The Ponyville Aberration

Abomination

1.

a thing that causes disgust or loathing

2.

a feeling of hatred

The disfigured body of Doctor Blot Hermane shaked and jittered in torment, sending toothbrushes and various gels flying across his bathroom.

He’d begun to lose his grip on the aberration some half hour ago. It began with the ever present darkness creeping into the corners of his vision. Then, fifteen minutes ago, he’d begun to loss control of his limbs.

From that point onwards, things had gotten out of control.

Blot shifted in and out of consciousness, and in his lapses of lucidity finally found access to the aberration’s horrific memories.

Memories he knew in his heart he’d never unsee.

The gushing of pony-blood in a dark alleyway. Dragging Lyra Heartstrings into the woods, before devouring chunks of her flesh.

But somehow, most unsettling to the semi-aware therapist: the look of absolute terror on Applejack’s face.

And just like that, Doctor Blot Hermane faded into the darkness and the Ponyville Aberration took control. An unimaginable hunger wracked the thing’s body.

It wanted food; flesh.

The monstrosity tore the bathroom door from its hinges with little effort, and bounded into the hallway. A quick predatory glance revealed to the aberration its exit from Blot’s home, and just like that, it burst into the night in search of prey.

It was at that moment that the aberration heard the distant yelping of some distressed animal. With a wicked twitch of its malformed head, the beast turned to face the direction of Sweet Apple Acres and set off into the night.

Applejack awoke to a rapping at her door.

And the faint, yet familiar sound of a dog yapping outside.

‘Come in.’ Applejack called out, sleep still caking her eyes.

Her bedroom door whined as it opened, and in walked a tiny filly shaped figure. Applejack’s room was dark, however, in the minimal illuminance from the hallway, she had no trouble seeing that her sister’s face was just as exhausted as hers.

‘Winona’s ah barkin’ again sis,’Apple Bloom slurred while rubbing her eyes.

Applejack sighed and begrudgingly slid out of bed. She trotted towards her younger sister, who she afforded a loving pat on the head.

‘Head on back to bed, Apple Bloom. It’s past yer bedtime anyways.’ Applejack chuckled, cutting her sister a cheeky grin.

Apple Bloom returned the grin, and after a quick hug, pantered off back to her room.

Applejack couldn’t help but smile. Things had gotten so much better between the two of them since she’d followed Blot’s advice to focus less on work and more on family. She’d actually had time to bond with her family for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Family picnics, outings and the likes had finally become common place again.

She trotted to the stairs, careful to not wake up Big Mac, whose room was only a few meters down the hall from hers. The wooden stairs of their farmhouse seemingly creaked in agony as she descended into the darkness below.

Hay, Ah should’ve brought a candle or somethin’ with.

Applejack finally reached what she believed to be the bottom floor, and began stumbling through the darkness and towards the front door based on nothing but memory. Winona’s barking grew louder and louder as Applejack gradually grew nearer.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot across Applejack’s snout, causing her to tumble back.

Moonlight filled the farmhouse and Applejack felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her. She’d walked straight into the front door. Outside, drenched in moonlight, Winona barked with an unusual ferocity into the night.

‘Winona, what’re ye barkin’ at?’ Applejack called into the night, as she approached one of her oldest friends.

Winona either didn’t hear Applejack, or just completely ignored her. Either way, she kept barking with unrelenting tenacity at what Applejack could just about make out to be a tool shed.

‘Winona, are ye barkin’ at the darn toolshed again?’ Applejack exclaimed with marked irritance. She approached the distressed canine, and grasped her collar firmly between her teeth before trying to drag her away back to the farmhouse.

To her surprise, Winona didn’t cease her barking. Instead, the small shepherding hound fought hard to escape her master’s grasp. Applejack released Winona and stomped her hoof in annoyance.

‘Winona, what’s gotten into you tonight?’ Applejack cried out. ‘There’s nothin’ in that darn toolshed!’

Rather abruptly, Winona stopped her barking.

‘Good girl, now c’mon will ye. It’s late.’

Suddenly, a deep, threatening growl escaped Winona’s throat. The shepherd dog backed off protectively towards Applejack, putting herself between the now pitch black orchards beyond and her master.

‘Winona?’ Applejack asked, before straining her eyes to see into the dark woods beyond.

Winona’s growl had grown guttural and evermore violent. Snarls escaped the hound’s muzzle, and her pristine white teeth were on display where they glistened in the moonlight.

Somewhere beyond her line of sight, Applejack heard the rustling of bushes and then, as if from some nightmare, she saw the pale outline of something in the treeline.

‘Winona, run.’

This time, her faithful companion didn’t hesitate. Winona and Applejack spun on their heels and sprinted desperately towards the farm house. Behind her, Applejack heard the monstrosity bound out of the woods.

‘Macin-’ Applejack began, before an unimaginable force sent her sprawling to the floor.

The beast moved with supernatural speed, yanking Winona away from the front door by her tail. Winona crashed to the ground with a yelp, before landing some distance in between Applejack and the monstrosity.

Applejack had forgotten the true size of the beast. It towered over both her and Winona, moonlight illuminating its grim, disfigured features. A look of horrible hunger flicked in the beast’s eyes as it focused it gaze on Winona.
‘Don’t you touch her, ye damn filthy monster,’ Applejack cried out, crawling towards her injured pet. ‘Winona, you get up. Get outta here. Please.’

Winona stirred finally. It became immediately clear to Applejack that her friend had suffered worse wounds than she’d initially realized. A small pool of crimson surrounded Winona, who had begun to growl defensively once more.

‘You stupid animal, please, just get outta here.’ Applejack pleaded, a deep pang making itself known in her throat.

The beast approached Winona gingerly, enjoying every step. It stopped less than a meter away from the badly broken dog, before revealing its endless, ever hungering maw. Applejack’s legs failed her. The courage had been sucked out of her body, alongside her breath.

She was powerless to do anything but watch as her loving defender was devoured by some heartless abomination.

The Ponyville Aberration reeled backwards, preparing to pounce on the injured hound, before a whistle somewhere behind Applejack sounded in the darkness.

‘Loose!’ somepony cried from behind her.

Black bolts of fury whistled out from the woods, embedding themselves into the beast’s chest and neck. It howled in agony and collapsed backwards, sprawling to the ground. Suddenly, an ebon pony charged from the toolshed, a sharp lance strapped to their shoulder.

With a hearty war cry, the pony drove the lance clear through the stunned beast’s abdomen, pinning it to the side of the farmhouse. Big Mac emerged from the farmhouse and shut it behind him, likely to keep Apple Bloom inside. A look of horror dawned on his face as he look the impaled beast over.

More ebon ponies emerged from the woods, some flying; most approached on ground with either sharp objects attached to their backs or some form of crossbow.

These are Luna’s bat ponies.

Applejack finally felt strength return to her, and she crawled over to Winona, who had collapsed in the commotion.

‘Big Mac, help me with Winona. She’s hurt real bad.’ Applejack exclaimed before passing Winona’s limp body to her older brother, who in turn brought the injured dog inside.

The bat pony who had impaled the beast moved away from its unmoving form, and approached Applejack.

‘Are you okay ma’am? I’m sorry we didn’t act sooner, I had to alert my company,’ Captain Coal said with a solemn nod.

‘Ye came just in time Ah think. Thank y’all, really. Ah owe ye mah life,’ Applejack said, before cutting the creature a glance. ‘Is it um…’

‘Dead? Yes, most certainly. Very few things in Equestria could’ve survived such an ambush.’ Coal replied, resting a hoof on his temple.

Coal barked a set of orders at a nearby guard pony, before returning to face Applejack. Faintly, she could hear words leaving his mouth, and yet found them unintelligible. They seemed to be coming from hundreds of kilometers away.

This must be shock.

Applejack felt a wave of mixed emotion wash over her. Despite all the terror the beast had caused, at the end of day, it had saved her life in that fateful alleyway. The reality of the situation struck her. The Ponyville Aberration had perished.

She’d never know why it saved her.

‘What happens now?’ Applejack asked, looking Coal in the eyes.

‘Well, first, we contain the creature’s body. Then we-’ Captain Coal never finished his sentence.

Around the pair, his guard’s faces were lined with terror, some dropping their assorted weapons to the ground. Coal wretched, and Applejack felt a warm substance splatter on her face.

She looked down and saw a dark pike emerging from the captain’s throat. She felt her mouth drop as she back away from the struggling bat pony. Her eyes fell on the towering figure behind the captain. The lance that had once been firmly skewered in its midsection had be repurposed into the back of the bat pony captain’s neck.

All at once, Luna’s royal guard flung themselves into a panic. Some began opening fire whilst others simply cowered in terror of the beast. The aberration dropped Coal’s now lifeless body to the ground and began going to work on the panicked guard ponies.

Its claws ripped into their flesh, and it seemed to completely disregard the various injuries it had suffered. One brave bat pony tried to lance the monstrosity, but had his jaw ripped apart by the creature’s razor sharp talons.

Applejack backed away and shut her eyes,refusing to lay witness to the massacre taking place in front of her.

A cacophony of blood curdling screams rung out around her. They grew louder and louder, reaching a grand crescendo.

Before finally, all went silent, except for the sound of her own heartbeat and the strained breathing of the creature before her.

Applejack slowed forced her eyes open.

She regretted it instantly.

Bat ponies lay strewn around her, all either dead or dying. Some, it appeared died fairly cleanly. Applejack looked to her side, where a bat pony’s foreleg lay stranded.

Others it seemed, weren’t so lucky.

Amidst the bloodied chaos, stood the aberration. Its body had been riddled with bolts and deep gashes. It turned to face Applejack, all signs of bloodlust gone from its gore-drenched face. Deep blue eyes connected with hers, and once again, Applejack couldn’t shake a feeling of familiarity.

Despite all the death around her, the monster didn’t seem aggressive in the slightest.

In fact, Applejack could just about make out what appeared to be a deep sadness in the beast’s eyes.

They stood across each other, both covered in the gore of the ponies between them. Somewhere to her side, the farm door opened, and Big Macintosh rushed out, armed with a pitch fork. The beast regarded Big Mac with something resembling fear, and fled once more into the woods.

‘What in the hay happened out here, Applejack?’ Big Mac asked, dropping the pitch fork.

‘Ah don’t know,’ Applejack replied, her gaze locked in place with where the beast had stood mere moments ago. ‘Ah truly don’t know.’

Applejack collapsed, somewhere from behind her a filly screamed.

And then all went to darkness.

Bulk Biceps awoke to a scream.

His massive form shot out of bed and instinctively made straight for the door.

It took several steps down his hallway for him to question why he’d begun to run in the first place. He scanned the hallway with his massive head.
A scream. I heard a scream.

He began calling around his surprisingly small home, searching for the origin of the scream. In his half asleep state, it took the giant a full five minutes to figure out that the scream had come from outside.

Buck. Blot.

Bulk Biceps charged down his own hallway and burst out his front door. The street was dead silent. He cantered over to his friend’s residence to find the entrance wide open. The inside of the dwelling was a black abyss.

Another scream, this time, it sounded more contained.

Bulk entered the home quietly and slowly, allowing for his eyes to adjust. He felt a warm, wet substance on the under part of his hoof.

Is Blot drinking again?

He stood in the middle of living room, and found nought but a single light source coming from what he knew to be the bathroom. He approached gingerly, before finally reaching his destination.

‘Blot, are you okay?’ Bulk asked as he knocked on the door.

‘Bulk? I-Um yes, I’m fine. Don’t come in.’ Blot replied from the other side of the door.

It was clear in Blot’s voice that he was not alright. Bulk opened the door, and almost collapsed as he did.

Crimson lined almost everything in the bathroom. Blot’s sink once porcelain white sink had been drenched in what Bulk could only identify as the insides of some animal. Blot was seated on his toilet, except, something seemed off. He too was covered in a deep red, alongside the throne he sat upon. His legs and forelegs seemed the same.

His head and neck however, were far from normal. Half his face seemed the same, whilst the other was hairless and lined with a set of sharp fangs much too large to fit his body. His neck twitched and cracked, gradually returning to normal proportions.

Except for the spines visible on the back of his neck.

Bulk tumbled out of the bathroom as Blot struggled to shut the door.

Everything went dark.

Doctor Blot Hermane sat meters away from the unconscious form of his best friend. Things had gone from bad to worse that night. He had no clue what happened after he’d lost control of the beast.

But judging from the amount of blood in the bathroom.

It couldn’t have been good.

Bulk had walked in on the worst possible time. The painful hour or so that made up his transformation back to a pony. It felt unfair somehow, the transition to the beast was painful, yes, but it was also relatively quick.

This however, felt as though every minute took an hour.

And Bulk walked in right as my face was still half bucked up. Perfect.

Blot pondered what to do now. Bulk had been out for at least half an hour, and the transformation had completed. He’d managed to put a pillow under his massive friend’s head, as well as clean up the blood in the bathroom. He’d also shut the door, and wiped off whatever blood he could find leading to his home.

And yet he’d noticed something strange. This time, he’d identified two distinct pigmentations in the blood. One the regular crimson. The other much darker… almost black in colouration.

Was the aberration injured?

Blot shook his head and rested his back against the wall opposite a passed out Bulk Biceps. What felt like an eternity passed, before he heard his friend begin to stir.

‘Bulk, you awake?’ Blot whispered to his friend.

And then, in the blink of an eye, Bulk was on top of him. Blot had known the pegasus to be strong.

But not this strong.

Bulk choked the life out of his therapist, pinning him to the ground.

‘You’re a bucking liar, Blot!’ Bulk screamed as he squeezed down on his best friend’s throat with his hooves.

Blot’s world began to spin and go hazy. First there was just one Bulk on top of him, then there appeared to be three, four even five. In the back of his mind, he could feel the darkness pining to be let loose.

It took all the concentration he had left to fight it.

‘Bulk… You’re… Choking… Me.’ Blot managed as he struggled to stay awake.

Bulk’s pupils dilated, and as quickly as he’d begun, he fell back to where he’d been lying. Regret washed over Bulk’s face immediately, and he looked down to his own hooves in horror.

‘Blot… I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.’ Bulk managed, offering his friend a hoof in assistance.

Blot choked and waved the hoof away, ‘It’s okay, I’m okay. You’re right anyways, I am a liar.’ Blot coughed out, massaging his badly bruised throat.

‘Did… Did you kill all those ponies, Blot?’ Bulk asked, staring at the floor between them.

‘I-Um. I did, Bulk,’ Blot started. ‘But I didn’t want to. I wasn’t in control of myself.’ he finished, bowing his head in shame.

‘What did I see earlier… In the bathroom. Did you hurt somepony again?’

‘I don’t know Bulk, I don’t know.’

Princess Twilight Sparkle stood alone in her bed chamber.

It took all her effort not to break down into tears.

An hour prior, a grievously injured bat pont had arrived at the gates of the keep. He explained that the aberration had cut down and devoured all of his fellow guard ponies, including Captain Coal.

She’d contemplated contacting the princesses, especially Luna, to let them know what had happened. And yet, found herself unable to. She knew they’d want to begin spreading word of the aberration to other counties in Equestria.

She’d become known as the princess who failed to protect her ponies.

She contemplated informing her own royal guard, but feared the widespread panic that would ensue.

And so she’d come to an impasse.

Unwilling to do nothing, but incapable of doing much of anything.

Except perhaps, one thing.
In her many travels across Equestria, Twilight had met one pony who could shift the tides and perhaps take care of her monster problem for good.

Perhaps.

So for now, she’d keep quiet about what happened at Sweet Apple Acres, informing only her most trusted circle.

And then...

She’d find a way to kill The Ponyville Aberration.