Vinyl Scratch's chest was hurting. Her hooves were aching like hell, and her lungs were on the brink of giving out. Her heartbeat was pounding away like a jackhammer. Her adrenaline was higher than it had ever been before in her life, even more than it was during her dubstep concerts and performances. And her adrenaline was pretty high during her dubstep concerts.
Except the difference between them and her situation now was that she usually was running away from fans, and not literally for her very own life.
Oh for bucking Celestia's sake, I'm such a bucking idiot!, Vinyl mentally cursed herself as she leaped over the husk of what had once been a tree, before it had fallen possibly due to Time's cruel aging fate, or some other unimportant-as-of-now reason. Vinyl wanted to look back, to see if that...that thing, whatever in the holy sacred name of Luna it could have been, was still chasing her, but she feared that if she did so, the moment she saw that it wasn't following her and looked back in front would be when the creature would appear, just like in the horror movies.
Only this wasn't a movie. And since her body was aching with pain and exhaustion, there wasn't much chance of this whole thing being a bad dream, either.
Vinyl darted between a couple of trees after making a hard turn to the left, thinking that perhaps she could buy a couple of seconds of precious distance time by alternating her route. Her chaser might assume she would continue running straight, so maybe this could throw it off a bit? No such luck. Once more, she heard that same sinister hissing, and she knew that if she'd turn her head back right now, she'd be looking into those horrible eyes again. Those terrible eyes that expressed inpony, murderous intent and cruelty.
Why did I open my bucking big mouth?, the thought raced through the DJ's mind as she resumed her sprint in this race of life-and-death. Why didn't I just agree with Tavi that Mozart could easily beat Skrillex in a rap battle? Buck, why did I even think a walk through the woods at night to calm down was even a good idea in the first place? Vinyl's eyes began to water as the pain afflicting her muscles started to get to her. Hours of running with very little time to stop and rest had finally caught up, and the strain Vinyl was putting on herself was becoming too much now.
Too busy with her thoughts and the pain, Vinyl failed to notice the broken tree branch in front of her until it was too late. Her foreleg hit the wood, causing her to trip over and roll several meters across the forest floor, before coming to a stop and laying flat against the ground. Vinyl, dazed from the ordeal, attempted to stand back up, but the new pain she felt in her foreleg kept her from doing so.
Oh no...no, no, no, please! Not now! I don't wanna die! Please, please!
She tried again to stand, gritting her teeth as she put her weight upon her leg. The pain shot up from her sprained hoof and all over her already-aching body, and tears streamed from her watering eyes. Slowly though, she succeeded in rising onto all fours, but when she tried to take a step forward, it was quickly made clear that she wasn't going to be moving any quicker than the snail pace she was going at now, and not without hurting herself with each step.
Vinyl gulped as she realized that this was the end of the road for her. That thing would only be seconds away from finding her. And when it found her...
She managed to hobble over to the side of a tree, and lean her body against the rotting bark. She turned herself around, and though hesitant at first, she forced herself to look back along the path she had taken. If she was going to die here, she might as well retain some dignity and face her executioner.
She watched with frightened eyes for any sign of her chaser, her body shaking and trembling.
She waited for those red eyes to appear suddenly out of the darkness before her, and those wickedly rows of bloody teeth.
She waited.
She waited a little longer.
She waited a little longer more.
She waited a whole minute.
She even pulled out a deck of cards and played Solitaire.
Nothing. No sign of the creature. Just eerie silence, not even a sound of approaching hoofsteps. Not even the sound of rustling leaves and foliage to suggest something was even moving towards her.
A small ray of hope worked its way into her mind. Had...had the beast perhaps...given up on her? Was she safe? Did this mean she would get to go home and see Octavia again? Her tense body began to relax at the thought, and she signed in relief.
If the creature had indeed given up chasing her, she didn't care what reason for. All she wanted to do now was find a way out of this Celestia-be-damned forest and return home, back to Octavia, back to her - their - bedroom, and back to her - their - warm and comfy bed, snuggled up to their - no, wait, 'her' - musical marefriend. Her injured hoof would surely make the task take longer than she would have preferred, but at least for now she was safe from harm...
"Hey."
The pony whipped her head around, to meet a terrifying pair of eyes, accompanied by a most horrific grin, just inches from her face. Vinyl's blood froze, as did her body. Her eyes widened, her pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. The hairs of her mane, tail, and white coat stood on end, and she held her breath. Paralyzed with dread she didn't believe possible, she looked like a living statue, her posture perfectly still and silent, like a still image of a scene from a horror movie. Vinyl's jaw dropped. She wanted to scream, tried to scream, but only a deathly quiet whimper came out.
Her pursuer's grin widened, stretching its lips until Vinyl could see the gums of its mouth.
"Just so you know," said the creature, its voice raspy and dark, "you are now fucked."
And Vinyl Scratch was finally able to scream.
- - - - - - - - - -
ELSEWHERE IN THE FOREST...
- - - - - - - - - -
Cobalt rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that night. "Celestia damn it, Unique. Will you fucking pull yourself together already?"
Unique turned his head to look at Cobalt. The striped unicorn did look awfully funny being upside-down. It made his frown look like a smile from this point of view. The sky being replaced with grass and leaves, with big tall trees growing downwards rather than upwards was rather strange, though. Down below, Unique could see the moon, its magnificent ghostly pale-white glow just about piercing through the tops of the trees, shining little rays of light up at him.
That's how the world looks when your head is hanging from your neck by a single tendon. "Hey, Cobalt? I just realized something. I kinda look like one of those Necromorph fuckers from Dead Space! You know, the one that decapitates your head and takes over your body? He he he!"
Cobalt raised an eyebrow at the mad pony vampire, his head swinging gently side to side as they both walked through the forest. He never would be able to understand what in Equestria Unique was on about. Half of the bullshit that came out of that mouth of his just made absolutely no sense to anypony save for the vampony himself. Who or what the Tartarus was a Necromorph anyway? And what was Dead Space?
Unique chuckled as his body grabbed his loose head with its hooves and lifted it back onto the base of his neck. The flesh and muscle slowly began to reattach themselves together, uniting Unique's head with the rest of his body. The insane vampony then cracked his neck, and looked at his unimpressed companion. "There. Pulled together. I should probably thank you for not ripping my heart to pieces, by the way. That would have been the end of me for sure."
Cobalt coughed as his eyes shifted left and right. "Er, yeah sure. I, er, meant to avoid doing that..."
Unique's smile disappeared, replaced with a frown. "Come again?"
A loud scream made the two ponies pause in their tracks, their ears perked up (well, three and a half ears, anyway, as Unique was still in the process of regenerating the missing half of his right ear). The cry sounded feminine, and from how loud it was, who or whatever it was had to be pretty close by. Cobalt and Unique looked to one another for a few seconds, before Cobalt's horn flared alight as his magic ignited, his vicious magically-summoned wires floating around himself.
Unique whipped out a pair of large handguns from out of his coat pockets, one plated silver and the other plated black in color. Both handguns had a sticker along the side of their slides. The one on the silver-plated weapon read 'BITCHES LOVE CANNONS' in bright red lettering, while the sticker on the slide part of the black-plated handgun read 'CHECK YO' PRIVILEGES!', also in bright red lettering.
"Never mind, Cobalt," Unique said, his twisted grin once again plastered upon his pale face, as he began running off into the trees in the direction of where the scream had came from.. "We're going back in business!"