Part 10 - In the Garden of Evil, Honey
Let's not sugarcoat it. Equestria is a dangerous place. Look just beyond the borders of any town and you'll find any number of ravenous beasts, to say nothing of what some of your own equine neighbors are capable of. But no matter what else I might have come across in my travels, there's one thing that I could just never stomach.
All the damn vamponies!
-- "My Greatest Adventure" by Horatio Fisticuffs III
Waking Night
by Crowmagnon
It was genuinely impressive that Fluttershy was able to fly as nimbly as she was while holding onto two foals. Doubly so that she could do it while screaming at the top of her lungs for so long without taking a breath.
But it didn't matter how well fear and adrenaline fueled her attempt to escape, or how well she could navigate the labyrinth she had helped to create. She came around a corner and immediately spread her wings wide to pull back.
All along the path stretching out in front of her, buds of a lovely hue of blue had flowered amid the hedges. She hovered in place and tried to turn around, but recoiled when she saw more flowers poking through the hedges all around her.
As Fluttershy frantically looked around, searching for openings that were rapidly closing off, an airy giggle came from around the corner. "~Foooounnnnnd yooooouuuu~" Blue Rose taunted in a sing-song voice. "~Time for my babies to take their priiiiiize~"
The vampony stepped out into view, and Fluttershy struggled to hold herself and the foals aloft while choking back her own nausea. Twisting, writhing masses of vines bearing blue flowers had grown out through the flesh of Blue Rose's gravid belly. As she drew closer, the vines surrounding Fluttershy and the foals slithered out of the hedges to cut off any possible escape route. Blue buds passed in front of Fluttershy's eyes, and their petals opened up into beautiful blossoms, but from where she hovered, she could see the sharp, tiny teeth hidden inside.
"So, which one will my babies play with first?" Blue Rose asked, cocking her head as she looked the children over. "Oh, they're both just so plump and juicy, I don't know if I can decide. Will you do it, sweety? Will you decide for me?" Her lips slowly pulled back from her teeth into a saccharine rictus, showing Fluttershy just how sharp they were.
Fluttershy clutched the frightened foals tighter, doing her best to stay as far from the encroaching blossoms as she could. "Y-you can't..."
"Yes, dear heart, I said that. That's why you're doing it for me. Oh, are you nervous, sweetie? There's no need to be. After all, you wouldn't be able to finish both of those sweet little tots, do you?" Her vines slithered toward Fluttershy and the foals. "I'll just take one, and you can have the other. I'm not asking for both, even though my babies are sooooo hungry."
Fluttershy whimpered, looking all around, but every direction was blocked by flowering vines, including upward. She turned and attempted to flap away from the vampony, thinking that maybe she could break through. Instead, several vines looped themselves around her ankles and wings before she could get that far. They yanked her back into the center and began to ensnare her in earnest, tightening around her limbs with the crushing force of a constricting snake.
Blue Rose let out a sigh of disappointment as Fluttershy whimpered and struggled weakly, but refused to let go of either of the children. "Oh, very well. If you won't decide, we'll do it the old-fashioned way. Let's see... eeny meeny miney--" While the vampony pointed back and forth between the two foals, the vines picked up vibrations in the ground and turned their flowers to face down the corridor. "What is it, my darlings?"
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" With a mighty bellow of rage, Iron Will charged horns-first through the maze, his sheer inertia carrying him through the vines. His eyes burning with fury, he grabbed the ones holding Fluttershy captive and began tearing them apart with his bare hands. "Get away from my wife! You step in my maze, I punch your face!"
"Will! My hero," Fluttershy swooned, relieved to see him while Blue Rose recoiled at the sight of Iron Will's carnage.
"No... you're hurting them! You're hurting them you're hurting themyou'rehurtingthem! GET AWAY FROM MY BABIES!!!" The vampony shrieked, her voice growing shrill. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks and a mad, hateful scream erupted from Blue Rose's throat.
Iron Will managed to pull Fluttershy and the children free, but as she flew into his arms, vines and toothy blossoms lashed out at his unprotected back.
At the same time, though, a flash of light erupted in front of Blue Rose, followed by a pair of purple hooves that slammed into the vampony's face with enough force to knock her back off her hooves! Only the vines, acting reflexively to support their host, kept her upright as she shook her head to clear it.
"Blue Rose. Earth vampony. Presumed dead, apparently not. Controls hemophagic plants grown inside her own body," Twilight muttered under her breath as she rapidly assessed the situation. Before her eyes, the flowers latched onto Iron Will were leeching out his blood and drawing it down along the vines toward Blue Rose, and new vines began to push out of her abdomen. "Will! Tear those vines apart quickly! The more blood she gets, the more of them she can grow!"
The minotaur grunted and let go of Fluttershy so that he could turn and grab as many of the bloodsucking tendrils as he could in his large fists. "Nngh... got it, Lieutenant! Don't keep bleeding, start weeding!"
Despite being slightly light-headed from what had already been drained out of him, Will fought back with sheer brute strength, pulling and twisting the monstrous plants until they were torn apart in his hands. He then let out a triumphant victory cry and threw the severed ends onto the ground, where he started stomping them underhoof.
Once again, Blue Rose recoiled in horror at the sight. "Monsters! Murderers! I... I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" She let out a high, mad shriek as the new vines tore their way out of her belly in earnest. Some of them plunged straight down into the earth beneath their hooves while the rest lashed out chaotically.
Twilight, being the closest, dodged this attack by immediately teleporting behind Blue Rose in order to attack the vampony from her blind spot. But while Blue Rose may have been blinded by rage, her vines had no eyes to trick. The moment that her hooves touched the ground, several of the tentacular plants immediately changed direction and focused on her.
She barely had a chance to fire off a few magic bolts, only one of which hit their mark before the others lashed at her like whips. The toothed blossoms bit at her, drawing the blood from her veins while one of the vines struck at her eyes, keeping her from aiming her magic as she clenched them shut to protect her vision.
Seeing the unicorn get caught in Blue Rose's vines, Fluttershy fearfully yelped, "Lt. Sparkle! Will, help her!" But her minotaur husband was still occupied with simply trying to protect her and the foals from the barrage of whipping vines, his body shielding them from the onslaught.
While Fluttershy fretted, looking back and forth between Iron Will's efforts to protect her and the guardsmare struggling to find some method of escape or counterattack, one of the vines assaulting Twilight got hooked into the "sash" around her shoulders and tore it away from her, allowing the star-spangled fabric to flutter free and unfurl into the cape that it actually was. But, wrapped up in the cape until this moment, a dagger of gold came tumbling out, arcing through the air and slicing through the vines that were in its way as if they were nothing before landing point-first in the dirt.
It was an object that Fluttershy recognized, having seen it the day before. Even if she had not, the edge of the golden blade that fell shone with a light that veritably glowed in the shadowy twilight gloom created by Eclipse. At the same time, Blue Rose gasped in surprise and pain when more of her vines were severed, the ends smoldering where they had been touched by the dagger.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still as vampony and pegasus both took note of the Fang, almost equally confused by its presence. Blue Rose instinctively reached toward it with her hoof, but hissed in pain the instant that she made contact and pulled back a foreleg that no longer looked like one belonging to a living pony, but a desiccated corpse.
"The Fang? I don't un--"
Fluttershy didn't give her a chance to finish that sentence. Acting almost entirely on instinct and fear of what might happen to her, Will, and everypony else nearby if she hesitated, she dropped the foals in her care and flapped her wings as hard as she could. She had very little room in which to build up speed, but for just a moment, she was a yellow-and-pink blur zipping toward the fallen dagger, and grabbed its handle in her mouth.
At the same time, Blue Rose snarled, baring her fangs as she lunged toward Fluttershy. "That's Lady Moonshadow's!"
Fluttershy meeped in fear and flailed her hooves wildly, but to no avail as she got tackled to the ground by the vampony! With Blue Rose's weight bearing down on her, she could feel the loathsome squirming of the vampony's vines, which lashed out and wrapped themselves around Iron Will's limbs to hold him in place while the rest continued to suck out Twilight's blood.
As Blue Rose pinned her down with a strength that was supernatural even for an earth pony, she hissed and spit in frustration as Fluttershy's grip on the dagger kept her from closing in with her fangs. "Give it to me! Give it to me give it to me or I break your bull!" Despite the blind terror dulling Fluttershy's senses to everything except the monster on top of her, she heard her husband grunting in pain as Blue Rose's vines twisted and tightened around his limbs. She heard him struggling to fight and the cracking of his bones as each of the blue-flowered tendrils crushed his limbs.
Fluttershy's mind kept wanting to retreat from what was happening. It was a dream. No, it was a prank. No, she was just thinking of ideas to surprise the customers with. Nothing but good, wholesome thrills for the whole family! Vamponies... classic!
But then she heard her husband cry out as the pressure grew too great. The vines wrapped around his leg clenched tight, and when the bones broke, so did the happy illusions. She wasn't even aware of it when she moved. She would never know if it was intentional or if she was simply trying to keep Blue Rose away from her neck, but Fluttershy swung her head as hard as she could until she felt the dagger in her mouth pierce Blue Rose's breast and slip between her ribs.
No blood came from the wound, but Fluttershy's nostrils were suddenly flooded with the stench of decay as Blue Rose shrieked and reared back, releasing the pegasus. She fell onto her back and writhed, her vines likewise releasing their captives as she tried to pull the dagger out of her chest, but it was too late for that. Already, her body grew more and more dessicated, seeming to rot away as the knife glowed with solar energy that spread throughout her entire being, revealing her fully as the centuries-dead corpse that she truly was.
Fluttershy trembled and watched this process spread out from Blue Rose to her vines, which withered and crumbled away, freeing Twilight and Iron Will from their grip. Both of them fell to the ground and groaned weakly in the aftermath. Fortunately, as the last of the vines died, Blue Rose's body also lost any trace of undead "life".
Everything seemed to slow down for a minute as everyone, from Iron Will to Lt. Sparkle to the two children, all tried to recover. But when the time came for someone to break the silence, it was Twilight who first started to rise.
The unicorn was dizzy from blood loss. She pushed herself to stand, but while her legs were able to support her weight for a brief moment, the instant that she tried to actually move her body, her stumbling gait betrayed her weakness. She felt her knees give out beneath her, causing her to slump toward the ground. But before she could collapse again, Fluttershy quickly moved in to catch her.
"Shhh, shhh, just rest," Fluttershy said in a soothing, motherly tone, even though her own body was still trembling with fear. "You need to just take a while to get your strength back. We'll be safe in here until it's over, right Will? Right?" The pegasus looked over toward her husband, who gave a strained smile and a thumbs-up, only to wince as pain shot through him from his broken leg.
Despite Fluttershy's assurances, Lt. Sparkle shook her head and muttered, "I can't... mission... need to go..." She clenched her eyes shut and focused her magic. Even that was weaker, but her aura surrounded the Fang and slowly pulled it free from the fallen vampony's ribcage. "The Everfree... need to get to the Everfree Forest," she said as she wrapped the dagger up again.
"You don't look like you're going anywhere," Will replied. "Even if you know a way to get there, how would you get out of the city without getting attacked by those undead freaks, the state you're in?"
"I can't stay! I have to go," Twilight reiterated, her voice cracking with desperation as she struggled against the weakness of her body, but to no avail. Tears welled up in her eyes as she clutched the cloth-wrapped dagger to her chest. "Please... please... help me..."
"Gaaaah!" Suddenly, Will exclaimed out loud in pain, clutching his leg. Twilight suddenly found herself tumbling over without any support as Fluttershy simply seemed to vanish.
"Oh my gosh, are you alright?!" She asked, hugging and fretting over the minotaur. He groaned and grunted as if in agony, but from where she landed, Twilight could see him smile to himself as he reached up to pet Fluttershy's mane.
"Y-yeah, I'll be alright, babe. I just need to splint this leg," Will replied, adopting a face of exaggerated agony when he pulled back enough to look her in the eye. "Go get a couple of the fake swords from sector 7D... oh, and the sheet off the ghost in 7G. Oh, and take the little ones with you. You can drop them off with the others in the center along the way," he said, gesturing over to the two terrified foals that she had brought in with her.
Fluttershy, nodded and picked the children up, hugging them close as she took wing. "I'll be back faster than you can say 'lickety-split!'"
Will smiled again as he watched Fluttershy fly off. Then he waited a few moments more before turning to Lt. Sparkle and pleaded, "Take her with you!"
Twilight lifted her head, looking up in confusion. "Huh?"
"Lieutenant, I love that little pony more than anything, but if more of those bloodsucking freaks come in here looking for that one, I won't be able to protect her! Not with my leg busted like this. And she'd never leave me behind, so we'd both end up..." Iron Will shuddered at the unspoken thought. "I can't let that happen. I need to know she's somewhere far away from this mess. So if she helps you get out of the city, you don't let her come back here. You take her with you... got it?"
Twilight looked down at the ground, unable to meet Iron Will's eyes. She wanted to refuse. Hated herself for not doing so immediately. The last thing that she wanted to do was drag somepony else into danger, but the weakness of her body brought weakness of resolve with it.
She would never make it out of the city on her own. That was patently obvious, but just to confirm it she attempted to push herself upright again, only for dizziness to overcome her and send her tumbling to her side. So, as much as it sickened her to do so, she looked up at the minotaur nodded. "Okay... deal. I've still got some magic. If she carries me, I can protect her. Once we're out, I'll do everything I can to make sure she stays out of danger. I promise."
Will let out a sigh of relief, though worry was still etched all over his face. How couldn't it be, under the circumstances? "Best I can hope for right now... Standard disclaimer though, if anything happens to her and you could've done something about it, I will tear you in half."
Twilight nodded solemnly, thinking to herself, You'll probably have to get in line.
"I'm baaaack!~" Fluttershy's voice sang out in a hushed whisper as she flew back into view with the materials Will had asked for cradled in her hooves. She set them down beside him and immediately got to work splinting up her husband's leg.
Iron Will winced in discomfort throughout the process, but through it he smiled at his equine wife. "And you're a sight for sore eyes." He helped by tearing the sheet she had brought into strips so that she could tie the splint together and said, "Hey, babe, the lieutenant and I were talking while you were gone..."
"Oh, you made friends already? Or should I be jealous? Well you can't run off together, because I saw her first," Fluttershy joked with a wink.
Despite the situation, Will chuckled and waved it off. "Aw, you know you're the only pony for me... She was just telling me about how her mission is so big and super-important, but she can barely move. Like, 'fate of Equestria' important, but she'd need to get out of the city without being spotted by any more vamponies. It really makes me wish we could help."
Fluttershy glanced back at Twilight, who nodded silently. The pegasus then flapped up to hug her husband. "Awww, you're right, sweetie, we can't help." Then she let go and did a backflip in the air, ending it with a pose and an upraised hoof. "But I totally can!"
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked. Despite her need, she said, "It's going to be very dangerous to go out there, and I don't want you to-- mmmph."
Cutting the guardsmare off with a hoof over her lips, Fluttershy shushed her and replied, "Don't you worry about me. 'Helpful' is my middle name, and so is 'sneaky'. In fact, I'm so helpful and sneaky, this morning I got an old mare across the street and she didn't even notice!"
"That's actually true," Will confirmed.
Twilight sighed to herself, knowing that if the slightest thing went wrong... "Do you think you can get me to the train station?"
Stats
Page generated in 0.018 seconds
Total duration
972 users online
1,452,500 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
7983678
It is, and I hope you enjoy. There were issues over the last few months that made it really hard to get motivated, but it's good to be able to put something out there again.
So, Twilight and Fluttershy are going to try to sneak out of Canterlot. If I remember correctly, Applejack, Rarity, & Pinkamena are on a train to Ponyville, while Rainbow is still trying to figure out Zecora's vision? Am I close?
7992785
Yep, that's right.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good work.
Only one theme will go with this!
Now go Home and a Family Minotaur!
hold on a tick
I might've missed something, but...did Twilight and Trixie suddenly swap places offscreen? last I remember, Trixie was the one withe dagger...
9211763
That IS where that scene left off. The switch happened off-screen and will be explained.
So much for Twilight being a soldier.