The Tea Party
Today was a very special day, because today Fluttershy would be throwing a tea party for her and her friends, well some of them at least. Rarity would be busy with clients discussing her new fashion line, Applejack would be preparing for the next apple buck season with her family, and although one to never miss a party, Pinkie was visiting her family for the weekend. So that left Rainbow and Twilight, which was perfectly fine in her book, Fluttershy had gotten along swimmingly with even less attendees than that.
Fluttershy had thought of everything, she had already set up the table and draped it with it's normal red and black plaid attire, she had set up her normal tea cups that she used for parties with their painted on pink and green flowers and even laid out plates to match. Though Fluttershy had forgotten the tea, the most important factor, but this could not be just any tea, no this needed to be a special tea for a special occasion. With that though in mind, Fluttershy tossed on her saddle bag and flew in the direction of Ponyville.
Fluttershy knew where she could find special and exotic ingredients, Fluttershy only hoped that she would still be in town. Soon Fluttershy spotted the familiar black and white stripes that could only be one pony. When Fluttershy landed with a slight thud she trotted over to Zecora. Fluttershy asked Zecora if she had anything exotic she could make into tea. Zecora replied in her normal ryming manner and handed Fluttershy a jar with a various array of withered leaves. The scrawling writing on the front read out ESSENCE OF EVERFREE. Fluttershy took a hesitant look at the jar, then back at Zecora. But she quickly shook off those thoughts and paid the required amount of bits, when had Zecora ever done her wrong she thought as she flew into the sky. Besides, she still had a lot of work to do to prepare for her friends arrival.
After tedious cleaning and preparations, Fluttershy finally took a minute to step back and admire her work. Fluttershy took a look at the clock hanging on her wall, it was just about time. As Fluttershy took the final few minutes to do some last minute tidying and was interrupted by a knock on her door. When she opened her door she saw a dazzling rainbow mane that she was so familiar with and a certain purple alicorn princess. She welcomed her friends inside and showed them to the table, and with a polite smile, excused herself to the kitchen.
Fluttershy trotted into the kitchen, they were earlier she thought to herself, she hadn't even made the tea yet. Fluttershy grabbed the bottle marked ESSENCE OF EVERFREE that she had bought from Zecora earlier and popped it open. She could smell the almost damp, earthy smell contained within the leaves and with some hesitation, dumped the contents of the bottle into the boiling water below. As soon as the leaves touched the water, the tranquil earthy smell of the leaves was replaced by a putrid carrion stench that caused Fluttershy's eyes to water and her back legs to fail causing her to fall to her flank. Fluttershy noticed steam billowing from the teapot and filling the room with a white fog that was almost peaceful, and as Fluttershy stared into the calming mist, she felt her eye lids droop as she felt her mind fill with an eerie soothing feeling. She felt her mind slipping to that calming world she called sleep, she couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding as she let her heavy lids slam shut.
She awoke with a small scream, drenched in a cold sweat, she felt as if several eyes were staring at her from the darkness. She was in her bedroom, but it felt different, much to, dark. She pulled off the covers and lit the candle sitting on the nightstand and in one fluid motion, dispelled the shadows and filled the small room with a light orange hue. Nothing, she gave a small chuckle and inwardly scolded herself for jumping at shadows like a scared school filly. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door and as she walked downstairs, candle in hoof, she wondered who could be at her door at such a late hour. To say that Fluttershy was surprised would be an understatement, and as she stood in front of her two friends again for the second time that night, she wondered if she was dreaming, but her thoughts interrupted as her friends pushed past her and into Fluttershy's small home. She was also confused when Twilight asked her if she had a sewing kit, such a random thing to ask for, but Fluttershy thought nothing of it as she directed her friends to where she kept her equipment. As Fluttershy took the candle into the kitchen, she heard the crackling of a fire as it burst to life in her fireplace. As Fluttershy put on the tea for a second time, she felt a a cool chill run through her bones, then her candle suddenly died out. With no other means of light she trotted into her living room.
Fluttershy gasped when she saw the terrible sight before her, and her eyes bulged in horror when she saw her sewing equipment coated with blood and as she looked at her two friends, her sanity was knocked for a loop as it was torn away in one clawing motion. Fluttershy watched as her friends turned towards her, with their eyes and mouths sewed shut, all she could get out was another terrified gasp at the sight before her. Hearing the gasp from their terrified friend, the blood stained mares perked up and stared in her direction, and Fluttershy could see the string lacing their lips together strain as they curled into a twisted, half smirk.
Fluttershy took a step back and tripped over her hooves, landing on her flank with a slight thud. The demented mares slowly approached the trembling yellow mare, their intent clear as their lips curled up into that horrible smirk once again. Fluttershy rose to her hooves and ran up her stairs and into her room, making sure to push her dresser and everything else she could move against the door to prevent her friends from getting in.
It seemed like hours had passed by and while Fluttershy collected herself, she heard hoof steps climbing her stairs. Closer and closer they came, Fluttershy could feel the floorboards beneath her move and shake from the thing climbing the stairs. Then, they stopped, Fluttershy waited until she was sure that there was nothing there, and slowly Fluttershy trotted to the door. Fluttershy put her ear against the door to listen for anything, to make sure that what she saw wasn't real, it couldn't be real. Fluttershy sat with her ear against the door and when she was sure there was nothing, she moved all her things out from in front of the door except her dresser.
She opened her door and peered into the small slit and into the darkness, she could have swore she heard a small noise. She put her head against the door once more to listen and as she did she heard a choked gurgle as something outside moaned her name. Just then something rammed into the door sending her rocketing onto the floor, and as she rose from the floor, she heard the door straining on its hinges as something tried to force itself in. As the hinges squealed against the brute force and mass of the thing trying to get in, Fluttershy could do nothing but watch as the bolts flew of the hinges and clattered on the floor and hear the door crack and splinter. The thing outside tried to force the door open, but was met with the opposition of Fluttershy's dresser pushed against the door, which only seemed to fuel it's fury. The creature pushed the door open enough and forced a single shadowy, decayed hoof through the door. The hoof grasped first for the doorknob, and when it failed to open the door, it began to grasp for the dresser that was Fluttershy's only defense from the monster outside. When Fluttershy realized the things intent, she quickly got to her hooves and rand towards the door. With all her strength and forward momentum, she forced herself against the dresser blocking the door, causing it to lurch against the door and catch the thing's rotten hoof in the door frame. Fluttershy continued to push against the dresser with all her might as she heard the thing outside her door let out a raspy, high pitched scream of pain, and watched as it struggled to free it's hoof from the door. Fluttershy watched as the muscle and tendons ripped and the bone cracked as the hoof fell off and thumped wetly on to the floor.
Fluttershy heard another of the things pained screams, and felt it quickly make its way down the stairs. Exhausted, Fluttershy slowly slid down the front of the dresser, attempting to catch her breath. Fluttershy glanced down at the mangled remains of the creature's hoof and saw that it was still moving and spasming on the floor. She then noticed that the hoof wasn't moving, it was bulging, as if something was inside. Suddenly the hoof erupted with hundreds, perhaps thousands of tiny, wriggling maggots that fell out on to the floor. The room was filled with the stench of rotten meat as the mangled hoof was eaten by the colony of maggots.
Fluttershy regained her composure and pushed the dresser out from in front of the door. She slowly opened the door and risked a peek to make sure the creature wasn't trying to trick her, and when she was sure the coast was clear, she stepped out into the staircase. Fluttershy saw the flickering of a candle from the living room as she slowly made her descent towards the bottom of the staircase. It was then she heard the screeching, a sound she had heard before in the wild. It was the sound prey makes when it has been caught by a predator, the sound something it makes when it knows its going to die. It was then whennshe saw the twisted and warped shadows on the wall of the staircase, and the yelps and crying pleas of of many animals. She slowly continued down he stairs, and peeked around into the living room and wished instantly that she didn't.
The living room was filled with the discarded bodies of her animal friends and other assortments of gore, accompanied by the bloodsoaked figure of a certain alicorn princess, purple fur barely distinguishable due to the blood staining her once regal coat, while a pool of blood pooled underneath her as she dissects and dismembered many of Fluttershy's animals. She let out a small squeak of fear and quickly turn back around facing the wall. As the tears streamed down her face and her heart beat so fast she thought it would explode, she took a deep breath and slowly peaked back into the living room. She was then face to face with a cyan blue pegasus. Fluttershy could count the stitches that closed Rainbow's mouth and eyelids shut, aand she could feel the pegasus's breath against her face. And as Fluttershy looked on in terror, the stitches that joined Rainbow's lips together strained as her lips twisted and stretched as she formed an unnatural smile.