Chapter 1

Late one night, Fluttershy was preparing for bed and wishing her animals goodnight. After checking each critter friend to make sure they were well, Fluttershy shut off her main lights and carefully ascended her cottage stairs. In her bedroom she pulled back the sheets and patted her hoof.

"C'mon Angel."

Her bunny hopped to her hoof allowing Fluttershy to set him on her back. Fluttershy began to crawl into bed until a loud crash outside caused her to jump in fear. This caused her to fall to the ground, pulling the bed covers with her, leaving herself and Angel buried. Fluttershy cautiously crawled out of the covers and walked to the window. She very carefully looked outside. Aside from a few birds and nocturnal animals being startled, there was no sign of something that could have caused the noise. Fluttershy decided she needed to look for the source in case some predator from the Everfree forest was trying to stalk her animals.

"Angel, wait here. I need to see what made that noise."

Angel hopped to her side and nuzzled her in concern. Fluttershy smiled warmly and patted his head.

"Don't worry sweetie. I'm sure it's just a large animal getting antsy."

Fluttershy gave Angel a quick kiss and carefully walked downstairs to her living room. She looked inside an end-table and pulled out a decent sized flashlight. Checking to make sure it was working properly, she opened her front door and swiftly made certain her animals were safe. Here heart tightened seeing them all shaking with fear and whimpering pitifully. The last time they acted like this, the Everfree forest was tearing apart Ponyville. Thankfully no sign of such a thing was happening at that moment but it must be serious to cause her friends so much fear. . Fluttershy shined her light into the trees, seeking any sign of danger.

"H-hello? Anypony?"

No answer. Fluttershy very carefully walked into the forest, searching the ground for footprints and the surrounding plants for any sign of life. Oddly, many of the plants looked wilted and dying. Fluttershy had been in this area a few days ago collecting berries and she didn't notice such decay among the plants.

"I should ask Twilight to look around here later. Maybe Tirek's attack hurt the plants in the forest. Maybe Zecora would know too."

Fluttershy continued to search the area, thinking she had the right idea. The plants seemed very wilted and there was no sign of wild animals being here for some time. Here light fell on the source of the earlier crash; an uprooted tree. Fluttershy studied it carefully to find what caused it to fall. The tree seemed to be very weak and ready to crumble as if it was at the end of it's life or afflicted by a disease. The roots were reduced to thin cracked twigs unable to support the weight, hence the fall.

Fluttershy looked closer, wondering what caused such a sudden deterioration. At a closer glance, the tree seemed to have the life sucked out of it, like a vampire fruit bat eating an apple. Fluttershy looked over as much of the tree as she could, looking for signs of bugs or vermin or something that would explain its' poor state. No such thing. The only thing Fluttershy could think of was some kind of disease in the forest killing of the plant lif-

Suddenly, her animals suddenly started howling and squealing like mad. To anyone else it would sound like a frenzy. But Fluttershy could tell they were trying to warn her. Fluttershy ran back to her cottage, but was stopped dead in her tracks by something grabbing her hooves. Fluttershy looked at her feet to see some type of black sludge holding her like glue.

"What is this?"

Fluttershy struggled for a bit until the sludge started to move. Slowly, it rose in front of Fluttershy while still keeping her in place as it took on the vague shape of a serpent. The sludge moved what could only be assumed was its' head directly in her face. On the head a pair of evil glowing green eyes appeared, staring her down like a predator. Fluttershy felt her heart pounding in fear and her blood turn to ice. This thing must be what killed the plants. But now it had her and it was not going to let her go. The thing looked over Fluttershy with hungry eyes and making an unsettling growl, deeper and more disturbing than any animal ever could. Fluttershy couldn't take anymore and frantically writhed and thrashed trying to get free but to no avail.

"Help! Somepo-"

The creature slapped a tentacle over her muzzle, muffling her shouts and cutting off her breathing. Fluttershy fought back with all her might, but the thing held her face still and looked her straight in the eye. She tried to turn away, to flap her wings to fly, but no matter what, she couldn't escape those horrible malevolent eyes. The creature's eyes narrowed slightly and made a sound that could only be described as malicious purring, like it was enjoying her pain.

Fluttershy jerked in pain as she felt something awful. The sludge holding her hooves started to spread over her legs. Every inch they covered felt like dozens of sharp claws digging into her. Fluttershy cried in agony as tears rolled down her face as she tried to beg for mercy but the thing had none to spare. It kept making that evil noise and continued to devour her body with its' darkness. The pain was unbearable, between her body being slowly eaten and having no air, Fluttershy felt like she would pass out but something kept her from doing so, forcing her to suffer. Soon her whole body, tail and wings were trapped. For a moment it stopped at her eyes. Fluttershy couldn't move, scream, breathe or blink. She could only cry as the monster pressed its' eyes into hers. She could feel it boring into her, like it was taking a moment to savor its' act.
And then, nothing but darkness.

Author's Note:

My first attempt at writing a villain based story. Also, points to whoever guesses who the monster is based off of.

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