Silence, most say that it is preferable to the din of everyday life. Fluttershy had always loved silence, but now, she wished for nothing more than to hear a familar sound. In the dark, it was all that she could ever desire. Her ears picked up something, and hope caused her breath to cease in order to better hear what ever it had been.
Fluttershy realized that she never should have hoped she had heard something, let alone hope for noise at all. Silence was much more preferable to the raspy breath that had continued past her own.
Down the hall... Through the door... Lock it!... Did it hear?... Dash backed into the corner and allowed her breath to slow. She became a shadow. That alone would not help her escape a shadow in itself. Light would alert it, but dark was no better. Pure anxiety and a desire for closure made her look through the keyhole of the closet door. She saw herself, as if she were looking in a warped, rounded mirror, a mirror tinted in a demonic red. Dash's heart stopped as she realized what she was looking at, what was looking at her.
The globe that gave the shadow its vision withdrew from the keyhole and darkness began to seep under the door. It was over. Curiosity killed the cat, or pony in this case.
Pinkie awoke, strapped to a chair. Was it a chair? No, it was a table, just propped up. A single lightbulb illuminated the room, a basement. Hoof steps were apparent. They came from the corner, along with the clatter of metal. Out of the shadows and into the seemingly eternal glare of the bulb, stepped Rainbow Dash.
"Dash! What is going on? Why am I strapped down?"
"Like you don't know?" Dash spat.
"I honestly don't," Pinkie replied, her tone of bewilderment apparent.
"Don't play dumb! You would just as soon have me strapped to a table!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Like you don't know? You want my organs to make your cupcakes!"
"What!?!? There are no organs in cupcakes, silly."
"There are in yours. Admit it, you are a crazed killer who was going to gore me for ingredients."
"I wouldn't do that," Pinkie said in a concerned manner.
"You LIE!" Dash screeched. "You know what I'm going to do to you, you SICK MONSTER? I'm gonna show you how it would feel to be opened up, prevent my demise. You are going to regret even THINKING of using me as a resource!!!"
Tears had begun to roll down Pinkie's face. "Dash I would never kill you. Why would you want to kill me? We're friends."
"No, I have seen the future, you are a monster, and we are not friends."
Pinkie, tears streaming down her face, gave up. "Fine, have fun goring me, I don't even care anymore. You've changed."
"Oh, don't worry, I am not a monster like you are. I will make it quick."
There were no screams as the blood and intestines began to fall to the floor and Pinkie's tears slowly ceased to fall. After all was said and done, Dash sat amidst the red and the entrails and slowly, the blood began to become diluted by tears, tears of regret. The gory contents of the floor were added to as the regret slowly grew within Dash and finally brought about her taking her own life.
After the ricotta had been consumed, the snake of a tail had awoken, and an angry sabretooth had begun attempts to free her teeth, after the two ponies had left, that was when the sun had began to set, and the struggles made by the chimera had grown much more frantic, as if fear and the will to survive had teamed up to aid in a hasty liberation from the tree that they were ensnared on. It wasn't like one of the three sisters could escape and then aid in the others' removals. They were all attached to the same body, after all.
The goat had finally stopped savoring the ricotta and helped the snake remove her head from its wedged position in between the fork in the branches. All that remained was for the sabretooth to remove her fangs from the trunk of the tree, and the mysterious fearful drive promoted the sisters to help in pushing away from the wood, anything to get away and hide.
The sudden rustling of the foliage of the dark, yet occasionally lit fire swamp, caused the fear of the chimera to multiply as the struggle with the tree only intensified. Then it emerged from the treeline. The chimera stood there, paralyzed with the worst of fears: the fear that death itself follows. The snake and goat screamed. The sabretooth, not being able to scream due to the tree, just fainted.
The ponies think that chimeras are on the top of their food chain. They are not. The reason that the predator has never been revealed (and probably never will be) is because it sleeps during the day, and those who stay in the fire swamps at night, they don't come out.
Every day, Coco Pommel took a shortcut through an alley on the way to her new job. That very alley was the one Suri was now hiding in, gut knife at the ready. She would show that stupid bitch that the only quitting she would be doing was quitting this life. Well, it wasn't exactly quitting if Suri herself killed her. That was more like firing, at least metaphorically speaking.
Suri was shaken back into deadly focus as hoofsteps were heard in the alley. Coco was approaching. She would not be exiting the alley...
A calm, even chillingly nonchalant voice spoke up from behind Suri, "You know, unlike you, I am at least courteous enough to let my victims know my presence before doing the deed."
I often reminisce about the days in Equestria. So peaceful, at least, before it came. None of us know what it is. All we know is that it cannot be seen, it made our lives hell, and that it will say one thing. Every time somepony dies, we know that it is responsible. We toss our heads back and wail, "OH WHY!?!?!?"
Then it will tell you, "For the feels."
"Why did you replace my dress shop with a cursed asylum?"
"For the feels"
"What the hell was that, and why did it slice Spike in two!?!?"
"For the feels."
"Why has my beloved sister hung herself!?!?!?"
"For the feels."
"Twilight, Pinkie, Dash, all of them. Just. Gone. Why?
"For the feels."
"Oh Celestia!!!! So much pain... My legs, gone... Red everywhere... Why must I die?"
Grrr... The blood has stained the feathers. That stuff is a pain to get out.
And now that I think about it, the mailmare could never fly straight. Grey is a hard color to dye, too. This won't do. In retrospect, she was never a good choice.
Damn... How hard is it to find a perfect pair? There is always some problem... never without a flaw...
The doctors said that I would never fly. Now I see how hard it is to prove them wrong, that I would find a way. First the moral stooping, and now all the trouble and suffering to find the perfect wings.
Hmm...
What am I looking for again? I want a mare's wings. That buck I sawed up earlier proved that I can't look natural with stallion wings. I want a strong flier. The mailmare has proved that weak wings are just not going to cut it. Oh, and I want a color that can be easily dyed to match my own color. Now that I think of it, white is the only option. Sure, yellow could work, but the dye already matches me perfectly, and yellow would just mess up the hue. I would need to get red dye to make some sort of orange, right? No, only white will do.
"And then he GETS YA!" Rumble proclaimed, wrapping up his story on Slendermane. The other Colt Scouts around the fire had reactions ranging from jumping back in terror to complete disinterest.
"Do you think Slendermane is real?" Snips asked.
"Nopony knows, but if you ever feel your vision growing fuzzy and you hear static, run for your life, and find the eight pages before it's too late," Rumble replied in a foreboding tone. Snips shivered.
After it became very late, the fire was put out and the scouts returned to their tents, settling down for the night. Rumble fell asleep fairly quickly.
When he awoke, however, it was still dark. His tenting buddy was still asleep as well. Rumble tried to sleep once more, but a mild headache seemed to be preventing him. It was then that Rumble realized that something felt just... wrong. He turned his head, and his eyes went wide. A shadowy figure stood outside his tent.
Daring Do's latest quest for a certain mystical relic had brought her to a swamp, simply reffered to by the locals as the Old Swamp. The name seemed to fit the place. Every tree was gnarled and dilapidated to the point that Daring felt she would be crushed by any one of them the moment she looked away. The foliage above was thick and dark, with only slivers of light able to dodge the leaves and paint the edges of tree trunks and rocks, silhouetting them against the nearly omnipresent shadows.
The entire scene was nearly as eerie as her visit to the Ghost Ruins of Neighrobi, where she had retrieved the Orb of Lies from Woe's Temple. If this task was in any way similar to Neighrobi, then she would be fine, Neighrobi wasn't even the most harrowing mission she'd experienced. Yes, this was a walk in the park, a very unnerving, dark, and chilling walk in the park.
Her hoof struck leather. Leather? She looked down at the journal beneath her hoof. Picking it up, she wandered over to one of the persistent slivers of light to read the contents. She flipped through the pages, which recounted the tale of a survivalist and his partner who had sought the challenge of enduring the swamps. Each entry took on a darker tone than the last, the handwriting growing ever more shaky until Daring flipped to the final entry.
"It follows you, but it isn't allowed to stare into your eyes, unless you stare into its eyes first. Oh, Celestia.... NEVER LOOK INTO ITS EYES!!!! She had such a pretty face... Now its gone... It wants you to turn your back, to look. It wants your face. Even if you can feel the breath on your back, DON-"
Daring was now highly concerned, but not even a paranormal being was going to stop her quest for relics. This relic was especially important. It was a stone that could turn into whatever the holder desired. If Ahuizotl got his hands on this, he could restore the broken ring, and if he found all of the others in the rubble of the temple, there was the slim chance that his dream of endless heat could be revived. Daring Do would not allow that.
As time went on, the entry became even more of a worry in the back of her head, the swamp was getting darker. Fewer slivers of light were victorious. It was now that Daring spotted the small stone hut. This hut was supposed to be the resting place of the Old Alchemist and his Dream Stone. The trees rustled, and Daring stood erect with alarm. A warm breath on her neck sharply contrasted with the chills that went down her spine. This was just like the entry had stated. Daring felt that she was the wiser, and decided that if she kept her eyes closed, she wouldn't lose her face. So she squeezed her eyes as tightly shut as possible, and spun around. The breath stopped, and Daring swung at the air in front of her for good measure. Tentatively, she opened her eyes. Nothing but dark swamp stood before her. "I knew it was nothing," Daring sighed as she turned back towards the hut. She wasn't looking at the hut though, she was staring straight into the eyes of a giant spider with the face of a frightened survivalist.
He had flown out of Las Pegasus at dusk, and now he stood here, on a dark desert road, with little energy to call his own. He hadn't been thinking clearly, and now he was probably going to die. At the edge of his sight, he saw lights. No. There was no way he had flown in a circle back to the city. Had he? As he warily trotted closer, he found that it was not Las Pegasus, but simply a building of decent size... in the middle of nowhere. As he drew towards the gates of the beacon, he was greeted by a unicorn mare. His first thought beyond being grateful was that she was cute... really cute. She led him inside, hovering a lamp with her magic. Upon first glances, it had the appearance of a normal, old hotel. The lost pegasus thought to himself... This may as well be heaven. As they walked past pony after somber pony, he had second thoughts. Or maybe it's hell? She stepped onto the elevator, and he with her. Elevator music played, only this elevator music had lyrics: "Welcome the Hotel Alicornia! Such a lovely place... Such a lovely face..." Such a lovely face... He was staring at his guide again. "Yes?" He snapped out of it. "What?" "Yes, what is it?" He scrambled to regain composure. "Well, I was wondering what your name might be." "Cali." "Nice to meet you Cali." The elevator sang on: "Plenty of room at the Hotel Alicornia! Any time of year... You can find it here..." The elevator opened up to a hallway of doors. As they passed the doors, many of them would open and a stallion would poke his head out the door to greet Cali. As they neared the end of the hall, she turned around and acknowledged them. "Hey boys!" "Who are they?" "Oh, just friends." Sure. Just friends. The pegasus decided that he didn't like these stallions so much. They were competition. Cali showed him to his room at the end of the hallway. It was a basic room, with a window overlooking a courtyard and one thing to make it stand out: a glass ceiling. As Cali left the room and shut the door, he went over the window and looked outside. Another large group of stallions was dancing out in the courtyard. It was strange how they danced... Having nothing better to do, he sat and watched until Cali stepped out into the courtyard and started dancing with them. Not wanting to watch her have fun without him, he turned to the bed and saw the room service phone. He picked it up and ordered some wine. The door opened a short time later, and an attendant poured him a glass. As he left, he said, "It's good having someone like you here. We haven't had this spirit in a long time."
As he drank, he decided to turn on the radio. That same elevator music came on again: "They livin' it up at the Hotel Alicornia! What a nice surprise... Bring your alibis..."
He went to change the station... It was on every station.
Pieces of thought flew together. He had to get out of here! He went to open the door, but it felt as if it were fused to the wall. He ran to the window and bucked it, but it stood its ground as pain shot up his legs. Feeling an intense panic now, the pegasus shot up towards the glass ceiling. He heard the shatter, but instead of feeling the warm desert wind, he felt the ground on his back and glass falling on his face. He opened his eyes, and saw that the glass had shattered to reveal a ceiling of mirrors.
He stood up, and was startled to see Cali standing at the now open door. She had a glass of pink champagne and the saddest look on her face.
"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device..."
"W-What?"
Without another word, she took his hoof and led him to the elevator, which once again went up, this time to stop at the top floor. She lead him to the only door, which was labeled: "Master's Chambers."
"What's going on?"
She turned to him. "It's time for the feast."
She opened the door, and he was greeted to the noise of a riot at a long table. Everypony sat at the table, stabbing at a massive beast, who thrashed in pain and screeched in anger.
He pulled away from Cali's grasp and ran for the elevator. She turned to chase him, so he ditched the elevator and flew down the stairs. He could her the sound of her teleporting down the stairs and yelling, "Stop! You can't go!"
Ignoring her, he flew straight into the lobby, where he was met by the night guard.
Gasping, he addressed the guard, "I need to leave."
The guard turned to him as Cali reached the bottom of the stairs, and they replied in unison, "We are programmed to receive. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave."
