“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash said. “You’ve got a bunch of monsters that lure ponies into a trap and eat them alive, and we’re not allowed to just go in and bust their heads?”
“That’s right,” Twilight said. “What they’re doing is all perfectly legal. Before attending a concert, the audience members each sign a ‘death contract’ that acknowledges the possibility that they might be eaten alive, and essentially forgive Deathclop for their future deaths ahead of time. Since only a few ponies get eaten at each performance, most of them go home satisfied, with the thrill of having survived a dangerous ordeal.”
“And I’ve heard the music is to die for!” Pinkie Pie giggled. “They’ve got all the singing monsters! A kelpie, a siren, a timber wolf, a changeling queen, and even a batpony on super super super soprano!”
Rainbow threw up her arms. “Canterlot ponies are completely insane!”
“I’m not arguing with you,” Twilight replied. “But Celestia refuses to intervene. Their concerts are less dangerous than camping in the Whitetail woods, so she says they don’t pass the threshold where safety is more important than freedom.”
“And where does dear Fluttershy fit in to all this?” Rarity asked. “You said that she was somehow mixed up in this affair?”
Twilight nodded, a grim look on her face. “She’s their new lead singer.”
===
As soon as they arrived in Canterlot, Pinkie Pie headed off to handle the situation ‘Pinkie Pie style’. Before Twilight could object – or, for that matter, agree and set up a place and time to meet, or maybe some sort of signal in case they needed help – the pink pony had donned her spy suit and night-vision goggles and vanished into a nearby potted plant.
“Honestly, it’s probably best that she doesn’t come with us,” Rarity noted, as the remaining three friends headed towards the theater. “After all, she gave the poor dear such a fright last time.”
The Death Lair – the old Canterlot Opera House before the terrible fire of 964 – had been completely refurbished in order to meet every health and safety code of the Canterlot zoning authority, but it still looked like a crumbling ruin. A crumbling, monster-infested ruin, with diamond dogs in ratty leather armor on security. Ratty, but suspiciously brightly colored leather. There were also pony skulls on sticks to either side of the door, and worst of all a gift shop with ridiculously inflated prices.
Rainbow Dash picked up a leather ankle-band anyway. “What? It’s not like it’s real.”
“Are you sure?” Twilight asked. “It looks awfully authentic.”
“No, see?” She flipped part of it over to show the words ‘made in Cloudsdale’ burned into the underside, with an arching rainbow symbol over them.
“Oh. I, er, guess that’s okay then,” Twilight said, not looking even the least little bit okay. “It would be rather silly of them to sell pieces of their former fans.”
“I believe the term is ‘metal’,” Rarity said. “But it would be quite a waste. A true collector would pay even more than these frankly ridiculous prices. Especially if they made it into something less… tacky.”
They were suddenly stopped by a pair of crossed spears. “Ponies signed death contract?” one of the diamond dog bouncers asked.
“We’re not here for the show,” Twilight Sparkle replied. “Fluttershy invited us to see her backstage. See? We have these passes…”
“Backstage pass, still need death contract,” the other bouncer said, reaching into a bright green leather pouch and pulling out three copies.
Twilight gave a heavy sigh as she took them in her magic aura. “Fine.”
“You cannot possibly be serious,” Rarity asked, as she watched Twilight and Rainbow Dash sign their lives away.
“Hey, Fluttershy needs us,” Rainbow Dash said. “Besides, I don’t care what the contract says, no stupid piece of paper is going to keep me from busting their heads if they try to eat me or any of my friends.”
“I don’t see anything in the contract that would keep us from fighting back if we were personally threatened,” Twilight said. “I’m sure they’ll pick easier targets.”
The diamond dogs laughed at that. “When Deathclop sing, all ponies easy targets.”
===
Their passes did get them past most of the line, at least – it was an hour before the concert, but the hall was already filling up with eager ponies dressed up in their own atavistic costumes, all shiny leather-patterned vinyl and metal spikes, and heavy, heavy makeup, to the point where on some of them it might have been better described as body paint.
Even skirting the crowd, they couldn’t help but get a whiff of the heavy scents many of the ponies in attendance drenched themselves in to avoid being eaten. Bitter Apple, Peppermint Oil, Skunk Musk – it was all there, mixing together. Twilight – like probably ninety percent of the unicorns in the audience – cast a simple ‘no sense of smell’ charm on herself and her companions, before any of them passed out from the stench. Rarity still looked like she was going to faint from the tacky outfits, of course.
She managed to hold it together until they got backstage, where it didn’t take long to find Fluttershy’s dressing room. The door was a soft pink, adorned with a yellow star with half-folded batwings.
“She’s their bat pony?” Rainbow Dash whispered, before they went in. “I thought you cured her!”
“I did,” Twilight whispered back. “But a week later she was back, asking me to re-curse her. She said she liked how it made her feel so assertive.”
Rainbow Dash leaned down from a hover and glowered in Twilight’s face. “And you did? Without even telling us?”
“No!” Twilight said. “I don’t know who she found to un-undo the spell, or how she got from ‘vampire fruit bat’ to… well… this. But I should have told you girls anyway, as soon as I saw that she was looking into it.”
“It’s not your fault, dear,” Rarity said.
Rainbow just snorted. “Well, when I figure out whose fault it is they’ve got a serious tail-kicking in store.”
Without further ado, they burst through the door.
Fluttershy was hunched over in the center of the small dressing room, surrounded by green flames, as a large changeling loomed over her, eyes and horn aglow, mouth spread wide to display its fangs. It didn’t even have time to hiss before Rainbow Dash was on it, knocking it into the vanity mirror. Twilight lit her own horn, sending out her aura to smother the flames, while Rarity stood in the doorway in shock.
“Stoooop!” Fluttershy said, covering her face with her hooves. “Please stop fighting!”
“It’s okay, Fluttershy. We’ve got you,” Twilight said, as she finished dispelling the mysterious changeling magic.
“What was that dreadful creature doing to you?” Rarity asked, hugging the quivering pegasus.
The changeling’s voice was like an echoing chorus, sneering at the intruders. “I was helping her get into costume.”
===
After they apologized, grudgingly, for jumping to conclusions, Queen Deathscythe left them alone with Fluttershy to catch up. “Remember that we’re on in an hour though, dearie,” she said, smiling at Fluttershy as she scuttled out the door.
“Right, she’s gone,” Rainbow Dash said, reaching down and lifting Fluttershy up by her shoulders. “Come on, we’ve got a straight shot to the exit from here, and we can be back in Ponyville before they know you’re missing.”
“No, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said. “I’m here because I want to sing. I can’t let down all the ponies of Canterlot.”
“Then why did you ask us to come, if you didn’t need a rescue?” Twilight asked.
“I didn’t ask you to come,” Fluttershy said, looking confused. “Not that I’m not delighted to have you here! I mean…” Fluttershy gracefully shifted into a sitting position as Rainbow Dash let her down. “I really do love singing with Deathclop. It’s such a rush, to perform in front of all those wonderful fans.” She smiled sweetly and clasped her forehooves together, as she imagined it. “And while I’m… Flutterdeath… I’m not scared of the attention at all.”
“What about the… you know,” Rainbow Dash asked, lifting her hooves and making a scary face.
Fluttershy recoiled, then giggled. “Oh, that’s just a natural part of a monster’s lifecycle. I’ve never been afraid of predators. All parts of nature are beautiful, when you look at them in the right light.”
“You haven’t killed anypony, have you?” Rarity asked.
“Um…” Fluttershy said. “Not by myself, no… bat ponies only need a little bit of blood, and I usually stop when they pass out.” Her friends let out a sigh of relief.
“You still haven’t told us why we’re here,” Twilight reminded her. “If you didn’t invite us, who did?”
Fluttershy lowered her head, so that her long pink bangs obscured her face. “It was probably Deathscythe. I have so much fun on stage, but after the concert it hits me, and I’m just so scared that I curl up in a ball for a while, until I can calm down. Changelings are really sensitive to emotions, and she’s always so worried when she feels me like that. Maybe she thought it would help if I had some friendly faces there to comfort me?”
Rainbow Dash twitched. Rarity pouted. Twilight Sparkle looked thoughtful. But in the end, they all hugged her and promised that they’d be waiting right there. “You can count on us!”
===
The Death Lair was general admission, but coming from backstage all but ensured that the three of them had seats near the front.
“Right in the splatter zone,” assured Deathweed the Kelpie, grinning his incredibly wide, toothy grin. “Maybe I’ll even pick one of you. Wouldn’t that be a rush for our Flutterdeath, to get to chow down on somepony she knows?”
“You try, and I’ll knock out your teeth,” Rainbow Dash said, glaring at him.
Deathweed giggled like a schoolfilly, and flicked out a long, slimy tongue to lick Dash’s face, then flounced off, shaking his leafy tail.
“I guess he likes you?” Twilight said, confused.
“He licks me,” Rainbow Dash said, scraping the slime off her cheek and flicking it away. “He really licks me.”
===
Eventually, the room went dark, and the babble of the crowd faded as a flotilla of varicolored will-o-the-wisps swept out along the ceiling, swirling around in complicated patterns, ducking behind the rafters and pillars to give a near-blinding strobe-light effect. There was a rattle, and then a hiss, and then the howl of a timberwolf as Deathwolf took the stage, illuminated by a sudden spotlight. Other voices joined the howl in a four-part harmony, as the rest of the band moved into view, and the crowd joined in, ponies lifting their muzzles and adding their own howls.
And then with an ear-piercing shriek, just inside the audible range, Flutterdeath swooped out onto the stage, curling her tail around a strategically placed metal bar as she started to sing. Nopony could make out the words of her song, although they could tell she was trying to sing something, but the shrill tones went straight past the conscious layer of their brains to tap into something deeper. Her voice was pure emotion, and chief among the emotions it inspired was fear.
Then the siren, Deathsong, started her solo, and all remaining thought fled. There was only the music.
Afterwords, they remembered flashes. A dramatic scene where Deathsong dialed back on her magical hypnotism, to let the crowd take in the clatter of claws as Deathwolf launched into his solo, culminating in his massive maw dipping into the crowd and lifting a shrieking mare into the air – everypony just starting to scream in horror when the siren song kicked back in to pacify them.
Rainbow Dash remembered being up on stage, senseless, making out with Deathweed. She swore that’s all they did, and nopony remembered clearly enough to contradict her.
Rarity remembered being knocked out of the reverie by a ridiculous green and purple lightshow illuminating Deathscythe’s dance. “It was absolutely horrid,” she said, shivering.
Twilight thought that she almost, almost remembered some of the words that Flutterdeath had been singing, but they escaped her when she tried to focus.
All three of them were covered in blood, as they made their way back towards Fluttershy’s dressing room, and none of them remembered when it had happened. “They totally could have picked us, and we wouldn’t have resisted at all.” Rainbow Dash said. “We were just – wow.”
“There’s a reason that sirens are considered the bane of the seas,” Twilight said, nodding. “But it’s strange – I know that we just narrowly avoided dying, but I don’t feel scared, or regretful. I feel…”
“Excited?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Alive,” Twilight said, grinning. “It’s probably an aftereffect of the mental magic,” she added.
Then the three of them burst through the door again, much more calmly this time, to see Deathscythe and Fluttershy still as a batpony. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re here, you can change her back now.”
Deathscythe laughed. “Now why would I do that?”
Then Flutterdeath turned towards them, and stared.
“Don’t worry,” Deathscythe purred, and she walked around the edge of the room towards them, careful not to let any of them break away from Flutterdeath’s gaze. “You’re not going to suffer… much.” Slime oozed from her abdomen, under her tail, and she trailed it around their hooves, gluing them to the floor. “I know you weren’t actually responsible for my previous defeat, but with you out of the picture, my next invasion will be oh so much easier. Especially you Twilight Sparkle.”
None of them were able to respond, petrified by Flutterdeath’s stare.
“So, she’s going to eat one of you now,” Deathscythe continued, as she built up a cocoon around the ponies, “and the other two will help feed my children with your sweet pony dreams, until it’s time for her to take you, as well. Any objections?”
Twilight quivered, and managed to open her mouth, but no sound came out.
“I didn’t think so.”
Just then, as her back was turned, a pink figure lowered from the ceiling behind Flutterdeath, and wrapped its hooves around her in a sudden hug. “Surprise!” Pinkie Pie said, right in the bat’s ear, in her loud, high-pitched shriek.
Flutterdeath screamed in pain, and covered her ears… which changed back into smaller, less sensitive pony ears as she reverted the transformation.
“Noooo!” Deathscythe screamed, turning on Pinkie Pie. That proved to be a mistake – the others were free of the stare, and it was only the work of a moment for Twilight to dispel their bonds, and another moment for her horn-beams and Rainbow Dash’s hooves to pummel the changeling into unconsciousness. Rarity lifted the quivering Fluttershy onto Pinkie Pie’s back, and they all made for the exit.
“Thank Celestia you made it!” Twilight said. “You arrived just in time!”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “Silly! I was up there the whole time, waiting for the right moment. And then my tail twitched, and I knew it was time to spring into action!”
“Well, let’s get out of here before anything else shows up to stop us,” Twilight said.
And then the lilting tones of Deathsong’s siren song drifted along the hallway, and the four ponies stopped in their tracks, eyes going unfocused.
Deathweed stepped out in front of them, and ran his veiny, viny hoof along Rainbow Dash’s cheek. “You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?”
“Kind of,” Twilight said. The acoustics in the hallway weren’t as good as in the main Lair, and she could focus well enough to speak, if not to move, or use magic.
“You can’t hold her here against her will,” Rarity said, haughtily, sweat dripping down her brow.
Deathweed sighed. “We wouldn’t want to,” he said. “Well, aside from Deathscythe, I suppose. She’s always going on and on about how wonderfully delicious our little Flutter here is.”
“Then you’ll let us go?” Twilight asked, hopefully.
“Yeah, why not,” the Kelpie said, grinning. “We’re not monsters.” He waved down the hall behind them, and the siren song faded out.
Twilight stopped, as the other three ran off with Fluttershy. “You eat ponies,” Twilight said. “You’re monsters.”
Deathweed licked his lips, and tilted his head. “Well, yeah, I guess that’s fair.” As Twilight turned, he called after her. “She’ll be back! She needs this!”
“Bite me!” Twilight shouted back, then teleported to catch up to her friends, just in case he decided to take that literally.
===
Unfortunately, their testimony about Deathscythe’s plans was not considered the kind of proof the Royal Guard would need to shut down Deathclop permanently.
“Hearsay!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “I can’t believe it. It was a freaking confession!”
“Made to witnesses who can only testify about what they heard the suspect say,” Twilight explained. “Memory spells aren’t admissible in court, either.”
“Don’t worry, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said. “Deathscythe was a very bad changeling, and I’ll make sure that she apologizes for what she’s done.”
“You’re going back?” Rarity asked. “You can’t be serious!”
Fluttershy smiled. “Somepony needs to keep an eye on them.”
