The Masquerade

Our story begins in the fiery depths of Tartarus. Tartarus is a cavernous realm, filled to the brim with bright, eternally glowing flames, pitch black rocks, which form most of the structures here, and thousands upon thousands of creatures, locked in this hellish realm for the rest of eternity, suffering under the intense heat and their own individual punishments. These punishments are issued to them by the former emperor of the Draconequui, who has had a large, jagged pillar of obsidian driven through his serpentine body, pinning him to the ceiling of this vast pit of suffering and is now the judge of the damned souls who come here.

Amongst these tormented souls is Blanc Masque, who was an actor in life and, as such, his cutie mark consists of two purple masks, one smiling, the other frowning. His mane is a solid, pitch black, as is his tail, and his coat is a pale white. His punishment was to have his eyes gouged out, his tongue sliced out, a white mask bolted into his skull over his face with a circular hole over where the mouth should be, which serve as an opening for a tentacle planted in his mouth where his tongue once was, barbed wire wrapped around his neck, and to get holes poked into his abdomen. These holes now serve as openings for pale-green colored tentacles, the purpose for which are unknown to him so far, but he was told he will know what to do with them once the time comes.

As he was serving his everlasting punishment, he looked up to the gates of Tartarus and saw that Cerberus has, strangely, strayed away from his post. Observing this, he takes this opportunity to escape this miserable, foul-smelling pit, sprinting as fast as his weak, malnourished body would allow him. Jumping from platform to platform, being driven by sheer force of will alone, he raced vigorously to the gates, his body shaking violently from the sudden physical exertion after wasting away in the perpetually debilitating realm of Tartarus.

Finally, after sprinting and jumping for what seemed like forever, he finally made it to the gates and went rushing right through before its usually vigilant guardian could get back to guarding it. After he ran through the massive gates, which was in the form of a large, shimmering, orange-colored and yellow-bordered portal, he stops himself to gaze upon the mortal world, taken aback by the night's beauty.

He stared into the violet-shaded sky, admiring Princess Luna's wonderful night after all these years of suffering in Tartarus. "How long.. has it been.. since I felt the simple natural pleasure of viewing the night sky...?" He choked out in a hoarse, low-pitched croak. "Ahhh... it has been ages, Princess Luna.." He gazed upon the large field of green grass in silence.

Suddenly, he heard a loud roar, which immediately pierced through his entire body. "Cerberus!" He thought ruefully, now pushing his exhausted body as far as he could as he ran away from the source of the roar, which was now running after him. It repeatedly attempted to stomp on him as it pursued him, blowing large balls of fire at him, which he narrowly dodged. He gets slightly singed several times as tiny sparks of flame touch his coat, which he immediately notices and rolls to the right to put it out.

The third time he does this throws the beast off, as it collides with a tree at the beginning of the Everfree Forest. It slammed its head against the tree with great force, hearing a grotesque cracking sound as it does so. It roars in pain as one of its former prisoners escapes. Blanc looked back, pleased to see he's apparently given his pursuer the slip. He then rushes into the Everfree Forest to find a place to rest.

Within the seemingly safe darkness of the forest, he stops to take some breaths. Panting harshly through his mask and brutalized windpipe, he surveys the area. It's dark, as the trees block out the comforting light of the moon with their thick brushes of leaves. It almost feels like his former home.

Then, he hears a low growling sound. He turns to find a large, beastly timberwolf, who looks hungry. As it turns out, Blanc is hungry as well. Just then, instinct kicks in for Blanc and he sprouts his green tentacles from his body, which open up at the tip, and another tentacle emerges from his mask's mouth hole. This tentacle is different from the others, as it's a harsh shade of red, the color of blood. The tentacle rips open at the tip and stretches backwards, revealing a somewhat large, shiny black blade.

The timberwolf, now frightened at this intruder's display of tentacles, takes a few steps back, whimpering. Blanc takes a step forward, the timberwolf backward. Two steps forward, two steps backward. Then, Blanc grabs the timberwolf as it turns to run and wraps it up. "Ohh, no... you aren't running. I have a much better idea..." Blanc croaks out, raising his bladed tentacle upwards. He slams the blade down into the timberwolf's wooden skull, splitting it in half in one, neat slice. The creature's shiny green blood spills everywhere.

"It's chow time..." Blanc says, realizing what his tentacles are for: eating. The rest of his tentacles begin pulling the timberwolf apart, the blade slicing it down the middle to assist them. Eventually, he finally rips its body in half, and his four green tentacles get to work, sucking up the blood, then the innards, which are also green, but much darker, and eventually the tentacles finally succeed in sucking up the entire timberwolf as they swallowed the hard parts of the creature whole. They did the job with surprising speed and efficiency, as the process only took a few minutes or so.

Blanc let out a hoarse moan, this one of pleasure, when the tentacles finished their job. "I require more sustenance..." He said. His body suddenly split open and began to swallow his flesh, it seemed. As it did so, his muscle tissue turned brown and hard, like the bark of a tree. Within about a minute or so, his entire biological structure had changed. His mask was gone. His eyes were now small, green, glowing slits. He had become a timberwolf by consuming it.

"Ahhh... so that's what the tentacles do." Blanc said, surprised he had the ability to consume and shape-shift into the creatures he consumed now, regardless of the law of conservation of mass. He wondered if he had this power since his imprisonment in Tartarus. He turned in his new form and saw other members of his first victim's pack, all staring in fear of what he had just done to the member he just consumed. "Awww.. how nice of them", he thinks to himself. "They all want to help feed me. Well, I'll be happy to oblige..."

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Angel Bunny awoke from his slumber, his stomach growling. He stretched and rubbed both of his eyes, then gazed around Fluttershy's abode. Soft, dim sunlight was shining through the windows. He slowly got up from his small, makeshift bed, lovingly created for him by his owner. He walked over to Fluttershy's bed, quietly wondering why the birds hadn't woken up yet and, more importantly, why they haven't awoken his owner.

He hopped onto Fluttershy's bed and began violently shaking her in her slumber. After a few moments, she woke up and gazed upon her pet bunny in the dimly-lit cottage. "Oh.. good morning, Angel." Fluttershy said in her soft voice, beginning to get up to start the day. Angel sat there and nodded as an answer to his owner's greeting, then pointed to his stomach as a request for food.

"Ohh.. you're hungry, aren't you?" Fluttershy said, getting up from her bed, as did Angel, who nodded impatiently with his arms crossed as an answer. "Here, let me get you some salad."

Fluttershy flew up to one of her cabinets and retrieved a bowl, then flew to another cabinet to retrieve the appropriate ingredients and tools. She laid the bowl on the counter and started to prepare Angel's meal, humming softly as she did so. After a few moments, she heard a soft knock on the door. "Umm, Angel, could you get that for me?" Fluttershy said, turning to Angel, who was standing by the counter, observing his owner. He nodded in response, and started for the door. He opened it to gaze upon another member of his species: a bunny.

He raised an eyebrow questioningly, and stomped on the floor several times to alert his owner to the bunny's presence. Fluttershy, hearing this signal, turned to see what the problem was, and saw the bunny standing next to angel. The bunny was just staring into the cottage.

"Oh.. hello there." Fluttershy said in her usual soft, timid tone, dropping the knife she was using to cut the carrots. "What can I do for you? Is there something wrong?" Fluttershy came down to the door and lowered her head to see eye to eye with the bunny. In response, the bunny slowly nodded its head, and pointed to its stomach, in the same way Angel did. Angel stared at the bunny in annoyance at it for interrupting his owner as she was making his meal. Fluttershy nodded in response to the bunny's charades, understanding it as a plea for food.

Unable to resist a hungry animal requesting food, Fluttershy obliged the creature. "Ohhh, you're hungry, too? Well, come right in and I'll get you some food." As she said this, Angel stomped on the floor and pointed to himself as a demand that she gets him food first. Fluttershy looked at him, closed her eyes and sighed. She turned her head to the other bunny and said "I'm sorry, but do you mind if I get Angel his food first?". Fluttershy cocked her head in Angel's direction as she mentioned his name to the bunny. "You see, he just woke up and he's really cranky if he doesn't get his breakfast immediately afterwards."

Fluttershy's voice slowed down and lowered slightly in very subtle frustration at Angel's attitude as she finished the sentence. The bunny respectfully nodded and came in, walking over to Angel's bed as Fluttershy closed the door. Angel, watching it doing this, immediately got in front of his bed with his hands outstretched to stop the alien bunny from resting on his bed. The bunny just stared blankly at Angel in response.

Fluttershy looked down as this occurred and said "Oh, Angel, let him rest. I'm sure the poor thing is tired. He probably came out of the Everfree Forest, after all. Remember how tired and scared you were when I first found you?" Fluttershy frowned, still annoyed at Angel's selfishness, but she repressed it, as she does with most of her negative emotions. Angel hesitantly moved out of the bunny's way, and the bunny laid down on the makeshift bed.

Angel turned to look up at his owner making his food, when he suddenly heard a quiet, wet-sounding noise. He turned to find the bunny in his bed sprouting odd green tentacles from its body. In alarm and fear, he tried to turn and flee from this abomination, but it wrapped its tentacles around his mouth and body to prevent him from alerting his owner, then it raised him into the air and, as slowly and quietly as it possibly could, it ripped him apart and consumed him, Fluttershy entirely oblivious to the carnage unfolding behind her.

After sucking up all of Angel's blood, it looked up at Fluttershy with a smile. It rose from its bed, and slowly walked closer to the yellow-coated pegasus in flight before him. His mouth split open, his slicing tentacle sliding out and the blade quickly rushed out of the tentacle, ready to eviscerate the creature in front of it.

Fluttershy, hearing an odd, wet-sounding noise, turned and looked down to see the abomination and let out a loud scream. The bunny immediately wrapped its tentacles around Fluttershy, restricting her legs and wings as they wrap around them, two for each, and slammed her to the ground before the bunny, with her belly exposed to it. The green tentacles stretched Fluttershy's legs out of the way, allowing for a nice, clean cut right through her body.

The red tentacle's blade then slammed right into Fluttershy's body, reducing her screams to quiet whimpers and twisting her face into a pained grimace as it quickly sliced her abdomen wide open across its length. The tentacles then began absorbing Fluttershy's body starting with the internal organs that spilled out of the hole. Fluttershy soon went silent, and for the last time.