Chapter 1 - Blossoming of the Fog
Part 1 – Blossom Everstone
Chapter 1 – Blossoming of the Fog
Heh… Ponyville. The town of peace and happiness supposedly. Hell, I have been here for two days and I’ve yet to have any peace. All the constant phone calls with no one on the other line; all the knocks on my door with nopony on the other side to claim ownership of the knocking hoof. The worst thing was that I didn’t even know anypony yet. So who would be stalking me? Eh… maybe it was all just my imagination. Maybe the peace and quiet was just getting me. I did move from manehatten after all.
I Had moved this way after… After the death of my daughter, Willow. She wasn’t even old enough to gain her cutie mark yet. After her death… I just couldn’t bring myself to live in that city anymore. So I moved. Everypony always spoke of this town. How it’s the “most peaceful place in equestria”; how it’s “The most special place you could ever live in”. Hopefully I’m just missing something.
Guess it’s not all bad… At least I got away from all the ponies that felt sorry for me; all the ponies who constantly worried about the pony that lost her only daughter. I just couldn’t deal with it, so one day I simply slipped out of town.
But… Maybe I did bring something from manehatten with me. Maybe… Maybe I brought the guilt of my daughter’s death with me. She had been in that hospital for two months because of that damned illness. They told me there was no cure, so I guess I just… Gave up all hope. After that I began a downward spiral caused by sorrow and depression. Now that I think about it, I might have been able to do something; anything to help my poor daughter. I… I wasn’t even there for her in her time of need.
Maybe that’s why I truly decided to come to Ponyville. She had read so many stories about how great this town was. All the stories about how happy it was all the time. That was her only wish before she got sick… And I promised that to her. Perhaps that’s why I came here… To fulfill my daughter’s final wish. She may not be here, but… I just had to do it for myself; to do it so that I may be close to my daughter once more.
So here I was… Sitting in a house that I had bought a month after my daughter’s death, wishing that she was here with me. I knew nothing of the town, nor had I ever been here. But strangely, I felt a strong connection here. Was… Was my daughter here with me? Was she waiting here after she died for me to come so we could be together once more?
“Are you here Willow?” My voice is greeted with nothing but silence just as I had expected. Couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t try though. With a sigh I stood from my bed and put on my usual clothing. Nothing fancy… Just a simple dark pink shirt (It was more a reddish color) and a long skirt which didn’t impair my movement, since I always felt constricted when clothing did so. Oh, and of course my mother’s dark blue Wonderbolt’s jacket, which was always a fort of lucky charm to her, since she got it from my father who was once a member of the Wonderbolt’s. It was actually the only thing that I kept which belonged to my father.
Today might have been a normal day for most ponies… But not for me. Because for me… I had visit to the hospital planned. They said they might have some info on what exactly the disease that took my daughter’s life was. Not only that, but I had also found the place that my daughter wanted to come to Ponyville for.
It was apparently a brand new building that Celestia had built for fillies her age. She never told me what the building was, but she did make it quite clear that she really wanted to go. Who was I to say no? So we made plans to head over in a week or two, then comes that damn disease.
The door swung ajar upon my hoof making contact. Must have forgot to lock it last night… Oh well. My house wasn’t the best place ever, especially compared to my flat back in the city. But the size was perfect for me. As I walked down the main street, I couldn’t help but notice that the streets were empty. Where was Everypony?
I continued walking down the main street towards the large baker called Sugarcube Corner. Perhaps there was a birthday party? If not, then a cupcake will really lift my spirits. Trotting down the street, I couldn’t help but notice that everything was so… Dead. All the lights were off; all the windows closed; all the streets completely void of all life.
My right hoof placed against the hoof of the floor of Sugarcube Corner. I took a deep breath and pushed. Upon entrance I instantly saw not a group of fillies having a party… Instead I didn’t see anything actually. The whole place looked completely abandoned.
“Hello?” I began to struggle to remember the name of the lively pony that worked here… What was it? Oh yeah! “Pinkie Pie? Anypony home?” Nope. No response… I walked behind the counter and began to look around. Maybe she was upstairs? No, they would have left a note or something of the sort. Oh wait… Maybe my welcoming party was today. Somepony had told me (It was more of a warning) that every time a pony moved into the town Pinkie had to throw them a welcoming party.
This knowledge in hoof, I began to exit the room before I noticed a shadow moving in the kitchen. “Pinkie Pie?” I stalked cautiously towards the entrance to the kitchen. Once near I stood on my hind hooves with my back to the wall and looked around the corner. Once I was sure it was clear, I stepped into it. Once inside I looked around the room. Strangely the kitchen looked as if it hadn’t been entered in about a year. Everything was dusty, but not yet rusty. But that wasn’t the worst
Part…
Right in the middle of the room was a pool of dark blood.
I gasped and jumped back into a rack filled with expired frosting (Frosting can expire?!) and old but not yet expired cake batter. Okay, calm down Blossom… Maybe it’s just paint? Or red frosting? Oh, who was I kidding? That was blood… I knew the sight from the hospital my daughter had been in. I started to near the blood pool as a very loud and annoying siren began to blare around me.
Was this really happening? Not only was the siren getting really annoying, but the walls were kind of… decaying. Well, not quite decaying. Instead, they looked as if they were sprouting blemished that were actually bleeding. The areas of the wall that weren’t sprouting blemishes were now nothing but a throbbing mass of what appeared to be muscle… Ew. Blood began to seep into pools around the bottom of the wall. The wall sort of looked like the disease that my daughter had… No, my eyes were just playing tricks on me. There was no way that this could actually be happening.
My thoughts jumbled up and crashed into a heap of unfinished ideas as I heard a loud crash from in the lobby. Like an idiot in a bad horror movie I snuck into the room to investigate. And that was a bit mistake… My eyes immediately caught contact with a terrible monstrosity that I will never forget…
The damned thing was about the size of an average pony… But despite the size, it was NOT an average pony. The moment it noticed that I was in the proximity of the room, it turned at me and glared with its bleeding eyes. On sight it began slowly stalk towards me with a terrible sloshing noise that sounded as if it was stomping through a pile of rotted cupcakes. If I hadn’t used the bathroom before leaving my house, then I might have soiled my skirt.
The siren continued to blare as the walls finished their final stages of rotting. They now honestly looked like rotted skin with the muscle showing behind it, complete with blood and everything. It was honestly quite sickening. They kind of reminded me of my daughter… Maybe I was just having a guilt nightmare? Just to be sure, I smacked my hoof against my face. Nope, this wasn’t a dream… The ‘thing’ in the lobby continued to stalk slowly towards me until I could almost feel its breath gently moving the hairs of my coat. Without any thoughts at all, I did what any pony in my situation would do…
I ran like hell.
Into the kitchen and out the back door; creature still behind me, I continued to dash to safety. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if that thing caught up with me. As I ran, I couldn’t help but wonder what that siren was. I mean, here I was; about to be killed by some demon like creatures, and I was wondering where a siren was coming from… Honestly…
A low guttural scream erupted from somewhere in my throat as soon as another one of the creatures jumped in front of my path. My hooves skidded to a painful screeching halt as my dashed died down to a mere trot, which stopped immediately. Great! Now what was I supposed to do? Fear began to grow into anxiety, then into panicked dread as the creatures began to surround me. But… They didn’t attack or eat me… Instead they simply stared at me with their bleeding eyes and rotting flesh.
Even though I was terrified, I couldn’t help but be intrigued as well. They were about the size of a normal pony as I said, but they also seemed bigger somehow. Maybe it was just because I was so terrified. A scream tried to escape my throat as one of the creatures opened its mouth, but my scream was choked down by terror. Once its mouth was fully opened, a tongue shot out of the blackness that was its mouth. Its tongue slowly neared me much to my displeasure.
Its tongue flicked around in front of me as if trying to taste the air in front of me. I wanted to move, but it was as if I was completely paralyzed by fear. Plus it wasn’t like I was going to with the crowd of creatures surrounding me. What I didn’t expect of course was what happened… The creatures all stood on their hind legs and began to howl loudly into the air like a pack of wild wolves. Almost immediately I began to feel a cold air beginning to envelop around me. Within sheer seconds the clear air was replaced with a thick fog that reduced my sight to a 15 foot bubble around me.
If I wasn’t terrified before (Which I was) I definitely was now… With the fog around me, the creatures began to close in the circle they held around me. I began to brace myself to be ripped apart by the angry creatures and closed my eyes. After a moment of waiting, I felt nothing. And I mean nothing at all. I quickly opened my eyes to see that the fog and creatures were gone, along with everything else.
The only thing I was able to see was a small light that was slowly growing larger as it neared me. Once it was right in front of me. I could easily see that it was a small orb of light, which I gratefully touched. Bad choice as usual… Upon contact with my hoof, I found myself back on Main Street, save for the small fact that I was now completely alone. Well, except for one slight thing…
A small filly. She was looking away from me, but slowly started turning towards me. My heart began to beat faster and faster until I felt it was going to simply fly out of my chest. When the filly turned and looked me in my eyes, it might as well have.
The pony looked at me with sad eyes, and said one simple word. A word that started my entire nightmare.
“Forgiveness.” The second the words slipped from its mouth, I could feel the world going dark as consciousness began to leave my body. The filly began to walk into the dark of the night until it was completely faded away. The last thing I saw before I collapsed was the small filly disappearing.
“Willow…” My daughter’s name slipped my mouth as I faded into a dreamless sleep.
