Flash was, in all terms, a normal colt. His coat was yellow and his mane was orange, streaked with the tiniest bit of gold. Like many colts his age, he had not yet earned his cutie mark, and the matter was not a pressing one. “You’ll get yours when you’re ready,” his parents would always say the nights he would fuss about his mark. Calmed by their gentle words, he would let the matter fall with hardly another thought.
Today had been just like any other day. He had tried asking out Blossom (the elementary school equivalent of a hussy) so of course, her answer had been yes. He was now walking home from the successful day of school through one of Baltimare’s oldest neighborhoods; it was the fastest route home, and his mother had promised him a special treat today for his good grades. Eager to discover what his hard-earned treat was, he made haste, not even stopping to browse the storefront window of Lufty’s Candy Shoppe, where rolls of paper dots and chocolate bars could be seen just out of reach. It was a shame he hadn’t stopped to browse. There was no sun today; thick clouds carrying the threat of rain clogged the sky, and the glare on the candy store window had been absent.
Baltimare’s old housing district was not a nice one, and Flash was extra vigilant, just like every other filly and colt who braved the neighborhood. The old streets of Baltimare were formed from stone; once, they had been smooth and white, but over time, wear and tear had taken it’s toll on the road, reducing it to a bumpy trail of gray stone mixed with dirt and gravel. The stagecoaches no longer took this route, finding it more efficient to take the long route than brave the axle-breaking trail. Slowly, this section of the city was dying, fading away with time. Many old settlements still stood, their thatched roofs sagging and crooked. The ponies who lived here showed their social status with the condition of their coats. A scraggly coat meant they were no more than scavengers and beggars, living in the long-abandoned remnants of failing houses. A dirty coat meant they worked the blue collar, and lived here not because they chose to, but because they had to. A pony with a clean coat in these parts was foreign. A clean coat meant that they did not belong.
Flash shuddered as the cast-iron arch to Jackson Street loomed ahead, the steel-molded vines interwoven in the iron long since weathered and bent. He would be turning left here, making the mile loop around the neighborhood instead of taking the quarter-mile trot down the street ahead. Anypony who had heard the name Jackson Street before, dared not go down it. Tourists would often take the first few steps below the arch, but hurriedly recede on a sort of primal instinct.
The rumours about Jackson Street had started many years ago, around the same time Flash was born. Just saying the name of the dreaded street among a cheery crowd would cast a silence so still one would hear the scratch of a quill across the room. The name was taboo, and those who spoke of it were often shunned. Nopony was quite sure of why the street was feared, or what it was feared for. Ponies who had gone down it, had come back changed, different. Others had entered under the iron arch and never returned.
Once, Flash had asked his parents of Jackson Street. They had both gone a little white, and told him “Maybe when you’re older.” Since his parents were, of course, always right, he pressed no further. But something in his father’s eyes had told Flash that he’d rather not know.
Flash squinted ahead as he neared the street. Two earth ponies about his age stood just before the arch, looking down the length of Jackson Street. One was a gray stallion with a dark blue mane and tail, and the other was a chartreuse filly with a black mane. “Hey,” Flash called, a little worriedly. “What are you doing?”
The colt turned to look back at him but the filly kept on looking ahead as if she hadn’t heard. The colt beckoned Flash with his forehoof, but spoke no words.
Skeptically, Flash plodded up to the two ponies, feeling the hair along his spine prickle as he neared the arch. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Hey,” the colt said, a little cheerfully, but with the same air of uneasiness Flash could feel. “What’s your name?”
“Flash. What’s yours?”
The colt smiled and looked back down the street. “Flash, that’s a cool name. My name’s Rain Shower, but everypony just calls me Crash.” He pointed to the filly beside him, who appeared to have been crying, her cheeks shiny and streaked, eyes shimmering. “This is my sister, Altic.”
Flash frowned. “Why do they call you Crash?”
Crash shrugged. “Well, Altic started calling me it when I feel down some stairs. I guess it just sort of sunk in.”
“What are you doing here? You do know what street this is, right?” Flash looked at where the filly was looking. The street stretched away ahead, still smooth from lack of travel. All sorts of toys like balls and kites lay in the road or in front yards of creaky houses, lost by their owners. There was even a wooden derby cart upturned on its side, two helmets with racing stripes discarded beside it.
The filly sniffed and rubbed her nose. “He won’t come back.”
Flash sat down and pulled his book bag off. “Who?”
“Speckles,” Crash clarified. “Her cat. He got out of the house a few hours ago and we chased him here.” He huffed. “Dumb cat. We’ve been waiting here ever since.”
“He’s not dumb!” Altic snapped, causing her brother to nod frantically. She sniffed again. “We have to go and look for him.”
Flash spoke up, scrunching his nose at her. “Are you crazy!?” He waved his hoof down the deserted street. “This is Jackson Street. Nopony’s dumb enough to go down there.”
“You’re just scared,” Altic said with forced venom.
Flash stomped his hoof. “Yeah I’m scared!” he waved down the street again. “Heloooo, Jackson Street. Scary monster things!”
Altic just looked to the ground. “You’re not supposed to go past the arch. Everypony knows you never go past the arch.”
Flash and Crash exchanged a look, both equally unnerved. “What are you gonna’ do?” Flash asked quietly.
Crash shook his head. “I don’t know. What should I do? I can’t tell her she’s never getting Speckles back.”
“Speckles.” Flash spoke the name just for emphasis. “Who the hay would name a cat Speckles? That’s like naming a dog Spot.”
Crash shrugged. “Well, he had speckles... so, yeah.”
“I’m going to get him,” Altic said suddenly, causing both colts to jump. She swallowed hard and took a step forward.
“No way!” Crash hollered, stepping in front of her. “You know what happens.”
Altic chewed her lip, on the verge of tears. “Ponies never even go down there. How do we even know what’s wrong with it?”
Flash tried his best to ignore the two as they argued. It wasn’t his job to listen to them. Instead, he watched as two, identically pink fillies, one of them holding a blue ball behind her wingjoint, trotted down the street on the opposite sidewalk.
“Look,” Crash said in a desperate tone. “We don’t live here. What if something happens? If Mom finds out, we’ll be grounded for like... forever!”
The pink filly with the ball stopped and looked over at Flash. He made to smile at her, but the halfway-grin froze on his face as his eyes traveled to her head. The filly’s face was a smear of pink and red, her eyes nothing more than pink indentations in her head.
Flash screamed and covered his eyes. His father had told him about things like this.
“What’s wrong?” asked Crash.
Flash hid his eyes a moment longer, then looked up. A blue ball rolled slowly down the sidewalk, pushed by the slight breeze. He looked frantically for the two fillies, spotting nothing.
“What’s wrong?” Crash repeated.
Flash placed his hoof over his heart, trying to calm himself and slow his breathing. “She had-she was...”
Altic tore her eyes away from Jackson Street to look at Flash. “Stop trying to scare me.”
“I-I-I’m not.” Flash went on the defensive. “There was this filly and she was—” He cut himself off and looked back to the blue ball, which was still rolling steadily away. “But there was...”
“You’re trying to trick me,” the filly accused. She turned her muzzle to the air. “I’m going to go get Speckles.”
“Altic!” Crash said in shock. “No!”
She flicked her tail at him. “I’m going. You can come with me or you can be a scaredy pony and stay here.”
“I’m not a scaredy pony! But I’m not stupid!”
Altic stuck her tongue out at him, then stepped forward, stopping just before the arch. “You’re going to feel sorry if I don’t come back.” She looked long ahead, then swallowed heavily.
“Altic, wait,” Crash said in defeat. “I-I’ll come.” He glared at Flash. “Thanks a lot,” he growled.
“What did I do?” Flash protested with a pouty voice.
“Speckles!” Altic cried, rearing up on her hind legs for the call. She looked back and beckoned Crash to her side. “Come on.” Regretfully, the gray colt trotted up beside her, coat fluffing up a little with fear.
“You two can’t go,” Flash protested, taking a half-step forwards. “My friend's dad says there’s monsters!”
Brother and sister moved forward as one, crossing under the arch. Crash made a little eep and his sister hung her head, ears folded over. Two more steps they went, officially leaving safety behind.
Flash edged forward and stopped at what he had always known as the point of no return. “You’re both crazy!” he yelled at them. “The monsters are going to get you!” He ran in place on the tips of his hooves for a second. He could go get help! No, there was nopony around here, and they’d be gone by the time he got back. “Come back,” he repeated, this time with less vigor.
Crash looked back and shook his head. The colt’s muscles were pulled tight under his coat and his eyes were screaming, but he stuck by his sister. They had now reached the upturned derby cart in the road a little ways in, and Altic led them both around it, keeping them in the middle of the street.
Flash chewed his lip. They were getting further away! He had to do something. Hitting himself on the side of the head a few times, he stepped forward, then back again, then forward again, and back a second time. He moaned and folded his ears. This was stupid. Breathing irregular with fear, he forced himself to plod forward, through the maw of the iron arch.
Despite the burst of fear and adrenaline he received, nothing changed. The sky was still cloudy and dull and he was still alive. “Wait up!” he called galloping ahead to fall in stride to the left of Crash.
“I thought you said we were stupid,” Crash sulked. His eyes were wide and vigilante, daring every which was as if he were expecting a monster to leap out from behind a blade of grass and eat him.
“You are,” Flash said back, annoyed and on edge. “And I’m stupid for following you.”
“Speckles!” Altic yelled, causing Flash to jump.
“I really think we should keep quiet,” Flash whispered.
“Why?” asked Altic in a blatantly loud voice. “It’s not like there’s anypony here.” She gulped. “Yeah, nopony here. Just us.”
Flash squinted around at the old, abandoned houses, finding it rather hard to see in the dark. He blinked, then rubbed his eyes to make sure his mind wasn’t playing games with him. “Am I the only pony seeing this?” he asked slowly.
“Seeing what?” Altic returned. “I can’t see a thing.”
“Exactly.” Flash shuddered as the air went cold. “It’s dark out.” He exhaled deeply and watched his breath cloud out ahead of him.
Crash whimpered from between the two. “Why’s it dark?”
Flash didn’t reply. He didn’t like the way his hooves made no sound on the stone, or the way the faintest of amber lights seemed to radiate from the long-dead oil lanterns along the right side of the street. “We should go back... Right. Now.”
Crash nodded his head like it was on a spring and stopped where he walked.
“Sp-speckles?” Altic’s voice was much more quiet than it had been before. She stopped, head held high and slightly cocked to the right, eyes round as bits as they adjusted to the light. “We need to go back,” she said with urgency. “We need to go back right now.” Her legs reversed direction and she backed up, head never turning, eyes never blinking.
A mist had begun to set, seeping from around every corner and out from every crack in the road. It floated just above the ground, obscuring the road and the rotten lawns of creaky houses. The mist surrounded their hooves, light as air but thick as an ocean, wisps of gray breaking off from the sea and trailing into the air in snakes of moisture.
“I’d like to keep going forward,” Crash squeaked in a voice as high as a filly’s.
Flash turned around to cast an awestruck look at the colt. “You really are stupid! This is—”
Crash had himself lowered to the ground, facing back the way they had come, hooves clasped tight over his ears. The street behind them was buckled and torn, the bricks thrown up and asunder. The mist snaked drowsily over piles of rubble and dips in the earth, pooling in the low spots.
“N-n-n-no,” Flash stammered as his legs threatened to fail.
Outside the arch it was black, not the nothingness kind of black, but the kind of menacing black holding the threat of unknown. The blackness swirled in torrents outside the iron arch, but without sound nor draft. It was simply there, a tornado of black that proved even more fearful than the street itself.
“Crash!” Altic squeaked. “What did you do?”
He looked up at her in what seemed to be emotional agony. “You think I did that!?” His voice blared into the silence, never breaking the sense of tranquility.
“Well somepony had to do it.”
He stood up and backed away, hooves shuffling on the stone. “A pony can’t do that.”
“Well something had to do it!”
Flash caressed his head. Things just weren’t gluing themselves together right in his head. Something was off and his brain didn’t know what. It was like somepony had thrown sheet of plastic over all of his senses, dulling them. “Please,” he said with worry. “Please please please please, let’s get out of here.”
Crash continued to back up, Altic at his side. “How? That’s the way we came in.”
Flash ground his jaw, following the two. “Well, we’re going to have to find a different way out.”
All of them had thought of trying to brave the black mist beyond the arch, but dared not voice it aloud. Something about the ominous nothingness was saying no, and that was that.
The ground shook ever so slightly, and the fog in the road began to sink in a section. There was a scratching of stone on stone as a few stray rocks fell inward amongst the fog.
“Let’s go,” Altic squeaked, backing away from the hole in the road. Crash and Flash both nodded, turning away and making slow haste in the opposite direction, away from the iron arch.
Flash treaded carefully, unable to see neither the ground, or his hooves through the fog. Black, gnarled trees lined the road, their twisted and decayed branches hanging above the three like talons of a beast. With the combination of the dark and the fog, their visibility was a little less than ten feet. The houses on either side of the road could no longer be seen, just the starts of their lawns and occasionally little yard ornaments. Altic eyeballed a smiling garden gnome like it was going to jump at her and cut her head off with its little shovel.
Crash scurried low to the ground, so low that the fog was almost up to his ears. His breathing was fast and sharp, the irregular bursts of air from his mouth and nose fanning the fog. Flash walked beside him, shaking with either fear or cold, though he couldn’t tell which.
“Speckles,” Altic called quietly.
“Would you stop!?” Crash snapped. “The stupid cat is dead, okay! Now stop calling for him or the monsters are going to find us!”
Flash glared at the two. “Both of you, keep quiet. We—” He stopped, every part of his conscious self listening for the sound he was sure he had just heard.
Crash glared. “I don’t see what—”
“Shhhh!” Flash cut the colt off mid-sentence. The three of them stood in a rough line, not daring to move while Flash listened with his head tilted to one side, ears perked.
The sound came again, a grumbling of stone. The ground below their hooves rumbled slightly and Flash breathed a whimper.
Altic broke the trance by herding Crash forward. “Don’t stop moving.” She gave Flash a look. To his surprise, it wasn’t scared, or terrified, it was blank. She showed no emotion as crept alongside two, shivering colts.
Flash’s eyes never stopped moving. They darted left, then right, always searching for something. The mist to the left parted for the tiniest moment, yielding the view of a small house across a gravel lawn.
Crash bounced like he was on springs. “Look!” he pointed towards the right window of the house. “There’s a light in there! There’s a pony there.”
Flash squinted. There was in fact a light in the window. The yellow beams spilled from the worn building like rays of pure sunshine, cutting through the mist and lighting the ground an eerie yellow. “I don’t think there’s a pony there.”
“I’m gonna go see.”
Crash started forward eagerly, but Flash caught him and turned the colt to face him. “No you won’t.” He placed both hooves on Crash’s shoulders. “We are getting out of here.”
“Don’t step off the road,” Altic said in monotone, empty eyes staring straight ahead.
Flash looked over at the filly. “What do you—” Crash threw him off. Not expecting the sudden attack, Flash slipped and thudded to the stone. He scrambled to his hooves and spun to face Crash. The colt had left the road and was galloping across the gravel, towards the light in the window. “Crash!” he yelled, starting forward, but something landed on his back and he fell to the ground again.
“Don’t leave the road,” Altic hissed in his ear, pinning him to the ground.
Flash pushed her off and climbed to his hooves for a second time. “Why, what happens if you leave the road?” He watched as Crash tried to pull on the front door of the house, but it wouldn’t budge.
“I talked to an old pony about this place once. H-he said we’d be fine as long as we didn’t leave the road. He said he’d been here before.”
Crash left the door and ran around to the window of the house, banging on it in an attempt to open it.
“He said they’ll try to get you to leave the road. But you should be safe on the road.”
He gulped. “Should?”
“Crash!” Altic yelled frantically.
Flash moaned as his guts churned. “Crash!” he yelled. “Come back!”
The colt pressed his face to the glass, cupping his hooves around his head. “Hey, I think I see somepony.”
“Crash!” Altic yelled, practically in tears. “Get back here!” She stood right at the edge of the road, one hoof poised in the air. “Rain Shower!” she screamed.
Crash froze, then slowly turned to look at her, eyes wide and terrified. “Altic...” The light from the window died and Crash disappeared from sight. There was a gusty breeze, and the mist re-formed, blocking the view of the house completely.
The sound of breaking glass barraged the silence, cutting through the mist. Then there was a scream, a scream so terrifying that Flash felt like it had come from inside himself. It hurt his ears and throbbed in his head, causing him to drop to his knees.
Altic's jaw dropped in a silent wail and her eyes practically popped out of her head. She backpedaled and tripped over a protruding stone in the road.
Flash stared on in shock, heart beating a mile a minute. He mouthed the name Crash, then found himself backing away from the unseen house.
Altic rocked back and forth on the ground, legs drawn in tight to her belly. Her eyes were stretched wide, the whites shining and bloodshot. Her mouth opened and closed with the tensing of the muscles in her neck. “Should have stopped him,” she croaked, over and over again. “Should have stopped him.”
A tremor in the road knocked Flash back on his rump. This was all just some sort of nightmare. Something this horrible couldn’t be real. He bashed his head for something that he could use to prove this was a dream, but found nothing. Worse still, he couldn’t even remember how he had gotten here, or what he had done the day before.
“What’s my name?” he whispered. He had to look down at his coat to remember that it was yellow. He turned to Altic. “What’s my name?”
The filly didn’t look at him. “S-s-should have s-s-s-s-saved him.”
He slewed his forehoof across her face. “What’s my name!?”
The filly broke from her trance and looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “F-flash... Your name’s Flash.” The ground shook again and she pinched her eyes shut.
It all rushed back to him, name, memories, everything. Feeling terrible, he pulled Altic to her hooves. He had lost himself there, lost who he was. “I’m so sorry.”
She rubbed the red spot on her face and sniffed, not seeming to care that he had just hit her. “H-he’s-he’s—”
Flash shook his head at her. He winced at a squelching in the direction of the house and unconsciously crossed to the opposite side of the street. “I don’t like standing here.”
“Gone,” Altic finished in a whisper.
The ground shook again, violently, causing a few stones to pop out of the ground. “Altic! We need to go.”
The filly nodded, but only sat there, staring off into the mist.
“Altic!”
She jumped and looked his way. “Yeah... right...” She slumped over to him. “Just don’t leave the road,” she muttered, barely loud enough for Flash to hear.
He gave the filly a sour look as they walked alongside one another. “How do you know we’re safe on the road?”
“I don’t.”
Flash growled in his throat. “Well then why are you saying we’re safe on the road?”
“Because.” She stopped for a moment to listen, then continued forward. “I met this old pony. He said he’d been down this road before, that he was some sort of an adventurer. He said all you have to do is stay on the road, no matter what, and you’ll be fine.”
Flash tried to tear his focus away from the surrounding fog, and instead focus on his hoofsteps that he could not hear. “This place is dumb,” he pouted. “And I shouldn’t even be here. I followed you because I felt sorry for you and your dumb cat.” The mist swirled to his right and he jumped half a foot in the air. His right hoof landed in something sticky and he looked down. “Ew, gross.” He lifted his hoof to examine the gray goo that layered it. He had stepped in a puddle of the stuff.
Altic cocked her head at him “What is it?”
He shook his hoof, trying to shake the goop off. “I don’t know.” He rubbed his hoof on the ground. “But it really itches.” He winced. “Kind of burns.”
Altic looked worried. “Well you should get it off. It’s not very good if it burns.”
Flash rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I kind of know.” He took a sharp breath of air. “It hurts.” Hurriedly he reached for his book bag, then remembered he had left it by the gate. “Shoot.” He shook his hoof again and managed to shake some more of the stuff off.
“Keep moving,” Altic said, casting a worried glance at his hoof.
Flash shook his head and started forward again, hobbling a little now.
After a moment, a slight breeze fluttered his mane and he froze. The fog had begun to move, drifting ever so slightly against him so as it appeared he was moving faster than he was. Again, the hair along his back prickled and the contents of his belly churned. This was change, and change always seemed to mean bad. The trees overhead creaked and their branches swayed. Flash tried to ignore the glimpses of houses and trials through the mist. A lantern sat on a box about ten feet off the road and Altic made a face that suggested she wanted to go get it.
Flash sat down and pinched his eyes shut. Tears began to well at the corners of his eyes from the pain in his hoof and he wiped them away. Fighting back a shudder and drawing a deep breath, he opened his eyes. Blinding light assaulted his vision and he blinked, covering his eyes with a forehoof. “What the?” He stood up and looked around.
The sun shone brightly from above and a light breeze ruffled his mane. Colorful houses stretched away on either side of the road, their luscious green lawns overgrown and scraggly.
He looked over to Altic, who was shivering. “Are you seeing this?” His instincts told him something wasn’t right, but his mind wished so badly for retreat that he clung happily to the colorful world before him.
“Seeing what?” She cast him a worried look.
“It’s over.” He laughed. “That’s it. It was all just some sort of a bad dream.” He looked around at the pleasant street. He spotted a white gate that lead off to another street, just across the lawn of blue house. He pointed. “Come on, that’s the way out.”
Altic’s jaw dropped. “Are you crazy?”
Flash trotted up to the edge of the road and stepped onto the grass. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Flash!” Altic yelled. “Don’t leave the road!”
He kneaded his hooves on the grass, liking the way it felt soft underhoof. “But it’s over.” Turning away from her, he started across the lawn. “Come on.” His hooves made not a sound on the thick blades of grass. He watched with an almost eerie interest as the fragile stalks collapsed under his hooves.
“It’s not over!” she practically screeched. “Flash, it’s not over!”
Something in her voice caused him to freeze. The ground shook the tiniest bit and a trail of mist seeped up from a patch of grass a little ways ahead.
“Get back here!” came Altic’s voice, although from what sounded like a far distance.
He tried to move, but his hooves were rooted to the spot. “Oh,” he whispered. “It’s a trick...”
A circle of grass in front of him began to sag, the grass tearing a little around the edges to reveal wet, brown dirt. The dirt broke free and fell, dragging the grass into a small hole.
Altic's voice rang in his head. “Don’t leave the road.” He had certainly left the road.
More grass and dirt collapsed inwards, enlarging the hole. Wisps of mist rose up from the scar in the earth, distilling into the air. Slowly, a gray, slimy hoof reached over the edge and set on the grass, then another.
Flash started to jitter, his limbs going weak, yet, he still could not move. His eyes popped and his mouth went slack in shock. “N-no,” he stammered. “G-g-go away.”
The two ghoulish hooves pulled at the grass as they clawed forward. Next came the head. It may have once been a pony, but now had no eyes, nor ears and only a few strands of blue mane. Green and purple veins ran under its sickly skin like spiderwebs. The creature made a sort of gurgling sound as it tried to drag itself out of the hole.
The sunlight faded like a dying flame and the fog and mist once again began to close in. “Flash!” came Altic’s voice, even quieter than before.
Flash took a step away from the straining creature. It opened its tear of a mouth and let out another gurgling noise from its throat. Finally gaining control of his body, Flash backpedaled away from the beast, too afraid to scream. His rear hoof tore through the grass and plunged into the ground, sinking him nearly to his belly.
“Help!” he screamed, trying to pull himself free. Planting his other leg, he tried to push up, but it plunged through the surface of the grass as well and his whole back end sank under the ground. “Somepony help!” He forehooves dug troughs in the grass as he tried to pull his way out of the ground.
He screamed as something grasped his hind legs. No longer paying attention to the things on the surface, he focussed on keeping himself above the ground. “Let go!” He kicked his legs, trying to fight whatever it was. His forehooves slipped and he slid down past his belly. His body burned and there was a sharp pain in his belly. It was doing something to him; he could feel it. Flash bared his teeth and spread out his forelegs on either side of the hole as the thing below pulled. His body screamed in pain as it stretched and the grass below his hooves started to furrow.
“Altic!” he choked, letting out of scream of exertion. “Don’t come!” He coughed up a spurt of blood that ran down his chin and dripped onto the grass. “Get out of here!”
A bolt of pain filled his body as his right foreleg snapped, the shattered bones tearing at the flesh. Flash screamed in agony as he slipped down further, now only gaining purchase with one hoof. He sunk down to his neck, then his head. The thing below gave one final tug and he slipped below the surface, the world going dark.
