Equestrylvania

by Brony_Fife

Monster Dance, Part II

Monster Dance, Part II

---

Gravity seems to have abandoned Twilight. She was falling before, but now she is being lifted. Her sight comes back to her as she hears the chariot crashing below with a sound like a thunderclap. She looks up to see Tiger Cross, his friendly eyes that seem to hug you when he sees you. She smiles, thankful.

"Are you all right?" he asks.

"Nothing's broken," she replies. "What happened back there?"

"I'm not sure. One moment, Shatterstorm and I..." Suddenly he looks around in a panic. "Shatterstorm! Shatterstorm, where are you?!"

By this time, Tiger Cross has gently set Twilight Sparkle on the moist grass below. Unlike most nights, it feels unpleasant, each blade of grass feeling like a tiny snake writhing against her hooves. She bites her lower lip and tries to keep from screaming at the sensation. Tiger Cross continues to yell his comrade's name.

"Do you think he's run off?" asks Twilight.

Almost at Twilight's words, Shatterstorm falls to the ground. His landing is clumsy and loud, totally unlike what is expected from a Royal Guard pegasus. His face is a fumbled circus act of different and conflicting thoughts running through his mind. His mouth babbles forth a cavalcade of indecipherable words. Some of it sounds like an apology.

Tiger Cross shakes him. "Shatterstorm, what's wrong?! Snap out of it!" He slaps his comrade hard across the face.

Shatterstorm begins to cry. "No, Momma," he moans in a small, childlike voice, "Not again, don't, don't do it again, Momma..."

Twilight's eyes widen as she watches. Is Shatterstorm dreaming? Hallucinating? Is he... Is Shatterstorm reliving a horrible memory?

She walks forward and places a gentle hoof on his shoulder. He continues to weep as she caresses him. "Nopony is going to hurt you, Shatterstorm," she says quietly. "You're going to be OK."

Above them, they hear a cackle that sounds more like the desperate braying of farm animals being slaughtered. Twilight looks up as does Tiger Cross. Shatterstorm whimpers and curls into a ball.

There, its back against the moonlight, is a flying, cloaked creature wearing a black hood. The cloak is tattered and the ends flail about as if they were alive. Its long, bone-white arms are greatly weighed down by the fearsome scythe it is carrying. Its cackle carries on for some time as if it does not have any lungs, just a voice. From here, neither Twilight nor Tiger Cross can make out its face. They can only see its horrible, red eyes.

Tiger Cross puts himself in front of Twilight Sparkle. "Run," he tells her. "Get to Ponyville. Give them a warning. I'm going to distract it."

She is frozen with fear as its red eyes meet hers. That cloaked creature seems oddly familiar somehow. Suddenly, she realizes that it is not a cloaked creature. It's that bully from second grade that pushed her into a puddle and laughed. It's that girl from fourth grade that pretended to be her friend so she could have Twilight do her homework for her. It's that niggling feeling in the back in her mind that she isn't worth her mentor's time. It's that awkward and uncertain time in her life when she felt she was too different from others to make any friends. It's that hair in the sink. It's that piece of toast that fell butter-side down. It's that it's that it's that.

Suddenly, she snaps out of its spell by Tiger Cross barking at her to "Move your ass!" She doesn’t need to be told twice. Before she leaves, using her telekinetic grip, she picks up Shatterstorm, who is still curled up and mumbling something incoherent, and runs off with him, hoping to drop him off at the Ponyville hospital.

Behind her, she hears Tiger Cross shout as he takes flight. Then afterwards, all she hears is the desperate braying of farm animals being slaughtered.

---

Twilight dislikes to admit she is no athlete. This becomes more and more apparent the harder she runs. Her breath becomes short and hoarse, her heart and lungs feel like they have switched places, her stomach lurching.

Beside her, Shatterstorm slowly comes to his senses. Not so much that he is back with Twilight now, but in that he is no longer raving delirious. He seems to be currently remembering a game of Clue, and calls Twilight Professor Plum. She rolls her eyes.

Twilight slows herself down, but never once does she assume she is safe. Nowhere is safe anymore. The bat, the armor, the crimson grin, and now that cackling cloaked thing. What was going on in Equestria? Something evil has forced its way here, Twilight realizes, and it intends to dominate. To control. It wants Equestria.

Why?

Possibly for the same reason the Changeling Queen wanted to control Equestria. It is a beautiful land. Sure it has its dark side, as does anything and anyone. But it contains so much love and innocence. So many things that can easily be tainted or destroyed. Is that their goal?

Suddenly, Twilight smells the air. Besides the rotting stench in the wind, there is something else being carried with it. The smell of smoke. Twilight sniffs again just to make sure, and her eyes widen as she realizes she is not wrong.

"I-Into the eye," mumbles Shatterstorm.

Her ears perk up. She hears cackling. It is not the desperate braying of farm animals being slaughtered. It is cackling... no, it’s crowing. She looks up to see crows flying ahead, in a giant ring, as if they are marking some kind of territory. Twilight's eyes fall forward.

Up ahead in the distance, she sees a shimmering light. As she ventures further, that shimmering light reveals itself as fire.

Ponyville is burning. Twilight's eyes widen as she picks up the pace.

"Into the eye,” mumbles Shatterstorm. “Into the eye, into the end..."

Despite everything that has happened so far, Twilight feels that this is all the beginning of something much worse.

---

Buildings fall down as the flames beat them to death with their melting heat, the thick black smoke dancing in the air in demonic glee. Structures snap and shatter, crumbling to the ground as Ponyville's residents, now awake and terrified, run for shelter, for protection. Among them run the dead and rotting; among them run wild and vicious animals; among them run the emotionally-snapped and insane. Screams echo through the night, screams and roars and groans and cries for help.

As she enters the town, suddenly, Twilight's stamina seems to refill. At the sight of all this destruction and mayhem, her heart swells with a fury she has never felt before.

The demonic entity the castle has brought with it has no right to do this to Equestria. It has no right to hurt ponies the way it has. It has no right to take away their Princesses and leave them helpless. It has no right to come into Equestria at all. To see so much happening before her eyes...

...This has gone on too long. It has to stop.

To her right is a horrendous corpse, and he is stumbling forth with a mouth full of fangs that Twilight doubts he had when he was alive. He corners a young filly, who is screaming for her mommy and daddy to come save her. Without a second's hesitation, the living corpse is reduced to ash by a burst of magic fire. The filly looks up into the eyes of her savior.

"...Are you an angel?" asks the filly, between sobs.

Twilight lifts her up onto her back. The filly looks curiously at Shatterstorm floating nearby in a magenta glow, currently unconscious. As Twilight shoots forth deeper into the town, she quips, "Close enough."

---

All around her, the building is on fire. Smoke is strangling the air, the oxygen losing its grip and dying. Lyra coughs as she crawls forth on the ground, trying to find an exit. Something falls near her. She cries for help that might not come.

Despite the intense, hellish heat all around her, Lyra begins to cry. This is not how she imagined her life would end. She would marry, grow old, and die surrounded by friends and family, and be buried next to her beloved. She would live long and happy, and write songs that lifted the spirits of the beaten and the forgotten. She sobs as she yells once again for help.

Where was her friend? Where was Bon Bon? Is she safe? Is she even alive? Lyra calls her friend’s name, calls for help.

Suddenly, a window shatters. She hears coughing. Lyra tries to look up, but the choking smoke has obscured everything above her. She sucks in air to try calling, one last time, for help, but the smoke invades her lungs and she chokes. She tries again. Chokes again.

Everything around her becomes blurry and spins. This is it, she tells herself. She is going to die. She is fading fast as the smoke squeezes her lungs with its monstrous hands. She will never find out if humans are real. She will never meet that special somepony she often daydreamed about. She will never write that one song that becomes a breakthrough and touches the heart of every stallion, mare, and foal in Equestria.

Her dreams will never come true. Lyra struggles to breathe, not ready to die, and her dreams will never come true.

Suddenly, she feels like she's being lifted. Like she's moving, and fast. The ceiling comes down behind them, hard, falling like a ton of rocks. The air outside is hardly any better than the air inside her apartment, but it is breathable, and she gasps and drinks in greedily this ugly air. She feels like she's flying.

Lyra's vision slowly comes back. She sees magenta eyes, and she smiles.

"There's no need to fear," says the magenta eyes. "Your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is here!"

---

Monsters. Monsters everywhere.

There is no safe place to hide, Sweetie Belle thinks as she and her older sister seek shelter. The Carousel Boutique had just been raided by... something, and she didn't get a very good look at them before Rarity took her and ran. She could only remember a despicable smell, soft groans, shuffling hooves, and wild, rolling eyes that she could see even in the darkness.

Sweetie Belle has not said much since then. She can smell smoke in the air, and much of Ponyville is apparently on fire. Rarity gallops along, not saying anything, acting as if she knows what she is doing, but Sweetie Belle knows she does not. She is only doing what grownups do when something awful happens. Rarity is pretending to be brave. She is protecting her sister.

Despite all the screams and smoke around them, Sweetie Belle is oddly calm. Her mind has gone someplace else, into some other zone. Her hooves pound the ground as she follows her sister through the town, avoiding the shuffling rot that surrounds them at every turn. Her face is a complete blank. Sweetie Belle is scared out of her mind, or she would be if her mind were still with her.

As they run by a burning building, Sweetie Belle looks aside and sees herself and Rarity there, with their parents. It's a restaurant and everypony is having fun, laughing as the flames around them swallow them whole.

As they shoot down the next street, Sweetie Belle looks at Rarity and suddenly she is much younger, and racing Sweetie Belle to the end of the street. There is an overturned stroller on this street, and as she runs by, Sweetie Belle looks into the eyes of the zombie stepping over it.

They turn towards a familiar lake, Sweetie Belle sees herself and her parents there, feeding the ducks as strange, fishlike monsters jump out and begin to chase her and Rarity as they run by.

The chase continues for some time, Sweetie Belle retreating more and more. It comes to the point that Rarity's voice has become a whisper when she yells directions for Sweetie Belle to follow.

Suddenly, the two find themselves surrounded by dogs. Sweetie Belle recognizes one as the big, friendly St. Bernard that Fluttershy was taking care of. She remembers the sunny day she spent over at Fluttershy's just last week, petting this dog on his big wet nose, and being licked by his great big tongue. She remembers how much she laughed. She remembers telling the dog she loved him lots.

She looks into this St. Bernard's eyes and does not see the dog she loved lots. She sees a monster that wants to kill her. It growls as it draws closer to them, along with the other savage dogs. Their drool is thick and foamy, and their eyes are glowing red and bulging right out of their heads.

Her mind has come back to her now. She realizes what is happening now, and what is about to happen. Sweetie Belle hangs on to her sister tightly. "I love you, Rarity," she sobs. "I love you lots. OK?"

Rarity nuzzles her sister. "I love you too, Sweetie Belle. I know it might not seem like it sometimes, but I keep you in my heart wherever I am." She chokes back a sob as she realizes the two of them might not make it. She holds her sister close and sniffs her hair, remembering Sweetie Belle's scent one more time before they go.

The dogs pause as they close in, as if in respect of their victims' last words. Every convict gets one last meal before their execution, after all. Suddenly, there comes a whoop from nowhere, and an orange bolt of godlike might and indignation shoots down from above.

Applejack crushes the head of the biggest dog first, then quickly bucks the second. The third and fourth react by jumping her, fangs bared, only for Applejack to smash them with her mighty hooves. Rarity sees the fifth, sixth, and seventh dogs run for Applejack, and without thinking, uses her telekinesis to grab their hind legs and hold them.

Applejack and Rarity beat the last few dogs to death. At her sister's request for her not to look, Sweetie Belle shields her eyes from this display of violence. There is shame in the faces of these two saviors. Shame for the dogs they have to kill, shame for all the death this little filly has had to see.

---

Pinkie Pie's body was tingling all over. Tingling and twitching. Ever since slightly before all the chaos began, she'd been running around, gathering survivors and bringing them to the Ponyville Hospital. Even though much of Ponyville is currently burning down, this building is thankfully not one of them. She can still smell something in the air, something thick and disgusting, like that piece of cake she’d left out for too long that one time.

Behind her is a zombie. She bucks, knocking it out of the window.

She runs further down the hall, where she last heard a scream. "I'm coming," she shouted. "Keep yelling back if you're OK!" She receives a response and double-times her speed. She feels a tingle along her spine as she runs.

The windows in this hallway explode as creatures unfamiliar to Pinkie jump through them. They are bipeds, if she remembers the term correctly, and their backs are higher than their shoulders. Their faces are twisted: she cannot tell if they have muzzles, mouths, or beaks. She does realize that they have teeth and are carrying knives. They begin to jump about like fleas.

Pinkie Pie jumps on one, shooting off it and over the rest. As she does so, she strikes the chandelier, knocking it down and onto the flea-creatures below.

She lands. She looks again to the flea-creatures, now smashed by the chandelier. They are different from the walking dead outside. They were living creatures. Malicious, perhaps, but they were lives. Pinkie Pie swallows the gravity of what she has just done, and it disturbs her to know she did it mostly without thinking about it. She hears the voice scream for help again.

Putting her sudden somber thoughts aside, she speeds off to the voice as its pitch suddenly becomes panicked. "Hang on," she says, "I'm coming!"

The voice is coming from behind a door down the hall. "N-NO!" it shouts. "S-Stay away from me! I don't know what it is you want! NO!!!"

The voice is cut off by a thumping sound. Not wasting any more time, Pinkie Pie bucks down the door. Inside, she sees one pony standing over another. This one is not rotted or warped like the others. He looks at Pinkie Pie with intelligent, chocolate-brown eyes. The pony below him, a mare, has the makings of a real shiner, and is cowering, covering her face, expecting another blow.

"What's going on here?!" Pinkie Pie demands.

"It's the end of the world out there," says the stallion. "The dead are risen. The animals are crazy. There's things out there I can't even recognize!" He laughs as he places his hoof on the mare, as if claiming her as his prize. "So before I go, I'm gonna have me some fun!"

Pinkie Pie is the sort of pony whose character does not include a full understanding of sex. Her strict upbringing simply had no room for it in its cirriculum. She only thinks of sex as that sweaty, smelly thing adults do in order to have foals, and is unsure if she would ever do it herself. In this sense, she does not quite grasp what the stallion is about to do. But she does understand one thing.

What this stallion is doing is wrong.

Like a pink bullet, Pinkie Pie shoots across the room, her front hooves smashing into his face. He is knocked down, hitting the floor with a thump that causes his would-be victim to recoil. Pinkie Pie helps up the mare, who stammers out a thank-you.

From the floor, the stallion looks up at Pinkie Pie. Blood is trickling down his face as he begins to laugh. "I... Hey, I remember you," he says. "You... You're that kid that bought me dinner to cheer me up after I got fired from my job last week. P-Pinkie Pie, right?"

Pinkie Pie nods. She remembers him too, now that this intense moment has passed. Suddenly, the stallion begins to cry. "I-I'm..." The words cannot leave his mouth, but Pinkie already knows what they are.

She leaves the mare's side and hugs the stallion tenderly. "It's all right," she says in an uncharacteristic whisper. It was a scene of unquestionable forgiveness, moving and silent. The mare watching this scene will remember it until the day she dies.

"I... I can't believe I was really gonna do it..." the stallion sobs as Pinkie holds him close. "I'm so sorry, I..."

"It's OK," says Pinkie, shushing him like a mother to her child. She closes her eyes and the image of the falling chandelier descends into her mind. "We've all done things tonight we're gonna regret tomorrow."

The mare purses her lips and looks around the room. The sounds of violence outside are becoming louder.

---

Fluttershy peers out from underneath her bed. She had turned the lights out before, in order to trick potential intruders into thinking she wasn't home, so all is dark. She bites down on the knife handle in her mouth as she slowly crawls out from her hiding place and stretches her aching legs and wings.

Looking about and listening carefully, Fluttershy can tell the animals have left. She still hears violence outside, and she still smells rot and smoke, but both are muted. Suddenly, she has an overwhelming, horrifying thought.

Her friends are out there!

Finding a courage she thought had been beaten out of her by her recent scare, Fluttershy races to her bedroom door and shoves the dresser out of the way. She heads downstairs, and is greeted by the sight of her pet rabbit Angel, who is sitting in the middle of the living room. She gasps and holds up her knife cautiously.

But Angel, out of all her animals, is her number two. He’s her confidant and best friend. She has raised him since he was born. Fluttershy looks at her knife, then at Angel. Can she really do it? Does she want to?

Suddenly, she notices Angel is holding something. It is gold and glitters in the darkness. He looks up to see her, the mare that had raised him since his birth. His eyes are not glowing red. Instead, they swim with hot tears at the sight of her. Fluttershy says his name.

Angel bounds over to her, happy to see her, momentarily forgetting the gold, glittering thing. Fluttershy drops her knife and opens her forelegs, welcoming her Angel Bunny with a tender hug. She looks down at him and notices he is completely unharmed.

"The animals have all gone crazy," Fluttershy tells him. "How did you manage to get here in one piece?"

At this, Angel leaps over to the gold glittery thing and carries it to her. Fluttershy takes it in her hooves, noticing it is attached to a chain.

It is a large, gold cross. She can feel the weight in her hooves, and just by looking at it, Fluttershy finds it some kind of... tranquil power, almost a sacredness to it. She looks at Angel. "What is this?"

Angel, not being able to speak a pony's language, begins to pantomime himself running. Fluttershy nods, understanding. "You were being chased..."

Angel backs up against a piece of furniture. "They cornered you?"

Angel curls into a ball. "You were scared..."

Suddenly, Angel looks up, in confusion. He looks behind him and his eyes widen. "But...?"

Angel then behaves like a monster, cornering "himself", and growling. After closing in on "himself", he suddenly yelps and begins to back away. Fluttershy's eyes widen and she looks down again at the gold cross. "But they saw this, and ran away?"

Angel nods.

Fluttershy once again looks down at this sacred object, this time in reverence and wonder. This cross... the monsters are afraid of it. She does not understand why they are, but looking at this cross, she comes to the conclusion that she doesn't need to understand. The monsters are afraid of this cross. She now possesses a weapon to use against them.

She wears the cross like a necklace, and suddenly, she feels her courage bolstered. She feels safer, confident. It's like putting on an indestructible suit of armor. Fluttershy picks her knife back up as Angel hops onto her back.

Fluttershy unlocks her door, and ventures into the horrible night. She knows what she has to do, and now she knows she can do it!

Comments

[link4588]

The link to the song is broken. And I'm really liking this so far, keep it up!

[Razalon The Lizardman]

Hey, kinda late but I have a question; is the cross Angel found supposed to be the same from the first few Castlevania games where touching it wipes out every enemy on-screen?

[Teraunce]

Here's hoping Twilight finds a whip soon so she can follow Devo's advice and whip all her problems away. Also glad Angel survived.