//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: No Time Left (5 hours Until Dawn) Part 2 // Story: Blackhoof Mountain // by DeskManiac //------------------------------// 2:30 a.m. The duo descended down the dark narrow stairwell. Discord held a fireball in his claw and Twilight emitted a soft glow from her horn. At the foot of the stairs lie the dark and desolate basement. Discord wasted no time searching the basement. He flipped over everything he could find but they were all junk. After wasting a considerable amount of time searching, the duo reached the door to the lower floors. Discord jiggled the door handle to find that it was locked. “It’s funny how we've never been down there before,” Discord mused. “Well,” replied Twilight, “Pinkie told me that it was just unfinished construction back there.” “And you believed her?” Discord shot a skeptical look towards her. “Well,” Twilight stopped mid-sentence, trying to resist her doubt, “Why would she lie to me?” Discord kept his serious expression, reached for the door handle, and burnt the door down. Twilight jumped back from the scorching flames. In mere moments they stood before a brightly lit stairwell. “Seems like uncomplete construction to me,” Discord said sarcastically. Twilight gaped mouth wide. Discord continued, “And don’t you find it odd there’s electricity here?” Twilight froze in shock. Why would Pinkie lie about this place? “No.” Twilight said icily. “I know where you’re going with this, and I’m telling you it’s not Pinkie,” she gritted her teeth. “No?” Discord raised a brow. “Then how do you explain this? How do you explain any of this?!” He raised both paws in the air. Twilight racked her brain for possible explanations, but could come up with none. “I… I don’t know… Maybe she just wanted us to stay away, that's all...” Twilight winced. "From what? The buried bodies of her victims?!" shouted Discord. Twilight didn't reply. “She was the one who invited us all to this God-forsaken mountain in the middle of nowhere! We leave her with our friends for a few hours and now they’re all gone! If I hadn’t known better I’d say she’s got all our friends held up downstairs ready to be fed to wendigos!” “Stop it!” Twilight shouted, “I don’t know why this is here but we shouldn’t accuse our friends like that! There could be many other possibilities! We don’t know yet!” Discord rubbed his forehead. Twilight sniffed, “I know it’s not her…” Discord calmed. There was no point starting a fight again. If he had to, he’d just have to show her the cold hard evidence. “Come on, let’s go,” Discord ushered, “We’re not going to find any answers standing around.” Discord took the first step down, and Twilight followed. At the end of the stairs was a dimly lit corridor. The two proceeded cautiously, reaching another door at the end of the hall. This time the door wasn't locked, so Discord turned the knob. There wasn’t any light inside, so he had to relight his fire. The the room resembled a workshop. There was a large table at the center and many drawers on the sides. He drew his fire close to the surfaces he walked by, carefully observing each and every item in the room. There were the usual tools, like hammers and pliers, then there were chains and hooks. Personally, he wasn’t fazed by any of it but Twilight kept gasping at everything she saw. Discord stopped for a moment. Across the room he saw five strands of colours on the wall. Curious, Discord neared it slowly. As he approached the wall his eyes began to widen. His heart raced as he realised what the five strands of colours were. In front of him were six names, with five tails pinned beneath them: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity. Only one bundle was missing: Twilight’s. Behind him he heard a loud gasp. Discord turned around to see Twilight looking up in horror. “No, this- This can’t be happening.” Twilight shook. “My friends, they- They can’t be dead!” "Twi..." “This is all just a just a big joke to mess with us. Yeah that’s it!” More tears formed in her eyes. “That’s it! It’s all a ruse to make us think they’re dead so that this-” Twilight didn’t even know what she was saying anymore. “This kidnapper would get away with taking our friends! It’d make the police think they’re dead so they’d stop looking for them. And they’d go missing forever!” “Twilight stop.” “Tell me! Tell me it’s true!” Twilight grabbed onto Discord. Discord looked into her eyes. Behind the tears he could see that hope was quickly seeping away from her. Discord frowned. “Twi you listen to me. You told me that there could be many possibilities out there, and we don’t know if any is certain.” Discord swallowed, “And it’s under these circumstances we need to keep a cool head as much as possible.” As Twilight listened, her grip began to loosen, “I can’t say if any of your friends are alive at this point, but we could still stop the killer,” Discord paused. “Together.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she eyed his belly. “I’m sorry,” she said in a hoarse voice, “I overreacted.” Discord smiled and pulled her into an embrace. “We’ll find our friends.” Inwardly he really prayed he would find Fluttershy first. Twilight pulled from the hug. “We should keep going,” she said. Discord nodded and relit his fire. At least he now knew that Pinkie wasn’t behind all this. But things only made less sense now. Who or what owns this place? And did Pinkie know? They found an exit on the other side of the room. It opened to another corridor. They walked until they reached another door. To the left of the door the corridor continued, and there was a glass pane at the end of it. The room inside was pitch black, so nothing behind the panel could be seen. Twilight decided to investigate the room in front of them first. The door was heavy and she used all her strength to pull it open. She leaned against the open door to try and keep it open. “Alright Discord, come in,” she waited, but there wasn't a reply. "Discord?” Discord wasn’t listening. His gaze was on the glass pane. Where there was pitch blackness in the room now was light, and Discord could see very clearly who was at the other side of the glass. A yellow pony, pink-haired, was sitting unconsciously in a chair. Discord's legs began taking him down the corridor. Walks turned into running as his heart burst with joy at seeing his yellow pegasus friend again. “DISCORD!” Twilight shouted, moments before the door shut. But Discord couldn't care. His prized possession was waiting right in front of him, yearning to be rescued. Discord threw open the door. “Fluttershy!” He bent down and grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. “Oh I’m so glad I found you! I thought-” Something didn’t feel right. Was Fluttershy always this soft? Discord held the pony away from him. It was nothing but a doll. Caught in his surprise, gas suddenly filled the room. Quickly realizing that it was a trap, Discord turned to escape. But then he heard a voice coming through the door behind him. “Help! I’m trapped in here!” It was Fluttershy’s voice. He knew it. Discord ran but stopped. What if it’s another trap? “Please! No! Don’t do this to me!” Fluttershy shouted. Discord couldn’t take it. He burst the door open. “Fluttershy?!” There was nothing but a tape recorder sitting on the floor. Before he could react, another shot of gas shot in his face. Discord took a step back, and fell. Before he could look up again a club striked his face, leaving him with only moments of consciousness. Unable to get up, he rested his heavy head on its side. Discord cursed his only weakness. Before he drifted into the darkness, he saw one last thing. A pair of brown feet. Twilight grumbled. What the heck does Discord think he's doing? She tried pushing on the door again, but it was stuck. She was trapped for now. But she wasn’t just trapped in any room. In front of her were dozens of monitors. The monitors lined the wall from the very top of the ceiling down to a control panel in front of her. She reached out and pressed one of the buttons. Immediately a screen replayed their conversation at the lodge, just before she and Discord left. Out of curiosity, she pressed another button and saw Applejack and Pinkie running through the woods. Another screen showed her going up the radio tower. As Twilight played with more buttons, more of tonight’s events were played out. Every second, every minute of tonight was recorded on the screens. That's when the realisation dawned upon her. They were being watched the whole time. Twilight rewind the footage more in hopes to find some clues. She watched as the screens showed her friends being abducted by a scarecrow-looking pony. She couldn't bear to watch it, but she needed to know what happened. She watched as the scarecrow pony drag a body sack through the snow, as it chased and captured Fluttershy, as it assaulted Applejack in the lodge, and strangled Rarity at the station. Twilight watched in horror as her friends disappeared from the screens one by one. But there was one clip missing. At 11:05pm the footage around the shed stopped playing, after showing Pinkie laying at the door. The footage resumed at 11:10pm, which by then Pinkie had disappeared from all the surveillance cameras completely. Twilight could only assume that that was the time frame when Pinkie was abducted. But why was the footage removed? Twilight pondered. The killer has been abducting her friends without fear of being captured on tape. But the one where it captures Pinkie was removed. Why? Capturing Pinkie wouldn't have been any different from capturing the rest. Unless... The killer had its mask removed during that time. It made sense. The killer had its mask on in all the footages. It could have fallen off during the confrontation with Pinkie. But why bother? If the killer has stayed hidden for years, no one would recognize it. Unless... The killer was easily recognizable. That meant the killer would be exposed without its mask. Beneath that mask wasn't a disfigured pony, but a pony that could be identified by them or the police. But who? Twilight sat back in the chair. The more she thought the less it made sense. Finally she decided she's had enough. She needed to get out of here soon and regroup with Discord, wherever that idiot draconequus was. With a push of a button she shut off the monitors. Suddenly gas begun to fill the room. Twilight immediately recognized it as sleeping gas. "Dammit!" She was caught. She should have known better not to linger for too long. She tried the door she came in from but it was still stuck. There was another exit, a wooden door, but it was locked. Twilight paced around the room, trying her best not to inhale any of the fumes. Glancing around, she noticed a bunch of keys with a small balloon keychain sitting on a table. Instinctively, she grabbed it with her magic and held it to her face. A wide smile stretched between her ears. For the first time tonight, she found relief. Gas released from the keychain onto her face. Twilight coughed as she stumbled disorientatedly around the room. Chloroform in a keychain? But she had no time to think about who or how that trick was devised. She stumbled desperately towards the wooden door and struggled to find the right key. Finally, with a turn of the handle she fell onto the floor. Twilight scanned the room she was now in. Two wooden chairs and a table sat idly in the darkness. Above them was what she could make out as buzz saws. Twilight used her remaining strength to crawl forward. The chloroform was quickly taking effect. She blacked out.