"It's not supposed to be red."
Braeburn was busy helping with the storing of apples. Usually it would be a simple and pleasant task, but today there was a feeling of unease in the air. Sheriff Silverstar had found strange tracks in the desert a few days ago. Nothing to worry about if it weren't for the fact that they were getting closer by the day and that some had what looked like blood on them.
Animal tracks and even dead ones were to be expected this far away from the rest of civilization and the desert. But these tracks looked nothing like normal animal tracks. They were asymmetrical, both too big and too tiny, contained paw- and hoofprints and strange claw marks.
ponies being ponies reacted with fear and by spreading rumors. Braeburn wondered where they had gotten some of those. The Wendigo, mothpony, slenderpony and even more ridiculous names. One pony had literally pulled a dust covered book out of a dust covered box and started listing old legends out.
Braeburn yawned. It was getting late. Looking at the clock inside the warehouse. A birthday party was being held today and most ponies would attend it. Including him, so he departed for the town hall where it would be held.
Apple picker was trotting quickly towards her house. She was swearing under her breath for having forgotten the present back home. And she lived on the very opposite side of town. While she was in a hurry, she was still paying attention to her surroundings. So she managed to notice something move through an alleyway.
Curious, she moved into the alleyway. It was extremely hard to see due to the lack of modern street lamps. One of the consequences of living in such a backwater and undeveloped town. But she wasn't thinking about that. She was just staring at the... thing in front of her.
It was busy gnawing on a dead lizard. The vaguely pony shaped thing in front of her was covered in wounds and stitches. Exposed bones, missing skin and fur, entirely exposed skull with hollowed out eyes, extremely sharp and looked like they belonged to over a dozen different animals, it was covered in blood. It then coughed, blood spilling out of its mouth, before turning towards her.
She then turned and ran away. She only got less than a meter away before pumping into something. She fell onto her rump. Dazed, she saw what stood in front of her. Another one of those things stood in front of her. It stood on two legs, one of which was clearly bending backwards. It opened its mouth, which was held together by nails, before lunging.
Picker was too terrified to scream.
Deputy Rightful Tree was not happy. He wanted to go to the party, like everypony else, but he had heard a strange sound so he went to check it out. He wouldn't rest until he found it, because that was how he was. The sound he had heard sounded similar to chewing with an empty mouth where your teeth hit each other, there probably was a word to better describe it which he did not know. But he recognised the sound due to his mother's habit to do that all the time.
And he knew with utter certainty that his mother was present at the party, so something else was making that sound. He then found it. It was ugly, bloody and dragging itself along the ground as its rear half of its body was missing. Thinking quickly he ran towards it and bucked it with his hooves.
The skinless and furless head snapped off with ease. The head covered in sharp nails and debris left multiple cuts in Rightfulls legs. The headless thing then proceeded to grab his leg with its horrible mangled front legs, seemingly unaffected by the loss of its head.
Panicking he kicked the bloody mass until it let loose. It hit broken bones and tore through flesh with ease, however the brittle thing had an unnaturally strong grip. He only got free when one of the arms snapped out of its socket. Staring with horror at the abomination in front of him and the broken leg still holding onto his legs, he heard something shuffling behind him.
He turned and was shocked to see another one of those things. This one had five limbs and seemed bipedal, like a minotaur, except that it had three legs. The third leg was obviously attached in a spot where something else was supposed to be, even with Rightfulls non-existent knowledge of non-ponies.
The mess of flesh and bones limped towards the pony, dragging two of its legs through the sand and leaving a bloody trail. It then lunged at him. He managed to dodge the much slower and unbalanced creature and ran towards the town hall. The broken limb that was holding onto his leg fell off as he ran. He started screaming to get everyone's attention. The few few ponies that hadn't gone to the party pocked their heads through the windows, before quickly rushing back inside out of terror.
As he ran he could see more and more of those things move through the streets and come out of the side alleys. He then tripped and fell over. Quickly standing up he saw what he tripped over. An arm coming out of the ground. Said arm proceed to pull and tug on the ground until a head popped out. Then a chest and another arm, as the creature was digging itself from underneath the ground.
Rightful could spot the same thing happening all around him.
And then banging, crashing and screaming started. Those abominations were broken through doors and climbing up walls, using their broken limbs as unnaturally effective tools. Their teeth, often simply nails and wood debris that had been shoved into their skulls, could bite through the sturdy wooden doors with ease. One fell over some stairs and landed with all of its limbs scattered around. Yet that did not stop it as all its limbs slowly crawled towards the main body before reforming itself.
The only good thing is that they were all very slow, Rightful rightfully thought. That is until something slammed into him throwing him into the ground. He could feel that multiple of his ribs and one of his legs were without a doubt broken. He stared at what had slammed into him. The thing in front of him had clearly been a pony at one point, but now there were like five or six different animals nailed and sewed onto it.
The thing then jumped at him tearing through his flesh with ease.
"What's happening?!" A pony asked in fear. Everypony in the town hall had started to panic. All of the foals were crying, huddled with their parents. Braeburn was trying to understand what was happening. Screams could be heard from the outside. "Braeburn, stay here and try to keep everypony calm." Sheriff Silverstar told him. He left before Braeburn could answer.
Someponies followed him outside trying to head home, but they they would soon join all the other screams of terror and pain. After the third one, the ponies on the inside wised up and stopped trying to leave. They stayed inside listening to the screams which slowly decreased and then stopped. The only sound left was the crying from inside the town hall.
And then something burst through the door. Its limbs were twisted around, two heads nailed to each other, belly gone and stomach out of it. It tried to rush the nearest pony, but somepony else had thrown a cup at it. It hit it in one of its heads, snapping off and causing it to fall through the door, back outside.
A barrel was quickly moved in front of the door to block it.
One of the braver ponies tried to have a peak outside through a window. A bloody, twisted hoof bursted through it and pulled the pony out. The screams did not last long. The things outside tried to get in climbing through windows and trying to break the barrel blocking the door.
All the ponies rushed upstairs, blocking the stairs with whatever furniture was available. It only bought them some time as the abominations tore through the makeshift barricade with ease.
Some of the ponies tried to fight back while they managed to buck some into pieces, those things would simply reassemble themselves in the matter of seconds. Braeburn saw the futility of their actions after beheading one of the things by throwing a vase at it.
Those things crawled through the windows, surrounding the ponies. The foals cried but the abominations, many of them actually deaf, ignored it.
None made it out.
Outside, roaming through the now bloodied streets, a hyena-like creature was busy cutting and carefully sewing body parts together creating a strange bloody mass. The creature made a few gestures with its hand and the mass of flesh and blood coughed blood before standing up and limping away.
Another one the abominations approached the hyena with its hand smashed into a crate of books. The hyena took one of the books out of the crate before shoving a pony skull into the abomination's chest and then proceeded to slam multiple nails into it.
The book they had taken was titled 'Equestrian history'. They opened it and after looking through some pages they found something that piqued their interest. A picture of a white horned pony with ethereal glowing mane. The hyena couldn't help but imagine that the ponies skull was attached to one of its many creations.
The hyena took their tools and some food, purely for the sake of pleasure, and departed. All the abominations that were mindlessly roaming through the streets started following the hyena.
All headed towards Canterlot.