Equestrian Nightmare

The seven friends began their long trek toward the Everfree Forest. Their Mission was simple: find Sweetie Belle and her captors, and do whatever was necessary to stop them from coming back to Equestria.

They all spoke of all the recent experiences they had that led to this current situation. They didn't know how these strangers had arrived, and why they were so interested in antagonizing not only them, but the town.

Rarity was the quietest of the bunch. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. The unicorn tried to think of reasons her sister was taken away form her. Did she do something wrong? Did she not give Sweetie Belle enough attention? Was she really not good enough of a sister, that Sweetie Belle would, or should be abducted?

These thoughts caused tears to run down Rarity's cheeks. Applejack noticed this and immediately came to her side to comfort her.

“Rarity, don't worry. Sweetie Belle is okay, I promise you.”

“I'm sure we'll find Sweetie Belle, she'll be fine! And when we find her, I'll throw a “Kidnapped and taken into the middle of the forest and saved by my sister and friends party!” Pinkie chimed with a smile and random confetti. The pink pony still had small grasp of appropriate timing, but Rarity knew what Pinkie was trying to do.

And while she appreciated her marefriend and being there for her, this didn't help Rarity feel better at all.

She wiped her tears and replied to Applejack “Thank you, darling, and thank you all, really. I never would have been able to have done this without all of you. You really are the best friends I could ask for.”

“No problem, Rarity,” Twilight replied.

“I'm glad to help in any way I can.” Fluttershy added. “I don't want to see Sweetie in any danger, and I certainly don't want you to be upset.”

“Dashie, Silver and I are totally happy to help, Rarity! We've got your back!” said Pinkie with an affirmative nod from Rainbow Dash and Silver Shade.

Other than that, the group didn't converse much more on the rest of the way.

Twilight took a deep breath as she and her friends arrived at the entrance. She turned around as she raised her voice.  “Girls, Silver, this could be one of the most dangerous things we've ever  done. Some of us may not be returning home, but we have to do this. Not only for Sweetie Belle, and ourselves, but for Ponyville. These monsters have taken many ponies we care about, and could put the safety of Equestria in jeopardy if we don't find a way to end this. Are you all ready?” The six other ponies nodded.

“Alright,” she stated “Let's do this.”

The seven ponies stepped into the forest with caution, trying not to draw attention to themselves. This wasn't too big of a problem, seeing that the only things they had come across were a few bugs here and there. The main path had reached a dead end, so the decided the only way to a new path was to go through the trees. Though this forest was a frequent location of Twilight and her friends, it didn't make the place seem more like a labyrinth. Finally, after about a half hour of walking through branches and leaves, they had found another path.

Just as they stepped onto the path, they heard a strange noise. It sounded similar to a shout or a shriek. Twilight held out a hoof for the others to stop walking as she looked around for the source of the sound. She heard it again, but now it sounded like it was coming closer, and fast.

“Twilight, look out!” Rainbow Dash screamed. Twilight attempted to defend herself against whatever was coming at her, but it was too late. A creature had already tackled her to the ground. Applejack and Dash rushed  to her aid. Twilight remembered what this creature looked like. It was one of the monsters that chased her back to the library when she was talking to Silver Shade.

It was the Rake.

The Rake scratched the lavender mare several times before Applejack and Rainbow Dash were able to buck it off of her. AJ kicked it to the ground, making it scream and crawl away. She and Dash helped Twilight back up. Rainbow noticed her cuts.

“Oh my God, Twilight! Are you okay?” she asked frantically, while trying to put her foreleg around her marefriend without hurting her more. This failed as Twilight winced in pain.

“Yes, I'm fine, I've felt worse, but thank you though.” Rainbow, while still worried for Twilight, smiled for her. She felt like during the time that they had been together, she had influenced her to be braver and tougher. She felt proud.

This pride soon melted away as she remembered what had just happened. Dash gnashed her teeth “That son of a bitch! Where did he go? I'm gonna kill him!” Just as she was about to fly off, Twilight grabbed her with her magic and brought her back down.

“Rainbow, I appreciate that you care about me, but we need to stick together, at least until we find Sweetie Belle, or something that can lead us to her. I'm okay, don't worry.” She didn't believe Twilight, but decided to trust her anyway.

They continued to walk down the path, obviously proceeding with even more caution than before. This forest was filled to the brim with dangerous creatures, and now, it had even more. Twilight illuminated her horn with her magic, allowing them to see in the dark since the light of the moon was completely cut off by the monstrous amount of leaves.

“Um, Twilight?” Rainbow asked Twilight, giving her a small nudge.

“What is it, Rainbow?” She answered.

“I don't want to sound pessimistic, but, we've been searching for hours, and I'm starting to wonder; what if we don't find Sweetie Belle and this was just a sick game that those things are playing with us?” Rainbow leaned closer to Twilight, trying to whisper the last part of her question so Rarity wouldn't hear her.

“Dash, don't be ridiculous. We'll find her. I know we will. We just have to be calm, and keep a level head.”

“Are you sure that they're here?' Jeff asked.

“Yes, I saw them enter, be patient.” SlenderMane replied.

“You know, this is starting to piss me off. I'm done being patient. I've been waiting for far too long. I say we hunt them down, kill them all, and end this little game. I'm tired of this. You were the one who offered to take that one bitch's little sister! What made you think this was a good idea?”

“YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!!” the tall pony hissed.

“Oh, and you know what else? I'm sick of you thinking you're the leader here. I will not be your slave any longer.” Jeff drew his knife to emphasize his point. Smile Dog woke from his slumber when he thought his master was going through conflict. He stood and jumped to Jeff's side, snarling.

Eyeless Jack rushed in between the two of them to try to stop the fight that was about to take place.

“You will watch your tone if you do not wish for me to-” SlenderMane was interrupted by the screeching of his servant. The Rake ran to him, hissing and growling.

“What is it, now?” he asked. Rake explained, through several incoherent sounds, that it saw the seven ponies they were looking for nearby. A horrified shriek could be heard in the distance.

SlenderMane walked away from Jeff and smiled. “It's time.”

Twilight and her friends were tired and were losing hope. They had been searching for four hours, and they hadn't found anything that led to Sweetie's captors. They were going to give up and go back home until a certain scent filled the air. It smelt, metallic. This wasn't a normal thing somepony would smell in the woods.

The lavender unicorn gestured for the others to follow her, and they all obeyed. They walked in the direction that the smell was coming from. As they progressed closer and closer, the scent grew thicker, and thicker, and thicker until it was almost sickening. Twilight tried to illuminate her horn as bright as she could. She looked around for the source, and she noticed something had fallen on her head. She looked up to see what had fallen.

Once Twilight saw what it was, she froze instantly froze into a state of shock. The thing that had fallen on her was blood. Not only blood, but the blood of Rarities little sister, Sweetie Belle, who was impaled on one of the tree branches, her eyes still open from the trauma.

Rarity saw this, and screamed. She fell to the earth, crying hysterically. Applejack did her best to comfort Rarity, which she knew wouldn't work. Her heart was completely broken. This made Pinkie and Fluttershy cry as well. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Silver Shade stared in disbelief. Who would do this? Who does this to a pony? Who would do this to an innocent foal who had so much potential. Sweetie Belle hadn't even gotten her cutie mark yet.

These thoughts were silenced, and Twilight was brought back to earth when she heard someone laughing. It was a sick, twisted, maniacal laugh.

“Surprise” was the only word the ponies had heard before Jeff, SlenderMane, the Rake, Eyeless Jack and Smile Dog all jumped out, surrounding them. The ponies had all screamed at the sight of them. Seeing these monsters was more terrifying than they had previously thought. The only pony who didn't show any form of fear was Pinkie Pie. Rainbow had also noticed that the tall pony she had encountered prior had grown its foreleg back.

“Did you seriously think you could save her?” Jeff asked with a laugh. “The truth is, we weren't even going to kill her. We were just going to kill all of you and keep her as our little pet, but then she tried to escape by climbing the trees, so we thought we'd teach her a lesson. And, I'd say, it was pretty memorable” he chuckled, regarding the body above.

“HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING TO AN INNOCENT FILLY?!” Rarity shouted angrily.

“Like I said, I didn't want to kill her, killing kids is not something I enjoy.” Jeff admitted. “I only get rid of the snobby ones who won't listen to any-fucking-thing I say.”

“You're a monster.” Twilight simply stated.

“I beg to differ. I am a savior, I save people from a world that deceives you, cheats you, thinks that if you live in a different style, that you should be taken away. Can't you see the good in what we're doing? It's not like she would have really made that big of a difference in the world anyway.”

Now, Rainbow Dash took her turn to intervene as she stepped closer to him. “You're not a savior, you're a murderer, I don't care what they think of you where you come from, but if you think you're going to hurt me or any of my friends and get away with it, you're sorely mistaken. I'm not scared of you, and I don't care what you do to me, you're gonna die, motherfucker, for Sweetie Belle, and Lyra, and all the others you and your friends have killed.”

Jeff pulled out his knife. “DON'T THREATEN ME, YOU STUPID BITCH!” Dash gritted her teeth and headbutted him as hard as she could.

“Rainbow!” shouted Twilight. She rushed over to help her recover. Jeff was quick to regain his composure

“Alright, well if you want to play like that, then let's go.” He said with a laugh. The other entities started stepping even closer to the ponies, lowering their chance of escape.

“With pleasure.” Everyone, including Jeff paused, after hearing a voice coming from above.

“What?! Who said that?” he asked.

The only answer received was a mare who jumped down and softly landed in the grass. She had pale, gray skin, wore a slick, gray dress, had long black hair and two solid black orbs that replaced her eyes. Jeff knew this mare.

It was none other than Jane the Killer.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked Jane.

“Why do you think I'm here, Jeffrey? I'm here to finally kill you and take revenge for what you did to my family. I've been following you ever since you arrived here, but I never knew the right time to strike, but now, now the timing is perfect.”

“Fine, why not join in on this little game, the more the merrier.” Jeff was now completely focused on Jane. If she wanted a fight, she was going to get one. He lunged at Jane with his knife and tried to stab her in the stomach. She dodged and kicked him back. After seeing this, Twilight blasted at him with her magic.

The Rake jumped at Applejack and tackled her to the dirt. She gave several strong punches to its face. Rarity was quick to knock it off of Applejack and grip it in her magic. The orange earth pony took one of the Rake's arms and broke it with her hind legs, causing it to scream. AJ took out her lasso and tied the Rake's limbs together to the point where it couldn't cut the rope with its claws.

Smile Dog growled at Fluttershy. When seeing this, she backed up and tried to hide behind Pinkie, who thought the dog looked rather silly. She started laughing, which caught the animal off guard. She then pulled out her party cannon and fired. The random explosion of noisemakers, balloons, and confetti stunned him. Pinkie then smirked and gave the creature a punch to the face, which knocked it out.

“That's for scaring my Fluttershy!!” she then looked back and smiled at the yellow Pegasus, who was blushing.

Silver Shade and Rainbow Dash were doing whatever they could to attack SlenderMane. Silver blasted at it with his magic, and Rainbow tried giving it several kicks and punches in multiple areas. These attacks had proven to be futile, as it would only teleport or back away.

Eyeless Jack was now dashing toward Applejack and Rarity. He scratched Rarity in the face and the chest. He tried to grab her neck and take a bite. Infuriated, Applejack shoved him, rotated and bucked him as hard as she could in the jaw. Both mares had heard several cracks, assuming that he had a broken jawbone. AJ grabbed the second lasso she had packed and tied Jack up as well, seeing he was knocked out from the kick.

Jeff was outnumbered two to one. While Jane and Twilight were not associated by any means, they worked together to attack Jeff and knock him down to the ground. Jane gave several punches and cuts with her hooves and her own knife. Jeff managed to grab one of her forelegs and break it. He then shoved her off of him and jumped at Twilight. She used her teleportation spell to dodge him. Jane got up and tried to knock Jeff down once more, but he moved away at the last second and allowed Jane to fall.

Once she was on the ground, he pulled out his knife once again. Jane struggled, kicked, and punched, but Jeff didn't flinch. He had been waiting for too long. He aimed the knife and lowered it quickly. Jane raised a hoof to stop him, but she was fighting a losing battle. Soon, he dug his blade into her heart and stabbed repeatedly. Twilight stared in shock. She couldn't believe that somepony could do this, and the way he did it with such enthusiasm scared her even more.

“Too long.” he said before rising once again.

“Now it's your turn, Twilight.” he said to her with a sinister chuckle. He slowly stepped toward her, knife ready. Twilight summoned her magic, ready to defend. Jeff lashed at her and she jumped back. She grabbed him in her magenta colored aura and threw him hard against a tree.

SlenderMane grabbed Silver Shade with a tentacle and threw him near Jeff. He saw this and quickly grabbed him. The killer held Silver by the neck and positioned his knife to his throat He struggled, trying to break free or his grasp.

“If you don't give yourself up to me now, I'll have no problem taking your friend along with you.”

"Twilight, don't do it. DON'T YOU DARE DO IT!!" her yelled, still struggling.

Twilight didn't want to give up, but she couldn't risk her friends life over her own. Her horn dimmed, showing that she didn't want to fight. Jeff laughed and slashed Shade's throat anyway.

“Go to sleep.” he whispered into his ear before letting go of him and letting him fall to the dirt, still choking on his own blood.

Jeff got distracted and watched him for a few more seconds, before looking back up and noticing Twilight was gone, until he felt somepony punch him hard in the neck. This was the last thing he saw before blacking out.

All of Twilight's remaining friends were now focused on SlenderMane. None of them could land an attack on him. She then joined in the conflict. There wasn't much she could do as he had improved his tactics. He knew when to attack and when to dodge at the right time, the other ponies were only to get mere scratches on him, but her friends were getting exhausted, and she knew how bad this was. The monster became more violent with his swings, and now, he was aiming to kill.

Applejack tried to buck SlenderMane in the legs, but he grabbed the orange mare in his tentacles and snapped her neck. Rarity blasted furiously at him, but he teleported to her and slashed her throat. Pinkie was doing whatever she could to protect Fluttershy. This was obviously futile as he grabbed the yellow Pegasus and ripped her in half. The tall pony knocked Pinkie and Twilight to the ground hard, blurring their vision. Once their vision had cleared, both mares saw a smile carve itself into his face as he grabbed Rainbow Dash in one tentacle, while the other sharpened. He then stabbed the cyan pony in the heart, staring Twilight down the entire time.

"You cannot save her." echoed in her head.

Tears flooded down Twilight's cheeks as her lover's corpse fell to the ground. Almost all of her friends were dead. It was just her and Pinkie Pie now, and she had no idea what to do.

"TWILIGHT!!" screamed Pinkie. Twilight looked at Pinkie, and suddenly came back to earth as she saw her friend being grabbed by the hoof and dragged away.

"TWILIGHT!! USE THE TIME TRAVEL SPELL!! THE ONE WE FOUND IN CANTERLOT!! QUICK!! USE IT, TWILIGHT!!!!"

Twilight stood up immediately, Pinkie was right! If she could somehow cast the spell, find the source of these monsters coming to Equestria, and destroy it, she could prevent this from happening! She could have all of her friends back! She had been practicing to go back in time for an even longer period, so she had thought that now was the perfect time to use it.

Twilight's horn sparked, then lit as if it were a fire.

SlenderMane was just about to kill Pinkie until he saw what the lavender unicorn was doing. He dropped her and rushed toward Twilight, but it was too late. Her eyes flashed a bright white, along with everything else around them.

Twilight had awoken in the Golden Oaks Library. The first thing she did was run into the kitchen. Spike was making Breakfast while Owlicious was pirched on one of the chairs, napping. She then picked up the radio and put her ear against it. She heard nothing, no static, no voice, nothing. She sighed in relief, there was still time.

"I'll be back later, Spike. There's something I have to take care of." the dragon looked at her, confused.

"What? But you just told me to make you breakfast."

"Don't worry, I'll be back in time, I promise."

Silver Shade was walking throught the grassy plains outside of Ponyville when he saw his friend, Twilight Sparkle, galloping toward him. She looked alarmed.

"Hey, Twilight, what's got you so worked up?" he asked her as she finally stopped.

Once she had regained her breath, she asked him "Have you seen anything odd happen recently? Any odd looking photos or ponies? Anything?"

Shade nodded. "I actually saw some strange dark area in the sky a little while back when I was walking, I just assumed they were storm clouds left behind by Cloudsdale." She gasped and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Silver, I know this is gonna sound weird, but it is essential that you show me what you saw, quickly." he obliged and teleported them to where he was when he saw it.

He then pointed it out to the mare, who analyzed it. She had noticed that the center had appeared to be really hallow. Not only that, but the entire mass itself was rotating. She had remembered that Silver said he was walking through the plains when he came across the photo in her original time, and he said it was around this spot. Twilight figured it out; the spiraling mass was a portal. Her friend -in this time- stated that he hadn't found any photos or any odd-looking individuals, so this had to have been before the monsters had entered the portal.

Twilight knew exactly what to do. She lit her horn and concentrated. Once the spell was ready, she cast it toward the large portal. As she did, the mass reacted, attempting to engulf her magic. This made Twilight have to concentrate even harder. She cast the spell a second time. This time, Silver Shade joined in to help her. Now, the magic was too much for the darkness to handle. With a screech-like sound, it disappeared into the sky, leaving it completely blue.

"I'm glad I could help you Twilight, is there anything else I can hel-" he stopped mid-sentence as he realized she was gone.

*Present time*

Once again, Twilight woke up in the librarywith a start. It was now time to figure out whether what she did helped or not. She looked to her left, only to see her lover sleeping next to her, peacefully. She sighed in relief and layed back down. Twilight wrapped her hoof around Rainbow Dash and scooted closer to her.

"Goodnight, Rainbow Dash," she whispered.

"Have I got a story to tell you."