Eldritch

Chapter 8: Dead Secrets

“Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy froze when she heard that voice. She put down her meal, Rainbow Dash’s corpse, and turned around.

Princess Luna was there, and was infuriated.

“I chose you to help, I chose you to end this corruption. And instead, I see my chosen one as a dark creature bent on destroying everything that was ever loved.”

Fluttershy snarled. “Don't lecture me about destruction. Where were you when you sent everypony to their deaths? Where were you when they were getting eaten alive, sucked dry, torn apart, or gerting killed by that faceless thing on the woods? Where were you when I got bit?! The answer is simple; you were hiding in your precious castle, letting those who believed in you die.”

Luna stomped her hoof, “I chose you so you could find the salvation of Equestria, so you could solve the mystery of your real bloodline!” She yelled.

Fluttershy raised her chin, “look at me, Luna. Do I look like somepony that could save this land?”

“You can still save this land! All you have to do is purify yourself of the corruption.”

“No, Luna.” Fluttershy said. “This is who I am, and it shall never change. Darkness is the only friend that has stood by me. It has never abandoned me, nor has it ever tried to kill me. Darkness… is the only thing…”

“Darkness is good when it's the Sacred Darkness. The Darkness that inhabits you is the corrupted Darkness, and that kind of Darkness is not your ally!” Luna said.

“That kind of Darkness is all I am,” Fluttershy countered with a growl.

Luna narrowed her eyes, “Then so be it. Your right Fluttershy, it's time I played more of a part in this tragedy. I'll start with thou!”

Luna faded away.

Fluttershy smirked, “an illusion. She knows she can't enter this place, the various curses place around the manor grounds will strike her out of the air if she even gets close.”

A clap of thunder shook the manor.

Fluttershy shrugged and turned to Ashen Spectre. “Go, find the last two survivors in this manor. Do as you please with Applejack, but bring Roseluck to me.”

Ashen bowed. “As you wish, my master.”

He turned into a swarm of bats and left the bloodied ballroom, leaving the mangled corpse of Rarity.

Fluttershy looked at the glass dome and laughed. This was her all hers, all of it. Before this is all over, she will rule this eldritch land. Nothing could stop her, nothing!

She chuckled to herself, and the glass above her shattered. In a millisecond, something sliced through her body, and pinned her to the floor. The pain would make silver weapons cringe as Fluttershy screamed in pure, unadulterated agony. She could see… a spear, a black-bladed blue spear with ancient moon carvings on the shaft, jutting out of her stomach and into the floor.

She felt some kind of baggage drain from her. She knew it wasn't her vampirism, but something more.

Whatever it was, it was way to painful to lose. Fluttershy screamed and thrashed as the spear sucked something out of her, her screams muffled by the ballroom.

(***)

“Why didn't you let me help them?! Ah could've of saved them!”

“Applejack, calm yourself! There was nothing you could do, except getting yourself killed.”

Applejack clenched her teeth. “You don't know that! Celestia, I can still hear their screams!”

Roseluck backhoofed Applejack, and a silence set in.

“Applejack, I know what it is like to lose a friend, I really do,” Roseluck said. “But, until we get to the Bloody Chapel, they will stay undead, understand? We can resurrect them, we just have to make it.”

Applejack looked down, and nodded. “Ah will follow you, but if you tricked me, Ah will kill you myself.”

Roseluck nodded. This manor has changed everypony who set hoof here, whether they see it or not.

“Shall we?”

Applejack reluctantly nodded and together, the two stepped into the room.

Alas, it was no room. It was a long hallway that was as wide as the throne room back in Canterlot. Stain glass windows adorned both sides of the hallway, each window showing a different story, in a different time. Roseluck and Applejack looked at the stain glass windows in awe, because Roseluck and Fluttershy were in the glass.

Both ponies looked at each other, then back to the stained glass, the shadows making the stained glass look sinister.

The first window depicted a two-headed mare, kissing a white stallion with a pink mane on one side, and kissing a green stallion with a red mane on the other side. Each stallion held a sword. The sword that Roseluck had looked eerily identical to the one the green stallion had. The next window showed the two stallions fighting each other, the white stallion shattering the green stallion’s sword with his own, casting his opponent down while the two-headed mare, now with one head, cowered with two fillies that looked like baby versions of Fluttershy and Roseluck. The next window showed the mare kneeling before the white stallion, who is reaching out to the filly that looked like Roseluck. The final window showed the mare, the white stallion, and the two fillies together, like in a family portrait.

Applejack gulped and asked, “why are you two in the glass?”

Roseluck studied the windows with a furrowed brow, putting the pieces together. She stood there for a while, the said, “That's lord and lady Whitehoof.” She pointed at the first window, “that window tells the tale on how all this started, about why we are here. It all began when Lady Whitehoof began to cheat on her husband, by having a secret affair with a stallion whose name is forever lost to history. The white stallion is Lord Whitehoof.”

She moved to the next window, saying, “And here, is when Whitehoof discovers the affair, and challenges the unnamed stallion to a duel, a duel fought with their legendary swords. Lord Whitehoof defeated the unnamed stallion, shattering his sword like glass, and killed him as his wife and the fillies, one his own, and the other, a bastard born from adultery, looked on with fear.”

Applejack slowly nodded, listening to the sad tale.

Roseluck continued. “In the next glass, we see Lady Whitehoof asking for forgiveness as Lord Whitehoof passes judgement on the bastard filly. On the final window, we see that he decides to raise the bastard as his own, to be part of his family.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. This Lord Whitehoof must have been pretty kind to take in a constant reminder of his wife's unfaithfulness and raise it. But one question was still unanswered.

“Why are you and Fluttershy up there for?” Applejack asked.

Then it clicked in Roseluck’s head.

Roseluck turned to Applejack. “Because, I am the descendent of the bastard.”

(^^^)

Lightning crashed outside as Fluttershy struggled to pull the rod from gods out of her body, her body writhing in pain as the spear continued to burn whatever was inside her. Her attempts were growing weaker and weaker as a pool of her own blood began to form.

Then, the spear grew barbs. The barbs stabbed her insides, and continued to snake their way through her blood vessels.

Fluttershy was in way to much pain to even scream. Her legs failed her, her grip on the spear weakened severely, her consciousness fading rapidly.

He went limp, and the spear hummed coldly.

(/^&)

Applejack and Roseluck opened the door at the end of the hallway, and stepped into the room.

It was a nursery, with two ancient crips and a plethora of toys for young foals. There were shelves of old porcelain dolls, their faces cracked from sitting there for ages, never seeing the light of day. There were two different music boxes, with names inscribed on the lids.

“This is where the two resided until the fall of house Whitehoof,” Roseluck said.

Applejack could imagine a restored room with two foals sleeping peacefully. To lose all of that and your parents to a bunch of bewitched maids…

Roseluck trotted up to the two music boxes, and read the carved names.

“Baron Wing and… Anvil Break?”

Roseluck backed away from the boxes. That couldn't be true. Anvil Break was her ancestor, but she was sure that he wasn't born in this evil manor.

But she remembered a certain saying in her household.

“Legends are just twists in reality.”

If he was indeed the first of her lineage, that would mean that White Rose would be his son.

“He crafted a sword to kill his son…” Roseluck muttered, horror written on her face.

“What?” Applejack asked.

Roseluck shook her head. She scanned the room, and found a map of the manor hanging on the wall.

“Who would put this map in this room?” Applejack asked. Roseluck trotted up to the map and pointed to the spire that dominated the top of the manor. “There, is our destination.”

“Why there?”

Roseluck turned to Applejack, saying, “because there is where it all began. It was this spot that Lord Whitehoof made his final stand. It was once a place of worship. But now, it stands as a bloody testament to all that has transpired here. We must confront whatever is at the top with the relic.”

“The relic better work,” Applejack muttered.

A crash was heard, coming from behind them.

The two whirled around to find a doll that had fallen from one of the shelves, its porcelain body smashed to pieces.

“We need to go, I don't like this room.” Applejack said.

“Don't worry about the room, worry about me.”

The two mares looked at each other, then slowly looked up.

It was one of the dolls, its eyes glowing red.

The doll spoke with Ashen Spectre’s voice.

“But soon, you will worry no longer. You know, I will be generous. I will give you both a ten second head start.”

The doll erupted in laughter, yelling, “run little meals, RUN!” Applejack and Roseluck hightailed it, nearly busting down the door, the doll’s haunting laughter seemingly chasing them.