The Lightless Nightby Matthias RamseyChaptersIntroduction: TimberwolvesWe Had A Deal!BloodstainThe Mirror PoolThe Day That Never ComesFirst VictimEpilogueIntroduction: TimberwolvesThe Timberwolf is a dying breed. They've been on the verge of extinction for years, and any effort to study them was thwarted by the forest. Ten wolves remained, each starved for blood. It didn't matter whose or what's. Suddenly, as they slunk in the shadows, the eldest among them snapped his head up. The beta male slunk up next to him. "What do you smell, Elm?" "Three ponies have entered our forest..." The beta licked his lips. "Fresh meat...and blood...at long last, we can eat..." "Calm yourself, Locust. We must surprise them if we wish to eat them." "Where are they headed?" The gamma asked. Elm sniffed the ground. "They are confused... they don't know. My guess, Ash, would be that they're heading to visit the Striped One." "Ah....shall we get there first?" "Of course we should." Elm gave a short bark, and the timberwolves followed him into the night. We Had A Deal!Zecora hummed to herself as she worked. "Sauteed and grilled, sprinkle of sage, now we turn the page." As she turned the page, something very heavy, and probably wooden, smashed down the door. Zecora whirled. "Timberwolves! You dare come here? Are you trying to make me feel fear?" Elm, Ash, and Locust stalked the shaman menacingly. "We felt a few ponies enter our forest. We thought we could lure them ou tnow." Zecora was furious. "You treacherous pigs! We had a deal! You leave me alone, and I help your race heal!" Zecora had been backed into a corner. "Consider this agreement over." Zecora bolted under Elm towards the door. When she got there, though, a massive clawed paw flew out of nowhere, aiming for the kill. BloodstainAll three fillies whirled at the sound of a scream followed by hyena-like laughter. "Wh-what was that?" Sweetie Belle said, knees shaking, magic light at the tip of her horn faltering slightly. "Stay focused, Sweets!" Scootaloo said a little shrilly. "Right...sorry." "Wait, that scream....that was Zecora!" Applebloom looked around frantically."We need ta go help her!" "Even if we did, what could we do?" "Ah don't care! We need to help! Besides, maybe Zecora can help us outta here!" "Well, when you put it like that..." The three frightened fillies slowly made their way through the brush, the only light the feeble glow coming from Sweetie Belle's horn. They must have walked for hours until Apple Bloom saw the glow of a torch through the trees. "There! Ah see it!" The fillies walked towards the hut, careful of what could be waiting for them. Sweetie Belle screamed and stopped in her tracks when she saw the front door of the hut clearly. Applebloom and Scootaloo quickly followed suit when the door came into view. The door was hanging loose on its hinges, with great gashes rent into the wood. The entire left-hoof wall near the doorway was coated with blood. Pieces of bone lay strewn here and there on the ground. "Wh-what in the....what could've done this?" "Timberwolves..." Scootaloo's face drained of color. "T-Timberwolves?" Applebloom whirled on Sweetie Belle. "This is all your fault!! You're the one who wanted to come out here on Lightless Night!!" Sweetie Belle's brow furrowed. "Applebloom, don't put this on me! You're the one who said we should help Zecora!" "Yeah? Well, you-" "Guys, please stop fighting-" "Shut up, Scootaloo! You're not innocent here, either!" Now it was Scootaloo's turn to be angry. "Me? I didn't do anything!!" The timberwolves watched from the bushes as the three fillies threw themselves into a furious frenzy after seeing their slain comrade's remains. One of the wolves licked his lips. "When may we pounce, Lord Elm? Cedar is hungry..." Suddenly, the unicorn's magic began to darken and spark black lightning. Every timberwolf present recoiled from the display and either hissed or whined. "The Dark King's power lies with this one! The Blackheart! The Lord who slew the northern forests! Elm gritted his teeth. "We must rethink our plan. Locust, stay here with me. We'll keep an eye on them. You four..." He looked at four of his companions. "Ash, Cedar, Spruce, Fir, stalk the orange one. She will be our first victim." "Yes, sir." They slid into the shadows. "You four..." He looked at his remaining four companions. "Cypress, Walnut, Birch, Dogwood. Go to the Cursed Water and create a pitfall. We'll trap one of them down there." "Yes, sir." They slunk off to carry out his orders. "What of the last one?" Locust asked. "Why, we will save her for last. What good is one spellcaster against ten of us, even with Blackheart's power?" "Very true, milord. Very true." The Mirror PoolSweetie Belle and Applebloom stayed hidden in a tree trunk until well after Scootaloo's screams had stopped. They came out of their hidey-hole cautiously and crept back to the location they'd left Scootaloo. Honestly, what did they expect? Scootaloo's body had been left there half-eaten by the timberwolves, probably simply to demoralize them. It worked very well. The two fillies gave their friend a hasty burial and continued on their way, hearts heavy. Cypress sniffed the air cautiously. "The orange one's scent has vanished. They must have buried her." "Are they coming this way?" Birch shifted slightly, and his timbers creaked. Cypress shot him a look. "Yes. They are winding about, but they are coming." "We should hide, then?" "Yes. Of course." Sweetie Belle and Applebloom barely spoke until they reached a particularly dense thicket of briars. "Ah'll go through first." "Are you sure?" "Sure. Don't stray too far behind, though." "Okay." Applebloom slowly started pushing through the thorns, with Sweetie Belle following close behind, nose practically touching her friend's tail. Suddenly, Applebloom shouted, "Oh f-" and disappeared from sight. Sweetie Belle looked around and saw that the entrance to the Mirror Pool cave had been opened and someone had made a pitfall. She listened at the entrance and heard pained groans floating up the passageway. "Bloom? You all right?" "No...ah think ah broke mah leg..." "Well, can you walk at all?" "No, ah cain't... Sweetie, jus' leave me..." Sweetie deliberated, thinking of the timberwolves. Then she got an idea. "Hang on, I'm coming down!" Cypress watched the entrance hungrily. His eagerness as he saw the white one come out without without the yellow one quickly faded under a tide of misgiving as first two, then four, then nine more identical white unicorn fillies exited the cave, then scattered. "How do we know?" "We'll ask the yellow one." The four timberwolves charged into the cave. The yellow one was laying prone in front of the Cursed Water, one foreleg bent at a grotesque angle. Cypress stood over her. "Which one of the white ones is the real one?" "Ah ain't tellin'." Cypress growled and dug his claws into her ribs without cutting her. "Your life is on the line. Which one?" "It's the white one." "Do not play games with me. Which one?" "Ah can do this all night. Can you? Ah reckon ya got maybe three or four hours till dawn." "That is where you're wrong." Cypress lifted his clawed paw and brought it down, crushing the yellow one's skull beneath it. "On all counts." The Day That Never ComesSweetie Belle looked up at the moon. "It hasn't moved..." She looked back at the Mirror Pool cave. By her estimate, about an hour had passed since the four timberwolves had left the cave with a mangled, headless corpse in tow. Suddenly feeling the urge to move, Sweetie Belle crept from her tree and into the clearing. Just as suddenly as the urge to move had come, a timberwolf barreled into her, coming out of nowhere and sending her flying into a tree. Struggling for breath, fighting the blackness swimming at the edges of her vision, Sweetie helplessly watched the timberwolf creep up on her. "Yes, yes, yes! We have found the last one! Oh, but we must take her back to master Elm!" Sweetie Belle could do nothing to escape as the timberwolf's jaws closed around her body, gently holding her as he began running. A long time later, Sweetie Belle was roughly thrown into a crowd of nine other, identical Sweetie Belles. "This is all of them?" "Yes." "Good. One in ten. I like those odds." The leader bared his claws. "Anyone want to own up? Or do I just have to find out the hard way?" The mob of Sweetie Belles stayed quiet. "Very well." He grabbed the first one's head and crushed it violently. The body released no blood, instead dissolving into magic dust. "Tch!" The next one yielded the same results. "This is why I never was a gambler." As the odds grew in his favor, still he failed to find the real Sweetie Belle. Finally, he had reached the final Sweetie Belle. "Ah...at last, we have found you." He drew a claw along Sweetie Belle's chin. "Any last words before I end you?" "Wh-why? The sun should have risen by now..." "No, child. The sun will not rise for you." He raised his clawed paw. "Never again." Tears poured from her eyes. "A-at least...I can see them again..." "I'm sure you will." Elm's claws descended, and her world went black. First VictimThe three fillies ceased their arguing when Sweetie Belle's magic began turning black. After a round of heartfelt apologies, they continued on their way. After a long time, Applebloom stopped them. "Ah think something's watchin' us." "Watching us? What could it be? Could it be what..." Scootaloo left her sentence unfinished. They knew what she meant. "No, I don't think so..." Uneasily, they kept walking. Half an hour passed. Suddenly, Sweetie Belle's general misgiving blossomed into alarm, and she shouted for Applebloom and Scootaloo to run. They broke into a full gallop. Four timberwolves broke from the trees and sprinted after them. "Timberwolves! They must've gotten Zecora!" The wolves were rapidly gaining on them. "It's no use, foals!" One growled. "You can never hope to outrun us!!" "Scoots, come on! We can get away!" Scootaloo was slowly lagging behind. The manic glint in the eyes of the lead timberwolf betrayed their intentions. "Scoots, come on!! Y-You'll get eaten!!" "I can't...no more...I can't run..." Scootaloo ran as hard as she could, but her mind betrayed her body. Her knees gave out, and she tripped and tumbled along the ground. Fearing for nothing but their own lives, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom kept running. Ash stood over the helpless foal, grinning and slavering. "There's not much to you...you'll barely be more than a mouthful." "N-no, please...e-eat me, but leave my friends alone!" "Oh...how cute...look how she pretends to care for her friends when her life is in danger." Ash raised a paw tipped with twisted, knotted claws reminiscent of thorns. "Good night, orange one." EpilogueSweetie Belle shot straight up up in bed with a scream, causing the dozing Rarity to jolt. "My goodness, Sweetie Belle! You-" Sweetie Belle grabbed her sister's foreleg, tears pouring from her eyes. "Rarity! We're dead! Me, Scoots, Applebloom...we all got killed by timberwolves!" "My word, how many painkillers did I give you? Listen to you. Sweetie, if you're dead, how are you talking to me?" "Then...I escaped somehow! But they got Scootaloo and Applebloom!" "They're fine, Sweetie. They were here to check on you earlier." "I don't believe you! I need to talk to Applejack and Rainbow Dash!" "Sweetie, I-" Sweetie Belle used her magic to grab Rarity' s phone. She quickly dialed Applejack's number. "'Ello?" "Applejack, I-" "Oh, heya, Sweetie Belle! How're ya doin'? Hurtin' at all?" "A-Applejack, Applebloom is...she's dead." A pause, then, "That fever musta messed up yer head. Applebloom's right here with me." "Let me talk to her!" "Sure thing. Justa sec." A pause, then, "Hi, Sweetie Belle! Ya feelin' better?" "Y-you're not dead?" "Naw, why? Should ah be?" "What about Scoots?" "Scoots is right here, so ah think she's fine. Ah think ya jus' had a bad dream." "A dream?" The never-ending night made more sense now. "Yeah. See, ya had...uh, some big fancy word. Uh-pen-duh-sie-tis or somethin'." "Appendicitis?" "Yeah, that. Anyway, you had ta get surgery. You had a bad fever for a while afterwards, but it went down 'bout an hour ago." "So we didn't go into Everfree Forest on Lightless Night?" "That was weeks ago, Sweets." "And we didn't get killed by timberwolves?" "Naw." "What about Zecora? They got her first..." "Saw her in town today. She's fine." "I...I gotta go." "Bye, then." Sweetie Belle hung up. "I..." Rarity hugged her little sister. "Shhh. Everything will be fine." "This time...I believe you." END.
Introduction: TimberwolvesThe Timberwolf is a dying breed. They've been on the verge of extinction for years, and any effort to study them was thwarted by the forest. Ten wolves remained, each starved for blood. It didn't matter whose or what's. Suddenly, as they slunk in the shadows, the eldest among them snapped his head up. The beta male slunk up next to him. "What do you smell, Elm?" "Three ponies have entered our forest..." The beta licked his lips. "Fresh meat...and blood...at long last, we can eat..." "Calm yourself, Locust. We must surprise them if we wish to eat them." "Where are they headed?" The gamma asked. Elm sniffed the ground. "They are confused... they don't know. My guess, Ash, would be that they're heading to visit the Striped One." "Ah....shall we get there first?" "Of course we should." Elm gave a short bark, and the timberwolves followed him into the night.
We Had A Deal!Zecora hummed to herself as she worked. "Sauteed and grilled, sprinkle of sage, now we turn the page." As she turned the page, something very heavy, and probably wooden, smashed down the door. Zecora whirled. "Timberwolves! You dare come here? Are you trying to make me feel fear?" Elm, Ash, and Locust stalked the shaman menacingly. "We felt a few ponies enter our forest. We thought we could lure them ou tnow." Zecora was furious. "You treacherous pigs! We had a deal! You leave me alone, and I help your race heal!" Zecora had been backed into a corner. "Consider this agreement over." Zecora bolted under Elm towards the door. When she got there, though, a massive clawed paw flew out of nowhere, aiming for the kill.
BloodstainAll three fillies whirled at the sound of a scream followed by hyena-like laughter. "Wh-what was that?" Sweetie Belle said, knees shaking, magic light at the tip of her horn faltering slightly. "Stay focused, Sweets!" Scootaloo said a little shrilly. "Right...sorry." "Wait, that scream....that was Zecora!" Applebloom looked around frantically."We need ta go help her!" "Even if we did, what could we do?" "Ah don't care! We need to help! Besides, maybe Zecora can help us outta here!" "Well, when you put it like that..." The three frightened fillies slowly made their way through the brush, the only light the feeble glow coming from Sweetie Belle's horn. They must have walked for hours until Apple Bloom saw the glow of a torch through the trees. "There! Ah see it!" The fillies walked towards the hut, careful of what could be waiting for them. Sweetie Belle screamed and stopped in her tracks when she saw the front door of the hut clearly. Applebloom and Scootaloo quickly followed suit when the door came into view. The door was hanging loose on its hinges, with great gashes rent into the wood. The entire left-hoof wall near the doorway was coated with blood. Pieces of bone lay strewn here and there on the ground. "Wh-what in the....what could've done this?" "Timberwolves..." Scootaloo's face drained of color. "T-Timberwolves?" Applebloom whirled on Sweetie Belle. "This is all your fault!! You're the one who wanted to come out here on Lightless Night!!" Sweetie Belle's brow furrowed. "Applebloom, don't put this on me! You're the one who said we should help Zecora!" "Yeah? Well, you-" "Guys, please stop fighting-" "Shut up, Scootaloo! You're not innocent here, either!" Now it was Scootaloo's turn to be angry. "Me? I didn't do anything!!" The timberwolves watched from the bushes as the three fillies threw themselves into a furious frenzy after seeing their slain comrade's remains. One of the wolves licked his lips. "When may we pounce, Lord Elm? Cedar is hungry..." Suddenly, the unicorn's magic began to darken and spark black lightning. Every timberwolf present recoiled from the display and either hissed or whined. "The Dark King's power lies with this one! The Blackheart! The Lord who slew the northern forests! Elm gritted his teeth. "We must rethink our plan. Locust, stay here with me. We'll keep an eye on them. You four..." He looked at four of his companions. "Ash, Cedar, Spruce, Fir, stalk the orange one. She will be our first victim." "Yes, sir." They slid into the shadows. "You four..." He looked at his remaining four companions. "Cypress, Walnut, Birch, Dogwood. Go to the Cursed Water and create a pitfall. We'll trap one of them down there." "Yes, sir." They slunk off to carry out his orders. "What of the last one?" Locust asked. "Why, we will save her for last. What good is one spellcaster against ten of us, even with Blackheart's power?" "Very true, milord. Very true."
The Mirror PoolSweetie Belle and Applebloom stayed hidden in a tree trunk until well after Scootaloo's screams had stopped. They came out of their hidey-hole cautiously and crept back to the location they'd left Scootaloo. Honestly, what did they expect? Scootaloo's body had been left there half-eaten by the timberwolves, probably simply to demoralize them. It worked very well. The two fillies gave their friend a hasty burial and continued on their way, hearts heavy. Cypress sniffed the air cautiously. "The orange one's scent has vanished. They must have buried her." "Are they coming this way?" Birch shifted slightly, and his timbers creaked. Cypress shot him a look. "Yes. They are winding about, but they are coming." "We should hide, then?" "Yes. Of course." Sweetie Belle and Applebloom barely spoke until they reached a particularly dense thicket of briars. "Ah'll go through first." "Are you sure?" "Sure. Don't stray too far behind, though." "Okay." Applebloom slowly started pushing through the thorns, with Sweetie Belle following close behind, nose practically touching her friend's tail. Suddenly, Applebloom shouted, "Oh f-" and disappeared from sight. Sweetie Belle looked around and saw that the entrance to the Mirror Pool cave had been opened and someone had made a pitfall. She listened at the entrance and heard pained groans floating up the passageway. "Bloom? You all right?" "No...ah think ah broke mah leg..." "Well, can you walk at all?" "No, ah cain't... Sweetie, jus' leave me..." Sweetie deliberated, thinking of the timberwolves. Then she got an idea. "Hang on, I'm coming down!" Cypress watched the entrance hungrily. His eagerness as he saw the white one come out without without the yellow one quickly faded under a tide of misgiving as first two, then four, then nine more identical white unicorn fillies exited the cave, then scattered. "How do we know?" "We'll ask the yellow one." The four timberwolves charged into the cave. The yellow one was laying prone in front of the Cursed Water, one foreleg bent at a grotesque angle. Cypress stood over her. "Which one of the white ones is the real one?" "Ah ain't tellin'." Cypress growled and dug his claws into her ribs without cutting her. "Your life is on the line. Which one?" "It's the white one." "Do not play games with me. Which one?" "Ah can do this all night. Can you? Ah reckon ya got maybe three or four hours till dawn." "That is where you're wrong." Cypress lifted his clawed paw and brought it down, crushing the yellow one's skull beneath it. "On all counts."
The Day That Never ComesSweetie Belle looked up at the moon. "It hasn't moved..." She looked back at the Mirror Pool cave. By her estimate, about an hour had passed since the four timberwolves had left the cave with a mangled, headless corpse in tow. Suddenly feeling the urge to move, Sweetie Belle crept from her tree and into the clearing. Just as suddenly as the urge to move had come, a timberwolf barreled into her, coming out of nowhere and sending her flying into a tree. Struggling for breath, fighting the blackness swimming at the edges of her vision, Sweetie helplessly watched the timberwolf creep up on her. "Yes, yes, yes! We have found the last one! Oh, but we must take her back to master Elm!" Sweetie Belle could do nothing to escape as the timberwolf's jaws closed around her body, gently holding her as he began running. A long time later, Sweetie Belle was roughly thrown into a crowd of nine other, identical Sweetie Belles. "This is all of them?" "Yes." "Good. One in ten. I like those odds." The leader bared his claws. "Anyone want to own up? Or do I just have to find out the hard way?" The mob of Sweetie Belles stayed quiet. "Very well." He grabbed the first one's head and crushed it violently. The body released no blood, instead dissolving into magic dust. "Tch!" The next one yielded the same results. "This is why I never was a gambler." As the odds grew in his favor, still he failed to find the real Sweetie Belle. Finally, he had reached the final Sweetie Belle. "Ah...at last, we have found you." He drew a claw along Sweetie Belle's chin. "Any last words before I end you?" "Wh-why? The sun should have risen by now..." "No, child. The sun will not rise for you." He raised his clawed paw. "Never again." Tears poured from her eyes. "A-at least...I can see them again..." "I'm sure you will." Elm's claws descended, and her world went black.
First VictimThe three fillies ceased their arguing when Sweetie Belle's magic began turning black. After a round of heartfelt apologies, they continued on their way. After a long time, Applebloom stopped them. "Ah think something's watchin' us." "Watching us? What could it be? Could it be what..." Scootaloo left her sentence unfinished. They knew what she meant. "No, I don't think so..." Uneasily, they kept walking. Half an hour passed. Suddenly, Sweetie Belle's general misgiving blossomed into alarm, and she shouted for Applebloom and Scootaloo to run. They broke into a full gallop. Four timberwolves broke from the trees and sprinted after them. "Timberwolves! They must've gotten Zecora!" The wolves were rapidly gaining on them. "It's no use, foals!" One growled. "You can never hope to outrun us!!" "Scoots, come on! We can get away!" Scootaloo was slowly lagging behind. The manic glint in the eyes of the lead timberwolf betrayed their intentions. "Scoots, come on!! Y-You'll get eaten!!" "I can't...no more...I can't run..." Scootaloo ran as hard as she could, but her mind betrayed her body. Her knees gave out, and she tripped and tumbled along the ground. Fearing for nothing but their own lives, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom kept running. Ash stood over the helpless foal, grinning and slavering. "There's not much to you...you'll barely be more than a mouthful." "N-no, please...e-eat me, but leave my friends alone!" "Oh...how cute...look how she pretends to care for her friends when her life is in danger." Ash raised a paw tipped with twisted, knotted claws reminiscent of thorns. "Good night, orange one."
EpilogueSweetie Belle shot straight up up in bed with a scream, causing the dozing Rarity to jolt. "My goodness, Sweetie Belle! You-" Sweetie Belle grabbed her sister's foreleg, tears pouring from her eyes. "Rarity! We're dead! Me, Scoots, Applebloom...we all got killed by timberwolves!" "My word, how many painkillers did I give you? Listen to you. Sweetie, if you're dead, how are you talking to me?" "Then...I escaped somehow! But they got Scootaloo and Applebloom!" "They're fine, Sweetie. They were here to check on you earlier." "I don't believe you! I need to talk to Applejack and Rainbow Dash!" "Sweetie, I-" Sweetie Belle used her magic to grab Rarity' s phone. She quickly dialed Applejack's number. "'Ello?" "Applejack, I-" "Oh, heya, Sweetie Belle! How're ya doin'? Hurtin' at all?" "A-Applejack, Applebloom is...she's dead." A pause, then, "That fever musta messed up yer head. Applebloom's right here with me." "Let me talk to her!" "Sure thing. Justa sec." A pause, then, "Hi, Sweetie Belle! Ya feelin' better?" "Y-you're not dead?" "Naw, why? Should ah be?" "What about Scoots?" "Scoots is right here, so ah think she's fine. Ah think ya jus' had a bad dream." "A dream?" The never-ending night made more sense now. "Yeah. See, ya had...uh, some big fancy word. Uh-pen-duh-sie-tis or somethin'." "Appendicitis?" "Yeah, that. Anyway, you had ta get surgery. You had a bad fever for a while afterwards, but it went down 'bout an hour ago." "So we didn't go into Everfree Forest on Lightless Night?" "That was weeks ago, Sweets." "And we didn't get killed by timberwolves?" "Naw." "What about Zecora? They got her first..." "Saw her in town today. She's fine." "I...I gotta go." "Bye, then." Sweetie Belle hung up. "I..." Rarity hugged her little sister. "Shhh. Everything will be fine." "This time...I believe you." END.
