Mr. Cuddles slowly made his way into Fluttershy’s cottage. His eyes shined with rage and his rancid breath filled the air. The two mares looked at him in paralyzed terror. Pinkie was the one to move first.
“Fluttershy, go upstairs and fly out through one of the windows to get help I’ll distract Mr. Cuddles.” Pinkie whispered into her friend’s ear.
“I can’t.” Fluttershy said with tears in her eyes.
“My legs and wings won’t move,” she said still staring at the approaching grizzly.
“I know use the Stare that always works!” said Pinkie said with optimism in her voice.
“It doesn’t work with animal that have gone feral”
“Oh.” Mr. Cuddles was now a few feet away.
“That bear sure is taking his time getting here” Pinkie thought.
“Focus Pinkie Pie, we gotta help Fluttershy.” Her thoughts were interrupted by a small white blur that climbed up to her flank and ran to her head. Angel used her snout as a spring to shoot out like a furry bullet and lash itself onto Mr. Cuddles’ face. Angel held on, blinding the bear who was thrashing about in confusion.
“Angel?! What are you doing?” asked Fluttershy, voice full of concern. Angel held for dear life as he gave out a few squeals.
“No Angel I won’t leave you here!”
The white rabbit was about to tell her to leave again but was interrupted by Mr. Cuddles’ paw wrapping around his waist. Angel was lifted from the bears face and thrown to the ground. With a sickening crack, Angel’s unconscious body lay on the floor. The white rabbit gave out small forced gasps of air. Fluttershy stared dumbfounded at the fragile white figure. Mr. Cuddles saw that the white rabbit was still alive and proceeded to lift an arm to finish the job. A blood shrilling scream came from Fluttershy, causing Mr. Cuddles and Pinkie to cover their ears. The once terrified mare drew a scowl on her tear stricken face. Her wings flared up in an aggressive manner and said
“How dare you hurt Angel you…you big dumb meanie!”
She launched into the air and dashed at Mr. Cuddles, who was still stunned by Fluttershy’s screech. The yellow arrow that was Fluttershy bucked the rabid bear straight in the snout sending him stumbling back a few feet. Mr. Cuddles’ hind leg was caught on a decorative rug, tripping him onto the kitchen table. The wooden table broke under the bear’s weight and everything fell quiet, the only thing that could be heard was the heavy breathing of Fluttershy who was now standing over Angel’s unmoving body. Pinkie was staring wide-eyed, still not believing what just unfolded in front of her, the only thing she could say was
“Woo! Yea, Fluttershy! You go girl!”
Fluttershy’s anger started to fade and in its place sadness and worry stood. Fresh tears left her eyes as she looked down at the white rabbit. Angel was giving weak gasps of air showing that he was still alive. Mr. Cuddles rolled over from his back onto his belly and began to stand with a growl forming in his throat. The mares saw him stand and Fluttershy’s scowl formed on her face once again. She placed herself over Angel in an attempt to protect him. She lowered her head and flared her wings showing that she meant business. Pinkie took out her party cannon from nowhere and aimed it at Mr. Cuddles who was shaking in anger. Blood dripped from his nostrils and onto the floor. Outside the full-moon shined brightly but a massive dark cloud began to float over the moon sending the earth beneath into darkness. Fluttershy and Pinkie saw Mr. Cuddles fade to black leaving them in the dark.
“Hey! Who turned off the moon?” asked Pinkie as she turned her head side to side trying to find Mr. Cuddles or Fluttershy. Thankfully she always kept a pair of night vision goggles in Fluttershy’s cottage in case of a blackout emergency. She pulled open a floor tile and pulled out a pair of goggles. Pinkie set them over her eyes and switched them on with a low electronic cry. Pinkie saw the room get flooded with green light that let her see everything in detail. Her gaze came upon Mr. Cuddles who was just above Fluttershy. Fluttershy was completely unaware of the danger she was in. Before Pinkie could warn her of anything Mr. Cuddles hit Fluttershy with his powerful right paw. The mare flew across the room only to be stopped by a wall. Her body fell limply to the floor with a loud thud. Pinkie looked at her friend’s unconscious body and her mane and tail straighten completely. Her usual smile became a frown and her eyes glared through the night vision goggles at the grizzly in hopes that he would instantaneously combust into a mass of flames and burning flesh. She saw Mr. Cuddles look around and sniffing the air trying to find Pinkie Pie in the pitch black that was the room.
She was now standing on her hind legs, with her right hoof holding the trigger string, and her left hoof aimed the party cannon at Mr. Cuddles. Once everything was set up she stomped her left hind hoof on the wooded floor drawing his attention. The rabid beast turned his head towards the sound and charged.
Pinkie waited for the right moment to pull the trigger on the party cannon. When the target was in place Pinkie pulled the cannon’s trigger which lit the room in a flash of light. Confetti and party supplies, both large and small, shot from the cannons mouth knocking Mr. Cuddles to the ground. Pinkie had forgotten about the night vision goggles’ glare and was now rolling on the floor covering her now blind and hurting eyes. Pinkie stood up and rubbed her eyes with the back of her front leg.
She opened her eyes to find the world around her in a blur or at least the outlines of the furniture around her. Pinkie could hear Mr. Cuddles’ pained grunts, she started moving to where she remembered Fluttershy’s unconscious body lay. The pink party pony quietly made her way through the darken room to aid her fallen friend. Her eyes had stop hurting but they still stung from time to time. She finally made her way to Fluttershy who was breathing slowly and had a stream of blood running from her mane to down her face. Pinkie wasn’t aware of this since she was partially blind, she could only feel the wet blood on her hoof.
“Fluttershy? Wake up Shy we need to get out of here.” whispered Pinkie with a touch of fear in her voice.
Pinkie heard Mr. Cuddles’ grunts come closer to them. She thought of carrying Fluttershy out of the shed and into town, but she wouldn’t be able to out run the crazed bear with the extra weight.
“Okay new plan.” She said to herself. “Make Mr. Cuddles follow me, lose Mr. Cuddles in the Everfree, and go get help.”
Just as she finished that thought the moon reappeared, its shine illuminated the sheds living room. Mr. Cuddles roar at the sight of Pinkie, she could barely make the outline of the window across from her.
“Come get me you big dumb-dumb.” She said after picking up a pillow from one of the couches and threw it at his face.
The pillow didn’t do much damage but it infuriated the grizzly. Once Pinkie was sure he would follow she galloped towards the window and jumped, crashing through it. She received a few cuts and a mane full of glass but nothing she couldn’t handle.
Mr. Cuddles was too big for the window’s frame, so instead he rammed into the wall making a hole, big enough for him.
“I hope Fluttershy has insurance.”
Mr. Cuddles charged at Pinkie the second he recovered from the impact. Pinkie galloped at an amazing speed towards the Everfree trying to keep a gap between her and Mr. Cuddles big enough for him to follow but not too closely.
Once they were deeper into the forest she began to pick up speed, now ready to lose him in the thick tree line. Since she was partially blinded, Pinkie was relying heavily on her Pinkie sense to guide her through the forest. She saw the outline of a pony a few feet in front of her, but her Pinkie sense told her nothing was there so she kept galloping.
The figure she thought was a shadow turned out to be quite solid.
Pinkie crashed into the figure sending them both stumbling onto the floor.
“Ow that hurt.” When she tried to get up she felt a sharp pain in her hind leg that made her wince. Pinkie looked around and gasped when she saw the figure she had crashed into was now moving. She then realized it was a pony.
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry I didn’t see you there, are you okay?” the pony didn’t say anything he only lay there staring at her from the shadows.
“Um are you hurt? My name is P-“, before she could finish her sentence she heard the grunts of one very anger bear.
“Oh no! You need to run away, there’s a crazy bear on the loose and-“, her vision began to clear and she gasped once again of what she saw. He was covered in bandages from head to hooves, only his wings and tail weren’t bandaged. She was stunned at the size of his wings, they seemed to be two sizes too big. Pinkie wasn’t able to look in more detail as Mr. Cuddles made his way towards them.
He was obviously hurt and didn’t seem he could make it far, she was hurt too but not as badly.
“Go! Run away I’ll buy you some time!” he kept staring, with his head strangely still in the shadows, at her injured hind leg. Pinkie knew what he was thinking and said
“Don’t worry about me, just go, I’ll be fine.”
He still stared at her, now at her face. Before she could say anything more, Mr. Cuddles burst through some tall bushes and roared. Pinkie made her way between the injured pony and the rabid bear as quickly as she could.
The pony only stared at her as she defended him. Mr. Cuddles lunged at them, Pinkie closed her eyes knowing that if she moved the stranger would be hurt even more or worse.
Pinkie suddenly felt her body be lifted from the ground and the wind blew over her face. The roaring of Mr. Cuddles faded away as her body took to the night sky. The stranger’s fore-legs held her by under her fore-legs.
They flew in silence to the edge of the forest, where the stranger gently descended to the ground. Pinkie sigh with relieve that they had escaped unharmed. Now she only had to go get help for Fluttershy, but first she had to thank the pony that saved her.
When she turned around to thank him, he was already making his way back into the forest.
“Hey wait! Where are you going?!” she asked while she tried to catch up with him.
“I just wanted to say thank you for saving me.” She said in a cheerful mood.
The bandaged pony stopped when she said this and turned his head towards Pinkie, who gasped once again. A dirty and black metallic mask hugged his face only covering his muzzle. The mask went around the back of his head where a thin pale grey mane draped over one side of his face all the way down to his hooves. The tips of his mane were colored indigo, like heavy fog falling from docks onto a lagoon brightened by the midnight moon.
The one eye that Pinkie could see was sickly tainted by cataracts, covering most of his pupils and leaving only the black outlines. The irises were silver, all this gave him an undead look. Pinkie could only stare at him speechless, her head already coming up with crazy stories to explain his condition.
Before she could pick a story, she heard a voice that made up her mind. His voice could only be compared to the creaking of an old, rusted cemetery’s gate opening by itself in the dead of night.
“You are welcome.” He said with a deep rasp, his voice was given a metallic vibration by his mask that gave out an extremely eerie feeling.
“Z-zombie!”
Pinkie screamed and, forgetting her injured leg, ran top speed to town.
The stranger, now alone, slowly turned his head towards the forest and drooped his head and with a saddened voice he said
“Okay.” And disappeared in between the trees with a limp in his walk.