//------------------------------// // Running from Evil // Story: Fuel the Eternal Flame | A DOOM MLP Crossover // by NotAnEditor //------------------------------// It was a nice day for Pinkie Pie. The sun was shining, her jaw hurt slightly less and with Mister and Mrs. Cake gone to deliver some pies, the rambunctious earth pony was left to her own devices.  She had recently returned from an all night party she threw for one of the dozens of residents of Ponyville, drowsiness slugging through her veins as she attempted to stay awake for the rest of the day. Well, internally at least. The mare looked attentive as ever as she sat upon one of the many chairs in the store, reading the newspaper. It wasn’t often she did so but ever since her injury she wanted to stay a little more inactive when other ponies weren’t around. “Several ponies gone missing across Ponyville and other Equestrian cities. Cause unknown.” she read. Missing ponies? Pinkie continued reading on. Occasionally the mare would set a hoof upon her mouth, massaging her wounded jaw lightly. It had healed to a manageable amount, however it still hurt to speak and on occasion the discomforting noise of the joints resetting in and out of place as she chewed or talked would fill her ears.  She neighed in a bored fashion, closing the newspaper. She needed some activity to take up her time and stave sleep away. Why didn't she drift off already? That question hadn’t arrived to the party pony as she pondered on what could be done. She rested her head on her hoof philosophically.  I could go bake, but there won’t be anypony to make something for and in all honesty, my jaw still hurts like all Tarturus. Pinkie mentally crossed that activity off her list. Plan a couple parties? Eh, not feelin’ it right now. I’m partied out at the moment, plus, I don’t think there’s one that should be coming up this week… Finally, a realization that made her smack herself with her own hoof reached her. “Pound and Carrot Cake!” she had completely forgotten about the twins when she entered Sugar Cube Corner. She stumbled out of the pink wooden chair, clopping her way to the stairs of Sugar Cube Corner and quickly making her way up. Mr and Mrs. Cake literally told me last night before the party! The earth pony scolded herself as her hoofs clunked up the wooden stairs, turning and looking about the upstairs hallway of Sugar Cube Corner. Four doors lined each side of the hall, the ones on the left belonging to Pinkie and the furthest down the hall belonging to the Cakes. The furthest door on the right belonged to the twins, Pinkie swiftly making her way over and pushing the door open. She slowly gazed across the grayish-blue colored walls, looking around on the ground for the duo. Her eyes widened at the absence of them, walking closer into the doorway to search for the younglings. There was a bit of a mess on the floor, stuffed animals, letter cubes and multitudes of toys covering it all. “Pound Cake?” she called with a worried look on her face. Her hooves clopping in closer into the room replied to nothing, not a babble from the two cribs. “Pumpkin Cake?” she asked for a reply once more, arriving close enough to look into the holding places of the fillies. Empty. Her look of uncertainty faded into a worried frown. Where in Equestria did they go?! Pinkie Pie’s floofy hair deflated slightly in worry as she frantically looked about the room, setting aside several toys and dolls, throwing cubes aside in search of them. She rushed over to the closet. “Pumpkin Cake?!” Pinkie exclaimed once more, “Pound Cake?!” the party pony slid both of the closet doors to their ends, looking within. She had to squint to look around the closet, the toys that were usually within were now missing and of course, were all across the floor of the room. However one wee detail made the pink mare double take. There, on the wall of the closet was a particularly gnarled claw mark, slicing through the wood jaggedly. Pinkie Pie took a step or two back from the closet, the look of worry curving into fear as she recognized the cuts. Pinkie Pie had recognized the markings from a week ago, when her and her friends were searching for that monster. However, this marking was different. The glowing green substance was absent, a magical residue hanging in the surrounding air. Magic has an aura of course, but often when something magical occurs or a magical being stays around long enough, they emit a sort of residue in the air. It could leave a scent, a taste, even a noise. Pinkie Pie always noticed Twilight’s residue to taste like grapes, or Rarity’s to smell like hoof polish. This magical residue however, gave a much more different impression. It was a very faded scent, so whatever was here must’ve been here an hour or two ago. It smelled of smoke. An unpleasant scent of fiery, overcooked pastries. She turned, starting around the room in search of the scent, sniffing intensely as she followed it out of the nursery. The floorboards creaked as she returned to the main hall, moving her head slightly to the right away from the stairs to make sure the smell wasn’t going in that direction. No, it’s downstairs. Her tone had gone serious as she creeped down the staircase. She rounded away from the stairs, following the scent in the opposite direction from the kitchen, leading back towards where they stored the flour. That fact brought the most minor bit of relief to Pinkie’s heart, flour being one of the things that often cheered the twins up the most. Maybe that’s just what Pumpkin Cake’s magic smells like? The moment of hope was shot down as the scent led past the several pantries, leading towards the ominous basement door. Her hooves clunked as she positioned herself in front of the ending point of the smell. Pinkie Pie rarely ever came down to the basement. Often Sugarcube Corner had everything they needed for baking in the pantries and the basement door was so far back in the store that she hardly ever even glanced at it.  It was so old, it still used the severely dated plank lock system to hold the door shut, two small bars on the door to hold a plank in place, the wood in question on the ground next to it. However, now that she looked at the wooden entrance, chills ran down her spine. More claw marks skewed themselves across the wooden door. They slashed in all directions, left, right, down, up. It was the sign of many fierce blows that remained on the door. The scent of burnt pastries exfoliated further into a revolting trace of rotten berries, assaulting her nose in a piercing stench. Swallowing her fear, she lifted a shaky hoof to the basement door. She pushed it forward, the door’s creaks echoing down the stairway of the basement. Pinkie Pie retched just as she finished opening the door.  The scent of rotten fruit was now replaced with the scent of putrid flesh, heavy and thick in the air. She turned, taking a deep breath from the fresh air of the first floor of Sugarcube Corner before descending into the basement. “Down here.” a baby-ish voice filled her mind. “Help us!” it urged as she made her way down. “H-Hello?” she asked, still descending the closed off basement stairway. “Who is that?” Pinkie Pie asked over the creaks of floorboards. “It is us, Pinkie Pie.” The voices stated ominously as she arrived ever closer to the bottom. “Poundcake and Pumpkin Cake.” the dual pair of voices ebbed with suspicious intentions. Pinkie Pie hardly trusted the voices. The twins could hardly form basic speech beyond some babbles and maybe a loosely spoken word. “You aren’t them.” she said with a determined tone. “Who’s talking to m-” her eyes widened at the sight she viewed at the bottom of the stairs. Foreign whispers, hums and hymns hung throughout the air as she stared wide-eyed. Blood caked the walls and ceiling of Sugarcube Corner, the sickly drip of crimson from the ceiling breaking the chilling silence on occasion.  There, at the other end of the basement stood a horrific effigy. A mound of viscera stood, fleshy, red, pulsating. Vines of gore twirled up and entangled into a statue of torment. The light scream echoed the air as she stared at the amalgamation of blood and gore. Gnarled teeth formed from the remnants of numerous missing ponies, culminating into a disturbing mouth of stained keratin, holding up a hazy, red portal like effect. A yellow-ish orange organ pumped at the bottom left corner of the statue, pulsating with Celestia knows what. One final portion that caught Pinkie's eye was a large clump of mane hanging off of the effigy colored in a minty hue. Pinkie Pie’s eyes were wide as they ever were, pupils shrinking to a miniscule size. “Come on, Pinkie. Everypony is having a blast!” The morbid voice mocked her often cheer ridden tone. As she sat there, frozen, she heard the sound of sizzling behind her, the fwooshing sound of teleportation following afterwards. A familiar labored breathing croaked behind her. Her hair lowered into the moody style as it gasped behind her. “̸̢̓̉J̵̛̙͎͙͌̒ų̴̱̿̐̈s̴̰͙̔t̴͖̯͎̑̊ ̵̛̦̅̒ẖ̵̲̼̓ȍ̸̘̠̩̀̕l̵̞̚͘d̴̘͋̈́͠ ̵͓̳̌s̸͔͊͌͊ͅt̷̪͕̉̓í̷̠̟̏l̷̡̟̠͛͒l̸̢̻͈̇.̵̦̗̞̒”̴̥͖̒́̀ The party pony panicked at the corrupted voice, jumping on her hooves and rushing up the stairs. She stumbled many times as the loud footsteps of whatever was following her clamped down just behind.  It had felt like a solid minute before the mare felt herself reach the top. She swiftly spun around, catching a quick glimpse of the monster that was following her. It was like the beast that attacked her in the Everfree, but purple in palette. It must’ve been a different breed of the same beast. Pinkie slammed the door as hard as she could, holding it shut with her hooves as she picked the board up with her mouth, setting it in place. Once done, she took a moment or two to catch her breath, still leaning on the door. …BANG! The mare collapsed backwards with a shout, scrambling away as the door cracked with another attack from the monster. The wood splintered from the other side as the beast slammed at it once more. After one more attack, silence filled the air.  Pinkie was winded, mainly from panic as she held her eyes upon the door. Her heart drummed and thumped in her chest, echoing in her ears as she watched the door, not a single thump from it.  Just before she could catch her breath, her eyes widened at the sight of a small purple flame forming in the air in front of her. The tall beast fwooshed into existence, the mare screaming in surprise as she jumped up and began running off, b-lining it to the front door of the bakery. Her hooves slammed down at the hard wood floor of her workplace, the party pony sprinting as fast as she could, trying not to trip over her own hooves as she made her way to the front door. She pushed past her limit, gasping desperately for oxygen as she scrambled across the counter of the store. Before she could reach a hoof out to the knob, she felt a claw scratch the hide upon her nape, feeling her hooves lift from the ground. She panickaly scrambled for the floor as she was lifted several feet from her usual height. She screamed wildly as she was lifted up effortlessly by the monster, it’s triage of glowing purple eyes glaring at her before drawing her back and hurling the pony out the door. The front door of Sugarcube Corner flung open as Pinkie Pie rolled out, several “Ow!”s coming from her as she landed with a small skid. The hunched-back monster made its way out, the movements ape-like as it prowled up to her. Once it was close enough, it opened its mandibles in a throaty gurgle, reaching a stretched claw to her face slowly. She shut her eyes tightly, preparing herself for the monster to claw at her mercilessly. A squeak of horror emanated from her as she waited for the end… However, that never arrived. Only the strange taste of grape in the back of her mouth. Pinkie flung her eyes open, seeing a purple aura holding the monster’s claw away from her head strongly. The monster looked down at it’s hand in curiosity, before looking over to the right and roaring at the culprit. The earth pony followed it’s gaze, seeing Twilight there just at the right moment, focusing extremely hard on holding back the resistances of that horrid thing. “Twilight!” she exclaimed in joy as she noticed several other residents of Ponyville arriving nearby to see the situation occur. “What in Celestia’s name is that?!” a stallion exclaimed, looking at the monster with a weirded out stare. A mare joined the confusion. “That isn’t the thing that hurt Fluttershy, is it?” news had traveled swiftly across the small town. “Monster!” a colt shouted simply. The beast looked around rapidly at the surrounding crowd. It was a monster that chose to hunt in the shadows, it’s instincts guiding it to carefully select it’s prey at the right moments. This was no time to snare its prey with so many of her allies nearby. It growled in a dissatisfied manner, before disappearing into a small burst of purple flame, before that too sizzled into thin air. “Pinkie Pie!” she heard Twilight shout as her friend galloped over. “Pinkie Pie, are you alright?!” the Princess of Friendship exclaimed the question. Pinkie Pie sat up a little, setting a hoof to her back and rubbing it a little. It took a moment or two for her to shake off the adrenaline to speak. “Y-Yeah, I’m okie dokie lokie! Ow, splinters.” she made a small comedic show of her pain to assure her friend that she was fine, forcing a bit of a smile. Twilight’s worried look lessened, helping her friend up to her hooves via levitation, brushing off some splinters on her friend’s back once she was up. “What happened?” she asked. “Just another one of those monsters! You know, the usual.” she laughed, shaking away the adrenaline, her hair poofing back up. Twilight nodded, a serious look growing despite her friends attempts at humor. “This is getting serious.” she gave Sugarcube Corner a concerned look. “I’m going to call the royal guard.” “Royal guard?” Pinkie gave her friend a tilted look, not wanting this to get serious. “I don’t think we need all that, Twi.” The alicorn shook her head. “No, if we let this go on, ponies are going to get hurt.” The party pony gave her work place and home a worried look, taking note of the crowd giving a worried look to them as well. “Oh…” “Come on, we need to get away from here.” Twilight led the pony away in a quick manner. The earth pony gave a hesitant look to her friend, before following off. She wasn’t sure how she would explain what had just happened to her. More importantly, what happened to the twin foals.