Chapter 1
Equestria is a nice place to live. Or rather...it was. Or maybe it is. Damn it all, this is all so confusing. Especially to you, the one suffering from... Whatever this hell is. Maybe it would be better to rewind a little? Yeah, that sounds good. Arrange your thoughts. Catalog. Sort-and-file. Maybe...get lucky and find the moment when everything went wrong. Right... Start at the beginning.
Your name is Anonymous. You've been in Equestria about...Mmm, a year now. It was rather shocking at first. A rather natural feeling, what with talking horses and all that. But the horses; ponies, were actually quite nice. They made you feel right at home. All nice, and sweet, and happy, and sappy. It was wonderful.
But...somewhere down the line... Things...started to change. Not so much with the ponies but for you... One day, out of the blue, you...started to see things. Horrible, terrible things. You were walking through the streets of Ponyville and you just... Saw...them. Those...those monsters... Giant, lumbering...things of meat in the vague shape of a man. They stumbled back and forth in the street, it must be because they had no eyes... Just blank faces of rotting meat and putrid blood. But somehow they still howled and moaned... Those howls... Good god... It sound like the howls of the damned. And it wasn't just the men of rotting meat... Oh no, there was more. Along the street ran...thick, bloated, purple-ish veins carrying... You didn't dare think about it.
You screamed.
You pointed and shouted, "What is that?! My god, what is that?!"
The ponies in the street just stared at you like you were mad.
"Can't you see them?! Look! They're right there! Skinless monstrosities! And-And these veins! Don't you see them?!"
Again and again and again you shouted. The ponies started to look around nervously. Some started to back away from you in fear. But you continued to rant there on the street. It wasn't until a friend, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle came up to you and pleaded with you to calm down. Hearing a familiar voice did the trick. Slowly, the...creatures and veins faded from view and the world went back to normal. You fell to your knees and sobbed into Twilight's shoulder. She patted you on the back and cooed reassurances.
"It's all right, Anon. It's ok. Shh, shh, shh... It's ok. There's nothing there."
You wanted to believe her.
You so badly wanted to believe her...
And for awhile you did believe her. Even when the horrors showed themselves again. You would clamp your eyes closed and count to ten. And you would just chant: "It's not real, it's not real, it's not real..." And when you would open your eyes again they'd be gone. The ritual had worked whenever they'd appear. You thought this would just be an...inconvenience; a terrifying one, but it would just go away one day. But it didn't...
It grew worse...
The sky started to become blood-red crimson all the time, the ground and buildings around you were covered in...in entrails, throbbing skin sacks, and viscous bile and fluids, and the skinless men... So many of them... But worst of all...
Worst of all...
Were your friends. Oh god...your friends. They too started to...change. They became bruised, grotesque, misshapen mounds of flesh. You could barely tell one from the other... And the smell... That odor of rot, and pus, and decay, and death...it permeated off them. But the voices were the worst... The skinless, writhing men didn't talk. But your friends did...
"Ah tell ya sugarcube, this weeks harvest is top-notch!"
Applejack--the mound of flesh that looked like Applejack--tried to talk to you about her day but... Her voice... That god-awful voice!
That isn't speaking!
That isn't her voice!
This...thing isn't Applejack!
This monster is just belching out words in some nightmarish tone you can't even begin to describe!
You so badly want to tell her to shut up. So badly... But you can't... If you did, you'd be alone right now. Alone in this blood-soaked world of horror. So you swallow the bile building at the back of your throat and nod. Just...let her talk...and just focus on the table in front of you. Even if it is covered in gore and stinking blood and...are those...faces in the meat...? After meeting with...Applejack, you start to head towards Twilights. It's time for your...sessions. She says it'll help you with the visions you made only her privy to. Again, you so badly want to believe her...
You talk with Twilight, go over the same things as always. It's hard to focus because she's a rotting heap... Why doesn't anyone else see what you see? Why are you being made to go through this? It's starting to get to you. It's getting more and more difficult to hang on to your sanity. Every day gets a little more trying. Every day gets a little more...normal. The stink, the blood, the meat...
The meat.
You've been thinking about the meat so much lately. When Rainbow Dash was yammering on about some stupid Wonderbolts nonsense you wonder how can she talk when she doesn't have a lower jaw? The meat is starting to intrigue you. And when Twilight mentions "destiny" and "what we're meant to do", things start making sense.
Things start clicking into place.
There must be a reason for all of this.
And now, you're sure you know what it is.
It's the meat.
Yes...you think tomorrow will be a good day. The first good day in a long time.
Tomorrow, Ponyville will get it's first butcher.