//------------------------------// // Hunted // Story: Fuel the Eternal Flame | A DOOM MLP Crossover // by NotAnEditor //------------------------------// It was late in the day, the sun shambling it’s way down towards the horizon ever so slowly. Closer towards the Everfree sat a cozy little cottage, shade assaulting it heavily thanks to the surrounding trees now blocking the sun from the home.  A small creek flowed below a conveniently placed land bridge, a path built on it leading straight up to the front door of the foliage roofed cabin. Multiple chirps shot from the settling bird houses, dozens of them mounted on the tiny trees that surrounded the cottage. “Alright, every creature!” a hushed, yet optimistic voice spoke within the small house. The interior of the home had a comfortable atmosphere, the lighting giving it a warm, yellowish tone over the green floorboards. “It’s time for bed!” a yellow coated, pink maned pegasus stated, trailing behind an otter or two on her wings. Fluttershy was her name, reflecting the pink colored butterflies upon her flank. “Come along now, everybody.” she looked at a trio of small birds, flapping about and playing at the other side of the cottage.  She hovered over, shooing them along to a couple of birdhouses. “Come on you three, enough playing! We all need to get some rest for tonight.” Fluttershy urged along with her hooves, the trio eventually arriving at their respective birdhouses. The pegasus looked around her home, seeing all her little pets all in place for the night. She nodded happily. “All of you have a fantastic rest!” she hoped for them, going over to the light switch and flicking it down, the lights all collectively turning off. The multitude of critters and creatures chirped simultaneously, giving the mare a good night. She smiled cheerfully at them, closing her teal eyes happily before turning and heading upstairs. Fluttershy yawned tiredly, moving a hoof over her mouth as she made her way to the bed. A purple tone shined into the bedroom through the room’s large windows, the moonlight casting a violet shadow across the place. She stretched out a little before placing herself gently onto her bed, tucking under the covers and shutting her eyes. The pony attempted to drift peacefully into unconsciousness, one of her little ears flicking as she shuffled about under the sheets. As she was just about to fall asleep, a loose thought drifted into her mind. You forgot Mr. Lizard… She immediately jumped up. “Mr. Lizard!” the pony had forgotten to feed her pet komodo dragon for the night, not even to mention actually tucking him in. She clambered out of bed, rushing down the flight of stairs, stopping mid dash to make her way down much slower to not wake up her animal friends. The floorboards creaked under her light hoovesteps, going over to the front door and creaking it open with a free hoof. Fluttershy silently thanked Celestia for none of the animals waking through their recent slumber. She crossed to the outdoors, rounding to the back of her house and to the dual basement doors embedded into the ground behind her cottage.  She let out a yawn before gripping the rope attached to one of the doors, opening it and making her way downstairs. There were a dozen or so freezers in her basement, right next to multitudes of animal food bags sitting in the cobblestone dungeon. She went over to one of the magically powered freezers, the words 'Mr. Lizard' sticky-noted onto it. Fluttershy wrapped a hoof on the handle, pulling it open half-hazardly and reaching her head into the frigid environment. Her coat pricked from the cold, the pegasus gripping a bag of raw meat in her jaws before taking it out. She turned, starting away. As she did so she lightly kicked the freezer door shut while it flanked her.  The mare climbed her way out of the basement, the pegasus turning and gently closing the basement doors. She yawned extremely lightly around her bag, trying not to drop it as she headed over to the surrounding woods. She made her way in the trees, weaving between the branches and bushes in the direction of Mr. Lizard's cave. It was not long before she reached a clearing in the forest, a small cave within an elevated bit of land. Mr Lizard's sunbathing rock sat in front of it. Empty. Fluttershy went over to the entrance of the crevice, placing the bag down. "I'm sorry about forgetting to feed you, Mr. Lizard." she apologized. There was no usual hiss of reply from the cave as Fluttershy lifted the slab of meat from the sack.  "Mr. Lizard?.." she questioned, placing the meat in front of the cave, lowering her head into the cave. "Mr. Lizard?" she queried once more. The only thing that came to reply was her own echo, one of the pony's ears flicking to the noise. Fluttershy gave a confused look, lifting her head from the cave. With a quizzical look, her real eyes gazed across the rocky hill, looking for any sign of her animal friend. Her vision stopped, spotting something peculiar on the stones of his home. A strange, green liquid. It dripped off the side of the hill gently with a particular glow. Fluttershy gave the stuff a weird look, moving her muzzle near the gunk to give it a sniff. She immediately withdrew her head from the stuff, it giving a particular scent of death to the mare. She looked at it wide-eyed, only recognizing the scent from perished animals and… Friends. Fear grew in Fluttershy as she gazed around the clearing for the komodo dragon. “M-Mister Lizard?” she called with a hint of terror in her tone. A loud rustling from the surrounding trees made the pony jump, her ears perking as she gazed around frantically. “M-Mister Lizard?” she repeated, those two words being the only thing the worried pony could call out through her worry. The movement in the bushes continued for a while, however at some point whatever caused it had found a point to halt. Somehow the silence only brought more fear to Fluttershy, the mare taking a step or two back suspiciously. Mr. Lizard could be lost! M-Maybe he needs help? She planted a hoof, slowly moving forward towards where the rustling came from. The pegasus made her way slowly to the bushes, wings open, ready to dash away at any major jolt of fear. She could just make out more of the green gunk trailing into the disheveled series of bushes. “I-I’m coming! P-P-Please don’t be scared, Mr. Lizard.” Fluttershy stuttered before moving a hoof to set aside the foliage. The pony took a long breath, steeling herself before rustling into the undergrowth. She could feel a cold feeling trailing her coat as she made her way through, however the darkness and shade of her surroundings made it difficult to tell what her yellow fur had been stained with. “Don’t worry, Mr. Lizard, I’m co-” she stopped mid-sentence as she vacated the undergrowth, looking in front of her with wide eyes, her jaw dropping in horror. There, in front of the mare stood a tall wooden pike. A good feet or two taller than herself. Fluttershy didn’t even have to see what was at the top of it as she stared down at it’s base. Dark, runny blood pooled around a series of flesh-stripped bones at the base of the stick. A sickly dark maroon tone tainted the fluid as it traveled down from the top of the spike to the ground. The pony couldn’t help but start hyperventilating at the sight of the objects, her curiosity overwhelming her fear as her eyes slowly climbed the pike. There, on top of the wooden stick was mounted the head of Mr. Lizard. His cold, dead eyes stared directly at her, piercing straight into her soul. Grief pierced into her through the fear, the possibilities of this being her fault swiftly arriving to her head. A shrill, horrified mumble arrived to her voice as she stuttered her pet’s name. She had dealt with her animal friends dying before, but this was certainly different. This spike couldn’t have been placed there naturally. The slice along Mr. Lizard’s neck could hardly be considered a cut, more like a series of horrifying tears along his scales. As if something had simply gripped her friend’s head and torn it off completely. W-What could have done this? It certainly had to be intelligent to be able to build such an effigy. But why would any creature do this? Fluttershy deeply hoped it wasn’t a pony that had done it. She highly doubted a creature like her would even have the capacity to commit such cruelties. One of her ears slowly raised as she heard heavy breathing just to her left, one that sounded of a dying animal. The sound of chitinous flesh conflicting with each muscle filled her frozen ears. She let out a shrill whimper at a sight in the corner of her eye. A large green claw extending from the bushes. No doubt a sort of hand. It was much bigger than her head and the claws were tipped with glowing green highlights. She couldn’t help but stare at the claw in complete utter horror, her teal eyes wide as they ever had been. Fight or flight rushed straight through her mind as she stared at it with terror, trying to break her muscles from this stunned loop. The hand suddenly slammed right into the ground next to her front hoof, throwing leaves up from the grass. She screeched, turning and attempting to dash away from the creature. The deathly and raspy breathing quickened as she made her attempts at escape. Just as she was about to reach the bushes from earlier, she felt a piercing claw wrap around her lower hind leg. A supernatural strength manipulated her as she was lifted into the air by the grip. Her screech grew into a continuous wailing, tears beginning to stream at the feeling of the creature’s claws still around her leg. Fluttershy squirmed rapidly, pushing past the growing pangs in her lower leg to try to avoid the creature. The hand lifted her higher above the ground, by a good two feet. Her belly was facing right towards the creature, and lowering her head to face it was the last thing she wanted to do. She simply kept her streaming eyes towards the grass, not wanting to look at the monster. However, after a while of doing so, she felt the burning grow to monstrous extents, making her gasp in pain, her weak head naturally looking more downward, technically upward towards the monster. She once more froze at the sight of the beast. It was tall. As tall as a bear. Taller most likely. The bipedal creature’s skin was covered in armor-like chitin and had a sickly green tone to it all. Her breathing hastened as she gazed further up the monster.  It was muscular, extremely powerful looking, despite the way it breathed through gasps and gurgles of futile attempts at oxygen. Chitin was sectioned off from it’s pectorals and it’s abdomen, the two armor pieces giving different colors. One of a green and the other, more central color of a sickly brown which retained just a hint of it’s primary color. Finally, across its torso lay a large scar shaped in an ‘X’. Her teal eyes continued with curiosity and horror, finally meeting the face of the monster. In front of the angry protrusions of keratin on it’s hunched over back sat it’s small, nimble head. It’s lower jaw was split down the middle into two mandibles, green ooze dripping off it’s saw-like teeth. It tilted it’s head frequently, the mandibles twitching and opening spontaneously, as if it was preparing to bite straight into the mare. Fluttershy began mumbling incoherent ramblings as her eyes stared straight at the triage of oracles in the beast’s head. Three, tiny, glowing green eyes. Beady, not a trace of soul in them. However, the more she stared into them the more fear she felt. Complete, total dread filled her heart. It was like all the suffering, pain and terror Mr. Lizard had gone through, all being glared straight back into Fluttershy as the two beings gazed into each other’s souls. Well, at least one of their souls. “N-Nonononono… Celestia, no! P-Please let me go, let me go now…” She mumbled frantically as she was left at the mercy of the thing, the grip around her ankle growing with that same strange burning feeling. She could feel herself twitch as her leg was pierced further. She swore she could see a sadistic smile crack across the thing’s broken mouth as it lifted it’s free claw, preparing an attack. It let out a loud, croaky roar, stretching it’s uncomfortable to look at mouth threateningly. Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut, wishing this thing wouldn’t be the last thing she saw as it prepared a devastating attack for the pony.