Viventis Anathema - Story of a Cursed Mare

A ungodly chorus of groans, roars and hoofsteps echoed from the staircase at the end of the corridor. Sometimes, it was joined by half chewing sounds and bone cracking. The night that darkened the corridor had no idea of the bizarrely bloody thing that was happening in that moment.

Feeling her incoming visitors getting closer, Grimwood headed back to her cell and took her bag from her bed. She opened the bag and pulled out four silver, metallic shoes, being actually demonic-looking artificial limbs: Two clawed hands and two talons, all of them being four digits, with a violet jewel being inside their lining. She putted on the metallic claws on the hooves of her forelegs and the metallic talons on her hind legs.

Suddenly, Grimwood was struck a unbearable pain spreading on all of her legs. A yell of pain escaped from her mouth, a moment before flopping on her side. She clenched her teeth, trying her best to mute her voice and bear all of that pain as she felt her bones snapping, repairing themselves and rearranging themselves into a slightly different order.

After a few moments, the pain and the internal turmoil stopped, giving her a moment to recover from that. Her appearance was the same, except that she felt her skeletal anatomy being changed a little bit.

Grimwood slowly rose up and looked at her hoof wearing the metal clawed hand. Feeling the metallic limbs as her own, she quickly moved the fingers of the her right claw to test their functionality. Seeing them working was what she needed but was still annoyed by that little, vexing toll she had to pay for wearing them.

"It's been a long time since last one I putted these on. The magical gems were still doing a good job connecting the claws to my nervous system."

"But damn if that hurts," Grimwood muttered, a second before she heard the chrous intesifying. "I need to act very fast before they come here."

True to her words, Grimwood put her bag on her back and headed toward the doorway. She peered outside from behind the wall and waited for her incoming visitors to come.

After a few moments, a pony like figure in a dark-blue armor entered in the corridor, passing on the mangled corpses of the dead guard ponies. It slowly marched through the corridor, followed by other ones behind him. Despite the place being darkened, Grimwood managed to get a good view of their form. Her eyes widened, alarmed. There was something horribly wrong with their appearances, which confirmed her thoughts.

"Sometimes I hate to be in the right." Grimwood stated bluntly.

True to her statement, the 'Night Guards' were now monsters barely resembling ponies, being nothing more than twisted versions of themselves. Their mouths being smeared in blood. Although they had the same holes in most part of their bodies, clawed hooves and dreadful red eyes, those ones were different in a few aspects. Each one of them had part of their body being warped, decomposed or even growing some new gruesome limbs. A detail made even worse by their figure being torn into bits.

The creature leading the group appeared as a tall earth-stallion wearing only the helmet. Six side tusks were growing out of his mouth. Spikes were protruding from his forelegs and huge bone covered arms growing from his shoulder. Next to him, there was a female pegasi with a wound on her chest exposing her rib-cage, her mane being turned into a grotesque coil of sharp teeth and multiple bone tendrils protruding from her back.

The two abhorrent creatures were followed by a earth-pony with a missing eye and a bone sword protruding from his head, a female pegasus with spike coming out of her back and voracious maws in her eye-socket, and a earth-mare with the bone of half of her jaw being exposed and her chest being turned into a sharpened mouth.

Grimwood didn't even bothered to look at the other ones since they were equally horrid. She stepped outside and turned toward the mutated ponies, who were at few yards away from her. Noticing her, they let out chilling growls and slightly fastened their march while looking at her with a voracious expression. Some of them even grinned.

The violet mare wasn't worried or scared at all, only annoyed. She looked at them tranquilly as they were slowly approaching her.

"You want my flesh, right?" Grimwood asked calmly.

Glaring at them with defiance, Grimwood rose up on her hind legs and putted her claws on the bag as the horde was getting closer to her. She then pulled out the metallic blue box from her bag and wield it from both the handles. She then lifted it above her head and vertically swung it toward them, causing something coming out of the it's rectangular fissure, revealing it's true form.

The box was actually a huge, long chainsaw with spiked teeth, those blades was hidden inside to make it more transportable.

Wanting to get straight to the point, Grimwood pointed her chainsaw toward them and then pulled out the cord a couple of times, revving it and making the blades moving so frantically to emit some ear-shattering, metallic sounds.

Grimwood locked her eyes at them, with her expressionless face suddenly turning into a mask of fury, made more threatening by her own weapon.

"I will rip you into shreds before you can even try!" Grimwood shouted furiously.

Instigated by her provocation, the whole horde of undead monsters let out a chorus of blood-chilling roars as they rushed ferociously at her, with the tusked stallion and two sword-horned earth-ponies going first. Grimwood didn't made them wait and menacingly charged two legged toward them. Once she got close to them, swiftly swung her chainsaw at them, half-decapitating their heads before they could even touch her.

As they fell on the ground like crumbling statues, with blood gushing out of then, Grimwood instantly noticed the remaining four creatures trying to exploit her opening to mangle her, guided by the horrid pegasus lunging her bone-tendrils at her. She promptly denied them that chance with a quick second swing that cut them and some tendril into pieces.

Nopony would be able to fight like that, but her metallic limbs had done to to her more than just giving hands and feet to use. Their magic had altered her skeletal structure and muscular one, allowing her to even move like a bipedal creature. As a result, she was able to have more evasion and gain access to every tool, including her own long chainsaw.

The path seemed to be clear, until she spotted another pony-like, clawed, holed abomination coming toward her. This one being a female unicorn Night Guard with two tendril made of muscle tissues, with two half-melted, living unicorn heads being attached to them as their tips.

Without even saying anything, Grimwood ran two legged toward her. The unicorn glowed her horn in a grim, red colored light and wrapped the chainsaw in a red colored aura, only for it to dissipate a second later, much to the creature's confusion.

"You tried, bitch!" Grimwood exclaimed as she was getting closer to her.

Seemingly enraged, unicorn made two unicorn heads aiming at her and charging their horns to cast a spell, but was too late. Grimwood was already in front of her, violently plunging her chainsaw on her head, churning through her helmet, her skull, bones, muscles, her armor and her organs. The two living heads emitted a gruesome scream before they ceased to move in response to their master's brain being divided and fell on the floor. A crimson fluid erupted out of the monstrosity as she the spinning blades were splitting her front side in two.

Once shredded, monstrous unicorn stopped moving, Grimwood pulled her chainsaw out of her, leaving her bleeding body falling on the ground. Severed limbs, bone fragments, and split bodies were scattered around the corridor's floor, with their vital fluid pouring out of her fallen assailants.

"Magic users generally relies on their spells, and so she does it. Unfortunately for her, I had installed a protective crystal in my chainsaw, power enough to protect it and myself from the magic of Class S unicorns and below..."

"I better hurry." Grimwood said.

Ignoring the bloody mess that she had caused, Grimwood dashed toward the staircase and went upstairs, having her mind set on her escape. Making her way toward the top, she could hear a the echo of a upsetting cacophony of roars and a few terrorized screams coming from the top. She turned off her chainsaw just to hear and pressed on. The far she goes, more audible the chorus get.

Once she arrived at the top of the staircase, Grimwood was met by a opened door. The hellish chorus came from there, yet it seemed to distant. A strong smell of iron met her nose, which gave her a bad vibe about what was waiting for her on the next door. Without any hesitation, she entered inside.

She stepped into a hall with stain-glass windows at her left, darkened by the blackened night, with walls being stained with blood of the victims and a few of the stain-glass windows were shattered, with their fragments being on the ground. There was no monster, but what they left in their wake was equally chilling. There are other mangled corpses of Royal Guards scattered on the marble floor, being either chewed up or gruesomely teared apart.

As that horrible spectacle wasn't enough, the distant cacophony of screams and roars echoed once again, this time coming from the outside. Looking at one shattered the stain-glass window, Grimwood realized the most nighmarish scenario. What was transpiring in the castle could be happening in the rest of Canterlot as well. She could barely believe that but she heard it. There could be countless ponies being turned into monsters, going after their neighbors' flesh.

"Just when I thought this mess was not bad enought. Is this madness happening everywhere?"

"This damn night is going to get messy, isn't it?" Grimwood asked to herself.

Grimwood headed toward the very end of the hall. She reached the doorway and entered into another hall. There was a blood trail on the floor that leaded toward the door on the other side. As she approached it, she heard a chorus of groans and roars echoing from behind it.

Taking that as a warning, Grimwood promptly revved up her chainsaw once again and kicked opened the door. Steeping inside, she was met by a horde of Royal Guards, earth-ponies and pegasi alike, now being turned into monstrosities and blocking her path. They turned toward her with a voracious hunger being imprinted in their faces.

Grimwood rushed two legged toward the creatures, who launched themselves toward her in response. As the violet mare got closer to the group, four earth-pony monstrosities leaped toward her with wide opened jaws. She made a quick horizontal swing, cutting their bodies in two while they were in mid air and made the two sides falling gruesomely.

"Fuck off already, undead! I have no time to waste on you!" Grimwood yelled, a moment before landing another swing that beheaded other two monsters.

Relentless, she teared through the horde, shredding every one of them who tried to assault her. Every hit that she landed was guided by her own furor, something that never leaved her go. As she continued to cut them down, a unicorn with a fanged mouth and his horn being fused with a molten spear rushed toward her, glowing the tip with a ominous red light. Without even looking, Grimwood promptly turned at him in a cutting swing, half decapitating his head and sending his brain flying.

She pressed on, decimating the monsters who were ferociously charging at her when was approached by a female pegasus with four mandibles and snakes made of arteries coming out of her sides, which disgusted her. As she dashed toward her, the pegasus flapped their wings and flew upward. Grimwood looked up, only to see the creature's artery made snakes spitting a red liquid toward her.

Grimwood quickly moved away, dodging the spits as they whizzed past her ears. Then, two warped voices roared from behind her. She looked in the noise's direction and saw the mutated ponies from before, being caught by the liquids as they tried to attack her. Their heads were melting, due to the liquids corroding their flesh.

"Corrosive blood?" Grimwood exclaimed with disturbed surprise as the corroded creatures fell on the floor. "Now that is otherworldly disgusting."

She looked back at the abhorrent pegasus, whose snakes spitted another dose of their corrosive saliva. Grimwood leaped away from their trajectory. But one of the red projectiles slightly touched her arm, causing her to shout as she got struck by a unbearable pain. Her grip on her still revving weapon loosened, letting it falling on the floor.

The violet mare gripped her arm to mitigate the pain and looked with muted fury at the flying monster, who was ravenously diving on her, probably eager to eat her flesh. In the same moment her four mandibles were reaching her face, Grimwood immediately blocked her head by grabbing it with her metal claw and brutally crushed it on the floor, literally reducing it into a pulp of meat and gray matter. The headless monstrous pegasus' body flopped dead.

With the horde being slain, Grimwood picked up her now inactive chainsaw and headed toward the left doorway at the end of the corridor, but then stopped. She looked straight ahead, scanning the path in front of her, feeling someone watching her.

"Whoever you are, you better show up," Grimwood demanded, annoyed.

Then, slowly, somepony stepped into the corridor from the doorway, being a female blue guard pegasus, looking at her with an disdainful and nervous face. Grimwood since she didn't presented form of alteration and didn't had the same smell of death, but wasn't much alive either, due to her body being critically injured.

Her ear were a little bent. Blood flowing down her forehead smeared almost half of her face. Her armor was half destroyed, retaining some cuts on its metal surface and exposing part of her skin. She has gruesome, bloody bite marks on her legs and her left wing was tattered.

"Of all the ponies who weren't turned into monsters," She said harshly, glaring at her. "You were the one that I least expected to see. In normal circumstances, you shouldn't be allowed to roam free."

"Spare me your lecture, Blitz Lane," Grimwood replied, annoyed. "I had guard ponies who tried to kill me, so of course I have to fight back."

"I saw how you had dealt with them," Blitz sighed, uncomfortably. "The stench of the blood on your body says too much... I can't blame you for trying to defend yourself."

"I don't have time to waste," Grimwood interrupted impatiently. "I want to get out of this funk. However I know already that won't be easy since this story about ponies suddenly turning into monsters can't be a isolated case. I know is happening in the whole Canterlot."

"...... You are correct. Is exactly what you said," Blitz replied with a pained tone. "Needless to say- Ugh! -..... We didn't expected that to happen."

"Just tell me what is going on?" Grimwood asked.

"I-I... Ugh..." Blitz grunted in pain for her injuries. "It is the malevolent work... Of a curse... A enchantment in which nopony knows its origins and it cannot be dispelled in any way."

"A curse?" Grimwood replied perplexed.

"I was told that by my captain. Is a curse that affected random ponies with a weak force of will," Blitz explained. "According to what I heard from my superior, the was a forbidden, permanent curse that somepony had unleashed in the midnight. It turns the cursed ones into mindless creatures, driven to kill or devour the others for pure cruelty or simple hunger."

"Tsk, that explains everything," Grimwood said with a grim tone. "Does Celestia even know about her trusted guards being turned into flesh eating, shredding monsters?"

Blitz went wide-eyed, with her expression becoming a grim one, and said hesitantly. "Celestia... Disappeared."

Grimwood was taken aback by that statement. What she heard seemed to absurd or even a weak excuse to be believed. Yet the tone that Blitz used wasn't that of somepony that was lying.

"What kind of bullshit is this?" Grimwood asked with a inquisitve tone.

"I was doing my report to Princess Celestia.... When we heard a sudden explosion of energy coming from one of the rooms in the west wing."

That statement made Grimwood to remember the sound of the explosion and the multivocal chilling roar that followed
that. "A explosion?"

"It came from the room were Twilight Sparkle was residing. Hearing... it..." Blitz coughed blood before continuing. "Princess Celestia teleported me and my group nearby the room. We then stormed inside the room with the intention to save Twilight. But she wasn't there anymore... Instead, a black flaming alicorn was standing in her place."

Grimwood almost flinched. "A black flaming alicorn?"

"Celestia confronted the beast. And one second after she charged toward him, the creature's flaming figure increased its intensity and exploded in a burst of black energy as it roared, engulfing the room. After a few moments the energy had dissipated... But both Celestia and the creature had disappeared without leaving any trail.."

".... I see."

"As for me," Blitz continued, feeling uncomfortable with what she has to tell. "I had obviously calmed the down and suggested them to investigate every room to find both the Princess and Twilight. But after some minutes, my companions started to feel sick. And before I could realizing what was happening, they turned into killing monsters. So of course I fled, but wasn't easy for me to flee in one piece. Just look at my wounds and you got the idea."

"But what about Luna?" Grimwood asked. "She is also a Princess after all."

"She had vanished six months ago," Blitz replied.

Grimwood froze with incredulity, a moment before asking her. "How?"

"Six months ago," Blitz began. "Princess Luna had disappeared without leaving any trail. Worried, Celestia sent a research squad to find her, but was all in vain. Since then, our Princess never ceased to wait for her return."

"Figures. So the whole Equestria is left without a guide, huh?" Grimwood inquired, and moment before grabbing Blitz's neck. "Why nopony told me anything of that? Why I was kept in the dark? For what reasons?"

"Because-" Blitz coughed violently, not bothering to struggle. "We had... The obligation... To not inform... You about anything that happened in the last six months."

"By who and why?"

"I don't have... Any idea... To be honest, I was against that... But my superiors approved that... Regardless that."

Grimwood was angered upon being kept in the dark about that during her period in her cell. But she put that aside since her escape was her first priority. She released Blitz from her grasp, leaving her coughing frantically to catch her breath. Grimwood headed toward the doorway but was then stopped by Blitz.

"Wait, where do you think you are going?" Blitz demanded perplexed.

"I'm going to get out of this funk," Grimwood replied, almost annoyed.

"All by yourself!?" Blitz asked, shocked. "You are committing a suicide with this!"

"I won't be killed so easily," Grimwood said with a grim reassurance. "Besides, what are you going to do, now?"

"As much as I don't want to do that," Blitz admitted. "I have to retrieve something from one of the rooms of the castle, before leaving."

"You are going toward the pack of monsters who had reduced you into this, you know." Grimwood pointed out.

Blitz paused, looking at Grimwood scornfully. "Since then a criminal like you knows the meaning of life?"

After that, Blitz turned around and ran back to the doorway where she came, leaving Grimwood on her own. The violet mare

A few moments after that, Grimwood resumed her escape, crimson soaked as she was and with her tool and claw dripping blood. She was fully aware of that, but she didn't cared this much as long as she is still alive. The smell of blood and piece of flesh, however, was anything but bearable.

"Ugh. I'll never get used to this. I'm going to cleanse my body once I got out of this madhouse."

Reaching the doorway, Grimwood steeped inside and was met by a disgusting sight. Before her there was the entrance hall of the castle, once majestic and benevolent premise of hope now being turned into a carnage field. A fact made evident by the many dead bodies in golden armor laying on the floor, and the blood and pieces of flash that stained the hall. There was the staircase on two sides, with two stained-glasses depicting the sun and the moon respectively, desecrated by various bodily fluids being splattered into them.

Not wanting to stay in this place any longer, Grimwood turned around and headed toward the main gate leading to the outside. Once she reached it, she was by the louder cacophony of terrified screams, ferocious roars and occasional moaning. Despite that crude welcoming , Grimwood stepped without thinking twice.

What didn't expected to greet her was Canterlot being plagued by pure hell.

It was happening under a grim black-clouded night. The chorus of screams, laughs and spine-chilling moans and roars filled the air, this time more louder than Grimwood heard before. A pure carnage plagued Cantelot, with multiple pony monstrosities who used to be some of the inhabitants attacking their still normal kin who tried to escape from them. Most of the ponies fell victim to them and were killed or eaten alive by them.

For the helpless ponies, this madness is a nightmare. For the creatures, it was a macabre fest, with the lives of normal ponies being their meal. But the most contorted fact about them was that some of them weren't eating them, but killing or mangling them for sport, as they had fun inflicting the atrocious suffering on their defenseless, scared victims

Grimwood couldn't believe at the ordeal that she had to face. She had the suspect that would happen, but she never thought this would had already plunge the entire Canterlot into this madness. Such sight astounded her, but only for a few moments. Grimwood took a few steps forward and revved her chainsaw with newfound, vigorous furor.

"Talking about a bad day to regain freedom."