Twilight and her friends decided to call it a night and have all settled at Sweet Apple Acres in the barn for the remainder of the night. But after the tragedy that had ensued in the Everfree Forest, nopony could sleep, and deprivation was starting to take its toll. Rarity was pacing back and forth, while the other ponies sat in a circle by a lit lantern in the center of the group.

“I can’t believe it. We left our friend to DIE. How does everypony feel about that? Fluttershy is dead because of us. Just go on and explore the forest while our best friend is ripped to shreds by an unknown beast. Isn’t friendship supposed to be MAGIC?”

Rarity started panting heavily out of anger, as the pacing turned into stomping, creaking the floorboards of the barn with every enraged hoof step. The white unicorn was clearly in a state of both sleep deprivation and shock. Pinkie Pie stretched her hooves and went to get up, but immediately sat back down after hearing the loud thud of hooves slamming down against the floor. Rarity was about an inch away from a scared Pinkie, staring at her, almost reminiscent of Fluttershy’s stare.

“Nopony leaves this barn until I say. No. Pony. Got that?” Rarity’s chest moved up and down rapidly, as she collapsed out of exhaustion from her rampage. Pinkie Pie gave a nervous smile at the fashionable pony as she muttered the phrase “Okie... dokie..lokie.”

“Now Rarity thats just crazy talk. Yer actin like a loon ya know that? I know it’s a darn shame that this happened to our friend, but ya can’t go trappin’ everypony in here like rats.”

Applejack stood up, in an attempt to challenge the purple and white unicorn pony. Rarity, angered at Applejack’s rebellion opened her mouth to fire back, but was cut off when they heard three words that made everypony’s blood run cold.

“Somepony help me.”

Rarity’s jaw hung open, as she took a few steps back, her whole body shaking to the point she could barely hold herself up. Applejack’s ears perked up, just to make sure the voice wasn’t some sort of auditory hallucination. Rarity finally spoke, but was barely able to form a coherent sentence.

“Di-di-did anypony else hear that?”

Now Applejack was feeling a combination of anger and fear, as she yelled out into the darkness of the barn, hoping that the noise was just a result of the gang not getting any rest, or perhaps a manifestation of Fluttershy’s tragic death being on everypony’s mind.

“Somepony is messin’ with us and it ain’t funny. What did our friend do to deserve what happened to her? Ya hear me?”

Applejacks eyes darted around the barn, her tail twitching and flicking up and down, the orange pony now on high alert. Another noise broke the eerie silence of the night, this time sounding like a slight rapping on a window. The farm pony grabbed the lantern that lit the living room and raced to the kitchen window, catching Twilight’s eye.

“Applejack, where are you going?”

The purple unicorn was the calmest out of all the remaining five, yet the situation was definitely taking a toll on her too, though she tried to stimulate her mind by reading a book. She was not met with an answer to the question she had asked. Applejack held the lantern to the window in the kitchen above the sink, and what she saw made her eyes almost pop out of her head and her heart jump into her throat. The orange mare darted out of the kitchen at top speed, almost rivaling Rainbow Dash. When she returned to where her friends were, AJ could barely catch her breath as she shook like an autumn leaf.

“What happened? Is everything ok?”

Twilight closed her book and ran over to where Applejack was, seeing the country pony almost in a catatonic state. Word vomit poured out of Applejack’s mouth as she gasped for air mid-sentence,

“It had the ears and nose of a pony, but that head shape was definitely not. It didn’t have any lips either, the head and teeth were more like a wolf or an Ursa than any pony I’ve ever seen, and the eyes, they were too, too KIND for such a beast!”

As the farmer tried to catch her breath, a loud noise that sounded like the shattering of glass erupted out of thin air. Nopony moved a muscle, no one could. The five were all frozen in place with fear as they heard footsteps stepping down onto the floor of Applejack’s barn, followed by a louder noise that was not too far off from what Fluttershy’s bear call sounded like. But it didn’t sound exactly like how anypony remembered when Fluttershy would blow it, it had a bit of softness to it that just about made everypony’s mane stand straight up.

Rainbow Dash gulped, as she looked toward the kitchen, but was terrified to even move an inch further, The light of the lantern on the floor did make out a shape in the direction Rainbow was staring, The beast did in fact have the features AJ had described, but now it that made it’s way into the barn, a body was visible as well. It appeared to have a mix of Griffin and pony features, with the feathers falling out but no visible bald spots yet, the front front feet were the paws of a griffin and the back legs Rainbow Dash was sure were pony hooves, but the light didn’t quite stretch far enough to tell.

The hellish creature opened its jaws as it seemed to be moving towards Twilight and her book, as it spoke again. “Twi help” came out of the beasts mouth, quiet but still audible, as it stood in the doorway, facing the purple unicorn. A whimpering Twilight just slowly back into the corner, not exactly sure what was going on or what she was seeing. Was this horrific thing really there or was it simply everypony’s imagination? That question was soon answered when Rarity lit up her horn, and stood up the only one seemingly brave enough to see what was happening.

Rainbow Dash’s jaw hung open at the sheer speed and and agility of the Flutter creature, as it grabbed the white unicorn by the tail and started dragging her around the barn, her screams could be heard from all of Ponyville, the thing knocking Rarity into just about everything Applejack owned as it played with her. After being tossed around like a ball among a group of fillies at recess, Rarity landed with hard smack against the barn floor. Applejack was nearby and saw the whole thing unfold, as her head moved back and forth with wide eyes, desperately wanting to help her friend but knew she couldn’t.

Rarity, in pain from such a hard landing, tried to stand up and make a run for it, but the beast was one step ahead of her, pinning her to the floor, the last thing she saw was sharp pointy canine teeth, as they met with the white pony, ripping a sizable chunk out of her chest, then swallowing the cut of unicorn meat. The creature’s big green eyes looked towards Applejack, Pinkie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash, teeth now red and dripping with blood. A voice cut through the silence.

“EVERYPONY GET BACK!”

Applejack furiously picked up the lantern, charging the horrific monster then throwing it as hard as she could, years of apple bucking definitely paying off. The barn lit up with bright orange flames as the gas lantern exploded, setting the Flutter beast ablaze. A smell of burnt feathers and fur covered the inside of the barn, but no one seemed to particularly mind, as they watched the fire consume the creature. The girls could hear the creature scream “Somepony help” followed by “me” as the monster choked on the resulting smoke, letting out the scream of a shy and quiet pegasus as the flames started to die down. The ponies swore they could the final words of the horrendous thing as the fire went out.

“It burns”.

The charred creature collapsed to the floor with a thud as light began to fill the barn and stretch over Sweet Apple Acres. Morning had finally arrived in Ponyville.

Author's Note

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