Dark Crusade

There’s this shed on the farm that nopony uses, and that I’m sure even Granny Smith forgot about. That is why I have come to this particular part of the farm. I don’t know. There’s nothing particularly special about it; it’s older than dirt. And hell, it’s in worse shape than the clubhouse was when I first saw it.

There are spaces between the boards that made up the walls. Just pressing your hoof on it makes it squeak like a rusty hinge. But today, it is going to finding out what is keeping me from getting my cutie mark, and being just like my friends!

It's a simple plan really, I just sit inside the shed and wait for Scoots and Sweetie to come by for their afternoon get-together. We're still close, of course, but... I don’t spend as much time with them as I used to. Maybe it’s because once you receive your Cutie Mark, it becomes more difficult to come up with another hoof-full of crazy ideas to help somepony else get one. It’s even harder to explain why you’re still doing those things in the first place.

I miss the days when we would hangout at the tree-house. Doing nothing but figuring out ways to discover our talents. It’s funny. In a way, I imagine the two of them coming to this spot to talk about how I could get my cutie mark, and we could spend more time together.

“Well standin’ aroun' thinkin’ about the good ol’ days ain’t gettin’ me nowhere,” I laugh to myself, roughly bashing the old, decrepit doorway to the shed open.

I was impressed to even see anything inside. Besides tons of leaves and dust, the little shack has a few other items. In one corner is a container of fuel and an undersized lantern. The opposite corner has a shaded spot, like if something had leaked there. And on the wall facing me were the leftovers of what used to be a war poster from a time I can’t even recall. I look closer to the scraps of paper, all I could make out is: “What will you give?”

“Anythin’,” I chuckle to myself as the nostalgia of my time as a Crusader comes rushing back for a brief moment.

Thankfully, before I can get too wrapped up in bittersweet memories, I hear something moving in the distance.

I have to control myself from being too forceful with the door as I enter the little shack. I feel my heart pounding with excitement, fear, and anticipation as the sound of hoof steps draw closer.

Propping myself against the door, I peer through the crack between two boards and look for any trace of my friends. Soon they’ll be here! And I’ll learn the special secret to how they got their marks! And.. And...

As suddenly as the hoof-steps started, they stopped. Was I too loud? Did they hear me? Leaning back from the door, I ponder myself with these questions. As the worry and shame swell into my cheeks, I wonder… What will the girls think of me spying on them like this?

I gather what little courage I had. I was getting ready push open the door when I notice something... odd. The light that was originally shining through my peephole is gone. The hot feeling of shame in my cheeks grew to the point that the corners of my eyes were pricking with tears.

“A-ah’m sorry,” I whimper as I pull the door open to face the fillies I had planned to spy on. “Ah didn’t mean ta-” Looking up I was greeted by the sleeping apple trees, an icy river, and snow as far as the eye could see. It isn’t any different than the way I had left it earlier… But I swore...

No, no, it’s nothing; probably some loose flyer or a critter passing by. Yeah, probably just one of the wild animals of the Everfree. I step back inside and return to wait for my friends once again.

As I sit in the dark shed, the words of the old poster haunt me like a specter. The words seem almost judgmental now, pointing out some wrong that I’ve done.

“It was fer mah friends,” I say, ashamed of my desperate actions. But it does nothing to ease my guilt.

I return to peering through the door again, looking for the two fillies. Now even more concerned to take my mind off judgment, I feel even more encouraged to actually see my friends. Continuing to gaze out the peephole, a chill runs through me. It’s not the winter air so much as it is the loneliness.

“Ah wish they were with me right now, yah know?” I speak to nopony in particular. “Ah can see myself doin’ this with them. Ah’d be waitin’ with Scoot, and we’d talk about nothin’ in particular, Sweetie would come by an’ we’d...” I feel a pair of cold streaks run down my face as I stare, more at the door than through the peephole. “...An’ we’d do somethin’ special, together.” The tears flow freely now as I press my forehead to the peephole.

I ball as the lonesomeness hits me like a ton of bricks. “Why cain’t I have my mark! Why can’t we be like we were? Why? Why? Why?!”

My sobbing is interrupted when I hear something; it sounds like a pony hiccupping. It might be them! Did they hear me? I try my best to compose myself as I wipe the tears from my wet eyes. I look through the peephole, only to see a brief flash of color against the whiteness of the fields.

I feel my eyes nearly jump out of my head as I search for a sign of the pony that just walked past my hiding place. Was that Sweetie and Scoots? Did they hear me blubbering to myself like a baby? They can’t have gotten far… I have to catch them, and I have to explain myself.

“Girls, Ah’m sorry! Ah-” Nopony is outside when I open the shed door. I sprint to the middle of the road looking as far as I can in both directions. Still, nothing to be found, but… I was sure I- no! No, I’m just jumpy from the anticipation. That’s all. I’m just seeing things because of the cold and loneliness.

I walk back into the shed and stare at the poster once more. “What will you give?” What will I give…? What haven’t I given?! What more does... life? Or whatever you want from me! I’ve given up two ponies! Two ponies that I wouldn’t trade for all the gold in Equestria to have them taken from me. I’ve had to give up the good times that made the taunts at school bite a little less. I have given up being happy because I can’t get a stupid mark on my fucking flank!

“What do you want from me!” I scream at the wall as fresh tears, once again begin to stream from my face. “They meant everything to me! Everything!” I drop to my knees in the darkness. “Ah just want them back. Ah just want the hurt and lonesomeness to go away. Ah want to be happy again!”

I press my eyes into my fetlocks, trying to control the sobs that escape through strained breaths.

“You have no right to judge me!” I state as I stare sternly at the torn poster. “You have no right!”

I give the stupid paper my back as I return to watch for my friends. They were going to come and that would show it! That would show it, show everypony that I’m right!

“Huha!” I chuckle as I catch myself. Look at me upset at a sheet of paper, and for what? In fact, why am I getting so worked up. I’m sure Sweetie, Scoots, anypony really, would understand my actions.

I close my eyes, allowing the feeling of calmness and peace to sink back in. “Soon Ah’ll be with ‘em… We’ll be the best o’ friends again! We’ll all have our cutie marks. We’ll be one again.” A soft smile creeps onto my face as I imagine the fresh feeling of being with my two dear friends again.

Opening my eyes, I return to staring through the peephole.

I shuffle my hooves away from the door.

There was somepony on the other side of the door, staring at me. It was looking through the tiny knothole. The pupil was a near pin prick, but it seemed to know! Not just that I was here, no, this pony, this pony knows what I was doing. It even looked like it knew why I was doing it. More then what I knew at the least.

My heart is pounding in my chest as I think about my observer. Just sitting outside, studying me. Judging my actions… Judging me!

Wait, the hoofsteps, the hiccuping, the color! This pony… This pony has been here the whole time. They must want me to do something, and clearly they want to frighten me into doing it.

“No!” I rasp at the door. “Yah can’t get tah me that easy, no sir! Yer gonna have tah work a lot harder than that tah break me.” Sitting in the stillness, I can almost make out their breathing from the opposite side of the door. It’s maddening, almost too much to bear.

I take off the glass case of the lantern and smash it into pieces, gripping a sharp, glass armament. Holding the weapon, I move closer to the door. “Now look, Ah don’t want tah hurt yah, so why don’t yah just go back to wherever yah came from, yah here?” I call to my pursuer. No response.

Swinging the door open with a strong buck, I am greeted by nothing except for icy coldness, and a large, setting sun. Hopefully, the other pony had finally taken the hint.

I close the door and turn to poster once more. “Ah guess Ah best be-”

My heart almost stops as I see two eyes staring back at me from an impossible darkness. It’s almost as if the creature eliminated what little light that previously existed in the room.

The eyes are a blood reddish color, along with a small pinch of orange. The left, looking more malicious as the blood that rings the iris turns the structure into a half red orb.

An acrid, bitter smell permeates from the half of the shed where the creature stands. It’s like being next to a chemical fire, so much so that I feel my stomach heave as I try to get used to the awful smell.

I turn and try to open the door and flee, but to no avail. Something warm runs from hoof. Turning to it in a panic, I remember the sliver, my hoof oozing blood from gripping the blade too tight.  My heart is in my neck as I look into the creature’s deep, dark eyes.

“What do yah want?” I question, aiming the sharp point of the glass shard in the direction of the eyes. They narrow at me. Whatever it is, they’re positively mad at me. “What do yah want?!” I repeat in a louder voice towards the shadow.

The creature takes a step toward the light. As I stumble to the ground, I see the outline of a small filly. Her body looks wrecked and abused… But I can’t tell how. Something about it tells me that this- this, thing, shouldn’t be standing. She should be dead!

“A-Ah ain’t gonna ask y’all again!” I hiss, trying to sound confident, “What do yah want!” I resorted once again to the sliver, lifting my hoof in protection.

Another step. I can make out the color of the filly. The right side is a pale yellowish color. But the other side is covered in small, painful scars, and   unnaturally blackened fur.

Tears are running down my face now as I realize what I am looking at. “No, let me go, just leave me alone. Please?”

Step.

“Please?”

Step.

“Please!”

The filly is staring me squarely in the eyes now. Her eyes are hostile, and burn with hate like irons in a fire.

“Why?” she rasps with a voice like that of ashes blowing across a wasteland.

“Please,” I plead as her presence suffocates any hope I have of escaping, “H- Have mercy.”

Her eyes go wide as warped smile appears on her face.

“Why would Ah do that? Y’all’re the reason Ah lost mah friends!”

-(-)-

I pump my wings harder than I ever have before. I have to find somepony, anypony who can help my friend. She might be- No she’s not! She can’t be! She’s stronger than that!

In the distance, I spot the brown Stetson of her sister. “Applejack!” She turns to me, “Applejack!”

“What is it, Scootaloo? Y’all look like mantachor ate somepony!” I feel tears starting to well up in

my eyes but I keep my composure for her.

“Applejack there’s not much time; Applebloom! She... She...” My words are choked as I try get out what happened.

“What happened tah mah sister, Scootaloo?” she asks placing a hoof on my shoulder.

I look up into her concerned eyes. “Me and Sweetie Belle were just at the clubhouse… A-and we heard an explosion...”