The afternoon sun floated and hung over Ponyville one fine, breezy summer day, as the six friends were on their weekly picnic - an event organized so that no matter how busy each pony gets, there will always be a gathering time for fellowship and fun. All the ponies did their part to help get things set faster for their day of fun: Applejack brought fresh apple cider, Rainbow Dash cleared the sky save for a few clouds, Fluttershy brought some lovely-voiced birds for ambience, Pinkie Pie worked to cater the affair with delicious sweets and snacks, Rarity had brought two large parasols and sun hats for everypony for sun-protection, and Twilight sparkle helped set the blankets and brought fun puzzle and riddle books for them all.
“Alright ladies, settle under a parasol or adorn yourself with a hat, the sun is dreadfully bright today, and it would be a shame to get all red and sun-burnt.” Said Rarity while motioning her hoof, “Oh yes…That would be just awful.” Added Fluttershy quietly as she put on a purple sunhat, settling on the soft red and white checkered blanket. “I reckon we’ll be fine, sun never hurt nopony.” Applejack stated, pouring six glasses of cider. “Rainbow Dash! C’mon down. We’re waiting for you.” Twilight yelled to the sky. “Yeah, c’mon silly filly! We can’t start eating without ya!” gleefully added Pinkie Pie, licking her lips while looking at all the delicious confections she had brought. “I’m coming, hold your horses already! One more cloud to move and then I’ll be down in a jif.” Rainbow Dash called out as she swooped down and zoomed right into the cloud causing it to dissipate into thin-air and flew back like a bullet, climbing upwards at blazing speeds before flying straight down towards the big picnic blankets below, and slowing just before she hit and landed softly. “Had ya scared for a minute there, huh Fluttershy?” Dash chuckled at the timid yellow pony hiding her face under her purple sunhat, still as a stone. “…Fluttershy?” the light blue Pegasus added.
Everypony glanced at the pink-maned Pegasus, some with confusion, others with concern. Dash walked closer as the other ponies watched and waited. She was about to lift the hat when Fluttershy jerked backwards and up, still holding the hat to her face. “I don’t feel well…” she quietly said with a shaky breath, “I…think I’ll go home now..” she uttered before flying off.
As Fluttershy was out of sight before anypony could even understand what was going on, the hat that had obscured her face fell gently back down to the picnic scene. The once purple hat now had a dark, almost black tint to it on the inside, as the brim dripped with fresh blood.
Everypony gasped at what they saw, Rarity grew nauseas and refused to even look anymore.
“I don’t get it…” Twilight said, awfully bewildered. “She was feeling fine just a few minutes ago… Everypony split up and find her. Dash, check her house and the fields. Applejack, the forest. Pinkie, Rarity, search in town. I’m going to get a doctor ready, something is wrong with her, and as soon as you find her, bring her to the hospital or let me know where she is and we will come to her. We will meet in the center of Ponyville in two hours if she isn’t found. Now go!” Twilight finished as the other ponies nodded and sped off in desperate search of their suddenly-ill friend.
Two hours have passed since the search for Fluttershy started, and nopony has seen her. They all met up by the central fountain, everypony exhausted from non-stop, desperate searching. “I notified the doctors, and they are standing by for her arrivial. However since we’re all here, I assume she’s still missing…” Twilight finished as everypony nodded. “Actually, one more of us is missin’..” Applejack said pointing to the general area Rainbow Dash was supposed to search. “Where is she? She knew to meet us here after two hours, right?” added Twilight. “Rarity, go check Fluttershy’s house, then the fields if Rainbow isn’t there. We’ll continue searching in and around town. Come back here as soon as you find her or Fluttershy.” The purple-maned Unicorn nodded at Twilight’s instructions as she ran off now to find two missing friends.
Finally upon the doorstep of Fluttershy’s tree cottage, Rarity felt a hesitation fall over her as she turned the doorknob. Before she pushed the door open, she could smell the scent of something… foul. “Now I’m not sure if I want my friends to be here or not… not with such a rancid smell at...”, she hoped it was just some animals fouling up the house, and that her friends were ok. But her nose never whiffed anything so awful in her life.
The door easily opened with a gentle push, and what Rarity saw worried her. Darkness. Complete and utter darkenss, which she knew Fluttershy was often afraid of. ‘Maybe she’s just not home…’ she thought to herself. But she’s been in her friend’s home with all the lights off before, and it never seemed this black inside. Despite the darkness, so far everything seemed normal.
She slowly walked through the living room, through the hall, upstairs, and finally up to the door of Fluttershy’s bedroom. The smell seemed even worse the closer to the bedroom she got, and oddly enough the darker it was too. Suddenly, Rarity heard the faintest whisper. ‘Fluttershy!’ she thought as the words quietly filled the empty quiet inside the house in a dark, morbid melody of fear.
“I just want to go home… I just want to go home…”
“’I just want to go home’? But this IS Fluttershy’s home… Could that actually be Rainbow Dash?” Rarity said to herself as she tried to open the bedroom door, but it was unusually heavy, as if it was barricaded with something. She tried harder and harder each time until one lucky break caused the door to split open, and she fell through it’s center, landing on something soft to the touch, and very familiar.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Rarity let out the most horrified and blood-curdling scream, when she realized she landed on Rainbow Dash, dead. Wings and cutie marks ripped off, and eyes blackened with blood and the deep void that only the dead bear. She sprang up faster than the blink of an eye, standing on shaky legs, panting with fear, utterly shocked at the scene before her, racing her eyes around, trying to comprehend that what she was seeing was indeed real.
The entire room was stained a deep red, some places so blackened with blood that they were darker than the night sky. And by the window caked with crimson, sat Fluttershy, her back to Rarity. Her once pink mane and tail were stained with her own blood, and possibly the blood of others. Her wings appeared to be cut and ripped right out of her body, and her cutie marks were similarly missing and in the same jagged-edge fashion. All her wounds were fresh, obviously she didn’t have those at the picnic earlier, and they were all bleeding quite a bit. The wound on her left side, from where her missing wing to her missing cutie mark, was one continuous patch of exposed muscle and flesh, which led Rarity to believe these wounds were not just from a knife, but ripped by hoof. And yet, she had a very sad, depressed and sorrowful look upon her pale yellow face.
Holding back the bile that built inside her, Rarity asked “Wh-what happened?! Who did this to you?!?” with what little breath that wasn’t stolen from the sight of this sick scene.
Slowly the pale-yellow head turned to the left to look at Rarity, her eye black, bleeding, and what was once a deep blue-ish/green rim was now a piercing and glowing white. “…I did…” Fluttershy whispered.
Rarity collapsed into a slumber from which she never awoke, which in reality was a blessing.
As the evening grew darker, the three remaining ponies grew very worried over their missing friends. ‘Where are they?’ the trio thought collectively, as they paced by the fountain once again, awaiting their return.
“Ok everypony. Obviously, something is very wrong here. Pinkie, AJ, it’s time we head over to the cottage. We are getting to the bottom of this thing now, before somepony else goes missing.” Twilight instructed, receiving nods of agreement from the pink and orange ponies as they began to trek through town, up the hill, until they found themselves on the house’s doorstep, smelling the same awfulness that Rarity had sniffed before she opened the door, walking to her own death.
“Pee-yew! What in tarnation is that smell?!” Applejack exclaimed as she was gagged by the odor. “I don’t know, but it sure doesn’t smell like cupcakes…” added Pinkie Pie. “Focus girls, we need to concentrate and not get distracted. Fluttershy seemed to have a major health issue, and now Rainbow Dash and Rarity have gone missing. We can’t let this smell stop us.” Said the purple Unicorn as she pushed the door open.
“Well wait. Maybe the smell is some kinda gas or somethin’… it could be dangerous even out here.” AJ stated, concerned for their health. “You may be right… I’ve never smelled something so foul before… Hold your breath as long as you can, breathe in as little as possible.” Twilight instructed as they began searching the house. The living room looked normal, although all animals were absent and the lights were all off. Searching behind doors and under furniture, nopony saw hide nor hair of their friends, so they began climbing up the stairs rather slowly, as an eerie feeling seemed to rain over the searching trio.
“I just want to go home… Send me home… Send me away…”
Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Applejack all froze, as these chilling words floated through the hair in faint wisps of melody. “Maybe that’s her; Fluttershy, I mean.” Said Pinkie quietly, recognizing the voice that once lulled animals of all kinds to sleep. “Well, we’re about to find out.” Twilight said as she opened the bedroom door, which this time, opened easily.
The same blood-drenched room that welcomed Rarity was now in front of the three ponies searching for the missing ones, however this time, the corpses of Rainbow and Rarity were strung by their front hooves up on the walls. Rarity’s cutie marks, horn and back legs were ripped off the same as Rainbow Dash’s wings and marks, although now Dash’s ears were gone too. Fluttershy was back to sitting by the red window, her mane, tail and coat now stained with fresher blood, as she sang the haunting tune.
“I just want to go home… Send me away… Break me away… From the Demons… From the Hell that now is all I know…”
The three ponies were just in complete shock. The walls stained with blood, the corpses of their friends, the creepy, chilling song, and the sight of what Fluttershy had so quickly become overwhelmed them to no end. Applejack couldn’t handle it any longer, and ran out of the room sobbing and vomiting, while Pinkie Pie’s eyes teared up with a strange sense of sorrow and rage as she yelled at the once canary-yellow Pegasus.
“You monster! You killed them, didn’t you?!? How could you do that to your friends?! You psychopath!!!” The strangely angered pink pony darted towards Fluttershy with vengeful purposes, and all Twilight could do was stand there in horrific awe. As Pinkie approached Fluttershy with great speed, the yellow pony snapped her head to look at Pinkie, this time flashing the most evil, demonic and crooked grin anypony has ever seen.
Fluttershy intercepted Pinkie’s attack, and had her pinned to the ground faster than one could blink an eye, still smiling that morbid smile. Pinkie Pie struggled, but the Pegasus was unusually strong.
Fluttershy emitted a horrific shriek so loud that Pinkie became deaf for the moment, and the last thing she saw was that grin. Flutteryshy bit down hard on the top of Pinkie’s head, scraping teeth against bone, and then with her hoof, ripped Pinkie’s once smiling face right off of her skull.
Twilight still watched in immense fear and shock as Applejack came charging back in, overlooking all the gore and death to bring Fluttershy down. But as AJ charged, Fluttershy jumped over her, and then leaped onto AJ’s back, who’s legs could not bear the weight of another pony, and collapsed beneath her.
During this whole time, while literally frozen in fear, Twilight Sparkle’s mind raced through thousands of different things in such a short time, until it finally stopped on one phrase.
‘’From the Hell that now is all I know…”
The Unicorn’s mind sparked, and ran off to the kitchen to grab a knife, and end this nightmare for everypony.
As Twilight sped back into the bedroom and luckily AJ was still alive. With her sick grin, Fluttershy was licking around Applejackes ear in a very creepy way as AJ screamed and yelled. Twilight galloped over behind Fluttershy, and with her eyes closed and filled with tears, stabbed at the back and rump of her once best friend.
However, Twilight was never the strongest, and so the slices and stabs did not end the Pegasus’ life like she had morbidly hoped, so she had no alternative but to keep at it, trying not to think about what she was doing to Fluttershy, who wailed and whimpered after every strike, until her eyes glazed over and the white rims faded to black. The pale yellow pony slumped and fell over to the side, breathing the last few of her final breaths.
“Thank…..you….”
Twilight’s face streamed with tears, but at least this was all over. Applejack rose and surveyed the yellow corpse who died with the same meek smile she had carried most her entire life.
This violent, insane nightmare was done with, almost as quickly as it started. All the two surviving ponies could do now is quietly cry and sob over the many losses that weigh so heavy on their hearts. After what was at least an hour, Twilight Sparkle knew she had to call the police, even though they may throw her in prison for killing her friend out of self-defense.
When the police arrived, Twilight explained all she knew about the incident, and they decided not to charge her with anything, as they could tell it was in self-defense, and not cold-blooded murder. They collected all the evidence and corpses from the house, and left a condemned notice on the door. The cottage was to be bull-dozed over the next day.
That morning, Twilight sat inside her library mourning the death of her many friends while a consoling Spike comforted her with a hug when one of the police-ponies knocked on the door.
“Oh, hello Officer. Something I can help you with?” she asked. He handed her a plastic bag filled with papers and notes and said “Here. These were found in the house, and since there is no culprit to convict for the crimes, we decided that this piece of evidence should go to her friends.” And with that, he left leaving Twilight a little confused.
She went back inside and sat down, a little scared to read these pages and didn’t for almost a month, but knowing that maybe these would clue her in on what happened to her dearest friend Fluttershy.
This is what the pages had written in them.
“Day One
I have been feeling bad off and on for a few days now, but today has been constant with this pain in my chest, but it’s not like normal pain. Something is odd about it, but I figure with some good rest it’ll clear up.”
“Day Two
I had a bad dream last night. I dreamed I started squishing the heads of all the mice and rats and then buried them beneath the barn… But it was just a dream though…”
“Day Three
The pain comes and goes still, seemingly getting worse and worse. However this morning, I was coughing up some blood. I am starting to really worry, but I am sure I’ll be ok in due time.”
“Day Four
I had another bad dream… This time I… Oh Celestia it’s just too awful to even think about!
Maybe I’ll write it tomorrow…”
“Day Five
I have calmed down some, and decided to right down the awful dream I had. I dreamed I… killed every last animal in Equestria… Ponies included… But again, just a dream. The last few days I have felt much more light-headed and dizzy… The pain is greater then ever, and I even feel my sanity is at risk.”
“Day SIXSIXSIX
It’s getting much worse. All of it. The pain, the blood… I don’t know what to do. I haven’t gone to the hospital yet… My mother used to tell me stories of other worlds where they… would kill ponies that were sick. That’s what she’d tell me so I’d get myself better, but it scared me into never wanting to go to a hospital, fearing they may “put me to sleep”. Today is also the picnic my friends have set up, I am very excited about it, and maybe it’ll take my mind off of how I’ve been feeling.
Although I feel the frayed ends of my sanity are slipping into darkness… Blood has been dripping from my eyes, it burns… But there is something so comforting about it… Blood…so beautiful…so…comforting…
I wonder what Death feels like… I hear it’s like falling asleep… a dark cloud that closes in on you…
That’s how my mind has felt lately. Dark, with the light shrinking until there is nothing left.
I just want to go home… All I know now is Hell… Send me away, Break me away, All I now know is Hell…
This afternoon I brought Rainbow Dash in for a visit. Seems she was looking for me. I’m glad, I always enjoyed her company, and now she will be here forever. Dash, you have such beautiful wings and cutie marks… I wish I had them… I hate mine! All of them!! In fact, I don’t want mine anymore! Go sit by the door Dashie… I wouldn’t want you to see this.
Oh how wonderful, Rarity dropped by as well! Such a glorious day, TWO of my friends have come!
Oh Rarity, you’re horn and cutie marks are wonderful as well. Maybe you wouldn’t mind if I took them? You’re element is Generosity afterall, isn’t it?
Oh Dash, I like your ears too! May I have them as well?
Dashie, Rarity? Why won’t you talk to me? Did I offend you? I am sorry if I did… But please, speak to me. You don’t hate me… do you? I’m still you’re friend… Right?
You still love me…right? …Right...?
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes watered with many tears as she read what was literally her friend’s sanity dripping away like the blood from her eyes that one day. All she could do was cry. The next day she brought the notes over to Applejack’s house and let her read through them.
They didn’t understand why or how this happened, just that it did. And that finally, it was over.
.
