Eldritch

Prologue: The Plague.

It came without warning. It came without thought or action, without a battlehorn or a prophet's decree. It came…

It struck like the creeping spider in the night. It poisoned the body and mind, it poisoned the blood and the food and the water and the air. It poisons all it touches, it corrupts the most innocent, and eradicates the old and young. It leaves a river of blood in it's wake.

We are doomed…..

(!!!)

Ponyville, a three months and a half after the first infected.

Status: Healthy, must keep it that way.

Three months. A whole three months of seeing stallions and mares that I once knew turn into wailing and screaming infected. They cry out, hoping to get help, any help…

My friends… they retreated to a fortress somewhere in the north under the commands of Celestia. All five of them are in that bunker, and they left without me.

It wasn't their fault, I got lost in the riots and the crowds of panicking citizens. I hid in a garbage can and waited for the angry shouts and violence to stop. When I got out and went to look for them, I realized they were gone. After that, The Plague claimed the lives of the entire town guard, so brigands locked the town down and have free reign to harass and murder and rape as much as they please.

I’m so scared, scared that I will become infected with this plague, scared that I will not have the courage to do something. Scared that whatever took Angel will eventually come for me.

Need to get out of here, out of Ponyville. I need to find my friends. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity…. I need to find them all.

Element of Kindness, give me strength.

-Fluttershy.

(/^/)

The rain began to pour as the swirling masses of darkness turned the sky dark. Lightning flashed, and the cries of the infected seemed to drown in the sound of thunder, giving Fluttershy a brief break from the moans of the dying.

She quietly sloshed through the puddles, keeping her eyes open for any brigands and criminals. Ever since The Plague hit, crime is as common as the number of earth ponies in Ponyville.

Fluttershy pulled her hood over her head with her hoof, and kept trotting. She glanced down at her saddle bag that was a gift from Rarity before shit hit the fan. All it had inside of it was Fluttershy’s journal, and a can of sliced carrots that was intended for Angel before…

Fluttershy shook the thoughts of Angel away from her head, not wanting to break down in the middle of the street and the storm.

She passed various houses, and more than half of them had a red hoof mark, telling the citizens to stay away from the infected house.

Fluttershy then saw a group of thug ponies coming around the corner, chatting like it was a fine summer day. One of them had a bloodstained spiked baseball bat on his back.

Terrified, Fluttershy galloped into the nearest unmarked house. She ducked behind the door and started to whimper as she hoped to dear Celestia that they don’t trot up to the house.

“hey, they say that the Crystal Empire is completely plague-free. You guys want to leave this shit hole of a town?” one thug said as they trotted past the house Fluttershy was hiding in.

“Nope, because the empire has laws, laws that prevent us from doing whatever we want. I rather stay here and pillage how I want, when I want, and however I want. And if there is a uninfected mare in these parts… well, I would like to do many things to her. Heh, heh, I wouldn't want to pass up on the opportunity.”

Another bandit said, “you forget, Ponyville has laws too.”

“Bah, The Plague wiped out the guards in this place. The only ponies around her are the doctors and the occasional survivor.”

While they were chatting, Fluttershy made a mental note to avoid those thugs at all costs

After the thugs passed her, Fluttershy decided to explore the clearly abandoned house. It was a mess, with half-eaten plates of food and things were scattered around, with magazines and other miscellaneous items. Whoever owned this house, they were in a hurry to get out of this town turned-Tartarus on Equis.

Fluttershy silently made her way to the kitchen like a rat hungry for its next meal. She opened the cabinets and found not one can of food, not even a crumb.

“The mice must have eaten everything…” Fluttershy whispered to herself. She took a long look around the kitchen cabinets a second time to make sure she didn't miss anything. That was when a metallic object was illuminated by a flash of lightning.

Fluttershy stared at the kitchen knife, wondering how it found its way to a cabinet. She picked it up with her hoof like it was a ticking time bomb, all to aware of what it can do. After all, she saw many ponies get stabbed by this kind of knife during the riots. Maybe she should put it back… or take it.

Fluttershy hesitated. Surely it wasn't stealing if she took an object from an abandoned house? But, if she took it, she knew that she would have to have the courage to use it when the time comes.

Fluttershy took a shaky breath, and put it in her bag. She headed towards the stairs, the steps creaking after every time Fluttershy puts her hoof down on the boards.

She observed from the stairs. She saw two rooms, a bathroom and a bedroom. She decided to check out the bathroom first. Inside of it was pretty standard for a bathroom. White colored decor with toliet and shower and a medicine cabinet/mirror.

Fluttershy opened the cabinet and found a bottle of pain pills and one band-aid. She put both in her bag.

She carefully made her way to the bedroom and pushed the door open.

There was blood spattered on the walls and floor. Next to Fluttershy, behind the door, was a disembowled corpse of Written Script, and it looked like the rats fed on his organs, indicated my the chew marks on his intestines. Then the smell hit her.

Fluttershy immediately vomited and backed out of the room, tears and terror rising up inside her. She was about to cry when she heard a sobbing sound, coming from the blood-stained room.

Fluttershy stood still, paralyzed with fear. For what seemed like forever, Fluttershy finally pulled herself together.

“I...I-I got to pull myself together. I have to be courageous. For my friends, I have to be,” Fluttershy whispered to herself. She went back to the door and opened it more. She tried to not make any contact with Written Script’s corpse as she stepped over her vomit puddle. She then heard the sniffles and the heavy breathing coming from underneath the blood-soaked bed.

Fluttershy whispered to the bed, “is anypony there? If so, are you alright?”

The sniffling stopped. Underneath the bed, a tragic voice said, “I don’t wanna die! Please, leave me alone! I don’t want to become one of them. I don’t want to kill again. Oh sweet Celestia, please help me!”

Whoever was under the bed started to bawl. Fluttershy slowly trotted towards the bed, which immediately got a warning from the pony under the bed in the form of a feeble pillow throw. The pillow bounced harmlessly off of Fluttershy’s face. After that, the pony started crying again.

Fluttershy said, “it's okay. It's me, Fluttershy.”

“That's what… Written Script said too, before…*sob*”

Fluttershy took another step forward, and said “what's your name?”

No answer.

Fluttershy grasped the edge of the grotesque bed and gently moved the bed and got a good look of the pony.

It was Golden Harvest.

Golden looked up at Fluttershy with her puffy eyes and asked, “are you here to kill me too?”

“No”

“Are you r-really Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy nodded.

Golden Harvest wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy and hugged her tight, sobbing into her coat.

Fluttershy patted her on the back, “there, there. You’re safe now.