"Well, we surely are safe here. Only one problem, there is something lurking just outside this ship, hidden in the fog. I'll go up the chimney and see if I can spot something." commented Lightning Nova, while peeking out from one of the cracked windows of the riverboat, narrowing his eyes. "You should stay inside." He added, before flapping his wings and walking out the rotten door of the cabin.

Fire Flower huffed, shaking her body, trying to dry off her fur. To her displeasure, she wasn't able to channel her magic. So no magic fire to warm up their bones. She took a few steps towards the other side of the cabin just to keep her muscles warm, as she eyed a moldy map nailed to the wooden wall.

"There are crows…" muttered the second unicorn, crouching and peeking out of the window, trying to see through the fog. "They are hunting me."

"Seriously Crow, why are you so obsessed with crows?" asked the mare with slight annoyance, turning around for a second. "Crows are just birdies."

"You wouldn't say that if you saw them eating up a dead pony…" muttered the stallion. "They are like acid on a peace of meat: devouring everything that's not bone."

"You have seen some sick things, that's for sure." Muttered the mare, looking at the map. It was covered in little stains of mold, but she was quite sure it was map of Silent Hill.

"It was an accident, I-" started the unicorn, before screaming. The mare immediately turned, and saw a crow slamming into the window, cawing and glaring with its scarlet eyes at the stallion, who was crawling away. The bird slammed its body against the glass, without seeming to care about the splurt of blood that came from its body with every hit.

The crow hit the window another couple of times, before finally smashing the glass and falling to the floor in a shower of shattered pieces of glass, motionless. The stallion let out a low whimper, while from outside, an unsettling, loud cawing filled the air.

"Stay here." Murmured Fire Flower, opening the door and looking outside. Her mouth opened as her eyes widened: the woods around the lake were rustling and waving their branches, as a countless number of black birds flew out of the forest, cawing.

"O dear…" she muttered, before closing the door. "We have to get underdeck!" she screamed, as the dark cloud of cawing birds flew towards the ship. The stallion whimpered again, but crawled over the floor towards the other door inside the cabin, that led to the center room of the ship, where there had likely once been a restaurant from all the dining tables.

"Why is all of this is happening?!" cried out Crow, as Fire Flower closed the door behind them and placed a table in front of it. The muffled sound of cawing came through the rotten walls, as well as the sound of the feathered wings brushing against the ship's walls.

"I don't know! I have decided to stop trying to figure out what's going on!" screamed back the mare. She looked around, and was happy to see that the windows of the room had been boarded up. If what Crow said was true, she surely didn't want to end up being torn apart by a pack of furious birds.

"Why are all of those birds ar attacking the ship?!" screamed Lightning's voice, as he emerged from a trapdor, covered in ash.

"I don't freaking know!" screamed the mare, looking terrified as the shadows of the birds passed through the cracks between the boards on the windows. "How did you get back in?" she asked, looking at the pegasus, who coughed.

"Through the chimney and out the furnace! I closed it, though. But there are crows even in there." He explained hurriedly, starting to move another table towards the barricaded door.

The ship trembled, and suddenly Fire Flower felt a sense of… emptiness, under heer hooves. The ship rooked again slightly, as the cawing filled the air.

"This is not possible…" she murmured, running towards a boarded-up window and looking out through the cracks. She paled at the surreal sight outside: a sea of crows was cawing and flapping their wings around the ship, darkening the sky, and filling the mare's field of view.

And the ship was in the sky, seemingly carried by the cawing mass of birds.

"Stop this!" cried out Crow, covering his ears.

"Boy, this is something really strange… something like this surely would have helped with the incident with the airship…" noted Lightning Nova. Fire Flower turned, furious about the senseless statements of the pegasus.

"Would you shut the FUCK UP about that?! That happened a fucking year ago or something! Stop bringing that up!" she screamed, a vein pulsing on her forehead. Lightning Nova blinked, looking at her with a confused expression. For a second, the mare saw his eyes go out of focus.

"I… uh… what?" muttered the pegasus, shaking his head. "We should barricade the windows! What if the crows break in?" he exclaimed, rushing towards one of the windows, leaving the mare with a raised eyebrow.

"Weird…" she murmured, before looking around for anything else to use. And her eyes fell on a big portrait of a mare, hung on one of the walls. That would do a good enough job as a board. She ran to it, and started to pull it down. "Crow, stop being a crybaby and help me!" she grunted.

The frightened stallion whimpered, but slowly crawled towards the mare, letting out a high pitched scream when the ship trembled a little.

"We are flying…" he whimpered, his eyes starting to water. For a second the mare pitied him: apparently he had gone through a lot, to drag him from self-confident smug ass to a whimpering foal in less than a day. He looked up at the painting, and let out another scream. "How did this end up here?!" he cried out.

Fire Flower raised an eyebrow, looking at the painting: it was the portrait of a brown coated mare with a hazel mane tied in a braid, laying along her neck, looking out at them with a sad expression.

"What?" she asked, her ears flinching at the sound of smashing glass. "Do you know her?"

"Yes, she…" started the unicorn, before lòetting out a broken breath. "This is crazy… but this… was a servant, in my mansion, a few years ago. Her name was Sparrow. She was quite… dear to me and… I don't have the slightest idea of how the hell a painting of her ended up here!"

"Don't ask me! Just help me!" grunted the unicorn. Crow didn't budge, his eyes glued to the picture.

The loud noise of planks being torned apart filled the air, as the walls trembled, and then a series of little holes opened in the walls, where beaks and claws were digging through the rotten wood. With a loud screech a piece of the ceiling was ripped away. For a second Fire Flower had the impression of seeing a pair of enormous claws and immense black wings, before another shake of the ship sent her falling to the ground. The painting dislodged itself, and the the frame of the portrait swung down, hitting the nape of her neck. Her vision went black as she fell to the floor.

When she opened her eyes next, she initially didn't recognize the place where she was. It didn't resemble the ship. Then she noted that she was still on the ship after all, but all the walls had been torn apart: the deck was uncovered, and only it and the chimneys had stayed undamaged.

The cawing of the crows was muffled, even if she could see the birds still flying around the wreck. She let out a little groan, trying to move away the heavy portrait that was resting above her.

"It's nice to see you again, Crow."

-oOo-

Trevor raised his muzzle towards the sky, as thunders boomed in the gloomy air. He frowned, as the first rain drops started to fall to the ground. If there was something that he had learned from the time he had passed trapped in the town, it was that when the rain was pouring down, the creatures that lived in the fog became much more aggressive.

He frowned, looking around: he was in the middle of a streeet, and all the buildings around were boarded up.

"Figures." He muttered angrily. His eyes passed for a second over a manhole, but he immediately dismissed the thought. He had passed through the sewers once. Then promised to never do it again. The rain started to fall more heavily, drumming softly over the street. He let out a low growl, before taking out the wrench from his saddlebag and starting to move slowly, glaring around.

He had to find cover, fast. He already had the impression of being watched, and he also was sure he'd heard a couple of sensual moans coming from just out of his field of view. He gulped, and continued to move, keeping his eyes on the little patch of street lit up by his flashlight.

That's why he didn't notice the creature creeping up behind him, until it jumped stright at him, sending him to the ground. Trevor's flashlight dislodged itself from the stallion's saddlebag and rolled over the asphalt, showing the slim silhouette of a mare. She emitted a moan, as she started to move towards Trevor, her uterus raised in the air behind her, like a scorpion's tail.

"Hy love…" murmured the stallion, moving slowly, his wrench in his mouth. "You never liked rain very much…" The mare emitted a little acute chuckle, taking a few steps. The eviscerated organ twisting slowly through the air.

Then suddenly she leapt, pushing the stallion to the ground, slapping away the wrench with a hoof. She let out a lusty moan, starting to rub her body against the stallion, greenish saliva dripping from her mouth. Trevor gulped in terror, trying to free himself from the monster that had the appearance of his wife.

He kicked with his forelegs, trying to push the mare away, even as she lowered her muzzle and started to lick the stallion's face. He could see in the dim light of the flashlight the tentacle that emerged from the ripped-open chest of the mare tensing in the air, ready to hit.

"Sorry hun." He grunted, headbutting the creature's muzzle. The mare let out a shriek, and Trevor took advantage of the monster's confusion, pushing her away and jumping up, panting. The creature let out a hiss, as the tendril darted towards the stallion, missing him and cracking the asphalt.

Trevor grasped the wrench, before running around the creature and jumping on her, hitting her nape one, two, three, four times, his muzzle stained by black blood and fragments of brain and skull. After a minute of pounding, he finally stopped, parting from the motionless body of the creature, panting.

He recomposed himself, moving away his eyes and taking back his flashlight, trying to avoid looking at the lifeless body. He didn't have time for this. He started to ran through the rain, looking around, searching for a building that hadn't been boarded up, while a series of moans and other sounds started to echo around him.

The rain was pouring down hard.

Oo-oO

Yay, progression! But I'm sorry for this cap, it does not makes me happy. I suppose it's just a "preparation" chapter for the chaos coming up in the near future…