It Was the Monsters, It Wasn't Me
On the coldest autumn night, as a pale moon shines down through the sparse clouds onto a dark, lonely forest, a harrowing and gothic amphitheater sits in distilled listlessness. Leaves scatter from the gentle winds that whisper between the forgotten seats while insects scatter to find new shelter. The trees lightly swayed from the wind's gentle push, letting the final dead foliage fall and join their brethren below. The arid building then became silent for a moment right before the lights flourished and focused on the center stage. And there, perched on a simple folding chair, book in hand, sat a now familiar figure to this hallowed ground.
The being seemed to be roughly six feet in length, wearing dark grey jeans, a light grey hoodie, and had wild, light brown hair. Those features, in of themselves, were most unremarkable. However, upon further inspection, his two more unusual qualities shone through the bland of the grey clothing in the light. Sharp cloven hands, bound in bandages and barbed wire, flexed and cracked in anticipation. Lastly, a half-skull mask adorned his face, with a lengthy, rusty nail poking out from the forehead, was perhaps his most peculiar trait of all. The creature at his seat cleared his throat before he addressed his phantom audience, gently clearing the dust from the book he held.
Good evening, my friends. and welcome back to this wonderful little amphitheater. For those of you who don't know, my name is Wrath B. Forgivnez, and I shall be your storyteller tonight. On this hallowed eve, we have a very special treat; one that even I haven't read yet. There is no question that when a story of friendship becomes popular, other stories from other individuals follow suit. Some will try to emulate the original, while others will go the distance. Some may try to bring in a new spin, or tell a story merely for one joke, or perhaps even try to link the original story to another, completely different story. However, you are not interested in those kinds of stories, are you, my dear audience? No, you want stories of the macabre. You want a story about an innocent world showing something not so innocent. You want a darker story that shakes up the foundations of the pleasant little world you've come to enjoy, don't you? Maybe the story in question is kinda funny, but in the end, if it were on the silver-screen, it'd come with cinematic gore and murder. Just remember, though; it's all...
Horrorfiction
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Flashes of red painted her vision as the dark surrounding shrouded a piercing twinge that accompanied each crimson phantasm. The sound of metal sinking into something soft at a quick succession echoed dim and numb as it slowed to a crawl before coming to a stop. It became harder and harder to breathe as a phantom pain in her chest blurred her senses from one final pierce. It was hard to focus, but as she drifted further into the blackness, she managed to catch the moving color of a friend in dawning and draining horror. Rainbow Dash, a cerulean pegasus with an unmistakable rainbow mane, was covered from head to hooves in what seemed deep red ichor like out of some horror film. Crying and sobbing in the muffled throb as if she was watching from underwater, her dear friend held her close, only to scream out, “No... nononoNONONO! I didn't... Oh Celestia, no... What have I done?! WHAT DID I DO!?”
She then felt her body drop as Dash screamed harder than she ever had before, retching in the process, while the pegasus scrambled to get away, pressing against the far wall. The whole thing terrified her to the core, but what came next, even through her blackening vision and fading hearing, came through clear as day.
In a broken, hysteric filled fit, Rainbow Dash began to sing an old song she knew all too well. “... G-giggle at the ghastly... hee hee... S-snortle at the spooOOooky...” The manic, sick, and broken laughter that followed punctuated those words as consciousness fully submerged into blackness.
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With a start, Pinkie Pie woke up, holding back a harrowing scream, while her light cerulean eyes darted around the room. She pawed at her pink body with her hooves quickly in a panic, looking for any sign of injuries that didn't exist. Upon realizing it was only a nightmare, she slumped against the backboard of her bed, giving a quivering sigh.
This nightmare, this horrible, horrible nightmare hasn't gone away ever since she watched that horror movie with her friends two weeks ago. Everyone warned her that "Backstabbers Part 3" would be too intense for her, but she insisted, sick of having to be left behind along with Fluttershy and Spike, while the rest went to go see it. If anything, she figured a horror movie might be exciting, and would quickly get her into the spirit of the upcoming Nightmare Night celebrations. Oh how she wished she could have relented and just stayed home. What was worse though was that each nightmare became worse with each showing. Becoming more and more graphic and real to her. She could almost feel the knife piercing her chest at the hooves of her own friend. Pinkie gritted her teeth, tears welling up in her eyes, as the young mare insisted her friend would NEVER do that to her. However, the growing doubt in the back of her mind continued to jab at her since that day, forcing her to stay home more and more often, keeping uncharacteristically far away from her friend as much as possible.
Looking out the window, she witnessed the pale glow of the moon, contrasting the harsh shadows of her once pleasant and colorful bedroom. The brutal silence and loneliness finally pushed her hard enough to break down in tears, hide under the covers, and pray she could go back to sleep without the torment of any more horrific visions.
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The next day started off relatively normal. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and ponies eagerly greeted and participated in the new day with gusto. Everyone was in a bright and chipper mood. Everyone, that was, except for Pinkie, whom was both struggling to keep her eyes open and keep her mind off of her nightmare. Every moment she fought the urge to feed the doubt against her friend, and every moment she found herself actually considering the possibility. This lead to unfortunate side effects, as any baking she attempted ended up wrong in one way or another. As distressing as that would have been, on a normal day she could at least get some help with it from Mr. and Ms. Cake. However, today was the day that they had to deliver a very special and particular order down in Apploosa. If only the spooked mare didn't agree to watch over and run the shop while they were gone almost a month ago in advance, the Cakes would be able to take over while Pinkie could retreat to her room and try to sleep the problem away.
At least Rainbow Dash isn't here, she thought, there's no way I'd be able to deal with her here right now. Smiling sadly, she forced herself back to work, trying desperately to keep her mind off of things. A jingle at the front door took her attention, and the gasp of pure dismay followed as soon as she saw who it was.
Rainbow Dash sauntered into the shop, heading straight for the front counter with a gentle smile coupled with troubled eyes. Pinkie, in her panic, quickly ducked back into the kitchen to avoid being seen and never managed to catch sight of her friend's honest concern.
"Hey, Pinkie," she said with her trademark scratchy voice, "You in there? Ponies are saying that the baked goods you made taste a little off. Are you alright, cause, that doesn't sound like you... You're probably in the kitchen taking care of something, right? Hold on, I'll come to you."
Pinkie froze. To be honest, it was rather silly to believe that her friend wouldn't try to call on her or immediately suspect she'd be back here. However, considering she was running on empty from the mostly insomnia induced nights, she had very little other plan of action. Her heart began to quicken a little in panic as she heard Rainbow Dash's hooves step around the counter and head for her location in the kitchen, but she swallowed hard and tried to stay under control.
Rounding the corner and through the doorway, Dash finally confronted her troubled friend. "Pinkie, are you ok?"
"Y-yeah, Dash, I'm f-fine!" Pinkie said with a fake grin plastered on her face, trying to hide her nervousness.
"Really, cause, you seem, well, not fine. Like, something is really, really bothering you," Rainbow Dash said, "Like that time you thought we didn't want to be friends with you... only with less puppeteering of flour and rocks..."
"N-no, I'm totally ok," she fumbled, "A-anyway, I need to check on-"
"Pinkie, it's me. You can tell me if something is wrong." The good friend then took a step forward, which alerted and startled the already wound up party mare.
Scrambling away to the other side of the kitchen, she swiped a plastic scraping spatula and held it in defense with her forehooves, pointing it at Rainbow Dash. "S-stay back!" she shrieked, waving the harmless utensil about. "I-I'm warning you!"
"Pinkie, this is ridiculous. What is going on with you?!" she barked. Pinkie flinched as her friend took another step towards her, which caused even Dash to flinch at the reaction. Eyes glowering at Pinkie, she crouched low to the ground and let her wings extend. Pinkie's eyes widened in horror, but before anything could be done, Dash swiftly charged towards her friend in determination. Haphazardly knocking over ingredients and harmless kitchen dishes along the way, she then expertly tackled her friend, pinning her forehooves to the floor. Pinkie struggled from the sudden lunge, eyes welling up in tears as her panic continued to rise.
"Pinkie?!"
"No please!"
"PINKIE?!"
"Don't hurt me!"
"PINKIE!!!"
Pinkie pie stopped struggling, flinching to her name being shouted so loud in her ear, but refused to look at her friend, tears streaming from her face.
"Look at me," Rainbow Dash said gently.
There was a long lull of silence between the two friends, but eventually Pinkie's tear filled eyes looked up to Dash's concerned filled own. She saw no fear or contempt. No madness hid behind her worried expression. Any growing doubt she had, any nightmarish idea or consideration she harbored all but melted as her emotional dam broke, tears streaming which accompanied loud sobs.
Rainbow Dash got off of her friend, and gave her a little space, sitting nearby and facing the distressed pony. Pinkie kept crying, hooves rubbing at her eyes as she sat back up, curling inwards from the intensity of her breakdown. Dash gave a sigh of relief, before a sudden gasp as Pinkie swiftly lunged at her friend and gave her a crushingly deep hug, still bawling between incoherent babbling. Dash smiled as she allowed her friend some of that comfort... up until she realized Pinkie was holding her a little too long.
"O-ok, Pinkie, that's enough," she said, gingerly pushing her friend off. "Alright, what was this all about? Why were you ready to beat me with a batter scraper?"
Pinkie sniffled a little, rubbing her eyes again, trying to get the stray tears. She gave a cough, before finally replying. "I-it's a little embarrassing. You're gonna laugh at me."
"It can't be that bad. Now, what's up?"
"Well... I had this *hic* reoccurring nightmare, uhm, every day ... where... uh... I don't know why... but you were afraid of me... and *hic* and ended up... well..."
"Hang on..." Rainbow Dash said, raising her hoof, "These nightmares. They didn't start the night you watched that horror movie with us, did it?"
The pink mare's face turned a slightly deeper shade of rose as she averted her gaze from Dash. "Y-yes," she confessed.
Rainbow Dash's hoof slapped against her own forehead and dragged down her face, "Pinkie, we TOLD you it'd be too intense for you." The element of Loyalty was about to continue berating her on the subject until she looked at her friend once again. She was a mess. Her hair was frazzled and split, there were dark bags under her eyes, and the veins in the whites of her eyes were a bit more pronounced than they would after a single cry. She sighed, relenting on the subject matter, and decided to ask about the dream. "Tell me what you saw..."
Pinkie began to explain how the entire dream played out, explaining that it happened so much that it came back to her every night in more and more vivid detail, always up until the end where things would become blurry and horrifying. Rainbow Dash had sense enough to be gentle and let the pony take her time in telling her what was going on, and refused to interject until she had the full story.
Upon learning about everything that happened, Rainbow Dash decided to reassure her. "None of that would ever happen, Pinkie. I promise. You know how in your dream Applejack talked to me before I officially snapped?" Pinkie nodded, waiting for Dash to continue, "Well, if she knew something was wrong, I'm sure she'd stop me long before I did anything that could get anyone hurt... like how I stopped you from slapping me with that thing... and from accidentally poisoning the town with baked bads while you were struggling with this. Isn't that what friends are for?"
"Yeah," Pinkie agreed with a small smile.
"Besides, you don't even have a metal knife in this bakery. I should know, I've been here often enough to know you don't need one. And even if you did, I know for a fact you'd never leave one to sit out on a table all alone like that. I mean, that's just dangerous and stupid."
"Yeah," Pinkie replied once again, rubbing her forleg with her hoof sheepishly.
"Also, I might have a lot of pride, but I'm not going to hide something like a terrifying dream from one of my best friends, especially if it's bothering me, and you shouldn't either. Ok?"
Pinkie looked back to her friend with another small smile, before replying with, "Ok, Dashie."
"Remember what you always said. 'Giggle at the ghosties!'" Pinkie reeled back for a moment, before Dash realized exactly what she said. "Oh, sorry, that was part of the dream, wasn't it?"
"It was... but it's alright. I don't have anything to be afraid of. Thanks."
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After spending the afternoon helping Pinkie Pie complete the rest of her orders and doing everything she could to lift the party pony's spirits, the two decided to close shop for a little while to go and visit their other friends. Rainbow Dash made the suggestion to visit Sweet Apple Acres first, since she heard from Applejack that Rarity was supposed to be there to spend a little time with her while also pitching an idea for "farmer fashions". Pinkie giggled at the idea, wondering how Rarity would be able to make such an aesthetic chic enough for high fashion.
It didn't take them long to reach the orchard, as clouds began to cover the sky while the wind picked up, whipping through the trees crisply and sharply. Rainbow Dash commented on the strange shift in weather, since there wasn't a scheduled overcast in Ponyville for another three days. However, musings on the matter halted when the two mares realized that not a soul was outside to greet them. Not even the rest of the Apple clan.
"That's weird," Rainbow Dash said aloud.
"Well, maybe Applejack and Rarity are in the barn?"
"Maybe."
The two approached the building as the wind dropped dead. It was then that they realized the whole place seemed to be silent, almost eerily so. As they got closer, they could hear someone muttering behind the barn door. Both Pinkie and Dash's bones chilled from how creepy it seemed, but they pressed against the door, opening it slowly, holding their breath and hoping their fears were just unfounded.
Inside the barn was an absolute wreck. Tools were strewn about and it seemed like the whole place was bereft of either of their friends. They took a step inside out of timid curiosity, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. Pinkie yelped as she jumped back, causing Rainbow Dash to spin around towards her flighty friend.
"Pinkie, what's wrong!?"
"I stepped on something squishy!"
"What?" Rainbow Dash turned back and looked on the floor. It was just a little bit of mud. "Pinkie, it's only mud. The only one that should be terrified of that is... hang on..." As her eyes adjusted, more of the interior of the building became evident to her and it seemed that something had gone horribly wrong. She could see little curls of royal purple hair, sprinkled with little red dots, littering the ground all around them in the fading shadows. Deeper still, she could see splotches of red that made Rainbow Dash's skin crawl.
The element of Loyalty took a step back in shock as she tried to reason that it either must be her mind playing tricks on her or red paint from the barn itself. However, upon hearing an unsettling giggle from an unlikely source, the two mares' faces flushed white in fear.
Out of the darkness stepped the orange coated mare Applejack carrying a worn and stained shovel. Her blond mane was matted with blood splotches as a manic grin crossed her face. Stranger and more terrifying still, was the frilly dress and pointed princess's cap that she wore, which was also drenched in the red ichor.
"Who else want's to be... pretty?"
Both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash screamed.
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Applejack woke up in a cold sweat, pawing her body a bit to make sure she wasn't dressed in something horrible and caked with gore. In a panic, she looked to her dresser, and notices her stetson hat was still there and ready to be taken up at the beginning of her day. She looked about her room, checking the shadows to make sure everything was as it should be. With a sigh of relief, she realized it was all just a dumb nightmare. She then looked to the clock to check her time, and scowled.
A groan of annoyance escaped her as she noticed it was barely two in the morning, far too early to do any morning work. Grabbing a pillow, she stuffed it against her face.
"Con sarnet..."
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Silence prevailed the stage, as the peculiar host held open the tome he read from, talons gripping the covers and pages in a shaking vice. Eyes stared at the pages intensely for a moment or two, before he slammed the book shut and gave a sigh. Upon doing so, he stood up from his seat, and addressed his incorporeal audience.
I... I'm sorry. This was... This was just awful. I'll be back with something I've read before hand next time.
With a dejected look, head hanging low, the being slowly walked off stage, exiting right, as the lights that were cast upon him snuffed out one by one. It didn't take long for the gothic amphitheater to once again become silent. With such stillness in the wake, the location of grand, darkly story telling patiently awaited the day it would be needed again, come old host or new.
Author's Note
This fic is basically a jab at (to a lesser extent) Cupcakes, and it's "Sequel" story Rocket to Insanity (for the most part).
While Cupcakes wasn't TOO out of place, as it fit in with the horror atmosphere it was trying to convey, I'm not going to lie when I say that everything seemed just a bit out of character, for both Pinkie and Rainbow. Yes, it was a "unique" situation, but it seemed to be such a dramatic shift to what they are in their universe, and what they became in the fic. Which kinda brings me to its sequel, Rocket to Insanity.
All three characters present ran on the "I'm an idiot" kind of logic, which was a weak way to tell the story. What's worse is the fact that RD was WILDLY out of character. Ok, fine, she's been having these nightmares for a good long time, but she didn't go and talk to someone about it? WHY? She's the element of loyalty, and such a thing goes both ways. One could say it was a pride thing, but she even learned to set aside her ego and confess her "problems" to her friends (remember the lesson of Read it and Weep?). Maybe Pinkie, in the story, wouldn't have been able to get RD to say what's on her mind, but Applejack should have. Time and again she'd stop RD from doing something stupid even if she even remotely THOUGHT she would, and being a nervous, twitchy, obviously-hiding-something wreck would be more than just one great big red flag to her. And Rainbow Dash should have left the moment she started to hear voices. And on top of all of that, WHAT THE HELL IS A KNIFE DOING SITTING OUT IN THE OPEN?! I mean, for god sakes, there are normally babies in that place, whom could get their hooves on it!
The entire story was manipulative and incredibly out of place in terms of character personalities and situations.
That's my piece. Feel free to talk about it.
Happy Nightmare Night.
