A dream, a mere dream has managed to bring so much happiness to my otherwise depressed existence. Yet, now that I am once again awake, laying at the side of this darkened path, I felt an uneasy feeling overcome me. While I was indeed banished to spend the rest of my sorry eternity alone within the Everfree Forest, I now felt as if there was a part of me missing. Like a part of my soul was left behind, granted some form of salvation from the darkness. That single and rather simplistic dream had managed to sink its way deep within my subconscious, giving me a new sense, a new will to survive.

No matter how silly, or how stupid the thought may be, I no longer wanted to die. I wanted to live a life worth living… which unfortunately doesn’t include the life that I was given. I’m an absolute abomination. A sinful creature destined to cause harm, whether by my own conscious intentions, or by appearance alone. I was not a creature to love, but a creature to fear. A creature that deserves to be killed, possibly tortured by the hooves of Celestia herself. I’m a joke, an ugly joke. “Why the buck was I born?!” I thought loudly to myself.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, I decided to take a stance, and begin my travel along this path once more. To my surprise, however, the path was no longer a mere dirt road through the forest. It had somehow managed to become a large road, capable of allowing for multiple ponies to easily travel across it. While I did have the sense to question how a small dirt path could become a larger path quite literally overnight, I decided it wasn’t that big of an issue, and against my better judgement, I began to trot along the path at a steady pace, eagerly awaiting whatever lies ahead.

After only two minutes of trotting, I began to notice that the forest was getting brighter, and that there were fewer trees to block the light. While still a forest by any respect, this area of the Everfree seemed to be more pleasant. Thanks mostly in part to the added light on the environment, I was able to see far greater detail in my surroundings. The trees themselves appeared to have very thick trunks, and the leaves were a light purple hue with red spots near the stem. The path itself was a dark brown, almost muddy in colour, though it didn’t have the texture of dirt, or even mud. It felt almost alien beneath my hooves, though the coolness it provided was admittedly quite pleasant.

Shrubs and small bushes appeared to be glistening in the morning dew just beyond the paths edge, providing a very magical atmosphere around me. Again, I felt the will to live overcome me, and my depressive thoughts seemed to melt away by my beautiful surroundings. Everything felt perfect. It felt calm and serene. Like everything within this world was suddenly fine. I felt... Happy. Truly happy. Truly... Alone, yet also happy. I felt... Broken, and calm, and warm. I... Felt confused, yet equally sure of myself. I....

"What the hay is happening to me?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, prompting the forest to carry my voice in an echo, only for it to morph into a form of twisted laughter before fading away entirely. "That's unnatural" I thought to myself while flattening my ears against my head in fear. "I must be losing my mind. Come on now, hold it together DB."

Further down the path stood an unusual structure, almost like a tent from a carnival, or a circus. Though, this tent did not express the typically happy atmosphere of a circus, and seemed to reflect a more twisted persona.

Just as I finished that thought, another gust of wind blew throughout the Everfree Forest, and the magic-like clearing that once surrounded me vanished away into darkness, being nothing more than an illusion. However, the tent in the distance, which seemed to be illuminated by an unnatural source of green and purple light, did not vanish away from view. Almost as if it was urging me to attend its twisted show of horror and sin. With little choice but to continue down this darkened path, I decided to succumb to the desire of this unnatural carnival, and attend the show.

Another gust of wind blew through the forest, and more laughter could be heard around me, as I neared the entrance to this demonic tent. However, now that I was standing directly in front of it, I could clearly make out the design and general shape of the structure. The green and purple lights were of a magical origin, hovering around the tent like spotlights, giving it an unnatural glow in the otherwise dark forest. The tent had a green and purple striped design, with splotches of red littered all over it, almost like... blood?

As I was about to enter, I heard somepony call out my name. "Darkened Bliss, is that you?" The pony spoke with a voice I somehow recognized. This voice belonged to Rainbow Dash, and appeared to come from inside of the tent, calling out to me. "It is you! I thought I saw you coming this way. So, uh. What the hay are you doing way out here, Bliss?" Rainbow inquired, though there was a slight whimper to her voice, making her sound almost monotone. "I bet you're here to see the show! Seriously, I'd recommend going in as soon as possible. It's really freaking awesome..." She said, as her voice began to trail off. However, I heard her say one final thing before vanishing back into the tent. "It's seriously to die for"

I followed her into the tent without much of a thought, almost as if the tent was controlling me, calling me in. My judgement was seriously impaired by some unknown force, possibly the forest itself being responsible for my nearing insanity. But you know what? I don't care. I won't care, for as long as I remain alive, I shall be a sin of nature. If this forest wishes to kill me, so be it. I deserve it, don't I? And so, I mindlessly entered the tent, only for my eyes to be engulfed by darkness. Except, it was beyond mere darkness, this was darker than night itself, which I suppose we had in common. To top that off, the entire room was void of all sound. Dark and soundless. If not for the horrid smells filling my nostrils, I would have assumed that this was death.

Before I was able to take another step, everything around me became a blur of white, and a loud buzzing filled my ears, pounding my head into numbness. It was as if every single light in Ponyville had suddenly turned on at the same time.

After my eyes adjusted to the newly lit room, and the buzzing had morphed into a mild form of music, I noticed that I was standing in the centre of the tent. The floor was purple and black in colour, and seemed to have a swirl design that formed a type of optical illusion, while the walls were the same green and purple as they were on the outside, except the internal walls appeared to be washed out in colour. The room itself was littered with dead bodies, presumably the victims that came before me. However, it wasn't long until I started to recognise some of the mangled corpses, some of which were only fillies. Each and every corpse had a small face carved into the side of the body, covering the fur with blood, which has now mostly crusted over. After inspecting some of the fillies in the room, I noticed one filly in particular. She was just like the rest, except she had a face that seemed to go deeper into her side, carving her out as if a pumpkin on Nightmare Night. Her internal organs decorated her body, while a streak of wet blood was pooling in her eye sockets, eyes seemingly removed by some type of surgical device. However, given the fact that the blood is still relatively fresh, this filly was likely the latest to be murdered within the tent. This filly, who I've met a few times while in Ponyville, was always seen hanging around Rainbow Dash, and seemed to always be riding a scooter. Her name was Scootaloo, and before me is her managed body, severely deformed and brutalised.

"Pretty neat, huh?" A raspy voice spoke from behind me, sounding cold and emotionless. "That poor little filly just couldn't stay away from me. So, she decided to follow me into the forest, riding her scooter, without a single care of what may be lurking in the shadows. She ended up finding my tent, to which I kindly invited her in. Man, she was so ecstatic to be able to spend time with me, I just had to give her an extra special performance, which turned out to be awesome." Rainbow Dash said, eyes glancing between me and Scootaloo's mangled body. "I even tricked out her scooter, as a personal thanks for being so awesome and such a cool little friend."

While saying this, she looked at the corner of the tent, just beside Scootaloo's corpse. Her scooter was propped up against a metallic table, though it took me a while to notice that the wheels had been replaced by something else. "Are those..."

"Yup! Pretty cool, right?" Rainbow said with a hint of demented enthusiasm. "Now, it took me a while to remove her eyes without fully damaging them, but once I got them out, using them as wheels was a fairly easy task. Fillies have surprisingly durable eyes. You can actually ride that thing!"

"She was also awake during the whole thing! Well, that is until she passed out, heh. She felt me inside her, tearing at her internal organs. Man, you have no idea how awesome it is to hear a little filly scream in pain! She kept begging me to stop, and just refused to believe that her idol would even attempt to hurt her! 'Rainbow, Rainbow, I thought you loved me, Rainbow' is all she kept screaming, in between cries. Seriously, it felt like I was flying! The thrill, the adrenaline. It kinda turned me on, actually. Just hearing her, cutting her, touching her..." She paused for a moment, looking at me with an evil grin. "Now, I get to do the same to you, Darkened Bliss. To be killed by your only real friend. You know, there's something kinda poetic about that, but I really don't care for that kinda stuff."

I just stood there, unable to think or do anything. "I'm glad you ended up coming here, DB. Now, shall I start by cutting off your wi-"

Before she could finish her sentence, everything was gone. I was once again standing on the path, in the middle of the Everfree Forest. I was no longer surrounded by bodies, or horrible images of death and betrayal. I was simply alone. No tent, no lights, no Rainbow Dash. Just me, the forest, and the evils within.

"I really need to get out of here!"

Author's Note

Edited: May 19th, 2020