Chapter 1
It was the middle of the night at Froggy Bottom Bog, there was no sound, except for the casual croak of a frog. The sounds of crickets played out through the swamp, the eerie fog hanging low between the overhanging trees. Suddenly, there was the sound of hooves clopping near the bog. Whoever is was, it seemed as if they were dragging something.
"I cannot believe this....cannot believe we killed a pony." One voice said, one that was female.
"I know we just needed to steal that diamond butt noooo that stupid royal guard saw us and we have to kill him and we didn't get that diamond too. Horse apples." said another, wafting the air in front of her muzzle, her ears flattened.
"Please...I...I just want to go home..." A third said, shifting her gaze around the bog.
"We can't go anywhere till we hide this body!" The second voice hissed.
"We should dump...the body here. In the bog." The first voice said.
"We need to bury it first, dumb dumb!" The second voice yelled.
"O...Okay..." The third voice said. The three find themselves near the stream. The first earth pony mare digs through her saddlebags and takes out a shovel. The third mare looks at the body, then goes over to a tree and empties her stomach. The second mare rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest and gives an annoying flick of her tail.
"Can we move this along? It's taking longer than it needs to." She grumbles and taps her fingers against her arms impatiently. The first mare doesn't say anything and begins to dig. The third mare starts to shake.
"I...I can't do this." She stutters.
"Whatever." the second mare groans as she takes another shovel and begins digging. The third mare curls up into a ball and her shaking gets worse as she mumbles uncontrollably. The first mare quickly notices it and runs up to her.
"Screw it!" The second mare threw down her shovel and trudges back off the way they came. Suddenly, everything became quiet. The first mare felt a chill roll up her back. She knew something bad is going to happen. The second mare was flicking the grim and dirt from the fur along her arms as she walked.
"This smell ain't gonna come out easily..." She mutters. Suddenly something sharp clamped onto one of her legs, tearing into the skin, causing her to cry out in pain. As she attempted to take her next step, she fell over.
"Aggh! What the hay?!" She yells. She saw that her leg was bleeding.
"Oh, screw this!" She yells, trying to get up, only for something massive to loom over her. Now stricken with fear, she attempts to get away, but only ends up with shredding her skin further where the creature has clamped onto her, causing her to scream out in pain. Big hands grab her and sling her some creature's shoulder, holding her down as the creature walked. The moon shone through a part of the forest, revealing a mask with a creepy smile on it.
"Let me go!" she shouted, banging her fists onto the creature's back.
"Don't make me hurt you!" she grabbed the creature's sides roughly, digging her fingers into it. The creature doesn't respond and continues walking. The creature comes to a clearing where a pole with a sharp hook was hanging in the middle of the clearing. The mare begins to cry.
"Please let me go!" She cried. The creature stands right next to the pole with the mare still on his shoulder.
"If I did anything to you, I'm sorry!" She choked out. The creature still doesn't listen and throws the mare onto the hook, the hook tearing into the mare's shoulder. She screams bloody murder as she feels it searing into her flesh as it hooked around her collar bone and tears began streaming down her cheeks and muzzle.
"Why are you doing this to me?!" She screamed. The creature looks at her, then turns and walks away. The mare cries, unable to use her left arm.
"This is some low level bull crap here, buddy!" She yells. The creature disappears through the trees. The mare, unwilling to die HERE of all places, she begins looking for a way out of this. She breathes slowly to keep herself calm, noticing a couple thick branches at her knees. With a smirk, she slowly moves her legs over to it, and puts her right arm around another branch to steady herself as she stands on the branch.
The feeling of her arm about to be torn off faced slowly as the pressure from the hook goes away completely, but the pain still evident. With a low groan, she moves her left side forward, wincing through the stinking pain as blood dripped from her fur. Now free from the hook, she sighs of relief, then allows herself to drop to the ground since it was only a two foot drop.
"Dumbass." She mutters. The other mare tries to calm down the mare curled up in a ball. After saving herself from an almost certain death, the now bloodied purple coated mare began shakily heading back to the others.
"Jerk thinks he can hang me? Why from the shoulder even? I'm surprised my arm didn't come off..." She mutters. Something invisible was walking towards the two mares. The bloodied mare groans as she removes her over shirt, leaving just her bra and tank top on, wrapping the over shirt over her wound to slow the bleeding. The mare who was trying to calm down the mare who was scared ear's perk up. She looks around, but finds nothing.
"Hello? Is somepony there?" She asked. But there was no answer.
"Just me..." said the second mare as she approaches, holding her shoulder, blood trickling down her arm.
"We need to get out of here, right NOW. Some lunatic tried to kill me! And in the stupidest way possible, too!" She says angrily. The first mare's eyes widen in fear as she points a finger behind the second mare.
"Let me guess...he's behind me?" the mare chuckled and trotted up to the pair of ponies.
"Of course." She said. A different creature, this time one wielding a skull and spine with a wicked sharp blade protruding from it appeared behind the second mare, as if he appeared from thin air. Taking her chances, she whipped around and managed to punch it in the face. The punch doesn't affect the creature as he grabs the mare. The mare gasped.
"Why does it seem like weird creatures are out for my death!?" She yells. She glared up at the creature. "Jealous mush?" she spits at it. "I can see why your life is so pathetic." She said. The creature doesn't say anything as he carried the mare away, just as the same creature that threw her on the hook came for the other mares.
"Not this again..." The mare grumbled lowly. "If I cuddle you, will you let me go? No creature can withstand cuddles with a pony and I'm...sorta fluffy.." She rolls her eyes since she had a trim a few days ago, rendering her unfluffy. The creature comes to a different clearing with a pole that looks like the one before, but this time, there wasn't anything around it.
"When I get fluffy again, I'm cuddle the shit outta you and you won't be able to do squat about it! You hear me?!" She yells. The creature ignores her and throws her onto the hook on the same shoulder. The mare tries to fight back tears, but is failing.
"Why are you so heartless?!" She screams. The creature walks away. Suddenly, the pole shakes and spider like appendages appear above her.. A few tears leak from the mare's eyes.
"I'm sorry..." she said softly to all she's ever hurt. The spider like appendages strike, piercing her chest. She screams out in pain as she doesn't die instantly. Then a massive one appears behind her back and pierces her back, severing her spine. She becomes paralyzed and screams more until blood begins to choke her out, spilling from her mouth. The creature watches' from afar then walks away. She dies a second later.
The other creature walks towards the two mares.Their screams and pleas for help were to no avail. The other killer grabs the mare that was trying to calm down the mare that was afraid.
"Leave me alone!" She pleaded. The other killer as well doesn't listen as he takes her to a clearing. She cries heavily. The killer stands next to another hook.
"Don't do this, please!" She yells. The killer, like with the other, tosses the mare onto the hook. She screams of pain. The spider like appendages start to form above her.
"P-please don't kill me...I did nothing wrong!" She screamed. The appendages are complete and are about to strike.
"NO!" She yells. But it was too late as the appendages strike.
"Agh!" She screams. She puts her hands out and manages to grab the biggest appendage. The appendages try to push in. She struggles against them. She gasps as another one slices into her lower back and comes to protrude out of her chest, killing her, causing all of them to pierce her. The appendages pull out of her body, and some sort of magical power incinerate the body.
The third pony was left alone. A third killer, one that looked like a hillbilly came walking up to her. She gazed up to him with her pleading eyes.
"Help me..." she asked softly as a tear fell from her muzzle. "Please...help me..." She sniffed. The killer tilts his head, before reaching down to grab her, only for a hand to be placed on his shoulder. He looks and sees that the one with the mask is shaking his head. The hillbilly looks at the pony, then at the killer, then nods.
"Why are you doing this?" She cried. "I have kids!" She screams. The killer looks at the mare, doesn't say anything, then stands up, turns, then walks away with the others. She was going to demand where her friends were but decided against it and instead falls to the ground, crying. As soon as the killers left, everything went back to normal.
The crickets went back to chirping and the frogs, croaking. She shakily stood after a while and began to walk where she saw them take her friends. A wolf howl came from far away. She came to one of the poles, finding it covered in her friend's blood.
"No...no!" She yells. The moon was shining in the reflection of the blood, giving it a reddish tint.
"Why..." She sniffed. There was no answer, except for the chirp of the crickets. The lone mare wrapped her arms around herself. Suddenly, there was some rustling in some bushes.
"Leave me alone!!" she screamed as fear brought her to run.
"Wait! Do not run! For it is no fun!" A female voice yells, then whoever said that follows the mare.
"Just leave me alone!" she continues to run, but eventually trips over a log. The mare that rhymes notices the other mare has fallen. The tripped mare covers her head and shakes in fear, thinking that this is it, that she was going to die just like her friends.
"Do not fear, since to help is why I'm here!" The voice said. The mare still doesn't listen as tears fall from her face. The mare feels a hand on her shoulder.
"Come with me and you shall rest, you've had a rough night one can only guess." The voice said again. The mare shakely raises her head and sees a zebra mare with her hand on her shoulder.
"W-Who a-are you?" She asked.
"Zecora." the zebra smiles.
"I-i-i...." She stammers, then her eyes rolls and she faints. Zecora shakes her head and carefully lifts the mare onto her shoulder. The mare mumbles. Zecora finds it a little difficult to trudge through the bog with another pony over her shoulder. The mumbles turn into whimpers as they neared a hut. Zecora enters and lays the mare on some blankets spread on the floor, next to a bubbling cauldron fulfilled with some sort of murky liquid. The mare twitches as she slept. Zecora sighs and sits next to the mare, closes her eyes and meditates.
TO BE CONTINUED