//------------------------------// // Never alone // Story: Ectoplasm // by Neobreaker10 //------------------------------// She had only walked for ten minutes, but despite this she was already lost; every tree looked exactly the same and the fog wasn't making it any easier. “Hello?” Twilight called, hoping that somepony would answer, but her call was only answered by a seemingly endless void of silence, marred only by the sound of a light breeze in the air. Twilight could not remember feeling so alone and scared in her life, “I hope I find somepony here soon” she thought, but she soon heard the sound of hoof steps galloping towards her. She backed up as she spun her head, looking for the source of the noise until she saw a shadow in the fog getting closer. Twilight shuddered as she wondered what was running towards her until she heard it shout, “help me”. Soon she could make out the shadow to be a caramel colored stallion wearing a brown leather vest, Twilight was relieved. It was Braeburn. “Get me out of here!!!” he shouted as he ran as fast as he could until he ran smack into Twilight. “Oof” she gasped before falling backwards, when she opened her eyes she saw Braeburn on the ground trembling like he’d seen a ghost. “Help me, get me out of here, before IT finds me” he stammered, “Calm down” Twilight urged, “What’s after you?” Braeburn took a second to regain his breath and then began to explain, “Sorry about that, I was running from…. Something. I don’t know what it was, all I saw of it was a shadow moving in the fo-” he cut his sentence short and turned pale. “H-he-he’s here” Braeburn whispered, Twilight turned around just in time to see a shadow melt into the fog. “Heh-heh-heh” they heard a chuckle from somewhere in the fog, “I see you” they heard it echo around, seemingly coming from everywhere. “Well, is this what you were running from?” Twilight asked with a slightly panicked tone, “Yes, now we have to get out of here”, “Well it just so happens that I have a way out”. Twilight turned her head to the sky and shouted, “HELP!!!” Spike heard her shout and began calling to her, “over here Twilight”, back in the forest she heard his calls, “This way Braeburn” she called as they ran into the direction of spikes calls. Back where they had met a shadow began to form and talk to itself, “Well, clever move Twilight Sparkle” it remarked in its grating voice, “but it won’t matter, you may make it, but he won’t” it chuckled menacingly before melting into the fog. Farther away Twilight and Braeburn had almost made it, “Over here Twilight” Spike called, they were close now. “Urgh” Braeburn choked as he stopped in his tracks, “What are you doing, come on” Twilight shouted, then she saw it, the fog had become dense and was wrapped around his throat and hooves. Twilight hurried to help him but stopped when she saw the shadow from earlier take form behind him. Twilight stood frozen with fear, she couldn't make out quite what the shadow was but she saw a few details. It was tall and almost skeletal in how thin it was, it stood on two hind legs and had four tentacles coming out of its back, however it was the creature’s head that terrified her the most, she couldn’t see much detail, but it did have two small, glowing, unblinking dots situated in much larger empty sockets. She turned to run but some kind of magic grabbed her, she was forced to look over to where the shadow stood. “Running away so soon?” it hissed at her, “I’ll let you go, but only after I slowly kill your little friend here” it looked down to Braeburn who was still being held in place and then back to Twilight, “and I’ll make you watch” it chuckled with delight as it put its clawed hand on the beck of Braeburns head. The shadow tightened its grip slightly, Twilight could see dark patches forming on Braeburns body, she wanted to help but she too was being held in place. Soon the dark patches grew, formed small orange embers, and began to shrivel, Braeburn tried to yell but all that escaped was a small, pathetic squeak. Twilight could only watch as his flesh slowly was seared off, eventually he was almost unrecognizable as his bones were showing in several areas and his skin was now a shriveled, burnt dark green, He opened his mouth and could only squeak out a small pathetic “help”. The shadow, which Twilight could now make out a little better, grinned maliciously, it leaned down to Braeburns deformed ear and whispered “Too late”, it clenched its grasp, Twilight heard a loud crunch as Braeburn fell down dead with blood seeping from the back of his head. Twilight felt herself being let go, she turned quickly and ran without hearing the shadow snicker, “run, run, run, fun, fun, fun. Oh but the fun is just beginning” it cackled as it once again melted into the fog.