Monster

Blargh. Augh. Celestia, I felt terrible. I opened my eyes to the sight of planks of wood layered atop each other and nailed together. I woke to the smell of sawdust and hay and poop. And something else that smelled disturbingly familiar. I shook my head, only to have a ringing sound fill my ears and bile pour from my throat.

“Where am I?”

Though my knees were wobbly and my joints ached, I stood up. “Is anyone there?” I tried to call out, but even I could barely hear the squeak that left my mouth.

My eyes darted around. I was in some kind of building with stacks of hay and bushels of apples lying around. There was a huge door on one side that was hung slightly ajar.

I was in an unfamiliar place. I didn’t like unfamiliar places.

I began to hyperventilate. Had I been kidnapped? I tried to concentrate, to remember what had happened that had happened since I was kidnapped, but an agonizing migraine blindsided me, and I quickly gave up on the idea.

Okay. I wasn’t about to try that again. Maybe they had used magic to wipe my memory. I had read about unicorns and how they had magic. Maybe I had been kidnapped by unicorns? An evil unicorn sorcerer, like the one from that Batmare comic? I shook my head. The door was open. This was a spectacularly bad kidnapping if that was the case. Or maybe it was a trap? I laid down and quivered for a while.

I looked around and sighed. Just lying here wouldn’t be helpful either. “Be brave, Fluttershy,” I told myself. I tiptoed towards the door and peered out.

Apple trees. Apple trees everywhere. I twisted my head around, but there was no end in sight. I gulped. At least I wouldn’t starve trying to escape. I slowly crept out of the building. No one seemed to be around. Well, I probably hadn’t been kidnapped by an evil unicorn sorcerer to be fed to a dragon. I shivered. Dragons were scary.

I began walking through the trees, looking for an apple that might have fallen to the ground. Some time passed but eventually I found one. I picked it up and delicately nibbled at it. My stomach groaned in hunger, and I chewed harder. When was the last time I had eaten? Oh, right. I was going to eat that morning, but Slammer had pushed me aside and taken my lunch money. I had fallen unconscious, and then… The fight.

I gasped. Oh, no! We must have fallen below the clouds! My eyes darted around. Where was Slammer? Had he left me behind and gone back to flight camp? I frowned bitterly. He probably had.

Slammer was a bully. He was a bad pony. I’m a kind pony. I saved him.

I jumped a little. Where had that thought come from? I shook my head as a dull ache throbbed through it. I looked around disoriented, and realized I was completely lost. Apple trees spanned as far as I could see. I trotted up to one and pushed it, hoping that it would drop another apple. I heard a snap as two more fell down along with the branch that had connected them. As I picked up the apples, I stared at the branch that connected them, mesmerized.

Slammer hung from the tree, blood dripping from his chest. His hooves clung to the branch that impaled him, as he leered down at me, eyes accusing. I felt like a pony in the presence of a twisted, evil god as he cast judgment down upon me. With a wistful smile, he held out his hoof. “You know, you’re just like me.”

My pulse quickened and I gasped deeply as the throbbing in my head turned into a blinding agony. I hunkered down, clutching my head. I couldn’t stand the endless mass of trees anymore. It was obviously driving me into insane hallucinations.

Sighing, I realized what I had to do. I gulped and flapped my wings, ignoring the usual pain that accompanied the maneuver. I began to ascend, which was the easy part. Once I was in the air, maintaining control would be extremely taxing. Hopefully the trees would soften my inevitable fall.

As I rose into the air, more of the landscape became visible to me. I saw a barn in the distance, and behind it, an exit to the endless mass of apple trees. I sighed in relief and headed over to it. A sense of unease and dread filled me as I flew, but I knew there was no way I would ever stay in this unending grove of trees forever.

As I passed by the barn into freedom, my eyes widened. This place was beautiful! There were no words to describe it. There were birds singing and cute, cuddly-wuddly bunnies hopping around, and trees of every kind everywhere! A hummingbird landed on my shoulder and cocked its head inquisitively. I demurely brought my face closer to it and gave it a gentle nuzzle. It nuzzled me back—it nuzzled me back!—and began to sing. A squirrel popped out of the trees, followed by his mate and two baby squirrels!

I tumbled gently down by the river. The bird on my shoulder took off, and was joined by more birdies, each singing in tandem. I galloped after the free flying birds, heart soaring with each step. As I galloped, butterflies swarmed around me, lifting me up.

I was joined now by beavers, chipmunks, frogs, snakes, bees, mice, and even a bear, each singing in tandem with the other animals. Their various croaks, buzzes, chirps and hisses formed a chorus that flowed through me and compelled me to sing. I sang with them, the words spilling out of my mouth without my control. It felt so right that I lost myself, floating in the wild without a care.

I felt the end of the song coming, yet I wasn’t worried. I knew that this moment would never come again, but I also knew that I would forever carry it in my very essence, just as I knew that this place was where I belonged.

“Yes, I — love — everythiiiiiiiiiing!” I sung out. I took a deep breath and sighed in contentment. Everything was so perfect here.

A tinkling sound and a flash of light erupted from behind me. I turned around, and looked for the source. It was coming from my haunch! I was going to get my cutie mark! With baited breath, I waited to see what it would look like.

All of a sudden, I was unceremoniously dropped on the ground as the butterflies fled away from me. Animals started rushing away, and the sense of dread that had settled in my stomach reached a boiling point.

“What? Wait! Where are you going!?” I cried, desperate to bring the animals back. “Don’t leave me!” I looked around with a sense of deja vu. I recognized this place somehow. I trotted forward, ignoring my every instinct to flee the scene. My head was splitting open with pain, but I had to be brave. I couldn’t let whatever was making the animals afraid continue to spread this malevolent aura anymore. I had to protect them.

I stepped up and over a hill and gazed down at the truth. It was me. I was making the animals afraid. I was the source of the malevolent aura. I was the reason the air stank of blood and death. I looked down at my hooves. There was still blood caked on them. My mane, hanging near the ground, was spotted with blood. How had I not noticed that? Of course I had. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself. I killed Slammer. No, not Slammer. His name was Thunder Dancer. And he was a bad pony. I felt bad about the waste of life, but not as bad as a good pony would feel. But his death hurt the cute, innocent critters that had nothing to do with any of this. His death marked an expanse of corruption that would never go away. Cute bunnies would turn away from this place. Birds would never sing here. Snakes would never slither through. Flowers would never grow. Those cute creatures that passed through here every day didn’t deserve this horror.

I wiped my eyes, but it was of no use. Memory of what happened that morning flashed before my eyes and I drew back in horror, slamming my head into the ground in an effort to make it all stop. I was blubbering. Saliva and tears now mixed with the blood on my hooves and the mud on the ground and poured down my face in torrents. A pulse of darkness caught my eye and I looked back at my newly formed cutie mark.

Was it a picture of Thunder Dancer’s empty eyes? How about the word “KILLER” emblazoned in bold, bloody letters across my flank? It would serve me right. This beautiful wonderland and its loving creatures had accepted me as its own, and I paid it back with death and rot. I didn’t deserve this place. I deserved to just lie down here and die with Thunder Dancer.

No, my cutie mark didn’t show any of that any of that. It was a green butterfly sitting on a blackened, dead tree limb. What an innocent sight. The butterfly had its eyes closed, apparently sleeping. The tree limb looked like the branch that had impaled Thunder Dancer, but was devoid of blood or anything to indicate my involvement in the murder of a fellow pony. So innocent. So gentle. So kind. So innocuously deadly. It made me sick to my stomach to look at, so I turned away. Yet before me lay the rotting corpse of Thunder Dancer, hooves still clutching at the hole in his chest, eyes staring at nothing at all. I turned away from that as well, but everywhere I turned, there was blood.

A nearby shrubbery rustled. I squeaked and ran. Coward. Even though I was a horrible pony and deserved to be punished, I ran. I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know what I would do when I got there. I didn’t care. I ran.