"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."~ Les Brown

The year was 2066. Ponyville has exceeded its capacity, thus renaming itself Pony City. After all, many seem to want to live near the heroes who saved Equestria time and time again: The Mane 6. The still-crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends - Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy - have gone from total strangers to life-long partners on epic quests. At least in the day time. When day turns to night, things are different...

The now-motherly Scootaloo has come home from her time as a weather worker, greeted by a big hug from her son, Blitzing Speed. She smiled and returned the favor before telling him to let her go. She's got to settle down after a hard day of keeping the sky clear and beautiful. It may seem she and her son are the only things keeping her going, but there was a third thing that also means a lot to her: her manager and idol for a long time, Rainbow Dash, who was the very reason she even joined RD's foundation when she got older. Scootaloo felt so close to her, especially when she eventually got the chance to be her adopted sister and prove to everyone she can fly despite the... disability. Now that the sun has gone away, it's time for the mother to finally play. Recovering from a long day's work, Scootaloo upheld her motherly duty spending some time with Blitzing by playing his two favorite games: Hide and Seek and Tag. She isn't the kind of woman who would care more about her work than her family. She is capitalizing on what childhood he has left as he's approaching teenhood. Her own years of enduring puberty were rough. The aggression, the rush of hormones, it'll be all new to him. She knew that by being involved, she'll keep him straight as an arrow. Now that it's getting late, it's time to tuck him into bed as she always did since the crib.

One little kiss on the forehead later and it'll almost be time for her to go to sleep. She still had chores to do though. Sweep, sweep, sweep went her broom against the floor. Scrub, scrub, scrub went her sponge against the sides of the toilet and rub, rub, rub went the cloth against the dishes on her plate. It's amazing how many plates a family of two has. It was once three until... nah, she doesn't want to remember him. She resumed scrubbing until the sound of thuds drowned out her cleaning. Is that coming from the window, she thought. She put her plate down to walk over to one, passing a mirror nearby, to find nothing there but her reflection. She shrugged and began walking back until the thudding resumed. Now it seemed to be getting louder, and louder, and louder.

"Hello? Is anyone there? What are you doing in my house?!"

She ran back to the kitchen to grab a butcher knife and began going down the halls of her home. She pressed up against the corners of the walls, quickly peering out to check for threats before pressing on. No thuds at all.

"Hello? HELLO?!" No answer.

She decided to slowly go back to the window to check again but before she got there, she heard the thuds getting closer as if they were the boots of someone chasing after her. She shrieked and leaned against the mirror behind her. The thuds went silent again and she didn't see anything from the corners of her eyes.

"Mommy, why you screaming?"
Oh, thank goodness, it's just my son.
She sighed in relief and replied, "Nothing, Blitzing. Just stay in your room. Mommy is just-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a black hand covered in blood reached out of the mirror, muffling her screams. She tried stabbing the arm, but it remained unflinching. Blood continued to cascade from the hand like a rushing river. She then saw another hand, this one with its fingers extending into very sharp claws mimicking the tip of her blade that soon stabbed themselves into her face. She struggled violently as she could feel the tips piercing through her eyes to the optic nerves in the back, the rest into her cheekbones. She could feel her own crimson fluid drip down these wounds. Eventually, the two claw fingers pulled out and stabbed again, this time impaling her brain. It was the last thing she could feel before she collapsed and died, as the knife she held clanged against the kitchen floor.

The creature that was pretending to be her reflection soon popped out of the mirror to see her work more closely, along with 5 others. Its skin was pure black, no light from the window nearby seemed to reflect off it. But as Scootaloo saw, it was already bleeding but it wasn't from just the hands. It was bleeding from its eyes, nose, mouth, chest, arms, legs, as well as other various slash wounds. With no witnesses, they peeled off their second layer of face skin to reveal who they are: The Mane 6 themselves.

"Haha! That was amazing, Slaughter!" Rainbow Dash said to Pinkie, congratulating her efforts.

"Quiet, Poison! Remember your sister here's not alone in this house..." Slaughter answered in a whispery tone.

"Oops, sorry!" Poison apologized. For Poison, her skin was pure black just like Slaughter. However, her blood oozed out with a white hue, not red. It almost looks more like paint or glue.

"Stand back to let Anti-Life clean this up, then." Twilight said, pouring some weird black goo from the wounds of her white symbiotic body as it begins dissolving Scootaloo's body like a flesh-eating bacteria.

"Geez, Twilight. Since when did you become Trixie all of a sudden?" Applejack asked, crossing her blue arms against her red bleeding chest.

"We're not supposed to say our real names, remember?" Anti-Life hissed at her.
Rarity elaborates, "After all, we've done this for over 60 years, Pollutant. No need to get sloppy now. I'd prefer having no police ready to take me away from my sister," pointing her purple, pink blood, claw at AJ.

Fluttershy then chimed in, "And to add to Pain's point, I feel way more confident now than ever before as Shriek, so I don't want to lose this yellow and red symbiote forever. Now that I've had a taste, I'm hooked. I can't imagine being feeble, old Fluttershy again."

Pollutant points out to her, "Didn't you try to tear it off completely once?"

Shriek responded, "We all did. But it felt like peeling off our own skin with our bare hands. Plus, the thrill it provides is much better than withdrawing from it. So much blood to spill and the fact no one will ever know. It's why we'll keep on doing this. They'd never suspect their heroes to be the villains they've been running from all this time. Even when people vanished, our adventures made more people come. They're mere lambs to the slaughter."

Slaughter asks, "Yes, Shriek?"

Shriek shouts, "Not you, Slaughter!"

The acidic goo was done decaying Scootaloo's flesh and conveniently the knife to nothingness, so their work was done.

"Let's go now, ladies." Anti-Life ordered as Slaughter already went through the mirror first. They nodded their heads and went in after her.

Author's Note

Alright this is my first go at my story, no antagonist yet as it's too soon. Anyone tell me their thoughts so far, comment below, especially any edits I need to make.