That was the one thing that managed to race through Fluttershy’s head, the pleads and swears to her royalty. OH CELESTIA! OH CELESTIA! OH CELESTIA! She clutched her eyes shut from the legion of monsters, crumbling to the ground.
She held her hooves over her head, hitting her gnoggin to try to wake herself from this nightmare. Some sort of salvation. This had to be some bout of horrible nightmares! The tan colored pegasus tried to convince herself, her hoof knocking on her gnoggin.
However, the distant screeches of the demons still echoed from her home. Screams of ponies filled the air around her. Chaos began reigning and all Fluttershy could bring herself to do was sit there and feel the tears stream down her cheeks.
Why, Luna? Why am I cursed with these nightmares? This had been her strategy for the past week of those terrible dreams. Just don’t go along with it and hide in a ball of terrified whimpers and tears.
As Fluttershy sobbed, she heard a strong voice break through the air as panic swirled across the Sweet Apple Acres. “Everypony, stop panicking!” she shouted, taking flight and repeating the same command at the other ponyville residents.
“Everypony just calm the hay down!” the screams of terror slowed to small cries as the stampeding ponies halted for a moment.
Fluttershy stopped, peeking her head up and lowering her hooves back to the ground. Rainbow Dash flew above everypony else. “I know now may seem like a time to panic, but we can’t let go of our self-control! I have a plan!” she announced.
“What is it?!” One of the ponies in the crowd exclaimed to her.
“Me and Fluttershy flew around the Everfree Forest earlier and spotted a crazy weird orb thing! It covered the castle, I-I think it can protect us!” Rainbow informed the crowd, pointing to a distant light blue glow deep in the Everfree.
“You think?!” A speculative male voice broke from the crowd, nasally and nerdy. “What if we go there and those things can just walk right through?!”
“A-And what about everypony still in town? What happens to them? We need to help them!” A mare replied.
Rainbow Dash looked back at her town sadly. “I’m not sure we can…” the demons in the distance wrecked havoc upon Ponyville. Even from Applejack’s farm they could hear the screeches of terror and pain.
“But we have to focus on ourselves, while we still can save us!” Rainbow Dash tried to convince them.
A small filly weaseled her way between the crowd, making her way to the front. “That sounds awfully selfish, Rainbow!” Applebloom replied. “Why would we leave behind our friends and family just like that?! Just ‘cause some fancy dancy rainbow pegasus tells us to?”
The crowd actually gave that statement a good thought. They mumbled thoughtfully to the comment Applebloom formed.
Applejack spoke up. “Applebloom, ya can’t just run in there! Did ya see what just one did to Twilight?!”
“Sure! But they can’t take all of us at once.” the little sister countered.
“They?!” the country mare replied. “There are more of them attacking Ponyville now than
its entire population! Look!” she pointed a hoof to the town being ravaged.
Fluttershy internally begged for the townsfolk to follow them to the castle, however as the two Apple sisters argued, the tan pegasus could just make out the former white’s in the pony’s eyes as bloodshot. Almost the entire crowd was that way, the veins in their eyes congested with blood. The pegasus knew they were too far gone to be convinced otherwise, the apple-lava… her friends couldn’t do anything about it.
“It’s worth a try ta save ‘em instead of runnin’ away!” Applebloom replied.
“Sis, don’t you dare! Ya could die!” worry filled her voice. “Celestia knows what's in store for ya back there!”
Rainbow Dash cut in. “Listen, everypony! You’ve got to listen! You’ll die out there!” as she warned them, a large portion of the ponies began walking off towards Ponyville. “Wait! Hey!”
They all grumbled about how idiotic the six where as they walked off toward’s the legion who had yet to sweep across Sweet Apple Acres. A good dozen or so ponies remained though, the ones who were too late to get any apple-lava in their system as well as the last two Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Applejack rushed after the group. “Applebloom! Applebloom, please get back here! What in the hay are ya doing?! APPLEBLOOM!” she screamed for her little sister as she walked off. Just through the crowd, she could also spot Big Mac and Granny Smith. “Granny?! Macintosh?! NO!” Applejack broke into full gallop after them as they marched to their doom.
The country mare shouted and screamed for her loving family as they went off to the town. “BY CELESTIA’S NAME, GET THE HAY BACK HE-”
Rainbow rushed after her, hooking her hoofs under Applejack’s arms and lifting her away from the crowd, not wanting her friend to be taken in the swarm towards the demons. “Applejack! Calm down!”
“Let me go! I need to stop them! I need to talk with them! They can’t leave, they can’t die!” her shout tore through the air. “I’ll buck your head off, Dash!”
“If you go there with them, you’ll die too!” Rainbow exclaimed. “They’re already convinced!” she grunted in effort, holding back the earth pony.
Applejack tried to shake out of her grasp, Rainbow holding on too hard for her to escape. “Let go! NOW!”
Rainbow Dash thonked her hoof across her friend’s head suddenly, her hat falling to the ground. Applejack took a sharp breath, rubbing her hatless head. “I-...” she took a deep breath. “I needed that.” she admitted
“Good.” Rainbow Dash settled Applejack to the ground. “J-Just everypony stay calm.” she repeated as Applejack dusted herself off dejectedly, picking her hat off the ground and setting it on her head. “Do me a favor real quick, run the remaining ponies down on the plan. I need to check on the rest of us.” she told Applejack, glancing over at the last few residents willing to follow them. Six or so ponies.
Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Octavia, Carrot Top, Dr. Whooves, Nurse Redheart and White Lightning. Most of them had refrained from consuming the apple-lava.
The earth pony nodded, a dark yet determined look in her eyes as she started towards the ponies that had decided to follow them. “Got ya.” she told Dash.
Looking across Rainbow’s five other friends, she noticed that the ponies were very downtrodden, Twilight in a more literal fashion. The first mare that caught her attention was Rarity who was holding the horribly disfigured alicorn. The saddlebag Rainbow dropped early still sat beside the incapacitated princess.
The unicorn looked down at her friend in worry and disgust, blood dripping onto her pristine pelt. “I-I don’t know how that monster beat her!” she gently set a hoof next to her throat, feeling for a pulse. “She’s still alive… but I don’t know for how much longer.” she didn’t seem to be talking to anypony in particular.
“Rarity? Are you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked up at the pegasus. “I-I… I-...” she couldn’t speak a word.
“Sh-she’ll be okay, I promise.” she placed a hoof on the white unicorn’s shoulder. “We just need to get her to somepony who could help her.” Rainbow looked left and right, stopping over at the small handful of ponies that were joining them to the castle. “Applejack, do we have anypony that’d know how to help Twilight?” she asked.
Applejack was mid-sentence with a mare adorning a white coat color. “I think I got one! I was just talkin’ to her.”
Nurse Redheart leaned past Applejack. She lacked her nurse cap thanks to being off-duty. She trotted over to Twilight, inspecting her injuries. “I recommend performing on her once we get to safety.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, we all need to start heading towards the castle. Right everypony?” she asked, turning to her friends to see Fluttershy having a complete meltdown and Pinkie staring off at her friends as they traveled away. “Pinkie!”
Pinkie Pie jumped to attention, turning around to Rainbow with hesitation. “What?”
“We’ve got to get moving soon, who knows what could happen when those things get over here!” Rainbow Dash pointed out.
A sad look grew on Pinkie’s face, taking one final glimpse at all the friends in her town, convinced that she might not ever see them again. “Everypony get moving! We don’t have much time!” Rainbow exclaimed as Applejack took front towards the Everfree, in the direction that led to a distant glow that they could just make out through the dark forest.
As Rainbow Dash made sure nopony was left behind before following the group, she looked over at her fellow pegasus. She almost missed her earlier, not seeing her while she was curled up in a ball not too far away, whimpering and crying between the occasional hits on her head.
“Fluttershy?” She flew over. “Are you okay?! Flutts?” Rainbow Dash shoved the shy pegasus’ shoulder, trying to gently break her out of it. Her sobs only grew. “We need to get moving! We can’t have you as dead weight!” she bit Fluttershy’s strawy tail, trying to drag her.
She grunted, trying to drag the pony along the ground as she cried. “Come on!”
“I don’t want to! I can’t deal with any of this!” Fluttershy exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash huffed, letting her tail go and clopping in front of her. “What do you mean?!”
“Th-this is just like my nightmares…all of it!” she finally looked up from the ground, eyes puffy and tears rolling down her face. “Princess Luna was warning me! They weren’t dreams, Rainbow! They were visions! And it's my fault that I told nopony sooner!” she cried. “I-I should just sit here and wait for it to come…”
Rainbow Dash didn’t want to know what she meant, formulating an encouraging speech. “If you come with us, then there won’t be any living nightmare! What about all the animals?” she gripped Fluttershy’s hoof, trying to pull her along. “What will they do withou-”
“Pegasus, crouch!” a multi-layered voice echoed in her mind.
Rainbow looked up in front of her, jumping in fear before ducking out of the way. Furious wings dove past her, flying up behind the two pegasi. The rainbow pony turned to look at the culprit, spotting a horrific being.
It had pink, tight and grimey looking flesh. It was large yet spindly, hovering in the air on two wings extending from the biped’s back. Its face had two angry eyes glowing orange, a mandible mouth below an absent nose. Finally, one of the most notable features about it besides flight was its arms. Where its hands should be were metallic blades that must’ve been driven down into its limbs. If she hadn’t ducked, the mare would very much be lacking a head.
The gargoyle growled at Rainbow Dash, swooping once more to try to slice at the pegasus. Rainbow dodged once more, turning to Fluttershy. She rammed her body into the pegasus towards the forest. “RUN!” she commanded, the mare being broken from her ball of terror and looking back at Rainbow in shock.
“Go!” Rainbow Dash shoved her friend again as she stared up at the gargoyle as well. Fluttershy yelped as it swooped again, turning tail and running for the Everfree.
Rainbow Dash flew out of the way again, looking over at the saddlebag that used to sit next to the now gone Twilight, who had been dragged into the Everfree. She rushed over to it, grabbing it with a hoof and letting it rest on one of her shoulders.
“Thank you, pegasus.” the voice was crackly and staticy thanks to its crushed form. “You need to make it to the castle, it is the only safe place nearby.” the light blue bubble was visible from Rainbow’s height, guarding the castle.
“Wh-Who said that?!” she looked around. “Was that the murder cube?!’” panic filled her voice.
“Yes, but you may call me the Praeleantho- behind you!” it alerted her again.
Rainbow strafed hard to the left, hearing a swoosh of a blade slice just beside her head. “AH!” she exclaimed, the gargoyle keeping pace with Rainbow.
Another attack swooshed at her, the pony wincing as she felt a bad cut slice through her hip. “OW!” she bucked behind her, feeling the blind attack connect.
The gargoyle flew back a little from the hit, staggering its flight before continuing the chase.
Rainbow Dash looked back at it with terror. “What should I do?!” she shouted to the artifact. “Can’t you fight it or something?!”
“No.” it replied.
“Why?!” she dodged another attack.
“I do not have enough power. You must slay a demon for me to reach full faculties.” they informed the rainbow-maned mare rather calmly.
“Slay a demon?!” she glanced back at the encroaching gargoyle. “That thing?!”
“Yes.” the cube instructed. “The gargoyle species of demon is a brittle one, I believe a powerful shove to the earth will kill it.”
“I-I never killed anything before! AH!” Rainbow Dash screamed at the feeling of a blade raking across her side. Blood seeped on her pelt.
“You will have to now.”
Rainbow Dash converted the sharp slash to a source of anger, glaring her violet eyes at the gargoyle. Its boney body looked weak yet it seemed so much bigger. She flew as fast as she could at the monster, pointing her hooves in front of her to slam them into the thing’s torso.
The demon was quick to dodge, landing another, much lighter cut on her side. Rainbow shouted in pain, keeping focused and flying higher in the air. An attack from above would be harder for the demon to dodge.
Once she reached up high, she turned and began plummeting to the ground, using her wings to propel her faster towards the Gargoyle.
She felt her hooves connect with the demon’s front, the two propelling deep down into the forest. Rainbow heard the scared screeches of the demon as it was launched towards the ground, feeling several quick and frantic scratches being done to her as she pushed it further down.
Soon Rainbow pushed the demon through and beneath the canopy, snapping a branch or two with the speed that she pushed it at. The ground upheaved around her as she finally slammed the demon into the forest floor. A meaty crack sounded off once it was pushed into the leafy ground, blood shooting from the demon’s chest and onto her hooves.
The pegasus took several long and drawn out breaths, looking down at what she had done. There were two spots on its chest that were indented from her hooves, several ribs crushed. She didn’t hear any breathing from the monster, just a blank, glowing stare that looked up to the heavens.
Blood covered the forest floor around the body, the bloody metal blades on its arm shimmering in the light. Blood dripped from the several slash wounds it landed on Rainbow, the pain making her wince.
“It's not dead.” the artifact informed. “Its eyes, they still glow.” they informed the innocent pony. “It’s only paralyzed.”
Blood pooled around the corpse as she looked down at it with horror. “What should I do?” her voice was shrill, nearly a whisper as those glowing eyes glared at her.
“Stomp it to death.” the artifact commanded. “Until its eyes go dim. Your hooves make rather good natural weapons.” its crackling, hushed voice encouraged, a hungry tone growing in their voices.
"I can't just do that!" she exclaimed. "It can't fight back now, it isn't a threat!"
"It is up to you, however I wager that in a few moments it will rise once more and continue harassing your friends." it explained. "It could kill them. It has no consciousness, it has no morals, all it knows is death, suffering and pain."
Rainbow began shakingly lifting a hoof above the head of the demon. “What would it do to them if it got back up?”
“It will slaughter your friends for its mere enjoyment. Torture them mercilisely. You have no other logical choice.” it sounded less like a suggestion from the artifact and more like a necessity. “Think about what it could do to Scootaloo.”
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she imagined what the monster could do to the filly. She reared up, slamming both of her front hooves as hard as possible into the demon’s head. The mare did it repeatedly, multiple times. The meaty cracks and painful to hear snaps echoed through the woods as blood splattered even more across her cyan coat.
Eventually, after the flurry of loud and disgusting attacks, she slowly peaked an eye open to see the face of the demon. No light shined from its eyes, lifeless and grey.
"Good." a much more restored voice rumbled from the saddlebag, its strength returning thanks to the death of the demon.
Rainbow Dash looked down at the mangled corpse in horror. Had she done that? Had she just killed something? Actually murdered, like, with her own two hooves? Rainbow let the sound of blood dripping from them hang around for a moment. I did… she took a deep breath, shaking her head before flying off towards the Castle of Two Sisters. She had to focus on helping her friends.
The pegasus tried to wipe the image of the bloody demon from her mind as mucky blood still caked the lower parts of her coat. She kept an acute eye for her friends as she flew towards the bubble, keeping a close eye beneath the canopy. They must've made it a ways out. Hay, they could be at the castle already! She pondered.
On her way towards the sky blue spell, she felt the worry heighten to fear as she heard a screech through the woods. She didn’t take a moment before she dashed towards the source, looking between the branches, leaves and canopy for the noise.
Almost immediately she spotted the exodus running as fast as they could, a smaller more ravenous pony chasing them on wing. As she arrived closer and closer, before she could even tell herself to slow down, she noticed the assaulting pony behind them. An insane looking Scootaloo.
The rainbow mare found herself accidentally crashing into the raging Scootaloo, forcing her small body to the ground and holding it in place by her limbs. Her eyes widened into sorrow at the sight of who she had attacked. “Scootaloo! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t kno-”
“Th-That isn’t Scootaloo, Dash!” she heard the horrified cry of Fluttershy exclaim.
Rainbow Dash was about to give a questioning reply before noticing the now blood-devoured eye-whites of Scootaloo. She bit and gnashed savagely at the air, saliva spewing at the face of the more mature pegasus.
All she could do was stare at the poor, struggling filly. A word couldn’t be spoken from her mouth as she felt the surprisingly strong movements under her hooves. The mare didn’t have an ounce of idea what to do with her. What even happened to her? Was it the apple-lava? Either way, Rainbow couldn’t think of a way to help her. Although, a suggestion did manage to find itself echoing in her mind.
“You know what to do.” the loosely adorned saddlebag rumbled hungrily. Her eyes drew to her blood cyan hooves.
The consideration crossed her mind once, immediately shaking her head. “No! I-I can’t! She’s my friend, I love her!” the horrific vision of her hooves stomping through the skull of Scootaloo flashed for just a moment before she shook the thought away.
“You cannot hold her down forever. You must do something.” it pointed out.
“Well, that something can’t be killing her!” she argued.
The Soul Cube pondered slowly. “Hmm, would any friend of yours know a teleportation spell?”
Rainbow Dash looked up from the ground bound pegasus, staring at the group of ponies mostly consisting of earth ponies and pegasi. Even the two or three unicorns among the crowd weren’t really magic users. The only pony in question would be Twilight but… she could be in better shape.
“Not exactly.” Rainbow Dash responded.
Pinkie Pie rose from the group. “Erm, Rainbow? Who are you talking to?”
“It doesn’t matter!” she exclaimed. “Just, start going towards the shield, I have a plan!” Rainbow shouted at them to make sure they could hear her command.
Applejack nodded. “Got it, just don’t hurt Scoots, alright?” worry filled her tone.
Rainbow Dash nodded solemnly, looking back down at the filly with a sorry look. “Just get them to safety.”
The apple-themed earth pony and the rest of the group gave a small moment of worry before turning, and heading to safety with a brisk trot.
Rainbow Dash stared at the orange filly with a solemn look, using a good amount of her strength to hold her down. “S-Scootaloo?” she asked after a moment of silence. “Scoots, can you hear me in there?”
The violent thrashing didn’t halt.
“Come on, pal! I know you’re in there, right?” her woods shook.
The large teeth of the filly gnashed at her savagely.
Rainbow felt her eyes water. “C-Come on, we can go riding around on your scooter!”
The pony’s purple hair thrashed around.
The older pegasus frowned, blinking the water from her eyes. She’d have to move on. If Twilight’s right, there isn’t any bringing her back. Her heart heaved with sadness as she looked over to the glowing blue between the trees.
She could just make out the silhouettes of her friends within the bubble. Rainbow took a deep breath. “Please hold still.” Rainbow Dash told Scootaloo. She took a moment of hesitation before jumping off of her and flying as fast as she could away from the filly.
She dodged multiple trees, rounding left and right to avoid getting hit by them until she finally felt herself burst through the shields of the Castle of the Two Sisters. A heavenly hum surrounded her for just a moment as she blasted through the walls of the protective field, skidding on the ground and turning swiftly to see outside the bubble.
Rainbow Dash stared out, seeing a lack of the orange filly. She hadn’t followed her.