Evisceration

1.

To remove the entrails of; disembowel

2.

To take away a vital or essential part of;

Weaken,

Damage, or

Destroy

Blot hoisted a bloodied Cheerilee into his home and kicked the door shut behind him.

He laid her down on a chair, scanning the magenta mare for any obvious, serious injuries.

He found one.

A jagged cut above her left forehoof, straight through both veins and arteries. Blot could clearly see a thing layer of fat, as well as the unmistakeable white gleam of bone.

Cheerilee… What have you done.

‘Bulk, you need to get a cloth. Any cloth. Maybe some kind of pin and needle too, I don’t know!’ Blot frantically shouted to the gargantuan pegasus looming behind him.

‘The screaming… It got too loud… I was too scared to go to the hospital…’ Cheerilee slurred, falling in and out of consciousness.

She’s losing blood. Fast.

Blot felt his insides tumbling and turning at every slight movement. Fire spread from his spine down to the keratin in his hooves. He gritted his teeth and glanced erratically around the room.

What happens if I turn into the thing here? What if I hurt somepony I care about. That can't happen.

‘Bulk, where’s the damn cloth? She’s fading!’ Blot screamed, only to see Bulk stumble back into the lobby,a first aid kit clenched in his jaws.

He spat the box out in front of Blot, whose faced was masked in bewilderment.

I forgot I actually had one of these.

‘I remember seeing it the last time I was digging around for your cider stash,’ Bulk exclaimed in a mixture of pride and terror. ‘There should be stitches and bandages inside, I think.’

Blot held a hoof against Cheerilee’s open wound while Bulk ransacked the first aid kit for supplies.

‘Here,’ Bulk said, passing Blot a gauze, disinfectant and a set of stitches.

Blot cast his friend a worried look. ‘I’m not exactly well versed in first aid, Bulk.’

‘Well hay, neither am I!’

They sat in a moment of silence, exchanging panicked expressions.

Only to be interrupted by Cheerilee’s groans of pain.

Buck it.

Blot popped open the bottle of disinfectant and poured nearly half the container over Cheerilee’s wound. She screamed and kicked in protest, biting a pillow in her struggle.

‘Bulk, you need to hold her down. I’m not strong enough.’ Blot groaned while desperately holding the school teacher in place.

With a curt nod, Bulk placed two massive forehooves on Cheerilee’s arms and legs, fastening her in place. Blot, with a tremor from a mixture of pain and fear, pushed the needle into Cheerilee’s open wound.

She responded with more thrashing which even Bulk struggled to contain.

Blot stitched the foreleg with as much care as a manticore in a cupcake store, resulting in ugly, imperfect lines of thread running from one end of the wound to the other. Sometime during the process, Cheerilee had passed out in Bulk’s massive forelegs.

Blot wrapped the poorly mended wound with a layer of gauze and cut his friend a glance that could freeze a cockatrice.

‘You need to get her to Ponyville Hospital right away, Bulk.’

What about you, Blot? You’re not coming with?’ Bulk replied, carefully lifting up Cheeriles and resting her over his shoulders.

‘I can’t. I’m feeling unwell.’ Blot stressed, feeling a familiar snap in his back hoof followed by a spike of pain up his leg.

‘But, Blot-’

‘Bulk, leave right now. Please.’ the therapist pleaded, as he felt his spine slowly begin to metamorphosize.

With a look of concern and not another word, Bulk Biceps rushed through Blot’s door and into the Ponyville evening, a motionless Cheerilee on his shoulder.

Blot had but enough strength to shut the door behind his friend, before the first of many screams escaped his lips.

An aberration of pale skin, wicked claws and an endless maw rose to its full height within the confines of Blot’s home. The beast’s malformed skull made contact with the room’s ceiling, eliciting a startled snarl and an impromptu swipe at the air.

It scanned the home for life.

For food.

It gingerly stalked through Blot’s home, moving with miraculous silence for a beast of its size. Entering the kitchen, two slits resembling what might have abstractly resembled nostrils inhaled in sharp spurs, drawing in a plethora of aromas.

One smell piqued the thing’sinterest.

Pony-flesh.

With a chittering growl, the beast went to work on the kitchen, ripping it apart in hopes of finding its prey. Drawers and cabinets were torn from their hinges and flung careless across the room.

In one compartment, it found a large container of amber liquid. A sniff revealed to the beast that it contained nothing edible.

It flung the container clean through the kitchen window and into the blackness of the night. Once every compartment had been cleared of its contents the creature concluded that whatever food had once prowled the room had already left.

The beast cast its gaze towards the shattered window and twitched.

Hunger.

Bon-Bon squeezed her confectionery shaped pillow as though her life depended on it.

She hid underneath a fortress of blankets and pillows, manned by none other than her very own regiment of assorted stuffed animals.

She trusted them to keep her safe from the monsters of the night, just like her momma had told her when she was but a filly.

They’d been off duty for years, especially during her time as an agent in Canterlot.

But with what happened last week, she needed to be ready.

Full conscription was in order.

All hooves on deck.

Yet, even with her small army, she’d barely gotten a wink of sleep since the news broke out. Three stallions dying had been scary enough. But the rumors that Princess Twilight and the Ponyville guard thought that they’d been murdered by something that wasn’t even a pony.

That terrified her.

Memories of her time as a monster hunter ran rampant, but everything she’d ever chased before had never come even close to such levels of brutality.

Not even the Bug-Bear could’ve been so violent.

She’d prayed and hoped to Princess Luna that sleep would come, but when it did, she found herself in dreamless slumber, only to wake up one or two hours later. Alone.

She squeezed her pillow tighter.

She thought about Lyra, her mint coloured best friend. She’d gone to Canterlot two weeks ago under a noble’s commission. She’d been ecstatic for her friend at the time, her chance at a big break. Now, she felt as though every creak of their shared home was caused by whatever had hurt those ponies.

Oh Lyra. Please come home.

‘Oh I’m so selfish. I want you back here so that I can feel less alone, but that would bring you closer to danger.’ she whispered, a tear escaping the corner of her eye.

She shut her eyes tight, fighting the urge to cry.

She’d be brave for Lyra and for herself.

‘Princess Luna, I hope you’re listening. Please let me dream of cotton candy clouds and toffee streets. Also maybe lollipop trees, if that isn’t too much.’ she prayed with a weak smile.

Somewhere in the bowels of her small Ponyville townhouse, she heard something break.

Or at least, she thought she did. Her retirement had left her “monster senses” dull and untuned.

‘I-It’s probably nothing.’ she whispered to herself and dug her head even deeper underneath the covers.

A faint creak.

There’s nothing to be scared of… Whatever hurt those ponies can’t be here… It can’t be. I have nothing to be afraid of, I’m Agent Sweetie Drops!

She closed her eyes and tried her best to fall into a deep sleep.

They shot open as soon as she heard her bedroom door groan as it opened.

A breeze maybe? But all the windows are closed…

Every essence of Bon-Bon’s being screamed at her to get up and run. To book it onto the streets and straight to Twilight’s castle.

And yet, she found herself frozen in place. This would never have happened during her time as an agent.

She heard another creak, except this time, it came right by the side of her bed, no more than a meter away. She felt tears run openly down her face.

She felt something heavy climb onto her bed. Her fortress had failed her.

Oh Luna please, help me. Anypony. Please.

Suddenly, whatever lurked in the darkness flung itself on top of her. It tore at her blankets and pillows, before finally ripping them clean off the bed.

Bon-Bon sobbed openly now and continued her silent prayers.

‘Bon-Bon, why’re you crying? It’s me, silly!’ Lyra Heartstrings laughed as she hugged her friend.

‘L-Lyra? But how? I-The monster?’ Bon-Bon managed, her blurry eyes coming into focus on her friend. ‘W-Why would you scare me like that? With what happened last week?’

Lyra stopped laughing for a moment. ‘What do you mean? What happened last week?’ she asked, her jovial tone all but gone.

‘You didn’t hear about the ponies in the alleyway?’ Bon-Bon asked her friend, who had moved close to her side.

‘No? I only just got back to Ponyville about fifteen minutes ago! I walked here straight from the station.’

Either Twilight didn’t want to worry Celestia and Luna, or they know exactly what’s going on but aren’t letting anypony know.

No accountability.

Bon-Bon sat at a loss for words. Could the princesses really be keeping what happened under wraps? A thousand thoughts ran through her head.

‘Hey, Bon, what happened to the window in our kitchen by the way?’ Lyra asked her clearly puzzled friend. ‘It was all dark and spooky in there too.’

Bon-Bon felt her heart drop into the depths of her bowels.

‘Lyra, we need to close the bedroom door.’ Bon-Bon urged her friend as she climbed gingerly out of bed.

‘Why, Bon? What happened while I was gone?’

‘I-Three ponies were um… killed by something horrible, Lyra. That’s why I was so afraid.’ Bon-Bon said, turning to face her mint tinged friend.

Lyra’s face radiated terror.

‘Bon, I thought I was seeing things earlier since it was so dark,’ Lyra paused, shaking her head. ‘I think there’s something in our kitchen.’

Bon-Bon spun around and closed the door to their bedroom, making extra sure to lock it. Her hibernated agent instincts returning in full effect.

‘Lyra, can’t you teleport us out of here?’

‘Bon, you know that I’m not exactly magically gifted,’ Lyra muttered with a roll of her eyes. ‘I can’t get us out of here.’

‘So we’re stuck here?’ Bon whispered with a tinge of agitation.

‘Not exactly,’ Lyra beckoned towards the closed curtains, behind which a window facing the outskirts of Ponyville. ‘We climb out the window and make a break for Sweet Apple Acres. It’s not far from here.’

‘Lyra, you wanna run around in the dark with a monster? Have you gone hay-wire?’ Bon-Bon exclaimed. ‘As an ex-monster hunter, I’m gonna have to disagree.’

‘It’s better than being trapped in here.’

Bon-Bon scanned her room, in desperate search of alternatives.

She found none.

A gentle yet surprisingly cool breeze from the now open window sent a shiver down Lyra Heartstring’s spine. Bon-Bon and her had stood together in front of the nighttime abyss in front of them for the better half of five minutes.

Oh gosh, what if I didn’t really even see anything inside the kitchen.

Doubt ran rampant across Lyra’s thoughts.

‘Lyra, we’ve been stood still here like a pair of cockatrice statues for ages. We’re either going or we’re not.’ Bon-Bon exclaimed.

Lyra felt taken aback by her friend’s sudden surge of courage. She wondered how Bon (Or Sweetie Drops as she’d apparently previously been called) had been back in Canterlot.

‘Okay then, Bon. You’re the ex-monster hunter, agent pony. You go first.’

‘Fine, I will.’ Bon-Bon replied, putting a hoof on the windowsill.

‘I’ll be right behind you.’

And with that, Bon-Bon disappeared into the night. While they were still only on the first floor, Lyra couldn’t help but worry that her friend had landed awkwardly, given the extreme lack of light.

Lyra heard a scuffling sound below her, but couldn’t quite make out any discernible outline of her cream coloured friend.

‘Bon, you okay down there?’ she whispered as loud as she could.

More scuffling.

‘Bon?’

‘Lyra, I landed funny,’ Lyra heard her friend call out from below, a swathe of dread and relief washing over her. ‘It’s been awhile since I’ve done all these theatrics.’

‘Are you okay?’ she whispered back, casting the occasional glance at the locked bedroom door behind her.

‘I-I think I twisted my hoof, Lyra.’

Buck.

‘Okay, Bon, I’m coming down.’ Lyra whispered, putting a hoof on the window sill.

‘Alright, I’ll try-’

Lyra retracted her hoof slowly from the window, at the sound of a sickening wet crunch from below.

‘Bon, you okay?’

Silence.

An overwhelming sense of terror filled Lyra’s heart and out of instinct, she slammed the window shut and tumbled away, landing on her flank.

Tears streamed down Lyra’s cheeks, as she rested her back against the wall right next to her bedroom door.

Oh Celestia, Bon. I left you out there. What have I done?

Lyra recoiled in terror, hitting her head against the wall, as Bon-Bon began banging on the glass of the window.

‘Lyra, open the window, please!’ Bon cried, leaving marks of some dark substance on the glass.

Lyra shoot to her hooves and stumbled towards the window sill, tripping over herself and landing just short. She looked up to see Bon’s eyes wide open in panic, but something seemed off.

Oh no...

A wave of nausea overtook the mint tinged mare as her eyes focused on something protruding from her friend’s neck. Four wickedly sharp spikes gleamed under the moonlight, covered in what Lyra knew to be her best friend’s blood.

Bon-Bon seemed unaware of what had happened, and continued to frantically bang on the window, before a series of violent spasms overtook her. Blood flowed like a river from where the four spikes in Bon’s throat had emerged, and to Lyra’s shock, her friend began to float.

Lyra backed away from the window, drawing on every fibre of her being to stifle a scream.

It occurred rather quickly to Lyra that her friend was indeed not floating.

She was being lifted up.

The four ‘spikes’ in Bon Bon’s throat were actually the talons of something horrible. Behind her friend’s now lifeless corpse, Lyra made out the outline of a massive, hideously pale thing. It moved Bon to the side, revealing an unending maw which to Lyra’s disgust, took a chunk of flesh out of her friend’s abdomen.

Lyra sat frozen nought but a meter or two away from the monstrosity. She found herself in equal parts horror and paralysis. The sheer violence and mass of whatever lurked outside her window made her realize something terrible.

This thing wasn’t in our kitchen. Bon died because of me.

She’d seen something small. In hindsight, it could have been anything. Just not this.

The monstrosity beyond the window continued to feast on Bon’s lifeless body, and Lyra found herself unable to look away. Lyra’s life flashed before her eyes. Every stupid argument she’d ever had with Bon, every word left unsaid.

Painful thoughts crossed Lyra’s mind.

She had jumped straight into it. Because of me.

Because of me.

Because of me.

A gasp of realization escaped Lyra’s throat, stopping the beast in its tracks. The thing dropped Bon to the ground, and slowly turned its horrible gaze towards a trembling Lyra.

The beast’s gore-filled maw morphed into what Lyra could only possibly imagine to be a grin.

Because of me.

Glass shattered, and Lyra was dragged into the blackness of the night.

Strained coughing awoke Bulk Biceps.

He opened his blurry, sleep-ridden eyes and looked around him. He was in a hospital room, spread out on a couch which was clearly too small to sustain the full weight of the massive pegasus. The room had been painted a dull beige, with pictures of flowers and small animals decorating the walls.

He faintly remembered stumbling into the hospital, exhausted, with Cheerilee strewn over his shoulder. He recalled waiting a few moments outside an ER room, then falling asleep on a waiting chair.

Somepony must’ve moved him.

How?

Suspending his disbelief, Bulk scanned the room around him, settling on a hospital bed a few meters away from him. Cheerilee lay in the bed, connected to all manners of machine. As he drew closer to the injured mare, he noticed that her poorly mended wound had been re-stitched and properly dressed.
More importantly, the subtle hush of her breath lifted an insurmountable weight from Bulk’s broad shoulders.

She survived.

He, as quietly as possible wandered to a nearby set of curtains, burgeoning with sunshine. A quick peek behind the fabric revealed to him a beautiful, sunny day.

I must’ve fallen asleep here.

Suddenly, his mind drifted to his Blot. His friend had urged him out of the house. In fact, he’d almost demanded his departure. Bulk recalled what he could only think to be the sound of a distant scream as he had run towards Ponyville hospital.

He cursed his miniscule wings.

With a final caring glance towards Cheerilee, Bulk made for the exit.

Only to be bumped into by a small earth pony wearing a nurse’s hat with red emblem in the shape of a heart on it.

‘Oh my, you’re awake,’ whispered Nurse Redheart, clearly aware of the still fast asleep Cheerilee. ‘Let’s speak outside the room.’

The pair entered a quiet hallway, devoid of life asides from the occasional nurse passing in and out of doors not unlike Cheerilee’s.

‘Is she going to be okay?’ Bulk asked quietly, leaning down to look Redheart in the eye.

The nurse nodded with a soft smile. ‘You managed to get her here just in time. She lost a lot of blood, but she’s stable.

‘The mending that you and Doctor Hermane had given her was rudimentary, but it probably saved her life.’

‘Wait, did you just say “Doctor Hermane”? He was here?’ Bulk asked with a confused expression.

‘He checked in on the pair of you about an hour ago. He didn’t want to wake you,’ Redheart said, taking a seat nearby Cheerilee’s door.

Reality hit Bulk like a wagon without breaks.

‘How long have I been asleep?’
‘Well, you stumbled in here with Ms. Cheerilee a day and a half ago. You’d almost run yourself to death so we gave you some liquids and let you rest.

‘You should be proud, you’re a hero.’ Nurse Redheart finished, before standing up and entering Cheerilee’s door, closing the door behind her.

A day and a half? Sweet Celestia.

‘Applejack, tell me about your week.’

‘It’s been good. Ah took yer advice and tried mah best to relax,’

Doctor Blot Hermane raised a skeptical eyebrow at the clearly uncomfortable farm-mare in front of him.

‘Why do I feel like there’s a “but” missing here?’ Blot queried, locking eye contact with Applejack.

‘Well- Ah, um might have worked just a bit on the farm. Just some buckin’ here and there, that’s all.’ Applejack admitted squeamishly.

‘Applejack, you’re many things. A good liar is not one of them,’ Blot said with a giggle and an accusative wink. ‘How much did you really work?’

‘More than Ah should have,’ Applejack conceded. ‘But, Ah did really try an’ work less, that’s a promise!’

‘I believe you,’ Blot chuckled and then paused, his face tensing up. ‘Applejack, how’ve you been since what happened last week?’

Applejack fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat at the question.

‘Ah’ve been okay. Better than expected, at least.’ she said anxiously, tapping the table with her hoof.

‘Anything about that night you’d like to speak to me about?’

Applejack shuffled again, averting Blot’s gaze. ‘Ah um, Ah don’t know really.’

Dark bags hung woefully underneath Applejack’s eyes, and Blot cursed himself for not noticing earlier.

‘You haven’t been sleeping much, have you, Applejack?’

‘Ah-um, well, Ah’ve been tryin’ to, but it just doesn’t come. Maybe it’s the lack of workin’ or somethin’.’

‘Applejack, I think we both know that isn’t the truth.’ Blot stated with a worried expression.

The farm mare across him audibly stifled a sniffle.

‘Ah’ve been seein’ those three ponies at night when Ah close mah eyes. Ah’ve been seeing… that thing.’Applejack managed, before the tears overwhelmed her.

Blot watched the mare in front of him sob quietly. He sat lost in thought, the fledgling memories of his disastrous evening two days ago running rampant. He felt relieved that Bulk had made it to the hospital with Cheerilee.

He recalled very little of what had followed his transformation.

Some muddled, hazy recollection of a house, broken glass and a cream coloured pony.

He did however very clearly remember spending the day after cleaning up his home, as well as entirely removing a window from his kitchen.

As Applejack’s cries quieted down, Blot snapped back to reality.

‘I know what you saw that night was… disturbing to say the least Applejack, but you need to realize that it’s in the past. Whatever that thing was, it’s probably long gone from here.

‘What happened to those ponies was awful, but again, it’s in the past. Focus on the present.’ he finished with a soft, reassuring smile.

‘Ah’m tryin, doc. But, Ah sometimes wonder if they deserved it, y’know. What they were gonna do-’ Applejack stopped herself, with a scowl of both fury and terror masking her face.

Blot felt a shiver go down his spine.

He opened his mouth to ask Applejack what she meant, but before he could, his office door flung open.

Bulk Biceps stood drenched in sweat, a newspaper in his mouth.

He dropped the paper on the desk with a look of horror.

The Ponyville Herald

Ponyville’s Premiere Reporting Office

THE PONYVILLE ABERRATION STRIKES AGAIN

TWO MORE PONIES FOUND DEAD IN TOWN HOME

Princess Celestia felt a tear run down her cheek.

She stood atop a porcelain balcony overlooking a very sunny Canterlot. Glorious towers of marble surrounded her on all sides. Below, thousands of her ponies went about their daily business.

Her heart swelled with pride.

She loved them. All of them.

A small parchment basked in her magical aura floated in front of her. She used to find great joy in reading these letters from her former apprentice.

But, as of late, she dreaded them.

Not even a week ago, Celestia had received the disturbing news from Twilight regarding murders in Ponyville. The letter had been frantic and panicked.

Desperate.

As much as it pained Celestia, she was very aware of crime all across Equestria. Gang violence in Manehatten, rape in Fillydelphia and even the occasional murder right under her muzzle in Canterlot.

However, she hadn’t heard of three murders in a single occurrence in a very long time.

More shocking still had been the Element of Honesty’s eye-witness account of the killing.

And the monstrosity she had described. Celestia recalled the failed monster hunting agency she had helped bring together.

They couldn’t have contained this.

Behind her, she heard the familiar hoof-steps of her beloved younger sibling.

‘Has it happened again, sister?’ Luna asked from Celestia’s side.

‘I’m afraid so.’ Celestia replied.

The pair stood together in silence, wind whistling through their ethereal manes.

‘You said that if it happened again, we’d intervene,’ Luna said, breaking the silence. She cast her sister a glance with her turquoise eyes. ‘The beast comes at night. Allow me to send a detachment of Lunar Guard.’

With a woeful, pained sigh, Celestia nodded her head. She trusted Twilight's abilities as a princess with her life, but if whatever had murdered those ponies is still out there...

She'd do anything to keep her ponies safe.

Luna’s horn blared with powerful magic, and nighttime fell upon Equestria.

Author's Note

After several re-writes, chapter three is here!

Enjoy!

(Side note: Decided to refer to 'Sweetie Drops' as Bon-Bon throughout the chapter, it felt unnatural writing her in as the former. Moreover, I like to think of Sweetie Drops and Bon-Bon as two sides of the same coin, wherein the former has become more of an alter ego than anything else.)

Thanks!