“Oh my goodness! Girls, this is really too much!”
Twilight Sparkle stood in the entryway of their cabin suite, eyes roaming over the luxurious furnishings. A fire merrily crackled in the stone fireplace in the far corner of the open-air common room. Large glass windows stood on either side with double doors that led to the deck, which offered a spectacular view of the woods edging the cabin and the snowy slopes beyond.
Twilight’s exclamation was lost in a cacophony of voices floating in from behind her.
“Rain-bow-DASH! Don’t even think about dragging that ridiculous board across the hardwood floors, they’ll scratch!”
“Relax, Rarity, I’ve got it! And for your information it’s not just a board, it’s a Buckton! I wouldn’t let this baby drag on even the classiest floor.”
“’Scusie Twilight, super-important package coming through!”
“Oh, of course, Pinkie,” Twilight said as she pressed herself to one side in the door, letting her friend through with a massive purple cake perched precariously on her head. “Do you need some help with that?”
“Nope!” she cheerily replied as she bounced off towards the kitchen—followed apprehensively by Twilight’s eyes.
“A nice roarin’ fire,” came Applejack’s voice as she followed Pinkie Pie inside. She slid her pack off at the door and immediately rolled onto a couch facing the hearth. “I’ll give it to ya Rarity, you sure can pick the right place.”
“Kitchen’s stocked too!” cried Pinkie Pie, head already jammed in the fridge and no sign of the cake.
“Oh thank you, Applejack,” called Rarity as she came in from the cold and made a beeline to the far floor level bedroom. “I admit that I was a bit nervous at first, I’m not too terribly familiar with winter lodges.” She paused at the door trying to suppress a grin. “It’s really turned out well though, hasn’t it?”
“Rarity, it’s beautiful,” said Twilight, eyeing the highly polished wooden floor as she explored the common room. “Really, you guys didn’t need to do this much!”
“Are you kidding?” said Rainbow Dash as she trotted in and dumped a pile of snow gear on the floor before the fire. “These mountains have some of the best slopes in all of Equestria! I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!” Rarity gave her a reproachful look from the bedroom doorway. “Uh, but of course this weekend is all about Twilight,” Rainbow Dash quickly added. Rarity flashed an approving smile before turning her attention to unpacking.
“Don’t sweat it, Twilight,” said Applejack. “We really wanted to go all-out for your birthday this year. We knew what we were gettin’ ourselves into.”
Rainbow Dash nodded vigorously. “Yeah, and believe me, it’s totally worth it!”
Twilight couldn’t help but grin. “Thanks, you guys. I’ve been looking forward to this all month.” She gazed around the cabin, taking it all in. “The snow, the skiing, staying up late and hanging out all day…” She cast about for a moment. “Hey, where did Fluttershy get to?”
The aforementioned mare’s voice drifted from the doorway, drowned out by a stream of instructions from a stallion wrapped in a thick winter coat.
“-It’s locked but can be opened for you if you put in a request with our front desk.”
“Okay.”
“Extra firewood can be found on the deck-”
“Okay.”
“-But the screen must be used and the fire should never be unattended.”
“Okay.”
“There are strictly no pets on the premises-”
“Okay.”
“-Roof access is strictly prohibited-”
“Okay.”
“-All damages will be billed to your cabin-”
“Okay.” Fluttershy’s voice seemed to get quieter each time. Twilight trotted back to the door to save her from the concierge.
“Thank you sir, I think we have it from here,” she said.
He peered at her, as if he were assessing her potential to cause property damage. “Alright, here are your keys.” He pulled a small envelope from his coat pocket and handed it to Twilight. “If you need anything else, our desk is in the main lodge just down the lane.” And with that he was out the door and trudging back through the snow.
Fluttershy gave a sigh of relief. “Thanks Twilight, I just couldn’t get away from him.”
“It’s no problem Fluttershy. He looked a little flustered, I guess they have a lot of guests coming through this weekend,” said Twilight as they headed into the common room.
Fluttershy paused. “Um, how are the rooms split up?” she asked.
Twilight pulled out the six keys and organized them into a neat little row. “I’m not sure, nopony except Rarity has picked a room yet.”
Perhaps called by her own name, Rarity stuck her head out of her bedroom door. “Oh, I took the liberty of placing everyone, Twilight. Fluttershy, your room is right across from mine—yes, that one there, at the foot of the staircase. Twilight, yours is upstairs, right above Fluttershy. It’s the one you can see from where you’re standing. Pinkie Pie can take the loft above your room. Applejack’s room is above mine and across from Twilight’s, and Rainbow Dash can have that loft.”
Rainbow Dash gathered up her stuff, carefully setting her board aside, and flew straight up to her loft. Her voice echoed off the vaulted ceiling, “Oh, nice! Everything’s all open air, there’s so much space in here I bet I could even practice some tight stunts!”
“Don’t even think of it!” cried Rarity from her door. “The deposit was more than a Sapphire Shores dress!”
Twilight just rolled her eyes and chuckled as she and Fluttershy headed off to check out the upstairs.
“Oh, I guess I’m right here,” Twilight said as they reached the top of the spiral staircase. “I wonder what…” she trailed as her attention was drawn off to a little nook between the two bedrooms.
“‘What’ what?” asked Fluttershy as she came up behind her. “Is something wrong?”
Before the question left her mouth, Twilight had practically flung herself into the little alcove. She emerged clutching an armful of worn books and a rather doofy grin plastered over her face. “These are first editions,” she mouthed as she excitedly looked over the cover of a tattered green tome.
Fluttershy chuckled. “You should take it easy, Twilight. You’ll burn yourself out before we even get to the snow.”
“I heard that!” called Applejack’s voice from the common room. Pegasus and unicorn approached the edge of the balcony, where they saw Applejack grinning up at them from the couch downstairs. She waved a hoof at Twilight’s armful of books. “And if ya think you’ll be spending all weekend with your nose buried in those instead of with us, I’ll feed ya to a yeti.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Hmm. That’s quite a bold statement.”
“Oh yeah? How’d ya figure?”
“Well, you’re all the way down there. And I’m all the way up here. Looks like you’d have to catch me first!” She levitated her books into a small cloud and cackled as she “escaped” to her room with her contraband.
Twilight left the door ajar behind her, chuckling as an overly dramatic “consarnit” drifted in from downstairs. She stacked the books on a low table just inside the room and began to explore.
“So this is like a little sitting room,” she said to herself as she noted the small couch. “And this room off to the right iiis… the bathroom.” Twilight nodded with a smile as she looked over the amenities. “Sparkling clean, check! Oh, but it keeps going?” She opened the door at the far end of the room. “Okay, so this is the bedroom. And more doors?” The opposite side of the room had a large pair of double doors that opened back to the sitting room. “Oh, so it’s kind of shaped like a donut! But what’s this here…?” The center of the donut-room was made up of a very large, thick pillar, and in the sitting room, a ladder ran up its side. Twilight trotted closer. “It looks like there’s another room up there,” she thought to herself as she climbed. She poked her head up at the top of the ladder, coming face-to-face with a pair of large blue eyes.
“Did I hear something about donuts?”
“Gah!” Twilight caught herself from falling. “Pinkie Pie, weren’t you just in the kitchen?”
“I was, but now I’m not!” She bounced on her hooves, drawing her face only slightly away from Twilight’s. “Ooh, actually, Rainbow Dash and I are doing this thing! Would you help us for just a minute?” Pinkie beckoned her up the ladder and into the loft proper.
Twilight found herself on a simple landing that overlooked most of the cabin. She caught sight of Rainbow Dash sitting in her own loft on the opposite side of the cabin, surrounded by piles of snow gear. She waved to Twilight as she pushed her mess around into smaller, presumably more manageable stacks. Below, on the second floor, Twilight could see Applejack making her way to her own room, and further down Fluttershy was stoking the fire in the common room.
“Over here,” called Pinkie from somewhere behind. Twilight turned to see a large changing screen, and behind it where Pinkie had set up camp. There was a bed and some squishy, simple low furniture, as well as several clusters of balloons and the party cannon not quite hidden in one corner. Pinkie was hunched over a bag, digging through it with gusto.
“What are you looking for?” asked Twilight.
Pinkie emerged with a cartoonish-looking gun and a victorious look on her face. “This,” she said, tying one end of string to a large dart she had beside her.
“Uh, Pinkie…?”
“You ready, Dashie?!” Pinkie Pie yelled across the cabin.
“Of course!” she called back, toting her changing screen closer to the edge of her loft to offer as a target.
“Alright, here we go!” She snapped the dart in the gun, aimed, and fired. The dart went whizzing through the air, string ribboning out behind it as it hit home at the center of the screen.
“Bull’s-eye!” cried Dash as she took the cord and looped it around the hoofrail of the banister at the edge of the loft.
“Alright Twilight, I need you to hold this for me!” Pinkie bounded up and quickly shoved her own changing screen in the unicorn’s hooves.
“Pinkie, what are you even—” But the pegasus across the cabin managed to load and shoot her own dart gun before Twilight could even finish her question.
“Thanks a bunchies!” The pink pony took the string from the dart, tying the ends together around her own loft banister.
“Message line operational,” declared Dash as she tugged at the looping rope. Celebrations were cut short, however, when a voice halfway between frantic and scolding came from downstairs.
“Rainbow Dash, WHAT did you just shoot? That’s not in the wall, is it?!” Rarity scurried across the first floor, trying to find a vantage point that would give her a view of the end of the rope. It took some reassuring from Twilight that it was only a dart, and swearing up and down from the two perpetrators that nothing heavier than paper notes would be passed, before she calmed down.
That evening they all took a daring dip in the Jacuzzi out on the deck (which lasted all of ten minutes in the frigid weather) and turned the kitchen into a disaster area during dinner while attempting to let everyone make a unique dish. After a thorough clean-up and some dessert served up by Pinkie Pie, they all lay out in front of the fire drinking hot chocolate. Rainbow Dash and Applejack made a bit of a contest out of chucking popcorn kernels at a decorative bird figure topping the large grandfather clock against the wall. They eventually ran out of kernels, each staunchly believing she had won, and soon everyone began to swap stories.
“…And then, it totally caught on fire!” Pinkie Pie finished.
“No way,” gasped Fluttershy. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at that; it looked like Fluttershy was the only one still following the story at that point.
“You know,” said Twilight, “I’m really glad that you all convinced me to come out here. At first I was nervous when you guys mentioned skiing, but I think I’ve read enough that I won’t embarrass myself too much tomorrow.”
“Nonsense, darling, I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” said Rarity. “And besides, you’ll be in good company with myself and Fluttershy.” She straightened, raising her mug and clearing her throat. “I think this calls for a toast.” Five tankards were duly raised as Rarity continued. “I have to say, I’m very proud of you all for helping this trip come together. It was a lot of work to pull all those bits together-”
“’Cept for Rainbow Dash. Did you know she was collectin’ bits from the wishin’ fountain in town?”
“Hey, as long as they hit the water, the wish is good! And what does a fountain need bits for anyway?”
Rarity managed to squelch the scandalized look creeping across her face and continue. “A-hem. Yes, as I was saying. We’re here to celebrate our dear friend Twilight’s birthday, and as I look around this room, I know we’re also here for each other, each and every one.” She sniffed, her eyes growing misty. “And—and—” Her voice grew higher and cracked before she broke into a melodramatic cascade of tears, Fluttershy leaning in and offering a comforting hug.
Applejack rolled her eyes and grinned. “Aw shucks, Rarity, we love ya too.”
Twilight chuckled. “How about ‘to friendship’?”
They all raised their mugs higher, a chorus of voices shouting “To friendship!”
“I love you all so mu-u-uch!” Rarity bawled.
________________________________________
Early the next day they hit the slopes. Rainbow Dash and Applejack went off on their own to check out the snowboarding and Pinkie Pie went straight to the skating rink. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity headed to the easier ski courses to start. Twilight thought she saw a glimmer of disappointment in Fluttershy’s eyes when she realized that “bunny slope” referred to the difficulty level instead of nearby woodland residents, but it wasn’t long before they were laughing good-naturedly at each other as they flailed down the run. A bit of a debate erupted when everyone regrouped for lunch at an on-site restaurant. The plan was to take a cross-country ski trail for the afternoon, but a blizzard was expected to hit soon. After some discussion of wind patterns in the area and one or two uses of the word “chicken” it was decided that they’d strike out early and try to get back before the first big flurries. That, however, turned out to be wishful thinking.
That evening Rarity was the first to slam open the door, accompanied by a blast of wind and snow.
“Fluttershy. Darling. I know you have the best intentions, but you really didn’t need to converse with every hare we passed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Rarity. I just wanted to make sure everyone could get somewhere safe before the blizzard,” said Fluttershy, offering an apologetic smile as she followed the unicorn in.
“…Oh, you know I can’t stay mad at you. Especially not with that face.” Rarity pouted as she shimmied out of her ski jacket.
“Oh Rarity, it wasn’t that bad,” said Pinkie Pie as she came bouncing in.
“Not that bad?” said Applejack, right behind, “We were wading through snow drifts bigger than Big Mac!”
“I know, right?” said Pinkie Pie. “I can never hide in them back home. That was the best game of Ambush Tag Snow War I’ve played in a really, really, really long time!” Twilight came in covered head to hoof in snow.
“Uh, sugarcube,” said Applejack, “I think Twilight was tryin’ to ring your neck at that point.”
“That’s crazy,” replied Pinkie Pie. She clapped Twilight hard on the back as she passed, incidentally knocking all the snow off into one convenient, Twilight-shaped pile. “Everyone loves Ambush Tag Snow War,” she declared.
“It’s fine,” said Twilight with a sigh, “but next time, Pinkie, could you at least give us a heads-up when you start a game?”
Rainbow Dash brought up the rear, closing the door with a snap. “Ugh, I think I have snow in my ears. You know what sounds totally awesome right now? Something really hot.”
Applejack made a clatter in the kitchen. “Got it covered,” she said, pulling down tankards and heating up a large kettle.
Shed of their winter attire, everyone lay out by the fire and debated the finer points to a good wipe-out over hot apple cider. It wasn’t long before there was a brusque rap at the door.
“Who could that be?” asked Pinkie Pie, her nose covered in cider foam.
“Fluttershy, you’re closest to the door,” said Rarity. “Be a dear and see who it is?”
She obliged, setting her tankard aside and trotting over to the door. There was a second knock before she could answer, this one quicker and louder. “Can I help yo-” she was cut short by the voice of the concierge, sounding almost panicked. Twilight couldn’t make out what he was saying from her spot, but Fluttershy’s sharp gasp of surprise didn’t escape her notice. Nor did her scream just a moment later.
In an instant they were all jammed into the entryway, trying to see what had given Fluttershy such a fright.
“It was big, no, massive!” she quavered, trying her best to inch through her pack of friends back into the cabin. “It just came out of the woods and picked him up! He was gone so fast…”
Twilight peered into the blizzard. Sure enough, the stallion’s hoofprints were still barely visible in the snow. Deep indents intersected with where his path ended, showing where something quite large had touched down.
“There, there,” murmured Rarity, offering a consoling hug. “Just tell us what you can.”
Fluttershy stuttered for a moment or two before finding her voice. “It was a monster!”
There was a beat. “You mean, a big animal or something?” asked Pinkie Pie.
Fluttershy shook her head vigorously. “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Uh, well…” She shuffled her hooves. “I didn’t see much, but still, I’ve definitely never seen anything like it.”
“Well what are we standing around here for? We need to get help!” cried Rainbow Dash as she launched towards the door. Applejack stomped down on her tail as she passed, Dash’s wings flapping furiously as she hovered in midair.
“Hold on now, you can’t go out in this blizzard. You can’t see the nose on your face out there, and you’d freeze to death before you got anywhere,” said Applejack. She firmly kicked the door shut.
Rainbow Dash gave an exasperated sigh and landed as Applejack cautiously let go. “Fine. But we can’t just do nothing!”
“Rainbow Dash is right,” said Twilight. “We may be stuck here for now, but that shouldn’t keep us from helping the best way we can.”
“But how?” squeaked Fluttershy.
Twilight shifted on her hooves for a moment before voicing her thoughts aloud.
“Alright Twilight, think. We need to get help.” She looked up at her friends. “Let’s search the lodge and see if there’s anything we can find that might get somepony out here faster. That way we don’t have to wait until sunrise, or even worse, until whenever this blizzard decides to let up.”
“Twilight’s right,” said Applejack. “Let’s split up into pairs and meet back here in five minutes.” And with that the three groups parted—Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash climbed the staircase while Fluttershy and Rarity headed towards the kitchen to begin their search on the main floor. Twilight turned to Applejack.
“Well, do you feel up to braving the storm? This cabin is on a steep part of the mountain, and I want to see if there’s anything under the deck,” she said.
“I reckon there’s a good place to start,” said Applejack. “As long as we do it quick, and always keep a hoof to the wall. We don’t need to lose nopony tonight.”
Twilight nodded. It took them only a moment to don their winter gear, and as an added precaution Twilight located a rope from some hiking supplies in a hall closet. She tied it around their middles and soon they were out in the snowstorm.
Applejack headed out first since she had the surer footing. Twilight levitated a lantern before them to light their way.
“That was a great idea,” the earth pony called over her shoulder as they reached the far edge of the deck where it met the mountain. “It looks a might dark under the deck.”
They slid only once or twice as they trudged through the deep snow. As they neared the lowest point, Applejack began to slow down.
“AJ, what’s wrong?” Twilight yelled against the increasing gusts.
“C’mere and look at this!”
The unicorn left the side of the wall and huddled next to her friend.
“See it? There in the wall?” She pointed to a metal panel in the rock.
Twilight squinted, making out the shape of a large keyhole. She brought the lantern closer, casting light on a very large door. “Where does this go to?”
“Dunno, see if you can open it!”
Twilight nodded. Bringing her horn to the keyhole, she screwed up her face and focused. A purple spark erupted from her horn, but the door refused to open.
Applejack turned her back to the door. “Hold on, let me try.” She gave the door a swift one-two and… nothing budged. They even tried their cabin keys, but the lock was too big for them to properly fit.
Twilight sighed as she glanced around. Before the blizzard there was a spectacular view of the slopes, but the oppressing curtain of snow just made mountains seem barren and isolated. The biting cold kept them from sticking around much longer, and there wasn’t anything of note on their trip up the opposite side. They came back in through the front door, shed their coats, and met the others in the common room.
“We didn’t find anything,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Neither did we,” said Rarity. “Er, well, nothing relevant. We did come across a small wine cellar in the kitchen that we hadn’t noticed before. And there was a closet where they probably keep the cleaning supplies.”
“We found some doors under the deck,” said Twilight as she and Applejack shuffled over to the fire. “It looks like they lead to a basement, but we couldn’t get them to open.”
“If I had to guess,” mused Applejack, “I’d say it was full of groundskeepin’ equipment. Probably not somethin’ to get excited about.”
“I guess you’re right,” sighed Twilight. She turned to stare into the fire. Hopefully the concierge was okay. And surely somepony at the front desk noticed he was missing, right?
Rarity spoke up after a moment. “You know, it might not snow all night. We can stay awake, and if it lightens we can go to the main lodge. And at the very least it should be bright enough to go by morning.”
And so it was decided. They tried to pass the time in conversation, but the tension had already taken hold, despite Pinkie Pie’s best efforts. There was the odd nervous chuckle to a forced joke every now and then, but it was mostly just the ticking from the grandfather clock and the crackling fire.
Twilight turned to Fluttershy. “Hey, do you know much about the kinds of animals that live in the mountains?”
“Oh,” said Fluttershy, “a lot of the animals here aren’t too different from the ones back home. There are hares and foxes and bears and quite a few birds—”
“But do you know about any of the bigger things that might live here?” Twilight pressed. All eyes went to Fluttershy.
She sat for a moment in thought. “Sorry, not really.”
Twilight rolled over and stared at the ceiling, watching the last bits of the long skylights collect snow. What could possibly be out there? She went up to her room and returned with a few books she had pulled yesterday. The common room returned to silence. It continued this way for nearly an hour when a sudden knock rapped at the front door.
Everypony just stared. There was such an oppressing silence that Twilight began to wonder if she had simply imagined it, but that was quickly dispelled when the knock sounded again in the same even tempo. They all slowly stood.
Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a nudge. “You should go check it out.” Appejack cocked an eyebrow at her. “W-What? You’re a brave pony! Not that I’m not, but… you’ll need… someone to watch your back?” Rainbow Dash offered an uncomfortable-looking grin.
Applejack looked at her terrified friends’ faces and sighed heavily. “Okay y’all. Just… Just stay behind me.” Everyone fell into a nervous huddle as Applejack steeled herself. They approached the door as a clump as their impromptu leader carefully opened it. Just beyond, a yellowish light glowed. Twilight squinted, but she couldn’t make out much through the snowy air. Was it a lantern?
Curiosity piqued, Applejack hesitantly ventured forward. “Y’all, I think…” She started to trot. “I think it’s…” She slowed, pausing just past where the blizzard made her outline hard to see. Suddenly, with a cry of surprise, she was sucked down into the snow as the little light began to glow intensely. A rumbling growl emanated from its spot.
Immediately Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all threw their weight on the door and slammed it shut.
“Applejack!” shouted Twilight, panic in her eyes. “We need to do something! Now! Oh, but what can we do?”
“I’ll tell you what we do,” said Rainbow Dash, “we fight this thing! No more hiding and no more screaming! This monster’s going down.”
“Wait,” said Rarity. “We need to think this through. We can’t go out there unprepared.”
“She’s right,” said Twilight, regaining her composure. “If we just run out there unprepared, we’ll be totally vulnerable. And we won’t be very useful to Applejack that way.”
“So what’s the plan?” said Rainbow Dash.
Everyone thought for a moment.
“Well, maybe we should use a rope to guide us. That way we won’t get lost in the blizzard,” offered Fluttershy.
Twilight smacked her forehead with a hoof. “Of course! Applejack and I found some climbing equipment earlier and used the rope when we went outside!”
“Hey, yeah,” said Pinkie Pie. “And Dashie can lead the way—that way she can’t get sucked into the snow, and if the monster is too scary, she can just fly away! Nothing’s faster than you!”
“Alright!” Rainbow Dash turned and shouted through the closed door. “You hear that, Applejack? We’re coming for you!”
It took less than a minute for Twilight to relocate the rope. They tied one end around Rainbow Dash’s middle and secured the other to the thick leg of a table in the entryway. Fluttershy also gave the pegasus the lantern that Twilight had used earlier.
Rainbow Dash zipped up her coat. “Let’s do this.” She took one bound out the door and she was off, her outline growing fuzzy but her lantern and voice only slightly fading.
“Applejack!” she yelled around the lantern’s handle in her mouth. “Applejack, where are you?” She hovered just over the spot where Applejack had vanished. “I think I found the hole,” she called back to her friends in the doorway. “There’s already more snow in it.” She landed just next to it and dug, shoveling out great clumps and sticking her head in where she excavated. “Applejack! Can you hear me?” The pegasus shouted a few times more before Twilight cut in.
“Rainbow Dash, I don’t think she’s there anymore! Can you find any clues where she might have gone?”
“Hold on,” came the voice from out in the storm, “I’ll see what I can get.”
She flew back up into the air, the light bouncing around as the wind buffeted her a little more than before.
Only a few moments passed before the lantern’s glow stopped moving.
“Ugh, there’s nothing out here! Twilight, this isn’t working,” she yelled back at the cabin. “Okay, monster,” she shouted, “I dare you to come out and fight! No more of this stupid hiding stuff!” She whirled about in the air. “I bet you can’t lay a claw on me! Are you a beast or a chicken?”
Though they could hear the insults, the ponies in the doorway soon saw Dash’s light flicker and die.
Twilight yelled, “Hey, Rainbow Dash! Are you okay? We can bring you back in and re-light it.”
“Hold on,” she answered, “I just need—whoa!”
There was a visibly sharp tug on the end of the line. A loud snap sounded in the distance.
“Oh no,” Twilight moaned. “Hold on Rainbow Dash, we’ll pull you in!”
Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy grabbed onto the rope and reeled it in.
“Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,” Twilight chanted over and over. She couldn’t stop the anguished groan that escaped when they pulled in the end of a severed line. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!”
“Rainbow Da-aaash!” yelled Pinkie Pie to the quiet woods. She was answered by a ripple in the trees. The ponies stood tense in the doorway, watching it pass through the forest. It zig-zagged here and there, then stopped. The woods fell silent again.
“Okay,” said Twilight, trying to keep the bubbling panic down. “Let’s take the rope and—”
The tree tops began to ripple again, almost violently. The air swirled in place roughly where Rainbow Dash’s voice last came from, before blasting straight to the cabin door. It bowled everypony back inside, the blow-back from hitting the wall causing the door to slam shut.
All four lay on the floor in stunned silence. There was a slight whimper from Fluttershy. Twilight could feel herself shaking.
“Okay,” mumbled Twilight, “okay. We can beat this thing. Maybe if… Maybe if we…”
Rarity’s hoof was on her shoulder. “Maybe we should take a minute.”
Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. She knew Rarity was right. No more screw-ups. They were going to go out there and catch this thing, and more importantly find their friends.
They slowly headed back to the common room and tried to regroup. Nopony seemed eager to try the rope again, or at least not while it was still dark out. They thought about trying a net, but after there was no volunteer to be the bait, they decided that it would have been a perfect way to lose their volunteer anyway and discarded it. Most other ideas were quickly shot down after that.
Rarity glanced at the clock and yawned. “Perhaps if we just found out what it liked, we could just make a trade,” she said. “Do you think it would like diamonds?”
“I have no idea,” groaned Twilight, hooves over her head and in desperate thought.
“Surely I have something valuable somewhere in my luggage. I’m going to go and see what I can find,” said Rarity as she headed into her room.
Twilight felt like they had been sitting there for ages and getting nowhere. She looked at the clock and gave an exasperated sigh. Rainbow Dash hadn’t gone missing for too long, but Applejack had vanished nearly an hour ago. She hoped they were okay…
“Hey,” said Pinkie Pie, “does anyone else hear that?”
“Hear what?” asked Twilight.
“It sounds like a rap-tap-tapping!”
Fluttershy perked her ears up. “I think I hear it too.”
“Oooh, it’s getting louder!” said Pinkie Pie.
Twilight lifted her head to listen. “Is it… Is it coming from the windows?” She got up and inspected the glass double doors to the deck. They seemed to be lightly vibrating.
A belting shriek erupted from Rarity’s room. Twilight rushed to the door and threw it open with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie hot on her heels.
Rarity lay dazed on the ground. Twilight scanned the room, but nopony else seemed to be there.
“Rarity, what—” Twilight started, but was immediately cut off by another shriek from Rarity. She raised a quaking hoof towards the double doors leading out to the deck. Twilight peered across the room but couldn’t make out much past the windows before the doors blasted inwards, gusts of wind sending cascades of snow into the room. It looked as if unseen hands clutched at Rarity’s legs as she was dragged, flailing and screaming, into the blizzard and the doors slammed shut behind her.
With horrified gasps everyone rushed to the doors. Twilight flung them open, but only to find the outside eerily calm. Even the blizzard seemed to lighten a little.
“Rarity! Rarity, where are you?!” Twilight cried to the quiet woods.
“Look at this,” said Fluttershy. She stood next to a deep streak in the snow that ended before the edge of the deck. “She… She just disappeared,” she mumbled.
“And there aren’t any prints anywhere else,” said Pinkie Pie. “Well, except there are now that we’re out here.”
Twilight could only stare at the gash Rarity had made in the snow as she was dragged away. She sat down hard.
“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie ventured over. “Twilight, are you okay?”
Twilight looked up with hard determination in her eyes. “Yeah. And I’ve got a plan.” She stood and headed back inside, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie following right behind. The two exchanged a look as Fluttershy closed and locked the door after her.
“Grab your stuff and come upstairs,” Twilight told the pair, a renewed lift in her step. “We’re going to let it come to us.”
