Prologue part 2: Unexpected Discovery
The night that fell on the Equestria looked more grim and ill than the usual. A violet sky so grim that no pony couldn't even recognize anymore. The moon illuminated the landscape, but its light was more faint than the last time, as if its bright was drained by an invisible parasite. The clouds that were almost covering it were more pale than they should be.
In this cold hour, two pegasi Royal Guards traveled into Ponyville on Celestia's request to investigate the disappearance of Twilight and the other inhabitants. They didn't had any luck in their investigation, until they stumbled into a female earth pony, Boreal Voice, who gave them a weird yet plausible hunch about the disappeared ponies's whereabouts.
Such lead brought the two Royal Guards to a cave located at the base of Canterlot Mountain that, as far as they vowed, wasn't supposed to be there. Initially hesitant, the duo entered in the cave and delved into its darkness. The absence of visibility was mitigate by one of the two wielding the torch with his hooves while flying slightly above the ground.
The more they pressed on, the more the sense of desolation combined with the a sense of descent into unknown depth crawled on their coat. What depths or what lies beneath Canterlot Mountain, they didn't know and didn't cared in that moment. And yet they felt they should.
"Captain Marble Feather, I'm sorry but I have to ask this," One of the two Royal Guard said doubtful. "We are following the lead of an insomniac mare who saw the disappeared pony we are looking for enter this cave, as she was wandering nearby the mountain while damning her health looking for her vanished aunt, two nights ago."
"So what, Volt Ring?" Marble replied almost sternly.
"I am not insulting her," Volt assured.
"Just spit out the question without any pointless detail already." Marble pressed with a calm but stingy tone.
"How do we know that the disappeared ponies are still there?" Volt asked.
"It may be or may not be a conjecture," Marble explained. "But confirm that is also a reason why we are here" He paused, feeling a sense of unusual cold. "Although I don't understand who could even have the idea to dig a cave like this."
Volt paused, seemingly confused. "Are you just doubting the clearly worried mare?"
"Call me cold if you want, but the way she acted seemed a little odd," Marble answered, looking uncertain regarding a thing missing. "The preoccupation was visible in her face but the way she talked... was more calmed and composed."
*CRACK!*
The guards stopped on their tracks upon hearing that sound, with Volt realizing to have stepped on something. And it wasn't something light as a leaf. It felt too dense. And fragmented.
The two lowered their gaze on the ground beneath them, illuminated by the torch. Their blood suddenly froze, wishing to not having saw anything.
Beneath them equine, semi skeletal remains were revealed to them. Remaining bits of decaying, chewed up flesh were attached to the bones. Many pieces of the lower part were missing and a rib cage being pierced by one of their hooves.
"Are those... pony remains?" Marble said gravely.
Freaked out by that realization, Volt hastily pulled out his right hoof off the bones and shook it to get rid of any narrow fragments being attached to it.
Snapping out of his initial shock, Marble regained his composure and slapped Volt in his face. "Don't go full hysteria right now. We shouldn't waste time in that way. Besides, it's really improbable that those remains belong to some of the missing ones, given the circumstances."
Although he looked still disturbed, Volt calmed down a bit. Marble was about to say something, until his gaze fell on something weirdly wrong on the bones. Oddly enough, one of the hooves looked a little bit thorny to be a normal one. He even saw a grotesquely deformed skull of a pony. It looked like an hybrid between a horse and some demon from unspoken myth. Too close to normal pony standard to even talk of deformation.
"Marble, what's wrong?" Volt asked.
"..... Give me a second," Marble replied unconvinced.
Hesitantly, Marble leaned the rest of the remains and examined their strange composition when his attention was caught by a voice suddenly echoing from afar. A voice in the dark.
"Delicious... Del... wait... no..." The voice almost shouted, like protesting. "This is not... right.. Some... pony... please... help me..."
Without saying a word, the two armored pegasi rushed toward where the source came from. They delved even further in the pitch black grotto. The dread felt like waiting for the guards in any corner and they didn't cared in that moment. Getting to the source was their priority.
After what seemed an eternity, they arrived in slightly larger part of the cave, resembling some kind of hallway. The light of their torch was getting weaker, but was enough for the duo to see a pony silhouette laying on the ground. The voice was coming from it before dying off as they ascertained its existence. It was completely immobile. The duo approached the body but froze in the last moment upon getting a clear view of it.
Much to their chilling surprise, that pony was none other than Twilight Sparkle. Her body didn't presented any wound, but she looked like paralyzed and terrified. Her eyes were shut, her mane slightly messy, and her mouth stuck in a seemingly agonized raving.
"Twilight!?" Marble exclaimed. "What the...?"
"What happened to her?" Volt said, more confused than he was before. "Is she still alive?"
Without saying anything, Marble leaned his hoof toward Twilight's hoof, checking every possible pulse he can find. He does the same thing on her neck and then her chest.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Volt exclaimed, looking at him almost disturbed. "What are y-"
"Shut up and let me monitor her own heartbeat" Marble confirmed as he pulled back his hoof. "She is still conscious and breathing... Although her heartbeat was somehow slow. I know that I was checking her heartbeat in that way without any consent, but, do you have any other, similarly tempestive options?"
"...... Legit but the next time warn me before doing that," Volt answered with a bit fed up tone. "At least you didn't had committed any violation or something like that."
"You have to interrupt word stream since I have one more thing to check," Marble said as he leaned his hoof next to the head of the lavender unicorn, with Volt not even bothering to talk back.
Marble opened one of her eyelids, revealing an utterly shrunk pupil, to the point of utter fright. But more than fright there was a bit of strangeness, it was like she was dreaming but without actually sleeping. Narrowing his eyes, he closed the eyelid and turned his head toward Volt.
"You won't believe it but it seems like Twilight was victim of some kind of an hallucination." Marble state doubtlessly.
"But how... Was Twilight drugged?" Volt asked. "How can..."
In one frame of moment their conversation was cut short by a cacophony of wretched sounds. And the blood and mind of the two pegasi Royal Guards chilled nearby what seemed to be sub zero. Fear was grasping their hearts. And their torch finally died off and left the duo and the unconscious Twilight at the mercy of an incoming dread.
It didn't sound like that of woodland creatures, hydras, timberwolves, dragons, chimeras or any other creature met in Equestria.
It didn't belonged to anything that can be considered natural. Guttural roars, raging moans and frenzied screams of fanatical glee and death.
The two pegasi were paralyzed by pure fear, their nerves dreadfully tested, their minds screaming for mercy. Whatever was waiting for them in the path before them was getting more closer. Marble and Volt were already preparing to take Twilight and go the fuck out of the cave.
Twilight's eyelids and mouth suddenly opened, revealing a coil of pure darkness pouring out of her now blackened eyes, her throat and every fiber of her coat.
A coil so intense it became a stream, then became a whirlpool, and finally became an overwhelming filthy maelstrom that covered the entire cave and devoured anything in it's path.
The guards screamed in agony, but their screams then suffocated by the voracious waves of obscurity. Their bodies didn't feel any pain or uneasy feeling from the darkness consuming their bodies.
Yet they could feel they limbs, flesh and sanity being torn apart by that surreal onslaught. The world around them becoming more darker than the cave they were in.
Their mind being consumed by an oblivion, so overwhelming that they forgot about Twilight, what killed them or even who they are before they died.
The whole maelstrom traveled throughout the cave at a very alarming speed, until it came out of the base of Canterlot moutain and spread across the entire Equestria. It then went for the sea and the sky, and grew a sea of fangs and claws made of its wretched material.
In an ark of minutes, the whole world became a very dark parody of its former identity
And with that Equestria fell into a depraved descent into madness.
Week 1, Day 1: Dread Wanderer(UPDATED FOR PLOT HOLES)
Author's Note
The first post prologue chapter. After a damn year since the publication I had made a step forward. I am not sure about how this chapter came out, since is also a way to display the main character as well his abilities, so, any feedback, good, negative, or whatever it is is welcome.
Also, I think I have to tone down the length, pretense and some detail of the fight to favor the pace. Seriously. I have to get a grip on this one.
So, have a good read, in a way or another.
Week 1, Day 1: Dread Wanderer(UPDATED FOR PLOT HOLES)
Three minutes before the calamity.
At north of the Badlands, nearby the edge of Everfree Forest, there was Maredrione, a small city built in granite. Surrounded by it's walls but with a love for art through nature, and yet it's not fully immune to the decadence and corruption that was infesting it's core for about two months or so. A few heinous crimes were rarely perpetrated during the nighttime, and some of their perpetrators were lucky if Princess Luna wasn't checking their dreams.
As the city has fallen in the slumber, an odd outsider wandered through the desolated streets, slowly advancing in the dark of the silent night. The few rays of moonlight barely revealed his figure. A cadaverous ashen coated stallion with a dark beige mane sporting amber eyes. Most of his body was covered by a bizarre looking mantle made of bone colored chains, so vivid they looked like dense, and alive.
The odd wanderer headed toward the gates of the city leading to the outside, not caring of the few distant nocturnal sounds that were inhabiting his surrounding during the quiet. That was until an unhinged whispering voice caught his attention. Judging by his hearing it wasn't too far away from him; in fact it came from an alley at few steps from where he was, illuminated by a sinister violet glow.
"Is quite pointless of you try to struggle or scream when you can't don't neither of those to begin with," Said the voice. "I may be a pegasus but I know how to use this jewel."
The outsider slowly advance forward while laying his gaze toward the source of the glow, glimpsing distantly to the scene that was occuring.
Although barely visible, he could see a pegasus like figure looking down an pinned down horned one, the former being the protagonist of a blatant aggression. He could glimpse the light being emanated by a crystallized dark red scepter wielded by the pegasus, whose face was sporting a maniacal smirk on his face as he looked down at his victim. A visibly distressed female unicorn with her mouth and limbs being sealed by an oppressing violet clutch of shadows evoked by the scepter itself.
Both the two ponies were oblivious of the outsider observing them, maintaining an oddly calm expression. Strangely for him, the winged aggressor seemed somehow capable to use the scepter on his distressed victim despite him not being an unicorn, alicorn or any other creature associated with magic. Let alone blocking and silencing the unicorn simultaneously.
"Isn't that an advantage for some pony who could use magic without a horn, Dawnroute?" The pegasus continued. "Punish the very unicorn who dared to almost cause my arrest because I tried to manipulate your friend into robbing the many secret artifact Celestia hid from the public, making her helpless to the power of this very forbidden scepter and transfer her horn to me for easy fast alicornhood before taking her out for hindering me? Ohohohoho. That's gonna be good."
The pegasus made a wide grin of someone being about to deal the proverbial coup de grace. Unable to made her voice known or to move, she shut her eyes while pointlessly shaking her head. A couple of tears went down her cheeks as her hopes went to lowest level. A purple flux slowly began to come out of her coat, like being suck in the scepter. Her horn being engulfed by a dark aura taking the shape of a dissembled hand.
Despite the situation happening in front of his eyes, the outsider continued on his track. The pegasus was about to do the finishing touch, until the ashen pony eventually got close to the two without even looking at them. The maniacal glee of Sirocco dissipated from his face, almost sweating cold, having heard the hoofsteps of the odd passenger getting closer.
"You gotta be kidding me." The pegasus whispered nervously as he turned to the source, with Dawnroute doing the same upon noticing his presence, expecting a guard pony or other interlopers catching him in the act for real.
When their eyes met the mantled stallion passing nearby the confused duo, a fleeting grayish blur struck the scepter, causing it to burst in a blinding conflagration that shattered the scepter into pieces. But that wasn't the only thing being destroyed in the process.
Although the pegasus had his eyes almost shut due to the momentary blinding burst, he managed to see a few chucks of what seemed to be burnt coat and red drops flying in multiple directions in front. He soon realized to not feel his hoof wielding the artifact a few moments ago anymore as it's shattered remains fell on the floor.
And wasn't even feeling his own hoof at all. "W... What the?"
His eyes then saw his hoof being horribly butchered by the destructive burst. The horrified disbelieve invoked by the grizzly mutilation that happened in front of his face was instantly tangible, aggravated by the pain that followed it's aftermath that pretty confirmed his fears.
The ashen pony could hear the pegasus screaming in agony from behind but couldn't care less about the whole scene. The voice of Sirocco was then shut down by a blunt sound, seemingly a punch, preceded by Dawnroute howling at the degenerated attacker. He could tell the distressed unicorn fought back against her with a released fury.
"Screw you, SCIROCCO!!" Dawnroute shouted from behind before soundly trotting away from the scene seen by no one.
Getting far away from that scene behind him, the outsider arrived nearby the gates of the city. No guard pony was on sight, which was almost disturbing to him considering that Maredrione has an almost elevated criminal activity and put a lot efforts to keep it secure. He was about to open the gates but put his intent to an halt upon hearing a distant voice.
"BASTARD!!" Scirocco screamed from above the sky as dived upon the outsider to tackle him from behind him, only for the caped pony to instinctively move out of his flight trajectory, leaving him on the verge to crash. "Oh c'mAAARGH!"
The pegasus ended up rolling on the paved floor until he slammed against the granite wall at the left of the gates. Feeling both injured and insulted, letting out a mixed growl of pain and rage, Sirocco slowly rose up while sustaining himself with his remaining foreleg. He glared resentfully at the caped pony as he flapped his wings to levitate above the ground, with walking being no longer and option.
Scirocco was between the cadaverous looking pony and the exit of the town, panting and looking at him with a mask of petty fury seasoned by a mild incredulity. The outsider noticed the mangled hoof of his aggressor being hastily bandaged with some overused cloth found long the way, but his blood loss was still evident through a red, dripping stain.
"How?" Sirocco asked under his breath. "How in the hole leading to Tartarus did you could destroy my scepter without even touching it? You are not even a unicorn and that can't possibly be magic. You better tell me about it."
"..." The outsider doesn't say anything, he just looked at him with an impassive look, like he won't even bother to respond at his words.
"Why I am even asking this. Not matter the way you did, you have not right to remain after ruining my plan... Your silence making me hate you even more," Scirocco blurted angrily as he put his other sane hoof inside his mane and withdraw something from it, now wielding what seemed to be a very sharp knife. "Because of you the whole town probably heard my scream, that stupid mare will tell everypony about my act and I am about to get condemned for real. But before that would happen, well, I WILL JUST CUT YOU UP."
True to his words, the frenzied Sirocco hastily flapped his wing and then charged toward the beige maned stallion in mid air, pointing his sharp tool pointed at him. But when the knife got close to his chest, another gray blur came out of nowhere at an disturbing speed, swiftly striking the murderous pegasus so hard that he ended up falling backwards while having his knife falling off his hooves, before disappearing in the way it came from.
Half dazed, Sirocco nervously rose up and quickly returned his attention toward the outsider. His angered face dissipated, showing a mask of chilled confusion in it's place. His face was that of some pony who had just glimpsed something having retreated inside the impassive stallion's skin. His eye twitched briefly, matching his baffled expression.
"D... Did it just come out of you?!" He paused, almost stuttering, trying to mentally pull himself together, and the resumed with a even more incredulous expression. "What the hell is going on?"
The outsider didn't say anything, only giving Sirocco a piercing glare that made the pegasus almost flinch as he slowly, silently advanced toward the pegasus with an eerie calm.
"W-woah, what do you think you are doing!?" Sirocco stuttered nervously, barely trying to remain tough as he tries to distance himself from him while getting closer to the knife laying on the ground. "Don't get any closer! You will only be a much in trouble as I am, you know!"
Ignoring Sirocco's warnings, the cadaverous pony continued his advance. But before he could corner the winged aggressor, he halted in place. His hearing had caught something beyond the gates of the town entrance. Unsettling noises were getting close at each steps, headed toward where he was. The noise of weird footsteps, accompanied by growl like moans, almost muted but virtually tangible in a ominous intent.
The outsider was saware of Sirocco exploiting his supposed distraction to pick up the knife, the confused voice of the awakened citizens slowly gathering behind him, and that Dawnrout was probably among them, but all that unwanted attention was the last of the problems for him.
He heard the steps stopping, with the panting being more louder, before suddenly turning into blood chilling growls. It didn't sounded like the sounds of any manticore, chimera, or any other woodland creature known to every pony. Let alone sounding like something natural, or normal to begin with.
Dawnroute and the town ponies froze in place with a worried look, slowly noticing the unsettling noises. Sirocco, however, seemed too busy trying to resume his petty vendetta against the outsider, picking up the knife and pointing it toward him.
"You realized you actually allowed me to pick up where I left off?!" Sirocco shouted, too concentrated on making the outsider pay to even paying attention to the grizzly noise, and was about to charge toward him. "I'm going maul you DAMN SPI-"
*CRASH!*
In a split second, the pegasus' frenzied scream was abruptly silenced by a swipe of sharp claws smashing through the wooden doors, sending him flying like a colored blur. His distressed scream was prematurely suffocated by an unnatural feral growl coming from crashed gates. Dawnroute and the citizens flinched for the fright as they were simultaneously turning their eyes on the crashed gates, frozen in shocked awe.
Slightly fazed by that aggression, the outsider turned his eyes to a gruesomely wounded Scirocco laying on the ground nearby a wall. As having his hoof being mangled and burned wasn't enough for him, the pegasus had his torso being slightly lacerated, marked by three large wounds threatening to bleed; his face stuck in a pained and terrified shock.
Before the caped pony could even ask anything about it, a chilling growl made it's presence known. He quickly turned his head to the destroyed gates and looked to the enormous breach with a serious face, like he somehow knows what thing was about to step inside the city.
Whatever was crashing through the broken gate retreated its claw, hiding them in the dark the thing was in. There was an oppressing shroud of dark covering everything outside the city, out of the moonlight's range. No torch was lit during that night, but there was an undistinguished form that could be seen standing tall on his hind legs. It growled again, a visible fog of breath and a rising ferocity cementing it's presence.
"W-What the heck is that thing!?" A mare among the gathering citizens exclaimed, visibly alarmed.
With a deformed growl, an hulking figure stepped inside by breaking through the damaged gates in it's way, in an almost shambling motion. Dawnroute and the citizens were petrified by horror when their scared faces met it's appearance being illuminated by the faint moonlight.
A towering bipedal, half rotten crude monument of unnatural ferocity stood in front of them. The creature looked like a grotesque wolf torn apart by an inconceivable erosion that exposed some of it's muscle fibers like gruesome, opened wounds. Looking four times bigger than any minotaur, more feral than any manticore, timeberwolf or chimera could ever be.
Rib shaped spikes erupted out of the flesh of it's chest, forming what looked like a circular second mouth made of warped fangs. It's eye sockets were vacant like an empty grave, but somehow animated by an unknown animosity. It's actual fangs were very sharp looking, tinted in an halo made of copious amount of red liquid dripping to the terrain.
There was a brief but chilling silence that engulfed the place, shattered by the semi decaying wolf emitting a warped roar that shut off even the distant nocturnal sounds, sinking Dawnroute and her fellow citizens into full panic.
"RUN!!!" One of the town ponies screamed in pure terror.
In a blink of an eye, Dawnroute and the other town ponies hastily trotted away from the creature as fast as they could. The lupine aberration was about to chase the escaping preys with all of the rapidity it was capable of, but blocked itself upon noticing the cadaverous pony standing in front of it's eyes, being the only one who didn't tried to escape.
It snarled in a feral way as said stallion looked in it's chilling gaze, staring with an impressed visage that looked like a scowl. Snarling, it leaned almost close to the outsider, while reading the claws of his right hand for the butchering.
Dawnroute, along with the few remaining town ponies the were following her, turned around after reaching a safe distance to see the scene that was happening before they eyes. Dawnroute in particular looked very confused and alarmed by the outsider's remaining on the range of the beast.
"What the hay you think you are doing!?" Dawnroute esclaimed. "RUN AWAY!!!"
Strangely enough, the outsider grinned like a maniac, his eyes locked on the towering beast as he stood up on his hind legs. "Don't even think to have me as your own meal, mindless Wolfoid."
Looking enraged by the gaze of his prey, the beast swiftly swung it's claws toward the outsider with all of the ferocity it was capable. But as it's half rotten clutches were about to shred him, the bone colored mantle he was wearing began to move in a frantic waving motion, twisting it's form into a very indistinguishable mass, as if a contorted surge of life animated what seemed to be a mundane mantle in response to the assault.
Without leaving space to any reaction, the mass of the mantle engulfed the forearm of the creature as it's claws were almost touching him, lake a brief blurry wave made of violet dark that dissipated after it's passage.
The Wolfoid let out an chilling howl of pain and recoiled as he withdraw what remained of his claws: a horribly butchered limb with only three claws, the other ones being likely devoured; the half rotted muscles and bones of that part were like chewed up by an unseen grinder.
The animal horror turned it's hateful glare at the outsider, more angered, yet visibly puzzled as it saw the appearance of it's prey again.
A brief but grave silence fell upon the whole area. No one made a sound or a verb during that moment, until a very baffled Dawnroute started talking, almost stuttering for the shock that it brought to her.
"What the... I am really seeing this?" Dawnrout said with genuinely incredulity, doubting of the veracity of what she was seeing, and she wasn't the only one.
The few ponies who remained or attempted to escape after shrugging off the initial fright caused by the wolf like menace were immobile, observing the scene with awe. As the terrifying presence of the Wolfoid wasn't enough, another element caught their eyes, and it stood between them and the beast. The cadaverous pony that stood on his two legs had visibly become a completely different being before anyone could even blink in response.
Most of his body was infested by violet tumor like flesh, adorned by few obsidian orbs similar to eyes. Only the his head, tail and mane were apparently spared, but that was just a microscopic consolation. His hindlegs had developed sharped bone talons, while his forelegs were sporting four digits skeletal claws that weren't even there a few seconds ago.
As that wasn't unnatural enough, multiple gray marrows shaped like curved blades were protruding from his forelegs, from his back and partially from behind head, sliding down on his neck.
That organic infestation of the flesh literally extended it's influence on his bone colored chain mantle, which was now wavering in resonance with his conditions as if it has become part of an unique organism. The chains in particular were inhabited by purple curved blades swimming on their metallic surface. It's borders were now vibrating at a fast pace, threatening whatever deadly shape wanted to be.
Realizing to be watched by the startled mob behind him, the outsider broke the silence for them. "I think this is the moment were you should start running, folks." He said calmly as the Wolfoid slowly approached him. "Trust me on this one."
Dawnroute and the other town folks were hesitant about his intentions, but slowly, they began to move according to his suggestion. Their eyes glued on him.
"Did you value your life OR WHAT!!?" The ousider shouted roughly to the town ponies, who instantly recovered from their shock and instinctively took him to the letter, running away from the scene as fast as possible.
With possibly every civilian out of the way, the grotesque stallion put his focus on the horrific wolf in front him, who was observing him with a ravenous look. He made another grin, but this time adorned by an halo of rage that was making its presence known on in his eyes by the seconds. "You better die already. I have a massacre to attend."
The Wolfoid briefly growled, like being taunted by the tone of the voice that outsider, a second before furiously in a roaring charge at him.
"It's Dusk Bloodlime TO YOU!!" The outsider replied arrogantly as his right hoof started bloating, with multiple rust red colored tendrils worming out his skin, twisting in shape and form of at an alarming speed until it they formed a huge sword made of an organic mixture of tendrils, iron and flesh bound to his foreleg that was then wielded by him by the handle.
With lightning fast movement, Dusk swung his weapon at the wolf like horror and cutting through it's half decayed left shoulder, his blade traveling through the half rotten flash until it stopped almost close it's chest. He thought to have heavily weakened his enemy, but was taken aback upon noticing that not only the Wolfoid bled moderately less blood than it should, but it even barely flinched or howled in response to it.
The creature swiftly grabbed Dusk by the head and punched him with the other clawed hand so hard to send him fly backwards, pulling his sword out of it's half rotten body in the process. When Dusk finally touched the ground, he ended up rolling until he stopped at what seemed like a few yards away from his pursuer.
Trying to stand up to recover from the blow, he lifted his head forward and found the Wolfoid charging two legged toward him, getting deadly close to him. It then stopped and then made a big leap toward the cadaverous pony, with the claws of his remaining arm raised upward to strike.
However Dusk wasn't considering to dodge. "Good."
Seeing the wretched wolf about to land it's blow, the mutated stallion swung his bone chained mantle upward. Bizarrely, what seemed to be just mantle of odd cloth suddenly vibrated at an alarming pace, deforming into a indistinguishable form before erupting into a coil of dark violet flesh, blood and bone colored chains adorned what looked like organic blades that struck the Wolfoid in it's face in mid air like a train at full speed.
The impact was brutal enough to launch it in the air backwards, with some of it's teeth and fangs flying out of it's mouth. The flying Wolfoid remained suspended for a what seemed a few seconds before falling abruptly on the floor, mildly destroy the stone pave and creating cracks during the impact.
A few pained but still chilling moans came out of it's throat. The bipedal looked stunned and disoriented, not minding the various cuts infesting it's gruesome visage or it's still lumping, destroyed arm; It's mouth was dripping with what seemed putrid red drops and shattered pieces of broken teeth.
"You didn't expect this cloth of mine to retaliate in my place, are you?" Dusk thought as his mantle returned into it's original form and mass.
Faintly snarling, the Wolfoid tried to get up, sustaining itself with his remaining clawed hand as he struggled to snap out of its stupor. Dusk exploited it's condition to immediately dash toward the monster, eager to continue the assault before it could have the chance to recover. Upon reaching him, he swung his huge flesh like violet sword in a horizontal swipe to decapitate it.
Unexpected to the stallion, the beast ducked before the blade could even scratch his neck and then rolled away from him, much to his chilling incredulity. Standing on it's knee, the beast hastily turned toward the stallion while quickly opening its jaws while vomiting out a jet stream of crimson from the depths of it's throat toward the floor before traveling toward the cadaverous pony.
Dusk moved away but wasn't fast enough to prevent part his left hind leg and the lower part of his mutated body from being smeared by the red liquid. He felt an atrocious pain burning through his flesh. He hissed harshly before letting out a brief scream as he fell on his knee as trails of fume rose from his stained coat.
He looked down at the red stained parts and became visibly unnerved upon seeing his skin slowly melting like it was some kind of acid. Not only that, but he saw the same being true to the smeared floor the red stream traveled upon, exuding the same trails. A smell of putrid but sulfuric substance traversed his nose, so he didn't took too much to realized the obvious.
"Boiling blood...?" Dusk muttered as the burning liquid was like to melt through his flesh, digging through their fibers as they bled. "Being gross wasn't enough that it has to hurt like boiling oil!"
The cadaverous pony knew that he cannot afford remain inert, he had to recover, although not in a way any pony expected. He laid his sight on his fuming, steadily eroding parts, which, unsurprising for him, was slowly regenerating the gruesome wounds. But it was a matter of time before his enemy recovered, and time, right now, wasn't on his side.
"For being a savage beast," Dusk said as he returned his attention to the disfigured Wolfoid, who, surprisingly for him, was standing on hind legs, bleeding less blood than before and having almost snapped out from his torpor. "You sure had a lot of will power if you could dodge my attack while being scatterbrained."
Keeping his eyes locked on the maimed predator, Dusk released the grip of his left skeletal clawed hoof from his grotesque sword. At that point, his left hoof was engulfed by a spectral green aura that radiated it's skeletal finger joints as he moved on his damaged hind leg and gripped it, spreading it's glow from the limb to the other gruesome wound on the lowest part of his boy.
It didn't resembled any conventional equestrian magic that any magical creature could use in the slightest, but an unholy power that the mutated pony was channeling into it's hoof. Dusk hissed for the agony by contact as he clenched his teeth, trying to tollerate the whole ordeal.
"C'mon."
In a blink of an eye, the pain burning inside his leg and lower part, slowly began to dissipate, with the eroded parts closing their wounds at a very fast pace. Tendons, fibers and skin were mending by themselves with no delay. But it will take a bit of time before being cured.
Returned his attention to the Wolfoid, his gaze glimpsed something entering from the destroyed gates far behind the creature. Or rather two winged figures barely illuminated by the moonlight wielding a spear silently entering the scene, hoovering in the air. Dusk could easily tell the two winged figures were pegasi wearing silver armor, a stallion and a mare respectively.
Dusk made a very nervous look. "Town guards? What the hell are you trying to do? Get out of here." He murmured.
The Wolfoid stood on his two legs, apparently unaware of the armored pegasi above it adjusting their momentum, aiming their spears on the creature before whizzing toward their target with all the fury, speed and determination they could muster.
"It's not going to work!" Dusk said in his mind, looking both skeptical and half concerned.
Just as the Wolfoid was approaching Dusk, the silver guards' spears reached the beast at lightning speed, piercing through it's rotten flesh with their spear. The creature almost yelped for the pain as their tip were bursting though out it's torso.
The guards were gaining confidence, but their certainty of victory wsa shattered short when they saw the beast barely reacting to the weapons piercing through it's body, including some of it's vital organs, only letting out a faint, pained moan that was then replaced by an enraged growl.
Their determinate expression went blank upon witnessing such unnatural endurance, looking baffled and incredulous at the same time. A grotesque feeling of terror building up, feeling unprepared for this. Before they would even wonder about what went wrong, the creature promptly turned around to backhand them in the process, hurling them away from it.
The armored ponies crashed on the ground, stunned by both being struck by the beast and the being slammed down. Furious for the double impalement, the Wolfoid directed it's attention and rage at the duo. It approached it's newfound victims as they were struggling to recover.
"None of them considered being in a fight against a literal undead." Dusk commented as he watched the scene from afar.
He stood up with the green glow being dissipated from his body, leaving his wounds regenerated. As the Wolfoid decided instinctively what to do with it's victims, the grotesque stallion was considering to find another way to deal with the creature, considering that the silver guards being cornered was more an inconvenience than an heroic resolve, when something flickered in his thoughts. A prospective if he could call it that.
Dusk took a few steps toward the creature, pointing his left clawed hoof at the being, taking the aim with a smirk in his face. "Maybe their arrival wasn't a bad thing per se, after all."
In that moment, something bloated from his hoof, growing in a twisted size before exploding in a crimson colored flesh stream. Engulfed by the organic madness, his hoof frantically changed shape and mass, to the point of becoming something unrecognizable.
While this was happening, the Wolfoid approached the two dazed guards and picked up the male one, clutching the stallion by the body with his half decayed hand and blocking his forelegs and wing before he even snapped out by his torpor. The defenseless pegasus wriggled to free himself, but it's grasp was too strong for him.
"Rushy!?" The female pegasus murmured loudly upon hearing his voice as she hastily looked in his direction.
She was overtaken by fear upon seeing the Wolfoid very close to her, although it wasn't paying attention to her; worst than it was seeing her mate being in it's clutches. Alarmed, she flipped around and tried to stand up, but was then struck by a sharp pain grinding her left hind leg, causing her to stumble. As she was trying again, the mare soon realized that the impact of being launched by the bipedal wolf's backhand broke it.
"Nebula!" The male pegasus exclaimed, getting her attention. "Stop worrying about me and go call some reinforcement! The Royal ones! GET OAAARGH!" But his sentence was interrupted abruptly when the Wolfoid tighten up his grasp, causing him to scream in pain.
"RUSHY, NO!" Nebula screamed frightened.
The Wolfoid seemingly ignored her plea as it brought Rushy closer to its skeletal like visage, looking less furious and more voracious the more the void of it's empty eye socket was gazing upon him. Terror was putting his roots on his heart and his mind, with his resolve withering until the point to give in.
Ignoring her mate's words, Nebula gathered what bare courage manage to muster in her current situation and flapped her wings until she hoover above the floor. The armored mare frantically adjusted her equilibrium, barely containing her fright, and about to do a reckless charge. However Nebula halted her purpose when she spotted Dusk pointing his still mutating left clawed hoof in the distance as the Wolfoid opened it's jaws in front of Rushy's face to bite his head off, .
*BLAM!*
With that sudden roar, a opaque violet blur instantly flew toward the right arm of the Wolfoid before bursting into a dark azure deflagration that destroyed it, much to Nebula's shocked awe.
The beast howled in a clear mix of agony and rage as Rushy and the claw that was holding him fell abruptly on the ground with him, half carbonized and adorned by azure embers; what remained of it's right arm had it's decayed bone and muscle exposed, leaking out some of the azure flaming liquid were the explosion struck.
"... My celestial goodness." Nebula said incredulous before looking at Dusk, whose sight instantly chilled her blood.
A trail of smoke was exhaled from the throat of an grotesque thing made of bones, flesh and fangs that took the place of Dusk's left hoof. It's appearance looked like a gargoyle like dragon with large fissures filling the space where it's eyes and part of his nose were supposed to be; it's mouth opened in a furious roar.
There was a violet liquid being adorned by spectral flames leaking through the lower fangs, dripping out of the mouth. That thing looked alive, but with no sentience of it's own, looking more like a weird hybrid between the head of a draconic abomination and an dreadful gun.
"Better finish the job befores even more complicated and long than this." Dusk said with a bit of impatience as he kept his aim at the howling creature.
However, the Wolfoid immediately turned toward the gruesome stallion and snarled with renowned ferocity before rushing furiously two legged toward him despite being completely stripped of it's claws, not minding it's other lumping, butchered half cut arm waving up and down during it's run.
Dusk shot another "azure bullet" from his grotesque draconic like gun at the Wolfoid, which was dodged by it quickly side jumping. The bipedal wolf rushed furiously toward the beige maned pony as he shot other two bullets. The grizzly animal maneuvered to avoid their tracks as it kept advancing, only taking a close range wound that it wasn't minding that much.
The ashen stallion remained still, keeping his living gun on his target, letting the lupine aberration to get close enough to him. It proved to be fast enough to even consider to attack to the distance. He kept aiming. And when the towering animal was almost close to him, he quickly aimed at the terrain nearby it and shot.
But in an expected turn, the Wolfoid jumped in the air toward Dusk, hoovering atop of the azure bullet exploding in a faint light blue burst on the terrain, roasting only a bit of the paved floor, until it was above him. During it's descent toward the cadaverous pony, the Wolfoid emitted some gurgling, guttural sounds with his mouth closed before opening it to vomit out another stream of boiling blood upon him.
"Not this time." Dusk blurted as he side dashed away from the putrid falling cascade, which was melting the ground as the beast landed.
The Wolfoid turned toward him and went in his direction, but halted after a few steps, almost shambling. It's visage looking increasingly dazed and ill. The beast frenetically shook it's head, with mouth filled from the inside, and vomiting out a liquid mixture of red and green colored fluids.
Gust smirked sardonically. "So the abhorrent plague is finally getting into this rotten brain of yours."
Shortly after his mental consideration, the organic mass his gruesome draconic like gun was made of reshaped it's form, taking all of the organic mess it was made off back into his body, returning his left hoof to it's original form.
"Time to change strategy," Dusk said calmly as the Wolfoid violently shook it's head to shrug off the weakening nausea, trying to maintain it's balance while keeping his attention on him.
Struggling against the plague inside it's body, the Wolfoid snarled even loudly while gritting it's fractured jaws, becoming more feral like it was mustering it's own primal fury as it spread it's split right arm.
The towering monstrosity began to tremble, but it wasn't due to the plague razing his insides. The butchered left foreleg and the stump of it's severed right one began to bloat from within at an unsettling rhythm, dangerously growing with the pass of the seconds.
Dusk became increasingly, genuinely creeped out upon witnessing he what was happening in front of him, although he still maintained his calm. "I don't like how it turned out."
With sudden violence, the bloating limbs exploded out of their insides, with reddish torrents of putrid, twisted flesh erupting out of the repressing flesh. The living mass that flooded out rapidly spread on the utterly compromised limb the came from, slowly reshaping them into grotesque new body parts, each one different and alien than the other.
Growing out of it's stump, red and violet tendons wrapped around each other, forming a deformed hand, complete with three stubby, huge bastardized claws made of violet flesh resembling giant curved blades. They looked very blunt, yet their sharpness could be perceived at naked eye. Strangely sharp in contrast with their actual form.
It's butchered left foreleg wasn't becoming any less unsettling, with the twisted flesh flooding out of the split opening. The infestation quickly mended hand along with the rest of the arm, but it wasn't done yet. The putrid torrent wasn't didn't just fixing the left foreleg, but also turning it into a large, nine digits horrible hand made of hardened rotten flesh, muscle fibers and curved bone blades as claws.
Even when the disgusting transformation was over, the striding roar still echoed through the town for a bit before falling into silence after a few seconds, giving space to the distant nocturnal sounds.
The ashen pony was genuinely disturbed by that sight, having the impression to deal with something that he hadn't faced yet, but didn't looked afraid. There was something worse than fear. The cadaverous stallion made a chilling visage of impatience and, unconceivable to any pony of Equestria, bloodlust.
"That damn persistence of yours," Dusk said with a gleeful grin before dashing toward his enemy with newfound vigor. "Now I am more determined to get you thrashed for wasting MY PATIENCE!!!"
Seeing the stallion approaching, the Wolfoid remained immobile and spread it's ringed toothed mouth on it's chest, with the rib like spikes closing on the center and stretching forward. As soon as Dusk was guessing what it was going to do, the ringed mouth "opened widely" and fired many rib spikes at a high velocity in multiple direction like a chaingun.
Dusk deflected, and sometimes cut, most of the spikes with multiple swipes of his organic sword as he pressed forward. However, three of them managed to strike him, with two of those piercing through his abdomen and the third one wounding his right arm at close range. He felt those wounds flaring up, with streams of blood flowing on his coat, but continued to press forward anyway.
Stopping his bone made spikes barrage, the Wolfoid spread his twisted forelegs roaring before dashing toward Dusk. He was almost close to the bipedal wolf, only to halt immediately upon seeing the three enormous claws of it's flesh made, deformed right foreleg lunging in his direction him in a horizontal swipe, shortening the distance of a yard away from it.
Dusk quickly leaped backward, with the tip of the creature's flesh made claws managing to slightly scratching his torso. When he landed his feet without flinching for the pain, the Wolfoid was already dashing dangerously toward him, trying to shred him with another claw swipe again, this time using it's three clawed right hand.
As the cadaverous pony moved away rapidly enough to dodge it's attack, he soon found himself constantly maneuvering at every turn to evade what seemed to be an unrelenting barrage of wild, fast claw swipes that the monstrous wolf was unleashing on him.
The cutting flurry continued to assault Dusk with no success for a bit until the Wolfoid stopped on it's track to briefly pulling his right claws back to build up the momentum before dashing toward him with a swift oblique slash. Instinctively, he shielded himself with the violet flesh infested, bone chained mantle as soon as the beast was.
"Get grinded!!" Dusk shouted aggressively as quickly deflected the swipe with his own flesh made, bone chain made mantle, staggering the Wolfoid in the process.
As the lupine aberration struggled to maintain it's balance, Dusk promptly dashed forward with his organic sword in both of his claws, brutally thrusting it through it's ringed fanged mouth on his chest, with it's blade erupting out of the Wolfoid's back. The beast couldn't even howl in pain that the blade of the organic sword just traveled downward, cutting through the rotten yet living flesh of it's lower middle parts until it struck the ground.
The collision caused a light rust, red colored explosion from beneath the creature, hurling it in mid air while burning the opened lower insides and most of it's body before it fell abruptly on the ground with a butchered wail, nearby the destroyed gates at two yards away from him.
"I have to hurry before more guards will come to complicate the things." Dusk said with a fed up expression before lifting his sword upward with both of his hands, with the tip pointed in the dark nocturnal sky .
As the growling Wolfoid forcefully tried to stand despite having his lower part being shredded, the dreadful sword began to glow in a darker, reddish, violet aura that engulfed it's blade, animating it's tumor like fleshy surface, with it's blade becoming slowly larger until it became three times it's original size, as if it was a grim way to reflect his resolve.
"Dust to THE DUSTED." Dusk said in a mix of tranquil fury and ambiguous sadism before slamming his enlarged, dark engulfed sword on the paved terrain, causing a procession of purple pristine, giant geysers of unholy energy bursting out the terrains, travelling toward the Wolfoid.
The moment the Wolfoid barely stood on it's hind legs, the geysers overwhelmed the towering horror, devastating the entirety of it's already wrecked body and burning through what flesh remained, seemingly chewing every piece of it's organism as it's figure was completely covered by the terrific flames.
The erupting waves of unholy power stopped it's destructive passage nearby the gates, leaving a black trail of burnt terrain in their wake before disappearing in the void as they came.
When the proverbial dust has been settled, Dusk headed toward what seemed to be a smoking pile of burnt mass, and then he stopped nearby it. The cadaverous pony laid his gaze upon the burnt remains of the bipedal horror, now reduced to nothing more than a maimed, fuming carcass, gravely burnt by what seemed to be a destructive flare.
The devastated body smelled like a mixture of decomposition and burnt flesh. It's visage was slowly crumbling, eroding what bone and flesh remained. It's torso looked both like chewed up by scorching fangs, with the mutated arms seemingly melted into a charcoal filled liquid. The ringed toothed mouth made of rib spikes was turned into an hollow cavity, with "the fangs" being like incenerate, almost turning into ashes. The insides of the gruesome, vertical cut traveling from the chest down to the lower parts looked about to crumble.
With Dusk having confirmation of it's death, his disturbing flesh made sword began change form again, becoming an undistinguished mass of violet flesh and tendrils before assuming a coherent shape, retreating inside him while reshaping it back to his right clawed hoof.
"About time you fell by my hands, you canine waste" Dusk said with a slightly pleased tone, but then soon noticed Dawnroute, and the town ponies, slowly returning to the scene right after fight ended, which made he proceed to ignore as he walked past the carcass. "I have no time for this kind of attention.
Ignoring the increasing presence of ponies, Dusk headed toward the crashed gates with intention to leave the city. But couldn't even get close to the destroyed gates that a stern, commanding voice echoed from above him.
"Stop right there!" The stern voice said.
Dusk sighed in slight consternation. "I knew this was going to happen. I wasted too much time."
With veiled reluctance, Dusk looked up with a bothered face and found a flock of five pegasi Royal Guards descending in a block formation from both sides to block any chance to escape, each one armed with a platinum spear, followed by Rushy and Nebbia. After they landed, guard ponies gave him very disturbed glares of distrust toward him. A stern armored pegasus, being an elder violet maned azure stallion, was at the center of the block.
"Don't make another step, freak!" The stern pegasus ordered with a semi thunderous tone. "I don't know who you are but... " But the Royal Guard abruptly interrupted the sentence when he noticed the carbonized, butchered corpse of the Wolfoid, those rotting smells got much worse even after the smoke trails vanished. "Oh merciful Celestia... Is that...?"
"The monster that was wrecking havoc a few minutes ago," Nebbia confirmed, visibly shocked by that sight. "Or rather, what it was supposed to be. I saw that pony over there confronting that creature before Rushy and I left the town to ask for your help. I didn't saw the rest of the fight, but this... To be able to reduce that creature in that state-" She stopped, feeling about to throw up in any moment, but then continued where she left off, reluctantly. "-Hallucinating."
"And how, lieutenant Rust Path," Rushy added, looking like doubtful of what he was about to say. "That lupine monster kept moving even after that monstrous stallion brutally thrust his... disgusting sword... thing through it's shoulder with a oblique cut, and when we had supposedly pierced through it's aims too... Although he 'had tecnically' saved our lives."
"I don't doubt of your and Nebbia's words," Rust reassured. "But we can't trust some pony whose biology goes against nature and anatomy. If we could count it still as a pony, by I doubt that."
Dusk could hear the many whispers of the town ponies that were looking at him with suspicion, or worse, fear. He looked behind, noticing most of them glaring at him with distrust, except for Dawnroute, who looked like undecided between her instinctive fear and her questioning of her life being saved from Sirocco by the ashen stallion.
Uncaring of whatever was their impression of him, Dusk returned his attention to the armored ponies blocking his path out of the town, looking more hellbent to either capture him or anything involving violence if they would. Heedless of his order, Dusk made a few steps toward the gate, with the guard ponies pointing their spears toward him in response, except for Rust.
"Don't make another move!" Rust declared again. "Take in consideration even the fact that other guard ponies were arriving just behind you. We cannot afford monsters like you to roam around Equestria unchecked."
"I don't care about what you think I am in this moment." Dusk replied, calmly but visibly fed up. "I won't waste any further time on you. Move."
"It seems like I am not clear enough," Rust rebutted, narrowing his eyes with a stern gaze. "We can't leave any other monster roam around the land, even if is not related to that lupine one."
"Don't make me said that again," Dusk said with maintained calm, but with a bit of aggressivit. "Get out of my way."
"Son, normally nopony asked the question to any villain or creature they met, but," Rust pointed his spear toward Dusk, with the other three Royal Guards and the silver ones flapping their wings to fly for offence. "What makes you think that we would not to kill if necessary?"
Seeing no alternative, Dusk was about to force his way through, but halted his purpose upon seeing something in the sky. In the distant nightfall sky upon Canterlot Mountain. A red, black stain was growing larger, infecting the very fabricate of night and then the moon hosting it. Having a horribly impression, he didn't took too to see what was coming next.
"Look over there!" One of the citizens yelled, with incredulous awe. "The sky... What is happening to the sky!"
"And it's above Canterlot Mountain!" A female one added, becoming increasingly afraid by the seconds. "What darkness is this!?"
"What the...?" Rust turned around and looked upward, with Nebbia and other two Royal Guards following suit, their expression becoming paled like a grave. "The hell is happening here?"
Curious, Dusk looked in the sky beyond the walls of the sky, toward the silhouette of the Canterlot Mountain in the horizon, and saw a stream of pitch black darkness spiraling upward, higher and higher, until it pierced the clouds above the peak, much to his disturbed incredulity, seasoned with anger. "Fuck, don't tell me...!"
As the stream continued it's unsettling ascension, a horrible stain began to dilatate from where it was piercing the heavens.
And with no warning, the earth began to tremble, with most of the ponies screaming alarmed. A few debris began to fall from the various houses, aggravating the panic that was rising in that moment. Only a few of the present ponies fell on the ground, while others were about to abandon the city from a moment or another.
"REMAIN CALM!!" Rust thunderer, convincing at least half of the citizens and his subordinates to some extent. "Whatever happens, maintain your blood cold. Just follow my words and we can put you into safety as much as we can!"
But the attempt of the lieutenant to reassure the citizens was made null when the consumed sky became engulfed by a colored darkness, adorned by a hellish red color akin to an crimson sea that completely devoured anything in it's passage, chewing out the moon, and perverting what shred of harmony remained in the night. No moonlight or other trace of natural bright was filtered. No star. Nothing else.
The trembling grew intense, having turned into a literal earthquack in response to what was happening. Every pony that was witnessing during this event felt something stinging in the back of their mind, a sense of dread crawling under their skin, and surge of fear filling in their hearts. Most of the town ponies and few guards fell on their sides, while other citizens began to gallop screaming in multiple direction. In a matter of moments, panic, hysteria and chaos became quickly rampant.
Only Dusk, Nebbia and Rust were still standing, with the latter two remaining calm, yet visibly much alarmed as every pony else are. Seeing Rushy falling on his hind leg, Nebbia trotted to his aid, while Rust tried verbally to calm down both the population and his subordinates, but with little success.
Dusk didn't wasted any time to exploit the chaos to dash toward the destroyed gates of the town entrance. Rust, Nebbia and other three Royal Guards quickly noticed his attempt to escape, so they rushed toward him to intercept him. But as soon as Dusk was passing nearby them, grayish tendrils came out from his bone chained mantle like solidified blurs at a startling speed, striking the five armored ponies and the rest of them on their necks, stunning them and making them falls on the floor
The earthquake slowly diminished in intensity, but the panic didn't diminished in the same way. Ignoring the mess behind him, Dusk nonchalantly approached the destroyed doors of the city exit and broke through them with a kick, revealing a plain path toward the Everfree Forest growing in the distance.
The ashen stallion heard Dawnrout and Rust calling him from behind, but he didn't thought twice as he went out of the city of Maredrione, leaving the turmoil behind him.
"Don't get me wrong," Dusk murmured. "Is not like I don't care about your well being. Is just that you have your valiant guardians being trustworthy to the job. I have other priorities in mind. Oh, and speaking of that red sky above Equestria." He paused, almost about to chuckle, only make a grin marked with a bit of anger. "I think those damn mad bitches had what they wanted... I guess I had to go through the entire world to put an halt to those bastards."
With that grim reminder, Dusk went toward the forest, seemingly aware of what was about to happen. He didn't seemed so affected upon witnessing a landscape transformation of this magnitued, but his face was marked by a mix of concern and spite. His eyes weren't betraying him and he hadn't not doubt about it. He didn't felt this much fear, but the thrill of dread was there. The cadaverous pony never saw a phenomena like that, yet that was the confirmation of what he had predicted most.
Hell has come on Equestria... And beyond.
