Canterlot ist Krieg (Chapter 7)

With a chuckle, Hest Endetarm strutted into Sugarcube Corner and sat down at the snack bar. “Threes chocolate cupcake with bloods red frostings, please,” he said to the waitress.

“Comin' right up.” And less than a minute later, Hest was presented with his order with three chocolate cupcakes with blood red frosting on top. He paid five dollars for the cupcakes and then started to dig in, all the while relishing over what might possibly happen to Fluttershy;

“Ooh, I cans only imagines the look on her parent's face when she die!” he cackled to himself. “Plus, her friend will bes so devastateds they won'ts be ables to keep playings music, and The Rainboom wills surely collapse!” He was about to break out into an evil laugh when he suddenly remembered one major flaw to that logic. “Waits a minute,” he said to himself. “Fluttershy's the tambourines player. Nobody give a damns about the tambourines. Evens then, they'll probablys just have Twilight Sparkles play it, or maybe puts it in Pinkie Pie's drum kit. If I'ms to really makes their bands collapse, I'll have to hits a members who's actuallys importants... and I knows just the ones! But how to gos about its, exactly, hmmm...?” And so Hest finished his cupcakes, tipped the waitress one dollar, and left the cafe, contemplating his next attack...

---

Little did he know, however, that Fluttershy was in fact not dead. What he didn't take into consideration is the fact that rabies is usually only transmitted through biting, and the raccoon did not bite Fluttershy; it just scratched her. Nonetheless, her parents saw the foam coming from the raccoon's mouth, so they knew just how serious the situation was nonetheless. As soon as Fluttershy's father got the raccoon off of her, he slammed it against the wall of the house as hard as he could repeatedly, causing blood, bone and brain matter to ooze out of its skull, ultimately killing it and thus preventing it from transmitting its disease to anyone else. Once that was done, Fluttershy's mom told animal control that they had managed to kill the animal themselves, hung up, and they all piled into the car to get Fluttershy to the emergency room for rabies shots. While her father drove, her mother sent a text to Sunset Shimmer and the other Rainbooms, which stated;

“Fluttershy was attacked. The animal was rabid. At the ER. Please meet us here; she could use the support!”

As soon as they did arrive, they rushed in through the front door. “Our daughter was just attacked by a rabid raccoon,” Fluttershy's father panted, “and she needs shots now!”

“Oh my!” the receptionist exclaimed. “Uh, right away.” Immediately, she got on the intercom and said, “We have a girl up here who needs rabies shots; someone come tend to her now!” A mere 10 seconds later, a nurse came in and escorted Fluttershy (her parents were allowed to join her) into the back area where she took her temperature, blood pressure and weight – all of which checked out OK – and then led her to a room at the far end of the wall, where she was to wait, along with her parents, for the doctor to arrive...

At around the same time, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack and Applejack's big brother Big McIntosh all burst in through the front door. “Where is Fluttershy?!?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“At the far end of the hall on the left,” replied the receptionist. Without even a thank-you, the entire gang sped down the hall to the far end and piled in through the door to the room on the left, where Fluttershy and her parents were waiting.

“Oh, thank God you girls are here!” Fluttershy's mom exclaimed.

“Is she okay? Oh, please tell me she's okay!” Rainbow Dash begged.

“Well, the raccoon didn't bite,” Fluttershy's mom explained. “And rabies generally only transmits through the bite.”

“And I made sure that that raccoon will never transmit its disease to anyone else ever again!” her father added with authority.

“Yeah, well she'll still need those shots,” Big Mac noted, “but she should still be okay... I hope.”

“That reminds me, Applejack,” Fluttershy's mom perked up. “Your brother doesn't normally hang out with you guys, does he?”

“Oh, well, when ah told him 'bout what happened,” Applejack replied, “he jus' had to come along. Hmmm... I wonder why...” She smirked smugly back and forth between Fluttershy and Big Mac as she said those words; their subsequent blushing only confirming Applejack's suspicions. Fluttershy's parents looked at each other promisingly; the Apple Family were, after all, respected as very upstanding citizens in the community, and if Big Mac wasn't an exception, he'd most certainly be a keeper...

“YAY!!” Pinkie Pie squealed with glee. “Fluttershy's gonna be okay, and she's got a boyfriend! Ooh, we have to throw a party when we get outta here! Oh, but what type of desserts and confetti am I gonna use... oh, I can't decide! C'mon, guys, a little help here, huh?” But all Pinkie Pie got in return for this comment was blank, flat stares.

“Anyway,” Rarity broke in, “exactly what happened, Fluttershy?”

“Um, well,” Fluttershy squeaked, “I was just minding my own business when the doorbell rang. I went and answered it, but nobody was there. There was just this shoebox on my doorstep; the raccoon was inside, there were pentagrams and inverted crosses all over the box again, and-”

“Wait, hold up!” Twilight broke in. “Did you say that box had pentagrams and inverted crosses on it?”

“Uh... yeah. Why?”

“Bronycorpse had those on stage at their show!” Sunset Shimmer declared. Everyone else in the room gasped. Bronycorpse were the only people they knew who would openly flaunt Satanic imagery, and of course, a certain one of them was indeed much crazier than the others...

“HEST DID IT!!” Applejack roared.

“Hey, back up, Applejack,” replied Rainbow Dash. “Are you sure that clown would even have the balls to pull something like that?”

“Yes, indeed, they are all quite scary-looking,” affirmed Rarity.

“Hey, he was the one who spilled those horse guts on mah lil' sister, remember?!?” Applejack bellowed. At this point, the conversation could have turned into an all-out cross-shouting match, but said instance was thrown off when the door opened, and the doctor came in, needles in hand.

“Alright, everyone here who isn't family, head back to the waiting room,” he said.

“Excuse me, Doctor?” Fluttershy asked timidly. “Can Big Mac stay and hold my hand? I really could use the emotional support.”

“Hmmm,” the doctor thought before answering, “Well, if it's young love we're talking about, I don't see why not.”

“It's alright, Fluttershy,” Big Mac crooned as he tenderly clasped Fluttershy's right hand. “You'll be okay. Ah'll be here for ya.”

“Take care, sis,” Rainbow Dash waved. And with that, she, Sunset Shimmer and the other Rainbooms all headed out the door and back towards the waiting room...

“But seriously,” Rarity then said, as they all sat down. “Not only are Bronycorpse scary-looking; sure, they can play their instruments, but their music is terrifying! Is their even a name for that... noise?!?”

“Uh,” Sunset hesitated before answering, “I believe it's called black metal.”

“Black metal?” Twilight asked incredulously. “How come we've never heard of it?”

“Well, I'm kinda into the heavy music myself,” Sunset admitted. “And I might not have listened to much black metal, if any at all, but I've seen pictures of some of the musicians, so I kinda figured that was also what Bronycorpse is.”

“Well, that still doesn't give us a clue as to what they're really all about,” Twilight said. “And there's only one way to find out!” With that, she took her laptop out of her backpack and turned it on. When it had fully loaded, she got on Google Chrome and searched “black metal.”

“Alright, here's the Wikipedia article,” Twilight announced. She clicked the link to the article; everyone gathered around her in anticipation and began to read;

According to the article, black metal was “an extreme subgenre and subculture of heavy metal music,” and that “Common traits include[d] fast tempos, a 'shrieking' vocal style, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures and an emphasis on atmosphere.” Said definition seemed to fit with Bronycorpse's type of music, though the girls agreed that they seemed to forego atmosphere in favor of all-out chaos and brutality. It also said something about artists using corpse paint and psuedonyms – though the guys in Bronycorpse presumably used their real names, the KISS-type makeup they were wearing must've been what the term “corpse paint” was referring to.

But as smart as Twilight Sparkle was, she knew that that alone couldn't really influence a sane person (assuming Hest Endetarm was indeed sane) to do crazy things like what happened to Fluttershy. Maybe their was something in the “history” section of the article that would shed some light on that? Either way, she scrolled down to that section, to the section that would shed light on the grim, dark piece of music history called black metal;

It started in the early 80's with the First Wave – while most of these bands were not regarded as black metal per se in present times, they were highly influential nonetheless. The term was coined by a British speed metal band called Venom; Black Metal was the title of their second album. Then there was Hellhammer; from Switzerland, they played music bordering on death metal with Satanic lyrics, released in 1983, years before death metal itself even came to fruition; their successors Celtic Frost continued in a similar vain. Bathory, from Sweden, released Under the Sign of the Black Mark in 1986 – arguably the first pure black metal record – and then went on to pioneer something called “Viking metal.” There was even a more traditional heavy metal band called Mercyful Fate, from Denmark, who were highly influential on the lyrics and imagery of black metal – in fact, it was they who pioneered the use of corpse paint that would become a genre standard/stereotype. Other early bands included Bulldozer (from Italy), Tormentor (from Hungary), Sarcofago (from Brazil), Root and Master's Hammer (both from the Czech Republic), Samael (from Switzerland), Von (from the United States) and Blasphemy (from Canada).

The girls all agreed that this could conceivably influence a less sane person to do something weird, but even crazier things were yet to come, as they scrolled down to the Second Wave;

Even though the Second Wave of black metal had bands from all over the world, the heart and soul of the movement was none other than Hest Endetarm's home country of Norway. Bands in this movement mentioned in the article included Mayhem, Thorns, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Satyricon, Emperor, Enslaved, Carpathian Forest and Gorgoroth. These guys were undoubtedly the most sadistic heavy metal musicians ever conceived; as the article itself stated, “The scene also had an ideology and ethos. Artists were bitterly opposed to Christianity and presented themselves as misanthropic Devil worshippers who wanted to spread terror, hatred and evil. They professed to be serious in their views and vowed to act on them. Ihsahn of Emperor said that they sought to 'create fear among people' and 'be in opposition to society.' The scene was exclusive and created boundaries around itself, incorporating only those who were 'true' and attempting to expel all 'posers'. Some members of the scene would be responsible for a spate of church burnings and murder, which eventually drew attention to it and led to a number of artists being imprisoned."

“So they actually did worship Satan?” Sunset gasped. “I thought it was all just theatrical.”

“Well, they did burn churches and kill people,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. Twilight, meanwhile, scrolled down to some more details about this scene and their crimes;

The so-called figurehead of the movement was a man who went by the name “Euronymous;” he played guitar for the band Mayhem. He owned his own record label – Deathlike Silence Productions – and his own record shop – Helvete (Norwegian for “hell”), which was the focal point of the scene, as well as a meeting place for the bands Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor and Thorns, amongst a few others. But the real darkness began in April of 1991, when Mayhem's lead singer – known by the name “Dead” - shot and killed himself in the head with a shotgun. Euronymous used it exploitatively to foster the band's evil image by taking staged pictures of the corpse (one of which was used as the cover of a bootleg album) and actually taking bits of his skull and making them into necklaces, which he then gave to members of the Swedish bands Marduk and Abruptum. It was also claimed (falsely) that he'd made a stew with bits of his brain, and that Hellhammer – Mayhem's drummer – used the bones as drumsticks. False as those last claims were, the general way Euronymous treated the suicide was more than enough to get Necrobutcher – Mayhem's bassist – to quit the band.

“Why on Earth would anyone do that to their own bandmate?!?" Rarity exclaimed.

“Oh my God...!” Sunset shuddered. “Now I really don't wanna imagine what Hest would do to Flashy!” Twilight couldn't help but glare at her as she read on to the bit about the church arsons;

As what they saw as the ultimate attack on the Christian faith, there were over 50 church arsons committed by Norwegian black metal musicians and fans from 1992 to 1996, and it had even spread into Sweden – which is more known for its death metal – by 1993. The main perpetrator of these was Varg Vikernes, the sole member of the band Burzum. Also found to have partaken in these acts were Faust and Samoth of the band Emperor (the former was also convicted of the murder of a homosexual man) and Jørn Inge Tunsberg of the band Hades Almighty.

“Ah don't see what they could've had against Christianity,” quipped Applejack. “Islam's the true devil, if ya ask me. Actually, I don't see why none o' them were Muslims – if ya ask me, Allah's basically rendered Satan null and void.” Nobody dared react to this statement; instead, they all simply read along to the part about the climax of the scene...

It occurred in August of 1993, when Euronymous was murdered in his own apartment – not by fanatical Christians, but by fellow musician Varg Vikernes, whom Euronymous himself had taken under his wing when the scene was just getting started. The motive was speculated to either be a power struggle, financial dispute over Burzum records, or Varg trying to outdo Faust at his own game, so to speak. Varg himself claimed that it was in self-defense, and that Euronymous had planned to kill him and make a snuff film out of it. Either way, in May of 1994, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison – the maximum sentence in Norway. That same year, Mayhem released their debut album – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which featured Euronymous on lead guitar... and Varg Vikernes himself on bass! It had since remained the only album in all of music featuring both a murderer and his victim. Since then, the black metal genre had continued on, spreading to all corners of the world and diversifying musically, as well as lyrically and ideologically, but stilled forever marked by what happened in Norway, all those years ago...

So that's what must be inspiring that clown Hest to do what he does!” steamed Rainbow Dash.

“Sounds about right,” Twilight Sparkle nodded. “But I think we ought to look more into the band themselves.”

She went back to the Google homepage and searched “Bronycorpse;” the very first link was to a website known as Encyclopaedia Metallum; better known as The Metal Archives, this site was regarded as the ultimate database and encyclopedia of all things metal, having comprehensive information on upwards of 100,000 bands from throughout history and all corners of the world, including Bronycorpse; Twilight clicked the link that took her to their page. It was on a black background with dull purple tinting, and the profile information at the top read as follows;

BRONYCORPSE

Country of origin: United States
Location: Canterlot
Status: Active
Formed in: 2014
Years active: 2014-present
Genre: Black Metal
Lyrical themes: Blasphemy
Current label: Unsigned/Independent

After reading through all of this, Twilight clicked on the tab labeled “MEMBERS” and read the following;

CURRENT LINEUP:

Hest Endetarm: Vocals (2014-present)
Satanik Pervertor: Rhythm Guitar (2014-present)
Tartarus: Bass (2014-present)
Discordia: Drums (2014-present)
Flash Sentry: Lead Guitar (2014-present)

Sunset was clearly outraged. "Now why did they have to put Flashy at the bottom?!?” she exclaimed. “He's a much better musician than all those other buffoons put together! Right?”

“Right,” Twilight replied with jealousy tinting her voice as she clicked on the name “Hest Endetarm.” At the top of the resulting page was this;

HEST ENDETARM

Real/full name: Hest Endetarm
Age: 17 (born Oct 31, 1997)
Place of origin: Norway (Tromsø)
Gender: Male

“He's from Norway, too?” gasped Applejack. “Well... it does explain that stupid accent of his.”

“And he's from the same country as those Satanist murderers,” Rarity pointed out. “It all fits!”

But there was even more to it than just that, as Twilight read further into Hest's Metal Archives page. There was nothing in the “BIOGRAPHY” section, but the “TRIVIA” section contained some absolutely jaw-dropping words;

“Hest Endetarm is rumored to be the son of Geit and Heks Endetarm, the infamous wealthy benefactors of the early Norwegian black metal scene of the early 90's. Believed to be worth in excess of 4,000,000,000 kroner (660,000,000 US dollars), they were convicted in 1994 for funding the church arsons taking place at that time, and they both served 2 years, 6 months in prison. It is also strongly believed that they contributed money to Euronymous's record label Deathlike Silence Productions, as well as his record shop Helvete; some even speculate that they offered massive bribes to Norwegian Correctional Services which led to Varg Vikernes's early release from prison in 2009.

Hest Endetarm is Norwegian for 'horse rectum.'”

“So that ruffian is rich?!?” exclaimed Rarity.

“And his name's 'horse rectum?'” replied Rainbow Dash, equally aghast.

“Well if he's that loaded,” said Pinkie Pie, “he should be throwing parties for all of his friends every day!”

“Ah'm not sure if someone like him could have any real friends, Pinkie,” quipped Applejack.

“Yeah,” replied Twilight. “Plus, I'd bet that kind of money only gives him another reason to treat his bandmates like crap... and that includes Flash Sentry!”

“My poor Flashy!” Sunset Shimmer moaned.

“Hey, he's my –" Twilight started. But before she could finish, Applejack jabbed her with her elbow and said, “Ah don't mean to interrupt, girls, but Fluttershy's standing right next to us just now."

Everyone looked behind them, and sure enough, there stood Fluttershy, covered in bandages from where the raccoon scratched her and where the rabies shots were administered. Big Mac stood beside her, still holding her hand, and behind them stood Fluttershy's much-relieved parents.

“Thank God you're alright!” Rainbow Dash beamed as she hugged Fluttershy. “And it looks like someone's in love.” She winked.

“Eeyup!” Big Mac winked back.

“Listen, Fluttershy,” Twilight Sparkle spoke up. “While you were being treated, we believe we figured out who set that raccoon on you, and we've also shed some light on what motivated them.”

“Ironically, it's all very dark and grim,” Sunset affirmed.

“Can't that wait until at least tomorrow?” Fluttershy's dad implored.

“Yeah, our baby's been through too much today as it is!” replied Fluttershy's mother.

The rest of the girls couldn't help but agree. So they all just silently walked out of the hospital, deciding not to dwell on the topic for the time being. They could also take some solace for the fact that Hest was suspended, meaning he wouldn't be able to cross any of them at school for the next week. But of course, the key words are “at school...”