//------------------------------//
// Escape 
// Story: The Nightmare 
// by TheMusicalBoy93 
//------------------------------//

	Despite her mind consisting of nothing but sugar, confetti and sickening positivity, the pink one with the mane of bubblegum was proving to be a surprising challenge. Her tenacity, her strength, would've put even the orange farm pony to shame; no matter how much the creature struggled to escape, the bindings around its waist held firm, its wings pinioned tightly by its sides. It wished so desperately to break free, to feed on the rich, tasty blood flowing through the hard-working ponies around it, to soar once more into the beautiful night. It had but two yearnings in life: to flee and to satiate its hunger. Its mouth began to involuntarily water at the prospect of draining the two ponies holding it dry.
The pink one's companion, a creamy-white unicorn with a dishevelled amethyst mane, was bearing up less well; while she clung to an appearance of courage, it was obvious – especially when one was skilled at seeing past the façade directly into the very depths of the soul – that she was frightened out of her mind and just wanted to be as far away from this ordeal as possible. She was tired, weak, and whatever reserves she might have possessed were drained by being the designated victim of the evening.
With the pretence of settling into a more comfortable position, the creature infesting Fluttershy's body allowed itself it to go limp, practically sprawling out across the soft carpeted floor.
“Is she … is it,” the unicorn quickly corrected herself, remembering their unspoken agreement, “giving up?”
“I don't think so,” replied the pink earth pony cautiously, making sure her hold on the creature's restraints didn't slacken in the least.
It had been worth the attempt, but the pink one wasn't stupid, in spite of the fact that she liked to play the fool. It had been given much less to work with tonight; the squeamishness of the unicorn had meant that she'd backed away before the creature could even take a sliver of what it needed, but it would do … for now. Tonight would be the final night it spent in custody.
For the creature to escape, it would need to act docile, beaten, and lull them into a false sense of security; the pink earth pony had great vitality – it could only imagine what it would be like to feast upon her – but as the evening wore on, she would tire, she would make a mistake. With the alabaster unicorn already close to her breaking point, liberation was now only a matter of when not if. Neither of them had expected things to drag on for so long.
If nothing else, the beast inside Fluttershy had to admire their faith, misplaced as it was. They had thought that their dear princess would find a solution, as she always did. They thought that she could bring back the timorous wretch whose body it had corrupted so thoroughly.
An interminable waiting game was developing: the beast continued to act defeated, keeping its body as free of tension and its face as relaxed as was possible for it, while idly scratching at the carpet to relieve its boredom. The mousy presence in the back of its mind was aghast at the damage, but as she was no more than a mute spectator, there was little she could do except complain mentally.
The two ponies it was contained by were alarmed by the cruel smirk suddenly playing across its features, and it felt the reigns tighten. Oh, yes, she was aware. Every moment was indelibly scribed across her fragile psyche. She allowed her friends the small comfort of believing that, when the dawn came, she had no memories of the previous night, but it was all a lie to protect them … and herself. If they knew, they would reject her, treat her differently, and she didn't want to lose the only people who loved something as worthless as herself.
Fluttershy wept, just wanting the nightmare to be over with. She wanted to die if it meant her friends would be released from their suffering.
Finally! The rope slackened. The pink one had faltered, loosing her grip on the binds just for a moment while she yawned, and the white unicorn was nodding off into her hoof. With a ferocity that it had been saving up for a long time, the beast moved.
Wings with razor-sharp dactyls scythed through the rope as if it was made of gossamer. The two ponies tried in vain to recapture it, or at least keep it shepherded into the cottage, but there was no way to bottle this much untempered fury once it had been unleashed. It wished it consume them, but something was urging it out into the night; the desire to spread its wings, to cut through the cool night air, was the greater of the two cravings at the moment.
It had spent so much time here in pain, hungry and weak, and it wished to see the back of it. It wanted to feel the wind caressing its body like a lover once more.
With pure, unbridled hate fuelling it, it pushed its way passed the earth pony and her unicorn companion, crashing through the front door and sending shards of wood in every direction. It ascended, letting moonlight play across every inch of its pale yellow coat. Its expression was one of pure, orgasmic bliss.
“What do we do now?” asked Rarity, watching the bat take flight, feeling more helpless and miserable than she'd ever had before.
“Only one thing we can do,” Pinkie Pie said, no trace of her usual bubbly optimism in her voice. It had long since been burnt out. Her eyes went soft and watery as she watched the creature stalk toward the heart of Ponyville. “Hope that Twilight has a plan to save Fluttershy … before somepony gets hurt.”
Neither of them wanted to contemplate the unthinkable: that it might be Fluttershy herself who got hurt.




*


With her goodbye to Zecora said and a solid plan in hoof, Twilight Sparkle felt something akin to relief course through her body; it was the first such positive feeling she'd experienced in weeks, and she was almost bounding back to Ponyville so that she could inform her friends as soon as possible.
It wasn't to last, however; once she got within sight of the village, gloom took up its customary position in her heart once more. Ponies were dashing frantically in every direction, screaming and hollering in terror.
A stallion, clutching a young filly to his chest, brushed passed her. She put a restraining foreleg on his withers and asked, “What's happening?” Somehow, she already knew the answer. It was too much to hope that this was just a coincidence, and that an entirely different threat had revealed itself, after all.
“Some kind of monster is attacking,” the stallion said breathlessly. “It broke out of Fluttershy's cottage about a half hour ago.” There was terror in his eyes; not just for himself, but for the frightened yearling sobbing in his arms.
“Has anypony been hurt?” the alicorn princess asked, not really wanting to know the answer. Her litany of failure would be complete if somepony was killed or injured.
“I'm not sure. I've been trying to get my daughter to safety.” There was a note of pleading in his voice, and Twilight released him from her grasp and he took off as quickly as he could.
“Twilight, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!” That was Rarity, approaching her with Pinkie Pie in tow. In contrast to her usual mien of immaculate perfection, she was looking ragged and battered. “Did you …?”
“Find a solution?” Twilight finished, her eyes meeting those of the unicorn. “Yes, I did. What happened here?”
Rarity bit her lip. “I'm so sorry,” she said, a strangled half-sob escaping her throat. “I just … I just looked away for a moment, that was all!”
“It was my fault,” interjected Pinkie, not willing to let Rarity shoulder the blame for the creature's escape. “I let go of the rope.”
“It doesn't matter,” said Twilight, holding up a hoof to cut the argument dead. A single moment of carelessness had allowed the monster its freedom. It scarcely mattered who was responsible. “Right now, we have to recapture Fluttershy before she hurts anypony.”
Pinkie Pie hissed angrily.
“What?” the stressed alicorn demanded.
“You called it Fluttershy.”
Twilight sighed, remembering their agreement. When the bat took Fluttershy over, they had taken to referring to it as a monster or beast. It was a psychological thing: they wanted to distance the heinous acts of the parasite from the body it had co-opted. “Sorry,” she muttered lamely.
“We have more important things to worry about than what we call the damn thing,” Rarity stated tersely.
The trio met up with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and together they began a methodical search of the town; Rainbow took to the skies, but even with her heightened senses on full alert, she wasn't having much luck. While the thing was fast, it was also unimaginably stealthy. It was too quiet.
Suddenly, an agonised scream cut through the silence.
“That came from Sweet Apple Acres!” cried Applejack, and she bolted away from her friends. At top speed, even Rainbow Dash would have had trouble matching her.
“Wait!” Twilight Sparkle shouted to the fast-disappearing earth pony, but to no avail. Can't say I blame her, though. Her entire family are in danger.
When they reached the farm, neither Applejack nor the creature were anywhere to be seen; in fact, Sweet Apple Acres was eerily still. There would normally be critters padding around underfoot, but they seemed to have scampered off. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie went in the direction of the barn, while Twilight and Rarity approached the house proper.
“Applejack?” Rarity stage-whispered into the darkness, earning an eye-roll from Twilight as they tip-toed nervously into the living room.
“Up here,” the farm pony replied, her voice muffled by the intervening ceiling. Even despite that, Twilight and Rarity heard the curiously emotionless tinge. “It's gone.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked Twilight, heading toward the staircase.
“Because it already got what it needed.”
They found Applejack in Big Mac's room; even in the dim light, two puncture wounds were visible in his neck. He was blanched and shivering. “Took him right to the limit,” Applejack said with barely suppressed anger, “but it didn't kill him. Why?”
“It's still recovering, still getting used to feeding as much as it wants. It was probably too weak to take everything,” explained Twilight. 
“Apple Bloom?” asked Rarity.
“She's fine, thankfully.” Applejack laughed bitterly. “It must've missed her. Or it didn't need to bother with her after almost killing my brother.”
Crossing to the window, Twilight looked out over the orchard. “Why here?”
“Huh?”
“Sweet Apple Acres is on the opposite side of Ponyville from Fluttershy's cottage. Why travel all that way when it could've attacked anypony in town?” the alicorn wondered.  “Instead, it came straight here.”
“Darling, is it really that important?” challenged Rarity, apprehensive over the fact that Twilight Sparkle was seemingly so indifferent to Big Mac's suffering. 
“Everything is important.”
“We couldn't find it,” Rainbow Dash said, hovering outside the window and looking in. She caught sight of Big Mac and placed a hoof over her mouth in shock. “Is he …?”
“He'll be fine, eventually,” said Twilight in response. “Somepony needs to stay with him and call a doctor.”
“I'll do it,” said Rarity. Off Applejack's look, she elaborated, “They'll need your help far more than they'll need mine.”
Twilight nodded at her, then said, “The rest of us need to search the grounds. The creature is still around here somewhere.”
“You know that for a fact, sugarcube?” asked Applejack with narrowed eyes. 
“Not for a fact, no, but … it was created here. I think it's rooted here, for want of a better word, which is why it was in such a hurry to get back when it could've gone anywhere else in Equestria,” Twilight said. “It may consider Sweet Apple Acres to be its habitat, and bats are very difficult to shift once they take up residence somewhere.”



*


Back to where it all started. The creature's nostrils flared as it inhaled the sugary-sweet scent of ripened apples; a lingering remnant of its previous existence, before the interference of the alicorn princess' magic had so drastically altered its nature, caused it to flutter close to the trees in order to imbibe more of the tart aroma.
It was almost, but not quite, as intoxicating as the stallion's blood had been. It would have to return and finish him off when it regained its former might.
“There!” shouted Applejack, barrelling out of the house and pointing her hoof at a fast-moving blur. “It's heading into the orchard.”
“Slow down!” Twilight called. They were having difficult keeping up with the farm pony; no one knew what was she was thinking, and they feared that her anger at what had happened to Big Mac – to say nothing of what could have happened to Apple Bloom if they had been a bit later – might be clouding her judgement. It was entirely possible that she would forget that the beast was inhabiting Fluttershy's body and she would choose to fight it rather than trying to subdue the monster. “We need to work together.”
No answer. Applejack was no longer visible either; the darkness, the thickness of the trees and their foreboding branches, meant that clarity was at a premium. Twilight Sparkle illuminated her horn and Pinkie Pie found a flashlight in the unruly briar that was her mane. “Rainbow Dash, up high,” the alicorn said to the pegasus. “Make sure it has nowhere to go.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Rainbow Dash with a mock salute. She zoomed above the treetops, keeping her eyes peeled for even the slightest sign of the beast; it may have been fast, but there was no way it was going to outrun her. The prismatic pegasus wanted her friend back too damn badly to let it get away.
Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie were afraid, but doing their best not to show it as they proceeded into the thicket; despite the glow of her horn, the shadows continued to encroach up on them. After a few minutes of slow wandering, they caught up with Applejack. Despite her exertions, she wasn't even breathing hard.
“Did you see where it went?” asked Twilight.
“I lost it. I think ...” The earth pony never got a chance to finish as a black, twisted shape dived toward them; they scattered before it connected, and the creature shot upwards, snarling something guttural at them before it disappeared into the cover of the trees.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. “It's heading your way!” She prepared her own wings for take-off, even though she wasn't a natural flyer the way the pegasus was. This mess was her fault and she was determined to be the one who brought it to an end.
“I got it!” Rainbow replied, accelerating to her top speed in pursuit of the bat. She fancied that she was close enough to touch its tail; urging herself forward, Rainbow Dash reached out to make a grab at it. It was as long as Fluttershy's, but the strands were spikier and sharper-edged, and the needle-thin locks were whetted enough to draw blood from Rainbow's hooves. That was both a good and bad thing, as it turned out.
Catching a whiff of Rainbow Dash's cruor, the bat brought itself to a stop and turned. It began to hare toward the pegasus, its mad dash for safety forgotten; its fangs were at the ready, and Rainbow Dash steeled herself for what was to come.
The expected bite never arrived and Rainbow Dash slowly opened one eye. Surrounded by a magenta aura, the creature thrashed futilely, not understanding what had happened to it. “Good timing,” the pegasus said to the alicorn. “Now what?”
“Now,” Twilight said, the strain showing on her face, “we get it somewhere out of sight while I prepare Zecora's remedy.”
“No!” a booming voice cutting into the darkness said. “Now you turn her over to me.”
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight said, her mouth agape. She supposed she oughtn't to have been that surprised that someone had gotten around to telling her what had happened in Ponyville earlier. If her expression was anything to go by, she wasn't happy. “We have the cure.”
“You have nothing but hope in a bottle, Twilight,” replied Celestia, floating over to the prone bat and gazing at it sadly. So little of gentle Fluttershy remained in its loathsome visage. She pressed her horn against its head and it disappeared in a blinding flash of white light.
“What have you done with her?” demanded Rainbow Dash, her irate face level with Celestia's.
“She has been transported to the dungeons of Canterlot Castle. I never thought I'd ever have to use them again, especially not for something like this.” The princess shook her head. “We shall proceed there immediately and attempt to rectify this situation properly.” She couldn't look at Twilight as she spoke her next words. “You should have come to me in the first place.”
“I wanted to,” Twilight muttered lamely. “But ...”
“But you feared my anger,” the princess finished for her former student, her tone one of supreme disappointment. “You feared that I would reprimand you for your mistake. You let this spiral out of control, you placed the lives of your friends at risk every night, because … you didn't want to upset me.”
Twilight's shame-faced look said it all. She knew that she should've gone straight to Princess Celestia and Luna as soon as the bat-curse had returned, but … but she'd thought that she could handle it herself.
“She didn't force us to do anything,” Rainbow Dash snapped tiredly.
“Yeah,” chimed-in Pinkie Pie. “We helped her because we wanted to keep our friend safe until Twilight found a cure. And she has.”
“Maybe,” said Celestia, unmoved by Twilight's friends' loyalty. “Come. We shall discuss it further at the castle.”