All around the forest the ebb and flow of autumn was on full display.

The skeletal limbs of the trees reached deep into the late afternoon sky, spreading their delicate branches like fingers which twisted, yearning towards the heavens. The sweet, sour scent of fallen leaves rose up from the forest floor, mixing with the sharper smell of pine needles and other evergreens to create a heady fragrance that tantalized the senses and soothed the soul. Tree Hugger felt a deep sense of bliss spread through her as she took in the vibes of nature. She inhaled heavily as she opened her mind to all that the green world, now turned golden, had to offer her.

Traveling to Ponyville to visit her friend Fluttershy for Nightmare Night had been the right call. Neither the naturalist pony nor her more timid yellow friend particularly cared for a holiday, one that was all about fear and consumerism. That kind of thing totally harshed Tree Hugger's mellow. But the autumn season itself, when nature seemed to dip its paint brush into the heart of a crackling bonfire and spread its colors across the forest, that was a truly radical sight to behold.

Taking another deep breath of the forests scent and shivering with satisfaction, the pony hippie had only one thing to say about it all as she exhaled the word, “Groovy~,” into the chilly air.

Despite the inner peace that welled up inside her, about halfway over the small bridge that spanned the stream that ran playfully beside Fluttershy’s home, Tree Hugger was suddenly hit with a vibe that caused the needle to scratch noisily across the record of her inner peace. She paused for a moment, trying to work out what was responsible for the sour note in nature’s harmony.

Fluttershy’s cottage stood dark against the the brilliant orange and red of the sky, cloaked in a gloom that was almost as palpable to the senses as a thick fog. Indeed, a thick, greenish mist seemed to spill from the domicile, spreading into the surrounding woodlands. There was a seriously wild aura around the entire edifice, which at a casual glance looked as if it had been abandoned. Dirty windows, peeling paint, and overgrown flower pots welcomed Tree Hugger with a sense of cold foreboding, where before the merry little cottage had been so warm and inviting.

“Whoa, like, it looks like nopony has lived here in a long time,” Tree Hugger had a bad habit of speaking her thoughts aloud. Specifically, others thought of it as a bad habit, while the earth pony herself thought of it as the best way to keep her own thoughts straight. An important skill for someone who was known o let her mind wander from time to time. “I hope Fluttershy didn’t move without telling me.”

A sudden booming noise nearby made the mellow pony jump. The wind was picking up as the sun went down and was rushing through the fallen leaves with a sound less like a rustle and more like a roar. When the booming sound happened again, this time Tree Hugger was not surprised, as she could see it was coming from the cottages front door creaking slowly back and forth on its hinges and occasionally slamming open. With more than a little trepidation, which was unusual for her, she held open the door and peered inside.

The house was dark. Despite this, there seemed to be a soft orange glow coming from further inside. Tree Hugger always liked to think positive thoughts and assume the best in any situation, but the weird feeling she was getting from the cottage and the homes dilapidated appearance couldn’t help but make her assume the worst. Fluttershy was a very private pony and liked to keep to herself. If something happened to her while she was out here all on her own, how soon would any of her friends think to come and check on her? How soon would they realize her absence wasn’t just Fluttershy being her usual somewhat reclusive self and instead the result of an accident? Or a break in?

Tree Hugger was a pacifist by both nature and choice, but if Fluttershy was in trouble then no amount of danger would keep her from trying to help the shy pegasus. Taking a moment to steady her breathing and align her chakras, Tree Hugger made a small gesture of love and peace to the universe, before stepping inside...

The scent that bombarded the earth pony’s nose once she was inside made her instantly question her karma. A sick, sour sweetness hung so thick on the air that she could practically taste it. Worse, underneath that stinging saccharine scent, there lurked the obvious stench of decay. The sound of a room full of buzzing flies came as no surprise to the earthy pony. Though she didn't fault natures little janitors their busy work, it didn't do anything to make Tree Hugger feel better about Fluttershy's fate. The stink of death was all about her.

Tree Hugger had devoted her life to studying rare animals of Equestria, and that wasn’t limited just to herbivores but to carnivores as well, so she was familiar with that rancid smell. Even so, no den or lair of even the most blood thirsty animals she had ever encountered had reeked like this. Contrary to what many unfamiliar with wild creatures might think, animals valued cleanliness, seeing it not just as a point of good hygiene but also as a survival trait. An animal that had allowed its den to get as bad as this would have to either be severely sick, injured, or even dead themselves.

This realization only increased Tree Hugger’s worries. Had Fluttershy taken in some kind of creature that was ill and bitten off more than she could chew? Or maybe, more poignantly, had it bitten off something of Fluttershy's to chew in it's diseased delirium? The yellow pony had a big heart, but sometimes even her laid back friend thought she was a little naive when it came to caring for some creatures.

Regardless of how disorienting the smell was, Tree Hugger would have to press forward and find out what had happened. As she made her way through the darkened cottage, she slipped and slid a few times over the slick floors. There was something hard beneath her hooves, like stones or shards of ice, that slid out from underneath her as she walked. She had to be careful making her way toward the light source she saw earlier, setting each hoof down tentatively.

Finally, after what felt like hours but had only been a few minutes, the earth pony made her way into the cottages small kitchen. There, arraigned on the kitchen table, was the strangest sight. Somepony had taken a lot of time and effort to carve pumpkins, turnips, squash, and other tiny root vegetables and gourds into jack-o-lanterns. As Tree Hugger looked closely, she could see that the faces were unusual, each in the shape of a tiny animal. As she watched, a trick of the dancing candlelight made the faces change and move as if the animals were shivering, frightened, and in pain. Tree Hugger had no idea why anypony would want to so meticulously carve such a disturbing array of heart breaking images.

Suddenly, somewhere in the claustrophobic stillness, there came the distinct sound of a snap.

Light flooded the cottage, blazing up from every lamp, lantern, and sconce at once. It was blinding after the preternatural darkness that came before, and left Tree Hugger’s vision swimming. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, however, she found that she wished that her surroundings had remained hidden by the gloom.

Tree Hugger gagged, feeling bile and the oats she had eaten for lunch rise up in her throat as her stomach roiled. There were stories she had heard of creatures who hunted for fun, for sport, rather than sustenance. These savage brutes liked to keep pieces of their prey as trophies, usually the bones or skins, which they would use to decorate their dens.

This was nothing like that...

This was an abattoir.

The kitchen had been turned into a makeshift slaughterhouse. Blood and gore was smeared across every surface and dripped from the ceiling to pool in congealed puddles on the floor. The butchered carcasses of animals of every shape and size told a story of long hours of agony and pain before their lives had finally been snuffed out. Skins had been nailed to the walls while entrails and organs had been arraigned about the room in ritualistic patterns, hung from the bones of the very creatures who once contained them. The entire room was alive with the pulsing of maggots, wriggling deeper into the decaying meat that they feasted on in order to escape the sudden intrusion of light on their grizzly banquet.

Kitchen knives of all shapes and sizes were scattered about the room, some still stabbed into the meat that had once been a living creature before the serrated blades had slipped in and done their work. Other blades were buried to the hilt inside skulls of creatures who were hopefully long dead before they had been used to slice out the pulp of their eyes. It was the churning contents of the blender on the kitchen counter that finally turned Tree Hugger’s stomach enough for her to vomit, sending her last meal splattering across the filthy pattern of offal spread on the floor.

What kind of heartless monster could do something so heinous to such innocent creatures?

The earth pony took shallow breaths, trying to steady herself. It also helped, but only barely, to keep her from drawing into much of the corrupt miasma that hung in the atmosphere. Her head was just starting to clear when there was a second snap, this coming from nearby.

Up tempo jazz music started to play as an old phonograph in the living room suddenly wheezed scratchily to life. Tree Hugger had no idea of Fluttershy owned such a device, but she had no time to wonder over the source of the music as bits and pieces of animal carcass suddenly shifted and began to twitch into life as well!

Skulls turned towards the Tree Hugger one by one, and those that still had jaws attached began to laugh uncontrollably! Pieces of bone and meat began to dance about, with even the entrails twitching and slithering to the cheerful beat of the jazzy music. The kitchen, which had moments ago been smeared wall to wall with death, was suddenly alive and pulsing as cabinets and drawers opened and closed by themselves. Mocking laughter filled the cottage, as the blender turned on full blast and sprayed it's contents into the air, showering the hippie with it's horrible living contents. The other appliances and even the knives began to dance and sing, spinning around the room as they floated through the air with an unnatural life of their own!

This was all starting to remind Tree Hugger of the time the chieftain of the Buffalo Tribe had shared with her some of their 'sacred' mushrooms. It had started out as a very loving and peaceful show of respect but had quickly overwhelmed the earth ponies sense and left her feeling like she was a thin patina of paint spread across the desert that the nomadic tribe was traveling through. It took her almost a full day, and a lot of water, before she felt anything like herself again. Where that had been a mind opening experience in the most positive sense of the term, this was having an equal but opposite effect on Tree Hugger’s state of mind.

It was no surprise, that in the face of such a bizarre display, that she was losing her grip on her sanity. Part of her felt like laughing and dancing along with the ruined animal carcasses. Laughing at how short and cruel life could be, dancing as a way to express how she was still alive. Laughing at how transient flesh ultimately was, and how even the mightiest predator would eventually be nothing but worm food! Dancing, desperately, to shake off the buzzing flies before they could lay their eggs in her flesh and make her worm food herself!

Tree Hugger caught herself chuckling nervously, on the edge of hysteria, but managed to clamp her mouth closed and slowly back out of the kitchen. That was when she was suddenly struck with a vision. In a snap, it was as if time suddenly flowed backwards, as day and night flashed on and off outside the cottages no longer gore slicked windows. The ruin and decay inside was slowly reversed, leaving the kitchen suddenly bright and spotless!

Fluttershy stepped into the room. It was a beautiful autumn day outside. She wasn't alone, but had her pet, Angel Bunny with her. Tree Hugger watched as she tickled the tiny rabbit beneath his chin, but the puffball of white wasn’t having any of it. He was making a grumpy face with his arms crossed and pouting. That didn't seem to perturb the pegasus, as Fluttershy smiled ever so sweetly and offered something small and colorful to the little guy. It was a bright, perfect, piece of candy.

Most pet owners know that feeding your pets sweets is a bad idea, but there are some exceptions, including treats specially made for animals that looked like candy but were made with different ingredients. The rabbit hopped with joy and quickly popped the treat into its mouth, giving every sign that he found it to be delicious.

Then Fluttershy casually picked him up by the scruff of the neck, slammed him inside of the blender, and hit the highest setting. Tufts of white fur and blood were sent showering everywhere!

“This can’t be real,” was Tree Hugger’s horrified response. But as the familiar liquid churned to a stop inside the glass container, the scene skipped to what was clearly another time, but the same place.

The vision seemed to be sped up now. One after another Fluttershy repeated the same actions. Smiling with love and affection she would give one of the animals in her care a treat, a piece of candy, and then she’d kill them in increasingly brutal and tortuous fashion. As time went on the animals came less willingly. Some had to be dragged into the kitchen and force fed their candy. Others were incapacitated or injured before they even entered the room, then bled ceremoniously after the candy had been placed directly into their stomachs via a gash in their bellies that spilled their guts across the floor. Always the one thing that remained unchanged was that innocent, guileless smile on Fluttershy’s face. No matter how blood-stained her face and mane became, no matter how the gore and viscera piled up around her, she still smiled the beatific and patient smile of a saint.

“This isn’t real!” Tree Hugger shouted more forcefully. The kitchen began to take on the appearance it had moments ago, before the dessicated flesh of all those murdered creatures had begun to sing and dance.

At last, the visions slowed. Fluttershy stood, lit from below by the glowing collection of jack-o-lanterns on the kitchen table. Tree Hugger hadn't seen Fluttershy carve them, but instead they had just appeared one by one, over the course of time. It was clear the kitchen was still in use, as despite the filthy state of ever surface there were pans and bowls of candy everywhere and signs of more merrily bubbling away on the stove top. As Tree Hugger watched, unable to move or to so much as make a sound, a new creature suddenly appeared beside Fluttershy.

She had met him once, a long time ago at the Grand Galloping Gala. What was his name? This Bored? Dick Cord? Oh, that was right! Discord!

Discord had appeared in a flash of light beside the busy Fluttershy, holding a tray of what appeared to be cucumber sandwiches and a steaming teapot in his other claws. So busy was Fluttershy, in fact, that she hadn't taken the time to wash off any of the blood from of all the animals from her sanctuary that she had ritualistically sacrificed.

Still, her beautiful smile beamed from her gentle face. Still she spread her bloody hooves to embrace her friend, even as the tea pot and snacks fell to the floor, so shocked as he was at the appearance of both the now no longer yellow pegasus and what had become of all the animals she loved and cherished so dearly. Still she looked nothing but innocent as she wrapped her forelimbs around Discord and gave him a warm and loving hug.

It was only when she started to melt into him that her smile finally cracked, spreading wide as her eyes swirled with madness.

Discord tried to resist. Tried to pry himself out of Fluttershy’s grasp, but it was too late. She was moving, almost swimming, beneath his skin. Flowing up through his body. Before she completely submerged inside him one hoof reached out and deposited a single piece of candy inside of his mouth... before sealing it closed with a kiss.

As Tree Hugger watched their faces melt into one another, watched the terrified emotions fade from Discord’s eyes, she managed to shout, “This! Isn’t! Real!” At the top of her lungs.

The vision shattered! Again she was in the kitchen. Again all was darkness. Again there was only the soft candle-lit glow coming from the kitchen table. But now something had changed. The light wasn’t coming from a collection of various carved vegetables, but instead it spilled out of the open mouth and gouged out eye sockets of a pony’s severed head! If the long, curly red hair that spilled like tentacles around the bloody stump were not enough of a hint, then the bandana that matched the one Tree Hugger herself wore was a dead giveaway. The decapitated head was her own!

As she backed away in horror at the sight of the apparition, the head floated off of the table and flew through the air until it was muzzle to muzzle with the terrified earth pony. In a voice like the hiss of dying flames it whispered, “Isss thisss real enough, for you...?”

Tree Hugger screamed, causing this last vision to fade and the horrifying kitchen to once more fill with dancing and singing meat. Now, standing in the middle of the kitchen were two figures in hooded red robes. Though their faces were completely covered, Tree Hugger had a good guess who they might be as the much taller and more slender of the two reached out his claws and gave a short, sharp, snap. At once, the spinning squealing bedlam ceased, and every skull, knife, and even appliance seemed to turn to stare at Tree Hugger.

She did the only thing it felt logical to do at the time.

She turned and ran!

As she sprinted through the cottages front rooms, she could see that every surface was covered in candy. That was what she had slipped on when she was walking through the room in the dark before. What she hadn’t seen then, and could see clearly now, were that the bodies of butchered and mutilated animals just barely hidden beneath the heaps of candy.

As she ran past them, to her horror, they began to shift and rise their empty eye sockets eyeing her hungrily. Not all of the creatures were strictly speaking animals, as one or two Dragons, Yaks, Griffins, Changelings, Hippogriffs, and even ponies began to rise from beneath the piles of sweets, smiling hungrily with fleshless mouths as candy slowly started to slither up their bones, giving them false candy flesh. Not that the she took a good long look, as the earth pony only had time for a glance at the horrors before she burst through the front door and out into the evening air!

Legs pumping, Tree Hugger sprinted down the path and over the bridge and into the woods, making a bee line for town. She had to tell somepony about what she had seen! She had to make them listen, no matter how wild they might think her story!

But as Tree Hugger galloped through the forest, the wind began to howl, louder and louder around her. Or was that the wind? In her minds eye she couldn’t help but imagine strange dead creatures with candy where flesh had once been filling the dark woods. As the wind whipped around her, the fallen leaves seemed to intentional leap into her face; cutting her, blinding her, and causing her steps to falter. Worse, the trees moved and swayed around her in the sudden gale. Their long skeletal limbs, which she had been admiring only moments ago, now seemed to reach for her!

Something was strange about these woods. Fluttershy didn't live that far from town. At the rate Tree Hugger had been running she should have at least seen another house by now. But no, just endless forest, stretched as far as she could see in every direction.

Only now did she notice the strange glowing fog from before had shrouded the wilderness in every direction, lending a strange dreamlike quality to her surroundings. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and get her bearings. That was a mistake.

The trees started to whisper. Out of the corner of her eye, the earth pony saw one stretch it's roots and shuffle it's long limbs the way a spider might, crawling just out of sight. It stopped once she turned to look at it, but even as it did she could hear other limbs moving through the leaves around her.

Too late, she felt the first questing tendrils of tree roots slide up her legs. She tried to kick herself free, to flee from this new and terrifying sensation, but it was no use... The trees had firmly held her hooves to the ground. Now that she was no longer running and could take a good look at the towering trees all around her she could see that there was something painfully wrong with them. Eyes opened all across their limbs and trunks. Drooling mouths with long, razor sharp teeth cracked open the bark revealing the stinking rot and decay inside. Even the roots that bound her were no different, as she could feel the damp wetness of eyes opening against her flesh and sticky tongues dragging themselves up her legs as tiny but sharp teeth nipped at her flesh.

"Dude! What in Celestia’s name is going on!?" was the panicking free spirits confused cry as she finally lost the last vestiges of her composure. The sight of the creatures who held her and the the foreign sensation enough to drive Tree hugger to the very edge of her sanity! "Somepony! Anypony! HELP!!!"

Already the roots were tightening as they slithered further up her body, squeezing her in an embrace that threatened to grind her bones to powder. The trees loomed over her, bringing their limbs into play, jabbing her painfully on all sides as they raked her flesh with wooden claws and hungry mouths, each eager to take a bloody bite. Her skin tore and great rips and tears formed all over her body. Tree Hugger wept pathetically and messily as tears poured from her face as the forest she had so admired and loved was turned against her.

A large mass of roots with wagging tongues and crooked teeth rose up and pressed itself against her abdomen. The ponies screams rose several octaves higher as they pushed into her soft places and began to force their way inside her. What resistance she could put up in this position was too little, too late as the questing roots shot deep inside her and began to devour her from the inside.

Tree Hugger's screams were at last silenced as blood, along with roots and leaves. vomited forth from her mouth. There also came the wet, glistening pieces of her formerly 'internal' organs, as the chewed remains were forced up through her throat and out into the cold night. Thorn covered branches forced her eyes out of their sockets along with minced chunks of grey and pink matter that had been her brain. At the very least, the dying pony was now no longer aware of her pain.

The plants inside of her continued to grow and flourish as Tree Hugger's body rose slowly into the air, suspended by the thickening trunk of a new sapling that now impaled her and rooted itself in the blood drenched earth. Her muffled crying was just reflex now as her body went into shock. She was already brain dead, though her heart still beat quickly, watering the soil with a soft and steady scarlet rain.

When she finally stopped twitching, the tall red robed figure who had been watching her from a distance snapped his fingers again, returning the trees to dormancy. He looked down at his smaller companion, as if for approval, and received a nod.

The yard in front of Fluttershy's cottage was now strewn with so many jack-o-lanterns that there was hardly room enough to contain them all. Some were perched on the window sills and even the roof while others lined the bridge and bobbed along in the stream below, their candle light unable to be extinguished by the rushing water. Amongst the glowing gordes, dark shapes began to move just as the first stars began to twinkle in the sky above.

The pair of crimson cloaked figures each hefted heavy sacks that were clearly spilling over with candy, packed so full the stitches threatened to burst at the seams. Even so, they seemed to have little difficulty shouldering the weight, as they set off towards the distant lights of Ponyville.

Death trailed behind them, pausing only briefly to lick the blood stained earth beneath the tattered remains that hugged the trees.

Next Chapter: The Void Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes