Glass Bones

by Mad Hattie

Glass Hooves

The air seemed to get hotter the longer Twilight remained outside.

Despite the lack of an actual sun, the air seemed to prickle around her. Twilight knew that without her protection spells, the atmosphere would have been more damaging. She could feel it like an electric spark, bouncing off the thin shield of magic around her body, desperate for a way inside.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d walked for. The distant orange hue of the orb that stood outside the dome never shifted in position. There was no night or day; there was no passage of time at all. The only thing that allowed Twilight a sense of her progress was the steady pain in her hooves the further she walked.

So far, she’d seen nothing. Only rocks and rubble, the occasional wreckage of a long-abandoned cart. It was like ponies had dropped everything and run.

There was one thing that Twilight was grateful for at least, and that was the lack of bodies. She hadn’t found a single one. No gore, no blood and no bones. Considering the state of the world, she supposed that whatever remains there may have been could have been reduced to ash just like the wildlife, but she hoped for something more promising. Maybe everypony had been evacuated. Maybe that was what lay beyond the dome. Salvation.

But if that was the case, why did nopony think to come find her at the palace? Was it that much of a rush? Had there been no time? Had her friends just assumed she would be coming?

Twilight’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. Every time she thought of her friends, it only reminded her of just how alone she was. She’d written her first entry in her journal, but it hadn’t helped as much as she’d thought. Writing down her thoughts couldn’t substitute for a real conversation with another living thing. Unfortunately, the journal was all she had. That, and steadily growing mad.

There wasn’t much to rest under, so Twilight was thankful that she’d thought ahead and brought an old shawl with her. It was a dark green, matching her boots, and she was quick to throw it over her shoulders after what she presumed was a few hours of constant movement.

She took a break beneath the hood of her shawl, propping herself against a hot rock to take a drink from one of her water jars.

Midway through a sip, Twilight’s ear pricked to a noise from somewhere behind her. Releasing the jar from her muzzle with her magic, Twilight spun around, expecting to see somepony. But there was nothing. Nothing but a few pebbles knocking loose in the wind.

“Pinkie’s family would love this,” Twilight said sullenly. “The whole world’s been converted into one giant rock farm.”

Everfree Forest was nothing like Twilight remembered.

The forest had always been governed by its own kind of magic, giving it a unique style of wildlife, but as Twilight came closer to her prize, she realised that what remained of Everfree was nothing like she’d hoped.

The trees had rotted to blackened husks, completely barren of leaves. The soil was rock hard, lacking any kind of moisture, and as Twilight placed her hoof on it, she winced. It was just as hot as the scorching earth before it, easily burning through the mediocre protection of her boots.

Looking upwards, Twilight could see a slightly distorted version of the red sky, only this time it was decorated with black, sickly vines. The dead twigs stretching from deader branches.

This was the hope she’d been looking for. But there was nothing here.

Crack.

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. Her eyes scanned the dead bushes in front of her.

“Hello?” she asked. Clearing her throat, she said again, “Hello?”

Nothing answered her. She sighed. Maybe it was just more rocks.

Crack.

No. That couldn’t be. The dead trees may not be good for much, but they would have certainly blocked the wind.

Click.

“Is anypony there?” Twilight asked, heart beating faster in her chest. Even if a spear had protruded from behind one of the dead trees, she wouldn’t have cared. If somepony out here was alive, that was all that mattered.

“Please,” she reasoned. “My name’s Twilight Sparkle. I don’t know what’s going on…”

“Twilight Sparkle, did you hear that?”

The flutter in Twilight’s stomach turned into a full-fledged storm. That voice was… wrong. Warped like a changeling, but somehow even more menacing. Almost mechanical.

“Sssparkle,” another voice said, barely distinguishable from the last. “Princcesssss.”

Well she certainly couldn’t feign innocence now. Whatever was speaking, they knew who she was.

“That’s right,” she said slowly. “Who am I speaking to?”

A strangled sound came from the trees. Twilight realised that the creatures were laughing.

“The lassst voice you will ever hear.”

Quicker than she could perform any form of spell, two figures jumped out from behind a bush.

In the shadow of the broken trees, Twilight wasn’t sure what they were at first, but as they came closer she felt her body lock into place.

They were pony-shaped, but that’s where the similarities ended. The two creatures were alike - almost identical - with a grey coat and a long sickly green mane. Their manes fell limply over their faces, Twilight was sure that parts of them had fallen out in clumps. Their eyes were bloodshot, their irises a matching metallic grey. Each of the creatures’ muzzles was splayed into a snarl, showing an unfathomable array of sharp, shark-like teeth.

But that wasn’t the worst part. The flesh on their bodies seemed to be rotted. The fur on their coats had fallen out in patches, leaving awful grizzly rashes on their skin. In other parts, the skin had peeled off; whole chunks of the creatures’ flesh were entirely missing.

The creature on the left’s ribcage was on display, the one on the right was missing one of its back hoofs.

Surely these things couldn’t still be functioning?

But then the one on the left took a step forward.

“Fresh meat at last!” they cried in unison, creating an awful robotic chime.

Twilight didn’t wait around to figure out what they’d do next; with a burst of magic she teleported herself to the other side of the creatures and ran.

If walking on the hot earth had been arduous, galloping through it was surely worse. Twilight could feel the pain like lighting striking up her hooves, but she didn’t dare stop. Behind her, the two creatures refused to slow. The ground didn’t seem to faze them like it did Twilight, and what’s more, they were able to talk just as loudly as they ran.

“Do you sssmell her magic?”

“Such a feast!”

“What sshall you eat first?”

“Drain her magic, drain her blood, eat the flesh!”

“Yess!”

Then they began to repeat it like a mantra.

“Drain her magic, drain her blood, eat the flesh!”

“Drain her magic, drain her blood, eat the flesh!”

“Eat the flesh!”

“Eat the flesh!”

Twilight knew she couldn’t run forever. Her heart was pounding painfully in her chest, her mouth was sandpaper dry. If she kept this up, she’d die of exhaustion before the two pony creatures could even reach her. But giving up wasn’t a choice. This wasn’t a situation she could talk her way out of; whatever those creatures were, she very much doubted she could leave them on their way after a lecture about the importance of friendship. If she didn’t think of something fast, these creatures would kill her.

She couldn’t let that happen. She refused to die like this. She was the Princess of Friendship, the Element of Magic, she was an Alicorn and if there was even a chance her friends were still out there, she would find them.

With a roar, Twilight skidded on her hooves, coming to a hard stop. A burst of magic erupted from her horn and she teleported 180 degrees, facing her enemies.

The creatures faltered in their run, confused. Twilight grinned, that was all the time she needed.

A hard blast of magic shot from her horn, sharp as a blade’s edge. It sliced through one of the creature’s sides, cutting through its flesh with a sound like a ripping page.

But the creature didn’t react at all. The wound was deep, but instead of blood, the gash began to seep a thick black liquid. Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise.

“She thought she could kill ussss,” the injured one cried.

“Silly Princessss,” the other chided. “Sshould have known better.”

“NO!” Twilight shot another bolt of magic. This one sliced through the creature’s leg, ripping it off entirely. More black ooze fell rapidly to the ground, bubbling as it made contact with the earth, but the creature continued with little hindrance. Twilight couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Another blast from her horn severed the creature’s other hoof. It fell to the ground with a crunch, but still it tried to push itself forward. All the while the other creature trotted forward, teeth gleaming.

That’s when Twilight’s frustrations grew to all new levels. With a mixture of fear, anger and adrenaline as her guide, the magic in her horn grew until it buzzed inside her skull. Only then did she let it go. This time she aimed it directly at the creature’s head.

In an explosion of flesh, brain matter and black ooze, the creature’s head exploded. The tip of a spine poked through as the creature fell to the ground. Dead.

The other creature let out a roar. No more slow movements for dramatic effect. This time it was coming in for the kill.

But this time, Twilight knew what she was aiming for.

It was over in a second. All she had to do was think about destroying the beast and suddenly its head was gone in an explosion of magic and black blood. Two rotten corpses lay on the dry, barren dirt. Twilight had won.

“What in the hay were those things?” she muttered to herself.

A more timid pony may have left it there. But Twilight’s mind was wild with theories, her brain a mass of gears clanking together for an explanation to what she had witnessed. Before she even reached the corpses, she was holding a vial in her magic.

“Samples,” she murmured. “I need samples.”

In the end, she settled for two vials of ‘blood’ and a sample of the creatures’ fur. The black ooze was strange, it didn’t seem to act like a normal liquid. In fact, if Twilight didn’t know any better, she would have thought the blood was somehow alive. But that was preposterous. Then again, so was the idea that a pony could have its legs chopped off and not feel a thing. So was the idea that a pony would eat flesh or have sharp fangs instead of teeth. None of this made any sense.

But there was one thing she knew for certain.

Whether or not those creatures had been fully alive, they existed, which meant Twilight wasn’t the only pony out there. There was still hope.

“Flesh eating, magic sucking ponies…” Twilight muttered to herself. “What next? Lycans?” She paused, shaking her head. “No Twilight… don’t even go there.”

Twilight decided to cut her journey through Everfree short. If those husks of ponies littered the forest, there was little hope that anypony would survive there for long. Despite her hopes in finding a friendly face in Zecora, the chances that the zebra still resided there were very thin.

Instead, Twilight cut her losses short and mapped out a new plan of action.

Without the proper equipment at my disposal I won’t be able to come to any definitive conclusions, but what I saw today certainly wasn’t normal.

I didn’t find anypony in Everfree; if Zecora had ever been there at all, she was long gone by now. I did, however, find something.

They have a pony’s build, that’s for sure, but they are most certainly not ponies. Not anymore, at least.

What I saw in Everfree was a monstrosity. Walking abominations. They were rotten, falling apart at the seams, yet there was a gleam in their eyes. There was something too alive about them. I’ve decided to call these creatures ‘husks.’

It beats the other word I could use for them. The one so commonly used for the walking dead, but even in written form I’m too afraid to say the word. If I write it, then it makes it true, and I can’t stand that. I just can’t.

From closer examination I realised that the creatures weren’t completely rotted. Their flesh surely was, and it was even falling from the bone in places, but that’s what was odd. The bones. Celestia, if anypony reads this journal they’ll think I’m some kind of monster, but I did what I had to do to understand what I was seeing.

By pulling away parts of the flesh, and also studying the bones already protruding from the corpses, I was able to decipher that the bones were made of a different material. Not just calcium and collagen, not anymore; they were stronger, harder. And there was something more. They were shinier too; not quite like the gleam of a Crystal pony, but close. Unnervingly close.

Like I already stated, I don’t have the equipment on me to test what this means. My lab back at the palace is advanced, but it was never designed to tackle a problem like this. The only lab I can think of with the right equipment is the one in Canterlot.

Ponyville may have been a ghost town, but I can’t assume every town is like that. Canterlot is a lot larger, after all, and could be crawling with husks for all I know.

From the, uh, short conversation I had with the two husks in Everfree, it seems that their diet consists of pony meat, blood and magic. Considering their excitement when they saw me, I can only imagine that an Alicorn would be quite a feast. Maybe they use the mixture of flesh and magic as a way to sustain themselves… I’m not sure. I don’t know how anything can remain somewhat alive when their heart has stopped beating, but the husks were definitely of an undead archetype.

If I can travel to Canterlot, I might be able to find out what the husks are. Not only that, if I can survive the journey there, well, perhaps Luna and Celestia have left me some clues at their palace. Maybe they knew I’d survive this. I can only hope.

Which leaves one last thing.

Once I thoroughly checked the husks’ bodies, I found something that I had been expecting, but could have never prepared myself for. Both ponies had cutie marks. They were greyed out, worn from where their own flesh and fur had betrayed them, but I could still make them out.

If these creatures had cutie marks, then they had once been ponies. Which means they weren’t created like some kind of sick Frankenstein experiment, and if they weren’t created then there’s a chance that whatever did this to them is some kind of infection.

I’m no idiot; I’ve read the myths on the undead. Bites are usually the cause for transference of infection, but I’m beginning to wonder if the atmosphere has turned against us as well. It would explain why it feels as though the air is trying to attack my protection spells.

Whatever the reasons, I’ll know more if I can make it to Canterlot alive.

Wish me luck.