies scattered all across the room’s tile floor like ragdolls that made it seem that this was something not to take lightly. Okay now… He thought, taking a step forward and seeing that the raised platform sank under his weight. Raze removed his hoof and stared at the platforms for a second before looking at the column. Hmm… Raze thought, looking at the column and taking a step out onto the tile floor. He could see that there were several holes that appeared to be drilled in the sides of the column. He could also see that directly on the left side of the room was a page of paper that seemed to be barely hanging on to the wall by a piece of tape. Raze calmly walked over to it, grabbing the page with his prosthetic hoof before reading it. He could barely make out the writing; it looked more like simple chicken scratches and loops, but the message could be read as:

We are not one of The King’s chosen… We have failed in our divine mission, and as such have brought disgrace to the Organization. However, each of us has brought one clue that can help the pony lucky enough to read this.

Eight anchors have been received, Eight anchors that lead to heaven…

All signs point to purity of the anchors in one of the holy marks…

The weakest of the anchors cannot hold heaven, and will cause the collapse of the world…

To ascend to the heavens, embrace the darkness and endure. The light of the wicked shall give no solace…

The sum of the order is the first two positions of the anchors.

Only foals believe the hints of the unholy.

Holy hints are the first and holy prime number. Unholy hints are the next number in line.

Two truths sit together side by side. As does two lies. These will lead you unto the path of heaven…

Up to the heavens, down to hell. Right and left are irrelevant, as the truth of glory will not escape this night. Let the full circle of the Wheel of Fortune resound this night, and beware the power of Cigam’s Light.

Raze stared at the paper and rubbed his temples as it started getting really confusing really fast. What in the hay… Raze thought, looking at the paper again. I could be standing here forever… He thought, looking over the page a second time. He put the page in his mouth, opening his bag and pulling out all of the bolts that were inside and looking at them all closely. Could the anchors of heaven mean these bolts here? Raze thought, looking at the bolts again. He blinked, seeing that the smaller bolts appeared to have a number two ground deep into them that he hadn’t noticed before. Okay, that’s interesting. Raze said mentally before looking back to the letter. This still is a lot of mumbo-jumbo non-… Hold on a sec! He thought, looking back over to the paper and reading it over. I think I get it… though they could have been a lot vaguer with the clues that they were giving me. In any case… Raze turned, stuffing the page and the bolts back into his bag before walking over to the central column and giving it a closer look. He nodded as his suspicions were confirmed, seeing that several holes were drilled in and spaced out in such a way that it made the column look like the bolts would be installed to secure the support to the top platform. He circled it several times, making a note of every deviation in size before pulling the page out again. Raze nodded, looking from the page to the holes that were drilled in the page and back again before placing the paper on the central column and dragging out the bolts and the wrench.

All right… You go here… Raze thought, taking one of the larger bolts in a hole directly underneath the page of paper. He then walked to the next hole which was directly across from the third column and placed another large bolt in the hole there and nodded. You go there… He said in his brain, walking to the back side of the column and staring at two more holes that appeared to be wide enough to be the positions for the widest bolts that he had left. And you two go here and here at parts six and seven… Raze thought, grabbing the wrench from the floor that he had left on the side of the column that he had started on.

Raze spent several minutes, tightening the larger bolts down until they were to his satisfaction, and grabbed the smaller bolts and proceeded to place them in the remaining four spots. You guys go in spots two, three, five, and eight… He thought, tightening them down with the wrench before nodding. Now all that’s left is the Wheel of Fortune. Raze thought, turning to the wheel that sat closest to the door. Raze quickly grabbed the clue sheet before walking over to the wheel and stared at it closely. If I think about it, this should be an easy one now. Raze thought, looking at the wheel handle before grabbing it with his prosthetic hoof. From where he stood, Raze would have to rotate it a few times from the right to the left if it worked properly, and after grunting and groaning on the handle for a few seconds he could feel the wheel start cranking easier as he continued moving it.

Raze then looked over his shoulder watching as with every revolution on the wheel that he completed, the raised tiles got higher and higher. Raze smiled confidently at the sight, continuing to go faster and faster until he heard a clunk and couldn’t move the wheel any more. Raze looked up, seeing that the platforms were now level with both columns in the room and smiled. Well that will make things a heck of a lot easier when I get up there. Raze thought, checking the wheel and finding that he was unable to move it either way. Well that’s great. Now I should be able to get up there without it falling back to the base floor.

As Raze turned to leave, he immediately felt a reverberating shock of pain pound all throughout his chest. He dropped to the ground, groaning as his body continued to ache and twitch all over. The pain that Raze felt was agonizing, and to add to his misery, his body temperature began to increase significantly as the attack happened. He cried out in pain, feeling the surge of heat grow all throughout his body for a few seconds before dissipating. Raze could feel that his body was still aching, but felt that he stopped twitching.

Ugh… what in the hay… Raze thought, trying to get to his hooves but falling to the floor. He continued to tremble, reaching for the nearly empty Health drink bottle and opened it before chugging the contents down until there was nothing left. Raze could feel the pain slowly ebb away, but could see that it wasn’t keeping his body temperature down. He threw the empty Health Drink bottle aside and grabbed the partially full Health Drink Sub-Zero from his belt and opened it before chugging it a little. After feeling that his body had significantly cooled down to almost normal temperatures, Raze got to his hooves unsteadily. That was too close… He thought, panting a little before taking another swallow of the bottle’s contents. I’ve gotta pay more attention to the heat around here… I could have been killed just now… Raze thought, taking a few gulps of air before closing the Health Drink Sub-Zero and putting it back on his belt. That cost me what was left of that Health Drink… I think that I need a break before moving on… Raze thought, walking over to the right of the room’s door, before sitting down.

Raze remained where he sat for several minutes before getting back on his hooves and grabbing the facemask from his bag after taking another swallow from the now half-empty Health Drink Sub-Zero, and placed it over his face. Raze then turned to the doorknob, grabbing it with his prosthetic hoof and opening it and stepping back into the hallway.

After walking around the corner, and seeing that there were no doors that he could even try, Raze immediately did an about face and headed past both the pillar room and the doctor’s room and headed to the only other unlocked door on his side of the crevice. He couldn’t feel the same icy-cold presence on the other side of the door from before, so he opened the door in such a way as to keep him from anything that might have been dangerous and nervously walked inside. He could see a rusted and very bloody ladder that led up to a hole in the floor above him. Raze could also see that behind the ladder was the Seal of the Three Times, painted several times on the back wall and glowing like fire.

Crap… Raze thought, feeling another headache coming on. Quickly Raze grabbed onto the ladder and began to climb, feeling extremely weak as he did so. This is foal’s stuff Raze… He thought, egging himself on through the headache. You can do it, just a little more… Raze said, pushing himself to the top of the ladder and onto the connecting floor. He immediately rolled away from the ladder, clutching his head with his hooves and lying in a heap. After a few moments, Raze stood up and stretched his wings a little before breathing deeply. What’s the deal with these things? He thought nervously as the headache was now gone, but the nervousness of what he had felt wasn’t. Is it a warning of some kind? Raze thought, looking to the only other door in the room he had entered and saw that it was something that one would see guarding a fenced off area, looking more of like a chain linked gate than a door.

Well there’s only one way forward… Raze thought, grabbing the Health Drink Sub-Zero and opening it before taking a swig. After closing the bottle and placing it back on his belt, Raze resecured the facemask to his face before walking to the gate-like door and opening it.

The second floor of the school had taken a much different look to the area than what the first floor had. While the first floor looked like an elementary school that had seemed to be in extreme disrepair that hung over a huge pool of lava, the second floor felt more cage-like than any school hallway that Raze had walked through before. To his left Raze could see that there was a huge chain link fence that was covered with several flesh-colored metal planks not several paces into the connecting hall. He could also see that the faint glow that made most of the previous floor illuminated brightly, all of the pipes and planks that held the ceiling together made the glow almost non-existent.

Raze looked down at the lantern that was around his neck and saw that the flame was also non-existent, before holding up a hoof and concentrating. After a small pop, Raze held a sizeable fireball in his hoof and smiled before passing it into the lantern and making it bigger. After feeling satisfied that the light that the lantern gave off was an appropriate size, Raze looked around and gasped.

The floors that he stood on were nothing more than chain link fencing, and were covered in blood. He could see several chains dangling from the ceiling, and in some cases the walls, all either covered in blood or bound a part of a foal. The ceiling in particular was covered in feathers, and as one dropped gently from one of the links in the ceiling he could tell that they were pegasus feathers. This isn’t a school… Raze thought, grabbing the feather and clutching it. He could feel his blood boiling, and tensed up as the Radio began to blare with static a second time.

Raze looked up seeing several more ponies advance on him, their blades grinding across the chain link fencing what was under Raze’s hooves. He could feel the fencing underneath his hooves shake a little even as he drew his claymore, and glared angrily at the five or so ponies that were closing in on him. Raze could feel his anger continue to accumulate, charging directly at the group of ponies and catching them all off guard.

The pony in the center of the group immediately threw its blades up to defend itself against Raze’s reckless charge, only to expose its gash to Raze. He thrusted deep into the defender’s injury and knocking it to the ground, the pony’s roaring cries echoed throughout the hall before it fell silent. Raze removed the blade from the corpse of his first target, swinging at one of the ponies at the wall who moved out of reach from Raze’s attack. Raze cursed himself for the careless mistake and calmed down before advancing on the pony, who seemed to back away slowly.

Raze heard a loud growl behind him and turned, narrowly avoiding another pony from slashing its front legs into his back flank. The pony, who was obviously trying to get an extra chance to strike Raze, reeled back and began to bring its hooves down on the pegasus only to be met with another thrust into the gash of its chest. The pony let out a gurgling scream as its blood began to leak all over Raze’s sword. After a few tugs, Raze removed his claymore from the pony’s corpse and turned to his side as the remaining four ponies blocked his path back to the ladder. Raze watched, hearing as they all began to roar in sequence, and took several steps back as he could see the walls around the gate began to bulge slightly.

That’s not good… Raze thought mentally. Raze watched the walls behind the four ponies, and jumped as several axe-like blades began to punch holes into the walls. Raze tensed up and charged at the roaring ponies, picking one out from the bunch and diving at it. The pony on the furthest from the left didn’t seem to notice, as did none of the others until its roaring stopped. Raze’s claymore was buried deep into the pony’s body, running through the center of it and seemingly vertical with the body. With a heave and a roar, Raze threw the now dead pony into its compatriots, knocking them all into a heap on the ground. The next sound that he heard however chilled him to the bone.

“That pony hurt mommy…” Raze could hear the voice of a foal from one of the holes in the walls and turned to the now heavily damaged wall.

“That’s a mean pony…” Another voice moaned.

“We should do something…” Another foal said calmly.

“Angelus would give us our mommies back if we did…” Another foal droned.

Raze could hear the muffled sounds of something bashing against the walls around the door. This is definitely not good… Raze thought, sheathing his claymore nervously and taking several hoof steps backwards. His thoughts matched the scene as several sections of the walls broke off, revealing several foals all crawling through the holes that were made and forming around the larger ponies. In less than a few seconds Raze could see that there were at least twenty or thirty of the foals around the ponies, each all ready to attack at a moment’s notice and with more trying to claw their way to him.
Oh buck this… Raze thought, turning to run. He could hear the sounds of roaring from behind him, and felt the hooves from the foals doing their best to keep up with him as he raced down the hall. Raze could see a door to his left and immediately made a break for it, seeing the entrance to the puzzle room on the floor beneath him. Quickly, Raze grabbed the handle and threw the door open and jumped quickly inside, hearing the stampede stop directly in front of the door and begin to beat it down as he locked it. Raze turned, seeing that the platforms from the room below were still in place, and that he still had a somewhat safe place to run to until they knocked the door down and found a way across.

He jumped, nearly falling from the catwalk platform as one of the many axe-like blades pierced the door, and turned his attention to the door. It’s not going to last too much longer… Raze thought, turning back to the platforms that were now his only method of escape. He looked down and saw that he was a lot higher up than what he had first imagined, and shied away from the edge of the platform that he stood on and gulped. This is really nuts… Raze thought, hearing another whack from the door behind him and jumped a little. There’s a horde of those things on my tail, and I have a jump that I can make. I can do this. Raze thought, hearing the cold droning sounds of the foals saying that he, “Hurt mommy,” and that “He’s getting away,” as he got ready to cross. Raze could hear another loud bang and closed his eyes, in an attempt to shut everything out. After taking a relaxing breath, Raze ran to the edge of his platform and jumped the next one in sequence, his wings beating at his sides wildly as he landed and began to jump a second time. Raze landed somewhat clumsily on the second platform, but recovered, and made a short hop across to the next platform in the sequence. Raze heard a final bang from the door and turned, watching as the door shattered to pieces, and hurriedly jumped across to the fourth platform while listening to the growls and groans of the ponies and foals that were behind him.

Raze leapt to the central column, turning around as one of the foals tried to leap after him but fell short of the jump and fell to the floor below. Raze tried to hide his joy at being in a place where his pursuers couldn’t reach him, but didn’t focus on that now as the other ponies and foals remained where they were, growling and hissing at them. Hah! Serves you right. Raze thought turning his back to the horde of creatures that were unable to get him. Raze relaxed, crossing the platform on the central column and jumped to the next platform on the sequence with ease. After jumping across the last gaps in the platforms and turning around, Raze could see that the ponies on the opposing side seemed to break off from their chase, leaving several foals to their own devices. Raze nodded confidently, removing the facemask from his face and grabbing the half-empty Health Drink Sub-Zero and drinking from it lightly. He checked the runes that were on the back of the mask; their color was a dark brown but instantly changed to a bright white as the feeling of a gentle cold washed over him.

After placing the facemask back on his face, Raze looked around and saw that another ladder was folded up and positioned on the platform of the column in such a way that would have made it impossible for somepony to see it from the bottom floor. That’s interesting. Raze thought, grabbing the ladder and standing it up. He could see that it could extend, but he also noticed that it was so badly rusted that it looked like it would fall apart if more than one pony would have gotten on it.
Raze tested the ladder with his prosthetic hoof nervously, hearing it creak under his weight but not so much as to force him to use something else. After climbing on the first set of rungs on the ladder, and felt that it was secure enough for him to climb on, Raze got off of the ladder and began to extend it to another hole that was cut into the ceiling. As he saw the end of the ladder touch and finally over-shoot into the hole, Raze did his best to spin the ladder around to face the wall without falling off of the platform. It took several minutes of working, but he managed to get it up to his desired position without much resistance. All right… Up and up I go, where I stop… Raze thought, grabbing the ladder nervously. Nopony knows.

Raze’s climb up the ladder was even more nerve wracking than the first climb, and made it so that he took each step carefully. He heard a loud groan from halfway up and sped up on his climb, quickly making it to the top of the ladder and into the following floor before it shattered and crashed to the floor beneath him. Whew… I’m glad that held until I got up here… Raze thought, looking down at the floor below him. Raze looked up and remained speechless, his eyes not believing what he saw.

The room that Raze stood in was completely opposite of what a classroom in an elementary school should have been. The walls were heavily stained with blood, and were also covered in heavy burns. The ceiling was completely missing, and gave way to extremely black and heavy storm clouds that seemed to be pushed around in a circular motion. Raze returned his attention to the room and saw that there were two doors that were on the adjacent walls, one of which was covered by heavy boards and planks, while the other door didn’t seem to have any other obstructions to it. The décor of the room wasn’t the thing that disturbed him though.

Raze could see that several crosses dotted the room’s space, each with the dead remains of a pony hanging from nails that were driven into their front and back hooves. What in the… Was all that Raze could say at the sight, walking to a crucified pony and staring at it closely. This is far beyond cruel… This is animalistic. Raze thought, seeing that the exposed pony’s chest had been ripped open with the insides missing. He could see that several bodies were just tossed off to one of the walls on the side, ranging from pegasi to unicorns without their horns and earth ponies. He could see that some of the flanks had the mark of the Seal of the Three Times over what at one point had been their Cutie Marks, and blazoned red with fire.

Raze turned away from the scene, the control of his rage nearly reaching a breaking point. He quietly walked to the door on the wall to his left, grabbing the handle with his prosthetic hoof and opening it to reveal another room that was just like the first room in every way except that there was a broken wall that led out into the proceeding hall. Raze quickly walked into the hall, feeling his body shiver as a stairway that appeared to be blocked off by several wooden planks met his sight. Raze could see that the stairs in the stairway were made of metal that glowed white with heat, and turned to his right and stared at a long corridor that was ahead of him.

This feels familiar… Too familiar… Raze thought, taking several steps and hearing the laughter of a little foal. Raze looked and saw that a little sea foam green pegasus foal ran past him, followed closely by a red unicorn filly with a pink mane and tail and a heavily freckled unicorn colt with a red mane and tail. Raze followed them, the hairs stood on the back of his neck as they seemingly disappeared behind an all-black door in front of him. Raze remained nervous, taking several steps closer to the door and reached out to grab it.

He jumped, hearing the crinkling of paper to his right and saw that a piece of paper was dangling from a knife that was buried halfway down into the wall that was blade first. Raze walked over to the paper, grabbing it from where it was on the wall and yanking it from the blade. Hmm… It looks like a note. Raze thought, reading the page closely. It said,

I know that you have been following me.

You cannot escape the things that you have done Raising Shadows. And it’s time that you knew who I was.

Meet me at Sugarcube Corner. And please don’t be late. We both have appointments to keep up with.

Anonymous

Raze blinked at the letter, staring at it nervously before reading it a second time. Is this a threat? He asked mentally, expecting the paper to give him an answer. After not receiving one, Raze stuffed it into his bag and turned back to the black door nervously. He could hear the laughter of the foals that were inside, and walked up to the door before grabbing the handle. An ice-cold chill shot through his spine, forcing him to let the door go, and caused him to tremble. He shook himself out of the trembling and grabbed the doorknob, feeling nothing but dread as he opened it, taking several steps inside.
He remained quiet, closing the door behind him, but could feel his heart shatter as a memory he thought that he had buried long ago had begun to play before his eyes.

----

-Eight Years Ago-

“Wow! That’s amazing!” Little Raze exclaimed, staring at Morning Dew as the picture of a wrench twisting a bolt was on his flank.

“Dad’s proud of me, and Mom’s throwing me a party to celebrate!” Morning Dew said happily.

“All right you two. We need to get this stuff moved out of here. After all, You are all going to set the example to the younger foals.” Sparkler said, watching as both Morning Dew and Little Raze began to get to work cleaning up the once empty janitor’s closet that Morning Dew used as his own private lab.

“It’s kinda sad…” Little Raze began, holding a wrench with both of his front hooves before putting it in Morning Dew’s toolbox. Both Sparkler and Morning Dew stared at Little Raze curiously.

“What’s wrong Raising Shadows?” Morning Dew asked.

“You can tell us, we’re your friends after all.” Sparkler added.

----

Little Raze remained quiet; and as he was about to speak the memory seemed to fast forward, so much so that the little foal was surrounded by four other dead foals, and a severely hurt Morning Dew clutched in his hooves.

----

“No… No, no, no, no, no!” Little Raze screamed, his body was covered in burns as a fire continued to rage all around them both. Morning Dew was fading fast, and he wasn’t in much better shape either.

“Raising… Shadows… Why?” Morning Dew asked weakly. “Why did you hurt everypony? Why did you… Hurt me?” He asked, coughing up a little blood.

Just as Little Raze was about to answer, a beam of white light shot into the burning room, and surrounded both foals. Little Raze looked over his shoulder and cringed as Princess Celestia was standing firm in the connecting hall, her face a mix of anger and disappointment as she stood with a team of fire ponies that began to put out the fires that were around the ponies. Her magic lifted both foals off of the ground and into a stretcher that was made out for them, and in an instant they all disappeared. Little Raze didn’t see the look on her face as they teleported out of the burning building, but could tell that she was more than ashamed of him.

----

Raze was silent, the room before him was just like what it had turned into on that day. He could see several foal-sized bodies in the center of the room, charred and unidentifiable by the look of how the fire was. The shelving in the room was reduced to ashes and splinters, and the only thing that was left in the room that was recognizable was a huge cross with a unicorn pony that Raze recognized.

“Sparkler!” Raze exclaimed, walking over to the left side of the room and seeing the red unicorn hang dejectedly from the cross.

The unicorn made no sounds; she didn’t even seem to be breathing let alone alive, and that as the pegasus got closer he could feel that something was wrong.

“Why…” A quiet voice asked. Raze looked around and blinked. “Why did you do it?”

Raze looked up and saw that Sparkler’s head rose, showing nothing but all black eyes as they stared at each other. Raze took several steps backwards and trembled.

“Why did you take me away from my cousin?” Sparkler asked angrily, glaring at Raze with her cold and dead eyes. She continued staring, watching as Raze was unable to give an answer, and growled. “I said, why did you take me away from my cousin? From my Family? From the life that I had!”

Raze took several steps backwards, unable to answer Sparkler’s questions. Sparkler laughed a little, but it was a cold, baleful laugh that chilled him to the bone.

“Don’t bother answering.” Sparkler said before Raze could answer. “I knew that you were jealous. Jealous of me and Morning Dew, and of all of those other pegasi who didn’t get to see their families again on that night.”

“That’s not true.” Raze countered, staring at Sparkler. “I didn’t mean to-”

“You didn’t mean to?” Sparkler snapped, cutting Raze off. “HA! You really expect me to believe that? After what you did to us?” She continued to glare at Raze, who fell silent. “I don’t expect somepony like you to care. You never really did, I mean after all you killed four foals. Why not kill some more?”

“I didn’t kill any foals!” Raze shouted.

Sparkler rolled her eyes. “Oh of course you didn’t. You’re Celestia’s perfect little angel. You couldn’t do anything wrong if you tried.”

Raze stamped his hoof. “That’s not true!” He shouted, his anger rising. “I may have been adopted by the Princess, but I was by no means perfect!”

Sparkler shook her head. “And? Heh, you were probably commended by what you did to us.” She scoffed. “If you don’t believe me, why didn’t she say anything to you when you left us there to die?”

Sparkler’s words hit Raze home. He remained silent, all of his anger disappearing at the sight of his adoptive mother’s face glaring at him against the blaze as he held Morning Dew in his hooves. He didn’t know what she felt, she didn’t say anything to him after they had left for the hospital and that he was completely isolated from the whole rest of Equestria.

A tear dropped from his eye as Sparkler’s words echoed from within Raze’s brain. She was right, he had committed an unspeakable act, something that would have been straight up exile for another pony, and had gotten away with it.

That’s not entirely true. A voice, somewhat gentle and somewhat comforting said in his brain. You knew that what you had done was wrong. You carried out a punishment that she wasn’t able to do on you because you knew it was wrong. And that you knew that if she wasn’t going to do it, somepony else was. And the whole of Equestria would have been put into chaos. The voice said, in such a way that sounded like a cross between apologetic and assertive. A true knight wouldn’t have let Equestria fall just because of some disagreement between the Princess and her subjects.

“You shouldn’t even exist. You are nothing but an insignificant pile of filth that shouldn’t be here. Especially when the world changes.” Sparkler snapped.

“When the world changes?” Raze asked, looking at the unicorn copy of his friend. “What in the hay are you talking about?”

Sparkler smiled, nodding as though she was listening to a joke that ran in her brain. “Why the coming of the Dead Zone, and the one true king of this world.” She said, looking at Raze with malice. “You can’t stop it. I mean, look around you. By the time you’re done here, the Dead Zone will take the place of your precious Equestria, and the King of Thestrals will walk the land once again!”

Raze shook his head, staring at the psychotic mare as she began to laugh maniacally. He turned to leave, walking to the door and grabbing the doorknob. He twisted the knob, finding that it was unable to be opened, and wheeled back onto Sparkler who had stopped laughing and fell silent. “What in the buck did you do Sparkler.” Raze said, walking over to the silent unicorn and receiving no response.

As Raze tried to talk to Sparkler, a fire burst off to his right and began to grow bigger by the second. Oh shoot! Raze thought, stepping back towards the door. He jumped after turning to see that another flame had burst alive right behind him, in front of the door that appeared to be his only escape.

Raze hurriedly looked all around the room for a sign of a way out, his options of survival looking less and less as the seconds passed. Another flame exploded from underneath the cross that Sparkler was attached to, and began to consume her body. “Sparkler!” He shouted, staring at the body as it continued to be consumed in flames. He reached out to the corpse, but reeled back as some of the flames threatened to lap up onto him. Come on now Raze… Think! There has to be some way out of here! Raze thought, looking around.

Suddenly, as if somepony was looking out for him, a window slowly faded in from non-existence. It wasn’t too much, but he could see that it was opened to reveal the world outside of the school before he entered, and Raze ran over to it.

He could see on the other side of the window a huge patch of open and burnt ground, but there wasn’t too much for him to land on that would break his fall. He turned, watching as the room behind him was quickly running out of space, and nodded before returning his gaze back to the open window. Well it sure beats being burned alive… Raze thought somberly, climbing onto the window sill before looking down. Yeah, this is totally safe. Celestia help me… If I make it out of this thing alive, I’m personally going to escort Angelus and his gang of hoodlums to the moon. He thought, looking back at the room one last time before jumping.

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Silent Ponyville, The Crimson Bond

Mature Rated Fiction

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