Under the Bed

Chapters

Under the Bed
In the Orchard
Above the School House
Within the Everfree
Beneath the Abomination
On the Lawn
Among the Mud
Between the Monsters

Under the Bed

Under the Bed

Rarity smiled when she leaned in to make sure Sweetie Belle was tucked safely into her bed for the night. The warm summer day had left everything cozy in the boutique as the night soothed it with cool evening breezes. “Time for bed, Sweetie Belle. You shouldn’t leave the window open like that, you don’t want an animal or something to wander in.” she crossed the room, lighting her horn to close and latch the two window doors. “Or Opal to wander out, for that matter,” she chuckled good-naturedly.

The filly tucked into the sheets watched Rarity close the window with big eyes, tucked deep in the mounds of extra pillows. She quickly hid again when the mare turned around. It was hard to even see her. Rarity chuckled a little, rearing up to find her sister and kiss her forehead.

Sweetie Belle squirmed with a cranky moan, turning away from her. It must’ve been a rough day of crusading with her friends, Rarity thought. Usually it was hard to get the poor dear to sleep at all. She was always sneaking sweets or caffeine or something of the sort at odd hours, making it impossible to go to sleep at the proper time. But, with no school during the summer that made for plenty of extra time to run around with her friends, getting into trouble and having adventures as any little herd of foals should. In a way, it made Rarity proud that her sister was such a social butterfly, always trying new things to get her cutie mark. Everypony in town knew her and her two friends from one cutie mark adventure or another.

“Sleep tight, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity whispered lovingly. Her little sister was a loud-mouth sometimes, but now and then she managed to be just so adorable. The white mare felt her heart swell, and she tousled Sweetie Belle’s mane just a little. Another cranky, adorable little moan as the filly buried her face between the pillows. She turned to leave the room, making a quick sweep to make sure no toys or anything sharp was left in the middle of the floor. Walking quietly as she could along the hard-wood floor, she was almost out of the room when she heard it. A quiet little whimpering sound. She turned about. “Sweetie, is that you…?” she whispered softly. Turning around in concern, she slowly wandered back to the plush bed. Rarity was nothing if not rather mother-hen-ish with her sister since the big Sisterhoof Social races. She’d been trying very hard to be there for her. “What’s wrong? You sound awful…” she reared up once more, putting her forehooves on the bed.

A scent touched Rarity’s muzzle that made her nose wrinkle. It was a primal scent, one that you learned when dealing with foals or other infantile creatures. Urine. The stark scent of urine laced with a hormone that her equine brain knew instantly. Fear. Some creatures, ponies included, could smell true terror. What was the matter with Sweetie Belle?

“Ohhh, Sweetie did you wet the bed?” Rarity said, her eyes lidding as her muzzle wrinkled a bit. Something was wrong. “I-It’s alright. It happens to the best of us, now and then,” she tried to be comforting in the filly’s vulnerable moment. A louder whimper was all that could be heard from the foal buried in the sheets and pillows. “I’ll get you some fresh, why don’t you climb down and ball these up for me. We can wash them tomorrow and nopony will know, I promise,” she nuzzled the lump that was her little sister, but got no response other than more whimpering. Rarity’s eyes couldn’t find the little stain of yellow wetness anywhere, but she could smell it like it was marked with orange road-cones. “No need to be ashamed, sweetheart, really,” she said with concern. “I’ll be right back, don’t worry.”

Rarity went out into the hall, past her own room and into the linen closet. Being a seamstress she’d custom-made bed clothes for herself and any pony that stayed in the boutique. Pawing through each design, she found the easter-egg purple ones meant for Sweetie Belle. “There we are then,” she smiled a bit. Levitating a laundry-basket next to herself to take the wetted sheets away, she went back to her little sister’s room. She found the door shut and locked. “Really now, Sweetie, it’s alright. I promise,” Rarity tried to be the understanding big sister she wanted to be. With a flick of her horn’s magic she undid the door’s lock. “We’ll change out the bed cloths and set you right back to bed.” She opened the door and stepped into the dark room, setting the linens and basket next to herself.

Sweetie Belle had not moved, but still lay pressed between the pillows and hidden beneath the comforter. Another light whimper, a tap-tap-tapping noise coming from somewhere in the room. Rarity cocked her head, but couldn’t place where it was coming from.

Rarity stopped for a time, trying to find a sensitive way to go about this. Both of them had their own little temper tantrums now and then, so she’d need to be extra-tender. She wasn’t about to let her little sister sleep in her own… stuff. Clearing her throat a little, she ignited her horn to take away the comforter and lifted it away. Rolling it up into a coarse ball, she dropped it in the laundry basket. She expected to find a wide circle of wet bedsheets, but saw no such thing. Only the tiny little body of the hiding filly pressed mostly up between the fluffy pillows. The tap-tap-tapping sound got louder, making Rarity look around. Was Sweetie Belle tapping at the wall beyond the head of her bed? “Sweetie Belle?” Rarity whispered, turning her ears up and forward. “Sweetie, really, I--!”

“Monster!” Sweetie Belle whispered fiercely, her quivering voice piercing the dark like a frightened piccolo of sound.

“Monster?” Rarity relaxed after a moment. Was that all? “Of course…” she turned and made a show of going into the closet. She pushed the coats back and forth to indulge her little sibling. She peered out the window, and even opened the dumpy pink wardrobe that sat in the corner. “No monsters here, I promise,” she chuckled, showing her.

“Rarity, p-p-please!” Sweetie Belle whimpered. Rarity wondered how she was able to hear her sister so clearly when she was mooshed between so many pillows. She approached the bed with a frown, leaning over the figure. The tap-tap-tapping got louder, more insistent. The mare shrieked when a tiny hoof grabbed her leg from under the bed. “D-down here!” the filly whispered urgently.

Rarity knelt down, confused, lighting her horn. There, lying in a puddle of her own piddle, was a terrified looking Sweetie Belle. Her pupils were little dots and the hardwood floor was making her shake like a leaf. The white mare stared at her tear-streaked face, even more confused. “Sweetie Belle…?” she whispered, tilting her head.

“Rarity, th-there’s something i-in my bed!” The white-faced foal whimpered, hiding her head under her hooves.

Rarity’s eyes flicked upward.

She slowly, gently pulled herself out from under the bed. Her horn gently lit itself with a bolt of arcane energy. A stunning spell, maybe more. She arched her back a little, leaning over the figure buried in the sheets. She reached, touching its shoulder--

“AWWWWWGH!”

The last thing Rarity saw was a set of orange eyes and an unhinged jaw. Rows upon rows of jagged, triangle teeth descended on her as the stunning spell fired wildly past its target and into the ceiling. Sweetie Belle cried helplessly, pulling the sheets down to hide herself.

In the Orchard

Under the Bed
Part 2 – In the Orchard

Big Macintosh was staring at the south-western apple orchard with a disturbed frown. There was something on the breeze that he didn’t like. Something piercing through the usual sweet smells of green and apple-sugar and earth. He stamped at the ground a few times, very uneasy. The big red stallion looked ready to bolt. Being the paragon of masculine drive and power, this was quite a thing to say. He’d stomped his fair share of timberwolves, had enough wrastlin’ matches like any stallion his size, and had even gotten into a bar fight one time—but this scent alone licked at his brain like an icy tongue, drawing its slimy, necrotic touch down the back of his neck. He shivered, peering around again.

Walking through the orchards, through the rows and rows of trees, he finally spotted it. Being that the trees were set on a grid, it was very easy to spot anything out of the ordinary. Galloping over, he gaped up at a dead apple tree. It was more than dead, it was positively pale. He pawed at it a little, but the bark was still hard and protective. Putting a bit more force behind it, he scraped off the outer layers to see the wood. Rotted. He looked at the splinters—then at the ground. Perking his ears in alarm, he turned a few quick circles. All the grass and greenery within thirty feet of the dead tree was dead.

The farmer leaned down, snuffle-sniffing for plant-killers, pesticides, and other chemicals. Working on a farm all his life, he would know it if there was one by the ‘after-scent.’ Had somepony trespassed and assassinated one of his beloved trees? Nope. There was no chemical scent. Bravely, he nibbled at some of the grass like a wild pony might. He spat it out right away. Cold. Cold and crispy and dead like a block of clay. It was worse than eating dirt. It prickled his mouth. Spitting a few times, he walked around. The dead spot was a perfect circle. A very perfect circle. Underground well, maybe? Maybe something poisonous flowed through and killed everything? Acid rain? No no, that would’ve hit the whole orchard. The red farmer pondered for a time, his brow lowered in frustration. It didn’t make no sense. It wasn’t anything like he’d seen before. He’d have to show AJ.

Big Macintosh hoofed at the ground a few times to get a sizable hunk, put it in his saddlebags and then turned to head back to the house. It should’ve been breakfast time right about then.

=-=-=-=

Applebloom stared miserably at her waffles, red in the face and droopy in the ears. Somehow, some way, she’d wet the bed last night. She was a big filly, she knew better! She did! They had an outhouse and everything, she’d never done such a thing since she’d been toilet trained. This was so embarrassing, she couldn’t look anypony in the eye. It also didn’t help that her pillow was wet when she woke up, as though she’d been weeping in her sleep.

Granny Smith shrugged it off as a summer sort of thing. “Your body gets comfy enough, it loosens out, and eh… it happens,” the elderly mare said as she sat across the table from her.

Applejack was silent, knowing there wasn’t anything she could say to make her little sister feel better. Hopefully by tomorrow the sheets would be clean and the poor thing would forget all about it. The orange mare had put her hoof down about Granny Smith hanging the sheets out to dry after scrubbing them. The poor filly would have died of embarrassment. Instead, they were hanging on a clothesline in the foal’s own room, with a window open for the breeze.

Applebloom nodded silently, still embarrassed beyond belief. Applejack wasn’t sure how she’d wet the bed in her sleep, she looked kind of pale and bag-eyed, like she hadn’t slept a wink. Something was troubling her. Applejack suspected a night terror, but she wasn’t sure. When Applebloom finally started to pick at her waffles and eat, both mares finally relaxed a little.

Big Mac suddenly emerged into the house, stopping to wipe his hooves as a good Apple ought to when entering the home. He leaned with a soft murmur on the doorframe of the kitchen, eyeing his littlest sister with sympathy. Poor thing, she looked like a wreck. He cleared his throat a little for attention, making everypony else look up. Leaning into his saddlebags, he produced the clump of earth and dead grass. Granny Smith started to squawk about him bringing it into the house, but then she got a good look.

Applejack took it, turning it over and over. The grass was more than dead it was… grey. Almost like it had been petrified by a cockatrice. The earth was stone-cold and hard. The grass and sod on it was cool to the touch and stiff like wire. The orange mare took a sprig of it and put it in her mouth. “No pesticides either?” Applejack asked. Big Mac shook his head. “Where’d you find this?” Her brother nodded towards the orchard. “We’ll go have a look after breakfast,” she said, offering him a chair. The red stallion sat gratefully, putting the clump of disturbing earth to one side. He couldn’t look at it while he ate. Applebloom didn’t speak at all during breakfast.

=-=-=-=

Fluttershy opened her door with a startled expression. All pressed onto her stoop at the same time were three armored guards. Dressed in golden armor with their usual eternal frowns on their faces, they nodded to her. It was two stallions and a mare with the usual Spartan-esque helmets. “U-uhm, hullo there. Am I late on my house tax?” she offered in a small voice. “I-I put it in the mail three days ago, I promise,” she wilted at their stern gazes.

“Are you Fluttershy?” the mare asked.

“Yes, th-that’s me,” the yellow mare whispered.

“The Ponyville guard needs your expertise in solving a case, will you help?”

“My expertise?” Fluttershy blushed. “I’ll help if I can,” she nodded a little, her mane falling over half of her face.

“This hasn’t hit the public eye yet, so… discretion,” the mare said, pulling her helmet off to give Fluttershy a paper and quill. It was a hush contract, saying Fluttershy would not discuss what she was helping with. After the butter-colored Pegasus had penned her name, the guardspony shoved it back in her helmet and out of sight, putting it back on her head. “There’s been a murder… we think.” Fluttershy shuddered at the m-word. “We don’t have a body, but we’re not ruling out a kidnapping either. Nor an animal attack.”

“I see,” Fluttershy said meekly, cocking her head.

“We would bring the local vet in on this, but your reputation is a bit more exotic and we’re not sure what we’re dealing with yet. We’re guards, not animal experts,” said the white stallion to her left. Fluttershy opened her mouth to protest that she wasn’t as good as a vet, but they were sort of right. The shy mare had dealt with dragons, cockatrices, changelings, timberwolves, manticores and many other beasties. Not to mention all the normal local wildlife. A domestic pet vet just wouldn’t have the eye for that sort of thing. Whatever sort of thing they thought she had an eye for. “Please, come with us,” said the stallion.

“O-okay,” Fluttershy nodded. They led her across town to Rarity’s boutique, much to her horror. “Rarity?!” she whimpered, darting inside past the caution tape. The Pegasus was nearly bowled over by the guards that were already inside investigating. “Eep!” she sank down a little, automatically submissive to all the muscle and armor around her.

“It’s okay boys, she’s with us,” the trio that had gone to fetch Fluttershy ducked under the tape and came into the showroom floor. “This is Fluttershy, the mare they recommended look at the bedroom upstairs.” A few guards made sickened faces at the mention of the room.

“What’s happened?” Fluttershy said with big soft eyes. “Where’s Rarity?”

There was a short silence, then the mare in armor said carefully, “We’re not sure. That’s one reason we brought you in. To see if an animal did this.”

“I-I’ll do my best,” Fluttershy repeated, tucking her ears back.

“Good. Follow us.” They led her carefully up the stairs.

Fluttershy was slow to follow. Something terrible had happened to Rarity and they wanted her to come see the scene of the crime?! Her poor dancing heart could barely take it. Taking gulps of air and fighting the panic attack rising in her throat, she focused on one stair at a time. She could hear herself breathing loudly, though, heaving for breath. She was a skittish thing to begin with, but she had to help with the local guards asked.

The let out a breath when they walked past what she knew to be Rarity’s room, leading her towards the guest bedroom. A number of different ponies had stayed there, especially on sleepover nights and holiday evenings when it was just too dark or cold to go home alone. Rarity was nothing if not a generous hostess to a pony that didn’t want to brave a cold night. She even kept color-coordinated bed sheets for her best friends.

“This is it here,” the armored mare pushed the door open gingerly. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to expect. Fountains of blood? Trashed furniture? Shattered windows? The yellow mare wobbled into the room to have a look, making the two stallions with the group look at each other with cocked eyebrows.

The bed was tossed, the mattress only halfway on the frame. The bed clothes were gone. The window was broken, one of the two doors missing. There was a spattering of red on the wall right next to the bed. Fluttershy wandered forward as though in a trance, unsure what to think yet. The hardwood floor had scratches on it, only where one would expect heavy traffic in the room to be.

“You’ll notice the window was broken outward, not inward,” the armored mare told Fluttershy. “We’re wondering if maybe an animal came in while the window was open, somepony shut it, and then it broke out after killing and/or taking Rarity.” Nightmarish visions of a manticore bursting from a closet, tearing Rarity in half and then charging out into the woods to eat her flew across Fluttershy’s mind. She swallowed, a little green in the face. “What do you think, then?” she asked, gesturing around. “Animal, or no?”

Fluttershy went to the windowsill, peering out. The second-story bedroom had a sheer wall of a drop, and no nearby trees. The missing window door was on the ground in pieces, confirming something had broken out of the room rather violently. Leaning, the yellow mare examined the sill for claw marks, wear and tear, odd impressions or signs of entry. Not even any sort of slime residue to say a garden slug had been there. Rarity was quite cleanly in keeping her house, it seemed. The yellow mare studied the floor, squatting down a little. No hair, no odd pheromone scents, no… wait there was something. She stuck her head under the bed, the stinging yellow scent touching her muzzle.

“We found a poor little filly hiding under the bed there,” said one of the guards. “Name’s Sweetie Belle. Poor thing peed herself in terror, and wouldn’t stop screamin’ about monsters when we found her. We couldn’t get anything useful out of her at all,” the stallion’s voice was rough, but his expression was one of pity. “I can’t imagine somethin’ like this happening to my kid.”

Fluttershy pressed herself under the bed. She couldn’t fit. Perhaps whatever it had been was too big to reach her. She looked over her shoulder. Small enough to fit in half the window, too big to reach under the bed to grab a filly. That didn’t make any sense. Animals didn’t only kill when they were hungry. Life was not so pretty in the wild. If a beast could kill two things and gorge itself, it would. “What else did she say?” Fluttershy asked, standing up to look at the spatter of blood on the wall by the bed.

“She said it was small, like her, but she didn’t get a good look,” said one of the stallions. “But I don’t think something as small as her could drag off a grown mare. Fluttershy studied the angle of the spatter. She was no crime expert, but she could tell from the way it was… whatever it was had attacked Rarity from below. It must’ve been quite short—or used an uppercut style of attack. Again not an animal’s tactic. Beasts went for the throat, for the soft underbelly or even the eye sockets. All of those were straight-forward.

“This wasn’t an animal attack,” Fluttershy said glumly, hanging her head. “Sorry I can’t help.”

“You just helped a lot, Fluttershy, lemme tell you,” said the other stallion comfortingly. “Whatever happened to Rarity, we can rule out a few theories thanks to you. Whatever dragged her off--!” He was interrupted when Fluttershy began to whine and hyperventilate. She was staring at the spatter of blood on the floor, and the dragging marks that led to the window. Whatever had killed and/or taken Rarity without leaving an obvious trail beyond the window must’ve been very strong indeed.

“I-I need to tell my friends,” Fluttershy whimpered, tears going down her face.

“You signed before you came in, remember,” the armored mare said sharply. “You helped us a lot, but don’t make me drag you off to jail too. I know you knew… er… know, her. But you need’a give us time to find her before Ponyville panicks about a mare being snatched out of her own home, okay?”

“Y-yes officer…” Fluttershy said, hanging her head the other way. She looked towards the heavens, tears going down either side of her face. She wasn’t a praying sort of mare, but she could still beg Faust for—yeep?!

All three guards looked startled, then snapped their heads back to look at the ceiling. The high ceiling of the guest bedroom was covered with little grey horseshoe marks! They lead from the top of the window, up the wall, and across the ceiling until they stopped directly over the bed. “The fuck is that…?” whispered one of the guards.

In an odd display of brilliance the female guard pulled open the chest of drawers, getting one of Sweetie Belle’s horseshoes. Rearing up as high as she could, she held it next to one of the marks. “Not the same,” she squinted. “These are way narrower.” She came down, tossing the horseshoe to one side. "Much smaller than Sweetie Belle."

“Wh-what is this, though?!” Fluttershy whispered.

“How did we not notice that…?” mumbled the other guard, blushing a little.

“Suddenly the ‘its as small as me’ bit makes a little more sense,” mumbled the female guard pegasus. “Get the others up here. Tell them to bring ladders and their crime kits.” She looked sharply over at Fluttershy. “Ma’am, you’re free to go. Keep this to yourself,” she said.

"S-so... what, we've got a killer foal on the loose?" said one of the stallions incredulously. "That doesn't make any sense!" The armored mare glared at him and he closed his mouth in front of the panicking civilian.

The yellow mare was escorted quickly from the Carousel Boutique, and was left standing on the stoop with more tears on her face. What was going on? Where was Rarity? Wait, what happened to Sweetie Belle? Trying to be as brave as she could, Fluttershy stuck her head back in, “U-uhm, what happened to the filly you found?”

“Uh?” One of the detectives looked up from the carpet he was inspecting for strange hairs or anything. “She’s in protective custody, don’t worry ma’am. Go on, now. This is an active crime scene.” He shooed her away. Fluttershy scampered, not sure what to think or do.

=-=-=-=

Applejack, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh stood on the edge of the circle of dead land in the orchard. Big Mac wasn’t a genius when it came to every little thing, but he was very good at math. That included circles. The circle was just a smidgen bigger than it had been before, he was sure of it. He came to the spot where he’d taken the piece of sod from the earth, gesturing.

With her earth pony strength and a spade, Applejack dug a small hole in the ground while Granny Smith went to see the dead tree. No termites, no nothing in the tree. They’d dealt with termite infestations before, this was nothing like that. And with no chemical scent or severe weather to blame… it was a mystery. “Ah don’t see any slurry or other poisons, either,” Applejack said with a frown. “There’s no mining projects around here to upset the ground water… ah just don’t get it,” She turned the soil over and over in her hoofs, as though expecting to divine some answer out of it. “It’s like the ground just up and died!”

“Yup,” said Big Mac warily. Turning, he examined the trees outside the circle of dead earth. Even the ones just outside it seemed fine. With a gesture of his head, the barrel-chested stallion turned to go check on Applebloom. The poor thing hadn’t left the house since she’d wet the bed that morning. Trotting along and out of the orchard, he passed the barn and saw the door was cracked open a bit. Hrrming in suspicion, the stallion turned and stuck his head in. Nopony in there. Cocking his head, he turned to head back to the house with a toss of his mane.

“B-i-i-i-g M-a-a-a-c….” He stopped, turning. His eyes darted around, and saw the barn door was open a few inches once more. Frowning, he cocked his head. Applebloom? The red stallion wheeled around, leaning around the edge of the door. There was a shape in the shadows, beyond the sliver of light that the sun allowed into the barn. “B-i-i-i-i-g M-a-a-a-c…” the foal whispered again. “In here.” He narrowed his eyes. What was she doin’ hidin’ in a dark barn like that? Didn’t she know the rules about all the sharp tools and stuff in there that foals need-not-oughta be messin’ with? Frowning in mild irritation, he threw the barn doors open. The crisp morning light poured into the building, but he didn’t see Applebloom anywhere.

“M’sorry Big Mac,” the stallion jumped like he’d been slapped on the ass when Applebloom appeared behind him. She had her little apple buckets strapped to her sides, ready to do her daily chores. Which, in truth, she was about three hours behind on. But, weird things had been happening so everypony was behind today. "Ah’ll get on my chores…” she croaked a little, her voice unsteady like she’d been crying. Big Mac smiled warmly, leaning down to nuzzle her withers. Everypony had a bad day now and then… Applebloom’s just happened to involve bed-wetting. Must’ve been some nightmare, he thought. He put a hoof around her in a one-armed hug, then let her go as she pleased. When she was gone, he turned back to head towards the orchard.

“B-i-i-i-i-g M-a-a-a-a-c…” the little voice in the barn croaked.

Big Macintosh froze, ears turning up and forward. The yellow speck that was Applebloom was still wandering towards the orchards. He turned around with a startled neigh, throwing the barn doors open again. He was greeted with a black space, which startled him. It wasn’t dark in there. It was black. Like somepony had forgotten to leave the inside of the barn—inside the barn, and had left a void of nothingness there instead. The stallion’s inner alarms started going off like mad and he backed up as quickly as he could.

Something wrapped around his ankle, something like a tiny set of legs. He whinnied in panic as he was dragged bodily towards the blackness. Reaching with both arms he slammed the doors shut before he could be dragged inside. His ankle broke when whatever it was kept pulling him. The barn doors didn’t swing inward! They didn’t! Squirming and tugging on himself despite the white-hot agony in his leg, he gave a belting cry when he was bashed repeatedly against the sturdy wooden doors. Bash! Bash! Bash! BASH! “Big Ma-a-a-a-a-c….” BASH-BASH-BASH-BASH-BASH! The muscled farm-pony rag-dolled around, panting and slathering in exhaustion. Whatever was holding him dragged him into the air along the crack between the doors by one leg. He flailed, holding the doors shut until he finally propped them closed with his own weight. Then it stopped jerking him around and began to pull instead. The red stallion roared in pain, sure his leg would just rip right off. Then, suddenly and without warning, Big Mac’s weight was pulled through the barn doors. Wood splintered in all directions as they were forced inward. The massive stallion was consumed by darkness, his scream of terror cut short as soon as he vanished from sight.

It would be hours before anypony found the little spatter of blood on the ground, along with one of Big Mac’s massive horseshoes. That was all that was left of him.

Above the School House

Under the Bed
Part 3: Above the Schoolhouse

Cheerilee sighed happily after pulling the last blind down and closing up the schoolhouse for the night. Summer school might have had fewer students, but they were much harder to handle. She pulled the string hanging from the corner of the ceiling, letting the collapsible stairs unfold while she stretched. Clip-clopping up them, she emerged into her loft-like home.

It was little more than five rooms and a joining hallway, but it was all she needed. Much like the Cake family, she lived at her place of work. It was a tiny living room, bathroom, two bedrooms and modular kitchen. There was barely room to turn around in some spots, but she didn’t care. Her living space meant little to her when she spent little time there. None of her students knew about it. Well, one did, but she lived with that student thanks to the Equestrian Foster Foals Program.

Leaning, the purple mare checked on Scootaloo. The little orange filly had long since fallen asleep with a Power Stallions comic book plastered to her face. How did she sleep, all splayed out on her back like that? Cheerilee shook her head with a smile, peering around. The posters plastered all over the walls made the tiny room a home, along with the light smattering of toys and school things. Orphans, Cheerilee knew, were not the materialistic sort like many children could be. They had different priorities, like being loved—or even being noticed.

The school teacher crossed the room to take the comic off her face and shut the open window. It may have been summer, but the chill might make her foster foal sick. Struggling with the blinds for a moment, she finally shut out the moonlight and was plunged into darkness. Scootaloo stirred a little, turning on her side with a light series of sleepy sounds. She curled up in a little ball, which made Cheerilee’s expression soften like any mother’s. The mare pulled the covers up so the little Pegasus could nest properly, smiling.

Scrap. Tap-a-tap-a-tap-a-TAP-A-TAP-A-TAP-a-tap.

Cheerilee wheeled around, ears perked. Had something just run across the roof?! Instinct made her stand sideways to protect the foal, but the sound was gone almost as it had started. She stood there for a time, head cocked to listen. Silence. Shrugging and deciding it was nothing, she double-checked Scootaloo was tucked in and shut the door behind her. The filly gave a light whimper in her sleep, one of her tiny wings flapping a few times.

The purple mare went to her ice box for a quick late-night snack and emerged with a celery, peanut butter and wheat bread sandwich. 'The loudest sandwich known to ponykind.' Chuckling to herself, she went to the other side of the loft and away from Scootaloo’s room to eat it. She wouldn’t eat it in bed, but it didn’t hurt to stand around and read or something. Crunch-munch-munch-crunch. Cheerilee liked peanut butter a lot. Especially the lumpy kind. It relaxed her for some reason.

Walking over to the window, she lifted the blind to peer out into the night while she ate. Ponyville at night was a quiet, barely lit sort of place. The occasional streetlamp was all the kept the blackness at bay, and that was perfectly fine. It wasn’t as though there were any night clubs or anything to do out there in the evenings other than stargaze. Cheerilee missed the bustling campus life, from back when she was in school. She could go out with her girlfriends and catch a movie at half-past-midnight, or check out a local bar at ten-thirty. Not much happened in Ponyville happened beyond nine o’clock unless it was a holiday.

A figure in a cloak streaked by a streetlamp, making her jump. Had that been--?! She pressed her muzzle to the glass, squinting. But with it being dark outside and light inside, she could only see her own reflection. Clop-clop-tap-tap-clop. She turned her head. Somepony was knocking rather loudly downstairs. “At this hour?” Cheerilee wondered. The knocking paused for a time, then began again. Lowering the loft stairs again she went down them quickly and quietly so she didn’t wake Scootaloo.

Crossing the classroom, Cheerilee didn’t see a little black shadow slither up the stairs as soon as they were behind her. The purple mare weaved slowly between desks, peering out at the stoop from a window. A tall, horned figure stood there, staring at the door intently. It was cloaked in darkness, it’s flashing purple eyes trying to push the door open with their force.

The mare eased the door open a crack, “Y… yes?” she asked, the chain still on.

“It’s me,” said the figure softly.

“Oh,” Cheerilee said, deflating with relief. She closed the door, undid the chain and pulled it open properly. “What’re you doing out at this hour? It’s late,” she said with concern, letting the pony inside. Leaning, she nuzzled with it until the hood fell back to reveal Twilight Sparkle.

“Something strange has been going on, I was worried about you. So I came to uhm… check on you,” Twilight said, pink in the cheeks. The quiet romance between the grade school teacher and the scholar had started quite by accident some months ago, but it wasn’t exactly public yet. Both were too shy to announce their courtship.

“Check on me?” Cheerilee said, helping her out of her cloak and hanging it on a peg next to the door. “What’s the matter?” She asked as Twilight hugged her a little.

“Big Macintosh was taken a couple of days ago,” Twilight lowered her voice, turning with a flick of her horn to lock the door.

“Taken?” Cheerilee’s brow rose.

“And Rarity too, she’s been missing for almost a week!” The dark purple mare leaned into the light purple one, fretting.

“What’s happened? Why hasn’t anypony announced this?”

“The guards don’t want to start a panic,” Twilight filled her in on what little she knew. Sweetie Belle hadn’t been coming to class, but no one had told Cheerilee exactly why. The same thing for Applebloom. She was getting ready to go see both of their families about the importance of not being held back (both of them had a few things to make up before fall). Both of their older siblings were taken? Just like that?

“What do they think happened?” Cheerilee whispered, turning and leading Twilight up into the loft. Both of them sat next to each other on the couch, quite close.

“Fluttershy accidentally told me. She’d been nervous and shaking for days. I asked her one question and she blurted out everything,” Twilight said, shaking her head sympathetically. She told Cheerilee what had been seen at Rarity’s house, much to the mare’s horror.

“Oh, poor Sweetie Belle! She must’ve been under that bed for hours and hours!” gasped Cheerilee, putting a hoof over her mouth for a moment. Twilight put an arm around her. “What about Big Macintosh? The middle of the night as well?”

“No, that’s the strange thing. Big Macintosh disappeared early in the morning. Applejack came to me before the local guard. All there was,” Twilight gestured a little, “Was a pair of broken barn doors, some drops of blood and one of his horse shoes.”

A guilty little ache rose in Cheerilee’s chest when they spoke of Big Mac. They’d been a thing, sort of, for a little while. After the love poison incident they’d honestly given things a try but… well… they both had such demanding jobs and they’d drifted apart after a time. But to hear that the poor thing had been snatched in broad daylight--! “How, though? He must weigh time-and-a-half what the average pony does, and he’s all muscle!”

“That’s what I said,” Twilight said. “The barn doors were broken inward, like something really strong had forced them. I don’t know of anypony that could overpower Big Macintosh. Much less drag him away without a sound.”

“Teleportation?” Cheerilee offered.

“No, he weighs too much,” Twilight shook her head. “It would take several unicorns to teleport somepony as big as him without leaving a magical residue. Much less a crater at the air displacement,” she hunched a little as she spoke. “The guards yelled at everyone for letting me see the crime scene before them. I’m not allowed back into their barn for now.”

Cheerilee was silent for a long time, “Why’d you come to check on me, then?”

“I tried to see a pattern in it,” Twilight offered as Cheerilee pulled her close. “What do Big Mac and Rarity have in common? Nothing at all, right? A farmer and a dressmaker, an earth pony and a unicorn, and so on and so forth.” she looked over at Cheerilee with a worried expression.

“Yes? What is it then?”

“It’s their little sisters,” Twilight said.

“Sweetie Belle and Applebloom?” Cheerilee furrowed her brow.

“That was the only conclusion I could come up with. When Rarity was taken, Sweetie Belle was in the same room. Fluttershy told me.” Twilight said, pressing up against her in a rather needy way. Cheerilee held her as she spoke. “Whatever it was sprayed Rarity’s blood across the wall, dragged her away and didn’t touch her little sister.”

“And with Big Mac?”

“I’m not sure. Big Mac was taken next to the barn, in broad daylight,” Twilight furrowed her brow. “And I know two don’t usually make a pattern, Cheerilee, but… but well…”

“What?” Cheerilee pressed, turning her ears back worriedly.

“I think you’re next.” Twilight whispered, looking into her gaze with soft eyes.

“Me? Why?”

“Because if the pattern holds…” Twilight nodded towards Scootaloo’s room. “Tell me those three wouldn’t summon up an evil spirit trying to get their cutie marks, or… or something.” Cheerilee stared. In the back of her head she could perfectly picture the three cutie mark crusaders leaning over a demonology book. “N-now like I said, two doesn’t make a pattern. But it’s kind of convenient, y’know? The whole town knows those three get into trouble. I’m just wondering if they didn’t start something they shouldn’t have.”

There was a long silence. Cheerilee and Twilight Sparkle stared at each other. “But… I’m not related to Scootaloo,” the teacher offered. “She’s an orphan, she doesn’t really have anypony like that, does she? I’m not her older sister.”

“I know. It’s a shaky theory, but—!” Twilight was cut off when loud sobbing suddenly started in the other room.

Cheerilee quickly untangled herself from Twilight, jumping to her hooves. “Just a minute,” she whispered to her marefriend. “Poor thing must’ve had a nightmare.” Nodding and offering Twilight the blanket that was draped over the couch, she crossed the loft and went to Scootaloo’s door. Inside she could hear full, throaty sobs and whimpers. Turning the knob she eased it open and swept into the room. “Scootaloo? Honey, are you okay?”

Scootaloo was curled up in a ball, shaking. Her blanket was across the room, draped out on the floor. Her face was tucked, under her wing like a pathetic little swan. Her sobs were loud, and Cheerilee could see the twin streaks of tears. Her tail was tucked between her back legs and she was shaking like it was winter. “Keep me safe. Keep me safe. Keep me safe…” she was chanting softly, barely keeping her breath.

“Ohhh, honey…” Cheerilee clambered into the little floor-nest with her, curling around her like a mother should. “It’s okay, I’m here. I’m here…” Scootaloo curled up tighter, as though she were expecting to be struck. “It was just a nightmare, it’s okay.” The purple mare crooned, stroking her back over and over.

“Keep me safe. Keep me safe. Keep me safe.” chanted Scootaloo, clenching her teeth and shaking visibly.

“Scootaloo everything’s okay, it’s your room and I’m here see…?” Cheerilee gently pried her little wing open so she would look at her, then jumped back in terror.

Scootaloo stared at her with completely white eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. Veins along the lower portions of her eyes spider-webbed back and forth in a repulsive display. One of her wings, but not the other, buzzed animatedly. “Keep me safe! Keep me safe! Keep me safe!” the foal whimpered. She began to sob as the hot scent of urine stung the air. Tears streamed down her cheeks to drip across the pillow like rain.

Cheerilee backed away a few steps, mouth agape. “Twilight!” she shrieked. Twilight appeared in the doorway instantly, rushing to her side. “What’s wrong with her?!”

“Keep me safe! Keep me safe! Keep me safe!” the foal shouted over and over like some unholy chant, squirming in the bed back and forth in a panic.

Twilight lit her horn, igniting all the lights in the room. She flinched back at the sight of the seemingly possessed filly, eyes wide. Then she looked closer. “Wait, wait! It’s okay!” she rushed forward, pushing Scootaloo onto her back. The filly sobbed animatedly, kicking a little. “She’s asleep! Her eyes are rolled up and outward! That’s what they do when you’re asleep!”

Cheerilee rushed over to help hold her down as well. “Why is she doing that?!”

“It’s a night terror! She’s sleeping with her eyes open!” Twilight said, pushing her weight down to make a half-circle around. “Scootaloo! Scootaloo wake up! Wake up!” They shook her firmly and the filly moaned, swaying back and forth.

Then, all at once, it stopped and the filly’s eyes flicked back to their normal position. “Cheerilee… and Twilight?” she said sleepily. “What’re you doing in my… oh no…” she peeked under the covers, her face going as red as a beet. She hid her face in her hooves, moaning in humiliation.

“A-are you okay? You were screaming, we came to make sure you were okay!” Cheerilee said worriedly, holding one of Scootaloo’s shoulders. The filly looked up at her with a confused expression. “D-don’t you remember? Your nightmare?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Scootaloo said, cocking her head. “I was sleepin’ like normal!”

“You were sleeping like your mane was on fire.” Twilight said. Cheerilee shot her marefriend a dirty look, and she hung her head. “Er, sorry. We were just worried. You were yelling and squirming…” she trailed off.

“I was?” Scootaloo said, sitting up the rest of the way. “Er, c-can I get some new sheets?” she asked meekly, looking at the floor.

“Yes of course, we’ll wash these later,” Cheerilee said, smiling as she peeled back the wet covers and balled them up. “If you have night terrors, maybe we can see a doctor so it doesn’t happen again. What do you think?”

“A nightmare doctor? But I don’t even remember having a nightmare…” she trailed off when she saw the mess she’d made. “I-I’mma use the bathroom… get cleaned up…” she said in a small voice, shyly scampering out of the room.

“Hey,” Twilight whispered when the filly was gone. “You don’t think Scootaloo was… y’know, abused or anything, do you? Maybe that was a repressed memory, in her dreams?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Cheerilee said thoughtfully. “Other than being an orphan she’s led a very healthy life. I don’t know what could inspire a nightmare like that so suddenly. Poor thing.” She held up the wet sheet distastefully, then balled it up for washing later. Twilight nodded slowly, unsure. Cheerilee turned and went out into the living room down the hallway. She went into her own bedroom without bothering to turn the light on. Shoving the blanket into a waiting laundry basket, she fussed around in a chest to look for spare linens. She knew she had them somewhere, but where…?

Tap-a-tap-a-tap-a-TAP-A-TAP-A-TAP-a-tap. There was that weird sound again. Cheerilee cocked an eyebrow, but chose to ignore it. Scootaloo was more important than some random noise on the roof. “Keep me safe?” the voice startled her, and the mare turned around. Standing in the darkness of the hallway was her little foster foal. “Keep me safe?” Scootaloo repeated, tilting her head.

“Oh sweetie it’s okay, I promise,” Cheerilee said in a motherly way. Leaving the chest open, she turned and squatted down on her belly in front of the foal. “Nightmares happen, you’re always safe with me.”

The shadow-hidden filly seemed to consider this for a time, tilting her head the other way. The glint of the light from down the hall shone in her dark-reddish eyes. Her wings buzzed a little, then stopped. She looked up at Cheerilee as though curious, tap-tap-tapping her little hoof on the floor in a nervous way. There was a long silence of her doing this. “…promise?” Scootaloo said after some thought.

“Of course, of course,” Cheerilee pulled her into a hug-- then gasped when the filly dissolved into a black blobby puddle! She pulled away to find her arms and hooves covered with something dark and shiny like tar. Her eyes widened in terror. It spread all around her, bubbling and frothing like dirty oil. The purple mare jumped up to flee but it was already pulling her in. She sank into it like a bath, white-faced. She made to scream but it wrapped her eyes and muzzle as quickly as it could. Flailing as icy adrenaline flooded her body she was only half aware as it slammed her head-first against the wall. Two. Three. Four bludgeoning strikes and she was limp. Her eyes rolled into her head and she fell into darkness. The nightmarish blob of not-Scootaloo absorbed her body into itself, licking the blood on of the wall with a long blue-purple tongue.

“You okay, Cheerilee?” Twilight called when she heard the thumping, crossing the loft from the Scootaloo’s bedroom to Cheerilee’s. Only silence greeted her. Twilight flicked the living room lights on. “Cheerilee?” she called again, sticking her head in the bedroom. “Did you fall?” she said worriedly, turning about and flipping the hall lights on. She stopped, icy fear gripping her. Her pupils shrank into dots.

The entire hallway, up the walls and across the ceiling, were covered with tiny black hoof prints—like some tiny unholy pony had decided to start walking on the ceiling instead of the floor.

“Cheerilee!” Twilight whirled around when the sound of shattering glass pierced the silence of the bedroom. She rushed in, only to see a small, shadowy something vanish into the night. The window was completely broken out, showering the ground below with shards. “Cheerilee!” Twilight imploded on the spot, teleporting, appearing outside. “Cheerilee!” She turned in quick, panicked circles. “Somepony help! Hellllp! Somepony!” Twilight screamed bloody murder.

“Twilight!” Scootaloo had appeared at the window, a washcloth in one hoof. “What happened?! Where’s Cheerilee?!”

“I-I-I don’t know! Stay inside!” Twilight rushed down the alleyway, turning left and right. Nothing. Nothing at all but shadows and silence. “Cheerilee! CHEERILEE!” Lights in other pony’s homes started to come on all around her. The night guards patrolling the nearby street began to zero in on Twilight’s screaming. Armored stallions galloped in from on high, their bat-like wings flapping hard.

“Keep me safe… keep us safe… Cheerilee-e-e-e-e...” the night whispered. Twilight’s eyes scanned the dark, wide and frightened, but she couldn’t see anything. Cheerilee was gone.

Within the Everfree

Under the Bed
Part 4: Within the Everfree

“For the last time, that’s all I saw!” Twilight said, wiping her puffy eyes a little. Almost-but-not-quite witnessing her marefriend’s ponynapping had hit her hard. The local guard had been questioning her over and over for the slightest variation to her story, but there just weren’t any. Several loud thumps, and by the time she’d gotten there, nothing. Tiny hoofprints all over the hallway, and then whispering in the alleyway.

“Anything else? The slightest detail could be important, you never know,” the mare in golden armor said, sitting across the table from her. Between the stacks of papers and the gold helm sitting on the table, Twilight felt very much like a suspect. “Any odd smells, or noises, or anything?”

Twilight scrunched her face, trying to do her best to help, “There was tapping on the roof. Like somepony was running across it.” She admitted.

“That’s a pretty big detail, Twilight,” observed the mare across from her. “Did it sound heavy?”

“No, it was light. Really light and quick like a… like a foal almost. That would explain the tiny hoofprints all over the walls and the ceiling.” Twilight leaned back, furrowing her brow. “But what kind of animal leaves foal-shaped hoofprints?”

“We’ve already discerned it’s not an animal attack, Miss Sparkle.” said the guard shortly. “We’ve been in touch with a local animal expert, and quite a few other ponies trying to figure this out.”

“Well I can certainly do some research or something,” Twilight offered eagerly. “It took Cheerilee, the least I can do is—”

“No, I don’t want you involved,” said the guard curtly.

“What?! Why?! I’m Prin--!”

“--Princess Celestia’s protégé, the element of magic, a national hero and rumored to be next in line as court magician of Canterlot,” she said, interrupting. Turning to her stack of papers, she produced a little manila folder. “I know all about you, Twilight, and so does everypony in this station.” She flipped the folder open. Clipped to the front page was a polaroid of Twilight and Celestia. Twilight leaned, blushing a little.

“Why do you have this…?” Twilight reached for the file, but the white Pegasus snatched it back and snapped it closed.

“For all the reasons I just named as to who and what you are,” she said. “Whatever we’re dealing with here, it snatched Ponyville’s biggest stallion without leaving a trace. It also grabbed a grown mare from a second story window and sprayed her blood across the wall.” Twilight made to interrupt but she held up a hoof. “It also grabbed a second grown mare right out from under the nose of the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.”

Twilight winced at the blow to her ego. “S-so? That means I can help!”

“It means that it’s strong enough and smart enough to rip you in half when nopony is looking, and I’ll be damned if my police station has to report to Princess Celestia herself that ‘sorry, your protégé was captured and might be dead. Our bad!’” she snarked.

“That’s not fair!” Twilight said angrily, standing up.

“Lemme put it to you this way, Miss Sparkle. You’re a national hero, but you’re still a civilian. We cannot bring you in to help because, frankly, you’re a scholar. You’re attached to this case because of Cheerilee. We don’t assign murder victim’s families to help us look for their murderers.” The guard said. Twilight looked horrified. “Not that I’m saying anypony is dead. That remains to be seen,” she coughed. “But, back to you. In your own bizarre way, you’re a national treasure as well. If you get lost, stolen, or… well, broken,” She said with a dark look, “All kinds of hell will break loose. And I don’t just mean Celestia getting mad at us guards.” She nodded towards the window, “Ponies everywhere will be terrified of this place for a long time to come. After all, if something out there was tough enough to grab Twilight Sparkle, then what chance do they have?”

Twilight hung her head a little. She wasn’t used to being praised and then put down like that. It hurt, but she kind of understood. “What should I do? I can’t just sit around and wait,” she said softly.

“That’s exactly what I’d like you to do.” The mare said, standing and putting on her helm. “I’d like to place you in protective custody with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.”

“Protective custody?” Twilight gaped. “Why?! I can defend myself!”

“So could Big Macintosh.” snapped the guard. “For your own good, I want you to go pack a suitcase and report back here.”

“What about the others? I mean, Rarity was the element of generosity! Shouldn’t we contact the Princesses?” Twilight begged a little, already being led to the door.

“I’m not sure what we’d tell them, Twilight,” said the armored mare. “Something is snatching ponies in the dead of night, and in broad daylight, under the guise of a foal. So what do we do about that? Tell everypony to avoid children until we catch whatever it is? Maybe evacuate Ponyville?”

Twilight sighed as she spoke. She was just as short on ideas about how to catch a monster nopony had even seen—other than Sweetie Belle, apparently. Twilight’s face suddenly lit up. Sweetie Belle could tell her more! But Sweetie Belle was locked up in protective custo…. Ah-hahhh. “Alright,” the purple mare finally agreed, smiling. “I’ll go close up the library, get Spike and bring a suite case back here.”

The gear-switch was suddenly, but the soldier wasn’t about to look a gift-pony in the mouth. “It’s not exactly the Ritz, Miss Sparkle,” the tired mare looked relieved that Twilight had stopped fighting her. “But there’s a lot of good ponies here that’ll protect you.”

“I’ll be back in an hour or two,” Twilight nodded, promising.

=-=-=-=

When Twilight returned it was nearly sunset, and her little suitcase was bulging. Spike rode on her back, looking around the police station in wonder. He’d never been in such a place, and it was pretty interesting to see all the serious-faced armored ponies milling about. Big maps had red yard strung across them, pictures of wanted ponies lined a cork board, and there was even an actual water cooler like you always hear about those water cooler jokes! He caught himself grinning. “Here we are, two to check in,” Twilight joked just a little.

“Good to have you back,” said the pony behind the counter.

The same armored mare as before approached. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name!” Twilight apologized. “I was here for hours and didn’t even ask it.”

“Eh, sorry I never gave it.” She looked exhausted and worried in the eyes as she led Twilight past the offices portions. “I’m Captain Clover, of the Ponyville Guard,” She nodded. The purple mare’s eyes flicked to her rump to see a four-leaf clover. Maybe she was a lucky pony? And she used that luck to catch criminals? That was a great way to use one’s special talent, Twilight decided, smiling wide.

“So we’re gonna stay here for a few days?” Spike asked, leaning on Twilight’s withers to make himself taller.

“Yeah,” said Captain Clover with a flap of her wings. “It’s much safer here, in case whatever it is comes back.”

“Do they know what it is yet?” Spike asked eagerly.

“Not yet,” Clover said, frowning seriously. “This way.” She led them along a short hallway. The regular drywall walls gave way to a much more serious stone and mortar. “These walls are over two feet thick, and the passage is fifty feet underground. The walls down there are just as thick.” She told them as they made their way down. “This building used to be a bank, back in the old days. So this was…” she nodded to a quartet of guards standing in an antechamber as they entered. “The vault,” Clover gestured with a smile. The massive door was steel and kind of scary-looking, but it was all the way open. “Don’t worry, we don’t actually close the thing unless there’s a threat detected.”

“N-neat,” Spike said nervously.

“I’ll have my one of my fellow officers bring extra blankets and such. Make yourselves comfortable.” Clover didn’t cross the threshold, offering a tired but honest smile. “Thank you for agreeing to do this, Twilight. If you wanted to run wild and chase after that thing, I don’t think I could’ve stopped you. You’re making the smart decision.”

Twilight nodded somberly, going inside.

“Hey look its Twilight and Spike!” Sweetie Belle’s head popped up over a couch. Scootaloo’s followed shortly after. Both of them were wide-eyed. “The monster must’ve taken somepony else…” whispered the foal.

“I didn’t see a monster at all,” said Scootaloo glumly, sighing. “At least you saw something.” They were awfully cheery for having ponies close to them snatched or dead. Twilight opened her mouth to scold them, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. If they found comfort in each other and their sharing, she couldn’t yell at them for it.

“Hey girls,” Twilight said finally, scanning the room. It had basic furniture, a radio, plenty of toys strewn about for foals, a bookshelf, a line of cots, and a little supply closet.

In one corner stood a fifth guard. “Ma’am,” he offered, nodding before returning to his silent, stoic look. Even as far from Canterlot and out of sight as he was, he was still the picture of your standard solar pony.

“Oh wow, that’s the first thing he’s said in two days!” Scootaloo said. “We can’t make him talk at all, we tried everything!”

Twilight set her suitcase down as Spike hopped off, “You said you saw something, Sweetie Belle?” she said with interest. “I didn’t see what took Cheerilee. What did you see?” she settled on the other couch like it was a sleepover. Sweetie Belle looked at the floor, eyes softening. Twilight regretted diving right in almost immediately. She tried to remember that the poor thing had seen Rarity get assaulted, maybe killed, then dragged out into the night. “Er… I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it up like that.”

“It was little, like me.” Sweetie Belle mumbled. “It took Rarity away. I-I dunno if she’s even still alive!” her pupils got bigger and bigger as the tears began to well up. Twilight felt worse and worse. Two minutes in and she’d already made one of her new housemates cry. Without warning the little white foal bounded off the couch and took refuge under the guard in the corner. Twilight blinked when he sank to sit on his haunches so she could hide herself in his belly and barrel. Though the guard said nothing, he could offer the silent comfort of his pillar-like legs and muscle. Poor filly.

=-=-=-=

Zecora cocked her head when she heard hooves approaching. She reached, snatching her rattling staff from where it rested. The clip-clopping stopped at the stoop of her little hut. She narrowed her eyes, hunching a little. She didn’t dare move to a window. Her mind was far from easy. Everywhere she looked lately, she’d seen shadows in the wood. Shadows with round little eyes and pitter-patter steps. But she knew better than to go near them.

There was a quick and fretful knocking on the door. Tap-a-tap-a-tap-a-TAP-A-TAP-A-TAP-a-tap-tap-tap.The zebra wasn’t sure she should answer. She looked at the line of red powder along her windowsills, the one across her bedroom door, and her front door. Screwing up her courage, she rose to her hooves and stood before her front door. “Who is that knocking there? Lighter hooves tell me… a mare?”

“Zecora it’s me! Pipsqueak!” the accent was as foreign to Ponyville as her own. “Please let me in, it’s scary out here!” the clitter-clatter of little hooves told her he was dancing nervously about. “W-we met on Nightmare Night, don’t you remember me?”

The zebra frowned a bit, thinking. Yes, she knew that voice. Going to the door, she eased it open and peered down. The oppressive, rolling clouds over Everfree tucked all the colors away in exchange for greys and silvers. No Pegasus could steer the clouds there, and it gave the whole place an air of menace. “Hello my friend Pip, coming here was quite a trip! But tell me now little foal, what has made my home your goal?”

The foal giggled at her rhyming. Most foals did, and that always made Zecora smile. “W-well, there’s something weird happening in town, and I wanted to come see if you could help.” He looked around like he might have been followed, still standing on the doorstep. “You see, my teacher Cheerilee is gone! And two other ponies too! They disappeared!” he paced about in a cute little sort of I-have-to-pee dance.

Zecora cocked her head. Serious indeed, missing ponies! “Missing ponies you tell me of darling Pip, braving the wood for love and friendship. Tell me more, where they lived, so better advice, I might give.”

“W-well, the guards around Ponyville are being really hush-hush, y’know?” he stood on the lip of her threshold, looking up at her with soft eyes. “But, my classmates noticed when Cheerilee went missing. Scootaloo says someone ponynapped her! And Sweetie Belle just got back from the police station—she said a monster came and took Rarity! And then--” he rattled through what gossiping foals had told him.

Zecora was more than a little worried now. Moving shadows with big eyes in the woods, and now missing ponies as well? “To my hut you came at a clip, but who assigned you such a dangerous trip?”

“Snails triple-dog-dared me,” Pipsqueak hung his head, wilting his ears. Zecora chuckled a little. Well, one could do strange things when one’s honor was at stake. Triple-dog-daring was quite serious business when you were ten. “A-anyway, I came to get your help. None of the grown-ups seem to know what to do.” He sad sadly, looking at his hooves. “B-but, I think maybe you could help!” he nodded past her to all her hanging bones, potions, and strange Zafrican artifacts. “Maybe you can zoodoo the monster away?”

Zecora’s muzzle wrinkled for a moment. Zoodoo, much like triple-dog-daring, was very serious business. The foal didn’t know what he was implying. It took a black heart indeed to make a zoodoo doll, wrest bodily control from somepony, and drive them away. A black heart indeed. One might mistake it with voodoo, but no, zoodoo was meant for animals and the evil-hearted. The only question was… how did Pip know about such a thing? Or better yet, Zecora’s capacity to do it? She’d never attempted more than a few times in Zafrica, but… that word hadn’t touched an Equestrian pony’s lips in some time. The zebra’s eyes narrowed a little, then she smiled indulgently at the foal. “Very well then, zoodoo it is. I will drive out the monster, wherever it is!”

Pip’s face lit up and he did a little dance on the doorstep, hopping up and down on his front hooves like an excited dog. “Alright! Let’s go! Let’s do it! C’mon!” he said, very excited. Such an hyper little thing! He must’ve been fed something sugary to boost his courage before he’d set out into Everfree. “Let’s go, Zecora!” he said, dashing out into her yard before turning about to beckon her.

The zebra chuckled a bit, glancing at the sky. “Come in a moment, before it rains! I have much to gather, things to arrange!” It did take some unusual ingredients to make a zoodoo doll and cast a zoodoo spell, after all.

Pip looked skyward, at the rolling clouds. A little plip of water touched his muzzle. He made a beeline for the door as Zecora stepped away. He’d been invited in! Neato! All his momentum and dashing galloping jerked to a halt in the threshold of the door. Almost like he’d hit a wall. He gagged a moment, like he’d hit his nose. Blinking, confused, he looked at his hooves. There was a line of red brick dust across the doorframe, mounted rather high. Even the winds of the oncoming storm didn’t push it over and break the line. He looked up slowly, and found Zecora regarding him with a cool frown. “What’s this?” he asked innocently.

The zebra leaned on her chest of drawers, shouldering her staff. “Brick dust, my little friend. Now tell me, why draw me out-- and to what end?” Pipsqueak cocked his head, looking at the line of brick dust. He backed up, then tried to force his way across again. He yapped like he’d hit his nose. Something supernatural was keeping him from crossing the threshold into the hut. Leaning down, he heaved a big breath and blew hard on it. The dust didn’t scatter. He couldn’t affect it at all. He hoof’d at it a few times, tried to cross again. It held like iron.

“That’s not fair, Zecora!” said Pipsqueak, whining as the rain began outside. “I’ll get wet!” he whimpered at her and gave her big, soft foal eyes.

The zebra felt only the briefest tug on her heartstrings, but she knew better. Brick dust, when enchanted, stopped those of ill-intent. Animals, ponies, and— anything else. Zecora turned slowly and gracefully, leaning to pluck a few empty bottles from her shelf. Leaning her staff on the wall, she arranged them in a neat little row. Pipsqueak watched her curiously, falling silent and tilting his head. She held up an amber beer bottle, peering at him through the colored glass. He blinked at her. She held up a green ginger ale bottle, squinting at the foal’s image in the doorway. Nothing. She held up a plain clear mayo jar. Hmm, distorted. “Clever you are, a smart little creature. But does a mirror, I wonder, reveal your true features?” she reached into a drawer and got a hand-mirror, turning away from Pip and angling it at him. Mirrors never lied.

The creature Zecora saw in the mirror was black and shiny, like a changling. But it wasn’t a changeling. Its eyes were completely whited out and the rows upon rows of fangs in its mouth gave way to a jaw that looked easy to unhinge. Zecora counted three rows of teeth from where she stood. Its little pot belly was round and shiny, and the little stub of mane and tail on its body barely resembled—something close to seaweed. Its skin was oil, shimmering back and forth like it was trying to decide exactly what sort of onyx color to be. It dripped and dribbled all over—something that looked like a mix between hot wax and tar. Most interesting was the line on its back. Zecora would have mistaken it for a garden hose at first, but it was much too small. She was reminded of an umbilical cord, if not for it having sprouted from the thing’s back instead of its belly.

Zecora lowered the mirror, turning around with a pale expression. Pipsqueak was standing there with a neutral expression, something between disappointment and annoyance. The rain started to pound at him, blowing into the hut as well. There was a long silence as not-Pip a the Zebra stared at each other. “You’re all going to die, you know. We only need a few of you. The rest will die.” Suddenly his cute little foreign accent wasn’t so cute anymore.

The zebra waited for the next flash of lightning to wrench down a random bottle from where it hung on a string. Turning with a wild Zafrican hoof-spring she sent the bottle spinning at the monster, “Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-yahhhhhh!” she bellowed a quick spell to set the label ablaze with a thrust of her staff.

The shattering of glass sent the mixture all over the pretender and it shrieked in three different voices, cartwheeling backward in pain. It caught fire before it hit the ground. It splashed out into a black, muddy puddle, moaning in a loud wail that was neither male nor female. Zecora seized a dirty jar of brick dust, rushing out of the safety of her home with it. Grabbing a hoof-full she blew it all over the frothing, boiling puddle. The whole thing caught fire as the mixture spread, spitting and popping like a fireworks show. She traced a quick circle around it in the mud with brick dust. It wasn’t going anywhere. The little cable on the beast’s back snapped, snaking away into darkness. Then the whole thing went still.

Zecora stood there in the rain, panting and soaked. She mixed the brick-dust in with the beast’s remains using the butt of her staff. Then she rushed back inside for more alchemist fire and burned the already burned remains. She watched the entire time, to make sure it was dead. “If the shadows I’ve seen are things like it,” she poked it a few more times to make quadruple-sure it was dead, “then Ponyville, it seems, is in deep shit.”

Beneath the Abomination

Under the Bed
Part 5: Beneath the Abomination

Fluttershy walked among the animals with her feed basket in her mouth. Spreading feed here, laying corn there, she counted her chickens and collected their eggs. She greeted the rooster and checked on the bird-feeders. It was usually a pretty thankless job, but she was paid by the local government to study and maintain the local wildlife. That didn’t just mean feeding, it meant watching populations, noting migrations, and so on and so forth. There was plenty to do that wasn’t just her prancing cutely along, feeding every squirrel she came across. If she did that, they wouldn’t hunt and would only come to her for food. So she always bought stale nuts from the market, so they’d have to work extra hard to get them open. She always got the larger kernel birdseed.

The yellow Pegasus was worried, though. She’d blabber-mouthed everything to Twilight when she’d asked why she looked so nervous a few days ago. Then Twilight had closed up the library and had gone somewhere for ‘a few days’, according to the sign on her door. Had that been her fault? Fluttershy wilted, setting her basket down in front of her coy fish pond. The brilliantly colored orange fish looked at her sideways with shy little smiles (they were coy fish, after all). She sprinkled fish food at them, watching the ripples to soothe herself.

She worried about Twilight, and Rarity, and the other ponies that had been taken. A slow miasma of stress and worry had descended over Ponyville. Its citizens traded rumors about the disappearances, herded their foals in large groups, and a few stouter stallions had taken up neighborhood watches to help out the local guard. The local guard didn’t like this, but it wasn’t as though they could control where ponies went at night. It was all so worrisome and—a face stared back at her in the water. Fluttershy eep’d, seizing up like a fainting goat and tilting sideways at a perfect forty-five degree angle. Her wing held her firmly in the impressive pose.

“I did not mean to startle you , perhaps my face still says to you, boo!” Zecora, who was standing across the coy pond from her, pulled her hood back. The zebra watched as the pegasus rather embarrassedly started to flex and uncramp herself. “I have several brews to help with that Fluttershy, perhaps when this is over you might to my hut drop by.”

“Oh, hullo Zecora.” Fluttershy said, pushing her mane out of her face. “You just caught me thinking, is all. I didn’t see you come out of Everfree.” She apologized, worry still written all over her features.

“I come bearing ill news, my butter-yellow friend. If we do nothing this terror will be without end.” Zecora gestured to the shadows of the forest, then the town.

“You know what’s happening to the disappeared ponies?” Fluttershy said, eyes wide.

Zecora was scanning the tree line, nodding slowly. Oddly enough, she lifted an empty mayo jar and squinted through it. Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion. The slight twitch in her neck muscles told the pegasus she’d seen something. Turning, the Zebra lowered the jar and spoke quickly. “Yes, but out in the open I dare not convey. We must gather and rally your friends, right away!”

“Rarity was one of the ponies that was taken,” Fluttershy hung her head glumly.

“Then she will be among those we save, or darkness shall encompass the town like a wave!” Zecora turned smartly and marched towards town. Fluttershy set down her feed basket (the animals dove at it in a free for all), following after her. The yellow pony cocked her head, for she’d never seen Zecora carrying her staff around in town. Didn’t she usually only use it for meditation, to balance upside down? How strange.

The two of them quickly made their way into town, Zecora looking over her shoulder several times. “Is something following us?” Fluttershy whispered. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Tis beyond the mortal eyes, to see such dark things. The curve of clear glass reveals evil that teems.” Zecora said darkly, frowning over her shoulder she spoke. Fluttershy wanted to see, but didn’t. Even a pony as easily frightened as she had a morbid curiosity as to what was going on. As the comfort of pony-made buildings blocked their view of Everfree, the Zebra seemed to relax a little.

=-=-=-=

Thunder growled threateningly in the distance, in the thick of Everfree. Little flickers of lightning promised rain, but it never came. Energy was on the breeze, but it refused to budge. The air was thick and oppressive like a bog, a hot mist hovering just above the ground. Strange and exotic creatures chirps and shrieked, staring at each other with their narrow yellow eyes. But all of them steered clear of a wide area, even the bugs.

Suddenly Rarity awoke with a rattling cough, turning to expel something black and gelatinous onto the ground beside her. Wretching repeatedly, she heaved herself back so her lungs would take in air. Flopping back with a moan, she stared hazily at nothing at all. Her eyes refused to focus. The world swam, her head ached, and there was a furious itch in her neck. Reaching up she scratched hard, and her hoof came away with red flakes of dead skin on it. She gave a weak little shriek, flopping down again and turning her head away. What had happened? She was tucking Sweetie Belle in, then…

‘Rarity, there’s somepony in my bed!’

The terrified filly’s pale face filled her mind’s eye. She’d gotten up and then… what? She’d been pounced upon. Where was she now then? The belly of the beast? Its lair? Turning over and trying to stand, she wobbled like a newborn and fell on her belly. She felt so drained. “S-somepony…” she whispered as chips of rotted wood and rock dug into her soft body. “Somepony help….” It was a tiny croak of sound, little more. Matted in mud and some sort black ooze, she whimpered again as tears started to go down her face. With some effort she shifted onto her side, and froze.

Movement. Movement above her and all around. She could only barely see, but it was definitely there. Trees were bent and broken away in a great ring, as though something massive and sharp had just thrust its way out of the earth like a jagged knife. Some sort of swaying, living mass was in the middle. She couldn’t make out what it was, but it was bulbous at the bottom like a radish, and it soared over a hundred feet skyward, swaying back and forth…. Back and forth… against the wind, in some sort of trance-like state. Was it a plant? Rarity had never seen such a monstrosity before. Whenever she looked at it, her vision seemed to slide out of focus and a headache pounded at her. She tried to stare at it out of the corner of her eye, but it did little good.

Hooves approached Rarity and she quickly played dead. If she was here and not in a cage, chances were--- well, chances were something she might only have a one of. Closing her eyes and letting her mouth hang open in a rather unlady-like way, she stayed as still as possible. A set of tiny little hooves approached her, much too quick for an adult pony. A foal, perhaps? No, whatever had been in Sweetie Belle’s bed was foal shaped, but NOT a foal. She tried not to tremble when it stopped next to her.

A series of cricket-like chirruping sounds went back and forth. Clickity-clickity sounds that reminded Rarity of what an insect might say if it were loud enough. Chitter-murr, clickity-clickity. There was more than one of them. Rarity squeezed her eyes shut as though she were having a nightmare. Two tiny hooves propped themselves on her side. It was so light, not at all heavy like she expected. Something with sharp teeth nibbled on the scruff of her neck, like it was tasting her mane. There was light, curious pulling on her tail. Then something warm and slimy touched her cheek, running slowwwwly and necrotically up the side of her face and temple. She tried, oh she tried not to whimper—but a tiny sound escaped her. The tongue, tentacle, whatever it was quickly withdrew and there was quiet. She knew she was being stared at.

Something pony-shaped shoved its head up under one of her front forelegs. It felt loose and slimy, like something that had died in water and lost most of its mane. The smell invaded her nose. It was like a rain-soaked log that had been left in a punishing sun. That sort of murky, wet wood smell that tells you the wood has sponged up everything it can, and is hot to the touch. Whatever it was dropped her foreleg. Rarity stayed limp and quiet, clenching her teeth. A stiff breeze blew and she shivered. The slimy thing returned to caress her forehead, then up the nape of her neck, then back up to her temple.

“Bring D’ah!” A young-sounding voice suddenly spoke. Rarity almost flinched. “Bring D’ah! Bring D’ah!” it chanted, stamping a hoof. “M’ah is cold, she shivers like death! Bring D’ah! Bring D’ah!” Something huge and warm fell, seemingly from the sky, flumping on the earth next to Rarity. She didn’t dare open an eye to look. The little foal-like monsters gathered, who knew how many, to shove the warm thing up to Rarity.

As a mare Rarity knew a stallion’s barrel when she felt one. It was huge, muscled, and warm. Pressed against her face, she flicked an eye open for the barest of moments. Red. Her vision had filled with bring red and her nose with the chipper scent of natural sugar. Big Macintosh?! She squeezed her eyes shut when the little monsters returned, pushing them until their bodies were pressed together. Rows and rows of little teeth clenched At Rarity’s limbs, arranging her accordingly. If she resisted even a little, they only dug in harder. Oh Gods, what if they knew she was awake!? They’d tear her to pieces!

Big Macintosh’s muscled forelegs were pulled, tugged, and then wrapped around Rarity’s shoulders. It was an intimate embrace, even if both ponies were limp. She could feel the little teeth marks all over him. He must’ve been snatched up like her, oh Gods. The white mare was too scared to move much more than to lean into Big Mac’s chest. Her tail curled between her legs and she gave a forlorn sort of moan.

“She likes, she likes!” There was a pattering sort of dancey-hooves sound. The little group of monsters pattered around, scaling trees to have a better look and hang out all around them. Upside down off of vines, up on rocks and all around them. The white mare didn’t dare turn her head to look at them, or anything else for that matter.

“M’ah is with D’ah. Where is M’ahh?” it was a slightly longer version of the same name.

“Taking the black! Taking the black!” Another little voice chittered, dancing on its four little hooves. “M’ahh takes the black for us! Up there, up there!”

Rarity’s morbid curiosity made her slit an eye open and peer up at the swaying… thing, that she’d seem when she first woke up. Something was fuzzy in the edges of her mind, like she couldn’t quite look at it directly. What she’d thought had been willow-like branches were actually some sort of hair-like appendages, swaying in an easy rhythm. The white mare quivered, a wretched scream of terror rising in her throat. The whine of a tv-just-turned-on filled her inner ear, and her pupils shrank at the sight of the thing.

While its slimy, orifice-covered shape slowly came into focus, she could see a pony being held in its grasp. Whoever it was, she was being held spread-eagle, and a mass from the center of the abomination was attached to her muzzle. Dribbling, slimy, syrup-like slurry dripped from all around her face and ears as it forced gods-knew-what down her throat. The slight pudge in her belly said it was over-feeding her. Then, just as suddenly, it slowly set her down like she was made of glass… right on top of Rarity.

Rarity seized up as she came face to face with an unconscious Cheerilee. Her throat constricted as the pony’s body was laid out over hers and Big Mac’s. Her face and cheeks were covered with something black and syrupy, like she’d shoved her face into a puddle of wet asphalt. The weight of her head sagged, and her cheek rubbed up against Rarity’s. The barest glimmer of the white mare’s sanity began to quiver and unravel. “Bluhhh-h-h-h…” said the air escaping from Cheerilee’s mouth. Black, syrupy darkness trickled from her mouth and onto Rarity’s breast. That was all it took to make her eyes roll into her head, and she was out.

“M’ah and M’ahh and D’ahh! M’ah and M’ahh and D’ah!” chanted the little foal-like monsters, dancing around the pile of bodies in a perfect circle. The great mass of darkness and living hair swayed back and forth with their song, vibrating the air like a soundless, groaning tuba. It tickled their inner ears with its not-voice and they giggled as their dancing got wilder and more feral. “M’ah and M’ahh and D’ah! M’ah and M’ahh and D’ah!”

On the Lawn

Under the Bed
Part 6: On the Lawn

“Thanks so much for your help, girls,” Twilight whispered, leaning down to hug the three of them. The four guards were still outside the safe house, but the fifth that stayed in the room with them had just gone to the little colt’s room. The coast was clear.

“You’ll bring back Cheerilee, right Twilight?” Scootaloo asked with big eyes.

“And Big Mac?” Applebloom put in.

“And my big sister too!” Sweetie Belle’s voice broke a little, for it propelled her into the air for a moment.
Twilight nodded vigorously, rolling up her notes as best she could. She took her number one assistant aside for a private word. “Spike--”

“I know, I know,” he said glumly, hanging his head. “You always leave me behind.” He grumbles softly.

“I want you to protect these three fillies,” the purple mare actually scowled at him.

Spike looked up, startled at her expression. “What? You’re not dropping me off at the library?” he said, confused.

“No, Spike,” Twilight said, tightening her saddlebag strap as she spoke. “Whatever snatched those three ponies made victims out of all three of them. They need protecting from whatever’s out there.”

“B-but what can I do?” Spike said.

“Withstand lava, crush jewels in your jaws, split stone and burrow with your claws like you’re swimming in water…” Twilight said, trailing off. Color touched Spike’s cheeks. That wasn’t anything special, that was just what he could do because he was a dragon. The purple mare leaned down to cup his cheek, and look him in the eye properly. “If anything comes in here that shouldn’t, you’re way more resilient than even the toughest armor.” She nodded quickly towards the stallions posted in the antechamber. “You protect them, understand?”

“Y-you got it, Twilight.” Spike saluted, standing as tall as his little body let him.

Twilight nodded to him, then ignited her horn. The guards would not be pleased, but she wasn’t about to sit there. She had to get this information to ponies that would help as soon as she could. Sparks and glitter fell from her forehead spiral, and she vanished with a crack of parted air.

=-=-=-=

Twilight reappeared in the library, panting a little. Long-distance teleporting really took it out of her. “Alright,” she whispered, pulling books already. “What’s as small as a foal, as strong as Big Mac, and able to leap to tall windows in a single bound?” she flipped back and forth. The tomes began to hover, flipping pages rapidly. All manner of beasts and animals whipped by. Captain Clover had said it wasn’t an animal attack, but Twilight wasn’t convinced. Ponies didn’t ponynap each other, much less without leaving a trace.

Big Macintosh could probably knock down an alicorn if he got a running start. Rarity was trained in basic defense magic like any grown mare. Cheerilee was no pushover either, and she hadn’t even gotten the chance to scream.

Twilight’s heart ached at the thought of her marefriend. Her ears wilted and the books sagged in midair. If anything had happened to Cheerilee, Twilight didn’t know what she would do. They’d only just become lovers some months ago. Twilight had quietly lost her virginity to the mare right before Scootaloo had moved in. It had felt so right. Sure she was clingy, but who wouldn’t be when they found someone so compatible? Maybe she just had an attraction to teachers. Why, when she was in her first estrus, she’d moaned aloud at Princess Celestia’s touch—

Twilight shook her head quickly, fighting down a furious blush. “Work! Back to work!” she coached herself angrily, turning pages. “Okay, separate by climate. Then by region. Then by country. Then by biome… what does that leave?” she murmured, closing one book after another to narrow her search. “I don’t think it’s a manticore… hydras are too big… chimeras? No…” She looked and looked, paging from one animal to the next. After perhaps an hour, she sagged forward and sighed, “What if Captain Clover was right? What if it’s not an animal? What if it’s a pony?” She looked over her shoulder at the murder mystery section of the library. “But what kind of pony would just take them from their homes? How? Why?” Twilight was talking in circles, not for the first time, “Why Big Mac, Cheerilee, and Rarity?” After talking with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and finding out that no, they’d not summoned a foal-shaped demon or dragged a wild beast out of Everfree, she’d dropped that connection. Twilight’s powerful mind went to work.

What did the three victims have in common?
A teacher, a farmer, and a dressmaker.
Cheerilee had no little sister, so that was out.
Big Mac was male, so it wasn’t all mares.
Rarity was a unicorn, so it wasn’t all earth ponies.
Big Mac had a primary cutie mark, and the girls had three smaller ones instead, so that wasn’t it either.
What was it, then? Or worse yet, what if there was no pattern to the victims at all?

Twilight scrubbed at her mane, having made a trio of lists. Each represented a pony that had been taken, listed out with their characteristics. One rarely spoke, one was used to speaking to large groups. One was a business mare, another was all about investing in the future generation. The purple unicorn drew lines back and forth, wildly comparing and contrasting. All the books she’d ever read that involved multiple kidnappings had connected the victims under some common banner. Why couldn’t she see it?! There had to be something! Anything!

Twilight nearly jumped out of her fur when there was a banging at the library door. She turned, lighting her horn cautiously. Leaning, she peered out a closed window. A group of ponies waited outside. The curve of the glass and the darkness of the oncoming storm outside hid their faces and colors, but she knew five ponies when she saw them. It was her friends, come to help her! “Oh thank goodness,” she rushed and threw the door open. “Girls, I’m so glad y--!”

A mass of swirling black tentacles rushed in to grab Twilight with a gong-like roar. She shrieked in terror as her legs were bound together. No! Five was wrong! Rarity was missing! It should’ve been four! She was stupid, so stupid! Vine-like appendages threw themselves wetly around her face and neck. Her horn fired wildly, blasting syrupy black holes into the mass of chaos. It screeched in a thousand tiny little voices, rolling and pudging out and turning over itself.

Twilight emptied the proverbial clip, sending bolts of arcane magic flying in all directions. Tssssewww! Branches fell from Golden Oaks. Tssssewww! A bird feeder exploded. A long swath of her yard ignited into a purple fire. Tssssewww! Her mailbox launched itself into the stratosphere. Tssssewww! Tssssewww! Tssssewww! Splatter. Splatter. Sput-splatter. Gore went in all directions. Tentackles snapped off like boiled twigs, spraying purple goo through the air. It slammed Twilight against the library. She cried out, stunned. She snarfed as something fleshy shoved its way into her muzzle to gag her. Her throat constricted as her vision started to instantly swim. Breathing became impossible, and her stomach boiled. Furrowing her brow with a tear-streaked face, she whimpered and arched her back.

The black, blobby abomination pulled her in, kicking and moaning and thrashing wildly. Twilight was not a soldier. She was not an earth pony either. She just wasn’t strong enough. Tiny tendrils shoved their way into her nostrils, cutting off air entirely. Her vision began to tunnel, and her eyes roll into her head. Her horn sputtered and crackled, weakly tazing any fleshy bits that came near the crown of her head. A black puddle of nothingness waited for her on her own front lawn, ready to pull her in.

Lightning split the sky as the third storm that week revved up. With a whipping motion, the mass of fleshy tentacles raised the purple mare high. She writhed back and forth, whimpering helplessly. She couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t get her magic going like this. She looked down into the abyss beneath her. A thousand little red eyes stared up at her, big and black and curious at the sight of her. Lots and lots of little heads tilted curiously. Countless tiny little mouths gnashed back and forth as the unholy portal yawned open to meet her.

Twilight wrenched her body back, then fired with all her might into the blackness. There was an audible explosion of matter and debris. A few fleshy vines fell away as ash, but countless more sprang up to grab at her legs and wrap her neck and poke her marehood. She screamed into her bonds as she was reeled into darkness like a fish.

A tinkle of glass went by her head, and Twilight’s ear flicked. What was that? It sounded like crystal. Nopony used crystal for anything anymore. It was too expense, unless you were using it for alchemy of course. You know, those more volatile potions like alchemist fire.

Twilight’s neck snapped to one side as something strong slammed into her so hard the vines and tentacles snapped. The abomination screeched in pain, flailing wildly. The purple mare was blind. What was happening?! Wings. She could hear laboring wings.

“Gotcha!” It was Rainbow Dash’s voice! Twilight writhed in her bonds. “Don’t wiggle, I have to land! Hang on!” Twilight’s bond body was dropped onto her front lawn with a bump, where Fluttershy started feverishly pulling at the fleshy vines wrapped around her. “Take care of Twilight, we got a weed to whack!”

Another tinkle of glass went over Twilight’s head, this time she heard the glass break. There was a blossom of heat nearby. Another nightmarish scream came from the monster. Fluttershy pulled the bonds from her face and eyes just in time for the purple mare to see Zecora rush about, red dust trailing behind her.

The zebra’s saddlebag was wide open and a glass jar was spreading something dark red on the ground. “Brick dust will hold the beast, but this battle’s not over in the least!” she shouted. A tentacle slapped the her to one side and she bounced across the grass like a skipping stone. The glass jar sailed into the air.

Applejack dove for it, then continued the circle of brick dust until it was complete. The circle was messy, but it would hold. “Ah got it! It’s done!”

Rainbow Dash yelped, having been grabbed out of the air by a mass of the tendrils. “It’s got me!” She bit at it with her teeth, feral and whinnying like a battle pegasus. Grabbing her by the neck, it wrung her like a rag doll, slamming her into the ground over and over again. Sprinkles of blood dotted the air.

Pinkie Pie rushed into the fray, bouncing wildly from tree branch to tree branch in Golden Oaks. The mass of tentacles had crested, some sort of squid-shaped blob at the heart of things. It was trying to use the tree like an anchor to pull itself out! The pink mare leapt from branch to branch, using her weight to snap the wood it was holding onto. If the nightmarish creature made a grab for the trunk it would be too late.

“Why isn’t it workin’?!” Applejack shouted. “You said the brick dust would stop it!”

Zecora recovered herself, her muzzle bloodied from her tumble. “Stop it the dust does not, but holding it here keeps the town from its rot!” She gestured harshly, for the grass around the portal’s rim had begun to wilt and die. The grass curled, crusting over like it had been petrified by a cockatrice. Applejack’s eyes widened. That looked just like that mark back home, in the orchard. Had a portal opened there as well? “Rainbow Dash, a bombing run you must make! We must leave an explosion of fire in its wake!” The zebra turned back and forth, lifting a hoof in confusion. Where was the cyan pegasus?! Rainbow Dash lay in a heap, splayed out over the splintered remains of the library’s sign. She wasn’t moving. Eyes widening, Zecora quickly turned to the only other pair of wings in the group—Fluttershy. Galloping wildly and giving the beast a wide berth, the Zafrican shaman watched Pinkie Pie leap from branch to branch to keep it from pulling on the library. “Fluttershy it’s up to you, to beat the beast you must fly through!” she threw off her saddlebag to the yellow mare’s hooves. She gestured to the growing, writhing, snaking tangle of tentacles rising form the portal in the ground. “Alchemist fire will make quite a boom, if you do not the beast spells our doom!”

Fluttershy took the bag, hyperventilating as she went. N-n-n-now wasn’t the time to be a coward! Sh-sh-she could do it! She could!

Twilight gagged and writhed about, pulling fleshy pieces of darkness off of herself. She coughed and spluttered, then turned and vomited something black onto the grass. She collapsed in her own sick, moaning and squirming about so she wouldn’t have to smell it. Her horn flickered and popped, static snaps of magic going back and forth in her delirium. She’d looked right into the abyss, and she’d seen all the eyes staring back at her. A whining TV-just-turned-on sound rang in her ears. Her eyes slid in and out of focus the longer she thought about it. Funny! It was funny! “Ahah, ahah…. Ahhhh-hhahahahhhhh!” Twilight held her head, pitching over with pupils the size of dots as she laughed. Then she vomited again and began to sob. Zecora stood over her, watching the yellow Pegasus climb higher and higher into the sky.

Little droplets of glass fell from on high, spattering the main mass of the emerging abomination. The zebra watched in morbid fascination as larger and larger swaths of the thing caught fire. Alchemist fire was like oil. It moved. It flowed. It stuck to the skin. Even water did its victim no good, and the now pounding rain helped to spread it over more and more of the beast’s body. It let out a long, gargling shriek from a mouth hidden somewhere in the mass of bubbling flesh and flaps of fat. Slowly it sank, burning and stinking of flesh, back from whence it came. Zecora stood over it, staff in her hoof, watching it go. The smoke was black. The smell was foul. When the last tendril had sunk back into the cavernous deep of the portal, it snapped shut with a sickly sound of slapping flesh.

Twilight lay on the ground as the other ponies rushed to see to her. She was laughing hysterically, staring up at the sky. “It looked back! It looked back at me! Ahhhh-hahaha! The dark looked back at me!” she guffawed, stamping a hoof wildly. Then all at once she switched back to sobbing, tearing at her mane and ears like a madmare.

“Uhm… I think Twilight has gone bye-bye,” Pinkie Pie said worriedly. She and Applejack restrained her as best they could. “Is Rainbow Dash okay?” she turned her head to look.

The cyan pegasus had risen from the debris, walking at a bit of a wobble. A line of blood was on the side of her face, and a few bruises dotted her. Otherwise she looked okay. Sort of. She thought she was okay, that is. “I’m still here.” She grumbled, collapsing onto her belly.

Fluttershy landed nearby with empty saddlebags, huffing and puffing like she’d been holding her breath the entire time. “I-I-I made it, I’m back!” she squeaked softly. “Is Twilight okay?”

“It seems not, my friend. But her current madness, in time, will end.” Zecora said, walking past them to push the library door open. “Come inside from the rain, in this building there is knowledge to gain.” They all filed inside, some limping, others supporting a laughing madmare. Fluttershy shut the door and locked it, looking at the devastated front lawn. “Looking upon the darkness too closely, makes even the sharpest mind unravel, mostly,” She gestured to Twilight, who’d taken a fascination with sucking on one of Fluttershy’s pinions. The yellow mare stared in embarrassment, but didn’t have the heart to shake her off.

“What, she just looked at it and she went bonkers?” Rainbow Dash said, angry and mouth agape. Zecora nodded gravely. “How long is she gonna be like this?!” The zebra shrugged a little, sighing.

“Maybe iff’n we find out what Twilight was researchin’, we’ll find out what’s been going on here…” Applejack leaned over a zoology book. Then another book. Then another.

“What’s out there is not in found our friend Twilight’s books, for it lurks in the dark beyond where anypony looks!” Zecora shook her head. Turning to her last remaining saddlebag, she pulled a yellowed old scroll tube. It was thick, for the paper inside was quite long. It was written in an ancient fashion, in the way that books were made before binding was invented. It was all one piece of paper, rolled up into a thick scroll that was yards and yards of text.

As a group they cleared off a big library table. Fluttershy stood to one side, tending to poor Twilight. Applejack leaned to light a firefly lamp, opening the shutter all the way so they could see better. Working gently, as the scroll tube was quite old, Zecora undid the ties and snaps of the thing. A tip of yellow paper peeked out, and she unfurled it perhaps three feet. It took up the length of the table, and the ponies leaned over it to see.

Rainbow Dash tried to read it. “Shub… Shoob… Shu’hhh…” sounding it out didn’t help her much.

“Shub-Niggurath,” Zecora whispered. Seemingly in response, thunder exploded outside. The library shuddered. Twilight whimpered, putting her head under Fluttershy’s wing for safety. When she couldn’t see anymore, she began to giggle hysterically. There was a long silence. The ponies waited for the zebra to rhyme ‘Shub-Niggurath’ with something. But she didn’t. That frightened them. The striped mare just stood there, staring at the intricate old drawing of a mass of tentacles and eyes and mouths—all bound up into a tree-like structure with millions of little hair-like protrusions coming out of its crest. Zecora motioned them to look closer. The group leaned, furrowing their brows. Tiny, tiny, tiny in the drawing, there was something at the end of each hair. Their muzzles almost pressed to the ancient parchment and faded ink. They had to squint to see them. At the end of every hair on the beast was a foal-shaped, shadow-like figure with red eyes and a black body.

“It’s all one thing. One big thing. Like a big ol’—” Applejack paused to gulp. “—like a big ol’ angler fish.” Zecora nodded with a frown.

Among the Mud

Under the Bed
Part 7: Among the Mud

Rarity’s vision was a slow, syrupy swirl of inky blackness and ebony tendrils. The cool, hard surface beneath her said stone, but she wasn’t sure. It was smooth, but not polished—cool, but not stone cold. Her cheek could feel intricate carvings that had been scratched into its surface. She lifted her head with a soft moan, something sickly dribbling out of her muzzle. She felt thick and tired, like somepony that had just emerged from a piping hot bubble bath. She wanted nothing more than to lay her head down and go back to the darkness of unconsciousness. Something stopped her, though. A strange sort of slapping sound.

Turning, the once-white mare found her fur to be dusty grey and filthy. She groaned uncomfortably, laying on her back and staring skyward. Instead of stars, however, she was greeted with a strange sort of hanging tree. It wobbled, phallic, back and forth. The long, hair-like tendrils swayed in a soundless rhythm. She thought it was a giant weeping willow at first, but it was too white for that. The trunk was a throbbing mass, and the hairs were ghostly-pale. When she tried to take the whole thing in a stabbing ringing filled her ears. Her vision slid out of focus and she rubbed her eyes blearily. She turned onto her belly with a groan, ears flicking as her attention turned back to the rhythmic slap-slap-slap that was very nearby to her.

She turned to get off the flat stone slab, and found herself being stared at. She jerked to a halt, looking all around her. Dozens upon dozens of small, foal-like creatures were crowded around. They were staring, all of them staring. Some were smiling with rows and rows of jagged looking teeth. Her mind reeled at their oily skin and strange, shifting bodies. If someone shaved a pony, dipped them in black oil, then made them foal-sized… that would still be less creepy than what she was looking at.

Were they going to eat her? Tear her limb from limb? She looked around at all their waiting teeth, beady red eyes and lashing tails. Aside from the rude slap-slap-slapping sound in the background, there was no sound. “M’ah!” One of them blurted suddenly. This set them all off, chattering and belting back and forth. “M’ah! M’ah! M’ah!” they jumped and hopped and did little dances around her stone slab. They bucked into each other and wrestled wildly, barking and snapping at each other.

Rarity didn’t comprehend. She stared at them blearily. Did they think she was their mother? How? Why? The mare felt overwhelmed, bleary and still a bit hot under the collar. Groaning when her back legs shifted, she wondered if she’d hit her estrus a bit late this year. Summer had been pretty cruel to the unwed pony, and she’d suffered a few lonely nights—focus! Focus! She shook her head quickly, flicking her ears. She made to slowly climb off of the stone slab, but the little beasts crowded around to look up at her. She suddenly felt like she was on an island in a black ocean. Panting a bit, flushed in the cheeks, Rarity turned to find the source of the slapping noise she’d been hearing all this time. She wasn’t prepared for what she saw.

On a slab of stone very much like her own Rarity saw Big Macintosh mounted on Cheerilee, going fast and furious. The slapping noises were his male bits, swinging back and forth with each thrusting motion. She gaped at them, open-mouthed. Cheerilee whimpered softly while he had his filthy way with her, trying to dig her hooves into the slab and not be crushed against it. Big Macintosh held her hips with his front forelegs and her weight with his own, hunched like an alpha male. The stink of sweat and sex didn’t take long to reach Rarity, and she put a hoof over her muzzle. What was going on?! She peered around. The little shadow-foals were watching them do it as though fascinated. Big Mac’s loud, dominant grunts began to get even louder as he neared his time of release. Physically stunned, Rarity stared at them. She couldn’t take her eyes off the carnal act.

Droplets of sweat hung from Big Mac’s bangs, and he snorted a bit as he found just the right angle for himself. Cheerilee gave a little cry when his thrusting turned quicker and more desperate. The living tree over them swayed back and forth, its hairs quivering. The crowd of shadow-foals leaned back and forth like a freakish cult, swelling with the moment orgasm as the stallion reached his own. With a final and very male shout, the crimson stallion emptied himself into the waiting mare. She yipped as she received it all, moaning as he held her down for it. His massive hooves dug into her shoulder blades, pressing her to the stone. She’d not spill a drop on his watch. Burying himself balls deep two, three, four times, he made sure he’d given her everything he had. The purple mare collapsed, sweaty and panting loudly. She moaned, squirming a bit.

The stallion paused for a bit, savoring his sexual conquest. The lazy, easy-going gaze that Big Mac’s eyes usually held was gone. These were a breeding stallion’s eyes. The stud turned to look at Rarity, and the crowd of foal monsters parted immediately. Slowly dismounting, he slipped off the slab and onto his hooves again. Quiet green symbols pulsed all over Cheerilee’s little alter. She lay there, quiet and satiated as her stallion wandered to have a look at the other mare.

Rarity’s nose caught the scent of male desire. It overwhelmed her entirely. The nasty smell of salt and sex massaged her temples and mind like a siren’s call. She looked into his eyes, her lids quivering. They were black and featureless. Whatever had taken hold of or had changed Big Mac had done its job. He stared at her like a piece of luscious meat. Without meaning to, the mare licked her lips a little. What… what mare in Ponyville didn’t dream of being furiously rutted by somepony like Big Mac, after all? The muscle, the stoicism, the paragon of what a stallion should be in all things masculine—she had to have him! Another sharp pain heralded a ringing in Rarity’s inner ear, and the tree overseeing the scene waved baaaaack and forth…. baaaaack and forth. Losing her mind entirely Rarity flipped over onto her belly, halfway off of the slab of stone. Her tail lashed to one side, exposing herself. “T-take me!” she cried. “Just take me!” she begged him. She flopped her head down into her arms, moaning. She felt his hot breath on her rump as he only briefly inspected his prize. She glanced over her shoulder to see the slimy muscle of his erection hanging between his legs. Black seed dripped on the ground, leaving blue curls of smoke to rise from it. Rarity didn’t care if she was sloppy seconds—she glanced skyward and got another stab to her sanity from the tree. She whimpered, hiding her head in her arms. He reared up, his hot muscled frame melting firmly over her body like he owned her. He shoved her back up onto the alter so she was all the way onto it again. Her flushed pink little slit beckoned, practically giving off waves of onset heat.

The shadowy foals watched, smiling with their rows and rows of teeth. They didn’t dare speak, this was the important bit. M’ah and M’ahh and D’ah were doing their jobs. They swayed slowly back and forth, nervous excitement blossoming in their ranks. A few of them turned Cheerilee over so she could be spread-eagle before the throbbing tree above them. The massive abomination looked at her without eyes, taking in her tired and sweaty form. The symbols all over the stone slab began to ignite into a sickly green colored glow. All was going as needed. Rarity moaned like a humiliated whore as he savagely took what was his.

D’ah was seeing to M’ah and M’ahh. Now all they needed was M’ahhh and everything would be done.

=-=-=-=

Rainbow Dash leaned over Twilight when the purple mare moaned, holding her temple. “Hey, I think she’s waking up again!” she said sharply to her friends. Everypony looked over. They’d spent a nearly sleepless night in the library, and had been preparing to go into Everfree.

“What happened…?” Twilight said, sitting up and holding her temple with a splitting headache.

“What is the atomic weight of iron?!” Rainbow Dash seized Twilight by the mane and held her to the floorboards, raising a hoof to stomp on her. “Don’t make me knock you out a third time! What is the atomic weight of iron?!” She waved her punching hoof back and forth.

“I-It’s 55.845+/-0.002u!” Twilight spoke fancy mathematics with a shriek of fear, curling up so Rainbow didn’t hit her in the face. “I swear it! I swear it is!”

“Pinkie?!” Rainbow demanded, looking over.

Pinkie Pie flipped quickly through a science book they’d pulled off the shelf. She squinted over the lines and lines of numbers, then nodded. The tension in the room relaxed, and everypony sighed in relief.

Rainbow gently let her go, using a rather rumpled wing to dust her off. “Sorry Twi,” she said, turning her ears back guiltily. “We had to be sure you were back.”

“Back?” Twilight said, puzzled. She groaned on achy joints as she was helped to her hooves. Rainbow made a show of pushing her mane back into place. “H-hey its fine, I’m fine.”

“You haven’t been fine for almost a day now,” Fluttershy said softly from her sitting pillow.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, cocking her head. “You looked through a dark portal and went bonkers on us. I had to keep knocking you out so you didn’t hurt anypony or decide to teleport yourself into the sun.” The cyan Pegasus was clearly very sorry about this, for she was looking everywhere but Twilight. “So uhm… sorry about your face,” she said.

Twilight’s hoof came up. She felt the tender skin on her cheekbone and right eye. She winced a bit. “Couldn’t you have put me in the hospital? Or given me sleeping pills or something?” Twilight wandered to the nearest window to look at her reflection. Her mane had been clumsily brushed by somepony else, but otherwise she looked like garbage.

“Zecora said that wouldn’t-ah helped very much,” Applejack said from her side of the table. “With a unicorn as strong as you, you would’a been up and about before anypony could stop you.”

“What happened?” Twilight wanted details. She smiled gratefully when Zecora laid on icepack on her face. Her face was tender, but it would be okay in time. Each mare took turns filling Twilight in on everything that had happened. Twilight’s memory stopped the moment that she’d left Spike at the safe house. It was as though somepony had thrown black paint over the canvas of her mind.

“…so to keep you safe I bucked you in the head as hard as I could,” Rainbow said guiltily, looking to one side. “You’re not very tough, physically, so it wasn’t too hard. We’ve been keeping you with us in the library for the past day or so, waiting for you to get better.”

“And lucky for us the recovery was quick, for the victory we need will need more than ground brick.” Zecora said gravely. Twilight glanced at the table where a series of mortars and pestles were stationed. The red dust in the air and around the room said they’d been grinding up bricks and putting the dust in jars.

“Brick dust? That’s old magic,” Twilight couldn’t help but stress the ‘old’ bit, for the thought impressed her. “Doesn’t that keep back those of ill-intent when you enchant it properly?”

“Ponies as well as other things, Twilight. Our enemy comes from a place far from our sight.” Zecora nodded, gesturing to the scroll they’d elected to hang on the wall. Twilight leaned to study the twisted visage of Shub-Niggurath. The purple mare didn’t know where to begin. With a series of horrific rhymes that should not be recounted, the Zafrican shamaness told Twilight all about what they were up against.

“So it shapes itself into whatever will draw a pony to it. In our case, foals.” Twilight murmured. “Cheerilee must’ve seen a foal in trouble, and walked right into the trap.” The mare furrowed her brow as her brilliant mind calculated back and forth. She studied the scroll in silence. Shub-Niggurath and her Thousand Young. Shub-Niggurath, Mother of Monsters. Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. They were all terrible titles. “What can we do, then?” Twilight asked softly.

“Twilight, you’re the Sun’s Favored Foal!” Rainbow Dash stamped a hoof. “Write a letter to the Princess! Tell her what’s happening! She’ll come, heck she’ll come with an army to help us!” the cyan mare said, frustrated she had to be the one to think of it.

“No,” Twilight said softly. Everypony in the room but Zecora gasped in horror.

“No?! Why not?!” Rainbow Dash gasped. “If not a pair of alicorns, who’s gonna help us?! You saw how big that thing coming through the portal was, you went crazy just looking at it!” The mare was all fluff and feathers.

Twilight met Zecora’s eyes with a troubled, almost forlorn expression. “That’s exactly why. If I went crazy just looking at it, imagine what it could do to Princess Celestia or Luna.”

“But they’re like… like gods!” Rainbow argued loudly. She didn’t care if she sounded belligerent, she was voicing everypony’s thoughts and she knew it. She wasn’t gonna be a doormat about this, just because Twilight said so.

“No offense Twilight,” Applejack offered, trying to be diplomatic. “But Ah’d be willing to bet Celestia is ten times tougher than you are. Prolly more!” She took off her hat to scrub at her mane before replacing it. “Who’s to say she won’t have better luck than us, fightin’ this thing directly.”

Twilight hung her head a little, “Trust me, that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw… that.” She gestured to the horrific drawing on the scroll. “But you’ve all seen Celestia fight before, save Zecora,” she looked a little ashamed to say it aloud. “Queen Chrysalis knocked Princess Celestia down like it was nothing, after absorbing the love energy from just one pony.” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to angrily argue that her Princess wasn’t a wuss, but Twilight raised a hoof. “Given, my brother clocks in at 11,000 magijules, but this isn’t ponies we’re talking about here. Its monsters.” The purple mare watched her friends deflate a little. “She’s a Princess, and Luna is too. They’re diplomats, not warriors. For all we know Princess Celestia could go mad and drop the sun on Everfree forest,” she made a harsh gesture and Fluttershy flinched. “The Princesses are stronger than me, yes, but not by an infinite margin. They’re not gods, they’re just… alicorns.”

Rainbow Dash deflated like she’d been told her religion was a lie and somepony had rubbed her muzzle in it with facts. She frowned stubbornly, but said nothing. Tears touched the sides of her eyes, and she pressed her lips together really hard so the light whimper wouldn’t escape her throat. She’d been really counting on Twilight bringing some alicorn kickassery out of Canterlot to help them against this thing. But… but… “Why not an army, then? You could write and ask for back-up.” The cyan mare closed her wings, sitting on her flanks. “C’mon Twilight, we gotta do something!”

“Same problem,” Twilight shook her head. “Imagine a thousand battle-hardened ponies milling about, having lost their minds. They might decide to start ripping each other apart. Or burn Everfree to the ground. Or go on a campaign across Equestria, hurting innocent ponies.”

Zecora nodded her agreement, though her face was somber. No sheer show of might or numbers would do them any good against such a foe. Only the old ways would help them. “If there are suggestions in which to partake, then I have an idea for a letter to make.” She offered. Twilight looked at her, ready to disagree, but something in the zebra’s face silenced her. “If the Princess’ ear you truly have, then you wield a weapon mightier than sword or stave.”

“What do you want me to write, then?” Twilight tilted her head.

Zecora thought for a time, studying a map on the wall. The map encompassed all of Equestria with Ponyville in the middle to serve as the focal point. If she was to relay her plan, it would have to be done immediately and perfectly for it to work. The zebra quietly relayed her plan. It was so ridiculous to put into words. It sounded outrageous and impossible. Rainbow Dash didn’t like it one bit.

“That is the dumbest, most cop-out plan I’ve ever heard.” Rainbow stamped a hoof angrily. “This isn’t some Daring Doo novel where we all make it out okay! Rarity is in there already, and so are Big Mac and Cheerilee! We could get killed!” she wasn’t being mean or cowardly, only realistic. “We need an army, Twilight!” she snapped accusingly at their leader. “We need as many ponies as we can, even if we have to burn Everfree to the ground!” she was close to hysterics by that point. Shub-Niggurath had frightened her to her very core, and her fear was coming out as anger. “If this thing is really as old and powerful as the story said, this isn’t something we can run in and do like our other adventures! Rarity’s gone! We can’t use the Elements of Harmony!”

“Ah know yer rattled, sugarcube, but we can’t just run in there torches’a’blazin’. If it’s got hostages, we need’a be careful about it.” Applejack turned and gestured to Everfree as she spoke.

“You ponies can do whatever crazy thing that comes to mind!” Rainbow shouted, anger coloring her face. Stomping over the to window, she threw on her flight goggles to shield her from the pouring rain. “Me? I’m not setting hoof in there till I’ve got all the help I can get!” she spread her wings and, before anypony could protest, launched herself out into the storm.

There was a long silence before Fluttershy spoke, “So much for loyalty.” It was a cruel sentence that turned everypony’s head in shock. The butter yellow Pegasus wilted, looking to one side. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it…” she trailed off guiltily. Nopony was brave enough to tell her she was right, though.

=-=-=-=-=

Not ten seconds after Rainbow Dash had left the library, she made a wide arc over Ponyville. Could she go to the local guard? Should she fly to Canterlot and demand to see the Princess? Going mach five after a sonic rainboom it wouldn’t take much more than a few minutes to reach the capital city. After all, you could see it from Ponyville, perched on the mountain like a background mat-painting. It was hard to see through the pouring rain, but the lights were still on and shining bright. Yeah. Yeah that’s what she would do. A national hero like the Element of Loyalty would be able to jump to the front of the line! Grinning, the Pegasus mare swooped a few circles around the town. She found a good landing spot. If she was gonna do a sonic rainboom she’d need a nice take-off spot for the initial burst of speed.

Rainbow Dash landed on a semi-firm stretch of ground. The weather conditions weren’t great for such a feat, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her. She’d just have to fly above the clouds. It was cold that high up, sure, but she’d tough it out. If some sort of elder-god-mother-monster-thingy was taking ponies and… and… laying eggs or whatever it was supposed to be doing, so close to Ponyville, it needed royal attention! Zecora’s idea was dumb. Taking a deep breath, Equestria’s fastest flyer tried to tame her harsh breathing. She lifted one wing. The grass under her hooves began to blush grey and crinkle up like tissue paper. The other wing lifted. The brown mud and earth spoiled around her in a perfect circle, turning a cement-greyish-blue hue. The mare bent her legs just so, readying for launch. She squatted for a moment, then shot off the ground with all the ferocity of an-augh-tentacles-everywhere-yank-slam-snap------! A single pinion feather floated back and forth until the cruel rain caught it and hammered it into the ground. Its brilliant blue color was lost in the mud in mere moments.

Silence.

Rainbow Dash had been taken.

Between the Monsters

Under the Bed
Part 8: Between the Monsters

Dear Princess Celestia,

A great evil has emerged in Everfree and Ponyville needs your help. Zecora, our local Zafrican Shamaness, says it is called ‘Shub-Niggurath’. It has been snatching ponies under the disguise of innocent foals, like a big angler fish with a glowing dingle berry. Zecora requests that you please contact the Equestrian Construction Beaurau and commission them to surround the borders of Everfree with a line of brick dust. She says it will contain the beast in the forest until we figure out how to drive it away.

Please don’t come to Ponyville, Princess. I took one look at the monster through a portal, I think, and I lost my mind for over a day. It can apparently unravel your sanity with direct eye-contact. I can’t bear the thought of that happening to you or Luna. Please send help as quickly as you can so we can start on Zecora’s plan.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Celestia stared at the letter, completely and utterly dumb-founded. Shub-Niggurath? In Everfree? She knew that name. Faust-alive, she knew that name. Eldritch abominations had happened upon Everfree in the forgotten times of chaos and madness. Celestia had stricken their memory from the history books so her ponies would not live in constant, crushing fear of the dark and endless universe. But even a reach as vast as hers had nod gotten rid of all records of it, if Twilight Sparkle was calling the entity by name.

Shub-Niggurath, the mother of a thousand monsters. She’d laid eyes on it before, and only the endless march of time had voided the memory from her eternal mind. Though she was not a goddess, Celestia knew time immemorial enough to feel like one sometimes.

Leaning back in her throne, Princess Celestia slumped. Actually slumped. Her regal exterior cracked badly, and she gave a deep frown. Everypony in the throne room stared up at her. What could have possibly been on that scroll she’d read that had affected her so? They ached to know, but just as the thought crossed their minds Celestia burned the letter with a flick of alicorn magic. “Captain Shining Glory,” she said, rubbing her temple for a moment.

“Yes, your Majesty?” The proper stallion turned, looking up the dais at her.

“Wake my sister.” Celestia commanded. “We meet in my drawing room.” She descended the stairs at a steep trot. The guard nodded, rushing to the double doors of the throne room and sending a galloping squire across the palace to wake the Princess of the Night.

Less than thirty minutes later, both Royal Sisters were in the sealed privacy of Celestia’s private office. “Luna, something terrible has happened. An Old One has come to Everfree, right at our doorstep.”

“An Old One?!” Luna abruptly lit her horn and stared at the floor. Her alicorn-powered vision stared down seven floors, past the palace basement, past the wine cellars, past the empty dungeons, and into Tarturaus herself. The surreal landscape burned and twisted as it always did. A great red centaur-shaped creature lay sleeping in chains the size of mountains. Luna frowned, squinting at him. He showed no signs of stirring. “Tirek still sleeps, sister.” Luna lowered her voice to a whisper, for speaking his name aloud was blasphemous. She flicked her magic away and she saw normally again.

“Not that one, Luna.” Celestia murmured gravely, going over to the long table and pulling a map of Equestria out. She unfurled it, holding it with paperweights. “Twilight Sparkle has just told me that Shub-Niggurath has poked her head into Everfree.”

Luna went as pale as a sheet. “Th-the mother of monsters?!” she whispered. “Does she even know what she says?! Where did she learn that name?! We burnt all the scriptures so nopony—!”

“So nopony could ever learn of her or the endless dark of the universe, yes, I was there,” Celestia said shortly. “Apparently there is a Shaman in Ponyville that knows of the beast. She’s calling for brick dust to be laid around Everfree.”

“That’s old magic. Very old.” Luna frowned, uncertain. The night Princess’ brow furrowed as she leaned over the map of Everfree. Everfree was next to Ponyville, and Ponyville was less than seventy miles from Canterlot. The seat of power and the capital of the nation. “That would take weeks, besides the fact. Enchanting that much dust would take dozens of highly-trained unicorns days and days to perform.”

“I agree,” Celestia murmured, seating herself while they pored over the map.

“We must go ourselves.” Luna said with a troubled frown. “This foe is beyond any of them.”

“I agree,” Celestia whispered, folding her wings to hide a shiver. “Twilight says that looking upon her brought madness for a full day, though. She begged me not to come.”

“Our minds are sharper than they!” Luna snapped angrily.

“I think she is thinking of the day Chrysalis struck me down,” Celestia rubbed at a curled end of the map. “None of our little ponies have seen a true display of alicorn power since, well…” she looked at her sister guiltily. The sisters shared a pregnant few moments of silence. Sealing Nightmare Moon in the moon itself had been the most awesome display of magic the land had ever seen in that era. Since then Celestia had down-played her magic so nopony would be frightened of her might.

Luna gave a grumpy sound, “If you’d vaporized that insect--”

“Half the palace would have gone with it, along with anypony in that general compass direction.” Celestia finished a little testily. Luna hung her head, wilting her ears. The elder of the two’s expression softened. “But in Everfree, there will be nopony around to get hurt if we have to cut loose.” She leaned and cupped Luna’s cheek, making her little sister look up at her.

The night time Princess looked up at her sister, taking a deep breath to resolve herself. “What if one of us does go mad?” she whispered, gesturing to the map. “And Twilight Sparkle was right to begin with?”

“Twilight Sparkle means well, trying to protect us. But she has no idea what she’s dealing with.” Celestia whispered worriedly. The drawing room fell silent for a time. “It has hostages,” the white alicorn turned to look at her sister.

“Then I will go with you to save them,” Luna said. “I am not as battle-worthy as you, Cellie.”

“That’s why I’m the big sister,” Celestia chuckled like a tinkling bell. They shared a moment of tired smiles. “We need to hurry before Twilight gets herself and everypony she loves killed. Why don’t we go enact a bit of Dues Ex Machina?” she asked. Luna groaned. She hated it when Celestia said it like that. It made her feel dirty.

=-=-=-=

Rainbow Dash awoke on a slab of cold stone. The first word out of her mouth was a moaning swearword. She was laying spread-eagle on her back, and the carvings of the slab were digging into her tender wing-muscles. Turning her head slowly, she waited for her vision to swim back to her. She rubbed at her eyes with a foreleg, shifting her weight and almost falling off the little alter. “What, no spooky candles and skulls?” she grumped, scrubbing sorely at her prismatic mane. “I’m insulted.”

The cyan Pegasus winced at the missing pinion in her right wing. It was one of her primaries. She’d have to lean hard to fly in a straight line for months now. She groaned, giving the wing a few quick flaps. She was flight capable, but not quiet oriented yet.

Turning, she studied her surroundings and gave a start. Lots and lots of little beady eyes were staring at her. She blurted another swear word, standing up and arching her back like a startled cat. They stared at her curiously, a massive crowd of oily-black… foals? No, they weren’t foals. They had too many teeth. Big, sharp teeth and red-black eyes. Their fur was like oil and their manes and tails looked like seaweed. “Muh… M’ahhh?” One of them wanted to know, rearing up and putting its strange twisted hooves on the slab. Rainbow Dash recoiled. “M’ahhh? M’ahhh?” it asked.

Rainbow Dash’s muzzle crinkled up. “Momma? Sorry uh… whatever you are. Not me.” The mare lifted her wings to intimidate it back down, but it only tilted its head and licked its chops a few times. Rainbow was reminded of an attentive, if very ugly, dog. The three rows of massive, jagged teeth didn’t help the image. Something prickled on the back of her neck, and she turned about. “Rarity?!” she gaped.

The white mare, dirtied and gross-looking, lay on a slab just like hers some thirty feet away. She was upright, fussing with the mane of one of the little shadow foals. It crooned, swaying back and forth as she did so. “M’ahh!” it chirruped, leaning into her for nuzzles. Rarity smiled absently, pressing her muzzle into its wet and sloppy mane to give it a kiss.

“M’ahh is here, little one. M’ahh is here.” Rarity cooed. A few more of the little monsters had clambered up onto the slab with her, laying on and all around her like a giant pack of demon puppies. They rested their heads on her, played with her tail, chewed on one of her hooves, and generally just wanted to be near her. M’ahh took care of them, after all. The one Rarity had been playing with hopped down, quite content, and another leaped up between her front hooves to take its place. The white mare chuckled, coddling the disgusting oily creature.

Rainbow Dash stared in morbid fascination. “Rarity!” she finally got her voice back to call. The white mare paid her no attention. “Rarity! Hey Rarity!” she raised her voice. She didn’t trust herself to fly over there. With so many of the little monsters all around her it wouldn’t take much to be tackled to the ground and ripped to shreds. The Pegasus scanned around for any hope, but found only more horrors.

Cheerilee lay splayed out on her back, all four hooves in the air. Her back leg would kick now and then, and a rather drunken smile was on her face. Even from where she was standing Rainbow could see the milky slime between her back legs. She fought back the sudden urge to vomit, holding a hoof on her mouth. All around Cheerilee’s little alter were dozens and dozens of shadow foals. Apparently over there it was naptime because all of them were piled this way and that, sleeping on top of each other like so many black ants. The purple mare lying among them stirred quietly, and they shifted with her so she would be comfortable. M’ahh was very important, after all.

Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop. There was a slight stomping on flat stone. Every single little shadow foal lifted its ears. They turned to look, and Rainbow Dash did too. Big Macintosh stood on the edge of the massive herd, demanding entrance with his little stompy-sounds. The crowd parted for him, and he started inward at an even pace.

M’ah stopped coddling the monster in her arms, smiling happily at him.

M’ahh awoke from her nap, looking at him adoringly.

Rainbow Dash was more than a little confused.

As Big Mac made his way inward, his black and glittering eyes became more obvious. It was the same darkness with a bright shine that Rainbow Dash expected to see in a tarantula’s eyes. It was an insectoid sort of gaze that didn’t really need to blink. The eyes were always wet and shiny, always looking in all directions without moving. The red stallion looked about the endless thralls of shadow foals as though inspecting them. The ones near him flopped back on their backs. He rubbed a belly or two while they chirruped at him happily. He looked over at the three alters.

M’ah of the magic. M’ahh of the earth. And of course M’ahhh of the sky. (Da'h was of the earth since that was the base of all things) The barrel-chested pony wandered up to M’ahh, nuzzling with her. She yawned cutely. He peered at her belly. Nothing yet. He went to M’ah, who flopped down submissively so he could see everything she had to offer him. Nothing lived in her womb yet either. He chuffed a little, nibbling on her ear while the little monsters danced around his column-like legs.

“What are you?” Rainbow Dash said, aghast at what was happening.

Big Mac’s head turned about. M’ahhh of the sky had not been turned yet, much less mounted. The order of which didn’t matter, but both still needed to be done if their little herd was to prosper. Three mares and a stallion, as the ancient laws bade, was the proper and perfect size for a herd of ponies. The number of foals, well, that depended. A few hundred were all around them, that would be just fine, atop whatever new life he could sire from the three of them.

“Are you possessing Big Macintosh? Are you Shub-Niggurath?” Rainbow wanted to know, scowling. As soon as the name left her lips the entire forest shuddered. A low roaring sound that issued from the earth and heavens, vibrating the air like the mightiest of gongs. The shadow foals cowered in all directions, fighting each other to press up to M’ah or M’ahh for safety. The tree that watched over the entire scene swayed itself violently. Big Macintosh scowled. How dare she name the Mother aloud? Rainbow clutched at herself as everything vibrated, squeezing her eyes shut. An endless well of black power stroked the edges of her mind. She whimpered a little, but staggered back to her hooves. “Enough!” she shouted

The black-eyed stallion stared up at her, frowning severely. Why didn’t she lift her tail? Give herself to the brood? He pawed at her hoof a little, then tried to push her over a little. She had to be on the alter when he mounted her, but there was nothing specific about how. He growled a little, already feeling the muscles in his pelvis tense up.

Rainbow scowled down at him. “So how about it? Are you possessing him? Mind-controlling him? I’m not blind, I can see magic in his eyes. They’re all black!” she turned to looked at Rarity and Cheerilee. They had rather glassy looks about them as well. Big Mac took the opportunity to haul her front hooves out from under her. “Ommph?!” Rainbow grunted as she hit her muzzle on the slab while her rump stayed in the air. He moved, quick and eager, to mount her. “HEY-HEY-HEY-HEY!” Rainbow’s wings wrapped around his barrel and she grabbed his front legs as he reared up. Using his own momentum against him, she somersaulted forward and threw Big Mac head-first to the smooth stone ground. His skull gave an audible crack and he grunted aloud. “Easy pal! I don’t swing that way!” she was red-faced and furious, tail tucking protectively over herself.

Big Mac rose in a very unnatural way, like a recovering puppet on strings. It made Rainbow Dash’s stomach turn. He growled at her aggressively. Tossing his mane a bit, he made a harsh gesture.

The foal-demons parted, giving him a wide berth to Rainbow Dash. It was only then the mare saw that the three alters were arranged in a triangle… on a much bigger design of some kind. Was it a magic circle? What for? She looked at all the unnatural symbols and writings. With the three alters, each with a mare on it, positioned around a focal point—who knew what it was for. Rainbow did see, however, that two-thirds of it was glowing slightly. At first she thought it was a shine in the moonlight, but no. The writings and symbols were wreathed in a sickly green cover. The portion of the circle that was not lit up was hers. It didn’t take a genius to see the pattern here. An earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus-- a stallion to mount them all three-- and demon foals everywhere?

“What is this, some kind’a sick, cult-y, sex-magic circle?!” Rainbow blurted, lifting a hoof in case Big Mac charged her. Spreading her wings to make herself look as big as possible, she glared all around herself. “This is sick! Really sick!” she shouted defiantly. Something dark and silky touched Rainbow’s mind again, and she shuddered. “Whuh? Whuh-oahh…” she wavered on the spot. Something massaged her thoughts, warming them with the flying fancy of a spring-time heat. She stumbled one way, then the other. She moaned a little, holding her head with one hoof. Her loins suddenly ached. Staggering a bit, she gave an audible pant or two.

The stallion’s blank expression turned more confident. He approached her from behind. At last, M’ahhh of the sky would join them, and their little herd would be complete. When the circle was alight, they would become permanent and their herd would prosper. His sheath parted as the scent of feminine desire wafted into his nose. The male animal murred with anticipation. She was smaller and less sturdy than the other two, but she would be loved as much as the others. She would bear his seed with just as much honor. Licking his chops, the stallion clambered up onto the alter. His massive pink erection dipped down between his legs, dripping with black pre-cum. He’d been waiting and waiting for their third offering for the great Mother. At last. At last. He inhaled her scent, her sweat and warmth. Rainbow Dash’s tail slowly curled to one side and she gave an audible whimper. He savored her as his massive hooves came to grasp at her toned, athletic hips.

“WHAH-PAHHH!” Rainbow Dash turned with all the ferocity of a black belt. One wing then the other knocked his front legs out from under him. On his way down, Big Macintosh met a spinning tornado kick. His head snapped back like she’d broken his neck, spittle flying in an impressive arc. Hundreds of little monster foals watched in horror as D’ah sailed backward. Going ass-over-teakettle in a full somersault, the stallion saw ground-then-sky-then-ground-again before he landed backward on his head. The stone cracked under his weight and he saw white spots. The cyan pegasus leapt from the alter, landing with all four hooves right on his erection. The stallion whinny-screamed, black-eyes bulging. Turning with a scream of fury, Rainbow Dash whipped her body around in a barrel-roll. Her sheer weight and turning movement slammed an elbow drop into his muzzle so hard she felt the bones break. He went limp, blood fountaining from his nostrils and his tongue hanging out. “*Hff* *Hff* I said *huff-hfff* I don’t *pff* swing that way!” she said, standing over him in a sweaty fury. It was only then that she noticed the absolute silence around her. Still panting, she looked around.

All the little demon foals were staring at Rainbow Dash with wide eyes. They looked utterly horrified with her. They looked at each other, frightened. Why wasn’t M’ahhh doing her job? What had happened to D’ah?! He wasn’t moving! Suddenly every single one of them started bawling at the top of their lungs, and panic exploded across the crowd of little demons. The very air around them vibrated and darkened like a cloud had passed over the world. Leaves began to fall off of trees. Mud boiled. Clouds exploded into meaningless vapor. The abomination tree waved itself back and forth in livid, earth-shaking rage. Rainbow Dash held her hooves over her ears, her eyes helplessly crossing as her sanity snapped like a dry twig.

M’ah and M’ahh ran back and forth, shrieking wildly as they tried to coddle the endless droves of little shadow foals. Whenever they held one or nuzzled another, there were a hundred more than needed reassurance. D’ah wasn’t dead! Everything would be okay! Don’t cry, don’t cry! The rolling thunder of shrieking monsters concussed Everfree as birds fell out of the air and insects vacated their homes in the dirt to writhe on the ground.

By the time it was over, Rainbow Dash lay in a heap on the ground, bleeding from the nose and shaking. M’ah and M’ahh slowly put her back on the alter where she belonged. They nuzzled her, and M'ah kissed her slowly on the lips. She would be out for a while, they would just need to wait for D’ah to wake up again. Then all would be well.