Lost in the Dark

‘Wait, is it even possible? How can she be here?’ Hige thought as he continued to concentrate on the rhythm of the beating. ‘It has to be her… there is no doubt in my mind, that’s her heart…’

Fluttershy couldn’t believe her eyes, one second she was in Ponyville and the next she is in the middle of a fight between two powerful stallions. Of the two stallions, one was covered in bandages, and the other was wearing a hood. The hooded stallion swung his scythe and the opposing stallion, but was countered by one of the bandaged stallion’s chains wrapping around the scythe and throwing it across the room. The hooded pony looked in awe as the bandaged pony hit him with enough force to send him crashing against the wall. The hooded pony became unconscious and faded away into nothing.

        The bandaged pony began to make his way towards Fluttershy. She stood still, fearing what he was going to do. “F-Fluttershy?” It asked in a familiar voice.

        “Hige? Is that you?” she asked quickly, slowly calming down.

        “Yes it’s me, Fluttershy. You have no idea how relieved I am to see you here, I need to show you something”, he said as he walked over to her. “Do you see these chains?” he asked.

        “Y-yes”, she answered.

        “I need you to pull them off”, he said.

        “But… But I’m not strong enough”, she said in a sad tone.

        “C’mon, trust me”, he said with a smile.

        “Okay, I’ll try.” She placed her hooves on the part of the chain that was connected to the skin. As she pulled, she was surprised to feel the chain slip out with barely any effort. “Oh, that was easy…” she said in surprise.

        “Okay, now do the other ones.”

        “Why was it so easy?” she asked curiously.

        He looked at her in the eyes. “Because I love you… You can change me… you can free me…”

        Fluttershy slowly began to step away. “W-who are you?” she asked.

        “I’m Hige, don’t you recognize me?”

        “No… Hige would never say that… Hige is too closed off to say those things… Who are you!?” she screamed in fear and anger.

        “But I am Hige, are you stupid or something?” It said, the anger slowly filling his voice.

        “No you aren’t!” she said as she ran towards the door.

        “Not so fast!” he said as he launched one of the chains that was still connected to his body. The chain connected on Fluttershy’s side and began to wrap around her body. Once the chain was secure, he began to pull her in. She tried to fight it, but the stallion’s strength far surpassed hers. She began to panic, she couldn’t get a grip on the floor and began to hyperventilate.

        “Now, you are going get over here, and you are going to get rid of my chai-“ His voiced paused. Fluttershy felt the chains stop their pull. Fluttershy looked back to see what had happened, and was terrified to see an alicorn stepping on the chain. This alicorn was surrounded by a horrible dark aura. The dark alicorn  grinned as he looked at the chain he was stepping on. With little effort, he forced his hoof down and broke the chain in two. Fluttershy was overcome with relief as the chain quickly fell off.

        “What!?” the bandaged stallion exclaimed in surprise. “Why are you still here?” he asked in his normal tone. He received no response. “I asked you a question”, he said, anger filling his voice. “I SAID-” The stallion’s sentence was quickly stopped in its track as the alicorn appeared inches in front of his face. The alicorn grinned once more as he slammed his head against the other stallion’s head. The bandaged stallion was sent flying. “How the hell can you still be here!? What’s keeping you here!?” the stallion screamed. An idea appeared in his head as he slowly turned his sight towards Fluttershy. “Oh, I see…”

The stallion pointed his chainless limb toward Fluttershy. A dark aura began to appear around the extended limb, but was more concentrated just in front of the hoof. The dark orb in front of the hoof began to darken until it was completely black. Once it reached its full potential, the stallion sent it flying towards Fluttershy, who then shut her eyes with fear and awaited the worst. Moments passed as Fluttershy waited. ‘It should have reached me by now…’ she thought as she hesitantly opened her eyes. She was instantly filled with fear as she witnessed the orb inches from her face; she quickly realized that it wasn’t moving. The orb slowly moved away from her face, she began to understand what had happened. The orb was now at the end of the alicorn’s hoof. The alicorn turned in the direction that the stallion was standing in. With a grin, the alicorn placed a second hoof on the orb. The aura around him began to move into the orb, but never lightened in color. The alicorn slammed his hooves together, making the orb disappear. With a grin, he separated his hooves and in between appeared an orb ten-times the size of the original one. The alicorn sent the orb flying toward the stallion, there was immense explosion. The walls of the room remained the same, but the stallion lay defeated on the floor.

“Soon Hige… you are going to need me…” the stallion said as he faded away.

“H-Hige?” Fluttershy asked the mysterious alicorn as the stallion completely faded away. “Is that you?” she began to ask after the way that the stallion addressed the alicorn. After taking a closer look, she quickly realized that the alicorn looked exactly like Hige, except for the obvious fact that the alicorn was dark and had a horn.

Meanwhile:

“Fluttershy?” Applejack said as she waved a hoof in front of Fluttershy’s face. “She ain’t doin’ anythin’.”

“What!? Is she dead!?” Rainbow Dash asked in a panic.

“No… her heart is still beating”, Applejack confirmed after she placed her ear against Fluttershy’s chest. Big Macintosh began to pick himself up. “What the hay happened in there, Big Mac?” Applejack asked.

Big Macintosh took one look at Rainbow Dash and Rarity, and then looked back at Applejack “IT happened…” Big Macintosh said as he walked over to Hige and looked him dead in the eyes.

“What is IT, if you don’t mind me asking”, Rarity said as she stood next to Applejack.

“Yeah, what is IT, Big Macintosh?” Rainbow Dash said, suspicious about the situation

“I bet it has something to do with candy!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed as she jumped onto of Rarity, causing her to lose her balance.

“None of your business”, Applejack said in a commanding voice. Rainbow Dash stopped talking, but was still suspicious. “Can ya’ do somethin’?” Applejack asked Big Macintosh

“No… I’m not an expert. All we can do is hope that he is strong enough”, Big Macintosh said.

“Not exactly,” anew voice said. Everypony began to look around until they found the white unicorn that walked out of one of the alleys.

“A MY GOSH, ITS DJ PON3!!!” Rainbow Dash screamed.

“Can you just shut up!?” Big Macintosh screamed in frustration. Rainbow Dash stopped talking… again.

“C’mon RD, lets get Twi to the hospital. Are you gonna join us?” Applejack asked Rarity and Pinkie Pie who had been getting up.

“But we cant leave them alone like this”, Rarity complained.

“Don’t worry, it’sunder’ control. We’ll come back later, don’t worry about it”, Applejack said as she began to push Twilight onto her back.

“If you say so…” murmured Rarity as she walked beside Twilight.

“Party at the hospital!” yelled Pinkie Pie as she jumped behind Twilight.

“Okay then”, said Rainbow Dash as she flew over the group. They quickly left.

“What are you talking about?” Big Macintosh said as he directed his attention to Vinyl.

“You are right, he has to fight it… but that doesn’t mean he can’t have some help”, Vinyl said with a grin.

“Can you do that? Can you help him?” he asked.

“Yes, yes I can.”

“What about Fluttershy, what wrong with her?” he asked.

Vinyl looked at her, her eyes shot open. “We need to hurry”, she said as she took out a pair of headphones out of her saddlebag.

“What are you going to do?” Big Macintosh asked.

“I’m gonna go in his head, and I’m going to try and get him out.” She placed one of the headphones in Hige’s ear and the other one in her own ear. “Oh, one more thing… If he starts moving and its not Hige… Kill him. The first few second are the only moments where you have any chance of killing him”, she said in a somber tone.

“I understand…”

Vinyl took a deep breath. She grabbed a hold of the device that was connected to the headphones and hit play. She was suddenly caught in the same trance that Fluttershy and Hige were in. Big Macintosh stood in front of Hige, and began to wait for the worst. The rest of them took Twilight to the Hospital.

The dark alicorn was now turning his head, Fluttershy slowly making her way towards him.

        “Is that you?” she asked as she kept walking towards it.

 A strange humming sound was heard, it was very weak, but easily noticed. The noise slowly became louder as a small glowing; light blue circle appeared on the wall. At this point, Fluttershy and the alicorn were completely distracted by the strange circle. The circle quickly expanded, sending a high-pitched shriek throughout the entire room. The alicorn spread his wings and flew out the door of the room. “No! Come back!” screamed Fluttershy as she extended a hoof in the alicorn’s direction. The alicorn continued in direction towards the door and flew out; he quickly disappeared in the shadows. Fluttershy redirected her attention toward the bright blue circle on the wall. A unicorn, the same color as the circle, began to emerge; its body had absolutely no detail to it, it was just the shape of the unicorn and its mane. As the unicorn finished walking out, the bright blue color began to fade and gave way for the actual details of the pony to be seen.

        “Why…” Fluttershy said in a low voice.

        “Oh, thank Celestia you’re alright!” Vinyl said in relief as she walked closer.

        “Why did you do that!? He was right there and you scared him off!” she screamed in anger.

        “W-what?” Vinyl said in confusion.

        “Hige! He was right here and you scared him off!”

        “I’m sorry… I didn’t know… I thought he was going to need some help…” Vinyl admitted in a guilty tone.

        Fluttershy’s facial expression lightened. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scream…” she apologized in an embarrassed

tone.

        “No, you’re right to be mad. I swear we will find him again.” Vinyl said in a reassuring voice. “But I need to ask… How is he?”

        “H-he changed…” Fluttershy said in a worried voice.

        “In what way?” Vinyl asked nervously.

        “He’s… dark, and he looks like an alicorn. He looks the same, but his coat and mane were both black and he has strange dark aura around him… ” Vinyl began to look worried. “He flew out that door.” Fluttershy said as she pointed a hoof towards the door.

        “Anything else you can tell me?”

        “There were two other ponies, one had a scythe and  the other was covered in bandages and had chains connected to him. I never interacted with the one that had the scythe, but the one with the bandages tricked me into taking off his chains, by saying he was Hige. I took one of the chains off before I realized it wasn’t him. I tried to run… but one of the chains caught me and he started to pull me in… if it wasn’t for Hige, I don’t know what he would have done to me”, she said is a hopeless tone.

        “We need to hurry, let’s go”, Vinyl said as she walked over to the door. Fluttershy quickly followed. Vinyl extended a hoof outside the door, and it instantly became the light blue color that it was moment earlier. As she walked out, her entire body suffered the same effect. She stood at the same level as the floor of the room. She tapped her hoof against the invisible floor that was under her and created a bright blue circle that quickly expanded “Get on”, she said to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was hesitant at first, but after she tapped her hoof against the circle, she took a deep breath and walked on it. “W-where are we going?” Fluttershy asked, fear still present in her tone.

        “We’re going to find Hige”, Vinyl said simply. The circle quickly began to move into the darkness.