Slowly, Babs opened her eyes. Things hadn’t changed. Everything in her room possessed the same chalky consistency it had seconds ago. She turned a circle, taking in every wall, every textbook and picture and piece of trash. She ended the turn with her eyes on her homework. The numbers and letters, once neatly arranged into word problems, had become jumbled into nonsense. It was like Discord had taken a bucket of text and splashed it all over her trigonometry.

The change had come suddenly, without warning amidst a dearth of complete silence. Now that sound had returned, however, Babs had a hard time coming to terms with her new room. She half-expected this to be some kind of massive spell gone wrong. Perhaps an accident at the Manehattan Academy? It was a few blocks away, and she had no idea if spells could have that kind of range.

“Umm… sis?” She tilted her head back to peer with one eye at her door. “What’s going on?”

No answer came through the door. Babs opened it to find that the short hallway of her apartment had the same pallid colors. Her ears folded back as she crept through the alien yet familiar place. “Sunflower?”

No sounds arose from her sister’s room. Babs knocked a few times. “Come on, Sunflower. Open up. This is really weird. Sunflower?”

She pressed her ear to the door. At first she thought she heard nothing, but when she held her breathe she caught it; breathing. It was extremely quiet, so faint she almost thought she was imagining it. Yet the more she listened the more sure she was. She stepped back to study the door with a grimace.

“This isn’t funny, Sunflower. Whaddaya think Mom’s gonna think about this? We’ve gotta figure out what’s going on before she gets back.” She knocked on the door a few more times and waited impatiently. “Sunflower!”

Her ears perked to a new sound. She stepped forward, pressed her ear to the door.

Scrrrtch, scrrrtch. Scrrtch, scrrrtch.

With a puzzled frown, Babs dropped to her knees and lowered her head almost to the floor before pressing her ear to the door again. The sound was louder here, a slow, quiet scratching as if something were clawing at the wood just above the floor. The breathing came again, ragged and unsteady.

Babs had known something odd was going on, but this was the first time she understood that something was wrong. “S-Sunflower? Is that you?”

She listened, taking in the faint sounds. Something pushed against the door, but it was not as if somepony were trying to open it. No, it seemed more like a weight had fallen against it. Babs began to get the first inklings of worry as the scratching continued. This time when she pressed her ear to the door, she focused intently. She stopped breathing and thought she could hear attempts at words.

She kept holding her breath. She tried clearing her mind and held perfectly still. She pressed her ear as tightly to the wood as she could…

“…help… h-help me…”

She jumped to her hooves in an instant; the voice had been unmistakable, as had its frail nature. “D-don’t worry, Sunflower! I’ll get you out of there!” She turned from the door, but paused. Did they even have a key to her sister’s room? No wait, that was stupid, her door had one of those tiny hole locks that any screwdriver could open. “I’ll be right back, I promise!”

Even as she hurried for the kitchen, Babs wondered what could have possibly happened to her sister. Did something fall on her? Or maybe she fell on something? There couldn’t have been anypony in the room with her…

Unless they snuck in while the world had gone quiet? But why would anypony cast such an elaborate spell just to get into her sister’s room?

She shook her head frantically, whacking her own forehead a few times. “Screwdriver, Babs. Explanations can wait.” She looked around the kitchen, trying to remember where her mother kept such things. None of them had any use for tools most of the time.

The supply door. Realizing it was her best bet, Babs jerked the door open and stepped in, head whipping around frantically. She could swear she could hear the sound of her sister’s shallow breathing in her ears. “Come on, come on. Just one screwdriver, that’s all I need…”

At last she spotted a few of them on a high shelf. She had to jump to get her teeth around the handle of the smallest one. The others clattered to the floor, sounding inordinately loud in the quiet of the apartment. Prize in mouth, she backed out of the closet and galloped for the hallway, banging into the wall in her haste.

“Umm cmmn, sish,” she spoke around the tool, frantically working to get the flathead into the little hole of the handle. It took her several tries, but at last it slipped inside. She realized she could hear nothing on the other side of the door, but it had to be because of her pulse pounding in her ears. She wiggled the screwdriver around until she heard a faint click, then shoved the door open.

Empty. Her sister was nowhere to be found.

Babs stared at the empty bedroom in all its neatness, her heartbeat gradually slowing to a normal tempo. She looked around, eyebrows raised and mind swimming… then she spat the screwdriver on the floor and made a frustrated sound between a sigh and a growl. “Darn it, I got all worked up over nothin’!”

She paced, fuming and glaring at her hooves. This room was pale as well. Maybe it would go away with time? But her homework was all screwed up and now she’d just made herself look like a foal. She wondered how she was going to explain to her trig teacher about the messed up homework. And she’d had only a couple more problems to go!

A thought occurred to her, and she hurried to her sister’s window. The city of Manehattan was before her, a tall apartment tower taking up the opposite side of the substantial street six stories below. She pressed her face against the glass and looked down to find the pallid colors had taken over everything. How much of the city had been affected by this?

Babs grinned; if a lot of the city had been hit, then her homework wasn’t the only homework affected. Proof existed, so her teacher would have no choice but to re-assign or cut them all a break. And if the rest of her stuff had been similarly scrambled…

She may have just had an entire weeknight freed up. She hurried to her sister’s bookshelf and pulled a random tome out. A wicked pleasure ran through her as she opened to an inner page to find the same jumble of letters. That settled it! She could focus on what she wanted to do, which was…

She groaned and shoved the book back into place. What she wanted to do was read up on manestyles, and she couldn’t do that either. She turned from the bookshelf and spotted the screwdriver lying innocuous on the carpeted floor. She went to retrieve it—

A fresh thought hit her, freezing her with her teeth just grazing the screwdriver; her sister’s door had been locked. She sat up again and looked around, but there was no still sign of her sister. Why had the door been locked? Maybe Sunflower had locked herself out. She’d never done that kind of thing before, but it was a rational explanation… right?

Her eyes went to the door to the room. Apprehensively, she stepped over the screwdriver and closed the door. Her heart hit her throat; there were scratch marks in the wood and all along the bottom of the door, and hoof imprints higher up. They chipped away at the yellow paint, and there were dark stains. She bent down and sniffed, but no scent came to her. Still, the sight gave Babs a sick feeling in her stomach.

Just what had she heard at the door?

She gasped; what if it was still in there with her? Snatching the screwdriver, she hurried outside and slammed the door… then realized she hadn’t locked it. But she didn’t dare go back inside.

“S-sis? You’re here, right?”

She looked back to her room, then to the kitchen. No voice called back, no hoofsteps answered her call. Where could Sunflower have gone? She always told her or their mother when she had to go somewhere. Maybe there had been an emergency.

Babs sucked down a deep breath, staring at the screwdriver in her hooves. “Calm down, Babs. All these weird colors are getting to you. Nothing’s wrong, and there’s nothing in Sunflower’s room. You just have to wait until one of them—”

Though she kept speaking, her words had ceased to reach her ears. Her eyes went wide and her ears perked; total silence had graced her world once again. As a test, she tapped her hind hoof against the wall. She didn’t hear it. The pale colors darkened, eliciting hope that the world was going to go back to normal.

But as she watched, the shift in colors didn’t stop when everything had normalized. No, the world kept getting darker. The wallpaper peeled, strips of it rolling up the wall as the adhesive failed. This revealed wood that began to crack and snap and rot before her eyes. Babs could only gape as the pictures on the wall began to fade, some falling to the floor and cracking with the impact.

Babs tried to cry out, to call for her mother or her sister, but the silence permeated everything. She thought about running. When she turned to her room, she saw it was undergoing the same drastic changes, her bedsheets becoming threadbare and her plywood desk falling apart in seconds, spilling her mane products all over the floor. Heart pounding, throat dry, she retreated backwards into the kitchen. Her eye went to the sink. Rust rapidly took over its surface.

Something akin to a wave of pressure descended upon her, and she fell to her haunches with a silent yelp. Her hooves went to her breast as something seemed to pull at her heart, and she instinctively thrust her chest out to ease the force. It didn’t help. Somehow, Babs just knew something terrible was going to happen, and she closed her eyes in dreaded anticipation.

The pressure stopped. Her body relaxed. She could hear her own breath. She cracked open an eye, then the other.

Her apartment looked as if it were a hundred years old. A darkness permeated the very air, shrouding the dilapidated walls and ancient furniture in shadow. If she hadn’t been living here for years, she’d have sworn she was in the wrong building.

She turned her head to take in the ruins of her home, breath coming in slow gasps. “S-Sunflower… this isn’t funny. Please come out.”

No response. By now, she’d not expected one.

“A… A dream, maybe?” She lifted her hoof to discover she still held the screwdriver. It was clean, untouched by the strange warp in reality. Or whatever all of this was. She held it in a tight grip, as if it alone would save her from whatever had caused these terrible changes.

“Okay.” She stared at the wall, mind blank. “Okay.”

Seconds passed.

“Okay.”

Saying the same thing over and over again gave her no ideas. Sucking down her fear, she stood and made her way down the hall. Her sister’s door had warped into a bowed shape. Her own door hung open by a single hinge. Once inside her room, she tried to take in the sights. Her initial thought had been to lie down, but those moldy sheets didn’t look at all appealing anymore.

Her eyes fell on her trigonometry textbook, which had fallen off the ruined desk along with the brushes, bottles and combs. Its pages were yellow and a few had detached to scatter around the room. She tried picking it up by the spine; more pages fell out, exacerbating the mess. She opened the book and looked to the first page she’d come to… and promptly dropped it.

pathetic uncreative don’t waste our time hate it not your destiny what a stupid foal shame to the apple family worthless hope you die insignificant go cut yourself never succeed run away bad seed cut off that mark smothered in the crib insulting die pathetic back to the farm never loved you must run away no business wretched creature blood on the walls hate you scream lashing stupid cunt abort drown hate babs flee flea bleed out strangle mangle tangle the endless screams god watches burn maim scissors eyes tongue throat shriek avoid the woods run hate pitiful creature cracked ribs slice tasteless weak crack rack rut bleed why do you wait horror monster you sin murder must scream shriek torment terror run to hate hate kill kill black black god god god god empire blackshriekcutdrownhissnowhatehatehategogogo—

Her head whipped up as a scream tore through the air. The words were still flashing across her vision, angry and brutal and harsh. Her legs shook as she stared at the wall of her bedroom. The shriek had come from her neighbor’s apartment.

Another scream filled her ears, this time from somewhere deeper in the building. Maybe upstairs.

“S-Sunflower, if you’re here, p-please speak up.”

When she heard no response, she slowly left the room, slipping the screwdriver between her teeth to keep them from chattering. The floorboards creaked with each step on the frayed, worn out carpet. She left the hall, passed her mother’s room and stood before the entrance. Part of her didn’t want to open that door, but…

She swallowed her fear, tongue pressing against the handle of the screwdriver. Standing tall, she reached up and jerked the door open before any hesitation could slow her down.

The hallway shared the same fate as her apartment, with peeling wallpaper and moldy wooden floors. She looked to her right, but darkness hovered over everything like a thick fog. She could just see the outline of her neighbor’s door. Remembering the scream, she moved to it at a trot, eyes darting about the crumbling surroundings. A mild alarm buzzed at the back of her mind, but she refused to cave so quickly. There would be a rational explanation for this. She just needed to talk to somepony.

Babs wasted no time knocking on the door. She tried speaking around the screwdriver, failed and spat it into her hoof. “Miss Star Bound? It’s Babs Seed, your neighbor?”

She waited a few seconds, ears perked for the response. She banged on the door again, a little louder this time. “Miss Star Bound? I heard a scream. Are you alright?”

Still, there was no response. Babs’ shoulders drooped along with her head. What had she heard?

Her eyes fell upon something at the corner of the door. It was a bright pink with some yellow on it. It looked like candy, the wrapping complete with a set of thin ribbons that fanned out and looked a little like grass... or maybe a spider's legs. She’d never seen anything like it before, and wouldn’t have paid it any more mind if it hadn’t been for the peculiar appearance. She leaned down to get a closer look.

An eye. The center of the candy wrapper looked like a wide, lidless eye staring up at her. It was weird, and Babs suddenly didn’t want anything to do with it. She’d had enough weird for the day.

“Miss Star Bound, can you hear me?” She tried knocking on the door again. “Do you know what’s going on?”

She tried pressing her ear to the door. She thought she could hear something moving on the other side, but it was a faint sound. “Miss Star Bound?”

The ear not pressed to the door perked, then swiveled to the dark hallway. From that direction came a new noise.

Thunk, scrrrrrtch. Thunk, scrrrrrtch.

Babs’ heart hit her throat. She turned to peer into the shadows. “H-hello? Is somepony there?”

Whatever it was, it grew louder. Somepony – or something – approached. Babs stepped forward, screwdriver held up as if it might protect her. The flat head shook far too much for her liking. “T-talk to me. I’m not afraid! I’ll defend myself.” If only she sounded confident.

A shape formed in the dark. It was something low to the ground, but its features were beyond her. By the slow, regular thunk, scrrrrrtch, it had to be dragging itself along the floor. Maybe somepony was hurt? She took another step closer, breath coming in slow gasps.

A glint of light. Something struck the ground just beyond her vision. By now she could make out some of the shape.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t equine.

Babs backed away, bravado forgotten and heart pounding. She turned and banged on the door. “Miss Star Bound! S-stay in your apartment! Whatever you do, don’t—”

A resounding bang shook the door. She hopped back with a yelp. Another hit, and another. Babs' legs shook.

Thunk, scrrrrrtch.

She turned her head with a jerk in time to see a thin, elongated, bony paw thrust from the darkness to slap against the rotting floor, revealing three wicked, needle-like nails. The paw pressed against the wood as the thing dragged itself through the darkness. She looked up in time to see the outline of a head rising in the shadows. A sound somewhere between a growl and a gurgle met her ears.

Bang!

Babs screamed as the door shook against its hinges. She flung herself backwards, panting and whimpering. Within seconds she’d reached her apartment—

She slid to a stop on thin grass and mud. Babs’ fear was forgotten in an instant as she found herself standing in a clearing amongst some trees. Gaping in befuddlement proved the only response she could manage for her new surroundings.

Bang!

Thunk, scrrrrrtch.

With another yelp, she spun around and slammed the door behind her. The sounds ceased.

That done, Babs turned and pressed her rump to the door, staring at the dark trees that surrounded her. Her chest heaved and her eyes darted about wildly. The mud threatened to make her slip and fall, but she didn’t dare take her weight off the metal door.

Metal?

“C-calm down, Babs,” she whispered through trembling lips. “Your ap-partment’s a forest. No big deal. Just some crazy, bucked up nightmare, r-right? Right. So get your head in the g-game.”

It took some time, and a few more self-directed words of encouragement, but at last Babs managed to pry her flank from the door. She turned around to find that she’d come out of some kind of a maintenance room under a short stone bridge. She recognized the bridge immediately, and hurried along a well-remembered side path through the trees. Within seconds, Babs came to the main road and trotted to the top of the bridge.

Central Park. Or at least some dystopian, half-dead, ancient variant of it. She turned a slow circle, taking in the gnarled, leafless trees and familiar pathways. Even the ever-looming darkness couldn’t disguise her location when she knew it so well. Yet what had once been a verdant oasis within the bustling city had become a dead wilderness of bare limbs, brown grass and dusty paths.

“What am I doing here?” She raised her hoof, mildly surprised to find she still held the screwdriver. On instinct, she almost tossed it aside, but paused. This dream was scary, and at least the little tool gave her some feeble means of self-defense. Then again, if this really was a dream, what need did she have of self-defense?

Her ears perked to a fresh sound in the distance. She turned to gaze into the darkness. Despite how her vision seemed to be limited, she could still make out the skyscrapers of Manehattan above the treeline, set against a backdrop of yellow clouds. Turning her head aside, she turned her ear to the horizon and listened intently.

Shrieks. The city was awash in the cries and shouts and screams of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of ponies.

Babs clutched the screwdriver close and whimpered. “W-what the hay did I do to dream up something like this?”

She shivered in place, waiting for the next terrible surprise. Surely there would be one. Wouldn’t be much of a nightmare otherwise. Yet the longer she waited, the more she began to doubt her theory. No monsters came crawling out of the darkness for her, the shadows didn’t move around ominously, there wasn’t even a moon.

But the shrieks in the distance? That never faded. Sometimes she thought she could hear screams that were closer, perhaps within the park itself.

Though relaxation was impossible, she did her best to loosen up. She began to take in her surroundings once more. The bridge was choked with weeds and decorated with cracks in the stonework. The trees reached up like wooden claws to a sky filled with vomit-colored clouds that barely moved. The very air felt heavy, though she didn’t feel at all hampered in movement. Her gaze traced the wall of the bridge, following the crumbling masonry with a sense of loss; the structure had once been a thing of beauty.

Her eyebrows rose; there was another of those candies, sitting just at the edge of the wall. She saw no eye on this one. Maybe they all had different designs? Setting the screwdriver down, she began to reach for the wrapper—

The wrapper turned in place, an eerily familiar blue eye settling on her. The wire holding the wrapper skittered like the legs of an insect to facilitate the turn.

She jerked away, screwdriver back in her hoof and pointed at the thing. She stared wide-eyed at it, waiting for it to do something. It only stared back, lidless and quiet as a mouse.

Walking backwards, Babs kept the wobbling, makeshift weapon aimed at the eye-spider-candy-thing and retreated. It turned in place, ever watching. It made no attempt to follow, but she still refused to take her eye from it until she’d lost sight of it at the bottom of the bridge.

Letting out a breath of air she hadn’t known she’d been holding, she turned from the bridge and followed the path at a brisk trot. “I n-never thought this place could be so creepy.”

What now? She couldn’t go home, not with that… whatever it was roaming the apartment building. Perhaps she should try finding her sister and mother, warn them about what was happening.

The screams, now muffled by the thick trees all around her, reminded her that they were probably already aware.

Shivering, Babs pondered her options. If this was a dream, then what she did wouldn’t matter. She felt the gravel path beneath her hooves, the smooth handle of the screwdriver and a chill wind at her back. It all felt far too real to be a dream, even if her rational mind reminded her over and over again that the things she’d encountered so far just weren’t possible.

“Not possible,” she muttered under her breath. “Sombra coming back from the dead, Nightmare Moon trying to bring eternal night, the god of chaos making chocolate rain… and here I am grumbling over ‘not possible.’ ” That creature in the hallway gave a very real sense of danger, and those screams – the ongoing sounds sent shivers down her backside – wouldn’t be for nothing. Maybe this was a dream, but if it wasn’t she didn’t want to find out by being on the wrong side of a monster’s claws.

But if it was real, that meant those screams were real, and if those screams were real…

Babs stopped in the middle of the path, her pulse quickening once more. The screams in the distance hadn’t abated. Maybe she should hide in the park for now? If there really were monsters out there, she sure as hay didn’t want to go to where they must be. Then again, if the screams started dying down…

“Oh God-ddess, what if ponies are dying?”

Never in her life had she contemplated the idea of somepony dying, at least not violently. Murder was the kind of thing that happened outside Equestria. Even villains like Sombra and Chrysalis would rather capture, enslave or banish ponies instead of killing them. But those screams…

She recalled the shriek from Miss Star Bound’s apartment. Never had she heard such a desperate, hideous sound. Even now it chilled her. But surely she hadn’t been killed or anything. Surely…

She resumed her walk, head low and tail between her legs. Her grip on the screwdriver tightened.

“I just need to find a place to lay low. Th-that’s all. Somepony will figure out what’s going on and set things right.” She flinched as a fresh breeze made the skeletal trees sway. “I’ll j-just ride out the storm. Tomorrow I’ll write a letter to Apple B-Bloom and we’ll laugh it all off. Nopony’s gonna be hurt. Nopony’s gonna die.”

She continued like this for some time, encouraging herself against the ever-oppressive gloom. Time passed unnoticed, until she realized how quiet the world was. She raised her head to look around and discovered that the distant cries had stopped entirely. Should she be relieved?

But the shadows remained. The trees stood bare, perfectly aligned and…

Babs blinked, refocusing her attention on the trees. They really were aligned, and nowhere near as dense. Rows upon rows of—

“Apple trees?” She turned a circle, eyes wide. “There are no apple trees in Central Park.”

And the path was gone. How had she missed that? Brown grass surrounded her as far as the eye could see – which, with the eternal black all around, wasn’t very far. A couple dozen yards at most. She wandered about the bare fruit trees, wondering where she was. The more she observed, the more certain she felt that this was further proof she’d landed in a dream world.

She began to hope Princess Luna would show up to save her. She’d done that for Apple Bloom once, hadn’t she?

A new sound met her ears; a rustling and some grinding. It didn’t sound like a pony, but maybe it would be a clue as to where she’d ended up? Not daring to hope, she trotted for the noise.

There was movement, but not that of a pony. On the edge of her vision was… something. It lay in a puddle in the grass, but a black object stood in the way. No, several black objects. They moved about the thing, falling onto it and then disappearing into the night. So dark were their hides that they vanished the moment they rose into the air, and it was almost impossible to see where one began and the others ended.

They reminded her of a swarm of bats.

Well, bats weren’t so bad. Now what were they—

The object made a jerking motion. Something rolled about. It was green and white. More parts came into view as it spasmed from the motions of the bat things, sloppy and moist sounds coming from it. Babs’ breath caught in her throat as comprehension dawned.

A body. That was a pony’s body, and those things were eating it. She could see in the perfect black of their shapes circles of teeth, the only thing not perfectly resembling shadow. Now only a few feet away, she could make out the bits of flesh and ripped up organs in their tiny mouths as they disappeared into the darkness.

Babs stomach flipped. Her lunch threatened to escape her insides. She fought the urge with everything she had, gradually taking step by backwards step. The little monsters ignored her, perhaps not even aware of her presence, and for that she thanked all the princesses, and Discord for good measure. It took all the focus she could muster to keep her legs moving and not vomit at the disgusting sight of that body jerking about to their bites.

As soon as she felt she’d backed far enough away, she turned tail and galloped as fast as her hooves could take her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn’t dare scream. She just ran and ran, until her legs ached and her chest burned. Her tears blinded her, but she couldn’t bring herself to rub her eyes. That meant slowing down. She couldn’t slow down, she had to get away!

She had to wake up.

Something snagged her hoof and she collapsed. Energy drained, she simply lay in the dirt and dead grass and sobbed into her hooves, waiting for those monsters to catch her.

“Are y-you alright?”

Babs flinched back, her head whipping up. Through her tears she saw a pink and white… blob. Hope made itself known in her heart and she hurried to rub her eyes.

“I said, are you alright?”

“I-I’m okay,” she managed to croak out. At last her tears had dissipated enough for her to make out the pony standing before her. It was a young mare of a soft pink coloration, her mane a slightly darkerer. She wore what reminded Babs of a labcoat, but with no collar and much shorter than the real thing. It was covered in dark red stains.

But all of this barely registered in comparison to the pony’s perfect – and familiar – manecut.

“Y-you’re… Vidala Swoon.”

Vidala’s eyes, which had been darting about the darkness, centered upon her. Her eyebrows rose. “Have we met?”

Babs slowly picked herself up off the ground. “No, b-but… You are her, right? Photo Finish’s lead manedresser?”

The mare’s eyes narrowed. She turned away with a huff. “Yeah, sure. That’s me. Now come on, this is no time for fillies to be about.”

The fresh memory of the body returned, bringing about a shiver. Babs hurried to catch up. “Believe me, I know. D-do you know what’s going on?”

“I have no idea.”

“Oh.” Babs had to canter to keep up with Vidala’s trot. “Do you know where we’re going, then?”

“No.”

The edge in Vidala’s tone gave Babs all the information she needed. She assessed the situation quietly, head low but ears perked. “I was in Central Park, now I’m… I don’t know.”

Vidala paused, her gaze straight forward. Babs turned to her and saw the mare’s lip trembling. Her eye twitched as she looked around. “I w-was in Fillydelphia. We were doing a shoot…”

“Fillydelphia?” The implication of this news swiftly sunk in, taking Babs’ heart down with it. “Y-you mean Manehattan isn’t the only place like this?” She looked about at the apple trees and darkness. Was this what Sweet Apple Acres looked like?

“We’ll be okay.” Vidala whispered the words, but there was no confidence in them. “W-we’ll be okay. We just have to find some kind of shelter.”

“Shelter. Right.” Babs had no idea where to go for such a thing. She was reasonably certain they weren’t in Central Park anymore. After a few seconds of indecisiveness, they continued their walk through the darkness.

The shadows surrounded them, the only sound their quiet hoofsteps and the rustling of bare limbs. Babs felt a subtle urge to bolt. It tingled in her every nerve, telling her to flee this place as fast as possible. She kept her pace steady through sheer force of will, even as the wind whispered of dangers just beyond her vision.

Needing a distraction, she took to admiring Vidala’s mane. Maybe she should… “I’m Babs.”

The mare glanced at her, eyes wide and lip still trembling. “V-Vidala.”

Okay, maybe that didn’t break the ice. Babs fumbled for something else to say, her eyes going back to the comb and other tools in a back pocket of Vidala’s white outfit. “Umm… I’m a big fan of yours.”

Though her alarmed expression didn’t fade, there was a distinct bite in Vidala’s tone. “You mean you’re a fan of Photo Finish.”

The response was enough to snap Babs out of her fear entirely. “No, of you. I saw your work in Manehattan Athletics, and your mane designs for the Las Pegasus Colt’s Fashion Show three years ago. Your manestyles are an inspiration.”

Vidala stared at her with an expression somewhere between surprise and disbelief. “Really? You know about my pre-Finish work?”

Babs nodded eagerly, a smile forming upon her face. “Well, yeah. I’m studying really hard to get into the Fillyhood Fashion Institute, just like you! I keep waiting to hear that you’re starting your own barber chain or something. Then I could get an apprenticeship under your title.”

Vidala came to another pause, her jaw dropping almost to the brown grass. “You… want to be my apprentice?”

With a wince, Babs lowered her head. “Too soon to gush?”

“No, no, I appreciate your enthusiasm.” The manedresser shook her head slowly. “It’s just… I’m so used to everypony talking about Miss Finish. Nopony really notices me anymore.”

Babs’ gasped. “Not notice you? But you’re one of the best mane stylists of the age! Photo Finish wouldn’t have picked you to be in her entourage if you weren’t among the best. How could nopony notice you?”

With a low growl, Vidala returned to her canter, forcing an ill prepared Babs to hurry to catch up. “Because I work for Photo Finish now. I don’t do manedressing anymore, I just do what she tells me. Agreeing to work with her was the worst decision I made for my career.”

Babs thought on this statement. For a time, the only sound was their hooves crunching in the dry grass. “But… she accepts your opinion, right?”

With a heavy sigh, Vidala turned her attention to her young companion. “You said your name is Babs?” She waited for the nod. “Babs, I get it. You’re excited. I’m sorry I c-can’t entertain your ideas right now, but we need to focus. We aren’t out of the woods yet, and I don’t mean that metaphorically.”

A cursory glance reminded Babs that they were still lost in the shrouded trees. Her heart sank a little and she scooted closer to Vidala. “Right. Sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Vidala turned her head forward once more, but her eyes continued their frantic dance. “And since you’re so interested, I’ll give you one bit of advice: once you get through your apprenticeship, go into business for yourself. Accepting jobs like I did will be the end of you.”

“I see?” Babs frowned, trying to make sense of this. Asking for clarification didn’t seem like the right move, at least not at the moment. She tried instead to take heart in the knowledge that she was walking side-by-side with one of her idols. That helped to put a small smile on her face. In fact, she had to bite her lip to keep from giving an embarrassingly uncharacteristic squee at the idea. One may have still come out, but only a very quiet one.

Vidala’s head whipped to the side, her eyes going wide. Babs’ pleasure collapsed as she imitated the motion, but she saw nothing. “What is it?” she whispered.

“N-nothing.” Vidala took a long, shaky breath. “Nothing. I just thought I s-saw something, that’s all.”

They continued their walk, the elder pony’s head swiveling around constantly. Babs watched her, a sinking feeling coming over her as she understood at least some of the situation. “What are you scared of?”

“S-scared? I’m not scared.” Vidala’s eyes were dancing.

“You don’t have to lie just because I’m a kid, y’know.”

“But it’s true, I’m not…” Vidala’s words trailed off as she caught Babs’ sour frown and raised eyebrow. “Fine. I-if you must know, and you didn’t hear this from m-me… I’m afraid of the dark.”

Babs nodded, once more examining the skeletal trees and the shadows that encompassed them. “Yeah, I get that. I wish we could see a little better.”

Vidala whimpered. “No, you don’t get it. I’m afraid of the dark.”

“Oh. Oh!” Heat touched Babs’ cheeks, likely matching the pink in Vidala’s own. The poor mare looked away, but it had been too slow to hide her shamed expression. Slowly, Babs reached out once more to touch the pony’s shoulder. “Um…”

“I-it’s alright.” Vidala paused to touch babs’ hoof with her own. “Y-you can laugh if you want to.”

“I wasn’t going to—” Babs paused, eyes going wide; tiny shadows were flitted through the air. If not for the trees, she’d have never noticed.

She grabbed Vidala’s leg and pulled. “Run! It’s the bat things!”

The mare needed no further instruction, the two of them bolting into the darkness. Babs looked back, squinting in an effort to see the creatures amongst the shadows. She could see nothing, but didn’t feel at ease. Faint movements flitted across the trees, small enough they might have been waving twigs on branches. Goddess, even her imagination wasn’t giving her any reprieve!

They didn’t offer a single sound. Not the beat of wings, nor rustling against branches, not even a bat-like squeak.

Words flew out of Vidala’s mouth. “Leave us alone, leave us alone, leave us alone! Why won’t they stop following us?”

“W-what the hay are they?” Babs cried, even as she concentrated on her hooves.

Vidala had tears streaming down her cheeks. “I don’t know! Darkness, shadows, death, who cares? I just want them to go away!”

They ran and ran, seemingly forever. Babs kept glancing back, praying the things had given up, but all she ever saw was black. The pair weaved amongst the trees, giving them something to see the creatures by, but with only shadows for clues they couldn’t gauge anything. Babs had no intention of stopping; every flash of darkness over a trunk, every tiny motion in the dark screamed danger! She could still see that pony’s body being ripped apart. The memory whipped her into keeping up with Vidala’s longer strides.

But not for long. Already, her chest was aching. She might have called out, but didn’t dare risk the extra energy. They needed to find shelter, and quickly. Those things could be nipping at their tails for all they could tell!

Vidala and Babs moved together, reacting to one another’s turns and keeping pace together. They turned in time to move around a thin apple tree and came face-to-face with a low-hanging limb. Babs managed to duck her head and avoid it, but Vidala wasn’t so lucky. The snap of the wood sounded like a thunderclap in the ongoing quiet, reminding Babs of just how silent their flight had been.

She looked back, relieved to see that the limb hadn’t slowed Vidala much. She had a long, thin cut on her cheek that leaked a tiny stream of blood that mixed with her endless tears, but otherwise she seemed fine.

The tree was consumed by darkness, marred only by tiny, circular rows of teeth. They seemed startlingly close. Babs yelped and put on another burst of speed even as her lungs begged for mercy. Vidala caught up, her sobs piercing the thick air. Then she started to pull away.

“W… w-wait…” Babs gasped the word, her aching legs protesting every step. Vidala didn’t hear, steadily moving ahead without so much as a backwards glance. “V-Vi…dala…”

Her exhausted legs failed her, and Babs ended up tumbling through the grass. She slid to a stop on her back, staring up at claw-like limbs and sickly clouds. Not a second later, darkness flew overhead like a great blanket of night with tiny, pointed groupings of triangular stars. Babs buried her head in her forelegs and sobbed, waiting for the first bite.

And she waited.

And waited some more.

Gradually, she wiped her eyes on her fetlock and looked up. No darkness, no bat creatures. Just the shifting limbs and smooth clouds. She tilted her head one way, then another. Craning her neck, she gazed in the direction she’d been running. If the things were still around, they showed no sign of their presence.

Trembling, expecting an attack to come at any second, Babs rolled onto her belly. “V… Vidala?” She looked around, hoping for some sign of the mare. Only shades, trees and dead grass met her gaze. “Don’t l-leave me.”

Though the act sent a burning sensation up her legs, Babs stood and took a few limping steps. “Vidala?” Her ears perked. She examined her surroundings. “H-hello? Somepony?”

The world was silent. The darkness pressed in from all sides.

“A-anypony?”

Only her labored breathing replied.

Babs collapsed, curling into a ball as tears welled in her eyes. “Don’t leave me here, p-please. I don’t wanna be here anymore. I want my s-sister…”

She wept, but even now she kept her volume down. At any second, a flock of those… things could be upon her. But she was alone, and she doubted she would ever get out of this hellish orchard. The limbs of the trees were like claws grasping for her, the shadows hid untold horrors, even the yellow, dry grass poked at her sides and face like needles. A sob escaped her, and she immediately threw her hooves over her mouth in a desperate bid to silence herself.

Yet as miserable as she felt, her rational mind demanded her attention. It knew she couldn’t lay there for long. If those things did come back, she doubted she’d have time to stand, much less break into a gallop. She had to get up, had to keep moving, had to find shelter.

So, though her legs shook and tears formed rivers down her puffed cheeks, she forced herself to her hooves and began to walk once more.

Time passed. The view continued, an endless stream of apple trees in nice, neat rows. Babs tried to pay attention, but between the isolation and the unyielding, bleak consistency, she drifted deeper and deeper into misery. Soon she had trouble looking away from her hooves. All she could think about was how alone she felt. Having Vidala there had been an unexpected blessing. To have her taken away just as quickly…

She thought she heard something. A twig snapping, perhaps? It took great effort to raise her head, but she managed it. Her eyes drifted across the skyline… and widened. Shapes rose in the distance, boxy and uneven. The most prominent towered over all others, complete with a pyramid-like top. Babs would have recognized that outline from anywhere in Manehattan; the new Crystal Building.

Her heart quickened; at last she had a destination. She couldn’t be too far from the edge of the park, and once she got to the city proper she could find a way to get to her sister and mother. She picked up her pace—

“Help me!”

Babs crouched with a whimper. “W-what now?” She looked to her left, searching for the source of the scream. Maybe it was Vidala?

“Somepony, get me out of here! Help!”

A country accent. Babs gaped at the shadows, not sure if she could believe her ears. But, as she watched, she managed to make out a form in the darkness, running parallel to her current course.

Not sure whether to feel hope or horror, she broke into a gallop, swerving left to gradually close in on the pony.

“Applejack! Big Mac! Somepony!”

Shadows parted as the distance closed between them, revealing a yellow filly about her age. There could be no question; it was Apple Bloom. Babs forced more speed from her sore legs, eyes locked upon her cousin.

Then she heard another sound. Something scurried in the dark, though it made sounds of movement like Babs had never heard before. They had to get away, but first— “Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom slid to a stop, eyes going wide as she spotted Babs stopping a dozen yards away. Only now did Babs see the blood seeping from a wound on the filly’s forehead.

“Babs? What are you—” She shook her head frantically and waved. “Go, run! Get outta the orchard! It’s not—” Her head whipped around at the same time as a loud hiss filled the air. “Oh, horseapples, run!”

Babs watched in mute terror as Apple Bloom fled once more. Out of the darkness came a grey creature like none she’d ever heard of. She only got a glimpse as it passed her vision, but it was long and scaled and had a tail like a snake. It crawled forward on two front legs, as tall as an alicorn at the shoulders. Just as quickly as it arrived, it disappeared in pursuit of Apple Bloom, its pony-sized tail slithering into the shadows.

After standing in quiet shock for about a second, Babs bolted after them. “Apple Bloom!”

Her cousin screamed. She screamed and screamed, and Babs begged her legs for more speed. “I’m coming, AB, I’m coming!”

But as she ran, Apple Bloom’s cries shifted into something different. Babs realized that what she heard now wasn’t the cries of a single pony, but of many. She looked up to see the city skyline coming closer. “Apple Bloom? Please, talk to me!”

She looked forward and skidded to a halt; something red lay on the ground a few feet away. Gasping, Babs trotted to it.

“Oh, no…”

It was a bow. What looked like fresh blood stained the otherwise pristine ribbon.

“A-Apple Bloom?” She scanned the area for signs of her cousin; a hair, hoofprints, even a blood trail. She found nothing, nothing but the bow. Tears threatened to break out once more as she tenderly picked up the object. “No. Please, no… W-what were you even doing out here?”

She sat and cradled the accessory to her chest, fighting back a sob. “You’re still alive, right? That… whatever it was didn’t get you. I h-have to believe that. We’ll both get out of this okay.”

The words helped, but only a little.

Thunder rumbled in the sky. This wouldn’t have bothered Babs if it hadn’t been so brief and the world hadn’t been so quiet all the time. She looked up in time to see something burst out of the thick cloud cover; three pegasi. She watched them descend towards the city, trailing clouds…

No, trailing smoke.

“Wonderbolts.” The word left her lips in a hushed whisper.

This bleak, bucked up world hadn’t won yet. Screams continued in the city, her friend was in trouble and one of her icons might even be dead, but the Wonderbolts had arrived. No doubt they’d been sent by the princesses; surely they knew what was going on and what to do about it. And if Babs was to have a chance in this monster-riddled nightmare, it would be with them. She took note of where the trio of smoke trails entered the city – ahead of her, luckily. She would find Apple Bloom, and then—

Her heart hit her throat as a low hiss filled the air. With a gulp, Babs glanced back to find a large shape approaching at a stealthy crawl. The long, grey face of a lizard appeared, riddled with horns and ridges. Several tongues flicked from its scaled lips at once, each topped with the head of a small snake. The creature crept forward with long claws that kneaded the ground, its body lowered in a predatory pose.

Babs shrieked and bolted for the city, praying it would provide a safe haven.

The creature followed.

Author's Notes:

I wanted to tread more lightly this time in terms of the amount of blood and focus more on Babs' different perspective from Coco's. My interpretation of Babs typically has her being a 'tough girl' persona, but with her being completely out of her element I thought it would be good to tone it down here.

Don't worry, explanations for the world's weird behavior... may come later. Meanwhile, a question has come to mind. I was going to leave the monsters alone, but I find myself realizing that I'll probably not get to describing all of their purposes in-story. In fact, most of them will probably be up to interpretation. Some readers will want to leave them open like that, but I know others will want to know more. So I'm calling for a vote; should I ignore the creatures and let the readers try to guess at their purpose, or should I provide a little information about them in the author's notes?