“Why are we waiting in a bus when there’s a killer in the house fifty feet from us?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Good point,” said Spike. Simultaneously, everyone grabbed their belongings and hurried off the bus. There wasn’t a whole lot of items that were brought for the guys road trip, except food and sorts of clothing, like Tyrone’s myriad of sport hats. Poncho and his group also soon learned that Twilight carried books with her everywhere she went. Fluttershy told the group this was normal, but they still found it weird, even by their means.
“Let’s just walk down the road,” said Sticky, looking down the long road ahead, “we’re bound to run into a car or small town eventually.”
With that notion, the long journey walking down the road ahead began. They walked for about twenty minutes without any signs of progress. The road was flat, and the surroundings were a forest that seemed to never end on their right, with plains that stretched across the horizon on their left. After another few minutes of walking they came across a two-way split in the road.
“Let’s stop here for now,” said Poncho, “I’m tired.”
“I agree,” said Twilight, “I found an interesting bit of information reading this book while we were walking.” She took out one of her many books that she had brought and sifted through the pages. She finally stopped and pointed to a picture of a strange marking.
“Wait,” said Cannon, “wasn’t this on the door of that house where we found Quantico?”
“Yes!” replied Twilight, “I knew I saw those before so I had to look them up, sure enough, they are in here.”
“Well, what do the markings mean?” asked Patel. Curiosity also took advantage of the others.
“According to this,” said Twilight as she tapped on the book, “that marking is the symbol of a cult whose name is “Phaselus Civilis.” This cult is known around these parts, but their motives are still shrouded in a mystery. This book also says if you ever do meet a member of Phaselus Civilis then bad fortunes are to ensue upon you, but it’s just a myth.” The group sat there in silence.
“That’s some BS manye,” said Tyrone, “we never came across any members of that cult and these bad things are happenin’ to us!" He sat there with an angry look of his face. “What do these punk-ass bitches look like?”
“I have no idea,” said Twilight as she sifted through the book again and searched for a picture of the cult’s attire. She gave up after finding nothing. As she set the book back down, an envelope fell down from inside of the book. “What the...that wasn’t here before when I was in Seaddle.” She picked it up and dropped it in horror. On the front of the envelope was the same symbol from the house and the book. Most of them yelled and backed up from the envelope. Twilight crawled back to it and picked it up. She slowly opened it up and screamed.
In the envelope was a photo. The photo had Quantico’s dead body being hung from a rope in an unknown building. Beside Quantico, however, was a masked individual looking straight at the picture taker, whoever that was. Twilight dropped the photo and ran back to the others. As it hit the ground, the photo landed on the front side, revealing the back. The back had the same symbol that had been torturing them for the past day, and a message: “There is no Hope, only Despair.” Again, screams filled the campsite.
Poncho got up and started to pace in dread, “Guys...do you remember that gas station with that guy and the phone?” He started to pace again.
“GET TO THE POINT!!” yelled Wahlburn, “stop dragging it out, you fuck!”
Poncho backed up from him, “Well...I may have kinda, uh, “met” one of those masked people...” he gave his nervous chuckle again.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and all looked at Poncho with shock. Everyone stared at him with their mouths ajar and in disbelief. Poncho could feel these looks of hatred and sorrow surrounding him. Tyrone got up slowly and started walking over to him, “You sonuvabitch...” He threw a punch at Poncho. Poncho flinched, but was unscathed due to Patel’s interruption.
“Guys...look over there,” said Patel as he motioned towards the forest. Everyone stopped and looked over there. The females, and Poncho, screamed again. Out of the forest, walking towards them slowly, was a masked individual that matched the figure in the photo. Everyone froze in fear until Patel turned and ran down the left split in the road with most of them soon doing the same. Sticky, Rivs, Jeb, and Applejack remained at the camp frozen in fear, but as soon as the masked individual crept within about twenty feet of them all four booked it down the right split in the road, running as fast as they could.
“Shit!” yelled Spike, running as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.
"Spike!" retorted Twilight. "Language!"
“Is he behind us?” asked Wahlburn, too focused on running to turn around and look.
“I don’t think so,” said Clyde looking back, checking behind them. “I don’t think he was chasing us in the first place.”
“Okay, stop running!” shouted Patel, and the group halted in an instance. They all sat or laid down for a quick breath of air. Clyde noticed the group was smaller than before.
“We’re obviously missing some of us,” he said looking down the road to see if the others were lagging behind.
“Ah, Sticky and Rivs,” said Patel gravely, “I don’t see them anywhere.” A feel of sadness carried out throughout the chilly air. “However, Jeb and Applejack appear to be missing also.” The sadness drifted away in the air, as happiness bloomed in their emotions. Only Twilight and the rest of her friends were sad that Applejack was gone.
“I hope I never see them again,” exclaimed Spike, “I hope they get chased down by a pack of timberwolves and mauled alive.” He laughed as he said it.
“Spike!” yelled Twilight, but he refused to care and take back what he said.
“But Sticky and Rivs are still out there,” said Wahlburn solemnly. “We need to find them. They’re cool dudes, even though all they talk about is basketball.” Everyone agreed and started to plan ideas to help find their missing peers. After a few minutes of intense planning, Clyde spoke up.
“I’ve got an idea. How about six of us go looking for them, while the other six continue down the road to look for help?”
After debate, they finally concluded that it was the only logical way to go about this situation in the little time that they had. Tyrone, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie volunteered to help look for the others.
“That’s five,” said Clyde as he turned around to the others, “we need one more to go with them.”
“I nominate Poncho,” said Spike in a nonchalant voice.
“Yeah, Poncho,” added Patel.
“Definitely Poncho,” voiced Wahlburn.
Poncho looked frightened and disappointed at the same time. “Come on guys,” he complained sadly, “Do I have to?”
“Yes, now go!” said Clyde, giving Poncho a shove forward. The search group then left immediately and traversed back down the road they were chased off from. The light from the sky was starting to fall below the horizon. “They better hurry up and find them. Darkness in these parts seems to be a bad omen.” He then joined the remaining members of the group and they hurried down the road, hoping to find a town or someone else.
It was already dark out by the time the search group traveled back down to the split in the road. The temperature was colder on this night than yesterdays. When they arrived at their old camp at the split in the road, they instead took the road to the right. A few minutes traveling that road, they eventually came across Sticky leaning against a fallen tree.
“Ay, Sticky where’s everyone else at?” asked Tyrone.
“I tripped and sprained my hoof,” he said holding it, grimacing in pain. “Everyone else just kept running and veered off into the woods.” The search group then looked at the dark outline of the woods and sighed. Into the dark maze of woods they would have to go.