Pony Zero: Crimson Fluttershyby pmcollectorboyChaptersThe Mansion ReappearsSeparatedCollapseOne Last PhotoAcquiring the Camera ObscuraThe Mansion ReappearsThe Mansion Reappears Scootaloo woke up later that night, a jarring vision startling her out of her sleep. Her nightmares had forced a feeling upon her of being in Fluttershy's body, wandering dark, cobwebbed hallways with dusty walls and support beams in shambles. Scootaloo could feel Fluttershy's fear and hear her thoughts as she wandered the halls. Fluttershy's wandering ended when she opened a set of double doors at the end of large room and found herself in a grand courtyard. The courtyard was easily forty five feet across, with something like a slightly raised stage in the middle. In the center of the stage stood a pegasus mare, her coat a ghastly white, almost the complexion of chalk. Jet black hair cascaded down across the whole of the stranger's face, completely obscuring it. As Fluttershy, Scootaloo had tried to open her mouth to speak, but no words came out. The stranger lifted her head, and Scootaloo could see that the mare's eyes were little more than gaping black pits. The shock of the unsettling image was enough to send Scootaloo back into the waking world. After she had gathered her wits, shaking off a cold sweat that dampened her sheets, Scootaloo noticed once again that it was almost freezing, and she suspected it was not just from the night terror she had experienced. Throwing her sheets off, she headed to her bedroom window and gazed outside. The lights of Ponyville could no longer be seen. In fact, she could no longer see a Ponyville or any lights at all. There were only a few buildings scattered about with a dark forest beyond them. In the glow of the moonlight, Scootaloo could see a strange mist reaching out from the forest like pale, ghostly fingers. She headed to her parents' bedroom. "Mom? Dad?" she muttered through the crack of the open door. No answer came. As her vision adjusted, Scootaloo saw that her parents' bed lay completely empty. Growing frightened and upset, her legs stiff with nerves, she stumbled down the stairs and outside, shivering slightly when the mist curled around her legs. As she stepped out into the night, she saw nothing but a few decrepit buildings and black pine beyond and in the distance. She glanced around here and there, her fear growing in her heart, looking around for any sign of the Ponyville she once knew as the thick mist gathered around and coalesced even deeper. "Where is everypony?!" she cried. A small, glowing white light, pure in color but dim like moonlight, suddenly appeared among the treeline. Scootaloo couldn't make out any details, but the outline of the light appeared to be roughly the same size and shape as a pony. It also appeared to be getting closer. "Is somepony there?" Scootaloo muttered weakly. A shape darted out of the mist and suddenly pushed her back into the house and dragged her into a closet. "Eep!" she muttered as the closet door closed. "Shh," said a strange young earth pony colt as he pressed a hoof against Scootaloo's mouth. "Don't give away your presence out here." Scootaloo's blood chilled when she heard an unearthly wailing slowly become louder through the walls. It sounded like crying but more protracted and pronounced and definitely eerie. She bit her lips when the same white light in the forest appeared as a small sliver underneath the closet's door crack. "Uuuuuuuooooaaaaaaah," came the wailing. "It sounds like somepony crying," Scootaloo whispered. "Shh." "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuoooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" came the wailing again, even louder than before. Scootaloo's companion sucked in a quick breath when the light became brighter. He grabbed at a small stone charm around his neck and started muttering to it. "Dear Celestia. Please protect my friend." Scootaloo buried her eyes into her front hooves, cowering as the wailing continued. Then, quick as it came, the wailing stopped, and even the light at the door faded into darkness. The two sat in the silence for several tense heartbeats before deciding that it was safe to venture out of the closet. "We should be safe now." "What... What WAS that?" Scootaloo gasped, her knees almost buckling. "An angry villager. Do you have a spirit lantern?" "I... What?" Scootaloo sputtered, distracted from her original train of thought. "No." The young colt pulled the stone charm off his neck and hung it on hers. "You do now." Then after a small pause as he looked out of the open front door, he said, "Listen. I have to go find my friend. You actually remind me a little bit of her. Before I go, there is one thing you should know. Trust the butterflies." Scootaloo's mouth hung open as she lost the words to say, instead merely watching her odd friend step out of the open door and into the mist. "Oh one more thing," came the voice of the colt. "Under no circumstances are you to ever give into anguish." With that final utterance, he was gone, and Scootaloo was left alone once more, with nothing but the mist and her terrified heartbeat keeping her company. Stepping out into the night and glancing around once more, she saw that the apparition and her friend were both gone. Deciding it would be safer to keep moving, she steeled her nerves, picked a direction, and headed down a path, with the hope that she would stumble upon her friends. * * * Sweetie Belle's and Apple Bloom's night fared even worse than Scootaloo's. Sweetie Belle was shaken out of her dreams quite roughly by a frantic Apple Bloom, who exclaimed that they were no longer inside Applejack's home at Sweet Apple Acres, that all of Ponyville seemed to have disappeared, and that a terrible commotion seemed to be occurring all around them. The two friends were currently outside, huddling up against a rock to conceal themselves and cowering as they heard the sounds of thundering hooves galloping past with no indication of any crowd or pony making the sounds of running. "What's going on, Apple Bloom? I'm scared." The earth pony filly shook her head. "Ah don't know. Ah think we should head for higher ground. Ah think ah see a house up there on that hill." Sweetie Belle dared a peek over the boulder. Up ahead, barely visible in the mist, she could see the shadowy outline of a large house at the top of a slight incline through the forest. The outline of its roof broke up the space between the trees and what little sky could be seen. It almost seemed jagged and menacing, like it had been built off kilter. "That almost looks like the mansion we saw in our visions. Are you sure it's such a good idea to go there?" "Well we can't stay here," Apple Bloom replied. "We need tah find better shelter and figure out what's goin' on." The two left their hiding spot behind the rock and made a dash for the hill. They pressed on through the trees, trying their best to make their way in the dark, with the forest poorly illuminated by a sickly moon. They stopped at the edge of a small lake situated just a couple hundred yards in front of the mansion. Sweetie Belle fell to her hind quarters in shock when she saw a shimmering white pony hovering just above the water's edge at the far end of the lake. The white pony seemed to be staring up at the front of the mansion, her jaw fallen slack in a look of shock, her eyes wide with seeming terror. She remained silent otherwise. "Do you think she sees us?" Sweetie Belle asked. Apple Bloom shook her head. Then she turned her head and noticed a slight glow coming from her saddlebag, where she had stashed the Camera Obscura. Getting a notion, Apple Bloom pulled out the strange camera. The filament on the flash was glowing blue. She lifted it up to her eyes and aimed it at the strange image. The filament glowed an even deeper blue. Not wanting to ruin the shot, Apple Bloom took one exhale, willed her fear to subside, tried her best to control her shaky hooves, and slowly pressed the shutter button. Poof! First Victim--An innocent young passerby The strange apparition vanished silently. When all seemed clear, the two made their way over to the mansion. Sweetie Belle gulped down a raw lump when Apple Bloom pushed open the double doors. The rusted hinges creaked as the heavy oak doors slowly swung backwards. A blast of stale air, reeking of rotting timbers and decay, hit them full in their faces, causing the both of them to stumble back and cover their noses. After they had gotten their composures back, they peered into the open gateway, trying to pierce the gloom. "It looks dark in there," Sweetie Belle muttered. "What are we doing here?" "Let's see if we can find a laht switch or at least a gas lamp. Ah'm sort of wingin' it here, so let's just go." Sweetie Belle stifled a small whimper as she followed her friend into the mansion. Apple Bloom found the control valve of a gas lamp on the wall to the left of the door and gave it a turn. Remarkably, a flame shot up, giving the area a respectable amount of light. They found themselves in a foyer, with several doorways all around and one set of stairs leading up. "Any sign of Fluttershy?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Not yet. Lemme try somethin'." Apple Bloom went from door to door, working their handles and pressing up against them. Most were locked except for two--one leading to a hallway at the end and one leading to some kind of study room to her right. She tried the study room first. It was relatively sparse, containing only a writing desk and a small book shelf. She ignored the books and headed for the desk, where she found a letter. My studies have so far yielded very little but I shall NOT give up hope. Several years ago my good friend Shutterbug inherited a rather substantial mansion at the edge of some woods near Tokyoats. It is a beautiful three-story house. She has allowed me to stay in her home rent free to afford me access to an archeological location near her home to study its historical significance and, hopefully, why it has an intriguing lore built up around it. In other news, Shutterbug's young daughter is growing up remarkably pretty. However, Shutterbug is worried over her daughter's emotional development. She seems to be very sensitive and shy, and Shutterbug claims that her daughter has found a friend to talk to inside the mansion, but as far as I know, we are the only residents of the mansion. Perhaps she has invented an imaginary friend. At any rate, tomorrow I shall head out to the nearby village and get some clues on the nature of this strange feature called the Hell Grove. After Apple Bloom got done reading the letter, feeling like she wasn't getting any closer to finding Fluttershy, she heard a muffled scream. Her head shot up from the desk. "Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom heard a blood-chilling wail. SeparatedSeparated Apple Bloom crashed through the door of the study room and back out into the foyer, her coat ice cold all over and her mind reeling from the attack she had just suffered. A strange, dirty gray stallion carrying a wicked pitchfork had just walked out of the bookcase and wielded the sharp instrument at her. She fumbled for the Camera Obscura, almost dropping it in her state of fear, and hastily raised it, facing the study room. However, she noticed that the filament was glowing faintly. "Where are ya?!" she exclaimed. Panicking, she wheeled around this way and that, trying to locate her phantom attacker. Then suddenly, as she turned around yet again, she spotted the gray stallion, its face a terrible visage of scars and two milky white eyes. Its mouth was open in a horrible scowl. Fearing that the next blow would end her life, she brought the camera to bear. She spotted the red of the targetting circle and hurriedly snapped the ghost's picture, exorcising it from the spirit world. Its departure left behind another crystal. Blue memory orb(sadness) "This place is so depressing. It's almost like the very air is filled with despair. I don't know how much longer I can go on in this place without wanting to kill myself. But I have to stop her... before she hurts more ponies." Apple Bloom blinked in surprise. The memory orb sounded just like Fluttershy. Although she couldn't explain it, Apple Bloom got a renewed sense of hope, like she somehow knew that Fluttershy was still alive. However, her victory came tainted. Sweetie Belle seemed to have gone missing. She tried the door leading out to the hallway, calling Sweetie Belle's name. * * * Scootaloo's journeys took her to a lengthy foot bridge that crossed a lake and led to the rear courtyard of the strange mansion. As she crossed the bridge, the mist that she saw in the forest once again rose up to embrace her feet, and she felt the chill in the air again. A quick wind blew across her body from behind her. She shivered against it and sat down to rub her shoulders when she noticed the strange stone her odd friend had given her was glowing blue. She shot to her feet and looked around, wary of her surroundings as her heart started racing. "They killed my boy! They killed my boy!" came a slow, wailing voice. Scootaloo slowly turned around, her body nearly frozen in fear, and spotted another white spectre, advancing towards her on the bridge. "They killed my boy!" came the wail again. Scootaloo tried to run, but fear gripped her legs, and she merely tumbled backwards. The apparition got even closer. Tears streamed down Scootaloo's cheeks as her lips quivered from her fright. "No! Go away! Leave me alone!" she exclaimed. The spirit lantern around her neck flared a bright white, and the ghost disappeared. Scootaloo gasped and frantically looked around but saw only the bridge, the lake, and the mist. Then suddenly, a little bit farther up the bridge, in the direction she had been headed, Scootaloo heard a splash. She whipped her head in the direction of the sound. The ghost pony had fallen in the water and then silently faded out one last time. In the spot where the apparition disappeared, Scootaloo found another gem. Bereaved mare--A suicide victim Purple memory orb(regret) "What's it like to be caught between two worlds? I feel so rejected and neglectful at the same time. It's no use. I'm a freak. Bumblesweet is the one with power but I'm the freak. I found Apple Orchard dead in the river. I must've driven him away. Dear Celestia it's all my fault! *sob* It's almost time for another ritual, another earth pony to die. It'll never come to that. I can hear the villagers now. They are shouting 'Kill the witch. Kill the witch.' I'll offer myself to them. They'll believe me because I'm a unicorn. Bumblesweet will never know." When the words in her head faded, Scootaloo could hear a rising chant, a series of angry words on the wind. "Kill the witch. Kill the witch." The chant started low like a drone but soon rose in volume and sounded like a war cry. Scootaloo broke into a run and headed for the far side of the bridge. She pushed the massive gate open and entered the rear courtyard. She found herself in an area that was reasonably well lit by torches that remarkably still burned. Several stone totems lined the cobblestone path going across the courtyard and another path perpendicular to it. A piece of paper on the surface of one of the totems caught Scootaloo's eye. She went over to the totem and snatched up the paper to read it. I fear my archeological pursuits have alienated my wife. She is nowhere to be found. Even more sadly, Shutterbug's daughter seems to be deteriorating in condition. The poor dear seems to have nightmares frequently. She often describes in great detail the archeological site around the supposed Hell Grove, a place she's never been. I've recommended to Shutterbug that they relocate for the safety of her daughter and indeed for my own Platinum Finish. Shutterbug would have none of it, but her husband graciously offered to take his daughter and my own on a "temporary relocation". They're thinking of heading towards Germaney tomorrow. My work, thankfully, has hit great strides. Most of the villagers would clam up about the ancient lore surrounding the Hell Grove, but one quietly slipped me a book before beating a hasty retreat. It seemed several hundred years ago, this mansion suffered some kind of supernatural calamity that blighted the land for years afterwards when a ritual failed to produce the desired results. The legend went that the head mistress of the mansion was a cruel xenophobe who felt pegasi were superior to the others, but she hated earth ponies most of all and demanded that the first born earth pony of every family to be sacrificed to the ritual. Hundreds of ponies were said to have died in the calamity, but the lore mostly centers around the two children who died. The book doesn't mention how they died, though. I am not satisfied with this answer. Tomorrow I will try to pierce the mysteries of the giant hole in the Hell Grove itself. Scootaloo heard some bells jangle and froze. She looked up and saw a procession of pegasus ponies, each dressed in garbs resembling something monks or priests would wear. They carried a stretcher bearing something recognizable as a body and calmly marched past her towards one of the courtyard's gates. Her stone charm suddenly blazed to life. "That's me. Isn't it?" Scootaloo gasped and turned her head. It was her strange friend who had rescued her before. "What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked, swallowing a lump. "I'm not really alive. That's me on that stretcher. I've never really realized it until now, but I've been repeating the same events over and over. They're probably going to try sacrifice my dead body to the ritual because they couldn't find a suitable earth pony, but it won't work. Anyway..." He turned to face her. "There's still something I have to do before I can leave this place. I suggest you be very careful where you go from here on in." He then darted down a path and disappeared through a door. Scootaloo chose a different door. She found herself outside again, in a sparsely wooded area. There her world shattered in two. In the distance she spotted a small congregation. Angry shouts filled the air as the congregation surrounded a tree. Hanging on the tree was a noose. Slipped into the noose was a familiar pony. "Sweetie Belle?!" Scootaloo exclaimed. The villagers kicked away the chair. The young pony dropped. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Scootaloo fell to her knees and wailed. CollapseCollapse Sweetie Belle found herself shoved into a small room, facing a strange, scowling pegasus filly. She found herself pushed up against one of the room's walls, the filly edging extremely close to her. "I figured you might come back, Butter Cream," the strange pegasus said. "I don't know why I put up with you. It's bad enough you've found that earth pony coltfriend." Sweetie Belle's jaw dropped as she fought for the words to say. "Who... Who are you? Why do you keep calling me Butter Cream?" "I was willing to put up with it for a while, just to humor you with you being so inferior and, well... you being what you are." As the berating came, aimed at a pony whom this stranger was mistaking for somepony else, Sweetie Belle felt like crying. "What am I?" The pegasus snapped her head and brought a hoof to her chest. Then a smile formed on her lips, and it unnerved Sweetie Belle. "Why your mother is our mother. But your father is her brother." The pegasus got close again and Sweetie Belle sniffled. "Oh don't cry. You need me, and I am here. I need you and you are here." Sweetie Belle struggled to back away as the pegasus leaned in even closer, almost as if she were aiming for a kiss. "Wha... What?" she said. "You know what you have to do. You don't feel for the boy the same way you do for me. You know you can feel the truth in your heart. You have to break up with him. Oh! Listen to that! Can you hear it?!" She heard the sound of a bell tolling slowly. "It's time for another earth pony to be sacrificed." Sweetie Belle's jaw dropped at the stranger's audacity. "You... You're sick!" "But it's for the greater good, dear sister! My happiness depends solely on the happiness of the Hell Grove! And if it's not happy, then I'm not happy. Then if I'm not happy..." She pulled back slightly, a weird crooked smile parting her lips, with an equally crooked laugh escaping her throat. "We all die." She then leaned close again. "It's really strange in a way. You're the freak of nature, and I'm the one with the curse. Does that make you happy? My happiness is your happiness. If you want him to live and be happy with me, you would break up with him." Sweetie Belle, suitably unnerved, slipped to one side of the pegasus and made a break for the door. "This is too weird," Sweetie Belle exclaimed. She darted down hallway and turned down another. She passed by a strange colt quickly running in the opposite direction, but she didn't stop or turn around. Pushing open a door, she found herself in a large courtyard. Strange red butterflies fluttered all around, filling the air. Scootaloo sat in the middle, sobbing and raging about something that puzzled Sweetie Belle and rocking back and forth as the tears flowed. "Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. Scootaloo looked up, and her eyes widened as she backed away in fear. "No! You're dead! You're dead you're dead you're dead!" "Scootaloo! Snap out of it! It's me!" Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo a light slap. Its effect was immediate as Scootaloo stopped crying, shook her head and finally noticed Sweetie Belle standing before her. "Sw-Sweetie Belle? You're alive!" Her friend tilted her head and gave her a confused look. Then, standing up, Scootaloo uttered, "Where am I? And where's Apple Bloom? What's going on?" "Apple Bloom and I got separated. I hope she's okay, but..." The two of them had to steady themselves as the earth heaved slightly, and they heard a deep rushing sound, almost resembling a dragon taking a deep breath. "I am just about sick of this place!" Sweetie Belle finished. The commotion sent the butterflies in flight, and they hurriedly made their way over to one of the courtyard's doors, the same one Scootaloo saw the procession go through. "The butterflies!" Scootaloo exclaimed, remembering her friend's words and chasing after them. "Wait! Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said as Scootaloo hastily departed. * * * A tremendous collision sent Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to the floor as soon as they had bolted through the door. Upon clearing away the cobwebs and rubbing the pain in her backside, Scootaloo looked up to see what had happened. Four ponies had all blindly headed towards the same place at the same time from different directions. The two other ponies were... "Apple Bloom! Fluttershy!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exclaimed in unison. After an exchange of hugs, Fluttershy smiled. Gladness filled the hearts of the three fillies to know that their friend was safe and sound. "Hello there girls," Fluttershy cooed. "It's not safe here. You should all go hide. There's something I have to do first." "But..." Scootaloo started, her heart fluttering with anxiety over the thought that Fluttershy would leave them again so soon after they had found her. Fluttershy motioned towards a stack of crates piled up against one wall of the tunnel they had found themselves in. She then frowned when another heaving afflicted the ground. "Go hide!" she exclaimed firmly. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom did as they were told, hiding inside the crates, but Scootaloo frowned as she watched Fluttershy walk away. Scootaloo wasn't about to let Fluttershy go alone when something big was about to go down. She secretly followed the yellow pegasus mare, much to the anger of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, but the two of them couldn't chase her in time, stuck as they were inside their hiding spots. Scootaloo followed Fluttershy down the tunnel, trailing slightly behind her to avoid being seen. When they exited the tunnel, Scootaloo stumbled backwards upon spotting a terrifying scene. Fluttershy, however, calmly kept walking forwards. Before them seemed to be a grove of twisted, pitch black trees. Their branches reached like the arms of skeletons over an impossibly large pit, which seemed to expel writhing shadows and blasts of air. On the ends of the branches of each of the trees around the pit hung what appeared to be nooses and other restraints made of rope. Most horrifying of all to Scootaloo was that the ropes appeared to move on their own. In front of the pit stood the horrible white pegasus Scootaloo saw in her dreams. The white pegasus' pitch black hair dangled down in front of her face, obscuring her eyes. Fluttershy boldly stepped forward a couple steps. "Whatever happened to you in the past, it's not your fault," Fluttershy said. "It's nobody's fault. It's not the earth ponies' fault. Please stop causing so much misery. Everything's going to be all right." A chilling cackle echoed throughout the grove. "You seem a bit of earth pony yourself. Perhaps you'd like to join them." Scootaloo darted forward. "Fluttershy, be careful!" Fluttershy whipped her head back towards Scootaloo and a mass of writhing shadows surged forward from the pit and plunged into Fluttershy, knocking her up against the tunnel wall. She fell to the ground, limp as a rag doll. "Fluttershy!" Scootaloo hurried over to where Fluttershy lay, only to discover her unresponsive. She closed her eyes as tears streamed from them, and an uncontrollable anger welled up inside her. "You!" she exclaimed, rage sending the blood vessels in her eyes to near bursting. "Mother! Stop!" Scootaloo looked up and saw a strange pegasus filly that looked remarkably like her. She didn't care if there was another filly there, though. Her anger still burned inside her, and she would get it out even if it killed her. "Butter Cream is dead!" "My friend is dead!" "It's over, mother! I..." "Can't go on like this!" "What's the use? I'm tired of this madness! Why don't I just kill..." "Myself and take you with me?!" "You did this to me!" "You did this to her!" "It's all your fault and..." "I..." "Will..." "NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" The rumbling of the earth intensified to earthquake levels, causing the strange filly and Scootaloo to pitch to their sides and stumble around. Then, much to Scootaloo's surprise, Fluttershy flew over the tops of their heads and landed in between them and the white pegasus mare. Fluttershy then took a deep breath, drew herself up, and opened her eyes wide into her famous "stare". The white mare, shocked into submission, stumbled backwards and fell into the pit. She screamed as she fell, but it seemed she wouldn't go down without a fight. Several of the pieces of rope reached out and dragged Scootaloo and the other filly into the pit as well. Thinking fast, Fluttershy darted into the pit to attempt a rescue. They had already fallen far by the time she reached them, and she wasn't sure she would have the strength to fly the both of them back towards the surface once she grabbed them. The shadows swirled around them, filling her with dread and sadness and thoughts of wickedness. Somehow, though, she managed to dig in deep and find confidence in herself. She reached out and grabbed the two fillies and powered her wings to flap, using every once of strength she had to flap towards the surface. She then found her feet touch the ground, and she released the two children and fell forward, breathing a sigh of relief. The shaking of the earth reached a feverish pitch. Scootaloo reached out and shook Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, stand up! We have to get out of here! This whole place is collapsing!" Fluttershy slowly got to her feet, gave the two kids a quick glance, and then nodded. "I think you're right." The three of them hurried towards the tunnel, and Fluttershy gathered up Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle before they all made a hasty retreat towards the mansion's entrance. One Last PhotoOne Last Photo "I don't understand something." Sweetie Belle looked up from the vanilla cake she had been devouring, a treat she had chosen to calm her nerves after all the supernatural nonsense she had been through. She and her two friends sat at a table at Sugar Cube Corner, enjoying sweets and tea. Scootaloo was poring over their small collection of the Camera Obscura's photos. Apple Bloom was content merely to prop up the menu in front of her face, keeping her from seeing the pictures of the ghosts she had fought. "What is it, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Well the archeologist said that the legend of the Hell Grove talked about two children who died in the calamity, but all three of us, I mean..." Scootaloo bit her tongue. Apple Bloom lifted her head above the menu and gave her pegasus friend a glare. "All three of those kids were ghosts. Who survived the calamity?" Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. "Well I think Bumblesweet must've..." The bell at the entrance gave a cheerful jingle, but Scootaloo shuddered at its similarities to the supernatural bells she had been hearing. Photo Finish waltzed in, an unusual customer for the Cakes, but she sported a look that seemed she had seen better days. Even her shades seemed faded. Sweetie Belle gave Photo Finish a look as she entered and then turned her attention back towards her cake. "What, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo urged, hoping to get the rest of the response. "Nothing." Her enjoyment of the cake had diminished somewhat as she mulled over the topic. The archeologist had stated that the calamity had killed hundreds of ponies, but it wasn't the disaster that caused most of the deaths. There had been a massacre. Sweetie Belle had seen it when Bumblesweet was invading her personal space, confusing her with Butter Cream. But despite her best efforts to hate what had happened, she couldn't get herself to think that the Bumblesweet who had committed murder was the real Bumblesweet. Then Sweetie Belle saw the proof she needed. Scootaloo had flipped over to the last photo they had ever shot with the Camera Obscura. Apple Orchard, Bumblesweet, and Butter Cream had asked them to take their picture in front of the ruins of the mansion, to release their spirits. On each of the children's faces were honest, happy smiles. Sweetie Belle also remembered the air had been warm. Scootaloo scooped up the photos, crystals, and notes that lay scattered before her and stuffed them in a cardboard box, finally fed up. "What do we do with these? Nopony's going to believe us except for Fluttershy and her friends. Do we put this in the Foal Free Press next time it runs?" "Ah think we should," Apple Bloom muttered. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Let's just put them in a time capsule and bury them, but first one thing." "Huh?!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exclaimed in unison. Sweetie Belle snatched up the Camera Obscura and got up from her seat, leaving her two friends thoroughly confused. She then headed over to where Photo Finish sat. "I think this belongs to you." The End Acquiring the Camera ObscuraMy Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Pony Zero: Crimson Fluttershy Rated: PG-13 Themes: General spookiness by pmcollectorboy/ aka Mario Rodgers Acquiring the Camera Obscura The time Fluttershy disappeared had been the coldest summer day Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom could remember. The weather remained warm and pleasant for them at the moment, but as the three stared at Fluttershy's cottage, which stood empty and absent of both owner and animals, they all recalled the odd event that culminated in the beloved pegasus' seeming abduction. Scootaloo had been at the local park, trying her best to reach twenty head bounces of a rubber ball in an attempt to become as good as Rainbow Dash, the head bouncing champion. After a missed bounced sent the ball tumbling away down a small incline, she bounded after it to give chase for the wayward toy only to become entranced by a tiny tinkling, almost like that of a sleigh bell. Looking around yielded nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, not even the other fillies and colts playing in the park had seemed to notice the tinkling. After a second round of tinkling, Scootaloo spotted a strange red butterfly, its wings glowing an alluring luminescence, almost like the glow of a flame but giving no heat. Scootaloo remembered becoming entranced by the butterfly, by its angelic glow. She had lost track of time after chasing the butterfly but remembered wandering away from the park. Her vision had become fleeting and her memory even more fractured and shifting, becoming difficult to grasp in its intangibleness like fine sand, but somehow she remembered finding herself in a dark forest, the sun nowhere to seen, nothing but shadow embracing every branch and underbrush. In front of her stood a run-down mansion, its twisted front door opened to pitch darkness like a chilling howl, cobwebs, ruin and gloom covering the front from its foundations to its eaves, and a large courtyard surrounding her on three sides, its hallways and wooden beams also falling apart and covered in dust. In between leaving the park and finding herself standing in a foreboding forest in front of a crumbling mansion was a blur to Scootaloo, but she remembered clearly seeing Fluttershy calmly walk past her from behind like she wasn't even there and enter the gaping maw of the mansion, disappearing into the darkness. Scootaloo then fainted when she heard a horrific scream and the darkness expanded out from the doorway to engulf her. After regaining consciousness back at the park, Scootaloo sought out her friends. When she saw their wide-eyed expressions and haunted, terrified faces, she shared her experience, only to discover her other two friends experienced identical visions. Each saw a mansion. Each saw a dark forest. Each saw Fluttershy. Each had lost track of a block of time before being faced with the terrible building and then waking up right back where she had started. The three friends puzzled their experiences for the rest of the day, keeping the harrowing event to themselves. It wasn't until later on that they each realized how relatively cold the day had been for a normal summer day, when each of the three friends had to go to her respective homes. Rarity had been the first to discover Fluttershy missing when the yellow pegasus missed several spa dates back to back. The unicorn had remained locked inside her bedroom ever since, bemoaning the loss of her best friend and weeping into the depths of her pillow. Sweetie Belle had been forced to spend a few nights over at Apple Bloom's house because of that. It wasn't long before a rescue party had been formed and the town newspaper spread the message of the mare's misfortune. Several days of searching had turned up nothing, and eventually even the newspapers went back to printing the normal boring news. The rest of Ponyville wrote off Fluttershy as dead but buried an empty casket. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were the only ones of Fluttershy's friends who attended, doing so as a matter of etiquette. Oddly enough, Rarity flat out refused to show up. Pinkie Pie spent the day baking a baker's dozen of a baker's dozen of muffins. Applejack expressed her sorrow, naturally, through doing more work. Despite the funeral, Fluttershy's friends never gave up hope that she remained alive somewhere. While doing a rare moment, for her at any rate, of silent pondering, Scootaloo decided that she had had enough of the town's moping and had gotten it into her head that she and her friends would do their own investigating. Featherweight, the scrawniest member of Scootaloo's class, organized an emergency meeting of the class newspaper staff. It would be completely unauthorized as it was the summer break, but they all wanted to do their part in finding out what happened to the town's favorite animal lover. Featherweight had sent Shady Daze, the new class photographer out to "gather clues", and Shady seemed eager to put his new digital camera to work. Featherweight wanted Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom to accompany Shady and help interview the townsponies, but Scootaloo knew they would just be spinning their wheels, so to speak, and had other ideas. The young pegasus gathered her friends outside the home of Fluttershy, thinking they would find better clues there, but the doors and window frames remained boarded up by order of the mayor, presumably to avoid looters and fanatical devotees. "So what do you think?" Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle turned her head to look at her friend. "About what?" "There's got to be some way in." "But why are we breaking into her house?" Scootaloo gave Sweetie Belle a hard look. "Something happened to Fluttershy that day to cause her to leave her home. We all saw it that day we experienced those visions. Now nobody stopped to think to search her house. We're going to change all that." She then turned her head back towards the cottage. "We've just got to find some way in." "Chimney," came Apple Bloom's brief response. "What?" Scootaloo asked, blinking. Apple Bloom tossed her muzzle towards the roof. "Tha only way in is ahbviously through tha chimney." Scootaloo turned the idea over in her head, staring at the only opening in the house to not have access blocked off. Apple Bloom, of course, was right, but it would be a tight fit, even for the small fillies. With a groan, Scootaloo muttered, "This is going to suck." After one climb of a tree, some precarious balancing, and a bunch of shuffling and scuffling, the three friends managed to make it down the chimney, suffering only a few scrapes on the way. The silence inside the home seemed devastatingly eerie. The three friends, having spent a couple nights at the pegasus' home, were used to the lively chatter of Fluttershy's animal friends. The home they found themselves in had not a single peep of the tiniest mouse. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom paused for a silent moment of reverence but Scootaloo immediately got to rummaging around, much to the annoyance of the other two, but they couldn't muster up the heart to tell her off. "What are we looking for?" Sweetie Belle asked when she decided to break the silence. Scootaloo opened up a drawer and stuck her nose in. "Not sure. Something out of the ordinary?" She turned away when she found nothing. "I mean what's the connection between Fluttershy and that creepy mansion?" Sweetie Belle shrugged while Apple Bloom headed upstairs towards the bedroom. "Ah think ah've found somethin'!" came Apple Bloom's exclamation. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stopped their search of the living room to head upstairs. They found Apple Bloom standing before Fluttershy's bed, looking at the contents of a box. "What have we got here?" Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom merely responded by tipping the box on its side, sending its contents tumbling out onto the soft bed. The three friends discovered a letter, an aging, yellowed photograph, a red crystal, and a strange camera. Sweetie Belle picked up the letter first and read it. Dear Fluttershy, Here is the family heirloom you had requested. It had been entrusted to me by your grandmother, who herself had been a good photographer. It is called the Camera Obscura. It has... unusual properties. In short, it has the ability to banish spirits by photographing them. I thought I could handle the strange world this camera opened for me, with my high intuition, but I had been wrong. I'm giving the camera to you because I have failed in my search for the meaning of your family curse. Perhaps an emotionally sensitive soul will succeed where a spiritually dense one failed. I imagine the shadows will be coming for me soon. Please keep the camera safe. Yours truly, Platinum Finish As Sweetie Belle pondered the meaning of the letter, Apple Bloom picked up the photograph and gave it a glance. The image on the front seemed faded out to little more than dull, gray lines and shapes. Apple Bloom surmised that the photo was around 50 years old. On it seemed to be a small gathering in front of a rather familiar mansion. One seemed to be a young mare bearing a resemblance to Fluttershy. The stallion next to her was probably her husband. Then there was another stallion next to the husband, possibly a family friend. By his hat and the tools on his belt, he seemed to be an archeologist of some kind. After Apple Bloom was done with the photograph, Scootaloo turned her attention towards the crystal. "What do you suppose this is?" the young pegasus asked as she reached out to pick it up with her hooves. Red memory orb(anger) "Platinum Finish! Where have you been?!" "I've been playing with the red butterflies." "You've been missing for hours, young lady! I have a good mind to give you a sound spanking! What have you got there? A camera? That belongs to your godmother Shutterbug!" "I've fixed it. She said I could keep it." In a flash of light, the intruder memory disappeared, and Scootaloo pulled away from the crystal, stunned. Outside, the shadows grew longer. "I think we'd all better go home for now," Scootaloo muttered.
The Mansion ReappearsThe Mansion Reappears Scootaloo woke up later that night, a jarring vision startling her out of her sleep. Her nightmares had forced a feeling upon her of being in Fluttershy's body, wandering dark, cobwebbed hallways with dusty walls and support beams in shambles. Scootaloo could feel Fluttershy's fear and hear her thoughts as she wandered the halls. Fluttershy's wandering ended when she opened a set of double doors at the end of large room and found herself in a grand courtyard. The courtyard was easily forty five feet across, with something like a slightly raised stage in the middle. In the center of the stage stood a pegasus mare, her coat a ghastly white, almost the complexion of chalk. Jet black hair cascaded down across the whole of the stranger's face, completely obscuring it. As Fluttershy, Scootaloo had tried to open her mouth to speak, but no words came out. The stranger lifted her head, and Scootaloo could see that the mare's eyes were little more than gaping black pits. The shock of the unsettling image was enough to send Scootaloo back into the waking world. After she had gathered her wits, shaking off a cold sweat that dampened her sheets, Scootaloo noticed once again that it was almost freezing, and she suspected it was not just from the night terror she had experienced. Throwing her sheets off, she headed to her bedroom window and gazed outside. The lights of Ponyville could no longer be seen. In fact, she could no longer see a Ponyville or any lights at all. There were only a few buildings scattered about with a dark forest beyond them. In the glow of the moonlight, Scootaloo could see a strange mist reaching out from the forest like pale, ghostly fingers. She headed to her parents' bedroom. "Mom? Dad?" she muttered through the crack of the open door. No answer came. As her vision adjusted, Scootaloo saw that her parents' bed lay completely empty. Growing frightened and upset, her legs stiff with nerves, she stumbled down the stairs and outside, shivering slightly when the mist curled around her legs. As she stepped out into the night, she saw nothing but a few decrepit buildings and black pine beyond and in the distance. She glanced around here and there, her fear growing in her heart, looking around for any sign of the Ponyville she once knew as the thick mist gathered around and coalesced even deeper. "Where is everypony?!" she cried. A small, glowing white light, pure in color but dim like moonlight, suddenly appeared among the treeline. Scootaloo couldn't make out any details, but the outline of the light appeared to be roughly the same size and shape as a pony. It also appeared to be getting closer. "Is somepony there?" Scootaloo muttered weakly. A shape darted out of the mist and suddenly pushed her back into the house and dragged her into a closet. "Eep!" she muttered as the closet door closed. "Shh," said a strange young earth pony colt as he pressed a hoof against Scootaloo's mouth. "Don't give away your presence out here." Scootaloo's blood chilled when she heard an unearthly wailing slowly become louder through the walls. It sounded like crying but more protracted and pronounced and definitely eerie. She bit her lips when the same white light in the forest appeared as a small sliver underneath the closet's door crack. "Uuuuuuuooooaaaaaaah," came the wailing. "It sounds like somepony crying," Scootaloo whispered. "Shh." "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuoooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" came the wailing again, even louder than before. Scootaloo's companion sucked in a quick breath when the light became brighter. He grabbed at a small stone charm around his neck and started muttering to it. "Dear Celestia. Please protect my friend." Scootaloo buried her eyes into her front hooves, cowering as the wailing continued. Then, quick as it came, the wailing stopped, and even the light at the door faded into darkness. The two sat in the silence for several tense heartbeats before deciding that it was safe to venture out of the closet. "We should be safe now." "What... What WAS that?" Scootaloo gasped, her knees almost buckling. "An angry villager. Do you have a spirit lantern?" "I... What?" Scootaloo sputtered, distracted from her original train of thought. "No." The young colt pulled the stone charm off his neck and hung it on hers. "You do now." Then after a small pause as he looked out of the open front door, he said, "Listen. I have to go find my friend. You actually remind me a little bit of her. Before I go, there is one thing you should know. Trust the butterflies." Scootaloo's mouth hung open as she lost the words to say, instead merely watching her odd friend step out of the open door and into the mist. "Oh one more thing," came the voice of the colt. "Under no circumstances are you to ever give into anguish." With that final utterance, he was gone, and Scootaloo was left alone once more, with nothing but the mist and her terrified heartbeat keeping her company. Stepping out into the night and glancing around once more, she saw that the apparition and her friend were both gone. Deciding it would be safer to keep moving, she steeled her nerves, picked a direction, and headed down a path, with the hope that she would stumble upon her friends. * * * Sweetie Belle's and Apple Bloom's night fared even worse than Scootaloo's. Sweetie Belle was shaken out of her dreams quite roughly by a frantic Apple Bloom, who exclaimed that they were no longer inside Applejack's home at Sweet Apple Acres, that all of Ponyville seemed to have disappeared, and that a terrible commotion seemed to be occurring all around them. The two friends were currently outside, huddling up against a rock to conceal themselves and cowering as they heard the sounds of thundering hooves galloping past with no indication of any crowd or pony making the sounds of running. "What's going on, Apple Bloom? I'm scared." The earth pony filly shook her head. "Ah don't know. Ah think we should head for higher ground. Ah think ah see a house up there on that hill." Sweetie Belle dared a peek over the boulder. Up ahead, barely visible in the mist, she could see the shadowy outline of a large house at the top of a slight incline through the forest. The outline of its roof broke up the space between the trees and what little sky could be seen. It almost seemed jagged and menacing, like it had been built off kilter. "That almost looks like the mansion we saw in our visions. Are you sure it's such a good idea to go there?" "Well we can't stay here," Apple Bloom replied. "We need tah find better shelter and figure out what's goin' on." The two left their hiding spot behind the rock and made a dash for the hill. They pressed on through the trees, trying their best to make their way in the dark, with the forest poorly illuminated by a sickly moon. They stopped at the edge of a small lake situated just a couple hundred yards in front of the mansion. Sweetie Belle fell to her hind quarters in shock when she saw a shimmering white pony hovering just above the water's edge at the far end of the lake. The white pony seemed to be staring up at the front of the mansion, her jaw fallen slack in a look of shock, her eyes wide with seeming terror. She remained silent otherwise. "Do you think she sees us?" Sweetie Belle asked. Apple Bloom shook her head. Then she turned her head and noticed a slight glow coming from her saddlebag, where she had stashed the Camera Obscura. Getting a notion, Apple Bloom pulled out the strange camera. The filament on the flash was glowing blue. She lifted it up to her eyes and aimed it at the strange image. The filament glowed an even deeper blue. Not wanting to ruin the shot, Apple Bloom took one exhale, willed her fear to subside, tried her best to control her shaky hooves, and slowly pressed the shutter button. Poof! First Victim--An innocent young passerby The strange apparition vanished silently. When all seemed clear, the two made their way over to the mansion. Sweetie Belle gulped down a raw lump when Apple Bloom pushed open the double doors. The rusted hinges creaked as the heavy oak doors slowly swung backwards. A blast of stale air, reeking of rotting timbers and decay, hit them full in their faces, causing the both of them to stumble back and cover their noses. After they had gotten their composures back, they peered into the open gateway, trying to pierce the gloom. "It looks dark in there," Sweetie Belle muttered. "What are we doing here?" "Let's see if we can find a laht switch or at least a gas lamp. Ah'm sort of wingin' it here, so let's just go." Sweetie Belle stifled a small whimper as she followed her friend into the mansion. Apple Bloom found the control valve of a gas lamp on the wall to the left of the door and gave it a turn. Remarkably, a flame shot up, giving the area a respectable amount of light. They found themselves in a foyer, with several doorways all around and one set of stairs leading up. "Any sign of Fluttershy?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Not yet. Lemme try somethin'." Apple Bloom went from door to door, working their handles and pressing up against them. Most were locked except for two--one leading to a hallway at the end and one leading to some kind of study room to her right. She tried the study room first. It was relatively sparse, containing only a writing desk and a small book shelf. She ignored the books and headed for the desk, where she found a letter. My studies have so far yielded very little but I shall NOT give up hope. Several years ago my good friend Shutterbug inherited a rather substantial mansion at the edge of some woods near Tokyoats. It is a beautiful three-story house. She has allowed me to stay in her home rent free to afford me access to an archeological location near her home to study its historical significance and, hopefully, why it has an intriguing lore built up around it. In other news, Shutterbug's young daughter is growing up remarkably pretty. However, Shutterbug is worried over her daughter's emotional development. She seems to be very sensitive and shy, and Shutterbug claims that her daughter has found a friend to talk to inside the mansion, but as far as I know, we are the only residents of the mansion. Perhaps she has invented an imaginary friend. At any rate, tomorrow I shall head out to the nearby village and get some clues on the nature of this strange feature called the Hell Grove. After Apple Bloom got done reading the letter, feeling like she wasn't getting any closer to finding Fluttershy, she heard a muffled scream. Her head shot up from the desk. "Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom heard a blood-chilling wail.
SeparatedSeparated Apple Bloom crashed through the door of the study room and back out into the foyer, her coat ice cold all over and her mind reeling from the attack she had just suffered. A strange, dirty gray stallion carrying a wicked pitchfork had just walked out of the bookcase and wielded the sharp instrument at her. She fumbled for the Camera Obscura, almost dropping it in her state of fear, and hastily raised it, facing the study room. However, she noticed that the filament was glowing faintly. "Where are ya?!" she exclaimed. Panicking, she wheeled around this way and that, trying to locate her phantom attacker. Then suddenly, as she turned around yet again, she spotted the gray stallion, its face a terrible visage of scars and two milky white eyes. Its mouth was open in a horrible scowl. Fearing that the next blow would end her life, she brought the camera to bear. She spotted the red of the targetting circle and hurriedly snapped the ghost's picture, exorcising it from the spirit world. Its departure left behind another crystal. Blue memory orb(sadness) "This place is so depressing. It's almost like the very air is filled with despair. I don't know how much longer I can go on in this place without wanting to kill myself. But I have to stop her... before she hurts more ponies." Apple Bloom blinked in surprise. The memory orb sounded just like Fluttershy. Although she couldn't explain it, Apple Bloom got a renewed sense of hope, like she somehow knew that Fluttershy was still alive. However, her victory came tainted. Sweetie Belle seemed to have gone missing. She tried the door leading out to the hallway, calling Sweetie Belle's name. * * * Scootaloo's journeys took her to a lengthy foot bridge that crossed a lake and led to the rear courtyard of the strange mansion. As she crossed the bridge, the mist that she saw in the forest once again rose up to embrace her feet, and she felt the chill in the air again. A quick wind blew across her body from behind her. She shivered against it and sat down to rub her shoulders when she noticed the strange stone her odd friend had given her was glowing blue. She shot to her feet and looked around, wary of her surroundings as her heart started racing. "They killed my boy! They killed my boy!" came a slow, wailing voice. Scootaloo slowly turned around, her body nearly frozen in fear, and spotted another white spectre, advancing towards her on the bridge. "They killed my boy!" came the wail again. Scootaloo tried to run, but fear gripped her legs, and she merely tumbled backwards. The apparition got even closer. Tears streamed down Scootaloo's cheeks as her lips quivered from her fright. "No! Go away! Leave me alone!" she exclaimed. The spirit lantern around her neck flared a bright white, and the ghost disappeared. Scootaloo gasped and frantically looked around but saw only the bridge, the lake, and the mist. Then suddenly, a little bit farther up the bridge, in the direction she had been headed, Scootaloo heard a splash. She whipped her head in the direction of the sound. The ghost pony had fallen in the water and then silently faded out one last time. In the spot where the apparition disappeared, Scootaloo found another gem. Bereaved mare--A suicide victim Purple memory orb(regret) "What's it like to be caught between two worlds? I feel so rejected and neglectful at the same time. It's no use. I'm a freak. Bumblesweet is the one with power but I'm the freak. I found Apple Orchard dead in the river. I must've driven him away. Dear Celestia it's all my fault! *sob* It's almost time for another ritual, another earth pony to die. It'll never come to that. I can hear the villagers now. They are shouting 'Kill the witch. Kill the witch.' I'll offer myself to them. They'll believe me because I'm a unicorn. Bumblesweet will never know." When the words in her head faded, Scootaloo could hear a rising chant, a series of angry words on the wind. "Kill the witch. Kill the witch." The chant started low like a drone but soon rose in volume and sounded like a war cry. Scootaloo broke into a run and headed for the far side of the bridge. She pushed the massive gate open and entered the rear courtyard. She found herself in an area that was reasonably well lit by torches that remarkably still burned. Several stone totems lined the cobblestone path going across the courtyard and another path perpendicular to it. A piece of paper on the surface of one of the totems caught Scootaloo's eye. She went over to the totem and snatched up the paper to read it. I fear my archeological pursuits have alienated my wife. She is nowhere to be found. Even more sadly, Shutterbug's daughter seems to be deteriorating in condition. The poor dear seems to have nightmares frequently. She often describes in great detail the archeological site around the supposed Hell Grove, a place she's never been. I've recommended to Shutterbug that they relocate for the safety of her daughter and indeed for my own Platinum Finish. Shutterbug would have none of it, but her husband graciously offered to take his daughter and my own on a "temporary relocation". They're thinking of heading towards Germaney tomorrow. My work, thankfully, has hit great strides. Most of the villagers would clam up about the ancient lore surrounding the Hell Grove, but one quietly slipped me a book before beating a hasty retreat. It seemed several hundred years ago, this mansion suffered some kind of supernatural calamity that blighted the land for years afterwards when a ritual failed to produce the desired results. The legend went that the head mistress of the mansion was a cruel xenophobe who felt pegasi were superior to the others, but she hated earth ponies most of all and demanded that the first born earth pony of every family to be sacrificed to the ritual. Hundreds of ponies were said to have died in the calamity, but the lore mostly centers around the two children who died. The book doesn't mention how they died, though. I am not satisfied with this answer. Tomorrow I will try to pierce the mysteries of the giant hole in the Hell Grove itself. Scootaloo heard some bells jangle and froze. She looked up and saw a procession of pegasus ponies, each dressed in garbs resembling something monks or priests would wear. They carried a stretcher bearing something recognizable as a body and calmly marched past her towards one of the courtyard's gates. Her stone charm suddenly blazed to life. "That's me. Isn't it?" Scootaloo gasped and turned her head. It was her strange friend who had rescued her before. "What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked, swallowing a lump. "I'm not really alive. That's me on that stretcher. I've never really realized it until now, but I've been repeating the same events over and over. They're probably going to try sacrifice my dead body to the ritual because they couldn't find a suitable earth pony, but it won't work. Anyway..." He turned to face her. "There's still something I have to do before I can leave this place. I suggest you be very careful where you go from here on in." He then darted down a path and disappeared through a door. Scootaloo chose a different door. She found herself outside again, in a sparsely wooded area. There her world shattered in two. In the distance she spotted a small congregation. Angry shouts filled the air as the congregation surrounded a tree. Hanging on the tree was a noose. Slipped into the noose was a familiar pony. "Sweetie Belle?!" Scootaloo exclaimed. The villagers kicked away the chair. The young pony dropped. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Scootaloo fell to her knees and wailed.
CollapseCollapse Sweetie Belle found herself shoved into a small room, facing a strange, scowling pegasus filly. She found herself pushed up against one of the room's walls, the filly edging extremely close to her. "I figured you might come back, Butter Cream," the strange pegasus said. "I don't know why I put up with you. It's bad enough you've found that earth pony coltfriend." Sweetie Belle's jaw dropped as she fought for the words to say. "Who... Who are you? Why do you keep calling me Butter Cream?" "I was willing to put up with it for a while, just to humor you with you being so inferior and, well... you being what you are." As the berating came, aimed at a pony whom this stranger was mistaking for somepony else, Sweetie Belle felt like crying. "What am I?" The pegasus snapped her head and brought a hoof to her chest. Then a smile formed on her lips, and it unnerved Sweetie Belle. "Why your mother is our mother. But your father is her brother." The pegasus got close again and Sweetie Belle sniffled. "Oh don't cry. You need me, and I am here. I need you and you are here." Sweetie Belle struggled to back away as the pegasus leaned in even closer, almost as if she were aiming for a kiss. "Wha... What?" she said. "You know what you have to do. You don't feel for the boy the same way you do for me. You know you can feel the truth in your heart. You have to break up with him. Oh! Listen to that! Can you hear it?!" She heard the sound of a bell tolling slowly. "It's time for another earth pony to be sacrificed." Sweetie Belle's jaw dropped at the stranger's audacity. "You... You're sick!" "But it's for the greater good, dear sister! My happiness depends solely on the happiness of the Hell Grove! And if it's not happy, then I'm not happy. Then if I'm not happy..." She pulled back slightly, a weird crooked smile parting her lips, with an equally crooked laugh escaping her throat. "We all die." She then leaned close again. "It's really strange in a way. You're the freak of nature, and I'm the one with the curse. Does that make you happy? My happiness is your happiness. If you want him to live and be happy with me, you would break up with him." Sweetie Belle, suitably unnerved, slipped to one side of the pegasus and made a break for the door. "This is too weird," Sweetie Belle exclaimed. She darted down hallway and turned down another. She passed by a strange colt quickly running in the opposite direction, but she didn't stop or turn around. Pushing open a door, she found herself in a large courtyard. Strange red butterflies fluttered all around, filling the air. Scootaloo sat in the middle, sobbing and raging about something that puzzled Sweetie Belle and rocking back and forth as the tears flowed. "Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. Scootaloo looked up, and her eyes widened as she backed away in fear. "No! You're dead! You're dead you're dead you're dead!" "Scootaloo! Snap out of it! It's me!" Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo a light slap. Its effect was immediate as Scootaloo stopped crying, shook her head and finally noticed Sweetie Belle standing before her. "Sw-Sweetie Belle? You're alive!" Her friend tilted her head and gave her a confused look. Then, standing up, Scootaloo uttered, "Where am I? And where's Apple Bloom? What's going on?" "Apple Bloom and I got separated. I hope she's okay, but..." The two of them had to steady themselves as the earth heaved slightly, and they heard a deep rushing sound, almost resembling a dragon taking a deep breath. "I am just about sick of this place!" Sweetie Belle finished. The commotion sent the butterflies in flight, and they hurriedly made their way over to one of the courtyard's doors, the same one Scootaloo saw the procession go through. "The butterflies!" Scootaloo exclaimed, remembering her friend's words and chasing after them. "Wait! Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said as Scootaloo hastily departed. * * * A tremendous collision sent Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to the floor as soon as they had bolted through the door. Upon clearing away the cobwebs and rubbing the pain in her backside, Scootaloo looked up to see what had happened. Four ponies had all blindly headed towards the same place at the same time from different directions. The two other ponies were... "Apple Bloom! Fluttershy!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exclaimed in unison. After an exchange of hugs, Fluttershy smiled. Gladness filled the hearts of the three fillies to know that their friend was safe and sound. "Hello there girls," Fluttershy cooed. "It's not safe here. You should all go hide. There's something I have to do first." "But..." Scootaloo started, her heart fluttering with anxiety over the thought that Fluttershy would leave them again so soon after they had found her. Fluttershy motioned towards a stack of crates piled up against one wall of the tunnel they had found themselves in. She then frowned when another heaving afflicted the ground. "Go hide!" she exclaimed firmly. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom did as they were told, hiding inside the crates, but Scootaloo frowned as she watched Fluttershy walk away. Scootaloo wasn't about to let Fluttershy go alone when something big was about to go down. She secretly followed the yellow pegasus mare, much to the anger of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, but the two of them couldn't chase her in time, stuck as they were inside their hiding spots. Scootaloo followed Fluttershy down the tunnel, trailing slightly behind her to avoid being seen. When they exited the tunnel, Scootaloo stumbled backwards upon spotting a terrifying scene. Fluttershy, however, calmly kept walking forwards. Before them seemed to be a grove of twisted, pitch black trees. Their branches reached like the arms of skeletons over an impossibly large pit, which seemed to expel writhing shadows and blasts of air. On the ends of the branches of each of the trees around the pit hung what appeared to be nooses and other restraints made of rope. Most horrifying of all to Scootaloo was that the ropes appeared to move on their own. In front of the pit stood the horrible white pegasus Scootaloo saw in her dreams. The white pegasus' pitch black hair dangled down in front of her face, obscuring her eyes. Fluttershy boldly stepped forward a couple steps. "Whatever happened to you in the past, it's not your fault," Fluttershy said. "It's nobody's fault. It's not the earth ponies' fault. Please stop causing so much misery. Everything's going to be all right." A chilling cackle echoed throughout the grove. "You seem a bit of earth pony yourself. Perhaps you'd like to join them." Scootaloo darted forward. "Fluttershy, be careful!" Fluttershy whipped her head back towards Scootaloo and a mass of writhing shadows surged forward from the pit and plunged into Fluttershy, knocking her up against the tunnel wall. She fell to the ground, limp as a rag doll. "Fluttershy!" Scootaloo hurried over to where Fluttershy lay, only to discover her unresponsive. She closed her eyes as tears streamed from them, and an uncontrollable anger welled up inside her. "You!" she exclaimed, rage sending the blood vessels in her eyes to near bursting. "Mother! Stop!" Scootaloo looked up and saw a strange pegasus filly that looked remarkably like her. She didn't care if there was another filly there, though. Her anger still burned inside her, and she would get it out even if it killed her. "Butter Cream is dead!" "My friend is dead!" "It's over, mother! I..." "Can't go on like this!" "What's the use? I'm tired of this madness! Why don't I just kill..." "Myself and take you with me?!" "You did this to me!" "You did this to her!" "It's all your fault and..." "I..." "Will..." "NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" The rumbling of the earth intensified to earthquake levels, causing the strange filly and Scootaloo to pitch to their sides and stumble around. Then, much to Scootaloo's surprise, Fluttershy flew over the tops of their heads and landed in between them and the white pegasus mare. Fluttershy then took a deep breath, drew herself up, and opened her eyes wide into her famous "stare". The white mare, shocked into submission, stumbled backwards and fell into the pit. She screamed as she fell, but it seemed she wouldn't go down without a fight. Several of the pieces of rope reached out and dragged Scootaloo and the other filly into the pit as well. Thinking fast, Fluttershy darted into the pit to attempt a rescue. They had already fallen far by the time she reached them, and she wasn't sure she would have the strength to fly the both of them back towards the surface once she grabbed them. The shadows swirled around them, filling her with dread and sadness and thoughts of wickedness. Somehow, though, she managed to dig in deep and find confidence in herself. She reached out and grabbed the two fillies and powered her wings to flap, using every once of strength she had to flap towards the surface. She then found her feet touch the ground, and she released the two children and fell forward, breathing a sigh of relief. The shaking of the earth reached a feverish pitch. Scootaloo reached out and shook Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, stand up! We have to get out of here! This whole place is collapsing!" Fluttershy slowly got to her feet, gave the two kids a quick glance, and then nodded. "I think you're right." The three of them hurried towards the tunnel, and Fluttershy gathered up Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle before they all made a hasty retreat towards the mansion's entrance.
One Last PhotoOne Last Photo "I don't understand something." Sweetie Belle looked up from the vanilla cake she had been devouring, a treat she had chosen to calm her nerves after all the supernatural nonsense she had been through. She and her two friends sat at a table at Sugar Cube Corner, enjoying sweets and tea. Scootaloo was poring over their small collection of the Camera Obscura's photos. Apple Bloom was content merely to prop up the menu in front of her face, keeping her from seeing the pictures of the ghosts she had fought. "What is it, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Well the archeologist said that the legend of the Hell Grove talked about two children who died in the calamity, but all three of us, I mean..." Scootaloo bit her tongue. Apple Bloom lifted her head above the menu and gave her pegasus friend a glare. "All three of those kids were ghosts. Who survived the calamity?" Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. "Well I think Bumblesweet must've..." The bell at the entrance gave a cheerful jingle, but Scootaloo shuddered at its similarities to the supernatural bells she had been hearing. Photo Finish waltzed in, an unusual customer for the Cakes, but she sported a look that seemed she had seen better days. Even her shades seemed faded. Sweetie Belle gave Photo Finish a look as she entered and then turned her attention back towards her cake. "What, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo urged, hoping to get the rest of the response. "Nothing." Her enjoyment of the cake had diminished somewhat as she mulled over the topic. The archeologist had stated that the calamity had killed hundreds of ponies, but it wasn't the disaster that caused most of the deaths. There had been a massacre. Sweetie Belle had seen it when Bumblesweet was invading her personal space, confusing her with Butter Cream. But despite her best efforts to hate what had happened, she couldn't get herself to think that the Bumblesweet who had committed murder was the real Bumblesweet. Then Sweetie Belle saw the proof she needed. Scootaloo had flipped over to the last photo they had ever shot with the Camera Obscura. Apple Orchard, Bumblesweet, and Butter Cream had asked them to take their picture in front of the ruins of the mansion, to release their spirits. On each of the children's faces were honest, happy smiles. Sweetie Belle also remembered the air had been warm. Scootaloo scooped up the photos, crystals, and notes that lay scattered before her and stuffed them in a cardboard box, finally fed up. "What do we do with these? Nopony's going to believe us except for Fluttershy and her friends. Do we put this in the Foal Free Press next time it runs?" "Ah think we should," Apple Bloom muttered. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Let's just put them in a time capsule and bury them, but first one thing." "Huh?!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exclaimed in unison. Sweetie Belle snatched up the Camera Obscura and got up from her seat, leaving her two friends thoroughly confused. She then headed over to where Photo Finish sat. "I think this belongs to you." The End
Acquiring the Camera ObscuraMy Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Pony Zero: Crimson Fluttershy Rated: PG-13 Themes: General spookiness by pmcollectorboy/ aka Mario Rodgers Acquiring the Camera Obscura The time Fluttershy disappeared had been the coldest summer day Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom could remember. The weather remained warm and pleasant for them at the moment, but as the three stared at Fluttershy's cottage, which stood empty and absent of both owner and animals, they all recalled the odd event that culminated in the beloved pegasus' seeming abduction. Scootaloo had been at the local park, trying her best to reach twenty head bounces of a rubber ball in an attempt to become as good as Rainbow Dash, the head bouncing champion. After a missed bounced sent the ball tumbling away down a small incline, she bounded after it to give chase for the wayward toy only to become entranced by a tiny tinkling, almost like that of a sleigh bell. Looking around yielded nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, not even the other fillies and colts playing in the park had seemed to notice the tinkling. After a second round of tinkling, Scootaloo spotted a strange red butterfly, its wings glowing an alluring luminescence, almost like the glow of a flame but giving no heat. Scootaloo remembered becoming entranced by the butterfly, by its angelic glow. She had lost track of time after chasing the butterfly but remembered wandering away from the park. Her vision had become fleeting and her memory even more fractured and shifting, becoming difficult to grasp in its intangibleness like fine sand, but somehow she remembered finding herself in a dark forest, the sun nowhere to seen, nothing but shadow embracing every branch and underbrush. In front of her stood a run-down mansion, its twisted front door opened to pitch darkness like a chilling howl, cobwebs, ruin and gloom covering the front from its foundations to its eaves, and a large courtyard surrounding her on three sides, its hallways and wooden beams also falling apart and covered in dust. In between leaving the park and finding herself standing in a foreboding forest in front of a crumbling mansion was a blur to Scootaloo, but she remembered clearly seeing Fluttershy calmly walk past her from behind like she wasn't even there and enter the gaping maw of the mansion, disappearing into the darkness. Scootaloo then fainted when she heard a horrific scream and the darkness expanded out from the doorway to engulf her. After regaining consciousness back at the park, Scootaloo sought out her friends. When she saw their wide-eyed expressions and haunted, terrified faces, she shared her experience, only to discover her other two friends experienced identical visions. Each saw a mansion. Each saw a dark forest. Each saw Fluttershy. Each had lost track of a block of time before being faced with the terrible building and then waking up right back where she had started. The three friends puzzled their experiences for the rest of the day, keeping the harrowing event to themselves. It wasn't until later on that they each realized how relatively cold the day had been for a normal summer day, when each of the three friends had to go to her respective homes. Rarity had been the first to discover Fluttershy missing when the yellow pegasus missed several spa dates back to back. The unicorn had remained locked inside her bedroom ever since, bemoaning the loss of her best friend and weeping into the depths of her pillow. Sweetie Belle had been forced to spend a few nights over at Apple Bloom's house because of that. It wasn't long before a rescue party had been formed and the town newspaper spread the message of the mare's misfortune. Several days of searching had turned up nothing, and eventually even the newspapers went back to printing the normal boring news. The rest of Ponyville wrote off Fluttershy as dead but buried an empty casket. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were the only ones of Fluttershy's friends who attended, doing so as a matter of etiquette. Oddly enough, Rarity flat out refused to show up. Pinkie Pie spent the day baking a baker's dozen of a baker's dozen of muffins. Applejack expressed her sorrow, naturally, through doing more work. Despite the funeral, Fluttershy's friends never gave up hope that she remained alive somewhere. While doing a rare moment, for her at any rate, of silent pondering, Scootaloo decided that she had had enough of the town's moping and had gotten it into her head that she and her friends would do their own investigating. Featherweight, the scrawniest member of Scootaloo's class, organized an emergency meeting of the class newspaper staff. It would be completely unauthorized as it was the summer break, but they all wanted to do their part in finding out what happened to the town's favorite animal lover. Featherweight had sent Shady Daze, the new class photographer out to "gather clues", and Shady seemed eager to put his new digital camera to work. Featherweight wanted Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom to accompany Shady and help interview the townsponies, but Scootaloo knew they would just be spinning their wheels, so to speak, and had other ideas. The young pegasus gathered her friends outside the home of Fluttershy, thinking they would find better clues there, but the doors and window frames remained boarded up by order of the mayor, presumably to avoid looters and fanatical devotees. "So what do you think?" Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle turned her head to look at her friend. "About what?" "There's got to be some way in." "But why are we breaking into her house?" Scootaloo gave Sweetie Belle a hard look. "Something happened to Fluttershy that day to cause her to leave her home. We all saw it that day we experienced those visions. Now nobody stopped to think to search her house. We're going to change all that." She then turned her head back towards the cottage. "We've just got to find some way in." "Chimney," came Apple Bloom's brief response. "What?" Scootaloo asked, blinking. Apple Bloom tossed her muzzle towards the roof. "Tha only way in is ahbviously through tha chimney." Scootaloo turned the idea over in her head, staring at the only opening in the house to not have access blocked off. Apple Bloom, of course, was right, but it would be a tight fit, even for the small fillies. With a groan, Scootaloo muttered, "This is going to suck." After one climb of a tree, some precarious balancing, and a bunch of shuffling and scuffling, the three friends managed to make it down the chimney, suffering only a few scrapes on the way. The silence inside the home seemed devastatingly eerie. The three friends, having spent a couple nights at the pegasus' home, were used to the lively chatter of Fluttershy's animal friends. The home they found themselves in had not a single peep of the tiniest mouse. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom paused for a silent moment of reverence but Scootaloo immediately got to rummaging around, much to the annoyance of the other two, but they couldn't muster up the heart to tell her off. "What are we looking for?" Sweetie Belle asked when she decided to break the silence. Scootaloo opened up a drawer and stuck her nose in. "Not sure. Something out of the ordinary?" She turned away when she found nothing. "I mean what's the connection between Fluttershy and that creepy mansion?" Sweetie Belle shrugged while Apple Bloom headed upstairs towards the bedroom. "Ah think ah've found somethin'!" came Apple Bloom's exclamation. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stopped their search of the living room to head upstairs. They found Apple Bloom standing before Fluttershy's bed, looking at the contents of a box. "What have we got here?" Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom merely responded by tipping the box on its side, sending its contents tumbling out onto the soft bed. The three friends discovered a letter, an aging, yellowed photograph, a red crystal, and a strange camera. Sweetie Belle picked up the letter first and read it. Dear Fluttershy, Here is the family heirloom you had requested. It had been entrusted to me by your grandmother, who herself had been a good photographer. It is called the Camera Obscura. It has... unusual properties. In short, it has the ability to banish spirits by photographing them. I thought I could handle the strange world this camera opened for me, with my high intuition, but I had been wrong. I'm giving the camera to you because I have failed in my search for the meaning of your family curse. Perhaps an emotionally sensitive soul will succeed where a spiritually dense one failed. I imagine the shadows will be coming for me soon. Please keep the camera safe. Yours truly, Platinum Finish As Sweetie Belle pondered the meaning of the letter, Apple Bloom picked up the photograph and gave it a glance. The image on the front seemed faded out to little more than dull, gray lines and shapes. Apple Bloom surmised that the photo was around 50 years old. On it seemed to be a small gathering in front of a rather familiar mansion. One seemed to be a young mare bearing a resemblance to Fluttershy. The stallion next to her was probably her husband. Then there was another stallion next to the husband, possibly a family friend. By his hat and the tools on his belt, he seemed to be an archeologist of some kind. After Apple Bloom was done with the photograph, Scootaloo turned her attention towards the crystal. "What do you suppose this is?" the young pegasus asked as she reached out to pick it up with her hooves. Red memory orb(anger) "Platinum Finish! Where have you been?!" "I've been playing with the red butterflies." "You've been missing for hours, young lady! I have a good mind to give you a sound spanking! What have you got there? A camera? That belongs to your godmother Shutterbug!" "I've fixed it. She said I could keep it." In a flash of light, the intruder memory disappeared, and Scootaloo pulled away from the crystal, stunned. Outside, the shadows grew longer. "I think we'd all better go home for now," Scootaloo muttered.
