Eternal Nightmare
Fluttershy
"Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed softly. Elizabeth's mesh flowed back into her suit's leg, dropping the various berries and herbs. Fluttershy gathered them into her saddlebags, and Elizabeth smiled gently in response.
"Welcome," she rasped quietly, moving beside her as Fluttershy trotted back to her cottage. She sloughed off her saddlebags onto a nearby couch, while Elizabeth kindly remained outside for reasons known only to the Evolved. Judging by the thump from upstairs, she'd taken to the roof.
She hummed lightly as she fixed some tea for herself. Angel Bunny was currently foraging around the house, and he wouldn't get into trouble. It wasn't very nice to lie, especially not to herself, so she had to admit that Angel Bunny could be a little bit of a bully sometimes, but ever since Elizabeth had arrived he'd gotten a lot nicer!
As she balanced a measuring cup in her mouth for bird seed, she glanced up at one of the walls to see a hoof-sized splatter of red and white, pinning a small paper to the wall. She frowned nervously around the cup's handle. She knew that Elizabeth would forgive Rainbow in exchange for going to Cloudsdale, but that was in the future, and she didn't know how far that forgiveness would extend beforehoof. She may very well still think the trip was a prank. Oh well, it was out of her hooves.
After fixing herself and her animals a nice lunch, she took her sandwich and a cup of tea, each in one hoof, and flew up to where Elizabeth was perched on her roof. She'd molded her warm mesh into a seat of tendrils, supported just a nose above her cottage's roof, tendrils leading down to the ground and holding its weight easily despite how thin they looked. A good thing, too. Fluttershy didn't want to know if her house's roof could support that.
"Hi, Elizabeth," she said quietly.
"Hello," she rasped gently, watching the trees in the Everfree sway in a gentle wind. Fluttershy did the same, cringing as the orange leaves fell to the ground, all on their own. "How are you?"
"Better," she rasped. "Seen almost all ponies in Ponyville. Essence."
"Oh," she said, not entirely understanding why Elizabeth had just said 'essence' out of the blue. She chalked it up to one of the Evolved's quirks; it wouldn't be too polite to pry. "That's nice."
They sat there for a while, Fluttershy eating and drinking her lunch in silence. Once she was done, she looked up at Elizabeth, who simply stared blankly at the Everfree. "So, um, Elizabeth," she began quietly, steadily gaining volume as she went. "What do you know about Nightmare Night?" she asked nervously, biting her lip at the concept of her least favorite holiday.
"Is today, celebrate Nightmare Moon. No more," she said simply.
"Well, I don't know if I would say celebrate. It's more like, well, it was said that if you didn't leave candy for Nightmare Moon, she'd come and, um, eat ponies. Especially fillies and colts."
"Said?" she asked. "Not did?"
"I-I don't think so," Fluttershy stammered. "I don't really know how it started but it, um, stayed around. Ponies usually dress up and go door to door for candy, and foals place some at a shrine to Nightmare Moon. It's really mostly foals," she explained, before wincing. "Um, it's really scary. Adults usually use it as a chance to s-s-scare ponies," she said, phantom shivers working their way up her spine.
Elizabeth frowned. "Scare ponies? Why? Bad." Flickers of irritation crested along Fluttershy's thoughts at that. "Just like prank," she spat.
"Oh no!" she said. "It's different! Most ponies really like the scary part."
"Ones getting scared do?" Greene asked, still tense.
"Oh yes," Fluttershy said. "It's because of the, um, adrenaline I think. It gives them a rush, so they like it." She hoped that would make sense to Elizabeth. It would be really bad bad bad if she hated everypony in town who took part in Nightm -
- bad bad bad? She was starting to think like Elizabeth. Not that that was a... bad thing, not really, but it said something about how much time the alien spent with her. She still hung out with the girls, of course, but when Elizabeth wasn't hunting or foalsitting the CMC, she clung to Fluttershy like a lost puppy. Oh, she hoped Greene didn't think she thought of her like that!
"Some ponies want to scare, other ponies want to be scared. Works. Dress up?"
"Oh, yes. Ponies usually dress up as things. Sometimes scary, sometimes not. I think Twilight dressed up as Starswirl the Bearded last time."
"Star...swirl?" Greene asked haltingly, giving each individual word time to echo.
"Um, he was a really smart unicorn, a long time ago. Sorry, I don't really know that much about him. Really, just what Twilight's told me."
"Imitate," Greene said, pondering this new information. "Clothes, show as other things." She looked straight at Fluttershy, cyan eyes meeting wilted green ones. "What were you?"
Blood rushed to Fluttershy's cheeks. "Oh, um, I don't really celebrate Nightmare Night. I-It's too scary," she said, looking down. Oh, Elizabeth was going to be so angry at her. Elizabeth was always so brave, almost always so certain of what she wanted. She hunted in the Everfree Forest after all, and that was no small feat. Of course, it was easy to be brave when any wounds healed immediately, but she was still so brave...
"Understand," Elizabeth said. "How long is Nightmare Night?"
"It usually lasts all night long, even past midnight."
"See, I see," Elizabeth said. She shifted on her web of flesh, and the web shifted with her, until she laid on the cottage next to Fluttershy, their heads level with each other. "Plan next?"
"Well," she said, watching as Derpy placed a letter in her mailbox and kicked off. Like every year, there'd be invitations to Nightmare Night parties. One large, pink invitation would emit a song and a blast of confetti when she opened it. And like every year she'd decline them with a tremendously guilty heart, in exchange for holing up in her cottage and waiting out the night. "We could go see Rarity about your dress. Um, if that's alright with you?" she asked, looking at Elizabeth.
"Dresses," she whispered. In a motion too fast for Fluttershy to follow, Greene twisted her body and pushed against her mesh, jumping down from the cottage, where she then pulled her tendrils back into her body, something that made Fluttershy itch under her coat just by watching. Once Greene was done, she followed after the Evolved and alighted gently on the ground, balancing her teacup in her mouth.
"Onh momenth," she mumbled through it, trotting back inside her house, placing it down, then back out to where Greene stood like a statue, waiting for her. "Alright, lets go," she said.
The two of them walked and trotted to Ponyville. In the month and a half since Greene's arrival, the ponies had grown used to her, and there were no longer cries of horror, fear, and 'the' horror whenever she walked through town. Nopony noticed them anymore than normal, and so they made the journey to Rarity's boutique without incident. She raised her hoof to the door, hesitated, and placed it back down.
Elizabeth slammed her palm into the door with the sound of a thunderclap, making Fluttershy jump. A moment later, there was a melodious 'coming!' from inside, and the door flew open. "Oh," Rarity said. "Hello, dears! Please, come in."
"Thank you," she whispered, walking in after Elizabeth and gently shutting the door behind her. "I hope you don't mind, Rarity," she said as Elizabeth looked around at the ponyquins. "We were just wondering if, um, you had Elizabeth's dress ready? I mean, she's been very patient, and it's been a lot longer than the week you said..."
Rarity gasped, holding a forehoof to her mouth. "Oh good heavens! How could I forget?" She whipped her head to Elizabeth. "Oh darling, I am so sincerely sorry. I've had it done for a while now but it completely slipped my mind! Come, come, right upstairs!" she said, half screaming. Fluttershy winced. She'd made Rarity panic. Oops?
They followed Rarity upstairs, emerging into a hailstorm of clothes, yarn, and wooden boxes as the unicorn flung her magic around. Rarity stood in the middle of the cyclone, muttering to herself. "Where was it, I put it right here... no no, that was order 346-C. Maybe here..." Fluttershy saw Sweetie Belle pressed up against a wall, eyes wide in fear. As a tornado of needles from Celestia-knew-where flew around Rarity for Luna-knew-what reason, Elizabeth calmly stepped forward, the projectiles bouncing off her suit harmlessly and jolting Rarity out of her... episode.
"Dress?" she asked, echoes loud in the confines of the upstairs.
"Oh!" she said, cutting off her magic and letting the storm fall, creating a huge mess. Fluttershy eyed it nervously. She wasn't really looking forward to climbing across it. What if she stepped on something important? Eventually, she fluttered over to a little clearing in the clutter, in which Rarity and Elizabeth stood. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. Now, lets see..." Sweetie Belle, no longer pinned against the wall, smiled and waved a forehoof at Elizabeth before returning to her crayon drawing.
Elizabeth returned the wave, wiggling her fingers. Fluttershy smiled warmly at them. Aww, they were so cute together! She strongly suspected that Elizabeth was an adolescent, or at least had been when she became an Evolved and stopped aging. She just had that... look about her.
"Here it is!" Rarity shouted, levitating a tangled mess of cloth out and unfolding it. "Here we go!" she said, floating it into Elizabeth's grip and trotting over to another hallway. "If you'd like to get changed, there's a screen I keep behind here," Fluttershy heard as the alien followed the unicorn, leaving her standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. Not that she really minded...
She sat down and nervously shuffled her forehooves. She heard Elizabeth and Rarity fussing over the clothes, mostly Rarity while Elizabeth repeated the word 'dress' repeatedly, the insect-like buzz that came with her echoes cutting through any background noise. Sweetie Belle kept coloring, like this sort of thing happened every day.
Eventually, she heard Elizabeth Greene return, a smiling Rarity next to her. Fluttershy took in the design, Elizabeth's happiness flickering around her, and she had to admit Rarity had outdone herself once again.
She'd never say it out loud, but Elizabeth's regular look gave the impression of her being broken. Not whole, like she'd lost some very important, core part of her, like Rainbow Dash without her confidence and speed, or Pinkie Pie without her skill at parties and ability to defy physics. Truth be told, Fluttershy doubted Rarity's ability to pull it off, especially with her suit being part of her body, but...
The main colors were red and black, not red and white like Fluttershy had expected. The top of the dress, hanging on Elizabeth's wiry frame, was red as blood, and Rarity had given it different shades of red, so that when Elizabeth moved it looked like it was flowing. The bottom part was wide, Elizabeth's suited legs still came out from under it, and it was black as coal. If anything, the gray of the plastic leggings only gave the illusion of ashes under a fire.
Near the middle, red and black met, each color splitting into webs and curling around one another before being overcome by the other. Down her 'sleeves' the flowing red quickly frayed into tendrils of red and white, twisting above and below each other in haphazard directions that seemed to hint at some underlying pattern, with the occasional flash of brilliant amber. Just as they reached her wrists, they flared with the same brilliant green tint of Elizabeth's electricity. The dress was wide, so it hid the tubes down Elizabeth's back very well.
Elizabeth's suit went up her neck and ended in a little 'disk' around the bottom of her head, yet Rarity's design took that into account as well, the red fading to gray as it reached it, and even forming additional rings on its way up, interconnected with strands of red and white. All in all, it balanced out Greene's features, and while it wasn't quite as graceful as some of Rarity's other works, it fit the wearer. Its rippling, 'bloody' top, the ashes at the bottom and dark webbing at the middle, and the hints of emerald lightning at the wrists and flashes of yellow, made Elizabeth look just as intimidating as before, but less broken.
Of course, her mane was still a mess. Not that she'd ever say that out loud, of course.
"Dress!" Elizabeth hissed happily, spinning around so it flew out around her. "Good dress!" Elizabeth laughed once, rippling around Fluttershy like wind-chimes.
"I'm glad you like it, Elizabeth," Rarity said, also smiling. "Look at me, designing clothing for an alien! Oh Greene, you simply must wear that to next year's Grand Galloping Gala!"
"Hmm," Elizabeth grunted. In a single spinning motion, Elizabeth lifted the dress over her head, ducked down from it, and caught the now-tangled mess in her hands, folding it. Rarity winced, and Fluttershy's heart went out to her, seeing what had happened to her work. Still though, Elizabeth's fingers were very nimble, she could probably fix it. And lacking that, she always had her web of tentacles. "Dress, dress." She ran her left hand over it, smile too large for her face. "Good, good."
"I'm glad you like it, Elizabeth," Fluttershy said.
"Like I said," Rarity cut in. "I am dreadfully sorry for forgetting all about it! Things just came up, and then - "
"Doesn't matter. Patient," Elizabeth interrupted sharply. "Dress!" She frowned, fixing the white mare with a hard look, narrowing her eyes as her smile turned into a thin line. Confusion and what-is-that-word washed over Fluttershy, muddling her thoughts. "Thank... you," she said haltingly, as if testing out the words. Elizabeth nodded, apparently satisfied. "Yes, thank you."
"My pleasure, dear. Fluttershy, will you be staying for lunch?" she asked.
She shook her head slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I already ate." She flinched at Rarity's slightly disappointed look. "... sorry."
Rarity waved a forehoof in an elaborate flourish. "Oh, it's no trouble. I do have to help Sweetie with her costume after all," she said, shooting the younger unicorn an amused look. "She is so cute in it, I really wish you could see it, Fluttershy."
"Um..." she whispered, unsure of what she could say that wouldn't hurt anypony's feelings. "Um..."
"Don't worry about it, I know how you feel about Nightmare Night."
"Okay. I'll just, um, go then."
"Take care, Fluttershy," Rarity said sympathetically. In no time, Fluttershy headed downstairs. Elizabeth followed, with Sweetie Belle shouting a farewell behind them. They exited Rarity's home/business and began to head back to Fluttershy's home. Fluttershy swiveled her head around, looking at the eerie, frightening carved pumpkins and pony skeletons and spider webs being hung out.
"How you feel about Nightmare Night, not see Sweetie Belle's costume," Elizabeth said as they left Ponyville, walking through the field to her cottage. "Don't like, understand. Don't understand why you can't see costume," she said, Rarity's dress hanging from her right hand, flopping from the motion of her walking.
"Well, I usually spend Nightmare Night in my house with Angel and the rest of my animal friends."
"Hide from ponies that want to scare," Elizabeth mused.
"Y-Yeah. Well, here we are," she whispered.
"Here," Elizabeth agreed, letting herself in. Fluttershy followed after, and noticed that Elizabeth no longer held the dress, and that there was a very large splatter of tendrils next to the one holding the ticket. With that errand done, Fluttershy began her afternoon chores. Angel stayed inside to prepare dinner for her, he could be such a dear sometimes.
She checked up on the chickens, the bluebirds, the robins, the otters, the badgers, and so on. Elizabeth vanished into the Everfree, but Fluttershy knew she'd come back. She always did come back, with a carcass to divide up with her carnivorous and omnivorous animals. She went through the chores - even though they weren't really chores, she liked doing them - easily. By the time she was done, Elizabeth had given a now-eyeless cockatrice to a family of foxes who'd gotten snowed out of their home by the Everfree's unpredictable weather. Luckily for Fluttershy's appetite, it had been completely ensnared by Greene's web. Really, she just took Elizabeth's word that it was eyeless.
"Bad eyes," she'd said. "Took arm. Grew back. Find through smell."
She hadn't been too sure about that. Sure, rapid healing was one thing but regrowing limbs was completely different. Still, Elizabeth wasn't missing an arm, and she had no reason to doubt her story, so she didn't press it the issue.
Fluttershy fidgeted nervously. The sun sank rapidly beneath the horizon, and a hoofball-shaped gibbous moon rose from the other end of the land. She shivered, and went back inside her house, closing the door and setting some candles aflame. She'd need the light, even though the fire was dangerous in a wooden home.
"Smell fear," Elizabeth said, leaning against a wall, a small mesh extended from her. "Why? Not going to Nightmare Night. Nothing to fear."
Fluttershy shivered. "Well, you know how some ponies like to scare others? T-They know I get scared, so t-they come to scare me," she said, volume trailing off as she tried to hide behind her own mane. She felt a tap from her left hind leg as she fumbled with a match in her hooves, and looked over to see Angel Bunny there. He saluted, a miniature royal guard helm on his head. She smiled warmly at him, even as she wondered if he'd gotten it from Pinkie. "Thank you, Angel." She looked back at Elizabeth, who had her mouth pressed together and her fists clenched.
"Scare you?" she asked quietly, tendrils flickering intermittently around her. "Know you don't want to be?"
"O-Oh, they know, but, um..." she trailed off.
Elizabeth snarled, pulling her mesh back inside and standing up straight. "Scare you. Hurt you." Anger smacked into Fluttershy with almost physical force, and she recoiled away from the alien. Angel completely tumbled over. Oh no, she had to defuse this before Elizabeth really hurt anypony who came to her cottage.
"Elizabeth," she said as sternly as she could manage. "Please, don't hurt them. They don't mean anything by it."
"Stop them," she whispered, but Elizabeth seemed to be speaking to herself, her head down with tufts of red mane hanging onto her forehead. "Scare Fluttershy, stop them, not hurt..." Elizabeth's radiated anger suddenly stopped.
She looked down at Fluttershy, a smile growing on her face. "Um, Elizabeth?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
"Plan," she said wickedly, her repeats adding to the ominous tone.
"What plans? F-For Nightmare Night?"
Elizabeth didn't respond beyond a small, dry cackle. There was a sickening, wet slithering sound, and a web of red and white tendrils expanded outwards.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Caramel
"AIIIIIEEEE!" shouted a group of fillies. As they ran away, their screams of fright devolved into giggles, fading away as they turned a corner.
Caramel chuckled. "Alright, mission accomplished everypony," he said through his costume's skeleton mask.
"Who died and made you prince?" Colgate asked, almost unrecognizable in her zombie costume. It was a very well made costume, unlike the ones the foals wore. While those consisted of little more than some fur dye, Colgate had gone the extra mile for realism. Stitches across her face, pieces of plastic she stuck onto her coat to give the illusion of furless spots, her mane and tail were ragged and frayed, and she walked with a fake limp. She'd redone her mane so that it hid her horn, and attached a fake horn beneath that was broken off halfway. And to top it all off, Colgate wore a specialized eyepiece, part monocle and part contact, that consisted of a black disk with an eyeball hanging off string, giving the illusion that eye had popped out.
It was a lot more gruesome than most costumes, but Caramel wasn't in any place to talk. After all, his 'bones' still had pieces of 'flesh' attached.
"Fine, oh great radiant leader," he said, bowing mockingly before Colgate.
"Shut up, you, or I'll be less than gentle on your root canal."
"I don't need a root canal," he deadpanned, getting back on his hooves.
She smirked, something that looked fundamentally wrong in her grotesque costume. "Not yet," she intoned threateningly.
A sharp series of screams came from further down the road the foals had run off, making both Colgate and Caramel snap their gazes over there. A moment later, two pegasi approached them. Flitter and Cloudchaser had both done themselves up as vamponies, their manes and tails deliberately flattened under black and red paint, creating the impression of fresh blood that dried near the tips. Their normally powder blue coats were a pale white, their feathered wings had been fitted inside fake bat wings that, while they wouldn't hold up long under close scrutiny, did their part. To top it all off they both wore full red contacts that totally replaced pupil, iris, and scelera alike, and sported two large fangs from their upper jaws, splattered with tomato juice.
"Got'em," Cloudchaser intoned, flexing her bat wings.
"Yeah," Flitter said from beside her. "So, who's next Colgate?"
The unicorn levitated a list out from her mane and looked it over. "Let's see..." A wicked grin burst on her face, and she rolled up the list into a scroll and placed it back. "Next is Fluttershy," she said, her voice black with malice that would be uncharacteristic on any other day. "You ponies ready?"
Caramel cracked his neck, causing the vertebrae on the outside of his black suit, enchanted with light absorption, to rub against each other. "Born ready. Follow me, it's this way," he said, picking a direction he knew from years of living in the town to be correct, and headed down it. Cloudchaser and Flitter followed behind him while Colgate sped up until they were side by side. He rolled his eyes, even though nopony would see it.
Before too long, they'd left Ponyville behind. "So," he asked. "Any ideas on what we're gonna do?"
"Well," Cloudchaser said. "I was thinking we could lure her out to you two. You know, we'd go in, give some spiel about how we thirst for her, and she'll be happy as one of us. Then she comes to you, and you two do the whole 'brains' thing."
"I do the, as you put it, 'brains thing'. Caramel here... what do skeletons even do? Rattle menacingly?"
"Quiet, you," he growled at the mare. "We're here... oh sweet Luna."
"What are you - oh," the unicorn said, trailing off.
Fluttershy's cottage had transformed. Red and white tendrils had completely overgrown it, covering windows, bird houses, the roof, nothing was spared. It was like... like somepony had taken a blanket and draped it over the building, but that metaphor didn't quite extend to the fact that the mesh extended a fair distance away from the building.
"So..." Cloudchaser said. "What exactly are we gonna do about that?"
"For that matter," her twin chimed in. "What is that stuff? I can't see with these contacts on."
Caramel trotted up to the mesh and tapped it with a forehoof. The tendrils were squishy and hot, and leaving his hoof there for a moment longer showed that it pulsed with a hidden heartbeat. "I have no idea. Isn't that alien living with Fluttershy?"
Silence descended on them. Colgate sighed. "We do not want to mess with the alien. Still, she's usually in the Everfree Forest, right?"
"I don't know," Flitter said. "I mean, I was doing a flyover here yesterday; this... icky stuff wasn't here. This is new."
"So... what?" he asked. "Everypony knows that if you mess with the alien, she hurts you. And I don't think she'll take kindly to us messing with her friend."
"Alright, but then why's the mesh here?" Cloudchaser asked. "I mean, it's been, like, a month! This is the first time anything like this has happened." She paused, and a moment later broke the pregnant silence. "Do you think... she's doing something to Fluttershy?"
"I don't know, sis," Flitter said. "She seemed pretty attached to her."
"We should go in and check, just in case," Colgate said. "If we find nothing's wrong, we just leave. No point scaring Fluttershy while Greene's around. If something is wrong, we go and alert the police."
"Sounds like a plan," Caramel said, walking onto the mesh. It squelched beneath his hooves and warmed them up like he were holding them to a fire, but it held. "It's warm, but that seems to be about it. Come on, lets go."
Colgate and Cloudchaser both walked on, Flitter taking a little longer to step onto it. "It's a shame Princess Luna is in Trottingham," she said. "She could probably clear this up real quick."
"Well, she isn't," Colgate said. "Come on, lets take a look around the house."
They trotted around the outside, but could see nothing of any interest. Every part of Fluttershy's house had been overgrown by the tendrils. There was, quite literally, only one way to even look inside, and that was the door. Which was also overgrown, but not to the extent of everything else. Was this... some kind of prank? From Fluttershy?
"We need to open this," Caramel said, bracing himself against it. "Here goes nothing." With a heave, he pushed against the door. It didn't budge. He strained, pushing himself with his back legs against it, but to no avail. "Could use some help," he growled.
Colgate walked next to him and also joined him in pushing, lighting up her horn as he, her, and her magic pushed against the door. The twins also joined in, beating their wings as fiercely as they could with their costumes on to give them extra force. The door creaked, but other than that the ensnaring tendrils held firm, uncaring of the ponies straining against it, or of their grumbling.
"Push!"
"I am pushing!"
"Push harder!"
"How about you push harder?"
"We are!"
"Not you, hi - whoa!":
At that moment, the door blew inward. All four of them fell inward, with Caramel at the bottom of the pile. He thought he heard a rib crack on his costume. He shook the stars out of his eyes, and gulped.
If he thought the outside was covered, then the inside of Fluttershy's cottage was smothered. Heavy tendrils hung from every corner, every wall. There was no regular source of light, the only illumination coming from pony-sized swollen lumps of tendrils that clung to the ceiling, pulsing with a sinister orange light. The air was stiflingly hot and achingly dry, which was a sharp contrast to the wet tentacles under his hooves.
"Get... off!" he growled. A moment later the others in his group complied, letting him stand and take not-so-fresh air into his lungs.
"Oh wow," Colgate said, her false eye having fallen off. "This is... certainly something."
"Yeah," Cloudchaser said. "Hey 'gate, mind giving me a hoof? I can't see a thing in these contacts." After a moment, she winced and lifted a hoof, as if something had poked her.
"Me too," Flitter chimed from somewhere behind Caramel.
"Yeah, sure thing." A moment later, Colgate's horn lit up blue, four auras removing red contacts from four eyes, placing them on an ensnared... Caramel guessed it had once been a couch. "Wow. So, yeah, the alien's definitely been here." She raised a hoof and grimaced. "What is this stuff?"
"I"m not sure," Caramel said. "I've never seen it before, but I haven't seen Greene around much either." He tapped the 'floor' with a hind leg. "Weird stuff. Lets look around on the first floor, see if we can't find anything."
They did just that, splitting up. Still, Fluttershy's cottage wasn't a very big place, so in no time they'd covered all the ground. The picture they found wasn't pleasing. Everywhere it was the same story; tendrils growing over every surface, over the windows, lamps, candles, bowls. Some even formed filaments from floor to ceiling, like stalagmites and stalactites that had grown together, and just as hard. Bulging, pulsing orange growths above them, some on the walls, filling the cottage with dim, ominous light.
The scariest part were the protrusions. Very distinct shapes on the mesh, squishy but unyielding to touch, shaped like animals. Ferrets, birds, a cluster of bee-shaped bulges. That removed the idea from Caramel's head that this was an uncharacteristic Nightmare Night prank from the alien and Fluttershy of all ponies. She'd never let something like this happen to her precious animals.
They regrouped near the stairwell - also overgrown - that headed upstairs, to Fluttershy's bedroom. "Alright," Flitter said. "This is really creeping me out. I mean, I can get the webs, but Shy would never let something happen to her animals." Her eyes widened. "Not if she could help it."
"Well then," the other pegasus said. "Upstairs it is."
"Hang on," Colgate interjected. "Shouldn't we get out of here? Tell somepony trained to handle this sort of stuff?"
"We might not have that kind of time," Cloudchaser said. Caramel looked around nervously, sweat pressed against his coat by the suit, making him feel sticky and gross. He thought he'd heard somepony. "Something's happening, and something's happening now!" There it was again. That was certainly a whimper. "Come on, lets sneak up. Everypony quiet now," she said, voice plummeting to a whisper.
Cloudchaser took the lead, with Colgate right behind her, leaving Caramel side by side with Flitter. As they quietly climbed the stairs, grateful that the mesh kept them from squeaking, he noticed another animal-shaped lump. But this one's eyes and nose were uncovered.
"Angel Bunny," Colgate whispered, the slightest hint of vindictiveness in her voice. Caramel could hardly blame her. Not a pony in Ponyville hadn't had, at one point, an ill-fated meeting with the overprotective rabbit. "Hang on, let me try and get him out." Her horn lit up again, casting flickering shadows in the near-absolute darkness. A dark blue aura surrounded the rabbit, but nothing happened. Colgate screwed her eyes shut and groaned but still, no effect. Finally, she stopped the magic. "Sorry, I can't. These things are something else."
"I noticed," Caramel whispered. "Lets keep going." He ignored the rabbit's glare, instead focusing on the whimper from upstairs.
Before long, they'd reached the second floor, and found the source of the whimpers - and now that they were closer, a slick wet noise - to be Fluttershy's bedroom. Like everything else, it too was utterly enmeshed.
The four of them stopped in a line, watching the horrific scene unfolding before them. Fluttershy was pinned to the wall, her legs spread out and covered in tendrils, which also went over her tail and mane. The only parts of Fluttershy exposed to air were her face and her upper body, sans wings, which were unfurled and covered. And there, standing before her in all her unholy glory, was Elizabeth Anne Greene.
Fluttershy whimpered as Greene moved a hand along her midsection, the red tendrils growing over her belly and up to her neck. She quivered, her eyes locked with the alien's.
Caramel almost said 'Holy Celestia', but stopped himself in time. This was bad. This was really bad! He could feel the malicious intent radiating off of Greene, they had to get away. He nudged his head towards the staircase back and mouthed 'go', making the four of them start tip-hoofing back.
"H-Help," Fluttershy whispered. Caramel snapped his head back in horror. Greene had just covered Fluttershy up to her snout in mesh. Elizabeth Greene, of course, understand what she'd tried to say and went stock solid, taking her hands off the pegasus on the wall.
Four pairs of pony eyes met one pair of Evolved eyes. "E-Everypony..." Flitter whimpered.
Greene's eyes flashed and she opened her mouth in a rasping, bouncing hiss, a strand of saliva dripping off one of her canines.
"... run!" she finished, screaming at the top of her lungs.
She didn't have to say twice. The three mares bolted for the stairwell, half galloping and half tumbling down the stairs. Caramel followed close after, and not a moment too late, because an instant later Greene was right next to him with her fist planted into the wall where his head had been a moment before. The force behind her punch sent a shockwave of air out, slamming into him and making him careen down the stairs.
He landed, and was immediately helped onto his hooves by Flitter and Cloudchaser. "Run! Run! Run!" he shouted, galloping for the door. There was a roar behind him, and the entire house shook despite the support of the alien flesh covering it. Caramel was, like before, the last one in line, on account of the twins' wings and Colgate being a naturally fast sprinter. So it fell to him, when Greene came charging down the stairs, to rear up on his forelegs and buck the alien in the chest as hard as he could.
He stifled a scream as his legs seemed to catch fire. It'd been like kicking a boulder! Regardless, Elizabeth flew back and slammed into the wall with a squelch which gave him enough time to get the hay out of there!
He flew out of the still-open door and caught up to the others.
"Where are we running?" he asked as they left the splatter of suddenly-scorching-hot tendrils around the cottage. "Where?!"
"Anywhere!" Colgate shouted. She screamed again as a single, thick bolt of green lightning flashed past her ear, striking the ground with a thunderclap and leaving a patch of blackened dirt.
Caramel looked behind to see the alien lowering her hand, still sparking, and charge at them again. "Magic!" he shouted. A moment later, Elizabeth was lifted, kicking and hissing, into the air by Colgate's magic, just before she reached Cloudchaser.
"Go, go, go!" he shouted. The air buzzed again, and he lowered his head just in time to avoid another blast of electricity. Chancing another glance, he saw that Greene had summoned two sparking emerald orbs the size of a pony, and despite being immobilized herself the orbs were closing in very fast, their latent energies forcing his fur to stand on end.
Even when Colgate couldn't hold up Greene anymore and her magic fizzled out, they kept running, and did not stop for anything.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Greene
Elizabeth watched the four equines run screaming into Ponyville, her orbs chasing them at a fraction of their maximum speed. She kept watching until the orbs popped, and only then did she allow a smile to creep onto her face. She turned around headed back to Fluttershy's home, closing the door and once again tightening her tendrils onto it, entering the warm place. She walked past the animal-shaped bumps she'd formed with Fluttershy's help to the stairs. Halfway up, she looked Angel Bunny's way and, with a thought, released him from the tendrils.
He hopped on past her, sitting on Fluttershy's bed as Elizabeth, with a flicker of concentration, released Fluttershy as well.
The pegasus fell to her hooves, shaking lightly. "A-Are they gone?" she asked.
"Gone," she whispered, grinning as the word bounced around the room. "Got them good." From next to her, Angel Bunny fixed her with a beady glare, then smiled and made a motion with his arm she often saw Similar soldiers do. She frowned at that, but she... supposed the motion was meant in good good good will.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "I mean, it looked like you really scared them."
"Deserved it," she hissed. "Knew you don't like, did anyway."
"B-But, what if you'd hurt them?"
She frowned. Fluttershy was afraid of her wasn't she? "Wouldn't hurt them," she rasped quietly, kneeling next to the equine. "Careful. Promised you," she said, recalling how Fluttershy had asked her not to hurt anyone coming to scare her. And she hadn't.
Much.
"Oh, that's good to know," Fluttershy whispered. "But aren't you afraid they'll get the police? I-I mean, they thought you were trying to hurt me, so..."
"Show truth, you show truth. Fix," she said simply.
"I suppose," she said quietly, looking down. "So, what do we do now? I mean, I know you're not gonna take the webs back in case anypony else comes, but..."
She shrugged. "What you want. No difference to me."
"Well, I'm... okay." Angel Bunny hopped next to her and tapped her, then his stomach. "Oh! Right, we haven't eaten dinner yet. Elizabeth, is it, um, alright if we go? Y-You can join us if you want! It's just, you don't seem like you're hungry, oh I'm assuming things. Um, um..."
"Go eat. Food important," she said, tilting her head slightly to the right. "Will tell if others come."
"Y-Yes. Come on, Angel," she said to her pet rabbit. The two headed downstairs, and Elizabeth pulled her warmth off the bowls of prepared meals the rabbit had made. She jumped at a wall and attached herself to the warmth there, and pondered, her thoughts drifting away from Nightmare Night and towards her Reason.
Angel Bunny was clearly intelligent. And like the equines, like the zebras and minotaurs and dragons and griffons, he was broken broken broken and she had to fix that. It made her wonder how many other species there were that she had to Bless, how many times she'd have to change her Blessing. It would take so long. Was there simply some way she could change her Blessing to affect all species on this world? If there was, she didn't know of it. As nice as it would be, things couldn't be that easy.
She heard through her tremendous ears and saw through her warmth Fluttershy and Angel Bunny both eating the carrot stew said rabbit had fixed earlier in the day, surprising Greene with his... generosity.
She sighed, and moved to sit sideways on the wall. Regardless of how long it would take, she was almost done with the equines. She was done with Ponyville; she'd gotten the last bit of essence she needed from the earth pony nest from those four. Tomorrow she'd go to Cloudsdale with - the thought made her wince - Rainbow Dash, and she'd get the essence she needed from the pegasus nest. Then she'd fix fix fix her Blessing and then... well, she'd see then.
She smiled as Fluttershy gently licked her bowl clean of the soup and complimented her pet, who soaked up the praise.
Hang in there there there, Fluttershy, she thought. I'll help you soon.
She was close. She was so close, she could practically taste it.
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Making acronyms for it helps. Some guy on my user page wrote "Good Guys Kill Kittens Dead Around July Fourth" and I have yet to come up with something better...
3646784
Can not unsee.
3646810
See? It does help you remember!
Is Mercer gonna show up?
3646811 Grumpy Guy Kisses Kids Distastefully At Jewish Fountains.
... Is that any better?
edit: I forgot the D
3646987
Good, but not horrifying enough.
3646931
Explained not once, but twice. Once in a chapter, once in the comments section.
The answer is a resounding 'maybe'.
3646994 I wasn't going for horrifying, just creepy.
Nice chapter.
...I wanted a Prototype Story, not an HIE. I enjoy HIE, but I wanted death and destruction. That's what I came for. I'm getting a little tired of waiting.
Welp, four more ponies scarred for life.
Cya
Raziel-chan
5757665
i hope you didn't give up