Are you afriad of monsters?

She was there.

There before his first breath, before his ancestors walked the earth. Before his bloodline was a whisper in the fabric of fate. She existed before his mother’s soul was ever shaped in the womb of creation. She was there before the thought of existence itself flickered into being, an afterthought in the endless void. She was there before light, before the birth of stars, before the first heartbeat of darkness.

She was there before time began its relentless march, before magic sparked in the ether, before the old gods dared to dream. She was there when there was no form, no chaos or order, not even nothingness to claim dominion. She was the silence that preceded all things, the presence that watched over the birth of monsters and the dawn of gods.

She was there, and always had been.

Yet one question seemed to cling to her.

Why?

She thought of that question more times than she cared to admit. What was her purpose? All beings before her were gifted with one. Even beings like Discord, whose very purpose was to defy all logic and creation, still had a purpose instead of simply existing.

It didn't matter.

It hadn't before, so why now? Perhaps it was her new form. One that tied her to this realm while also gifting her with mortal concepts like emotion and thought.

Well, more so her avatar than her actual being.

Regardless, the answer wouldn't come. It hadn’t then, so there was no reason to believe that it would come now.

"Ple-pleas s-stop i-it hurts."

A pained voice broke her away from her thoughts. In doing so, she remembered to fix the smile that was fading from her face.

"Sorry! My head was buzzing with bees! Do you know how annoying that is?" She huffed, making sure to fold her hooves in a childish pout despite the blood leaking down her face.

Before her was a blue stallion currently being tied down to a table. His face was a gruesome canvas of pain, bloody with one eye hanging limply from its socket. His chest was ripped open, organs spattered across both the table and the floor. His back hooves were bent at grotesque angles, twisting the taste of dark humor into the horror of his predicament.

His wife lay nearby, her form a nightmarish mix of agony and despair. A large gash marred her throat, an unholy testament to her husband's cruelty as Friend had forced his defiled member down her throat. She gagged and choked, the sizzle of her flesh intertwining with the dark symphony of their family's torment, a melody he would never want to hear again.

Turning her head, she caught Nothing, a small brown Earth pony colt with an orange mane and bright yellow eyes. His cutie mark—a chain wrapped around a pony's neck, tethering him to a master unseen—reflected the absence of any semblance of hope or freedom.

Friend’s grin widened, a fearful thing full of jagged teeth and sharp edges.

Nothing watched with a disturbing detachment, chewing on what had once been his father's eye, the glistening orb a morbid treat as he indulged in the symphony of suffering unfolding before him. Amusement danced in his eyes, a twisted joy that marked his existence as something irrevocably broken.

"Stop?! Did you stop when your son begged you to? Or when you spent hours beating him into the dirt, all to assert your hollow dominance?!" Friend's voice echoed in the room, a wild cacophony of madness matched only by the anguish that hung thick in the air.

He couldn’t answer.

Well, he couldn’t, really. She had made sure of that.

"Did you stop when you made him watch as you forcibly drowned his newborn sister, as your son screamed and begged you not to?!"

A scream pierced the air as she moved on to the mother, her eyes hollow and without understanding. Yet Friend knew their shared suffering. The twisted bond of a family tainted by violence and neglect was an endless loop of despair.

"And you! You did nothing! You let your husband ravage your child, suffocating screams replaced by the insatiable lust for power that consumed him! All because you couldn’t bear the thought of losing him, could you?! Even when he turned to others, offering your son to their wicked whims, you chose silence over defiance!"

The older stallion broke. Tears streamed down his battered face, blood intermingling with salty grief and despair.

"YOU DON'T GET TO CRY!" She screamed, a primal uproar of rage that resonated deep within her. Her hooves pounded against his body, a relentless hailstorm of violence that shattered bones with each brutal connection.

Satisfaction filled her as she watched the horror unfold, reveling in the way his screams enveloped her—so much sweeter than the silence he had laid upon his innocent son.

Nothing merely watched, making sense of the chaos that danced around him. Each breath he took echoed a hollow reminder of his worthlessness, but Friend’s presence offered an unsettling comfort. She was a beacon of madness in his fractured world, something he could cling to amidst the storm.

When she paused, gathering herself amidst the carnage, her eyes glimmered with an unsettling light. Nothing couldn't tell if it was madness or mere joy, but her excitement filled the air, intoxicating and strange.

Suddenly, everything changed. The atmosphere shifted, her playful demeanor morphing into something darker. Her pure white coat, now slathered in blood, reflected the taint of their fate.

"Well, looks like we gotta wrap it up! But don’t worry! Even when you die, your souls will just become part of me! You will become part of this monstrous being, forced to relive your worst moments, your pain and suffering twisted into my eternal amusement!"

Her grin was infectious, a horrific allure wrapped in malevolence, leaving Nothing uncertain if he should feel fear or excitement. The inevitable end was near. But for them, nothing would matter; they were merely fodder, instruments for her unending symphony of suffering.

Nothing hummed silently to himself as the police surrounded the house, an eerie calm washing over him despite the chaos outside. He glued his eyes to the window, observing the officers gather in an uneasy formation, their apprehensive bodies hinting at their intent to breach the door.

In the dim light of the room, Friend sat casually nearby, her gaze flickering over a newspaper she held in her hooves, a serene and almost coy smile playing on her lips.

"Hush, little lamb, don’t you cry,
Monsters roam, but you’ll get by.
Those who hurt will meet their end,
In my care, you’ll safely bend.
Close your eyes, the night is deep,
Dream of shadows while you sleep.
In my hooves, you’re safe and sound,
While the wicked fade around."

Nothing turned at the sound of her voice, a shiver dancing down his spine an unsettling comfort enveloping him. When their eyes met, Friend’s grin widened impossibly, and she lifted the newspaper for him to see. The headline screamed at him, piercing through the dimness like a blade:

**Orphans Found Abandoned: Possible Cannibals? Government Conspiracy?**

His heart thundered as he locked onto her gaze, a cold and twisted understanding glimmering between them just as the door splintered under the weight of the officers’ fierce onslaught.

Friend tilted her head, a cruel glint igniting in her eyes—she was a predator, and tonight, nothing would escape her clutches. A portal, oozing with unnatural darkness, spiraled open beside her, and moments later, a gruesome, demonic figure emerged, remnants of a pony he was mere moments ago twisted into a nightmarish shape.

“I think we’re going to have a lot of new friends,” she sang, her voice dripping with sickened delight.

Nothing felt a heady rush, an intoxicating thrill coursing through his veins, drowning out any last remnants of doubt. Outside, the police began to panic, voices spiraling into chaos as they recognized the hellish danger that lurked within.

“Are they really going to try to stop us?” he asked, his heart raced with an anticipation.

“Oh, sweet Nothing,” Friend replied, her tone taunting yet laden with malice, “they think they’re heroes, but they’re merely broken soldiers in our little game. Let’s show them how this story ends.”

The door finally gave way, and officers poured in, guns raised, their faces as white as the moonlight spilling through the broken threshold. They froze, horror painted across their features at the monstrous abomination that stood between them and the bright glint of authority.

“Stop! Get on the ground!” one officer yelled, but his voice quavered, uncertainty and dread creeping in as he faced the living nightmare before him.

Friend’s laughter wove through the air, a hauntingly melodic sound that cut through the tension like a knife. “You think you’re brave, don’t you? But here, in our tale, you’re just the first act.”

With a flick of her hoof, she beckoned to her grotesque companion, her eyes shimmering like cold stars. “Let the dance begin!”

Nothing reveled in the rush of adrenaline that surged through him as the police staggered back, realization dawning upon them like the bitter chill of November. The atmosphere thickened with dread, oppressive and stifling, while Friend abandoned her lullaby in favor of a wild, celebratory chant, the words dripping with venom.

In that moment, the world outside ceased to exist. Only the orgy of terror remained, a deadly ballet of despair that stained the night with horror, each scream a note in their dark symphony, echoing infinitely through the shadows, binding them closer, tighter—inextricably entwined in their haunting bliss of madness.