The Darkness Within

by Natsumushi

Beautiful Nightmare

Dim candlelight illuminated the bedroom as Pinkie Pie lay on her back staring up at the ceiling, dark rings forming below her eyes from lack of sleep. For the past couple of nights she had been plagued by nightmares; darker and more sinister than any she had ever had before. It all began during a party she threw two days ago, the anniversary of their friendship and becoming the elements of harmony. It was on that first night that the first nightmare happened. She remembered it vividly, even now in her sleep deprived state of mind.

It started out like most other dreams she had: with her at Sugarcube Corner making cupcakes and muffins. As the dream progressed, the less saturated the colors became as Rainbow Dash appeared in her dream to help make some cupcakes with Pinkie. The point where she realized this was no ordinary dream was when she meandered down to the basement to fetch more flour. As she descended the stairs from the doorway, her vision grew dark, almost as if it were tunnel vision. Feebly she stumbled in the basement looking for more flour, when suddenly she began to hear what sounded like a strange, wet ripping sound echoing throughout seemingly every corner of the basement.

Following the sounds as best as she could, she continued onward. As she drew closer to the area, she suddenly felt her hoof slip into a wet puddle of some sort. Slowly, she raised her hoof in front of her with what little light she was given to see what she had stepped in. She screamed at what she saw. Blood.

Quickly her eyes darted left and then right, stopping only when she saw a dark mass just two hoof lengths ahead of her.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was able to make out the details; which only caused her to cry out of sheer terror at the lifeless body of Rainbow Dash laying upon her side; belly split open; ribs protruding outward through her broken flesh. Her eyes were gouged out and replaced with dark, lifeless voids as something huddled over her corpse. It was none other than Fluttershy: emaciated and bat-like with empty eye sockets that cried a black ichor. This abomination of a pony slowly turned to face Pinkie as a low and unnatural growl escaped its gnarled lips. Then, in a hollow and empty voice it said, “Pinkamena, come join me, my love, the meat is fresh…” as it licked the blood off of its lips.

She was frozen in fear; it gripped her heart like an icy talon, squeezing slowly and painfully as it sapped out the life of its victim. The Flutterfiend slowly stalked over to Pinkie, its hollow eyes started to grow two little pinpricks of crimson light that slowly looked over Pinkie's paralyzed form. Pinkie felt them trace her every curve and contour as the fiend approached.

Pinkie desperately wanted to flee, to move, to wake up. But it was all for naught as tears cascaded down her face, her own irises but a fraction of their normal size.

"Why?" she managed to choke out.

"So it can only be us...forever." It replied, unfurling its monstrous, leathery wings.

The creature was now only inches away from her face, and she felt its blood drenched hide press up against her own body as it embraced Pinkie with its wings and opened its mouth, wrapping its lips almost sweetly around the base of her neck.

Suddenly, as if by some divine intervention, Pinkie was finally able to break free from the Flutterfiend’s paralyzing gaze and gory embrace. She ran harder and faster than she had ever run before in her life, only to be cut off by a second mare, if it could be called such. This pony was also emaciated, however its eyes were many and it had four long, spider-like legs protruding from either side. Suddenly a set of fangs flashed out from within its mouth and struck Pinkie; ripping out her throat. As she lay dying on the cold hard ground, a swarm of spiders moved in from the shadows, converging upon her, digging and biting her flesh until the swarm covered her and obscured her vision…

And then she woke up in her bed, breathing heavy as sweat covered her trembling body and her stomach churned violently, forcing her to rush to the bathroom and to awaken the Cakes.

During that first night, Miss Cake did the best she could to comfort Pinkie and help her nausea to pass and she was very grateful for them. As the rest of the day passed the dream remained a constant bother, unlike most other nightmares. Needless to say she made it a point to avoid Fluttershy in fear of her suddenly warping into an abomination and eating her.

Likewise, she made it a point to give Rainbow Dash a long and teary hug; much to Rainbow's embarrassment.

Pinkie knew this because Rainbow just stood there like a statue as her eyes darted left and right as small beads of sweat ran down her face. Awkwardly she eventually hugged Pinkie back saying, " uh, there, there?"

Pinkie didn't mind, she was just happy that her Dashie was still alive and well.

The next night was even more terrifying as she found herself in the Cloudsdale Rainbow Factory.

This dream was very strange to begin with, and was almost more lucid than the previous night's dream, for she had awoken within the dream on the cold factory floor. It was not made out clouds like most pegasai buildings were. 'Maybe it’s just ground level?' she thought to herself.

As she began to move, a violent pain suddenly shot through her sides forcing her to stop and fall to the ground as she clutched them. As she opened her eyes, the pain slowly began to subside. She looked at the cause of her agony, finding a set of pink wings where the pain came from. However, they hurt terribly and she soon noticed a bone protruding at varying angles on either wing. Blood dripped from the feathers as she stared in horror at her broken wings.

'This is a dream; it has to be a dream! But the pain is too real. How is this possible? I need to wake up, I need to see Twilight. She would have the answers, right? She always has an answer. Maybe a super-awesome-make-Pinkie's-bad-dreams-disappear-and-never-come-back spell? Please let her have a super-awesome-make-Pinkie's-bad-dreams-disappear-and-never-come-back spell! These are just…wrong...' she thought to herself as she hunched down into a defensive, stealth position and slowly crawled forward.

A steel pipe clattered to the left of her, and she quickly pressed herself against a nearby tanker, wincing at the pain from her wings. And then that same terrible, hollow voice of the Flutterfiend echoed throughout the distant corridors.

"Pinkameanaaaa....Pinkameanaaaa.... Come out my love. We have a new friend for you to meet!" it cooed.

‘Okay Pinkie, this is just a dream. Remember what nana pie once said ‘If you ever find yourself awake in a dream you can then control its outcome. It’s your dream Sweetie Pie." I gotta take over this dream somehow, but how?' she pondered as she heard the flap of wings overhead as a shadow swooped past, and a set of hooves making contact with the cold hard ground soon after.

She needed a new hiding spot, and one seemed to manifest as she searched the area. She made her resolve and darted for it, but not before she saw the hoofed horror pounce at her. Rainbow Dash, horrid and monstrous with the same fiendish accents as the Flutterfiend, dove at her with its mouth wide open, revealing rows of needle-like fangs. She missed her prey, snapping loudly as Pinkie did a pirouette, evading the deadly lunge.

"Heya Pinks! Don't ya wanna throw me a party!" the Rainbow Fiend taunted in a terrible reverberating voice, its sunken eyes glowing a pale blue; hunger evident in those soulless eyes as it looked Pinkie over.

'Why do they always look at me like that?! I hate it!' she cried internally. Finally sliding into what looked like a laundry chute. As she fell, she faintly heard the same terrifying voice call out to her, "You won't get very far Pinks! You're In the Rainbow Factory! Where all your fears and horrors come true! Ba ha ha ha!"

Down and down she fell until she landed painfully on the ground. Wherever she now was had the most sickening odor and whatever it was she landed on was jabbing into her belly. Slowly she stood up, and as she rubbed her head and began to open her eyes, but a scream escaped her lips instead. For what was beneath her was not factory clutter, but piles of dead and rotting ponies in various states of decay. And across from her was none other than that fiendish spider pony. It glared at her with all eight eyes and licked its lips.

"What are you? Leave me alone! I just want these nightmares to stop! Somepony! Anypony! Help!!" She cried out as the beast unleashed a piercing wail, which summoned those horrible, black spiders from the shadows. She pressed her back against the wall as the scuttling swarm lunged at her, biting and burrowing into her flesh, blanketing her until only darkness and pain remained.

Suddenly, it all ceased.

"My, my, my Pinkie Pie, your mind really is a terrifying place. Oh where ever are all the cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk that you love so much?” Came a familiar voice from behind her. Slowly she opened her eyes to see the most chaotic (yet more welcoming) place she had ever seen. There was grass on the sun, and fur on the ground, and what almost looked like Celestia, but with dopey looking cat's head with its tongue sticking out replacing the princess'. As she turned around she saw the unmistakable mismatched form of Discord. "By the way, you're welcome." he deadpanned, and then began to float on air, looking as though there should be a hammock supporting him.

"Discord?" Pinkie asked, confused.

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

"How, wha- Why?"

"You cried out for help, you said 'Anypony! Help!'" he jested in a mock attempt at her voice.

"What? Just because Lulu is the sole ruler of the night, you don't think I can't decide to intervene in dreams as well? I'm hurt, and here I thought we were friends." he feigned, whimsically throwing himself on Pinkie; wailing in the most unconvincing show of emotion one could ever see, then he simply stood up and plucked Pinkie Pie up from her withers.

"Enough of that now, so what have you been eating to have such disturbing dreams?" he questioned, hanging her on a coat rack that suddenly grew out of the ground like a weed. “You know those colorful mushrooms are absolutely bad for your psyche.” He lectured, suddenly somehow wearing a pair of khakis, a knit sweater and a pair of soda bottle glasses.

"I honestly don't know. But these dreams are really scary. I've never had any dreams like these before, and just last night they started, and seem to be getting worse. Wait a moment…Oh. My. Celestia! You saved me! Thank you so much!" she cried as she pounced onto Discord’s neck with a vice-like grip and hugged him tightly, kissing him repetitively in between ‘thank you!’s.

"Hey now quit it! Fluttershy might get jealous." he winked, making his eyebrows dance in a swavey way. However, his usual mirth slowly began to drain from his face, as he solemnly turned to face the Pink pony.

“Speaking of Fluttershy, I'm actually quite worried about her. Lately she's been becoming rather thin. Unhealthy thin and she's been passing out regularly as well. She insists she's fine, but I know better. She won't tell me what's wrong but perhaps you might be able to find out? Think of it as a favor for me for doing you a favor of pulling you out of that dreadful nightmare." he said, and then snapped his claw.

Pinkie then awoke in her bed.

At first she was afraid she was just in another dream, but slowly as her eyes adjusted she realized she truly was awake in her bed. Perspiration covered her bed sheets and slowly her breath evened out. At least she wasn't nauseous this time. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was looming just outside the bakery. Watching her, studying her, and not in the entertaining and silly way that Twilight did when she was trying to figure out Pinkie's Pinkie sense. There was just a feeling of dread that permeated from the shadows of night. And she also could not fight of the feeling of something watching her in her own room as well.

However, that presence didn't seem malicious, it actually felt familiar. Not a good familiar, but not bad either; and upon further inspection she could make out the shadow of an alligator and concluded it to be him. No, not just any alligator. A baby alligator: Gummy. She felt relieved to know that that presence was from the ever watchful eye of her toothless pet.

"Oh Gummy, what should I do?" she asked pleadingly to the baby alligator. He licked an eye and blinked the other.

"You always say that. But you might be right. I'll ask her first thing in the morning." she replied. Gummy opened his mouth; and then closed it.

"Yeah…I probably should get a shower."

Fluttershy slowly made her way to the Kitchen, hiding her face behind her mane; her hunger growing with each step as she approached.

"Um, Applejack. Thank you very much for the stew, but I think that you should probably head home, it's getting late and I don't want to inconvenience you any further than I already have. Besides, scary things are going on and I would feel just awful if anything were to happen to you..." she sweetly suggested to the farm pony.

"Well that's mighty fine of ya, but ah figured it'd be nice to chat over dinner. We haven't really talked since the whole Tirek commotion. Plus, well, we're worried about ya sugarcube." Applejack admitted whilst absentmindedly fiddling with her cowpony hat.

"The girls and ah've been mighty worried. Not sure if Rainbow said anything to ya, but ah'm'a gonna say it now. We've been noticin' that ya haven't been eatin' right lately, even though ya say ya are. Now ah ain't calling ya a liar, heavens no, but ya are, or were, gettin' really skinny. Ah once heard from a doctor that, that might be some kinda disorder. Please sugarcube, if you need somepony ta talk to or ta help ya, you can come to any of us. Really." she pleaded.

Fluttershy was at loss for words, she felt an overwhelming joy come over her, but she still could not overcome the fear she felt by revealing the truth to them. She was by all accounts a 'mythical' vampire pony now, and it was a change she was still adjusting to.
'Maybe there was an actual cure, right? And Twilight would most certainly be able to find it if given enough time. But how long would it be before it was too late? Could perhaps one of the girls be willing to feed me? Would one of them actually be willing to actually spare their own blood, for me?' she pondered.

And suddenly, as she stood their processing these thoughts, a gut wrenching pain suddenly overwhelmed her. She toppled forward wrapping her hooves over her stomach and screamed, "A.J. Leave NOW!" as she felt her body begin to warp and distort itself as it had the night before.

"Fluttershy!" Applejack cried and rushed over to the yellow pegasai's side, but was bucked back with such force that it dazed the hardy farmer.

"Please A.J.! just run!" Fluttershy continued to plead, fighting back the bestial transformation to the best of her ability. Applejack quickly composed herself, staring in shock at what she was beheld. Fluttershy was changing right before her eyes, it was the most terrifying thing she ever did see as feathers and muscle fell off of her wings, revealing their skeletal structure, and was soon replaced with a bat-like membrane. She heard the agonizing ripping and tearing of flesh as well as Fluttershy's pained cries that continued to urge Applejack to flee, soon becoming a screech that made her blood run as cold as ice.

Cautiously, Applejack wandered over to her fallen friend, and finally realized the form before her, the Flutterbat. She wanted to flee and cursed her stubborn self for not listening to Fluttershy, but Flutterbat or not, she was still her friend and there was no way she could bring herself to abandon Fluttershy!

"F-Fluttershy. Please tell me you're still in there." she spoke as she approached.

"Damn it Applejack...You should have run..." she heard the Flutterbat whimper.

Applejack soon found her eyes locked onto Fluttershy's glowing, blood-red eyes. Her cheeks had become tear stained and those beautiful, dangerous, eyes, looked apologetic. Before she could ponder as to why, her unspoken question was answered as she felt a set of fangs sink deep into her neck.

Slowly she began to feel her life drain from her was Fluttershy gently sucked Applejack's rich blood and likewise, gently ran her tongue along her neck in circles around the puncture wounds so as to not let a single drop of blood escape her delicate mouth.
The last thought that ran through Applejack's mind was how pleasurable it would have been if not for the fact that she was dying.

The shower was very refreshing and Pinkie soon found herself down stairs in the bakery trying to get her mind off her night terrors. She had been as quite as she possible could be and had been able to get a head start on her baking. After making four batches of muffins and two cakes she looked up to see that it was nearing five a.m. and that she was feeling sleepy again. She figured that maybe a quick nap in the dining room might help and that maybe; just maybe, even the nightmares would not come. As soon as she sat down at a table and put her head on it, sleep took her almost instantly.

Pinkie's hopes did not come to fruition, and she found herself awaking in a warped version of Sugarcube Corner as she heard her own Smile song being played in the creepiest way possible within her head.

"I'm dreaming again. Why can't I just have a normal dream?" she whimpered as she looked around the dining room, pulling up her hind legs onto the chair and assuming the fetal position. Nothing was happening, much to Pinkie's relief, then their came a noise. It was a dragging noise, or perhaps it was more of a shuffle? She couldn't quite make it out. And it was moving toward her general location. Closer it crept, yet was still invisible to Pinkie. She moved back until she could feel the cool glass of the window against her back, shaking violently, bracing herself for whatever horror she would have to face this time. Finally it was silent.

Pinkie closed her eyes tightly, trying to wake up. And then her skin began to crawl, literally. Her eyes snapped open as hundreds of little bumps moved under her skin. Soon she saw little spiders break out of her skin, pouring from her mouth, eyes, ears and nose, and as she felt her body deteriorate into thousands of spiders, she saw the shriveled form of Applejack standing on her hind legs staring sorrowfully at Pinkie with hollow eye sockets mouthing 'help' to her. Then her dream went black.

Pinkie's eyes shot open as she tried to regain control of her breathing tears streaming down the one side of her face as she kept her head on the table. It wasn't long until her heavy breathing turned into sobbing. These terrible nightmares were getting worse, and she felt utterly helpless. She couldn't stand seeing her friends dying or becoming monsters in her mind any longer, it simply had to end. 'Will it end?'

Suddenly she heard a heavy thump against the door and thunder followed soon after.
'How long was I napping for?' She pondered, looking up to the clock. '6 'o clock! I gotta open the store!'

Hastily she made her way to the door, trying to make herself somewhat presentable as she went. She was about to open the door, when she stepped into something leaking in under the door. She froze, and then reasoned that it was probably just the rain. Slowly, she dared to look down; it wasn't rain.

"Pinkie..." came a weak voice through the door. Pinkie knew that voice and braced herself; opening the door. She could hardly believe her eyes.

Before her slumped against the door was Applejack, clutching her side in a futile effort to stop the bleeding from a gaping wound in her side.

"Pinkie, gather the girls an get me some medics...It's 'bout Flutters and Ah'm'a barely stayin' with it..."