Every year, during Nightmare Night, a few foals always venture a tiny bit too far into the Everfree Forest. Farther than they went last year, farther than their friends went, farther than they went themselves.
And, every Nightmare Night, one of them goes missing.
It’s always chalked up to it being the Everfree Forest and whatnot. They assume a Cockatrice got to the foolish foals. Or maybe a manticore. Or maybe, they just fell off a cliff. Those were abundant in the Everfree.
And this year was no exception.
Four small foals approached the edge of the Everfree, all four of them shaking, yet three of them determined to make the fourth renounce her title as “na-na-na-boo-boo, I’m better than you”.
“If you guys are too…chicken,” Diamond Tiara hissed through chattering teeth, “you can just back out. I wouldn’t, uh, hold it against you. It’s…It’s pretty scary in there.”
Scootaloo let out a loud snort of laughter. “Hah! As if! We’re not chicken, right guys?” Turning to see her two partners in crime, she was severely disappointed.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were both looking at her in a way that said “hey, maybe we are.” Scootaloo sighed, and took the first few steps into the Everfree. “See? Nothing. Come on; we’ve got to beat Diamond Tiara’s stupid record.”
With that, the spoiled unicorn leapt into the Everfree with defiance. “No, you won’t chickens!” She shouted, mocking the two ponies still at the other side of the forest’s edge. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged a single glance, before steadily walking in to join their friend, and their enemy. When all four of them had steadied their hearts with deep breaths, they pressed onward, determined to embarrass the other party.
About two hours later, it didn’t feel as though they had made any progress.
The same dark, uninviting trees.
The same depressed vines, wrapping around those uninviting trees.
The same ominous birds, resting on those depressed vines around those uninviting trees.
The same sounds - okay, you get the picture.
“Hey, what’s that?” Scootaloo shouted, pointing at the entrance to a cave. “I bet none of you guys have ever been in there, Tiara!”
Diamond Tiara began to shake and shudder. “Nopony goes in those caves, you idiot.”
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “What, are you chicken?”
“She’s telling the truth.” Scootaloo turned in disbelief, to see that Apple Bloom was also shaking. “That cave has a terrible monster in it, and it…it takes anypony that gets too close!”
“And if you ask me,” Sweetie Belle whined, “we’re already too close…”
Scootaloo released a puff of air. “Yeah, whatever. I’m going in.”
“Scootaloo, no!”
The orange Pegasus ignored her friends’ protests, and got closer to the cave entrance. The closer she got, the more her bones shuddered.
Finally, she was about five yards from the entrance, when…
Yellow, glowing eyes appeared.
“Who dares to come near my cave!?” A raspy voice demanded. Scootaloo drew into a small ball, shaking and shuddering as the eyes crept closer.
“Please don’t eat me,” she whimpered.
“Who dares to come near the mighty, the fearful, the ferocious…
“Rainbow Dash!”
With that, a cyan Pegasus wearing a black costume leapt out from the shadows, scaring all four of the foals. As they screamed, the cyan Pegasus frowned. “Why aren’t you guys running away?” She asked, quickly getting irritated.
“Rainbow Dash, that wasn’t funny!” Scootaloo shouted. “You scared me!”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “It wasn’t meant to be funny. Now, run, before you get hurt.”
“Dammit Rainbow Dash, I’m going to-”
Scootaloo’s sentence was interrupted by a roar that seemed to pierce through reality itself.
Rainbow Dash’s face contorted into a twisted frown, and, scooping up the orange Pegasus, she dashed off into the night, taking the foal as far away from there as possible.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom glanced at each other, and both ran off, knowing that if something scared Rainbow Dash, it was something to be afraid of.
The only pony that stayed was Diamond Tiara, who was whimpering and babbling in fear. Neither Apple Bloom nor Sweetie Belle returned for her, as they were far too panicked.
Rooted to the spot, she could only stare in horror as a hulking mass…Slithered? Crawled? Walked? Levitated? She couldn’t tell. All she could see was a mass of…limbs, all pulling this being closer and closer to its prey.
A hissing noise was audible as it drew closer. That hissing noise slowly became clear words, full of malevolence.
“May death be your final pain, young one.”
Diamond Tiara simply whimpered in fear. She truly hoped this was a prank.
Then again, the way its legs bent to hang off of trees didn’t make it seem like a prank.
And neither did the appendage that jabbed into her throat, letting only a small gurgle out of the foals’ mouth. Slowly, delicately, the monster extricated the unicorn’s head from the neck. As soon as they were separate, the limp, bleeding body was left to fall onto the ground, and the appendage raised above the rest of the body.
And so did several other appendages, each with the face of a disappeared foal, staring out but never seeing, acting as a new pair of eyes for the beast.
As soon as it had confirmed that no other prey was lurking around, it slowly dragged its way back into the cave, the dead body in tow.
"Rainbow Dash, let me go!"
Scootaloo's voice was hoarse, and despite knowing that Rainbow Dash couldn't hear her over the roar of the wind, she still screamed at the cyan Pegasus.
"Rainbow Dash!!!"
Finally, the Pegasus started to slow, and landed in the courtyard of her mansion in the clouds.
"You should be safe here," Rainbow Dash panted, her wings still aching from the break-neck pace at which she had flown. "But don't leave until Nightmare Night is over."
Flapping her wings a few times, the cyan Pegasus gazed across the entirety of the Everfree Forest. Relief spread through her body like a cool wave as she saw two ponies run out of the Everfree Forest.
"Scootaloo...Did you see anything?" Rainbow Dash asked as she landed. "Did you see what it did?"
Scootaloo gulped, backing away from the obviously angry Rainbow Dash. "N...No, I didn't."
Rainbow Dash sighed in relief. "Good..." She walked over to a cloud-tree and sat on its roots, staring at the ground in thought. "Never go back into the Everfree again, Scootaloo."
Scootaloo frowned at the idea. "But what if-"
"Never again, Scootaloo!"
Scootaloo drew back, hurt by how intense and harsh Rainbow Dash's glare was. "I...I'm sorry, Rainbow..."
Rainbow Dash sighed, and cricked her neck. "No; I'm sorry...I should've made you run, it's all my fault..."
Scootaloo raised her eyebrows in concern, and sat next to her friend on the tree root. "Rainbow Dash, you didn't do nothing wrong..."
Rainbow Dash sighed. "I should've told you to run the second I saw you...I shouldn't have let you get that close..."
Scootaloo placed a hoof on her idol's foreleg. "Rainbow, all that happened was that something roared, right?"
"No, Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash shouted in frustration. She jumped off the branch, and began to fly in a slow circle; basically pacing in the air. "It took Diamond Tiara!"
Scootaloo started to laugh, and the cyan Pegasus looked at her in disbelief. "What in the hay are you laughing at?"
"She had it comin'!" The orange Pegasus exclaimed. "She was a total bully!"
Rainbow Dash came within inches of the foals' face, rooting her to the spot with eyes full of ire. "Don't you ever say that again, Scootaloo! Don't you ever dare say that again!"
Scootaloo felt tears creep into her eyes. "B-But why? All it does is scare her, r-right? It's all j-just a prank, right?"
Rainbow Dash sighed, and rested a hoof on the filly's shoulder. "You're so innocent, Scootaloo," she said with a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Scootaloo...Diamond Tiara is dead," she said softly. "The thing in that cave just killed her."
Scootaloo laughed nervously. "Th-This is a joke, right? It's a joke? It's not actually happening?" Rainbow Dash didn't answer. Rather, she took off the black mask to let the filly see just how serious she was. The sadness in the daredevil's eyes was one that Scootaloo had never seen before in anypony's eyes, let alone Rainbow Dash's.
Scootaloo began to cry, and suddenly felt very scared. "But...She's not actually dead, right?" She stammered, hoping; neigh, praying, that it wasn't true.
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, and hugged the crying filly close to her heart. "I'm sorry Scootaloo...But at least you didn't have to see. At least you get to keep some innocence..."
"No," Scootaloo whimpered. "I don't believe you. She's not dead; she can't be. I mean...We weren't friends, but I didn't want her dead!"
Rainbow Dash sighed. "And I didn't want her dead. But, all the same, I had to watch as it cut off her head, and used it as a new set of eyes..."
Scootaloo frowned. "W...Who?"
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. "Me."
Scootaloo took a step back in confusion. "What? But...You're right in front of me...You're not dead...It didn't cut your head off..."
Rainbow Dash kept her head angled towards the ground, and Scootaloo couldn't see the changes occurring on the cyan Pegasus' face. "It put it back."
Scootaloo took a few more steps back. She was about to run, when Rainbow Dash's head turned at an impossible angle. The cyan Pegasus' neck snapped, and a twisted smile, full of teeth that dripped blood, replaced the usual, cocky smirk. And her eyes were full of nothing but pure death; large, pulsating, yellow orbs of death.
"It feeds on innocence."
