Eldritch

Chapter Six: Nocturnus

The rest of the Mane Six stood outside of the manor gates, crying before the bodies of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“She shouldn't… she couldn't…,” Rarity choked out between sobs as she saw the mangled state of her little sister.

Applejack said nothing, the tears from her closed eyes sliding down her face as she mourned her own sister’s death.

Rainbow Dash was shaking like a leaf, and crying. She refused to see Scootaloo’s body, for fear of seeing it rise from the dead.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie stood behind the three mourning mares, crying along with them, but didn't feel the same pain the three shared.

Pinkie turned to Twilight, “how do we know that Fluttershy survived? After seeing the Crusaders, she… she can't be… dead… right?”

Twilight looked down and said, “to tell you the truth… I don't know.”

Rarity cried her piece and got up shaking. She looked at the cursed manor, and was filled with instant dread.

She looked at the gates, and noticed something.

“Hey, I may have spotted Fluttershy’s journal!”

Rarity galloped over to the gate and used her magic to levitate the blood spattered journal.

“Sweet Celestia.” Rainbow said as she noticed the bloodstains.

The rest of the Mane Six gathered around Rarity as she flipped through the pages.

“What does it say?” Applejack asked, despite to focus her mind on the task ahead instead of her sister’s rotting corpse.

Rarity flipped through the pages, and said, “The journal states that our darling Fluttershy has been through a lot of things while we were gone. Spikey… bit her.”

By now, the group knew that whatever bites, also turns.

Tears began to form again in Twilight’s eyes as the alicorn shook her head. “Oh Spike, i'm sorry.”

Rarity continued, “She says in her journal that she feels a change happening inside her, like this very grotesque land is distorting her sanity. She says that she Is wondering what is happening to her. She is traveling with... Roseluck.”

“Wait, Roseluck is alive?” Pinkie asked.

“It would appear so. But she abandoned Fluttershy after…”

Rarity dropped the journal, horrified.

“Rarity? What's wrong?” Twilight asked.

Rarity only shook her head, daring not to read more.

Rainbow Dash picked up the journal, and read the page that Rarity refused to read.

“She writes that… she became one of them.”

This revelation shook the group to the core. Now they knew that Fluttershy was undead, and also knew that they would have to face her.

Twilight looked at the gates, and threw a black crystal at it. The darkness within the crystal opened the gates.

She looked back at her friends and said, “we came here to save her, and by Celestia, we will do it.”

(~}

Fluttershy lost track on how long she has been in the tunnels underneath the manor. Has it been days? Weeks? A month? She couldn't tell.

All she did know was that she had the sword of her ancestor strapped to her flank, and that she was slowly beginning to embrace the shadows. After all, the light abandoned her, her friends abandoned her, everypony she knew abandoned her in her hour of need.

She was falling, and is falling hard. The only thing that was keeping her from fully embracing the dark was her pathetic morality.

Fluttershy strode through the catacombs like she was gliding on strands of darkness, searching for the way out that Lord Whitehoof had described to her.

She could sense it…

There it was! A drainage pipe, one of the many pipes that keep the catacombs from flooding by dumping the rainwater in underground reservoirs. If she could go up one of those, she wouldn't have to find the secret passage way.

Then she frowned, she couldn't go through water. It couldn't be the way.

She turned and kept searching, trying to seek an exit from the macabre catacombs.

She spotted a crack in the wall, not wide enough for a rat to go through, but there was something on the other side.

Fluttershy transformed into mist and trickled through the crack. She turned back into her normal pony self.

She studied the place she had just arrived in.

The space was easily as big as three fillyball stadiums, with small stalagmites hanging from the underground roof. The place looked like it was lit with the afternoon sun, but no source of light was detected. Beautiful aspens and cedar trees towered over the bushes of nightshade and blueberry. Various plants, from roses of many colors to sunflowers and blue grass were all over the ground. A brook ran lazily under a small bridge and through the middle of the underground paradise. To the far side of the unexpected paradise, a small chapel was spotted.

Fluttershy broke her trance and began to trot through the oasis.

She could feel the touch of wheat tickling her side, and could feel the bluegrass underneath her hooves. She could smell the sweet scent of strawberry and blueberry plants, and felt a soft, warm breeze wrap itself around her like how a mother mare wraps her newborn colt in blankets at bedtime. Fluttershy could even hear a faint lullaby on the wind.

Fluttershy passed the brook, its soothing gurgling nearly bringing her eyes to tears.

She pressed onward, arriving at the steps of the small chapel.

She entered it.

The small chapel was small, only able to fit about twenty ponies at a time inside its holy walls. Stain glass windows depicting two infant fillies that look a lot like Fluttershy and… Roseluck.

And Roseluck herself was there as well.

She was kneeling down in front of the altar, muttering words in ancient Bitin. Fluttershy took a step forward, her hoofstep echoing.

Roseluck stopped her prayer, and slowly rose. She turned her head towards Fluttershy, looking her dead in the eyes.

For a bit, none spoke. Roseluck decided to break the silence.

“Welcome, Fluttershy. I have been expecting you.”

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, “what game are you up to, Roseluck?”

Roseluck shook her head, “I am up to no game. I discovered the truth. I discovered how to stop this.”

She moved to the side to show a holy relic sitting on the altar. A golden nail.

Fluttershy scrunched her nose in disgust, “it smells like blood and miracles.”

Roseluck nodded, “this is the nail that holds the sealed angel. This nail hold the primordial Light, something that all ponies forgot to revere.”

Fluttershy snarled, “the Light abandoned me. It is nothing more than false hope given to the masses. Vampirism showed me the truth, it showed me that the world doesn't care for its own. The Darkness is where I belong, and it's were I will stay.” Fluttershy then licked her lips and growled, “And I have no intention of leaving you here alive.”

Roseluck let a single tear escape her eye, and drew Rosebane. In a flash of light, both ponies appeared in front of the chapel, back in the underground oasis.

Roseluck then said, “the hero of Light versus the villain of Darkness. Let us find out, once and for all, who will prevail.”

Roseluck lunged at Fluttershy, aiming to pierce her heart. Fluttershy smiled a maliciously, and transformed into a swarm of bats, avoiding the attack and scattering all over the area.

“Awww, poor Roseluck.” Fluttershy’s voice boomed all around. “Always wanting to purge the world of evil, yet never getting to destroy it. Your whole goal is to kill me because of what I became.”

“I had no choice! I felt that to save your soul, I had to kill you to prevent it from corrupting you!” Roseluck answered.

A chilling laugh filled the cavern, “you lie! You abandoned me, you tried to kill me, you are no better than my undead kin! Oh, i'm going to have such fun with you.”

Roseluck was terrified. This was not the Fluttershy she knew. This was a corrupt Fluttershy, a Fluttershy that has turned into the most dangerous monster she had ever known.

Roseluck’s breathing had become ragged, and she was shaking as she heard hoofsteps all around her. Then a swarm of bats blasted her from the side, their claws and fangs performed a fly-by slice and dice that gave Roseluck some cuts all over her body. From the other side, a plague of rats knocked Roseluck over, the rats biting away at her flesh. Roseluck swung her sword wildly, killing some rats, but more seemed to take their place.

Suddenly, a ivory white stallion appeared next to Roseluck and threw a bottle of holy water that exploded on Roseluck. The water didn't harm her, but the water melted the rats off of her.

“Ashen! What are you doing here?!” Roseluck cried in surprise.

Ashen turned to her and said, “get out of here, now!”

Roseluck turned and fled, fear giving her the strength to gallop despite her many cuts.

Ashen turned to see Fluttershy trotting to him rather seductively , surrounded by rats and bats. One wolf were on either side of her. He eyes glowed a soft red. Her demonic bat wings were larger now.

Her wolves lunged at Ashen, one of them crunching down on his right foreleg. Ashen managed to stab the wolf in the throat with his knife. He then wrestled the other wolf to the ground and stabbed it in the head and the throat.

Ashen then made the mistake of looking up.

Fluttershy’s eyes glowed more fiercely now, casting her dreaded hypnosis on the monster hunter. Ashen knew what was happening, yet he couldn't look away. In a second his will broke like shattered glass, and he just stared at her.

Fluttershy stood over Ashen. She smiled and nodded. Ashen obeyed like a dog, and got up. Ashen excitedly leaned his head to the side.

Fluttershy gnashed her fangs, and clamped them down on his neck, hitting his jugular. The pain snapped Ashen out of his trance, and he bucked and struggled as much as he could. But, Fluttershy held on like a leech, and even managed to subdue him with raw, unnatural strength. Ashen’s struggling turned into twitching as Fluttershy finished her meal.

She withdrew her fangs from his neck, crimson and saliva dripping from her mouth.

She turned and said, “Oh, Ashen. I got plans for you.”

She laughed her haunting laugh as her dark influence turned the afternoon light into moonlight, turning the oasis into a copy of the sinister forests were the werewolves prowl. Will O’ Wisps appeared and corpses began to rise out of the ground.

Amidst all of this, Fluttershy muttered these words with a sadistic grin.

“Roseluck, your next.”