Darkness Falls

It was a cold day in autumn when we found the first of them, when we realised our situation had become more severe than first thought.

The sun was in the position it usually was during our fleeting hours of daylight – low in the sky, as if tired and lethargic. So was the moon at the opposite end of the horizon. The golden shade this twilight cast upon everything was present, and the surrounding woodland had a serene, beautiful quality to it that reminded me of past summers spent lazing around in the clouds. However, as Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, and myself approached the door to Fluttershy's house, we could tell that something was wrong.

As usual, Twilight was first to state the obvious: “I don't like this, girls. Don't ask me why, but something feels very wrong here.” her voice was forceful, but noticeably worried.

“Oh Twilight dear, you simply must get this paranoia out of your system before you have another...episode.” Rarity spoke with an odd mixture of upper-class condescension and genuine concern for her friend and fellow unicorn. She raised her hoof to the door and began to grip the handle “I'm sure there's nothing to worry ab-”

Rarity froze, and then screamed.

Applejack was immediately on guard, “Rarity! What in tarnation's wrong with ya'll?”

Rarity ceased screaming, and started crying. She slowly released the door handle and raised her hoof toward us. It was covered in black slime. Applejack was about to chew Rarity out for scaring them half to death, when she noticed that the same black slime was dripping out of an open upstairs window, and covered darn-near half the garden. “What the heck is that stuff? And what's it all doin' in Fluttershy's yard? Twi, do ya have any idea wha-”

“Shh!” Twilight half-yelled, half-whispered. “Listen.”

At first, nopony could hear anything, until we all heard what Twilight did.

“Help me. Help. Help. Help me.” In a tiny voice, yet one that was tantamount to horrified screaming in her tone, Fluttershy was pleading for help.

Wasting absolutely no time, AJ bucked the door off its hinges and all four of our band of friends raced inside. The scene before us was unbelievable, and we found ourselves physically paralysed at the sight: the rear of her living room had a huge hole in the wall, and the black slime from the handle covered everything – absolutely everything – including the small quivering mound of the stuff from which those terrified whispers emanated.

“Fluttershy! Don't fret now, ya hear? Your PFF's are here to make everythin' right as rain – as nice as sunshine and gravy!” Applejack shouted.

Both Twilight and Rarity both used their magical prowess to separate the poor pegasus from her prison of foul ichor, and cleared a spot on the floor ten hoofspans wide – just enough room for the four of us to lie beside her in a protective circle.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight spoke in a soft and consoling voice, “You don't have to be afraid now, we're all here with you. We'll protect you from whoever did this.”

All of us voiced our agreement with Twilight, and snuggled up close to her. I covered her with my wing, so that she was now totally enveloped by the warmth of our friendship, and could hopefully recover enough from her ordeal to tell us what happened.

“It ate them all.” Fluttershy was still using her terrified voice – not that any of us could blame her, but it made understanding what she said a difficult affair. “It ate them all and now it's coming back for me and I don't know what to do and I'll never see Angel again and everyone is gone and everything is dying.” - she collapsed into a torrent of tormented tears.

I piped up: “I think she said somepony ate them all.” and as if in confirmation, Fluttershy gave a terrified squeak. “Ate all of what? Your cupcakes?”

Rarity gave me a death-glare, and conferred with Twilight.

Twilight spoke first: “I think it would be best if we split up. You and Applejack explore the house and try to ascertain exactly what happened here.” then Rarity stated her intentions: “Myself and Twilight will console Fluttershy and take her back to the centre of Ponyville. Such a delicate mare has no business being out here alone at such times.”

I agreed. Physically speaking, we were the two strongest ponies, and best equipped to deal with whoever did this; while Rarity and Twilight were strong magic users and really clever, but their talents were best used to support 'shy at this point.

After the others encased Fluttershy in their comforting, magical grip and left for Ponyville, AJ and I decided to stick together while we scouted this place out.

“Well Dash, ah reckon we should head upstairs,” whispered Applejack, gesturing to the ceiling, “ah think ah can hear somethin' up in one-a them there rooms.”

She was referring to the odd squelching and dripping sounds that both of us had noticed only after the others left. I trotted toward the stairs, eager to find the source of this mess and make whatever pony did this to Flutters pay. I wish I hadn't. I slipped on a mound of stiff jelly in the pallid grey-black expanse of muck and fell flat on my face – it got in my nose and eyes.

Sitting up, coughing and spluttering, I opened my eyes and saw a curious little yellowish-grey object in the mound. A skull. The skull of a rabbit. I recognised it from my highschool biology classes in Cloudsdale, but we'd never seen a real skull of course, only pictures in books. This one was...moving?

Nauseous and terrified, I shot to my feet while AJ looked on, incredulous at what was taking place.

“Darlin', are ya'll okay?”

“AJ, that bucking skull bucking moved!”

“Hey now, there's no need for that kinda language!”

“AJ, there's a bucking skull in the bucking slime, and it bucking moved and it's still bucking moving, and by Celestia what is it?”

Applejack approached the scene to get a better view. Not one to be squeamish, she pushed her hoof into the mess, grabbed the mass attached to this skull, and pulled it out.

We were looking at a bunny, flayed of its skin, its eyes removed, its tongue cut out, its flesh stripped away. Covered in the black slime.

It was still moving, writhing in pain.

It was Angel.

That last thought almost made me faint. I saw Applejack was heading toward that realisation too, and steadied her with my wing. Yes, the pathetic abomination we saw before us was Fluttershy's favoured pet bunny Angel, there was no mistaking it. He still had enough of his neck flesh that his bell collar was gripping onto it with an air of futility. I knew it would eventually slide off along with the rest of his flesh, and Angel would no longer be recognisable to the world.

Applejack recoiled in terror and lost her grip – accidentally sending Angel careening down into the slime once again, where he slowly crawled on his belly toward her raised hoof. As he lay there underneath my friend gazing up at her with his eyeless sockets and gesturing with his ruined arm, we both understood what he wished for most.

A quick death.

With an apology to Fluttershy, a whisper to Celestia, and a look of profound sadness in her eyes, my friend Applejack sent her hoof rocketing toward the slime-covered floor and crushed what remained of Angel's head like a grape. Bone splinters, grime, and brain matter splattered out from the epicentre of her powerful stomp, spraying my legs with greyish muck, and extinguishing Angel's life forever. Whatever could be said for his miserable existence in the last few hours, at least he now knew peace.

We both stood in stunned silence, only broken by the grunting coming from the top of Fluttershy's stairs. I was the first to see it, and instantly felt numbed by fear.

There was a...thing in the upper hallway, pointing its bulk in our direction from the very top of the stairs. Slime dripping from the banister, and sloughing off countless skeletal remains of woodland critters. At least they didn't endure Angel's pain, I hoped.

It had a short, fat body; a long, thick tail; four segmented legs that jutted out from its sides; and a cavernous opening where its neck should be, ringed by a combination of dragon and pony teeth. It had no eyes to speak of, no ears, no mane and no snout. Just a huge, horrible mouth. It exuded the slime from its mouth and skin. It had been a pony once, of that there was no doubt, but now it was a nightmare creature – one that had traumatised one of my best friends and fatally wounded her cherished pet.

This thing was going down.

But before I could launch into my roaring rampage of revenge, AJ grabbed my body and forcefully held me back from attacking that creature. Buck me my friend is strong.

“Dash, ah know exactly how ya feel darlin', consarn it, I feel it too! But we don't know what the hay this thing's capable of beyond cold-blooded murder and sowin' terror on our friends.” She had a point. I was about to launch into my fight not knowing what this thing could do – I could end up like Angel...or worse.

“Okay AJ, but if we can't fight it, then what do we do?”

“Ah say we run back to Ponyville as fast as our legs can carry us, tell Twilight about what we saw, and figure out what to do from there.”

Coincidentally, that was the moment the monster decided to come down the stairs. It had an odd, creeping, crawling, loping gait. As though its legs weren't working properly. Yet its inexorable advance impressed upon us the importance of our next move: we turned tail, and ran for our lives out of the house and back toward Ponyville.

Passing tree after tree enveloped in the golden sunlight, feeling warmth of its rays on our skin and a cooling breeze reminiscent of the glory days from Celestia's rule did nothing to assuage our fears at that point. We could still hear its angry, guttural howling five hundred metres from the house. AJ was running full pelt, and I decided to take to the air so that I could keep pace with her. Before I had launched myself into the wild blue yonder, I chanced a quick glance back toward the house, and what I saw made me trip and fall, face over flank, into the mud.

AJ came to a screeching halt and rushed back to help me up, I was sure she was about to ask what happened when she turned around and saw what I had seen. Her face was indecipherable as she looked on.

“What. The. BUCK?”

The entire house had disappeared into the ground.

All of it was gone. None of it remained, and in its place was now a pit of slime. We looked closer, and could see shapes emerging from the pit, slipping into the trees, then just as it had filled, the muck-pool drained, and all that was left of Fluttershy's once beautiful woodland home was a deep hole in the middle of the woods – likely never to be reclaimed, nor ventured near ever again.

“Darlin', those things look like they're headin' toward town,” Applejack stated, short of breath, “listen, I need to make sure mah family's safe over at Sweet Apple Acres, can you make it to Ponyville without me?”

I was appalled that AJ thought I would just leave her to deal with these bucking monstrous things on her own: “You can buck right off if you think I'm just going to leave you alone in the woods with these things walkin' around!”

“Now listen here, Dash!” Applejack shouted, “The rest of Ponyville needs to know about these here events ASAP. You're the fastest pony in all of Equestria, and ah need make sure mah family's alright!”

I understood. This was about more than just friendship and loyalty, this was about the survival of everyone we loved. So, with sadness in my eyes, and the worry that I might not see her again, I launched into flight toward the centre of Ponyville and left my friend behind in the darkening, evil-smelling, thoroughly corrupted woods.