It was so dark, Fluttershy could barely see the mansion. The six friends had taken the train from Ponyville to Appleoosa and walked the rest of the way to Applejack’s inheritance--a run-down old mansion in the middle of thick woods. Fluttershy was nervous: she hadn't heard or seen a single animal, or even another pony, since they’d left the small town behind. She, Pinkie, and Rarity were lagging behind. They were so tired from the trip, it took all they had to put one hoof in front of the other. Pinkie slowed to a halt, giving the other girls an excuse to rest as well.
"How long have we been walking? I feel like we should have been there hours ago." Pinkie complained. Fluttershy and Rarity voiced their agreement. They had lost sight of the others sometime ago, and the mansion never seemed to get closer. It was as if the closer they got the farther it became.
Fluttershy was scared of the woods. They were unnatural, different from the Everfree. No noise could be heard, but from the corners of her eyes, she could see red eyes watching her with bloodlust. She felt like an animal; like prey. She looked into the woods and saw death everywhere: the trees were like bones, the color of ash. The fallen leaves were shriveled and the soil was more lifeless than the desert surrounding Appleoosa. She looked away from the desolate woods and turned to her friends instead, who’d stopped and rested. Rarity was talking to Pinkie.
"It's okay, Pinkie dear, I'm sure that if we were lost, Rainbow would find us before we knew it." Rarity reassured her. Pinkie’s hair had straightened out in her worry. She stayed silent.
"Everything will be all right, let's just keep walking and soon I'm sure we'll be back with the rest of the girls, sipping on hot cocoa and laughing about this whole thing." Rarity finished. Pinkie nodded and stood up; Rarity followed suit.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
An hour.
They weren't getting any closer, and they knew it. Rarity fell back to where Fluttershy was walking.
"You know what I think," she whispered in Fluttershy's ear. "I think this is all one of Pinkie and Rainbow's pranks." Fluttershy was shocked. Rarity usually didn’t distrust her friends this much.
"Why would you think that? Pinkie is just as tired as us, isn't she? Plus, this seems a little too... dark for them." Fluttershy furrowed her eyes. Rarity shushed her.
"Keep it down, she'll hear us! Don't you remember when Pinkie and Rainbow pranked us for an entire day?"
“Yes, I do, but they learned that not everyone likes being pranked, didn't they?"
"Fluttershy, ponies don't just learn a lesson immediately. It takes time, dear, and it seems not nearly enough has passed." Rarity went up ahead and walked next to Pinkie, glancing at the sad pony periodically.
Eventually it became cold, and all three of the girls were numb from the chill and sore from the hike. Pinkie was the one who decided to stop.
"We... need to rest," she whispered with a fog. "It will only get colder, we should build a shelter..." She looked into the forest that the three had grown wary of.
“No," Rarity said faintly, with a tired voice. She was trying to be stern. “We can't stop, the others... they’ll find us... keep moving, and they will find us." She was in so much pain, from the cold and the walking, not to mention the stress. Rarity trotted onwards until she realised she was the only one. She looked back to her friends. Fluttershy looked away, but Pinkie watched Rarity with uncaring eyes.
"We have to rest, Rarity, unless you'd rather the search party finding our corpses." Fluttershy gasped, not believing the party pony could suggest such a dark thing. Rarity became angry at how Pinkie looked at her.
"Don't give me that glare, Pinkie Pie! I know this is all one of you and Rainbow’s pranks!" Hurt at the outburst, Pinkie turned away from Rarity and galloped away into the woods. Rarity started crying, and it became apparent that she was having a nervous breakdown. Fluttershy knew better than to approach the white mare and instead chased after Pinkie. The ground was more bedrock than dirt and pain echoed in her every step. The wind that rustled her mane was silent like a dying breath, and even Pinkie looked lifeless with her faded coat. Fluttershy sped up to Pinkie. She looked back and saw the road they had been walking on for hours. Rarity lay motionless on the ground, her head buried in her hooves, a small hiccup coming from her every now and then.
"She's just lying there. I think she's calmed down, we should go back to her." Pinkie didn't look back at her nor did she slow down, instead singing an old nursery rhyme.
"A filly so brave and honest, journeyed through the haunted forest to see her grand-mare, She fell right into the forest’s snare; so cold and scared no matter where she went, she only felt torment, eventually she froze when seeing the shadow as it rose." Fluttershy pushed Pinkie away in a sudden rise of fear and anger.
"Stop trying to scare me. It's not true, the others will find us. It'll all be okay." she reassured herself. She ran back to Rarity, regretfully leaving behind Pinkie to the woods. The twigs and leaves snapped as she ran, and branches tore at her body. She wasn't sure she was running in the right direction anymore. She no longer ran to Rarity, but ran with a fear born of death and the unknown. Her primal instincts had kicked in, and in her world, there was nopony else but her.
She looked behind her into the forest. The trees didn't move an inch, but the wind whispered. The trees were long dead, but the shadows moved vigorously, just out of vision, chasing her and never slowing. She looked back focusing on the trail ahead. Allat once, a tree limb struck her head and left a bright red gash. Trying to stand, her legs shook and finally failed her, leaving her to a world of darkness.
***
A young girl woke up. The sky was blue, the sun bringing the woods to life. The trees flourished with green and the birds chirped their morning song--it only got more beautiful as time passed. She sat up on the tulip patch she’d inadvertently slept on and looked to her father’s mansion on top of the hill. For some reason, it’d been painted a wonderful purple--so different from the neighboring houses, that some people would even stop and take pictures.
She heard a chopping sound coming from the barn, a sound familiar to her. She stood and ran to the barn, making birds scatter as she passed. When she approached, she saw the doors already opened and her father standing just outside, using a faucet to clean his bloody hands and arms.
“Daddy!” she shrieked with joy, skipping towards him. Her father was startled at first, but his face melted into a warm smile as he saw his daughter.
"Susan! I thought you were helping Ma cook, my dear." He picked her up and spun the giggling girl around. "Did you run from work again to nap in the garden?" he asked with a smile.
"No, Daddy, Mama said I was so well-behaved and cleaned my room soooo good that I could take a day to relax!" She looked at his bloody clothes and wondered what they were having for dinner. Growing up on a farm, Susan had had a firm grasp on the circle of life before most children.
“So what’s for dinner? Is it steak?" she asked excitedly. Her father stood and walked to the barn, his smile fading.
"You remember how Uncle Teddy sent those six horses to us?" Susan nodded eagerly. The man sighed. "Well, three got free and started freaking out… I had to put 'em down." His heart sank when she started crying. Susan had loved playing with them when she was younger and had even given them names. "How about when I'm done here, we go and get some ice cream uptown?" Susan sniffled and nodded, but was still crying. He sighed again, feeling awful.
"Go see if Mommy needs any help. She always has her hands full, even when she says otherwise." Susan nodded again and left at a slightly slower pace than she normally would’ve. The blue cloudless skies and wonderful landscape now seemed like a cruel joke.
"I wish I could just be in a happier world, one where I wouldn't have to butcher," the sad man whispered to himself. He looked at the barn and idly wondered what it was like to be murdered
