Unexplainable Causes

Chapter 2: Let the Games Begin

Unfortunately for the guests, the morning would not come as soon as they had hoped, for their night was not truly over; in fact, it had only just begun. The clock read 11:26 P.M. according to the bright red characters that lit up the small clock located on the nightstand, which was next to the bed where Dash and Applejack resided presently.

Dash awoke with a start to a loud crash of thunder that had followed a bright, white flash of lightning which resounded throughout the long hallways of the mansion, causing the structure to rattle. She sighed, annoyed with the storm, and slumped back onto the bed, but try as she might, she could not fall back asleep. She rose from the bed, careful not to wake her partner, and paced around the room, trying to tire herself out. Another flash stole her attention and she turned to face the thunder, but was taken aback by a slight shuffle coming from another room. She listened intently and heard an indistinct sound she believed to be a slight scream, but she couldn't fully tell for the loud rumble of the thunder had rolled over the mansion, obstructing her hearing with a deafening smash of sound. She sat on the floor, debating the origin of the noise, wondering whether the sound was a genuine scream or just the house screeching. However, because of Dash's nature, she knew she'd have to investigate. She lightly opened the door and checked for others in the hallway, and after she knew it was clear, she let herself escape the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

Blinding light flooded the antechamber, vividly brightening the access, bringing slight fear to the mare as she shuffled about, blinded by the sudden light and the just as sudden darkness. She fumbled across the burgundy colored colored rug, aimlessly feeling the wall, awaiting the feel of a doorknob, which she soon found and turned, granting her access to the bedchamber.

The alcove was set up similarly to her own, with a large bed stationed in the middle of the room, drawing to it the attention of all who enter. A large bureau sat complimentary to the left of the bedstead while an as large mirror sat upon the opposite wall, which would have given a reflection of the blind side of the room if it hadn't been completely pitch black. The whole room seemed to reek of uneasiness as Rainbow Dash slowly and quietly ambled into the room. The rain continued to beat on the side of the window, creating a noise resembling that of gravel being put in a blender,an awful sound indeed. Her ears reared back, trying to block out the noise as she approached the large canopy bed.

A chill raced through her body as she neared the bed; whether or not treachery was truly afoot, she could not tell, but her instinct kept telling her to turn and run, Dash; however, had other plans and crept even closer, eager yet, for a reason she couldn't explain, dreading every moment she spent in the room. She had reached the foot of the bed and stood there, collecting her courage. She whipped the canopy to her left with a sweeping motion, exposing, to her surprise, a completely empty bed. She stood back, recollecting her jumbled thoughts, and walked to the left side of the bed, where she unexpectedly stepped in a puddle of warm water. She quickly wrenched her leg about, trying to fling the moisture from her foot. Another loud crash boomed outside, making her step backwards on one leg in fear, which in turn promptly returned her flank to the ground with a heavy thud, which also, to her dismay, covered herself in the warm water that she had previously tried so hard to shake off. She knew this to be Fluttershy's room and in turn, justified the empty bed with the simple thought, "She probably got scared and ran off to somepony else's room...what a baby..."

The thought was slightly ironic, for though she'd never admit it to anypony, except maybe Applejack, she was truly scared outta her mind. She stood up, shaking the water off her mane with a whip of her head, and slightly chuckled at the fear she had felt during the investigation, "It was just the house, no biggie!"

As if in reply to her thought, another searing hot bolt of plasma crashed into the ground, lighting the room once more, allowing the mirror to reflect the blind side of the room, which yielded terrifying results. The light of the scene opposite Dash was reflected by the mirror, sending the beam of multicolored light to the back of her retina, allowing her brain to process the scene reflected; however, her brain couldn't quite process the new information, for the scene that was reflected was a large lump, covered in red liquid, blued by the darkness of night, that sat motionless on the ground. Her brain strained itself, trying to decode the strings of information being thrown at her, causing her breathing to become erratic and her heart to skip. She felt a hard lump in her throat as she tried to force it down, letting a chill run up her back. Her ears flew backwards, her eyes grew wide, and her mouth became contorted by fear, bearing the shape of an open frown. She closed her eyes, letting them refocus to glance once more at the scene for positive confirmation of what she had just seen, but the lighting strike had subsided and when she opened her eyes, she was once more surrounded by darkness.

It took her a whole two minuets before she was able to will her body to move, to break herself from her fear. She couldn't be certain it was truly what she saw, there were too many factors that could've made it otherwise. Perhaps it was her mind playing tricks on her, perhaps it was bad interpretation of information. She couldn't definitively say, and though she was more fearful of her life than ever before, her curious nature, and her will to be sure of herself, drove her to move slowly to the opposite side of the bed. Her mind raced around explanations, trying to exclude the images of what she had seen; she quietly approached the opposite side.

She was there, at the opposite side of the bed, waiting for her mind to catch up, but to her dismay, it wasn't morning and there were no hues there to light up the scene. She stood there, over something she could not describe. As if in answer to the questions troubling her mind, the lightning once more flared across the sky, giving light to the situation at Dash's feet. She looked down to something her brain just could not register, something that she'd never seen or thought of. She stood there, frozen in absolute terror, staring at the cadaverous corpse covered in blood and gutted. Her heart and breathing stopped while her mind finally understood what was going on. She suddenly became hysterical, stammering and twitching. Her pegasus friend, Fluttershy, or at least what was left of her, was strewn across the ground. A large incision had been made from right above her pelvis to the top of her chin. Her internal organs were no longer internal. They had been cleared out, cast aside her body. She had been field dressed! Words failed her as she attempted to scream.

Dash wobbled on her legs in a clear sign of loss of balance, and vomited, spewing her nausea induced bile onto the already grizzly scene in front of her. She vomited once more, unable to keep in her bodily fluids. She looked at what was once her friend; she stared into the eyes of the now dead mare, feeling the pain she'd gone through while she'd died by her eyes alone. She tried to vomit once more, but found her stomach to be empty; she dry-heaved.

        She immediately entered a mental stage that was well past just plain crazy or dumbstruck; her mind no longer operated at the normal rate acceptable. She became primal, instinctive. She no longer felt the pressure of objective logic pressing against her conscience. She no longer felt the tug of a higher intellect; she felt only her natural, instinctive response to danger. Her primal communication skulls lacked any traditional means of talking and consisted of but one sound. A scream, a call of terror and warning to others that danger was immenant. Her loud, anguish-filled screams were audible beyond the normal distance and proceeded to wake up everypony in the mansion.

        Jolted from their dreams, the other inhabitants rushed to the source of the primal and terror-filled scream. Their minds moved over explanations from broken legs to fright from lightning, but none of them hit the mark; none of the others could have possibly anticipated the nature of the situation. They entered the dark room, with fear covering their faces, and became even more distraught than before as they witnessed the reactions being displayed by Rainbow Dash, especially Applejack, who raced blindly to her lover, took her in both arms and asked, "What's wrong, sugar cube!" To which Rainbow Dash answered with a simple spasm of terrified movement and sporadic jargon that not even Pinkie Pie herself could comprehend. She flew to the arms of her true love and buried herself in her forelegs; she started sobbing uncontrolably, sputtering out words of terror while her lover calmly replied in words of understanding and endearment, trying to relax the fear and tension that filled the young mates being. All she could really do was ask the question that ever pony else had been asking aloud and to themselves since their ears picked up the primal sound waves emmitted out of pure anguish, "What's wrong, Rainbow? What in tarnation has you so done wrong."

     The questioning; however, bore the same results as before, an utterance of incomprehensible syllables. Twilight Sparkle came bursting into the room, asking every pony to back up and give Dash some room, for because Dash had never been so hysterical, she knew instantly that something truly grieving was amiss. She entered the small bedroom, immediately blinded by the darkness of night, and was forced to light the room using her magic. She concentrated lightly, channelling the energy flowing through her body out to the point of her horn. The horn acted as a beacon, lighting the room before them to the scene that Rainbow Dash had just witnessed. She very quickly wished she hadn't for everypony else's reaction was much worse than that of the brave Rainbow Dash. Even the Great and Powerful Trixie was severely upset, for though she may have been humiliated, that doesn't mean she would've wished death upon anypony. Tears were shed and screams were heard on a massive scale. Nopony out of that small town of Ponyville would have ever even conceived the idea that one of their dearest and loved friends, one of the Elements of Harmony no less, could have ever been murdered, let alone completely caved out and butchered. Noponies reaction was anywhere near that of her closest friends; however, who just could not accept the details standing before them. Their friend, their dearest friend who had never wronged anypony in her life and who had always put others interests before her own, was gone forever from the world of Equestria and all who dwelled in its land.

    Fluttershy is...was...one of if not the most loving ponies ever in existence; there wasn't anything possible that she could have done to deserve such brutality. The fact that someone so loving and peaceful could have been murdered in such a horrifying display of macabre was inconceivable by any means. Such horror and such pain was utterly uncalled for for the gentle mare, bringing forth only more pain and misery from her closest companions. The weight of death rarely sat on the conscience of the friends, making the matter all the worse now that death had greedily claimed the most loving creature in all of Equestria. Nopony deserved such a death, especually not dear Fluttershy. The grievances were overwhelming.

      The ponies went into a fear induced panic, letting their instinct tug at their minds as they ran outside trying to escape the house, which they soon found to be inevitably impossible, for lightning had stuck the bridge, setting it ablaze while the incessant rain prevented even the most skillful flyer in all of Equestria from flying away to safety. The group ran back to the safety of the not safe mansion, wondering how something so beautiful and sweet could have been savagely carved and butchered in a manner nopony had ever seen.

      Under normal circumstances, Rainbow Dash would have been the first pony to overcome her grief and do something productive; however, seeing the cadaver that had once been her beloved friend Flittershy was enough to keep her to her knees, and the burden fell upon the only pony who, though experienced tremendous grief, was able to keep her wits. She shakily addressed the group, "I...I uh...I guess we need to stick together and wait until the storm lets up. Celestia only knows what'll happen if we separate..."

      Twilight let out a slight gasp in sadness as she continued, her thoughts no longer containing the same level of intellect as before, "Leave the bod-" she sighed and tried to continue, "Leave Fluttersh-" she tried once more to continue but lost the ability as she broke down into an uncontrollable fit of sobbing. Her mind had finally lost the battle. Luckily, Twilights words stuck to the group as they all congregated in the front room, unwilling to go off into the dark corridors alone.

      A torrent of rain and wind suddenly entered the house, startling the group to near screaming, but as they looked toward the door, there was nopony there for their eyes to meet. Instead, at the stoop of the door, laid a small, folded piece of parchment under a smooth stone. Twilight cautiously approached the item, not knowing what to expect. She lifted the note from beneath the rock without trouble; however, and opened the note. The group shifted behind her to see what was written. Some had blank states, others had faces full of fear as the note read, "Let the games begin!"