Disturbed

As the door slammed shut, Crimson found herself in a long hall. The dim, diffused light did little to help her see clearly; she could only see ten paces around her.

“So, where am I to go next?” Crimson murmured; the sound of her voice calmed her heart a bit.
Hoofsteps interrupted her thoughts, and she spun to stare. Something was coming at her from a distance; rather fast, at that. Horrified at what the noise impeded, she spun on her heels and bolted the opposite direction. As she was mere seconds into her gallop, hoofsteps in front of her made her spin around and go into the opposite way.

For a second time, Crimson stopped and turned as she heard more hoofsteps coming from the new direction she had bolted in; whatever was approaching seemed to be coming from both directions. Whimpering in fear and sweating profusely, the unicorn fortified her position and charged up her horn; daring to face the rapidly approaching somethings from the darkness. Just as a shadowy outline appeared in her field of vision, she released her magic, launching a blazing red bolt at her assailant.

Surviving for so long in this new Equestria had done wonders for Crimson’s aim, and her attack struck home, imbedding itself with an electrifying boom in her target. A yelp and then the skidding of hooves on wooden floor as her victim fell, sliding several paces before ending at Crimsons hooves. Seeing that she had gotten one of them, Crimson backed up a few paces, and turned her attention up the hallway; silence met her searching ears. After another long moment of tense recon, she concluded that it must have been a misleading echo. Turning again to face her downed assailant, emptiness met her searching eyes; it was as if he had simply faded into thin air.

Her new round of convulsive shivering was cut short however as a new sound, this time definitely coming towards her, evaded her senses; a fluttering of countless wings. The beats were far to light to be pegasi; the new sound miffed Crimson. What exactly was she about to see? A single butterfly with a blue body and pink wings fluttered softly to land on Crimsons shoulder; she smiled. To see such beauty in new Equestria was rare, and to find it in a hell house like this one was practically a Celestial blessing. Willing her heart to calm, Crimson fixed her gaze on the butterfly.

“I can make it, I can do…” A sharp pain made her stop in surprise. Another, again at her shoulder, made her bat the frail bug off of her. Her smile collapsed into a grimace as she saw a trickle of blood run down two butterfly-sized bite marks.

“What the...” The butterfly bit her again, this time on her back, and she swatted at it angrily. To her greatest satisfaction, her strike made contact, and the butterfly was launched into the wall. As it collapsed to the ground, she reared up and crushed it under a hoof. Mere seconds after she was done, three butterflies came into her field of vision. One bit her on the flank, and the other two went for the front hooves.

“Get off!” Crimson shouted, shaking widely to disperse the carnivorous bugs; they left for only a second before settling on her again. Charging up her magic, she scorched each of them. Tearing up from the pain, Crimson looked around for more.

“RUN!” A voice shouted from the darkness. Crimson just had the time to look up before a wild mare bolted past her, shaking violently to detach the thirty or so butterflies that had attached themselves onto her tatty coat. A trail of blood fell behind her; she was being eaten alive.

What followed were the fluttering noises again, and it sounded as if the number of wings had been multiplied. As the first wave of flesh-eating butterflies came into her view, Crimson ran, hot on the tail of the receding mare that had just seconds ago ridded herself of her burden. Crimson was a fast runner, so she caught up to the mare and turned to her. In comparison to the foal, this pony was fine. Across her back, a sequence of deep bite-marks oozed blood.

“What’s going on in here?” Crimson shouted to the mare, who hardly turned in acknowledgment.

“Punishment.” The mare groaned, “We are unworthy.”

“Wha…”

“PUNISHMENT.” The mare had turned fully now to Crimson, and as she opened her mouth to scream the word, a butterfly flew out. It was then that the chilling conclusion came to the unicorn, the things… they were inside of her.

The mare coughed, spitting blood onto the floor.

“They’re eating me!” the mare whinnied, her eyes showing white. Another butterfly was spit out, looking rather bloated. “Their eggs are inside of me!” a pained moan. The mare tripped up as a butterfly burst out from her hind leg, closely followed by two more out of her sex. Crimson was too terrified to respond, and as the pain crazed mare slipped and fell, she continued onwards.

She was next, she’d have eggs implanted into her, and she’d end up like the mare. The very notion sent deep shivers around her body. She imagined them under her skin, eating her up like the colt, eating her away. And then, in the last moments of her life, she’d see them bursting out from inside her, wings laden with her own blood, gorged on whatever they had around them. She’d be turned to a pile of bones; she’d be nothing.

A sharp bite at her flank snapped her out of her grim reveries; the butterflies had caught up enough to begin to land on her. Shaking her head unbelievingly, Crimson picked up her pace, again, distancing herself from the carnivores. As the chase progressed, Crimson’s legs began to hurt. Time was against her, and yet still, she had not arrived at the end of the hall. Again the butterflies had caught up, and two of them landed on her back. As another five landed, Crimson found herself losing the will to continue. It seemed as though the outcome to the whole thing was dreary and linear; she was to die here.

And then she saw it, the door and the end of the hall. Seeing that there was still some hope left, Crimson put all of her remaining strength into a final ditch rush that both shook off the butterflies and got her to the door, which she swung open without hesitation. Inside now, she turned and bucked the door shut. The fluttering got louder and louder before residing again; somehow, she had made it. Thinking back on the mare she had been running with, she counted her blessings that death had been merciful enough to leave her be.

With a strangled whimper, Crimson collapsed, falling against the blissfully cool wall of this new room and sliding down till she was curled up. And then the gurgled whimper she had heard before the foal had perished came back to her, and she bolted upright, afraid to light her horn.

“Who’s there?” Crimson said; her heart, so tired of its pace, put her in pain as it revved back up. The gurgle returned, and she felt something brush up against her nose. The feeling, so minute, was amplified a million times by the fear she was wracked with.

As Crimson ignited her horn and the room came into view, she gasped before falling to the ground and muttering incoherently. She could feel madness falling over her, and she struggled bitterly to ward it off. As she regained her senses, she willed herself to stand. Above her, hanging like bats, cocoons, fat and brown, covered the ceiling. Every moment of so, one of them would hatch, and a new butterfly would come forth. Strangely enough, they seemed to have no interest in her, but another; a particular pegasus with a yellow coat and a pink mane. As the light ignited, the pegasus had lifted her gaze to stare in Crimsons direction. What was most startling, however, was the fact that the pegasi was pinned against the wall; an oversized metal needle was impaled in the center of the filly’s chest, and four more, two in each spread out wing. The scene reminded her of what bugs looked like when they were put up on display. The carnivorous butterflies covered her body, yet it seemed as though they had no intentions to bite. As Crimson approached the impaled pegasus, two or three sprung up and flew at her, warding her off.

“Stay away.” the pegasus whispered. “They won’t hurt you so long as you don’t come any nearer.” She turned to them with a smile “Isn’t that right, dears?” A ruffling of wings.

"You mean to say that those butterflies in the hall… you breed them?” Crimson asked incredulously; a slight nod from the yellow pegasus.

“Yes, aren’t they beautiful?” As she opened her mouth, two or three flew out, followed by a trickle of blood. “I protect them, and I pinned myself to the wall to show how much I love them.”

“But, but they eat ponies; they’re eating you!”

“It doesn’t hurt. Actually, they tickle! They protect me when the Stalker comes around, and keep me warm when I want to…” A butterfly detached itself from the wall and climbed into the pegasi’s ear. As it came out, bloated on whatever it just ate, the filly’s sentence stopped, only to return again on a new segue. “He told me they don’t like you, but don’t worry, I do…” again she stopped.

“But why don’t you like the nice mare? She’s the first one to talk to me in such a long time... ouch!” the pegasus screeched. “Why are you being so mean?” She then turned to Crimson. “You need to go back.”

“I-I can’t,” Crimson objected. “I’ll be killed.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want that…” another shout of pain. “I mean, I mean yes, you have to take your chances. They really… ouch… don’t want you here.” When Crimson refused to move the butterflies began to detach from the pinned up filly, forming a small cloud above her head. As they lifted, the full extent of the damage across her body became evident. Her fur was non-existent, replaced instead with bloody scabs. Down lower, a constant dribble of blood dripped from her sex and tail-hole.

“By Celestia…” Crimson’s eyes widened as she saw the squirming of countless larvae beneath her skin; there must have been thousands of them. “What have they done?”

“Saved me!” The pinned pegasus quickly answered, tears filling up in the corners of her eyes.
The butterflies began to land in ten and twenty; each group took their turn eating, before lifting up and allowing room for the next group. Crimson could see the immense amount of pain she was suffering from, and it made her sick to the stomach. Each waking hour it became more and more clear that the disease had no room for mercy.

“I’m so happy! They keep me company, don’t worry.” The pegasus assured, petting one of them. The butterfly she touched attached itself onto her hoof and bit a chunk out of it.

Unable to take the sight any longer, Crimson averted her gaze, only to settle on a door just off to the left of the deranged filly. She needed to come up up with a plan to have her path cleared. Slowly, she charged her horn.

“I don’t think you are.” Crimson said. “You’re crying.”

“Tears of, of happiness!” The lost pegasus answered, attempting another smile and failing. “Oh, I wish you could stay though… ahhh!” Her scream was laden with pain, and it was then that she broke down completely. “I made these monsters to keep me company, I-I need to suffer! I should be punished! Celestia strike me down.” And then she stopped and raised a hoof to her mouth as if she’d just said something bad. Her form fell limp, and an eerie calm fell across her body. All that could be heard between the filly’s last words and the time it took for Crimson’s spell to be completely charged was a sickly chewing.

Crimson would end the sorry existence in front of her, and take as many butterflies as she could with it. The pegasi’s rant had assured Crimson that what she was about to do was liberating. With a shout, Crimson let her spell go off, sending a flaming ball of magic at the pinned up writhing mass. As the spell stuck, all that’d been in its path was obliterated.

The smell of burning flesh was intoxicating, and it assaulted Crimsons nose relentlessly. Dizzy from the exertion her spell had demanded, Crimson stumbled past the smoldering ash-pile and tried the door. It opened into a small room. The close confines relaxed Crimson, and as she closed the door behind her, she fell against the wall, breathing heavy.

Unable to move, she let her body still.