It was a pleasant day, warm and sunny, and it seemed just natural to go for a short walk. Rarity had been sewing for hours and she couldn’t resist smiling as last rays of sunlight touched her face. She closed the door and suddenly heard loud scratches.
‘No, Opal!’ she said ‘I think you’ll be staying home today, dearie.’
After few minutes of slow walking down the road, she found herself near the market square where a loud commotion had begun. Dozen or more ponies were standing in a circle, apparently looking at something hidden from Rarity’s eyes. She could hear whispers, at first, and the closer she came, the louder they were getting. She had almost reached the crowd when the first scream rang out in her ears, causing her to stop. From few steps distance, she watched ponies backing off slowly. The one that screamed – she recognized Bon Bon’s voice – was nowhere to be seen. Rarity wasn’t sure if she should come closer to the mysterious thing that made ponies act in such a weird way, but her curiosity won. She approached slowly, trying to crowd in. What she saw, she knew, should have made her scream even louder than Bon Bon did, but she couldn’t sound a word out. On the ground, in a puddle of liquid red in a really, really scary way, lay Bon Bon, with Lyra leaning over her and making squelching voices.
Rarity couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, and most of the other ponies seemed to have the same problem. All she could do was look – look at one of her acquaintances being eaten alive. Bon Bon stopped screaming, now she was just moaning and staring at Lyra with fear and pain in her eyes. No one did anything. No one rushed to help, everypony just froze, in some way hypnotized by such violence, seen by most of them for the first time in their lives.
‘Hey guys, what’s all the fuss about?!’
Rainbow. It was Rainbow Dash, flying over the market square, trying to make out things happening down there. The yell woke everypony up. Ponies started running in every possible direction, entering their houses and closing doors behind them with loud bangs. Rarity lifted her head to Rainbow who had finally noticed what was going on.
‘The hell are you doing?!’ she yelled again and dashed towards struggling couple.
Bon Bon has lost a lot of blood and she almost stopped moving. She was having her guts dragged out of her body and was too weak to fight. With a long, final moan she closed her eyes, convulsed once and then lay still. The same moment, Dash ’s hoof hit Lyra, throwing her away from Bon Bon’s now-dead body.
‘What have you done?!’ Rainbow screamed with terror, giving one look to Bon Bon’s massacred body just to concentrate on Lyra again. ‘Have you lost your mind? Why?!’
Rarity had not realized the tears were now falling down her cheeks. She slowly leaned over the violently mutilated body of Bon Bon, her mind revolted at the image of Lyra doing the same when she had been devouring her friend's flesh. She knelt, absolutely not paying attention to dirt and blood which covered her previously neat and tidy coat.
‘Bon Bon…?’ she whispered, surprised at her just regained ability to speak Deep down Rarity knew there was no hope for her friend after what had happened to her. Her coat and mane were now stained a dark, scarlet red from the blood that had seeped into. At Bon Bon’s belly, Rarity didn’t dare to look, knowing what her gaze would meet - a view that would never leave her mind. She was about to stand up to see if Rainbow has already dealt with crazy Lyra, when suddenly Bon Bon’s eyelids rose.
‘Oh dear!’, Rarity said, surprised. ‘Everything is going to be alright, darling, we’ll get somepony to help you in a moment. Rainbow Dash!’, she spoke up. ‘Bon Bon is…’ Rarity wasn’t sure what she should say. Okay? Definitely not. Alive? But wouldn’t it scare the poor, shocked pony laying in a puddle of her own blood? ‘She has regained her consciousness!’
But has she, really? The look in her eyes was at least odd, kind of empty and angry at the same time, and while this Rarity could understand, she just had to back off when Bon Bon got on her hooves and began slowly walking towards her, her intestines hauling behind her, leaving trail of crimson liquid on the ground. Bon Bon’s mouth opened as she growled, exposing her overflowed with blood teeth.
‘Step back, everypony!’ Rarity obeyed and looked at the source of the shout. It was a stallion unknown to her, with a syringe as his Cutie Mark. He carried a leather bag in his mouth. Rarity began to wonder how he managed to speak and have his teeth jammed at the same time when he ordered again: ‘Step back, I said! I’ll deal with it!’
He dropped his bag on the ground and put gloves on his front hooves. ‘Come here, lady’ he asked Bon Bon with enthusiasm. ‘I’m a doctor taught his job in Canterlot, I can handle any injury!’
Indeed, she came near him, locking this unusual gaze of hers on him. It was as if time slowed, when Bon Bon leaped forward and bit doctor’s hand.
‘Oh, my dear, I’m sure you’re hurt, but you don’t have to act like that!’, attacked pony said, trying to calm his patient. Bon Bon’s reply was a low, long moan, followed by jumping on the doctor and making him fall. The pony gone mad started tearing the victim’s body with her teeth. Doctor’s screams caught attention of Rainbow Dash who had been trying to talk sense to Lyra.
‘Oh no, you too?’ Rainbow muttered. ‘The hay is happening to you, ponies!?’ She rushed back to Rarity and struggling acquaintances and repeated her previous maneuver, kicking Bon Bon.
‘Go hide somewhere, Rarity!’ Rainbow ordered. ‘And get some capable ponies to come here on your way, I’ll try to do something about those freaks. I’m this town’s hero, after a…’
‘No, you are not, you bragging snot.’ Somepony interrupted, speaking slowly. Their voice seemed to be merely a whisper but somehow everypony managed to hear it. Both Rainbow and Rarity turned their heads to see Zecora standing near an edge of the market square, tightly wrapped in a dark coat, with her hood on, just like she used to dress back when she wasn’t welcome in Ponyville.
‘Be careful, Zecora!’ Rainbow Dash warned here. ‘We’ve got some… problems here.’
‘I daresay I can see, with that I agree.’ Zecora said, looking briefly at the splattered blood, surprisingly unaffected by the shocking view. Bon Bon kept assaulting the doctor but the zebra didn’t seem to care. ‘Follow me, you two, please come, or you’ll get eaten by this scum.’ She pointed to the other ponies.
‘What about…’
‘There is no need to wonder, those there are meant to sunder. Look at this stallion and leave before it’s too late! Come, I say, unless you want to share his fate!’
With those words, Zecora turned back and started walking away, slowly: in the direction of the Everfree Forest, as Rarity noticed. Shall we? – said her facial expression as she gazed at Rainbow Dash. However, it suddenly changed.
‘Watch out, Rainbow!’ She screamed. ‘Behind you!’
Rainbow leaped in Rarity’s direction and looked back. Lyra had just managed to reach Dash’s previous location. She was moaning, her empty gaze locked on the pony she was chasing. Her mouth opened and closed every few seconds, as if she was lazily trying to get ready for a meal.
‘Damn, the zebra’s right, we’re leaving. Now!’ Dash yelled. She flew closer to Rarity, caught her by the mane and started flying towards Zecora as fast as she could – really fast, it is. The white pony was to scared to start complaining about her scalp aching like hell, she was just happy that they were getting farther and farther away from the scary scene that had took place in front of her very eyes. When they caught up with Zecora, Rainbow let Rarity go by herself and they followed the zebra in silence, both trying to understand what had happened. The sun finally hid behind the horizon and so did the red brightness it had emitted, being in thrall to slowly appearing moon and stars. Sky has gone dark and the ponies, absorbed by their fresh memories, didn’t really notice they had entered the Everfree Forest, still and silent. For the first time in their lives, it seemed to be safer than their home in Ponyville… And in all of her scariness, Zecora must have known something worth hearing out.