M̸y̶ ̸L̴i̶t̸t̶l̴e̶ C̵o̸r̷r̴u̶p̶t̶e̷d̸-P̵o̴n̴y̷

by ScorchingFlamesInc

Chapter 21: No Going Back

The lack of life aside from the vegetation and trees under the night sky was disrupted when from out of the blue, Starlight appeared, her friends all bunched close to her. They were back to where, for most of them, their journey took an important turn… the Treehouse of Harmony, looking exactly as it did before. Spike was the first to break free from the group, exploring the surroundings.

"We’re- we’re back at the Treehouse?… Wait!” He instantly remembered that something was missing. “The diamond! Starlight, where did you bring it?!"

Starlight looked around for a brief moment, navigating their surroundings. Just then, she smirked, and pulled something large and shiny out of some nearby bushes, the reflection from the moonlight gleaming all around.

"The diamond!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"But..." Fluttershy started to say, only for Starlight to instantly answer the upcoming question.

"I wasn't just going to make this adventure take longer," Starlight explained. "I just had to get it out of there, remember where I sent it, and bring us there too when or if I could."

"So we have our gems, and for the moment, we're safe..." Spike paced around as he mumbled. "Now we need to know where to take them."

"It says here..." Pinkie began, holding the book, which caught the others by surprise. "That it's somewhere in a system of caverns underneath the Everfree Forest..."

"Which is where we are now," Starlight said.

"Well, that's convenient," said Spike. He approached Pinkie and took a glance at the pages she was reading. "Hm. It doesn't really say much about where in the caverns... or where they even are in the first place."

Pinkie flipped to the next page as Starlight and Fluttershy approached them, deciding to see what was in the book as well.

“Ooh!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Sketches!”

“Could this be where we need to go?” Fluttershy asked, placing her hoof on the first page. There was a rough sketch, but they were still able to make it out as an entrance to a cave.

“Maybe…” Starlight mumbled.

Fluttershy didn’t take her eyes off of it. In fact, when Pinkie was about to turn to the next page, Fluttershy gently placed her hoof on Pinkie’s to prompt her to stop.

“I know that place,” she said. “I’ve seen it.”

“You have?” Spike asked. “When?”

“Well, it’s been a while but… Discord and I once went on a walk that went throughout the entire forest. We stopped at the Treehouse, took multiple turns, and I remember us passing by this cavern…”

“Is it a bit of a stretch to ask if you remember the directions?” inquired Starlight.

“Well… like I said, it’s been quite some time… I remember it being in a more open area of the forest though… is that helpful?”

“It’s a start,” Spike nodded. “What about when you left the Treehouse? Do you remember the direction you took?”

“I believe we took a left when we left the Treehouse… again, most of it I can’t fully remember. Maybe it’ll come back to me as we go.”

“I hope so,” said Starlight. “Do you want to lead the way or…”

“Maybe I should… it's better that way if I start remembering where we went.”

“I’ll be beside you, then. Just in case anything attacks out of nowhere. We can’t risk losing you.”

“Especially since we got you back with that super-sweet song!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but softly smile. “I’m still thankful for that… being corrupted is scary… just as scary as seeing them.”

Their journey began, and their conversation continued.

“What was it like?…” Spike asked, not just directing to Fluttershy, but to Starlight as well. “Being one of them?”

Both mares exchanged looks. Fluttershy’s ears dropped as Starlight began to answer.

“Your mind… I don’t know how to rightfully explain it but… it just grows into something warped. Twisted. Everything that made you, you, is gone, with whatever is leftover being used and amplified by the entity to use against you or simply taunt you. Sometimes you see nothing…”

Fluttershy suddenly spoke. “Sometimes… you see everything…”

“Sometimes your mind is brought into a state of unconsciousness, with no dreams, only leaving you in an endless void that seems to go on forever…” Starlight continued.

Fluttershy’s voice had a tinge of shakiness when she proceeded to speak again. “Sometimes you’re unlucky enough to see. No thoughts. No chances of moving or speaking. All you do is see, while the state of your mind is left with nothing. You can’t think. That’s been taken away with everything else, and yet it still sometimes allows some of us to see anyway, even if we have no thoughts to react with…”

“It doesn’t stop there… somehow, even when left in a state of no thoughts, feelings, choices, or in some cases sight, you can still feel the pain, anything inflicted on you by others.”

“Or, something much worse… you can feel the pain when the darkness changes your body in ways I don't even want to say in detail… when it makes your body literally tear itself apart in ways that should be lethal… when it elongates any part of your body like your limbs or your abdomen. And… maybe even more. No matter what, there’s that horrible feeling of physical pain…”

“And it follows you,” Starlight concluded. “Even when you’re finally free.”

Tense silence surrounded the group, the reliving memories impacting Starlight and especially Fluttershy, while all that Spike and Pinkie heard continued to settle. The most chilling part of it all was Fluttershy’s description of what she knew. The words she used, the chilled tone… was being corrupted really that horrible in the eyes of the victim if Fluttershy was clearly scarred by it? Maybe it was.

They found a split in the path and Fluttershy paused.

“Hmmm… wait… I might know. This way.”

And she led them through the left path. Nothing but silence rippled throughout the group until Pinkie let her thoughts loose.

“I don’t want that impostor to win…”

“Who- oh, right-“ Starlight realized. “I was told about that…”

“We’re not going to lose you, Pinkie,” Spike promised. “We’re staying together.”

Pinkie smiled, but was then silent for a little while longer. Another question lingered, and she spoke without hesitation.

“Do you think Chrysalis is okay?”

More looks were exchanged, this time including everybody, as if they searched for an answer they knew they wouldn’t get.

“I don’t know…” Starlight finally said, her eyes back on the path. “She’s tough, though. If she is the only one we know that fought back the darkness, maybe she could escape… I hope.”

“Wait… I think I remember now!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “This way.”

She moved, a little bit faster but not too fast, and everyone else kept up. Once or twice she paused to think, but then picked back up the pace.

When the cave finally caught her eye, it caught everyone else’s eye, and they all approached it, standing in front of the massive opening. Just to be sure, Starlight took a few steps back, peeked at the book, and then peeked back up.

“Yep. This is it.”

“I guess we go now, huh?” Pinkie asked.

“Hm.” Starlight flipped to the next page. “Aha!”

Spike’s head tilted and he approached the mare. “What is it now?”

“Look here.” Starlight presented her findings to the whole group. It looked like a maze, a circle at the bottom where it appeared to start, and a circle in the top right corner of the right page. “The cavern’s like a maze. This right here is a map of it. This circle looks like our starting point. We then follow the path and take the correct turns until we get here…” Starlight tapped the other circle. “This might be where we’re going.”

“Only one way to find out. Let’s go.”

From the distance, a familiar hiss echoed from afar.

“Quickly!” Pinkie exclaimed.

And they all ran into the cave. As the light quickly faded into dark, they slowed down and stopped. Starlight’s horn lit even brighter, casting an illumination spell all around them. She glanced at the book.

“Follow me.”

She made her way throughout the cave, the others following closely. Their pace was quick, but in an effort to keep up, they had to maintain some slowness as well. Starlight rarely faced forward, continuously looking around to ensure that she didn’t miss any turns.

Barely any words were spoken, Starlight being the only one to speak, at occasions where she found the next turn. Everyone remained close, closer than before, not just because of the light source around them, but out of the desire to protect.

At some point, Spike couldn’t help but ask, “How much farther do we have?”

“Around halfway there,” Starlight answered. “We’ll be there soon.”

Quiet echos filled the cave for only mere seconds, before complete silence aside from the hoofsteps (and footsteps) returned. But it only lasted as long as the echos did, because once again, the same hiss from outside faintly purred from the darkness. Everyone stopped where they stood, having no idea on whether to stay, go forward, or go back. Their breathing either slowed or stopped, their chests thumping as a result of their increased heartbeats.

The distant growl didn’t get louder nor quieter, staying as is. The survivors all listened to the best of their ability, but nothing changed.

Then, it stopped. It didn’t fade out, instead entering an abrupt silence. The group all looked at each other, each of their expressions being a similar one of tense stress or fear. They gave it a second, before Starlight moved to continue onwards, her friends moving along with her.

But before Starlight could take that first step, everyone saw the glaring blue eye from the distance in the dark. Pinkie took the book from Starlight while the latter got into an instant attack pose along with Spike.

“You!” he exclaimed, fists tightly clenched.

No response. The blue eye remained motionless.

Fluttershy cowered beside Pinkie Pie, the pink mare expressing clearly that she’s ready to protect anyone if she had to.

After moments of the source of the blue glare remaining unresponsive, Starlight took her shot, shooting the enemy with her magic. However, the enemy fought back, shooting a familiar-colored bolt of their own magic that obliterated Starlight’s. Fluttershy and Spike felt a magic aura envelop their tails, with Pinkie and Starlight feeling it tug their hair, and before they could even look, all four of them were slammed against the cave walls, the illumination spell from Starlight meeting an instant end.

Starlight scrambled to get up and reignite the spell, and the sound of something running by her and someone getting struck made her even more frantic. The back of her head throbbed, making it difficult to fully focus on her spell.

“STARLIGHT! I CAN’T SEE!” Pinkie wailed.

“I’m working on it!” exclaimed Starlight. She was finally able to bring back the illumination spell, allowing her to see Spike, having just got up, and Pinkie, apparently having been frantic due to the blackout. Her head was bleeding, likely due to the impact on the cave wall.

Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, and it didn’t take long for that to change. At the edge of the light further in the cave, Fluttershy’s body was seen, lying motionless. Presented on her entire side for everyone to see was three massive scratch marks, leaking both blood and dark matter.

“Fluttershy!” Spike cried.

The blue eye opened again behind her.

“That can’t be my impostor…” said Pinkie.

“No…” Starlight replied. “It’s not.”

A second eye opened, this one magenta, but instead of being beside the blue eye, it was above the eye to the left in a diagonal-like manner.

“Who are you?…”

The attacker moved into the light, its legs stepping over Fluttershy’s body.

Everyone gasped, seeing as to who it was. Their hopes fell, and their fear grew.

Queen Chrysalis stood in front of them, completely corrupted, and looking far more horrifically sinister then she ever had in the past.

After she had been able to control it for so long, the corruption finally claimed her for itself.

Author's Note:

L̷o̵n̴g̸ ̴l̵i̸v̵e̷ ̶t̷h̵e̴ ̶Q̴u̷e̸e̵n̸…̷

Comments

[Ditzy Doo - Mailmare]

the plot thickens

[Clawfoot]

Hopefully things will work out.. Also love the detail you put into what being GlItChEd is like.

[ChazMLPFIM]

Even Chrysalis succumbed to glitch.

[nightshroud96]

Really worried for Spike honestly.

[AllenVth]

After being saved, looks like Fluttershy is going to be taken away again. Though the bigger tragedy is seeing Chrysalis being taken over.

[Slamp5000XL-3-0]

Hay no...eso realmente me dolió