Umbreka

by Armanico Vita

Bad Part of the Woods

The forest canopy blotted out any chances of starlight making its way to the surface. Fluttershy gripped onto her amulet, remembering what Celestia taught her. She breathed in calmly before relaxing her eyelids and giving it a little rub. On cue, the tourmaline encased within the gold frame dimly illuminated the environment surrounding her. Fluttershy felt her head lighten up as the element around her neck siphoned a little bit of her energy to power the glow. She made sure not to use too much power, she didn't want to risk blacking out in this perilous area.

The pink glow of her kindness illuminated and defined any obstacle impeding her path.

In front of her, surfacing roots shot upwards, out of the ground, creating obstacles in the path. Fluttershy noticed The closer to the trunk she got, the bulkier the. The roots of the tree thinned out as they reached outwards, away from the source. The thin tubes of roots at the end gnarled and wretched themselves in and out of knots before returning to the ground.

Vines dropped down through holes in the leaves, dipping down before climbing up and connecting with the next tree. To anchor themselves, they coiled up around a tree and wrapped all the the way into the bottom. With their serpentine shape, they latched on the the trees and sucked them dry of water. The low dipping vines could have acted as clotheslines for any unsuspecting wanderer. They were close enough to the ground to entangle itself around an adult stallion's throat and sturdy enough to flip them on their back.

Low hanging branches jutted downward from the ceiling-like canopy. Each branch was pruned of each one of its leaves; they instead resided on the floor below. The ends of each branch stuck outwards, thrusting through the air like a fine rapier. The shadows casting from the colliding of branches and her light eerily reminded Fluttershy of aciculate, bony hands.

As she continued to push on away from the trail, her skin started to crawl at the sudden drop in temperature. Her muscles quivered and shook as her body tried to adjust itself to the new environment. She could remember the humid air of Spring showers keeping her warm through the night. Now, it felt like Winter had snuck its way into the forest and Fluttershy wasn't properly outfitted for the occasion.

With all of this time by herself, Fluttershy found plenty of opportunities to think about her situations. After the first lunar cycle had past, Fluttershy began to lose track of time itself. Eventually, she just stopped caring for it. Time is a crime, why should she bother keeping track of something completely out of her control. What did it matter to her knowing how much time she had in each year? She didn't want to count down each and every day until the hour of her death, no one did. It was all funny that she thought of this, her birthday was was coming up soon at the end of Spring time. The thought of this would usually make her happy, but this time was different. She was all alone now and she had no one to spend the day with.

The hushing of the wind turned the frozen scene silent, breaking her out of deep thought. The melodious chirping of birds ceased and the rustling of thick foliage came to a halt. Even as she trotted forward, the noise emitted from the striking of her hooves against the leafy terrain had been silenced. It seemed as if time around her had come to a stand-still.

The air she was breathing began to turn dense. Her breathes grew heavier with each passing moment. When she inhaled, her chest froze up, it felt like a snowball had been lodged inside of her lungs. Exhaling didn't help much with quelling the chill, all it did was leave her lungs starving for oxygen. The visible vapor puffed out of her mouth and then dissipated, fading away like a phantom.

All color in the world began to slowly drain right before Fluttershy's eyes. Any chromatic hues began washing away like water cleansing pastels. The dark greens and browns of trees were dripping off of branches and being absorbed deep into the ground. When she brought her hooves up to rub her eyes, she noticed the butter color she had come to love draining out of her coat. She felt completely enervated now, her eyes drooping down into their sockets. Every essence of life had been flushed from her spirit and now the gentle lull of slumber was tickling at her mind. She too, like everything else, was slowly fading into this drab and boring 'otherworld.'

A loud wailing rang out through the forest, cutting through the air like a finely sharpened blade. It echoed all around inside the core of Fluttershy's perked ears. The unnerving noise shook Fluttershy to the core; the cry was that of a familiar mare, one that hardly ever shed tears.

She figured the origin had to be nearby; whenever a cry was was let out, the first sound she received was loud and clear only to go silent a second. Then, she was hit by a wave of echoes, rebounding in from every direction. She knew it couldn't be real, none of this could be, but she felt entitled to check it out. She was being strangely drawn towards the constant sobbing, each step she took hit the ground harder than the last. It felt like the dense air surrounding her had formed a bubble around her and was forcing her to the ground. Sweat beaded down her forhead as she lifted each leg up into the air and crashed it back into the ground, inching forward ever so slightly until she was hovering over the bush she was crawling towards. The sobbing was at its loudest now.

Fluttershy placed her hooves in pockets of the bush and grabbed onto the thorny bramble. She tightened her griping the branches. It felt strange to her, she could see where the barbs dug into her skin, where they scraped her skin and tore hair from her coat. She just couldn't feel any of it; she couldn't feel the sting, couldn't feel the barbs digging under her skin, nor the warm trickling of blood dripping from her hooves. The only things she felt at that moment were cold and alone, the latter taking a grander tole on her morale. With her grip now tightened, she pulled the thicket of leaves apart and peeked inside.

Much to her dismay, her former beliefs had been correct. Inside the bush lay a mare, not just any mare though, it was everypony's favorite pink party mare contrasting her bright colors against the scene. Fluttershy shuddered, she had only ever seen Pinkie cry one other time and that was when... she didn't even want to think about that horrible incident. A well of sorrow was now building itself up within her heart. She sat down next to Pinkie and locked her in a warming embrace. She didn't want to see her best friend cry right now, she needs her to be strong, all six of them need to be strong for Equestria.

Fluttershy no longer felt cold anymore. She could feel the warm blood now pumping throughout her body. All of the color she had recently lost was now returning back to her. She tried hard to hold in all of the emotions flooding through her head, but this whole situation was just too overwhelming. Tears of joy flooded soaked her friend as she held tightly on to Pinkie. It didn't matter if any of this was real or not. Her presence alone was enough to elicit elation in her head. She buried her head into Pinkie's cotton candy mane and shut her eyes.

She found humor in the irony of this scene. Her intentions were to console with her friend, but it was Pinkie who had been giving her happiness in these times of despair. Pinkie always had a way of cheering other ponies up, even if it was unintentional.

Fluttershy lifted her head up from the cover of her friend's blanketing, silk mane. Opening her eyes, the first thing she noticed was a sullen, pink face hovering over her frame. Its pair of bloodshot eyes, sunken back into the skull, staring right back into hers pleadingly. It's ashen face lacked a snout, somehow it was able to live on without having to breathe. Fluttershy jumped back onto her flank, her dreams were suddenly being swamped out by this nightmarish figure.

The bony figured dragged across the ground, it's ribs digging lines in the dirt. Fluttershy could only watch in horror as it drew closer and closer with each and every tug at the grass. She tried to let out a loud a scream, she wanted to call out for help. There was nothing. Her mind raced; it was yelling at her commanding her to run. When she opened her mouth, the only thing she felt come out was the same frozen air she had felt from before. Not a single sound had blossomed forth from her vocal cords. Her mind race; it was yelling at her, commanding her to run away, run far away from this forest. She couldn't muster up the strength to budge though, she was petrified and her solidly planted legs were vigorously shaking under her weight.

Despite it's atrocious demeanor, she was getting a different vibe from the creature's looks. It actually looked like it was suffering, it's eyes we're pleading for an end to it's misery. A pang of guilt rose up in Fluttershy's chest. What if she had been wrong, maybe this 'thing' was her friend begging to be shown mercy, a final goodbye. Either way, she couldn't watch this thing, her friend, continue its pitiful clamber towards her. A heavy stream of tears stained her cheeks as she forced herself to look away from the tormented soul. Fluttershy shut her eyes tight and held her breath.

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A large snap broke Fluttershy out of he daze. One of the large claws detatched from the tree body and was now swing straight towards the ground. She wasn't fortunate enough to be able to react. Without warning, the pronged branch slammed full force, swiping her from the side. She let out a shrill in anguish as she felt her wing crack from the impact. Her skin tore open as the broken bone snapped and shot up through the healing scab. Inside her wing, the splintering bone formed deeper cracks running from each tip of the bone. Small fragments chipped off and imbedded themselves below the top layer of her skin. Blood and pus sprayed the ground, painting everything with the bright crimson of her fresh blood. She rolled around as the sharp pain began to course it's way throughout her body.

She lay there, paralyzed. A constant ringing noise flooded into her thoughts and hindered her ability to perform tasks. Her mind was pleading for her body to get up, do anything. Her knees trembled as she stuggled to lift herself from the ground. She tried to elevate her torso into the air, she tried to stand up, but no matter how much effort she put into everything she wound up collapsing back onto the floor. She needed to tourniquet the wound fast or she would bleed out. Fluttershy tried to reach back into her bag and grab her supplies, but screamed as she felt her bone being pushed out even further through her actions.

Fluttershy gave up, laying herself face down in the pool of her own blood. It didn't just trickle out of her wound, it sputtered and squirted like a fountain. The trees next to her were drenched in the shower; the blood dripped down the bark to be absorbed into the soil. The leaves around her filled like cups with her bodily fluids. The faint sound of hoofsteps pounded in sync with every pulse of her migraine. She was going crazy, these desolate woods were too far from any civilization she knew of to have ponies wandering around in them.

This was it. She was going to die here, all by herself. How long would it take for somepony to discover her carcass, if ever? Fluttershy turned her body over to catch a glimpse at the world around her one last time before she leaves the realm of the living. The same hoofsteps from earlier began to grow louder and more prominent. Her vision flickered on and off, capturing snapshots of the beauty of nature around her. As she faded in and out of consciousness, the figure of another pony, a unicorn, inched its way into her view. The mare-like frame of the mysterious pony kneeled over next to Fluttershy's body. The last thing she remembers seeing was a searing, lavender light burning through her pupils before her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Comments

[HopeMetal]

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...

Nuff' said.

[Regidar]

Time is a crime

I see what you did there...

[Armanico Vita]

1879756
Haha I was waiting for someone to point that out

1876393
Lol wut?