Sunset looked at the plush being settled in her lap, as the little stuffed animal stretched her own limbs and, as much impossible as it sounds, started talking to the former unicorn.
''You see...'' HellHound started. ''We were not always like this. We're...'' She stopped for a while, sighing. The plush looked at her puppet hand, as her ears went down in sadness.
''We're cursed to look like them.'' She finished. Sunset looked in confusion at the plushie. When HellHound told that she would give Sunset better explanations, the red haired girl sure expected more than this.
''That didn't really shed any light at the situation.'' Sunset dead panned. HellHound rolled her brownish plastic eyes, returning Sunset's look.
''Does the name 'William Afton'' ring any bells?'' The plush asked. Sunset tilted her head, searching for the name the plush mentioned in her mind, but in the end, she had no success.
''Well, if you don't, it's not MY role to tell you what you want to know.'' She told Sunset. HellHound then used Sunset's shirt as a support to climb to the red haired girl's head. Sunset shook the plush off from her in annoyance, glaring at the small wolf, crossing her arms.
''If you don't have anything to trade me, I'm pretty sure you have the notion that you won't stay here.'' Sunset said.
''Oh, but I CAN trade you.'' Hellound replied.
''Oh, can you?'' Sunset lifted and eyebrow, doubting from the words that left the small plushie's mouth.
''I'm pretty sure you'd love a friend in some troubled times like these, hmm?'' HellHound asked her, allowing herself to grin as much as her cheeks would let her.
That quote from the plush caught Sunset off-guard.
How does she know about it?, Sunset thought. Well, I was crying when I found her... And she did mention something abouut hearing me cry. Well, makes enough sense., she finished her mental quotes.
HellHound stared at Sunset, waiting for her answer, with that arrogant smile splattered all over her face, as if she was already sureof what was going to happen.
''A friend for a favor. What do you say? Not like I'll give you any trouble. I'm not some pet.'' The wolf said. Sunset made an carefully analised the situation she found herself in. She took a second or two to spit out her reply to the convinced plush.
''No.'' Sunset said. HellHound's expression immediatly dismantled itself from that cocky grin to a badly surprised frown.
''What?!'' She screamed.
''I said no. If you're not willing to give me answers, you're not staying.'' Sunset said.
HellHound's grin slowly got back in her face.
''I see... A hard bargain. I like this! I really appreciate knuckle heads like you.'' The wolf mocked Sunset. ''But you know what? You can only get me out if you can ACTUALLY catch me!'' She said as she ran to hide from Sunset.
The former unicorn growled, rubbing her temples, as she brought herself out of the ground and started to look for the plush.
~The Next Day...~
Fluttershy walked through the empty hallways of Canterlot High. She arrived way too early in the school, like she usually did. It was really normal for Fluttershy to be the first student to arrive at the school. The corridors were filled with the student's lockets. Some had some obscene paintings on the doors, others were a little dented, while few seemed to be right out of the factory. The floor was clean and reflected the lamps above her head, making it look like a silver way to the rooms, sometimes, being an blinding shine.
Then Fluttershy's attention about the place was gone.
She heard some quick footsteps coming from behind her.
''H- hello...?'' She caled out meekly. No response. Then she heard banging in the lockets in front of her. Fluttershy quickly turned around to face the way in front of her and... IT.
There was a girl in front of her. She seemed to be a little younger than Fluttershy. Her skin was pale, beyond the humanly possible point. Her black, long and messy hair had some noticeable red ''highlights''. Her limbs were obviously broken and distorted in a way that her arms were twisted backwards in an painful looking angle, and her legs would be totally broken from the bottom to their very top, save for two spots in each leg, that seemed theorically intact. She had a bloody blindfold covering away her eyes, that seemed to cry some red liquid, which ran down her cheeks and fell as one from her chin. Or what was left of it. She stood in a graceful position, in the tip of her toes, legs apart, head looking up and arms posed in some agonyzing perfection. The clothes she was using seemed to be old by the looks of it. They had dust and blood all over her shirt and skirt, but what was most marking was the golden locket she had with her. It was pure and simple gold, as far as Fluttershy could tell (if at this point she was even thinking), and its shine crossed the blood that covered it. But it seemed like it could fall out of the girl's neck at any second. Fluttershy shrieked in terror at the sight of the deformed girl in front of her. As the pink haired girl tried to run away from whatever monster that was, something cold took hold of her wrist.
The meek girl turned around, hoping that this cold hold in her wrist wasn't that thing she saw. But her hopes proved themselves wrong as soon as Fluttershy found herself staring at the deformed girl again. Fluttershy then, noticed that the girl's face was as twice as worse than her body. She had a permanent smile slashed in her face, her chin seemed to be chomped out of her head, and the smell she had... It was from a decaying body. She wasn't able to move anymore, not even one miserable inch. The girl started undoing the ties of her blindfold, revealing those two deep and dark wells.
All that Fluttershy found in these wells was fear...Darkness... Sadness... And lots of hate. She simply shivered and fell to her knees in front of the girl, crying from either the feelings she had from staring ino the eyeless sockets of the girl or from the fear she had from her. She spent at least an hour or so in the hallway, in the very same position, not even bothering on switching it. Other students asked her what happened, but she wouldn't answer any of them. She even struggled away from the hold of any other student that tried tapping her shoulder, hugging her or anything alike. She just cried, holding a piece from that old golden and bloody locket she saw in the girl's neck.
Sunset walked to the caffeteria where she would sit with her friends and discuss about their days, laugh, smile... These were the memories of happiness that Sunset had. These were the only friends she ever had in a lifetime, and she wasn't so sure if she would ever make any other friends like these. They were her family, and everything she had in this life. It was worth another try, right? Sunset walked to the table where she spotted her friends.
''Girls, you ha-'' Sh barelly had time to finish her setence, before Rainbow Dash smacked her across the face.
Sunset brought a hand up to her bruised cheek, as she looked at Rainbow with tears in her eyes. Rainbow, however, wasn't done just yet. She walked up to Sunset and lifted her to her own eye level by the collar of her shirt. The rainbow haired girl brought her fit up, but cold steel held her back. When she looked back, there was Freddy, shaking his head with a dissapoited look in his face.
''Well, well, well, be nice to your friends, buddy! Or we will -T E A R Y O U A P A R T, L I M B B Y L I M B- tell your parents, ain't that right, Bon Bon??'' Sunset froze at the bear man's ghostly quote. Rainbow Dash didn't seem to hear it in first place, however.
Did I heard that right...?, that was the question that echoed in her mind. She heard it clear and nice, but.. How Rainbow wasnb't affected by it?
Rainbow Dash growled and let go of Sunset, which led Freddy to let go of the rainbow colored girl. She rolled her eyes and sat back in the table with her friends, while Freddy asked for the blue haired dancer to lead the way to the nursery room to Sunset.
''But I know the wa-'' Sunset tried to complain with the robots.
''We know you know the way, silly! Hehehe...'' The bunny puppet told her. ''But we'd like to have someone to escort you anyways!'' Freddy said in a happy tone, as Ballora climbed out of the stage.
Fluttershy looked at the ballerina and all she could remember was the girl in the hallway that she saw earlier. She hasn't told any of her friends about what she saw, and she didn't intended to. It was so... Impossible. Yet, when it happened, it felt real.