The Ponyville weather team never mentioned just how severe the storm would be. At best, it was suppose to cause larger than usual puddles to form. Now, many houses were being flooded due to their residents putting off repairs that accumulated thanks to the town essentially being a monster magnet. However, a storm like this would even make said monsters seek refuge.
Another blinding light struck Fluttershy's eyes before a horrifying crack followed. The pegasus wanted to flinch so badly; she hated how close the lightings were getting to her cottage. The cracks were becoming faster too, meaning the distance shortening wasn't just a thought, they were getting closer each time.
Being afraid, however, wasn't an option. She had to remain where she was, she had to keep up her brave front even if it was a blatant lie, she had to keep it all under wraps otherwise it would act. It was a starring match. A silent, exhausting and utterly dreadful competition. The only thing she was somewhat sure of was that it wouldn't move as long as her eyes were fixed on it.
It all began right before the last winter wrap-up was suppose to commence. It had been a long time since such a weather emergency came rolling through. A massive snowstorm greeted their town's population with bone-chilling temperatures and a few unfortunate frostbites. She wasn't that well versed in how the weather team managed such events and why this one came without as much as a warning, but mistakes happen, right? She couldn't really blame anypony.
What she also couldn't do was stop thinking about all the possibilities. That, if only there was some sort of announcement, so many plans of hers wouldn't be canceled, that so many poor critters wouldn't need to take immediate shelter in her home, and maybe that thing wouldn't have found her cottage.
Fluttershy's eyes were beginning to grow tired from keeping up her famous 'Stare'. Normally, anything, be it a pony, an animal or even something from the depths of Tartarus, would shiver under said tactic. She had seen it work wonders before, so had all her friends and even the princesses. She was both proud and somewhat scared of her own talent.
So why wasn't that thing flinching? Was too much of it obscured for the 'Stare' to take effect? Maybe it didn't work on things that didn't possess eyes? No, it had to have some form of eyesight, otherwise why would it be staring so intensely at her? Those two hollow voids carved into what Fluttershy could only assume was a long dried-up mass of flesh.
And the smell... oh Celestia, the stench this thing was giving off. It was that exact detail that gave away its presence to her. She first caught a hint of it after the snowstorm cleared up, just as she was checking the mouse hole in her wall. She peeked inside, curious why her little friends hadn't come out of there for a few days now. She could only see so little inside, but she was sure the insides of her walls weren't so yellowish before. It was only after she stuck her muzzle closer to it that she felt that distinct scent.
While it did repel her at first, she made it her mission to find out what was the cause of it all. It would take a day or two of errands, but she finally found some time to investigate further. With a crowbar borrowed from the Apple's, she opened some of the planks from her wall, getting a better look inside her own cottage. It was still filled with that awful stench, but the walls were back to normal, all brown and dark green in color. The washed-out yellow from before was gone.
Over the next few days she would grow to accept the possibility that Mr. and Ms. Mouse had just found a new place to live, away from her domain. That was until other animals began to disappear. They were small critters at first like a group of butterflies, a few bats, and maybe occasionally a bunny or two. She couldn't keep all of them inside against their will. It was their right if they felt strong enough to live on their own.
But then it happened, their very first encounter. It was late in the evening, her home being lit only by some candles, as Fluttershy prepared to have a whole night with a book Rainbow Dash had given her. She tucked away all her patrons that needed it the most and began ascending the stairs. She sneaked one last glance at the living room, checking its inhabitants. Her sweet bunny, Angel, a few bats hanging from the ceiling, 2 stray dogs cuddled with one another, and a barely alive blue jay crawling near the mouse hole.
Her eyes widened at the sight, she was almost ready to bolt, to help the suffering bird in need. Did it fall from somewhere? No, the damage seemed too grave for that, it must have gotten into some alteration with another animal. She was just about to reach the bottom of the stairs before that thing shot out of the wall. It was perfectly silent as its mass bashed the body of her winged friend with its head. The bird didn't even have the energy to chirp or screech anymore, it just gave up. The mass, whatever it was, dragged the remains into the opening in the wall, soaking up all the blood that was left behind.
Fluttershy was frozen, unable to move. With her lungs seemingly forgetting how to operate, her vision darkening from the lack of oxygen and sheer fear factor. She collapsed onto her rear, sliding down the last step of the stairs. The animals finally sprung to life after hearing her hit the floor. They circled her, looks of concern and a cacophony of worried noises. Even Angel shook her hooves with his paws, no sign of his usually stern and bratty demeanor.
Following that horrible sighting, she begged her friends for help figure out what it was that nested within her walls. Each Element came up with their own explanations for the problem. From Dash's suspicion of it all being a night terror, through AJ's stories of harmful rodents she had to rid her own farm off of, and ending on Twilight's unwarranted excitement about discovering a potentially new species. She appreciated most of what they all had to say but as days began to rolled by, she was no closer to finding out what the intruder really was.
There was one detail, besides the incident in it of itself, that puzzled her the most. How did it fit in that mosehole? From what she has seen of the creature, it was large and possibly disfigured. Its movements were composed of weird, silent snaps and twitches while the body itself was simply too big for that small opening. She wasn't a gifted student like Twilight but even she could tell something of that size shouldn't be able to squeeze through there.
Seeing how distressed she had grown over the last few days, her friends offered to investigate her house as a group effort. Rarity inspected the upstairs, Applejack and Pinkie checked the ground floor, Rainbow Dash took the outside area and Twilight scanned the structure as a whole for magical anomalies or any forced entries. Nothing came out of the investigation.
It was getting too difficult, her eyes were bloodshot and begging for her eyelids to close shut, preferable for the whole night as well. She couldn't, she mustn't. She would've screamed, ran away, escorted her animals or even railed them up as a last resort to fight that mostrosity off...
But she couldn't.
It was too fast. Even if they were only small glimpses, she had seen it work. It began by picking off the smaller prey first, like insects, birds and rabbits. It only escalated from there though. Soon, cats, dogs, and eventually even pigs would begin to go missing under her roof. It wasn't so bold in its hunts before, it has changed. It has grown and now even a pony like her wasn't too big for its enormous appetite.
With her muscles giving out, she could feel her heart coming to a pause as the tired eyelids finally moved on their own. In that short moment, she could hear something snap. Her eyes flew open in mere seconds, still in pain from the strain. That didn't matter however because the thing had moved. Its face of disgusting flesh and meat now closer than ever. She could finally see more of its hideous form. An exposed spine extending from underneath the lump of gore and breaching her wall. It was long, it was so long.
Fluttershy finally knew why she couldn't find it before, as her eyes watered at the sight. Its bones were one with her home, seemingly morphing with materials such as wood and stone, infecting them with that ugly yellow tone she had previously seen. She could see it moving, like an optical illusion. Skulls and bones of its victims sticking out of the naked pieces of its backbones. She could recognize each one of her missing animals, their skeletal remains merging with it into a horrowing display.
Abomination. That was the only word that filled her mind as she gazed upon the worm-like horror before her. Even with her understanding of nature's ins and outs, she couldn't wrap her head around that thing's existence. Something that was a parasite, a stalker and a predator all at once. There was nothing to be seen in the darkness of its eye sockets. No instinct, no desire, no need for survival. It took all her friends just because it could.
Tears were beginning to flow more freely down her muzzle. Fluttershy was at her limit, at the tail end of her courage and physical abilities. She hadn't noticed it before, but her body had already taken a few steps back, the nightmarish thing extending its neck in slow pursuit. It knew she was done for, nothing more than another body to join its hideous form.
Mother, Father, Zephyr. She thanked them all for being there, always bringing something to her life, even in the most bizarre ways. Suddenly all the awkward moments with her brother became bittersweet. She would rather relive all of them again, maybe even twice over if it meant getting out of here. She thought back to her friends. It was like she could still hear their voices, almost drawing closer with each passing second.
Yet another flash of lighting, but this one caught her attention more than ever. Through the sheer brightness it provided, she could see silhouettes approaching her cottage. There were 5 ponies and one smaller shape, hastefully trotting towards her house, all wearing raincoats. She could see them all, her beloved friends were coming to her rescue.
A wet sensation enveloped her neck, that awful stench soaking into her mane. Her eyes widened, the realization hitting her so fast it could rival Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom. She lost her focus, her body acted on its own, looking towards her supposed hope.
She was looking at the window. She was looking at her friends.
She had lost the staring match.
