"Princess Celestia?!"
...
"Applejack?!"
...
"Twilight?!"
...
Despite her progression, it felt like she was getting nowhere. Muddled by the fact that the three ponies around her had simply vanished, Rainbow Dash continued to search for any sign of life within the fog. This fog clouded her thoughts with anger and irritation, constantly feeling a chill that would creep up on her like a bug.
"Stupid fog," Rainbow Dash cursed. "If that bugged brain queen and that stitched faced freak thinks this fog is going to stop me, then they've got another thing coming!"
The brave pegasus continued to descend into the fog further, looking out for her friends.
"Twilight?! Applejack?! Princess Celestia!" She called out, yet still no answer."Where could they have gone?"
Suddenly, a wave of pain struck Rainbow's head, her brain felt hammered the more she continued to breathe in the fog. Within seconds, her stomach felt infected with agony, the more her heart beat, the more it signalled a vibration through her bones.
"Argh!" She furiously growled in pain.
Without an explanation, a harrowing noise abused her ear drums, burning her sense of hearing. It sounded distorted like white noise. However, the moment the distorted noise lowered, a faint scream was heard, but it proceeded to get louder by the second. She didn't need to hear it again, she recognised it with great dread infiltrating her thoughts, painfully worrying her.
"HELP! PLEASE!" The voice begged, ending with an appalling scream.
"Fluttershy?!" Rainbow Dash thought.
It couldn't have been, she didn't enter the fog. Why in the world would she? Dash's thoughts were cut off by another scream.
"DON'T LET THEM GET ME, PLEASE!"
"Hold on! I'm coming!" Rainbow Dash alerted, quickly taking off with the help of her wings.
The distressed begging and screaming drove Rainbow Dash to worriment like never before, it was a painful hearing her friend scream, especially Fluttershy. The fog continued to shroud her path, trying to delay her mission.
"Fluttershy?!" Rainbow Dash called out.
Desperately, she waited for a response, something that would allow her friend to find her, but again she was met with another burning scream, filling her ears with dread and punching her heart knowing. It wasn't the response she had hoped for, instead, it just consumed her in fear, but this was her only chance of finding Fluttershy through the fog.
Again, she zoomed towards the sound of her voice. Never before had flying been so intense for her, she has been in many situations like this before, rescuing Pegasuses during the Wonderbolts training programme, but knowing that her friend was screaming in terror made her nerves explode.
Nearly out of breath and stressed out of her mind, Rainbow Dash was brought to a stop, calling out her friend once again, needing another way to find her.
"Fluttershy?!" She shouted.
...
Finally, the fog began to clear up which benefited Dash's chance of finding her friend, but she didn't need to look any further. As the fog cleared there displayed before her sight was Fluttershy, bruised, wounded and covered in cuts. Her face was covered in scratches, she remained lifeless on the crumbling ground. Bits of her hair and feathers had been shredded off, it was a sight that only terror could allow.
"Fl-Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash trembled.
With no reply, she kneeled to the ground while shaking Fluttershy with ease, trying to wake her up.
"C'mon... Wake up. I'm here."
Nothing.
"I... I'm here. You can wake up now, the monsters are gone."
Nothing.
"Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash whimpered, nudging her cold body.
As the Pegasus slowly motioned her head towards her friend's chest, not a single heartbeat was heard. It was quiet. She was leaning against a lifeless husk that was once her friend; a cracked shell with no soul.
"No... You're just sleeping! Wake up!" She cried. "Wake up!"
Rainbow Dash continued to nudge her lifeless body while tears streaked down her face. "Don't go..." She refused to let the image before her become a reality.
"WAKE UP!"
This wasn't happening, she was always there to save the day, especially when her friends were in trouble. Again, Rainbow Dash gently hugged the body of her deceased friend, uncontrollably sobbing, in a state of grief she was never seen in before.
Some time had passed and Rainbow remained next to her lifeless friend. The tears blocked her vision, not that it was a bad thing, she couldn't stand to see her friend like this. It felt paralysing, dreadful, depressing. The last thing that escaped her breath was a scream, a painful cry for help, not even Dash could reach her on time.
Still painfully struck by her friend's demise, her ears picked up the sound of footsteps. If any of her friends were to witness this, they would be just as destroyed as her... Except, through the fog, the soul coming towards her didn't take shape of a pony.
All this sadness Dash felt was slowly turning into anger as the stitched up figure came into her vision. The fog cleared from his path as he looked down upon the broken pegasus, he spoke, his voice sounding quiet, yet infernal spoke:
"You weren't fast enough, Dash," Fright mocked.
Devoured by grief and hatred, Rainbow couldn't stand looking at him, his voice penetrated her skull with annoyance. Here she was, mourning the loss of her friend and he shows up to mock her; taunting her.
"What did you do to her?!" Rainbow Dash growled, rising up from the ground.
"Her mind overloaded on terror... As will yours."
Facing directly at him, there was not a single trace of innocence shown on her face. Her eyes narrowed down in anger and at this moment, anyone would be as far away as possible, but the demonic creature stood there, awaiting her wrath. Anger boiled deep in her system, it hungered for payback and that's what she wanted.
Dash lunged herself over her friend's body, erratically punching Fright from left to right, aiming her hooves at his face. She kept going, furiously striking him but not once did he flinch, he took her hits and remained silent, not a single groan escaped his mouth.
After her final hit, Fright stumbled back a little, his head knocked to the right. He eerily motioned his hand towards his chin, snapping his head back directly towards the Pegasus.
"You let her die and now look at what's become of you. A failure who's washed up in doubt." Fright insulted. "What will become of you without your best friend."
The insult just made her wish to continue the streak of punches she had inflicted upon him, but they didn't do a thing. No one could resist such pain...
"This isn't real!" Rainbow Dash told herself. "This... This is all in my head, isn't it?! Fluttershy has to be alive, she has to be! This isn't real!"
Rapidly, two chains emerged from the ground, rattling and wrapping around Rainbow Dash's wings, pulling her down towards the crumbling earth. The pain felt aggravating, the feeling of the cold chains lashing around her wings; restraining her.
The appearance of Fright started to glitch, he was moving towards her, but not a single body part of his lifted, as if he was fading in and out of reality. He firmly grasped Rainbow's face, his eyes fading to black as well as his stitched mouth.
"This is all very real, Dash." He told. "You think bravery can overcome all obstacles, but look at where it's got you? Your loyalty to your friends has guided you to the fear of failure, but it's okay. The horrors around you are fading into the darkness, only one fear remains for you to suffer."
Disgusted by the way his aberrant fingers latched onto her face, she noticed her vision becoming blurry; sinking in darkness.
"No... Please! Not this!" The sudden change in her voice and facial expression satisfied Fright, she was scared.
"Lights out," Fright whispered.
Suddenly, through the stitches of Fright's mouth, he began to emit black smoke that stung her eyes, and just like that, the cyan pony's vision was a sea of darkness; her sight was wrapped in charcoal; smothered in ink. She was trapped with her own thoughts with no visuals of the world around her.
"I can't see!" Rainbow screamed, quickly stumbling onto the ground.
The chains that had enthralled her wings had sunk back into the ground, she was free, but what did that matter if her vision was blocked by utter darkness.
"Fr-Fright?!" Rainbow Dash shouted in panic and anger but failing to receive a response.
He was gone.
Rainbow Dash was alone, blind, scared. The beat of her heart increased as worriment took over her system, she was lost in the fear-inducing fog, constantly tripping over and bumping into things. Desperately, she called out for help but no one answered. This was it, her view of the world was gone, the way she saw her friends had disappeared. Her dream of being a wonderbolt was crushed, flying would no longer be safe for her.
Fear had taken her friend, her vision, her bravery.
"Help!" Rainbow Dash screamed, bumping into things and tripping over herself. "Anypony?!"
Overcome with sadness, she cried, "This isn't real! This isn't real! This isn't real!"
"GIVE ME BACK MY SIGHT!" She screamed.
Other than her vision quitting on her, her hearing was just fine. The ground she stood on crumbled, break into pieces. Rainbow Dash then fell, her wings feeling pulled down by an unknown force. The hooks of fear forcing her down into a pit of screams, still blinded.
Despite the fact that she was now blind, the horrible image of her best friend being brutally struck down was still dauntiing her.
This whisper crawled into her ears once more.
"Into the darkness you go..."