Viventis Anathema - Story of a Cursed Mare

It happened in that night, in a humble wooden house the middle of a forest. However was accurate to say what remained of a destroyed wooden house. A blazing pyre consume it. But more tremendous than that, was the tragedy that had occurred in the middle of that blazing inferno.

There was a black maned violet filly, standing front of the mangled and charred corpses that used to be her parents. In front of her eyes a monstrous like dark figure engulfed in black flames, which form was almost that of a pony but with more demonic features. His body obscured by the flames, except for his completely white eyes, and sharp teeth.

The filly glared at him and studied him, as if she was imprinting the entire image of him. After a few moments, the demonic figures turned around walked through the flames surrounding the place, leaving the scene. The filly was left with her dead parents, and what followed after that were her screams of fury.

Nine years later...

A mare woke up with a start. She sweated like crazy and her heart beat was more rapid. She didn't even bothered to look around since she knew already where she is. She was in her own dark, cold and wet cell. One of the many cells in the dungeon beneath Canterlot Castle. What she saw was all a dream, and yet she expected that to happen. She groaned in frustration, as that wasn't the first time that happened.

"I will never be able to leave that behind, huh?" The mare murmured and then sighed. "That damn nightmare. Is the same shit every night."

She got out of her bed and approached the barred window. Black clouds almost covered the nocturnal sky, barely filtering the moonlight. There's no sign of a storm or anything. Only the blows of the wind. The dim nocturnal night partially revealed her appearance.

She was a black maned violet mare with a long mane and two intimidating yet tired eyes. Her cutey mark resembled a bizarre blue strawberry with two transparent demonic looking blue eyes on it.

Assuming that she won't be able to take some sleep after that, the mare continued to watch the landscape outside the window, mostly because she had nothing better to do in that moment. Everything was quiet when two, distant male voices echoed from outside the cell.

"Oh, c'mon, Flamboyant Shield. Why we are here again?"

"I told you, I need you to take my place, so I can inspect the cells and return in my office to make a report."

"Just when my current insomnia wasn't enough." She quietly complained as she walked toward the cell door.

She could hear metallic hoofsteps getting closer from the out side. Judging by their voices, she already know who was coming and how many are.

Two male Night Guards, which one of them was a unicorn that she wasn't very fond of, but the other one sounded new to her. They were getting closer, probably pretending to take a stroll, just so they can forget that was actually their nocturnal duty.

"So... Who's the pony I have to watch?" Rice's voice asked.

"Her name is Grimwood Vileberry." Flamboyant's voice replied. "A female earth-pony. Although that's not her real name, I think that suits well to a delinquent like her. Nopony knows who she really is or where she came from."

"What crime she had committed anyway?"

"You may not know that, but two years ago she was arrested for her involvement in multiple episodes of brutal beating in which she picked up she had assaulted one unicorn, a group of the dragons guided by the once dreadful Flamestroke, a pack of diamond dogs and so on."

"What!?"

"Quiet! You will waking her up."

The sound of their hoofsteps stopped. Looking at the barred peephole of the door, she could see the faces of the two unicorns in front of her cell door. Rice looked just hesitant but curious, in contrast to Flamboyant, who looked a little annoyed, as if he had lived the same scene before.

"I'm sorry but... Brutal beating you said?" Rice murmured astounded.

"No joke. She started with a unicorn. Then she dealt with a gang of tree dragons leaded by Flamestroke that was sent into a brief coma by her, a group of diamond dogs who had their bones being broken by her, and the list goes on. She took them down by herself with only a steel pipe. As that wasn't dreadful enough, she was able to break a concrete wall with her hoof."

"R... Really?"

"She was dangerous and relentless, so of course we had to intervene. However, by the time we had surrounded her, Grimwood just surrendered herself to us without even fighting. But the strange part was that she spent only nine days in Canterlot Prison, as a common criminal should be, until my superior decided to transfer her in this dungeon."

Rice raised a eyebrow, confused. "Wait, why?"

"I don't know," Flamboyant responded perplexed. "Orders from above. But I think that is correlated with what we found in the bag we had retrieved from her. It was containing lots and lots of magical artifacts that she managed to make with her own hooves. That alone is grave fact, considering that the crafting of magical objects is taboo."

"Really?... Is that a crime?" Rice asked, seemingly missing the point.

"Yes, it is totally a crime to create artifacts without a authorization." Flamboyant sighed quietly with muted annoyance. "Think about our history for a second. Princess Celestia personally forbid this practice to the public domain, and for a very good reason. The first hundred years after Luna's banishment to the moon, crime had skyrocketed because of this illegal practice."

"Wow... I never known that fact," Rice admitted, meekly.

Flamboyant groaned. "This is why-"

"If you want to talk of me like I was a freak exposition," Grimwood interrupted grumpily from her cell. "Have at least the courtesy to low your damn voices. Besides, I had already woke up before you arrival.."

The two unicorn Night Guards peered into the barred hole to see Grimwood, who looked slightly irritated a the two, seemingly having woke up in the wrong way.

"Ok, what do you want?" Grimwood asked.

"Watch your mouth, you scum." Flamboyant ordered. "You shouldn't have even the right to retort like that. Not after the whole set of ponies, and others, that you had sent into the hospital."

"Oh, yeah?" She retorted calmly. "For your information, most of them, including the unicorn you were talking about, attacked me without even thinking twice. Putting aside the fact that I had actively took on the diamonds that were attacking a earth-mare, I have one condition. I never attack first without a reason."

"Is that a way to justify your actions?" Flamboyant inquired, irritated.

"You are free to believe what you want, but most of them asked for it. That's all."

"I don't care about your reasons! Your violence and crafting of artificial artifacts have no place outside these walls!"

Grimwood then looked at Rice, which startled him a little. "Who are you?"

"For your information, he's my replacement." Flamboyant countered.

"Flamboyant, I'm sorry to interrupt you," Rice said hesitantly. "But I was thinking... Did you had asked her real name or even her own origins?"

"We tried but she refused to talk about that. The same thing can be said from where she came from. In fact, before her arrival, nopony in Equestria saw this mare before. Only a few of them, including the victims, saw her in live. Her origins are completely unknown from the rest of us."

"I have the right to remain silent, you know?" Grimwood reminded.

"Yeah, but don't even think to behind that rule forever, witch." Flamboyant muttered before returning his attention to Rice. "Well, pal. Have fun with her."

"Wait, did you had just said that she can break a concrete wall, right?" Rice pointed out, meekly. "Couldn't she just get out of the cell by her sheer strength?"

"Relax. Her own prison is filled with multiple gems that gave these walls and the door a magical protection," Flamboyant reassured. "She won't be able to that. My superiors designed that cell."

"Well... Good to know." Rice replied, unconvinced.

"If you excuse me, I have a inspection to do."

"As you wish."

Flamboyant walked away, inspecting every door that he came across by peering through their peephole. Rice was left to guard Grimwood's door. The violet mare looked at him with a very annoyed expression, causing him to feel a little bit intimidated and look away. She facehoofed, slowly before.

"What a pain in the ass. Not only I got to hear another boring recap of my imputations but I have also this rookie to watch over my body. And judging by his seemingly clumsy behavior, I don't even think he had received a proper training."

"Hey. Can I talk with you for a moment?" Rice asked.

"Now what?" Grimwood asked with a bothered expression.

"I was just thinking... Why you had surrendered in the last moment?"

"Why you ask?"

"Well, you have all of that magic stuff and your great strength," Rice responded, almost tranquilly. "Look, I'm not the type to root for these like you but-"

"I didn't had fought them back because it's not worth to invoke the fury of the entire equestrian military," Grimwood interrupted. "The same one in which you had conscripted yourself in, probably to follow your parents' hoofsteps or simply because of your of sense of justice."

Rice became instantly muted by her statement but was still a little eager to know her reasons. "But..."

"Look, I'm not in the mood to talk with you right now." Grimwood said with a fed-up tone. "I'm tired... And I just want to sleep."

"Wait, that's not point." Rice insisted. "I mean, judging by your belonging that we had seized from you, you had great knowledge of magic and other things. You could had benefit Equestria so.... Why you are willingly spending the next twenty years of your life in prison?"

Grimwood frowned, staring at him with a grim and yet tired gaze. "This conversation ends here. So you better not get yourself involved with some Stallionkholm Syndrome of yours. Now buzz off."

Groaning in disappointment, Rice looked away from her. Having put that conversation out of the way, Grimwood headed toward her bed when she was struck by a sudden, atrocious pain in her chest, as if some invisible blade piercing her heart. She put her hoof on her chest, feeling her pain becoming steadily unbearable. Grimwood struggled to not lose her balance but end up collapsing on the ground.

"Missy, is there something wrong!?" Rice shouted worried.

But Grimwood didn't heard his voice, being too focused to deal with the pain flailing her heart. She clenched her teeth to bear that, but became more unbearable with the pass of the seconds. She presumed to be caught by some nasty disease. But that horrible moment of agony took a very bizarre turn. A coil of black-white flames gushed out of her chest, spreading through her body, turning it into a living pyre.

She was alarmed by that sight, yet she felt no pain at all, outside that of her chest. Strangely enough, her coat wasn't burning at all, much to her confusion.

"Hold on! I'm going to warn Flamboyant!" Rice's voice echoed from nowhere.

After a few moments, the black-white flames died off and the pain that was flailing her heart instantly vanished like nothing happened. Paled and confused, Grimwood slowly stood up and remained immobile, visibly taken aback by what she had experienced. She had no idea about what happened. Yet she could tell that wasn't magic, not even that of the unicorns.

"What the fuck just happened," Grimwood murmured dumbfounded.

"Rice!" Flamboyant's voice shouted from outside her cell, having returned from his patrolling. "What did I told you about that? You should not sympathize with any inmate. Her suffering may be a trick."

Grimwood walked hastily toward the cell door and peered in the squared barred peephole to ask something to the unicorns, only to find her vision being suddenly warped.

For a fraction of seconds, Flamboyant's appearance assumed a twisted one, with eyes being completely devoid of vitality, sharp teeth, a opened wound in his neck exposing it's bone and a few holes being present in his body without him or Rice even realizing that. Flamboyant's form returned to normal afterwards, with him finishing his conversation as nothing happened.

That glimpse of madness looked vivid enough to shake her, if not making her doubt of her sanity. She never felt so shaken as she was now.

"What kind of damn sorcery is this!? For a moment it looked like my sanity was betraying me." Grimwood thought, a little alarmed by that.

"Good to know that you get it," Flamboyant said to Rice and then looked at Grimwood with a stern expression. "What are looking at? Go back to sleep, witch."

Nonchalantly, Flamboyant turned toward the hall were he came from and walked away, leaving Rice to watch over Grimwood. Rice couldn't help but feel a little worried about her despite what his colleague said to him. Grimwood was still shaken for what she saw, unsure if what she saw was even real. As Grimwood tried to regain her composure, a loud sound of a explosion roared from the outside, followed a second later by a multivocal, warped monstrous roar. Grimwood became wide-eyed upon hearing that.

"The hell?" Grimwood demanded, seemingly recognizing it.

Rice flinched, startled. "What the deepest level of Tartarus was that!?"

That sound reminded her of something she had heard before. Grimwood could feel some resemblance with what heard in the past. Yet, as much similar as it is, it sounded slightly different. Having a good hearing, Grimwood can tell difference. But her memory didn't made any difference as that roar was similar enough to reinvoke the image of the demonic black figure that infested her nightmares, which monstrous sounds echoed in her mind. Anger instantly filled her mind upon remembering that, until she was snapped back to reality by Rice screaming from the outside her cell.

"WOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Grimwood quickly turned at her cell door, startled to hear that his scream, being then followed by the sound of something liquid being splattered around and a loud thud. Then the sound of a key being picked up and being inserted into the keyhole ranged a little bit as puddle of blood filtered from under the door.

Upon seeing that, she took a fighting stance while keeping a menacing gaze at the door, like she was about to trash somepony.

The sound was then replaced by a loud click and the door slowly creaked opened. Grimwood expected the one who had killed the guard pony to be some monster, but when the door was fully opened, she found somepony else standing in front of her.

It was a light-blue maned white stallion with silver eyes. His coat was white as the snow. Ignoring Grimwood's glare and the blood pool nearby him, he took a few steps toward her and made a half gleeful grin.

"I didn't expected you to be in this cell," He said with a bit of satisfaction. "No wonder I couldn't find you."

Grimwood didn't say anything. Instead she stepped back, being ready to charge against him. The stallion, however, wasn't intimidated. He retained his calm, but looked at her with apparent disappointment.

"What is that look?" He asked. "Is that the way to greet somepony who tried to released you?"

"You must be a well trained assassin," Grimwood said with a calm and yet distrustful tone."if you had managed to infiltrate this place and kill that Night Guard without being noticed. You wouldn't had searched for me without a reason."

"You don't trust anypony, huh." He pointed out calmly.

"Who the hell are you?" Grimwood asked.

"A mere wanderer of darkness." He replied solemnly. "A shadow traveler who had saw almost everything. Equestria held more flaws than I had imagined. Harmony is one thing, but everepony's real desire?... Now that is a real thing to consider."

"Tell a reason why I shouldn't kill you in this instant." Grimwood said bluntly, almost menacingly.

"That won't be necessary," The stranger responded. "After all, blood is what you were craving for this whole time, and wasn't my own."

Grimwood glared intensively at him, steadily becoming irritated, looking enraged. "Don't tempt me, throat cutter."

"Alright, as you wish," The stranger said sarcastically as he stepped out of her cell and looked down on his left. "Oh, by the way, you will need this."

With that, the stranger let something slip toward her. Puzzled, Grimwood glanced at the object at her feet, being exposed by the moonlight filtered by the barred window. In the same moment she glanced on it, Grimwood instantly recognized it. It was a black bag, belonging to her. Wanting to confirm a thing, she opened and took a look inside. She paled, looking bewildered upon seeing the content.

"You gotta be kidding me! It's my old gear! But how can that be!? I had hidden that in a secret place in my house were...!"

Grimwood returned her attention at Frost Bite, only find the white stallion not being here anymore.

"Bastard." Grimwood said quietly in tranquil fury as she rushed toward the doorway and peered outside, looking left and right, but there was no trace of him. "Where did he go?"

Her eyes then fell down and found Rice Crest laying on the ground.

Or rather his mangled corpse.

Grimwood observed the body of the pony who used to be Rice Crest. She was disgusted but mostly baffled. She had intuited that Rice was brutally killed by the stallion but the way he was killed was a very bizarre one. His body was literally cut obliquely, along with his own armor. Both the sides were bathed in his own blood, exposing sliced bones, muscles, organs and other things that are better left unknown. That gruesome scene left her astounded. Not just for the corpse itself but for the way he died.

"It was obvious that he was the one who killed him but the way he did is ridiculous! There's no earth-pony who is able to kill somepony like that. He wasn't even carrying any weapon at all. And now that I'm thinking about... Is he even a pony?"

"What kind of monster is that guy?" Grimwood murmured, a moment before Flamboyant voice echoed from her left.

"Rice! What happened!?"

Grimwood groaned with annoyance. "Talking about a bad night."

With the sound of hooves stampeding getting closer and closer, Grimwood retreated in her cell, stepping back toward her bed and hiding her bag beneath it. She watched the scene from the opened door. The hoofsteps stopped and silence fell for a moment before being broken by not one but two horrified gasps. Flamboyant and another unicorn Night Guard slowly approached what remained of Rice Crest, paled for that sight.

"No... Rice." Flamboyant said with a paled visage, kneeling in front of her dead friend and staring at it. "That can't be real."

"Holy Celestia." The other unicorn said with horror, with a almost elder voice. "What the heck happened to him?"

Flamboyant slowly turned toward the opened cell, glaring furiously at her. "YOU!"

Despite her knowing that they wouldn't had listened to her, she tried anyway but couldn't say anything that Flamboyant furiously jumped at her, only for the other unicorn to blocking with his telekinesis.

"Flamboyant, calm down, " Elder said with a strange calm, pointing at the split Rice. "Just look at Rice's body. That is a clean cut. Not even Grimwood could be do that."

"Even so, that doesn't explain how did the door cell was opened!" Flamboyant pointed out inquisitively.

"We should let her explain what happened before taking any action on her," Elder stated, giving a brief look at Grimwood and then back to his comrade. "Because I'm not even sure if she was going to exploit this moment to escape."

"You know that this door can be opened from the outside, right?" Grimwood pointed out. "Somepony... If that can be considered a pony, attacked Rice and he took the keys. He then used them to open the door and gave me this bag."

"You mean somepony managed to infiltrate in this place and do this?" Flamboyant demanded confused. "But why?"

"I don't know any of his reasons," Grimwood was then interrupted by Elder gesturing her to stop. "He was-

But Grimwood couldn't say anything that the two unicorns grunted uncomfortably, suddenly flinching, as if some sudden, lacerating pain struck them. Their breath becoming hoarse and raspy, and their faces looking pained. Grimwood was about to ask if they were sick when she noticed something that gave her a really bad vibe.

The guard unicorns trembled frantically and began to change in a very disturbing way. Their voices became warped as their grunts became feral. Their coat paled and pieces of their flesh were melting away, opening multiple holes on their bodies. Their eyes became completely red, filled with a sinister vitality. Their hooves having four digit claws bursting through their metal shoes. Their bodies continued their gruesome mutation with few differences.

Flamboyant's teeth became sharpened, almost becoming fangs. A cut wound opened on his neck and his hind leg's flesh melted a little, exposing part of it's bones. Bone spikes pierced through his abdomen and lower parts.

As for Elder, new spiked bones protruded from his chest, bursting through his chest armor and spilling some blood as stretched for a few inches toward the violet mare in front of him. Seemingly irritated, Elder grunted as he grabbed his mangled chest armor with his clawed hoof, ripped it apart and tossed it away, revealing a opened, deep-looking, gaping maw with sharp, tusk-like teeth arranged like a leech's mouth.

Upon seeing Flamboyant's mutating form, Grimwood recognized him being the same creature the she saw him becoming in the glimpse that she had after that bizarre experience. Instinctively, she put her hoof inside her black bag and rummaged inside, searching for something inside. Then, she grabbed something and slowly pulled it out of it.

Their macabre transformation finally stopped. Their form looked twisted and undead, barely resembling that of normal ponies. There was no coherent word from them. Only their chilling roar was their only response. With a startling speed, they rushed toward Grimwood with a killing intent, with their horns glowing. But Grimwood has no intention to remain still and become their prey.

"You showed your true colors to the wrong mare!" Grimwood shouted as she tossed a metal azure, rhombus shaped amulet with a orange jewel encased at the center of it.

The amulet whizzed toward the mutated Flamboyant. As it touched his face, it glowed for a second before shattering into pieces and emitting black lightnings that paralyzed both the creatures, who were letting out warped, chilling screams. Their horns stopped to glow as if their magic was somehow nullified.

Grimwood pulled out a four spiked disc with a red jewel on it and tossed at them. The mutated Flamboyant quickly recovered from the shock and leaped toward her, avoiding the amulet and tackling her during the landing. The monstrous Elder was left to take the object, which briefly glowed before unleashing a fiery explosion that destroyed his head and most of his body.

The Flamboyant-like monster pinned Grimwood down to the floor, pressing his hoof on her chest. Her attacker smelled like dead and yet he was bizarrely alive. She could see his voracious face getting closer to her, eager to sink into her flash. Grimwood was really nervous but maintained her calm as she waited for the for him to do his move.

As she expected, the creature pounced at the violet mare's head, only for her to quickly block his head with both of her hooves before he could chew her up.

"No, you don't!" Grimwood exclaimed before violently snapping his neck, causing the creature's body to collapse on her.

Grimwood moaned for the thing that used to be Flamboyant falling on her. Already fed-up by his unbearable dead body's odor, she roughly moved his body away from her own.

Slowly standing up with a sweat on her forehead, Grimwood observed the creature with a disturbed look. Whatever things she was looking at couldn't be considered a pony anymore.

Before Grimwood could pondering about that, Flamboyant's head suddenly roared, startling her. It was obviously trying to bite her, but she was out of his reach and was still attached to the neck of his paralyzed body..

"I can't believe it... He's still alive?" Grimwood said incredulous. "But I had snapped his neck."

Unwilling to dirt her hooves, she took the mangled piece of Elder's armor and furiously slammed it on the Flamboyant's still living head, thrusting it through his skull and destroying his brain. His voice went silent, dying off with his own owner. The creatures who used to be the Night Guards were dead, but what she saw was out of the natural course of the things.

Grimwood studied the twisted corpse of the former Night Guard in every detail. His death smell was still present in it. She was caught out of guard upon witnessing this, but for other reasons. Like it wasn't the first time.

"There must be some sorcery going one. Whatever made this to them, it messed up their biology and anatomy. Judging the stench, their bodies had reached the Rigor Mortis, yet they were still alive. Also, Flamboyant's head continued to live until I destroyed his brain. Despite their apparent mindlessness, they showed to have retained some intelligence, as demonstrated by them glowing their horns. I'm sorry for them, but since they tried to kill me, I had to defend myself."

"What isn't clear to me is the cause of their transformation," Grimwood said calmly, but still baffled. "How the hell that happened?"

Suddenly, terrified screams echoed from the corridor outside the door, a few moments before being suffocated by a chilling, warped mixture of groans and roars that seemed to belong to a nightmare. Alarmed, Grimwood went out of the cell and looked at the staircase at the end of the corridor. The infernal chorus continued to rang, with chewing sounds and other brief screams of agony joining the demented symphony.

After a few moments, the cacophony stopped, leaving only the lingering echo of the whole cacophony before the silence took its place.

Grimwood stared nervously at the staircase in dismay, taken aback by that. Her gaze was locked on that point. She seemed to know already who was coming, yet she was reluctant to believe that.

"You are fucking kidding me, right?"

To answer her question, multiple thuds hammered from the staircase, like boulders falling down from a mountain. The noises continued their unsettling hammering, becoming louder.

And louder.

And louder, until two mangled bodies of Royal Guards, being shredded around and chewed up, wearing the expression that they had as they died, with eyes and mouth being both wide open in a scream. Some of their insides were shown. One of them had one eye being pierced.

Grimwood reacted with legitimate disgust, shocked by that sight. She could barely maintain her composure. Before she could even comment that, a chilling sound of hoosteps slowly made their presence known, followed by disturbing groans and growls was descending, getting closer. She didn't even need to ask. She knows already what was coming.

"I guess they are other ponies being turned into monsters," Grimwood said, disturbed. "I don't know how that happened to them, but I don't think they would let me go."

As the echo was getting closer and louder, Grimwood felt like a disgusting sensation of being cornered. She wasn't scared, but wasn't tranquil either. She knows perfectly what has to be done, but she didn't liked that a little bite. The violet mare turned her head toward the bag in her cell room.

The content of the bag, her old equipment, was her only way she had to escape. Grimwood has no idea of what was going on in the castle in which she was in, but one was sure.

She has no intention to get killed, but wasn't proud for what was going to do.

"I can't believe I have to fight again."