//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Freezing and Frightened // Story: The Mare that eats The Monsters // by Skijarama //------------------------------// C-c-cold! Twilight awoke and tried to open her eyes when she realized how cold she was getting, only to find that they were frozen shut. She let out a pained, shivering gasp as she tried to pry them open with some assistance from her forehooves. She bit down on her tongue to keep from shrieking out in agony as she realized one of her forelegs was pinned underneath the heavy weight of the train. As she shifted, cold, damp fluff slid off of her, informing her that she was partially covered in snow. With a pitiful whimper, she lit her horn and cast a heat spell to banish the offending ice from her eyes and body so she could see and get some feeling back. Slowly, the ice and snow melted off of her and pooled beneath her into a small puddle. Hesitantly, Twilight opened her eyes to look at her surroundings. It was well and truly night time, now. A furious snowstorm had picked up, the cloudfront from earlier having migrated to smother the foothills. Twilight groaned out as she pieced together her immediate surroundings. Her right foreleg was trapped beneath a section of the train. She found herself lying under the train, a section of its wall having been blown away by her botched teleport earlier. Luckily, it had landed and stayed in place so it would not crush her. Her foreleg gave an agonized throb to protest the thought. Crying out and hissing in pain, Twilight used magic to dig at the soil and snow beneath her trapped foreleg so she could pull it out. She proceeded slowly and with caution as she finally withdrew the limb. It was excruciating, painful beyond anything she had felt before. The bones under her skin and muscle had probably taken severe damage, meaning that trying to walk was not an option. Above, Twilight’s eye caught a glimpse of an orange flickering light reflected on the metal siding of the train. Testing her wings, she found they were flight worthy, even if extremely sore. She flapped her wings and slowly, tentatively drifted her way into the train cart proper. It was horrible. None of the creatures had come in here, it seemed, by the conductor and other staff in here when everything… happened… were not spared. Several, gaping holes had been melted into the front face of the cart, one of the snow-covered corpses showing the result of that explosion from before with a horrifically burned and twisted face and skull. Twilight felt her stomach twist in her gut, but she was able to force down her sickness for now. With grunts of effort and pain, she made her way towards the door in the back and pried it open, despite it being sideways, and slipped outside. Immediately, the harsh winds lashed across her body like a flurry of daggers, snowflakes flowing with the wind at incredible speed. Twilight could see small fires burning away at various pieces of debris, wreckage and flammable materials that were sheltered from the snow and winds. The light they created was just enough to subtly reveal the absolute massacre that surrounded her. Twilight dare not look. She focused her eyes on one of burning chunks of wood with good cover and few for it, using her telekinesis to bring over as many other pieces of burning or flammable material as possible. After wobbling in the air and gingerly setting herself down without putting weight on her wounded hoof, she had a small but serviceable campfire going. Now that freezing to death was staved off for a bit, she took a moment to think back on everything that had happened. “A-A-Am I all th-t-that’s l-left?” Twilight jittered to herself through clenched chattering teeth, curling up into a ball and trying to use her mane and tail as blankets. The results were unsatisfactory. A dry coughing noise caught her attention. Twilight perked up and listened to the voice, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Another cough and then a growl, putting Twilight’s ears to rest flat against her head as she realized it was one of the monsters from before.Twilight scooted slightly away from the light created by her fire and kept looking around for the creature. “Comfortable...?” Twilight shrieked in surprise as she swiftly stood and spun around to face the voice behind her, immediately collapsing as her injured hoof burned horribly in protest to the sudden movement. Gritting her teeth, she looked forward and saw the malformed face of that beast pony from before giving her a lopsided, sadistic smirk. It was pinned beneath another massive chunk of the train, only it’s head and one of it’s forehooves poking out. It was on it’s back, so speaking or breathing was probably difficult for it. “I must say… that even if- ack! ...even if I only got a taste… it was worth it…” it licked it’s lips, still stained with blood and a few tufts of lavender fur now frozen to them. Twilight felt her face pale as she looked to the rear leg that had been bit earlier before looking back to the monster with horror, rage, fear, sorrow and confusion. “What are you? W-w-why did y-you do this?” Twilight asked, barely able to raise her voice for how tired and cold she felt. The creature gave a weakened cackle, a glazed, euphoric look coming over its eyes. “I am nothing important… I merely did what I wanted… when I was finally able…” the creature wheezed before gnawing on thin air, smile widening. “I just wish I had been able to taste more of you… just that bit of leg meat was… succulent…” Twilight felt disgust and revulsion build within her. “You monster…” “Monster?” The beast tilted its head at her, briefly losing it’s smile. It looked thoughtful before it’s massive, sickening grin returned in full. It laughed softly, than uproariously before breaking into a coughing fit, spurts of blood flying from it’s mouth. Finally, it regained it’s composure and smiled at her hungrily. “Yes, that’s perfect. A good name for me and my fellows. Monsters. Heh… heh… eheh-” Twilight had heard enough. Almost without thinking, her horn lit and pulled one of the burning planks of wood on her campfire, swinging over before thrusting it into the creatures laughing mouth. The monster spasmed, gurgled, then fell silent and still. small trails of smoke could be seen lazily drifting from it's mouth, and the residual heat on the stick caused it's mouth to sizzle and pop. Twilight left the smoking plank in the monster's mouth, losing her focus as disgust and sickening feelings became too much for her. She pushed herself to the side so her ejected lunch wouldn’t be too close to her little camping spot. Twilight sluggishly pulled herself back when her convulsions and heaving stopped, gazing into the fire and shivering horribly. She wasn’t sure, but the fire looked like it was getting dimmer. As the adrenaline from a few moments ago began to fade, Twilight couldn’t hold it any longer. She set her head down on the ground and began to cry as quietly as she could. So many ponies… dead… she was all that was left at the scene, everypony else having either been killed by the monsters, the sudden stop of the train, the explosion or the snowstorm that only seemed to be getting worse. Twilight shifted slightly. Still weeping, she ignited her horn and pulled a strip of cloth from a nearby corpse. She was loathe to do so, but she had no other choice if she wanted to live. With the scrap of cloth in front of her, she lit her horn and carefully burned the words ‘HELP ME’ into the cloth. With the last of her energy, she cast the spell that turned it into smoke and sent it to Spike. She watched as the cloth vanished and drifted away for Ponyville. It would no doubt take an hour at least to get there with the distances involved. Twilight sighed and curled up, trying to keep warm as best as she was able in the dark, snowy night “Help me.. Help me… help me… help… me…” she found herself whispering over and over to herself as she lost her hold on consciousness. Twilight woke to find that morning had come at last, Her fire was only smoldering cinders, but at least the blizzard had passed and sunlight was visible on the horizon, casting its glow over the area. Twilight almost found herself wishing for the darkness to return as the light revealed the scene around her. So much blood… Not far away, among the debris and wreckage, Twilight heard metal creaking as it stepped on. She shot up, careful to not cause too much discomfort or pain in her wounded legs and looked around, listening carefully. Snow was crunching under hoof falls nearby. Twilight, for a moment, felt relief beyond measure and opened her mouth to call out; then she remembered the monsters from yesterday, how they looked like ponies in many ways. She clamped her mouth shut and held perfectly still. Twilight felt her heart sink and her body wilt in despair as no fewer than six of the monsters from before began to make their way out of hiding, approaching slowly and watching her hungrily, hunched over and ready to pounce. Gradually, they took position, cornering her against the wall of her shelter. “The main dish? Alive? Oh, no… this won’t do at all…” the monster in front said slowly, drawing his words out and peeling his lips back to show his teeth. “We came here to eat you, Princess Twilight. As good as these other ponies were as a snack… they aren’t alicorns.” They all began to lick their lips and drool profusely as they drew closer. “Stay away from me…!” Twilight choked out, unable to find her voice through the paralyzing fear she felt. “Eeeehhhh-!” One of them began whining, slamming it’s face down into the corpse it stood over and pulling back with newly acquired blood and meat dangling and dripping from it’s maw. “I can’t take it anymore! I am starving! Come on, can’t we just eat her already?!” “Agreed. I grow rather bored of these cheap creatures.” another said drearily, swiping it’s claws at a nearby corpse, but not diving in for a bite. “It’s time for something that tastes good.” “Please… no…” was all Twilight managed to whimper before screaming in absolute terror, the monster at the head of the pack lunging for her. Twilight gasped and opened her eyes as she heard the sound of rending flesh, but not her own. Fresh, warm blood sprayed across her as the monster in front of her dropped dead over five feet away, a series of long horizontal slashes having appeared across it’s chest. The blood of the beast was smeared across the forehoof of a new arrival. She was a bright gray with a silver mane and tail. Her eyes were yellow with reptilian slits for pupils. Sharp fangs could be seen pointing down from her upper jaw. Large bat-wings extended and flexed on the mare's back. Curiously, she didn’t have a cutie mark. The beasts immediately backed off, bristling growling and snapping at the new mare, screaming and shouting violently and wildly. “Traitor!” “Cannibal!” “Disgrace!” were just some of the words Twilight could hear being shouted from the creatures at the mare that now barred their path. Said mare glanced down at Twilight. “Stay here and grab a weapon. Magic won’t work on their skin.” her voice sounded young yet ancient at the same time, not unlike how the princesses sounded. She turned a cocky eye and amused smirk to the monsters ahead. “Shame on you, boys. Didn’t anypony ever tell you not to play with your food?” Twilight gasped as all four of the mare’s hooves seemed to grow long, sharp claws very similar to those of the monsters in front of her. The mare gave a snarl, her eyes briefly glowed and then, she charged.