Forgotten

At some point between midnight and dawn, Bon Bon groaned and opened one sleep crusted eye. Rolling over, she glared pure death at the love of her life. Or at least the blanket tent said love is under, illuminated from within by the soft gold glow of her horn.

Taking a deep breath, Bon Bon sharply proded the blanketed form with her hoof. With a muffled scream, Lyra erupted from beneath the blankets, horn glowing brilliantly and an old battered book clutched in her hooves. Panting, she stared at Bon Bon.

Calmly, slowly the Earth Pony said “Lyra. I love you, you know that. And that is why I’m going to give you one chance to explain yourself before I kill you.” She slowly rose to a sitting position, still glowering. “Why are you reading under the covers when we have a perfectly good living room? That you could be using. To read. While I sleep.” She gave the unicorn another sharp hoof poke.

A sheepish look crossed Lyra’s face and the light of her horn dimmed to a comfortable starlight glow. “Sorry Bonnie. I just, you know. I was reading this historical account about..” she trailed off, mumbling for a moment, then her voice picked up “And I guess I got kinda freaked out reading down there alone. So I came up here, because,” Lyra rubbed her mane and gave Bon Bon an embarrassed look “Cuddling helps? And usually you sleep like the dea-“ Lyra shuddered, breaking off for a second as her eyes flicked quickly around the dim room “Sleep like a log.”

Bon Bon gave Lyra a skeptical look. “So you were reading a book about ‘mumble mumble’?” She peered at the offending book. “Would this ‘mumble mumble’ have something to do with humans?” Lyra’s ears laid back and she ducked her head, looking anywhere but at Bon Bon. “Umm.. kinda. It’s about something humanish?” Bon Bon just shook her head and sighed.

“Lyra, what’s in this ‘historical account’? Anything human,” Bon Bon rolled her eyes and groaned at the word “Usually has you acting like a school filly with a crush. Spill.” She nudged the book, giving the thing a glare “What’s so different about this thing?”

Lyra turned the book over and over in her hooves for a moment, thinking. “This record is different because it’s recent and local. And Celestia’s muff, is it bucked up.” The unicorn shuddered and flipped the book open, turning it to face Bon Bon. Several loose papers slipped free of the old journal, as well as several photographs.

Bon Bon picked up the photographs, eyes widening. They were old black and white photographs, the type used a century or more ago. Some of the photographs focused on the outside of an old fashioned house and barn. The rest concerned themselves with the precious occupants.

Gagging slightly, Bon Bon stared at the pictures in shock. Her hind brain had figured out what the pictures showed instantly. The rest of Bon Bon took a few moments to catch up. Madly, an old rhyme echoed through her mind The hoof bones connected to the knee bone, the knee bones connected to the leg bone.. She gagged again and flipped the pictures over, hiding them from sight.

She stared at Lyra in dead silence for a moment, before whispering “Lyra? Why do you have a bunch of pictures of a stallion and foals, so many foals, that’ve been.. been..” Her lips trembled, eyes darting down to the photographs and back up, desperately searching for the right word. Lyra looked away, horn dimming further, as she offered “Dismembered?”

Nodding ferociously, Bon Bon stabbed a hoof at the pictures, voice coming low and angry “Dismembered. Disemboweled. Desecrated. Decapitated. From the looks of one of those, possibly defenestrated. I’m sure there’re more D words, but I’ve run out and Twilight refuses to lend anyone her any of her thesauri collection. How about butchered? That’s a good word!” A shrill, hysterical giggle forced its way out as she pushed the pictures away. She hung her head and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath before she locked eyes with her marefriend “This is sick Lyra, really sick. Do you think your humans did this? This.. Why? Just why?”

Lyra hung her head, shoulders hunched defensively. “I know something humanoid did it. I think it’s related to humans in general” Her horn’s glow brightened for a moment and three more pictures slide out of the book. Each showed a humanoid figure, pale and emaciated. It was hairless and hunched over in each picture, eyes reflecting the light of the camera’s flash balefully. It had hands like those of the librarian’s pet dragon but its fingers were long, wicked claws that put Spike’s to shame. Each picture showed the creature in a different place; once in the brush of a forest, once atop the barn from the other pictures and once, most terrifyingly, crouched at the bottom of a set stairs.

Bon Bon hurriedly flipped those pictures face down as well. She took another deep breath. “So you’re reading about an ancient murder and looking at pictures of dismantled, there’s another D right there, dismantled corpses of long dead ponies and some freaky monkey thing. This seems like appropriate night time reading material to you?” Lyra looked away from Bon Bon and shrugged defensively.

“Its just that is the closet I’ve ever gotten, ‘kay? It happened here, back when the Apples and the Plums settled here. The house is even still there, just inside the Everfree.” Bon Bon’s eyes shot open and she placed a hoof over Lyra’s mouth “Here?! House? Plums? Explain!” Bon Bon’s breath quickened, ears twitching nervously and eyes wide.

Nodding hastily, Lyra quickly said “Okay, everypony knows Ponyville was founded by the Apples, right?” At Bon Bon’s nod, she continued “Well, it was supposed to be founded by the Apples and the Plums, a Pegasi family. They were going to work together. You know, Earth Pony farming know how and Pegasi weather.” Lyra swallowed “The Plums put their house closer to the Everfree. And according to the journal part, here..” She flipped the book open about a third of the way through “weird things started happening. The kind of stuff you’d expect from the Everfree.” A trembling smile crossed her face “Which makes it normal, I guess. But they heard stuff at first. Hissing, scratching, some freaky ticking, all night long. And eventually they caught a few pictures of that.. thing.” She shuddered “The journal is kind of all over the place near the end but the Apples eventually came over and found Ginger Plum, the missus of the house ya know, hiding in the basement and.. you saw the pictures.” She gathered the offending photographs together and tucked them out of sight.

“They had the Royal Guard down here, looking for it. The bucket heads didn’t find anything. And Ginger? She just kept going on about rakes. They had to take her to Bedlam.” Lyra shivered and glanced towards the Everfree “I tell you Bonnie, the Apples back then must’ve had some real steel in their spines to stick around after that.”

Bon Bon shook her head “Okay. And what’re you going to do?” She gave Lyra a stern look “I know you. You’re going to do something about this.” Lyra smiled and gave a weak chuckle “You really do. Well, tomorrow I’m going to go talk to Granny Smith. She was around back then, so she should have a few answers maybe.”

Bon Bon pursed her lips and then nodded. Nuzzling against Lyra, she said “Well. That sounds safe. I hope she can tell you whatever you want to know.” She sighed deeply, pressing against the unicorn.

Lyra was silent for a moment before saying, tone oddly careful “And I might be gone for a few weeks, Bonnie” Bon Bon snorted into Lyra’s coat, smiling as she playfully asked “Finally find a ‘gig’ or whatever you young hooligans are calling it nowadays?”

A nervous chuckle had Bon Bon’s ears perked up and into alert mode. She looked up at Lyra, eyes narrowed as the unicorn rubbed her horn. “Weeeell.. After I talk to Granny Smith I’m going to find the house and do some camping. Or squatting, depending on how much is left. See if I can spot this thing and find out what all that rake stuff Ginger was talking about meant.”

Bon Bon slowly drew back, eyes still locked on Lyra. Slowly, carefully, she took the unicorns muzzle between her hooves. Calmly she took a deep breath and then..

"ARE YOU INSANE?!"