Fulfillment

by Amaranthine Thought

old Chapter 1

It wasn’t a tale heard by many. It wasn’t a tale told in the sun, or with smiles and laughs.

It was a tale told when the darkest of nights encroached on the land. When all the light seemed to have been taken from Equestria, foals gathered together long after they should have been asleep and whispered the tale to one another. As a warning.

For somewhere in Equestria stalked a monster. A monster that would come into the homes of unicorns, to rip off their horn and kill them.

It was called Emptiness.

The beast was rumored to be as black as night, with two eyes filled with insanity and bloodlust. And the stolen horns stuck to the body, wherever they might fit. But perhaps the worst detail was what the monster was.

For Emptiness was no beast. In fact, she was a unicorn. Or perhaps, more fittingly, she was once a unicorn.

Emptiness was born without magic. Not one bit. Unable to make her horn so much as spark, even long past the point where the most inept of unicorns could levitate objects.

She grew obsessed with her lack. And one day, simply snapped, and decided that if she could never have magic…

Then nopony else would either.

She went on a rampage in her own home, and her little sister was the first to suffer her madness. Others soon followed.

She came on the darkest night, when the moon was new. She would hunt to find a unicorn, and if they were an adult, they would never have a chance. But if they were a foal, or a filly or colt…

If a child saw her eyes staring at them in the dead of the night, then she would play a game with them. The Game.

The rules were simple. She would stay for a week. And come back every night, and try to get the unicorn’s horn. She was driven back by bright light, but every night it grew harder, as she grew braver and faster and more and more difficult to stop.

So children whispered the story to others, to help protect them. Don’t sleep on the night of a new moon. Stay awake, have a flashlight. Close your curtains, hide under your blankets, and pray that Emptiness might think the room empty…

Because nopony had ever won The Game. But if Emptiness saw you, it was your only chance. If you saw her eyes, you were doomed, just the same as everypony that had played before you…

Unless you won The Game.

---

Rarity was sitting in her workshop, trying and failing to think of a design. She hadn’t made a single thing for two weeks. She hadn’t even left her home for two weeks. It had been two weeks since… since she disappeared, and Rarity hadn’t recovered.

She might never recover.

A gentle knock came at her door and she sighed. That sounded like Fluttershy, probably coming over to try and cheer her.

She didn’t know why they bothered; she was never going to be happy ever again.

She dragged herself to her hooves and trudged to the door, her coat a touch uncared for and her mane and tail simply… left alone. She looked a very different pony. Not that she forewent caring for herself, it just wasn’t… important anymore.

She opened the door and saw a little white filly with a short, dark purple mane that covered most of her face. Only one eye was visible in the mop of hair.

“Hi…” she said, nervous and fearful.

Rarity stood perfectly still for a moment, and then used her magic to lift the filly up and carried her inside, her face perfectly neutral. Then she shut the door. And locked it. And pulled the curtains shut.

“…Rarity?” the filly asked, upside down in her magic.

Rarity took a few deep breaths. “I know you. Sw… she told me about you.”

“What are you doing..?”

“I want to know where she is.” Rarity said, glaring slightly at the filly.

“I… I don’t really know where Sweetie,”

Rarity’s eye twitched at the mention of the name. “Where. Is. She.” She repeated, practically growling. The filly stared at her in fear.

“I… I don’t,”

“Where is my little sister you brat!” she screamed, and hurled the filly across the room. She didn’t make much of a sound when she hit the wall and Rarity stomped over, enraged.

Rarity stomped hard enough to make the floor dent right in front of her head.

“Tell me.” she hissed, her eyes flashing with hate.

“She’s… she’s gone.”

Rarity froze, anger shifting to shock and horror before slowly turning into a burning denial. “No… no, I don’t believe that!” she yelled, tossing the filly over her and onto the table in the room with another thud.

The filly recovered, and rolled off of it as Rarity approached.

“I. Don’t. Believe you!” she screamed, crushing the table in her attempt to get the filly. The filly squeaked as a few splinters hit her, and as Rarity kicked her, sending her skidding across the floor.

Then she was grabbed in magic once more, and turned to stare into Rarity’s eyes. They were mad, enraged, a touch insane, and a little, just a little, sad.

“Tell me who you are.”

“Gentle Flowers.”

She yelled as Rarity squeezed her. “Where did you come from?”

“I… I…” She screamed that time, and Rarity heard something crack. She didn’t care.

“Tell me everything.”

The filly was crying now, one leg a little limp. “I… I was born in Canterlot, about 310 years ago.”

“What? That sounds… Like a lie.” She began squeezing a little more.

“It isn’t! It really, really isn’t!” the pressure stopped growing, but remained. “I know everything from then, really! The schools taught about Nightmare Moon openly! They tried to teach Earth ponies how to farm the better way! Everypony really enjoyed wearing tall hats and those stupid fluffy collars!”

Rarity hesitated, but she knew that at least a few of the words were true. She kept track of fashion; tall hats and especially the flared collars had been out of style and even make, for a long time.

“Alright… keep going. I said everything.”

“I… I had parents and an older sister. I wore a diaper until I was four. My parents called me their little flower. I went to school properly for four years, ages six to ten. I liked to draw, and I enjoyed reading. I got good grades, not great grades, but I never got a c. I was a good girl.”

“I was ten when… When I met… I met Emptiness.” The filly flinched upon saying that, certain that Rarity wouldn’t believe her. To her slight surprise, Rarity didn’t seem to bat an eye.

“I… tried to run from her, but I didn’t make it. She grabbed me, and told me about her hunt, and… I begged her not to. I begged her to stop before she did something that she couldn’t undo…”

“She… didn’t agree. And for her own reasons, she dragged me away from my home and carried me with her.”

“Emptiness kept me from my family, and I never grew any older. I just got dragged along behind her as she kept… kept killing others. I was alive, but nopony else ever survived her attack.”

“That’s everything. Everything I can still remember.”

“Please… I… everything hurts…”

“You came to Ponyville with her?”

“Yes.”

“… Do you know what happened to Sweetie?”

“Yes. All of it.”

“… Why did you come back here? You should know that I hate you.”

“I know. But… Sweetie asked me to. Her last wish was for me to tell you everything…”

“Last…” Rarity ground her teeth, and simply dropped the filly who screamed when she hit the floor, collapsing. “She… she is truly gone?” she asked.

“…Yes.”

Rarity seemed to be thinking deeply as Gentle wobbled to three hooves.

“… I want to know what happened to her. And if I find that you are in any way responsible for this…”

“Nopony is ever going to find you, ever again.”

“Are we clear?”

Gentle nodded quickly. Rarity took another deep breath, anger competing with sorrow now.

“I am going to get some tea. Get on my couch, and stay there.”

Rarity headed to the kitchen and Gentle began hopping to the couch, wincing every time she moved. She stopped at it, and began trying to climb on it, but with three legs it seemed impossible.

Rarity found her struggling to get on, and she squeaked when Rarity simply boosted her with her magic and yelled as her broken leg, her left hind leg, landed wrong.

Rarity sat down without a single twinge of sympathy, and set down one cup of tea on the nearby table.

“Tell me.” she said, looking at Gentle.

Gentle managed to get into a position that wasn’t painful. “Can… Can I have a cup of tea please?”

“No.” Rarity said with all the warmth and care of an icicle. Gentle nodded, wiped at her tears and tried to start.

“It… It started… about a month ago. When Sweetie learned about Emptiness.”

Rarity hesitated for a second and then her anger came back and she glared at Gentle.

“Are you suggesting that I am responsible for..?” she asked, her voice low and venomous.

“No! No, you helped her.” Gentle said, wiping at her tears and not getting up. “If… If you hadn’t told her, then she would never have been safe.”

“But because you did, she had the flashlight, and saw Emptiness and started The Game. Lots of unicorns never get the chance to play The Game.”

“’The Game’?” Rarity asked.

“Emptiness plays… played games with children.” Gentle sniffled and tried to stop crying. “She showed up on a new moon, and if the child saw her before she got the child, then The Game began.”

“She would stay for a week, and every night try to catch them. They would drive her away with sudden bright light shined into her eyes. It was all a big game to her…”

“Sweetie started The Game because you told her the story. That’s why she wasn’t taken immediately.”

“Then her behavior that week…” Rarity breathed, realizing.

“She wasn’t sleeping at all. If she slept at night, Emptiness would get her. If she slept during the day, somepony might want to know what’s happening.”

“But why didn’t she ask for help?”

“That’s the worst thing she could have done. Emptiness isn’t kind to ponies who help. The Game is only for one. If anypony else tried to help, Emptiness would kill them. Break her own rules. The Game would be over, and The Hunt would start instead. Nopony can win The Hunt, that’s impossible. Nopony won The Game either, until Sweetie.”

“… Where do you fit into this? Sweetie told me about you, at least a little.”

Gentle nodded. “Let… Let me start from the beginning.”

Comments

[Wolfren]

Oh boy...
Oh dear...
Is this the horror story that you mentioned?
It actually reminds me of what little I have heard of the game "Boogeyman"...
It is also interesting how you posted this the day I play my first horror game. (Always was too chicken to buy one, found a free one though)

[Amaranthine Thought]

8352155

Edit: I have no idea as of yet how the actual story will play out. Too many concepts just yet for me to choose just one.

And any coincidence of action is just that, and I never heard of 'Boogeyman' (and I am not going to look it up either)

[Wolfren]

8352164
That is an interesting way of doing it.
The prequel is gonna be one frightful read, hope you don't mind if I only read it in the morning.
I don't blame you for not wanting to. I just thought it was similar in how both have a monster that can only be warded away by light, and are both "Boogeymen" in a manner speaking.

[overdue]

If a child saw her eyes staring at them in the dead of the night, then she would play a game with them. The Game.

DAMMIT