The Tentacle Demon in the Pony Suit

Chapters

Close Enough
Alien Invasion
Visibility
The Same Face
Nesting Grounds
50% Mare, 0% Stallion, 50% Everything in the Other Direction

Close Enough

Cuddlhu didn’t stop running until she reached her home. The midday sun beat down on her all the way, and she had nearly ended up letting one of her zips slip open from all the slime she was exuding. By the time she reached her residence - if it could even be called that - she was panting out stinky breaths of exhaustion as she dragged her sagging hooves behind her.

She groaned and made her way round the back to a garden, overgrown with weeds and a couple of baby trees that had managed to find their way in. Cuddlhu, pointing a glare at the sun, slogged up to the rotting fence and raised her muzzle into the air. Something slimy and green within her grabbed the pull tab and split her front in two. Now open to escape, Cuddlhu quite literally spilled her guts out into the mess of brambles and flowers.

Cuddlhu looked back as her mock-pony suit crumpled to the ground, and dove into the undergrowth to avoid the heat of the sun. Now that she was out, she was even more vulnerable.

That was so embarrassing! What a silly mistake for me to make, Quilliam warned me about putting truth first and now somepony knows about me! the creature thought to herself. But… I’m safe now. Nopony will find me here, the sun can’t get me, and… “Oh no.” An image of the old mare she had spoken to came to mind. “I told her where I live… She’ll be coming to greet me, and give me presents and kisses and pats on the head!” She looked at her disguise laying empty on the ground, and switched her thought train to a completely different track. “I’ve got to get ready!”

Cuddlhu slithered out of the garden and through one of the windows in her home. She then reached back out into the open and wrapped her disguise in a few green tendrils to hold it up. Making sure to keep the fragile skin away from any thorns, Cuddlhu guided the slime out of the hooves and, like she was squeezing frosting from a pastry bag, the green gunk slowly emerged out of the skin suit’s mouth and disappeared into the plants.

Alright. She dragged the drained suit into the house with her. What next…? Cuddlhu looked around at her home and wriggled her spinal growths in thought.

Having no prior knowledge of what made for a well-kept home - or even what made a good pony house in the first place - Cuddlhu had chosen the first empty-looking place she’d come across when she first emerged from the Everfree Forest. The one she had ended up picking served her needs perfectly well: It was small and dark, just like a mossy cave, and it even had patches of water laying in small pools on the floor. To top it all off, the garden out back provided her with all the sustenance she needed.

Had she been wearing her disguise, she would have smiled at the sight. “This place is perfect,” she repeated to herself.

Looking at it with two independently moving eyes, Cuddlhu picked up her suit from the floor and, with a shake, dunked it in the largest pool in the house. The water was filled with algae and seemed to be the beginnings of a small pond, but it served to get rid of the smell of bodily liquids from the skin and hair, if only to replace it with the acrid scent of rotting, waterlogged plants.

All of a sudden, a sound tore through the air: a scream. Cuddlhu’s entire body tensed up at the sound, sending her tendrils into the nearby ground and walls as their owner’s surprise turned them rigid. Her eyestalks whipped around to see a pink mare, her blue eyes staring at the pool, coming to the end of her scream. Before Cuddlhu could say a word, the mare leapt past her and grabbed what looked vaguely like a drowning, shriveled pony out of the water. The display sent a splatter of algae across one of the walls.

“Yay! I saved- oh. It’s just a very, very life-like pony suit, what are the chances?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. She gave the thing a shake, producing a papery wobble sound. Her bright eyes went brighter at the discovery, but she had more important things to attend to at the moment. She dropped the suit back into the water and looked at Cuddlhu, naked of any disguise. “Man, lemme tell you, ‘Tentacle Cosplay Monster’, you’d have been in trouble if I hadn’t noticed that your suit was just a suit! Good thing I’m a master of disguises, myself!”

Oh no, oh no, Cuddlhu thought. There’s a pony in my house, and it isn’t Quilliam or that old mare I met in town! What do I do? She opted to scream in terror. Her body quivered like a sea anemone as she coiled all of her tentacles upwards towards the ceiling. “Don’t look at me! Give me my suit back, I need that to be a pony!” the tentacle monster cried, flattening herself as much as possible against the wood in an attempt to hide.

Pinkie watched with an unconcerned smile, and fished the skin suit out of the water once more. “It’s ok, I know the feeling,” she responded as she raised it up to her newest friend. “Sometimes, I don’t feel like a pony. Not like everyone else does, at least.”

Cuddlhu cautiously gathered the suit out of Pinkie’s hooves. She held either side of the gaping chest and opened it up further. Pinkie Pie watched with intrigue as the creature slithered back into the suit, the tentacles and exposed organs filling it up and arranging themselves to take on the look of a solid body. The red eyes took their positions in the empty sockets, the underside was zipped up and Cuddlhu looked at her visitor. “I don’t understand. Where did you come from? How did you find me?” she asked.

“Uh, duh? I’m Pinkie Pie, I know everypony in Ponyville!”

“... That doesn’t really answer my question…”

Pinkie sat and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well… to answer your first question; I came from a rock farm north-west of here, in Ghastly Gorge. Then Seaddle burned down and I moved here to Ponyville. As for how I found you…” Her mane drooped slightly. “It was by pure chance. For some reason my Pinkie Sense didn’t warn me there was a new pony in town, and I just happened across Mrs. Withers today who told me about a pony I hadn’t heard of before.”

Cuddlhu looked sympathetic, despite not really following all that the other mare was talking about. “Well, you know that I’m not really a pony now, don’t you?” she asked. “Do you… promise not to tell anyone about me? About what I really am?”

Pinkie brightened up and smiled. She performed an odd routine, ending with one of her forehooves stuck in her eyeball. “I Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony that you’re not just anypony!” she replied with a grin. “Personally, you look like a pony and you smell like a pony, so you’re close enough for me!” She grabbed one of her own legs and glared at it. “Stupid Pinkie Sense, discriminating against almost-ponies like that! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

A smile, just as big as the one Pinkie wore, stretched across Cuddlhu’s face. “You- you really think so? You really think I make a good pony?”

Pinkie let her traitorous leg go for the moment and looked back at her new friend. “Of course you do! Why, I’d bet if I threw a party here, no one would be any wiser that you were straight out of the Everfree! Come to think of it, how long have you been here? You only just got to Ponyville, right?”

Cuddlhu shook her head. “No, I only just went into town properly today. I’ve been living here for five-”

“FIVE DAYS?!” Pinkie exclaimed in absolute horror, leaping into the rafters.

“No, years. Five years,” Cuddlhu corrected.

The joyous, energetic feeling that had filled the room fled, and Pinkie dropped from the ceiling like a fluffy, dead flamingo. For a while she said nothing. Cuddlhu looked between Pinkie’s staring eyes, and found an emotion she didn’t recognise from the energetic pony: an incredible, cutting sadness. Her formerly bunchy, tangled mane lay splayed out across the floor, with her tail drooping into the baby pond. Her big, blue eyes had shrunk to the size of pinpricks and it almost looked like her coat was losing its colour.

“Five years?” she almost whispered.

Cuddlhu nodded.

Pinkie fainted.

Alien Invasion

Cuddlhu smiled as she lay her unconscious new friend on the bed. It was a slightly off smile, tilted by her confusion over why Pinkie Pie had reacted in such a strange way. “I didn’t know ponies could just… switch off,” she mused. The bed may have been a worn, old thing that had a few ferns and vines growing amongst its tatters, but she hoped it would help the pink pony sleep.

Cuddlhu walked out of the room, her false mane and tail catching on the little nicks and protruding shards of wood that lined the door frame. “What a nice pony,” she said to herself, smiling once again. With nothing else in mind to do that day, Cuddlhu sat herself in the middle of one of the pools. The nether regions of her disguise zipped open and a few tendrils coiled out to take in the water.

Just outside, three ponies made their way up the old path: an elderly unicorn, an earth-pony wearing a suit of bronze armour, and the mayor of Ponyville herself, Mayor Mare.

“Squatters I can understand,” said Mare. “What I don’t understand is why they would choose to live in such a run-down place like this, instead of just applying to have a house of their own built.”

The earth-pony, a young stallion with a brown coat and a neatly combed mane of the same colour, scanned the area as Mayor talked. His pale green eyes settled on the house itself. “I guess some people don’t know how things work in Ponyville.”

“Indeed. It’s a shame, really. We have to go through the trouble of chasing them down just so we can offer them a more permanent residence.” Mayor stopped in front of the door, looking with concern at the cracks and missing pieces of wood scattered across the old property’s façade. She raised a tan hoof and knocked on the empty door frame. “I am Mayor Mare, the mayor of Ponyville. I am willing to offer you a place to stay for the night, if you are willing to come out,” she called.

No response.

Mare frowned to herself and looked at the unicorn. “Mr. Strange, you stay here. Me and Margrave will explore the premises to see if we can find this pony. Wait here until we return.”

Strange nodded and gave her a small smile. “Yes, I’ll do that. You can thank Penny Withers for the alert, by the way.”

Mare responded with a nod before entering the building. She readjusted her glasses and squinted in the lowered lighting. “This was Mr. Greenhooves’ old home, wasn’t it? This place must have been abandoned for a good forty years if I have my maths right.”

“Given its proximity to the Everfree, I’m not surprised that it’s almost rubble now,” Margrave Creek commented.

Mare shook her head. “No. Back then, this area was one big meadow. I was a filly at the time, and I played here with my friends.” She ran a hoof across a blackened stone wall, looking sombre. “This damage was done by fire. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s still standing after all this time.”

In front of the cottage, Strange waited until the pair were out of sight before stealthily trotting his way around the outside. Once he had reached the other side, the old pony looked over the extended garden. The berry bushes, thorns and various other plants nearly stretched all the way to the edge of the Everfree itself. The trees within became gnarled and darker in shade almost immediately after one crossed the threshold, which lay just twenty or so meters from the house.

He looked back to the house and chose to enter through one of the windows. Had he not already known what he would find within, the unicorn would have cried out in shock when he saw the expression Pinkie Pie was pulling. Despite being asleep, her face had still managed to twist itself into something that made it look like she had been possessed by an evil spirit. The sight still set him off balance and he almost tumbled into the room. His face came close to touching the dust-covered floor and breaking his cover of silence.

For a moment, he stood there in that odd position, ears raised to listen for the other visitors to the house. Hearing no more movement than normal, he got up with a quiet groan and looked at Pinkie once more; She’s unconscious, but everything else seems to be normal… aside from that face… Quilliam Strange thought to himself. The voice in his mind was different to the one he had used just minutes earlier. She must have been scared out of consciousness. What in Tartarus did Cuddlhu do to her?

The pensioner, suddenly looking more spry and dexterous than normal, pricked his white ears up as he heard the voices at the front of the cottage moving further in. Without making a sound, he darted across the hallway, into the living room, and looked up.

“Are they gone yet?” asked Cuddlhu from the ceiling. She hung, suspended from the rafters by a few tentacles emerging from the suit.

Quilliam let out a sigh. “No, they’re on their way here,” he replied, his voice taking on a much younger tone. “Come down from there, Cuddle, you won’t get a chance at living life as a pony if you don’t at least get a real place to live.”

Cuddlhu twiddled her hooves awkwardly. “But why can’t I just live with you? The old ponies accepted you, didn’t they?”

Quilliam nodded. His horn glowed red and cast a net of magic over his head. The wave spread down his body, revealing ash-black chitin beneath. The changeling looked at Cuddlhu with his red eyes, and gave the frills on his head a much needed stretch. “You asked for my help, Cuddle, nothing more,” he replied in a fatherly tone.

Again, she paused. “But… w-what if they see me?”

“They’re a lot more likely to see you if you’re hanging upside down like that. You look like a pony, but you need to act like a pony as well.” He patted the ground to motion for his friend to come down, but Cuddlhu didn’t budge. Quilliam rolled his eyes and walked into the next room, out of sight. I’ll help you out, just like we planned. All you need to do is follow my instructions on what to say, his voice spoke within Cuddlhu’s mind.

Cuddlhu squinted in discomfort at the feeling. She withdrew her tendrils and instead wrapped her limbs around the old, splintered beam and allowed it to take her weight. The ponies who had come with Quilliam were calling out for her, promising not to hurt her and asking her questions.

Why are they doing that? Cuddlhu asked. They can’t see me, and they don’t even know who I am, so why are they calling to me as if they do?

The ponies here are very kind, very hospitable, Quilliam answered. Right now, they are willing to provide you with things you need, but this is only because they don’t realize what you really are. Keep yourself hidden.

Cuddlhu frowned, once again feeling like she had been denied half the answer. She hugged the beam tightly as the hoofsteps entered the room.

“I think I may have heard someone in here,” said Mare, looking around. Her eyes passed over the darkened wood and stone walls. Cuddlhu, being blue, may have blended in with the remaining ceiling and the patches of clear sky beyond, but if anything were to draw the intruders’ attention, it was the pair of red eyes, watching them from above.

They saw me!

Are you still on the ceiling??

“Hello!” Cuddlhu called and waved at her two visitors. Mare and Margrave both stared back, and found that they had no words. “I’m… holding on.”

By her scraggly, bedraggled mane, the mare looked like she’d gotten lost in a dumpster in Manehatten, and then wandered all the way to Ponyville. Possibly via an underground route of some kind.

"Are you... alright, up there?" asked Mare.

"Yes," Cuddlhu answered simply.

Say you'd like to- dammit, Cuddle!

I'm sorry, I answered without thinking again! What do I say now?

Quilliam didn't get a chance to respond, as a worrying cracking sound began to emerge from the beam. It gave way with a loud snap, coupled with a sickly tearing, and Cuddlhu fell to the ground. The pair looked up in shock to see that a portion of the squatter’s mane had torn straight off, leaving a small, gruesome patch of flesh dangling from the ceiling.

“Ah! I pulled off some of my mane!” Cuddlhu cried, covering the patch with a hoof. She saw the looks they were giving her and began to panic. “No, don’t look! This isn’t what I really look like! I have a pony mane!”

While Mare was turning green at the sight, Margrave came to Cuddlhu’s side. “Take your hoof off,” he said, his eyes wide, “I need to see the wound!” He looked back at Mare. “Give me your collar!”

“What?”

“Mayor Mare, Give me your collar!” Mare quickly realized what he intended to do, and untied her ribbon tie and removed the white collar from around her neck. Hoofing them to Margrave, the guard ripped the collar in two and wrapped the exposed flesh as best he could, using the dark-turquoise ribbon to tie the ends tightly together. Why isn’t she reacting to the injury? he wondered with a frown. She should be screaming in pain right now.

Cuddlhu looked up at the makeshift bandage with curiosity. Is this one of the things you said they’d provide me with? she asked her mental partner.

In the other room, Quilliam rubbed his face and resisted the urge to let out a groan. No, but keep it on anyway. And you’re injured right now. What do ponies do when they get injured?

They scream and die?

… I’m hoping that was a joke.

Within her hollow skull, Cuddlhu’s tentacles rearranged themselves. The movement caused her head to sway slightly, to which Margrave responded by holding his forehooves to catch her if she passed out. A quiet noise, like putty being squeezed was heard from within and a solid stream of green “blood” emerged from beneath the bandage. Cuddlhu saw her cue as it passed over her eyes and she let out a horrid scream of pain.

Margrave’s eyes went wide. Was that a delayed reaction of some kind? And is that… Changeling goo coming out of her? He wrapped his forehooves around her front as the mare began thrashing in apparent agony. “Mayor Mare, her injuries may be more severe than what we can see on the surface, we’ve got to take her to the hospital!”

“Time to go,” Quilliam whispered to himself and swiftly but silently made his way out of the nearest window. He flashed red and was once again an old stallion, ready to discover what the two had found within the abandoned cottage.

Author's Note

Fyi if you find any random numbers in this chapter, point them out to me. The numberpad on my keyboard is right next to the arrow keys, so I may have left some 0s and 1s behind by accident...

Visibility

It was only her first day out of the dilapidated cottage, and already Cuddlhu was making friends. A small horde of smaller ponies trotted with Margrave as he tried to make a speedy escape through the middle of town, carrying the new mare across his back. The mayor had resigned to the town hall, awaiting news on her condition. Cuddlhu herself had gone limp as they began to enter the more populated areas of Ponyville. She didn’t want to have to deal with so many new faces all at once.

Luckily for her, Margrave’s Ponyville-based friends were there to help keep the young fillies and colts at bay. Unfortunately, most of them were still inexperienced Regular Guards, and their help was ineffectual at best.

“Runnigan, stop that, please!” cried Plaster Oak, glaring, but looking worried, at the little colt trying to play with his odd wing.

“Why is your wing broken? Did you break it in a fight?” asked the colt, poking at the misaligned feathers every chance he got.

“N-no, it’s just like that! Get off!” Plaster batted the little annoyance away, and then winced at the sharp motion. He looked back at Margrave who was power-trotting through the short crowd as briskly as he could, ignoring everything they said.

“What happened to her?”

“Why does she have the mayor’s collar-thing on her head?”

“I can see a seam! She’s a puppet!”

Runnigan’s ears perked up at the mention of the word puppet, and alarm bells went off in his head. He looked at Plaster Oak’s face with that naughty little colt glint in his amber eyes, before giving his bad wing a hard slap and running off to the other foals.

“Please keep back,” said Margrave, pushing another child aside just so he could continue moving forward. “This mare is badly injured, so I need to get her to the hospital as soon as possible!”

Runnigan pushed his way past the other foals and gazed at Cuddlhu, winking at the red eye looking back at him through the snoring mouth. He trotted alongside Margrave for a few seconds, pretending to squint to see if what they said was right. “No she isn’t a puppet!” he exclaimed suddenly, looking at the colt who had made the observation. “You’re an idiot!”

By the kid’s face, he looked like he had just been betrayed. His expression then changed to anger, but he was too slow on giving his retort before Runnigan landed a punch in his face. Margrave scowled at the sight. “Hey you, quit it!” he shouted. “Plaster Oak, stop them already!”

“But that white one’s trying to break my wing off!” Plaster cried in response.

The fight caught the attention of everyone around the group. The parents who had been trying to coax their curious kids away from Margrave now did so with panic in their step. The last thing they wanted was for their foals to get involved with a baby street thug.

“Runnigan Strange!” came a southern drawl from a few feet away. Upon hearing the voice, Runnigan immediately let go of his victim and tried his best to look innocent. Judging by the angry creases surrounding the mare’s freckles, he was failing. The farmer patted the crying foal on the head and offered him an apple, before shooting a glare at Runnigan. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Where’s your grandfather at? We’re gonna have ourselves a word with him.”

Crap. This isn’t good, Runnigan thought as he was pulled close to the disappointed farmer.

“Thanks for the help, Applejack,” Margrave said, giving her a smile as they passed.

“Ain’t no problem, Creek,” Applejack replied. “I’ll make sure this little twerp gets his head in line if I have to beat it into him!” She looked at the unconscious mare laying on Margrave’s back, and it took her a moment to realize she recognized her. She doubled back and followed by Margrave’s side. “Hey, is this the girl Penny said was some sort of… ‘demon in pony form’, the one living on the edge of town?”

The guard nodded. “She was squatting in Mr. Greenhooves’ old home next to the Everfree Forest.”

Applejack cringed at the wound. “Geez, this poor girl was lookin’ lively enough last time I saw her. Ran away like she’d seen a ghost. I didn’t think this would be how I’d see her again.”

Margrave glanced at her, then at the street ahead with a worried look. He didn’t want to have to go into the details of what had happened, or how odd it had looked. His eyes caught the shape of a little white colt running off down the road. “Your prisoner is getting away.”

“Dang it! Get back here, Strange!”

Unbeknownst to Margrave Creek, the mare he carried across his back wasn’t a pony at all. She was also fully conscious and had been watching everything. She let a smile cross the suit’s sleeping face. Thanks, Quilliam. Just then, an unwelcome feeling started appearing across her body once again.

The two of them were now, finally, reaching the other side of Ponyville. Just ahead, Margrave could see the roof of the hospital atop its hill. “That grandcolt of Mr. Strange is a piece of work,” he said to himself sourly, now that the foal in question was out of earshot. He felt his cargo shuffle. “Hm?” He looked back at the mare, slowing his pace slightly. She had moved. Not much, but enough to let Margrave know she was still with him. He smiled and sped up once more.

Help! Oh no, no, help! Cuddlhu shifted again. Small bumps appeared across the surface of her suit as she started scratching at the itchiness growing around her. So itchy all of a sudden! Get me out of the sun! The horrible feeling descended upon her and the hairs on her coat started standing on end with stress. She searched her mind for the link. Quilliam… what do I do?

The voice of her friend reemerged. Sorry, Cuddle, but I’m going to have to leave this one to you. You need to learn how to converse with ponies other than me.

What!? B-but, Quilliam! I don’t know what to do! I need your help!

I already helped you avoid detection. Twice in the space of a few minutes, in fact. There’s nothing more I can do. He paused. There’s also a bingo game on today that I can’t miss. I trust that you will find a way through this predicament, but for now I have some gingerbread cookies to win.

Cuddlhu tried to call out to him again, but the connection had gone silent. This is no good. This is no good at all. The ponies will find me and open me up, and then they’ll kill me! Her panic finally reached a head when she saw the doors of the hospital starting to open to welcome her into their depths, and she made her move. Placing a hoof over her wound, Cuddlhu got a hold of her legs once more and pushed off of Margrave’s back.

The stallion was shoved away in the opposite direction, leaving the doorway clear between them. “Agh! What in the- hey!” he cried as he saw Cuddlhu. When he saw how she had landed, his confusion turned into complete bewilderment.

Cuddlhu had had a rough landing, on her belly. Her back legs were spread out behind her with one of her front ones bent beneath. The thing that gave Margrave a scare was her front-right leg; it was bending in the opposite direction, with its upper half pointing down and the rest of it visibly broken at the knee.

Cuddlhu, whose eyes had been locked on her captor, slowly drifted down to what he was looking at. She let out a yelp and stood back up, the broken leg simply shifting back into position as if it were made of jelly. Without waiting around to offer an explanation, she turned and bolted away as fast as she could go.

“HEY! Come back!” shouted Margrave and made chase. The doctors watched with confusion as the two vanished off down the hill and away.

In a few minutes, the young stallion was galloping across the grassy hills at full speed. His bronze armour clinked against itself and reflected the rays of the sun, while his well-combed mane flapped about as he went, revealing tints of blue underneath. That’s it, I’m convinced, he thought with a frustrated scowl. That’s no Earth-pony!

“Stop!” Margrave shouted. “I order you to stop, in the name of Celestia!”

Cuddlhu kept running, as fast as she could in the suit. Her mind traveled even faster, with the discomforting feeling that covered her body long forgotten, but not gone. “No!!” she responded with tears in her eyes. “Stay away from me!”

The two were at the edge of Ponyville, with the town to their right. In the distance Margrave could see the Everfree Forest coming up, and he quickly realized where the mare was heading: Back home. He pushed himself and increased his pace, cursing to himself that the mare was so fast.

Cuddlhu’s eyes regained some of their spark as the shadows of the Everfree came into view. She would have gained enough speed at the wonderful sight to outpace her pursuer, had the lower reaches of her suit not been filling up with gooey, green slime in the heat. By the time the silhouette of her home appeared in front of the forest, Cuddlhu’s hooves were starting to drag behind her, making the next event inevitable.

The creature cried out in shock as the ground came up to meet her. Margrave quickly wrapped a forelimb around one of Cuddlhu’s own and pinned her to the ground with the other. “Come on, identify yourself! What are you?” he commanded.

Cuddlhu, her muzzle half-buried in the dirt, looked up at the sun. The celestial body was glaring back at her, hitting with unrelenting, blinding force. So hot, too hot! Cuddlhu barely registered what Margrave said, and chose the only answer she knew how to give. “I’m a pony.”

“No you’re not!” Margrave retorted. “You sustain terrible injuries, and yet you act as though you can’t feel a thing. Tell me why! Are you a Changeling? Are you undead?”

Because I’m not a pony. My suit, my flesh is tingling and I can’t stop it. “N-no… I can’t… I’m a pony, I swear. That’s all I want to be!”

“So you aren’t a pony!”

“No, I am! I just lost my mane!”

“You mean half your scalp! And yet there you are, acting perfectly fine.” Margrave expected the mare’s face to take on a far meaner look after her ruse was exposed. Instead, she looked away in a silent apology, as if she was disappointed in herself. What exactly are you? A sleeper agent?

It was at this point that Margrave noticed an odd change happening to the ends of the mare’s limbs; they were deflating. Anticipating some sort of attack, he released Cuddlhu and put a few feet of distance between them. Cuddlhu immediately rose back up - every one of her legs starting to fold and bend in unnatural ways - and continued to slog forwards as if she were dragging a quartet of water-filled bags behind her. Her tongue, an unusually long, green thing, hung out of her mouth and trailed along the ground as she walked.

I can see my home… just up ahead… it’s so close… Within the suit, a multitude of limbs writhed about, trying in vain to get away from the heat by dousing themselves in the steadily growing pools of slime at the bottom of Cuddlhu’s form. I feel like I’m melting… from the inside out. Suddenly, she bent over and spewed up a few globs of swampy liquid.

Margrave watched in disbelief. The scene of pain and distress buried the side of him that wanted to take the creature down and he relaxed out of his battle stance. In its place rose his caring side, the one that had believed the mare was a pony in the first place. “That’s the stuff you were bleeding before. What’s wrong with you?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

Cuddlhu looked back at him and found that she was no longer able to hold herself up properly. “Water…” she wheezed, before crashing to the ground once more.

The Same Face

Cuddlhu’s coat made a quiet rustle against the grass as she was dragged across the ground, just like any other would. Her mane had already been tangled and split from the time she spent alone in the cottage, the same as any other pony in the same situation. Her tongue, shrivelled and black, trailed behind them as Margrave dragged the unconscious creature to safety. It was as long as the rest of her body.

Margrave was holding the end of her mane in his mouth. He couldn’t take his eyes off the way her hooves had bulged full of fluid, and lagged behind like weights. The way the unconscious mare’s entire body seemed to stretch and fold as he dragged it made it clear that it was just an outer layer, hiding some inequine creature beneath. The knowledge tempted him to take a look inside, but he knew better than to push his luck. Considering I don’t know what this thing is, whether she’s some sort of mutant or just another creature entirely, I think I’ll hold off on doing anything that would potentially anger her, he reasoned to himself, looking back at his objective. Judging by her “tongue”, and the way she can move her limbs however she wants without any pain, I’d guess that she’s full of tendrils like that one. That would explain why she was suffering before; the heat is causing her to dry up, just like a slug caught in the sun.

Finally, Margrave passed through the rotten posts that once held up Mr. Greenhooves’ porch, and dragged Cuddlhu inside the dilapidated cottage. There, he pulled her towards one of the small patches of water. He nudged her shrivelled tongue into it and cringed slightly at the crusted, jelly-like texture. Sensing water, the tongue gently slithered itself further in.

Margrave was the type of pony who was very well-suited to his role in the Regular Guard. He was a pony who could block out everything else and focus on the task at hand, as the large monocle on either flank signified. As a result of his mentally-imposed tunnel vision, he managed to completely miss the brightly painted walls, the streamers hanging from the ceiling, and the balloons that were tied to the remains of the cottage roof itself.

With the creature safe for the moment, Margrave began to notice the odd colours entering his vision. He looked up to see a messy image of the mare herself scrawled on one of the walls, staring back at him with the red in one of the eyes dripping down like a blood stain. He couldn’t help but swallow his courage at the sight.

“Oh no.”

The sound of another pony catching her breath came from the other room. Then, the soft sound of fabric landing on the hard floor. Finally, a pink face with slightly bloodshot blue eyes appeared in the doorway of the bedroom. A huge, disjointed smile spread over her face when she saw that her newest friend had returned.

“Cuddles!” shouted Pinkie Pie, leaping out past Margrave towards the tentacle-creature. She fished Cuddlhu’s front end out of the pool and squeezed her tightly, making an audible sloshing sound. “You’re back! You’re finally back!” She suddenly released her and looked worried. “You don’t mind me calling you Cuddles, right? I-I don’t wanna offend you or anything.”

“N-nb… ish oufkay,” Cuddlhu weakly replied as she attempted to rearrange her insides back into their usual setup. The pool she had been taken from was now half its original size.

“Great! I’ve been waiting for you here all day!” She pointed her face in the direction of the various decorations she had placed around the room. “I was preparing this place for your Welcome to Ponyville Party, but then I had this horrible realization that if you’ve been here for FIVE YEARS and I didn’t even know about you, then that means you’ve missed out on a minimum of twenty-six parties! Even more depending on your family life, medical and financial situation, and any super-duper-deeds that you’ve done. Ooo, and do you have any kids? Or special someponies I don’t know about yet?”

Cuddlhu drearily shook her head, utterly confused by everything.

“Wheeee! Then I have myself a partner for the dancing competition!” Pinkie cried with joy, hugging her newest best friend even tighter. She spotted the other pony in the room, or rather, the only pony trying to get out of the room as quietly as possible. “Hey there, Margrave! When did you get here?”

NO! The fleeing guard stopped in his tracks and slowly looked round at Pinkie Pie. “Hi… Pinkie Pie,” he replied. “Are you… good today?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep! Maybe even better than ever in fact, ‘cus now I have the chance to plan dozens of parties all at once! I haven’t done that since that Changeling school trip visited Fillydelphia!”

It’s official, she’s lost it, thought Margrave. If the fact that Pinkie’s mane and tail were drooping across the floor weren’t enough, then the messy drawings and the rather sparse, wonky decorations told Margrave everything he needed to know about the party planner’s current state of mind. I need to get out of here right now, or else I’ll be stuck here all day! A pang of guilt hit him when his eyes drifted back to Cuddlhu. She’ll probably be fine on her own. Chances are she wasn’t really in pain from the start.

At that thought, he looked at the remains of the rafter Cuddlhu had been hanging from earlier that day. Eww… And yet, taking that into consideration, it would probably be better if I kept an eye on her for now. At least until Mayor Mare can find a less time-constrained replacement. Margrave looked back at his charge to see her being guided through to the next room. Cuddlhu was still just barely on her hooves after nearly withering away in the sun.

Still, her eyes were brightening up at the sight of all the colourful decorations filling her home. It was enough to make her let out a croaky giggle.

Pinkie hopped away and picked up a large blue and brown plushie. “Look at this, it’s you!” she exclaimed, pushing the disproportioned thing towards her friend. “I made this thing while I was waiting for you to come back! Do you like it?”

Cuddlhu watched the strange creature coming towards her and her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “Wh-... what is it?” she asked, taking a cautious step back.

Pinkie nudged it closer once more. “Like I said, it’s you! Come on, say hello!”

Cuddlhu’s mind was on a completely alien train of thought, one that was in the process of destroying everything she thought she knew about the world of ponies. It showed on her face; the eyes going wide and the pupils shrinking as the scale of this revelation ran itself through her brain. She… copied me? She made a new pony, just like that? I didn’t know they could do that. I thought pony breeding was just the same as any other animal… She swallowed her courage and held out a hoof to the brand new lifeform. “Hel… hello?”

Margrave watched her with interest. She’s completely freaking out, he thought grimly. It would likely be best if I end this here. He made to cut in before Pinkie set off once again, only for the pink pony to surprise him once more as her mane poofed back into its normal, curly state.

Pinkie Pie grinned and picked up the plushie’s arms, having no idea what was going through Cuddlhu’s head. “Greetings, pony!” she mimicked, placing the felt hoof into Cuddlhu’s own and shaking it. “My name’s Cuddle-hoo! What’s yours?”

That was enough. Cuddlhu screamed and vanished under the bed.

“Ah! Wait up, it doesn’t have to be you, I could make it somepony else!” Pinkie exclaimed, sounding panicked. “Err… you have a pretty mane, so how does Avena Silk sound?” The pink pony felt a brown hoof on her shoulder and turned to see Margrave.

“She’s scared, Pinkie. Let me handle this,” he said. Pinkie nodded sadly and pulled the pony-sized plush aside, out of view. Her mane was starting to deflate again. Margrave looked back at where Cuddlhu was hiding. I see now. She’s just a child, of whatever species she is at least. I can’t trust her until I get some answers, but the least I can do is to keep the situation from going out of control. “Cuddles,” he called, “you can come out now. It’s perfectly safe.”

Cuddlhu poked her head out from beneath her hiding place and shook it, before starting to go back in. “No. You ponies just want to cut me up and then use your weird powers to make clones of me!”

“No, we won’t. I mean that. I’m the one who saved you from boiling away in the sunlight, and when I was taking you to the hospital, that was me trying to save you as well. I thought you were badly injured.”

“But I…” Cuddlhu felt the open tear on her head, and the layer of squishy flesh that had been exposed. She found herself at an impasse. Don’t automatically say the truth, she thought. That won’t work here… but I can’t say I was badly injured, because it didn’t hurt me… “I was… not reacting to it. I didn’t care,” she responded weakly.

Margrave let out a sigh. “Look, here’s how it is… I am faced with a dilemma: If I do my duty and report you to the Royal Guard, then they’ll probably kill you. You’re a monster from the Everfree, and we’re allowed to kill your kind on sight.” The face disappeared back under the bed. Margrave took a step forward, determined. “But! If I don’t, then someone is going to find out about you sooner or later, just like I have.” He gave Pinkie Pie a look.

Pinkie grinned. “I have ‘no idea’ what you’re talking about,” she said and zipped her mouth shut.

“And when they do,” he continued, “they’ll see you in just the same way I did. I can see that you’re just a child, inexperienced and frightened by the world, but they will see a monster in a suit, pretending to be a pony.”

Cuddlhu emerged once more, a bit further this time, and shook her head. “No, I am a pony. I’m trying my best to be one.”

Margrave was about to state the obvious, but a look from Pinkie made him decide against it. She stepped forward, bringing the plushie with her. “I’m sorry I scared you, Cuddlhu. This thing isn’t real, she’s just a toy! She’s less of a pony than you are!”

Cuddlhu stared at the thing. Its beady eyes penetrated into her soul. Finally, she emerged fully from beneath the bed and tentatively placed a hoof against the fabric of the plush pony. “You mean… she isn’t alive?”

“Nope!” Pinkie patted the side of its head, causing the pony-sized toy to flop over onto the floor. “She’s just made out of sheep wool and knitted together with thread. I guess she’s just like your suit, without the added… underside.”

Margrave frowned to himself. “That’s true,” he said. “If that thing you’re wearing is nothing more than a suit… then why does it have flesh of its own?”

The zip opened, revealing Cuddlhu’s limbs coiled into those of the suit to make them move. The rest was filled with her body itself; a darker green shade, with an exposed digestive tract cloaked in the same green skin. “Well, when I’m in here, I’m not just wearing it, I’m part of the suit and the suit is a part of me.”

He let out a short-lived laugh. “Yes, that’s… interesting, but that’s not what I meant. I’m asking why it looks as though you skinned a pony and then turned their body into that suit.”

Cuddlhu frowned, as if not understanding what Margrave had just said. “Does that… count as an injury?”

“Yes. It does.” Margrave barely even noticed that he was sliding into pose, ready to tackle the creature to the ground if she gave the wrong answer.

Cuddlhu zipped herself back up. “Then no. I didn’t hurt anyone,” she answered.

Margrave relaxed and let a smile grace his face. “Good. I’ll tell Mayor Mare right away. Pinkie, can I leave it up to you to take care of her?” He turned to face the party pony, only to lurch backwards as he got a face full of fabric.

Pinkie shoved Avena Silk closer, a big smile on her face once again. “I didn’t either!” the toy happily cried, joining in.

“I’ll… take that as a yes.”

Nesting Grounds

“Is that exactly how she put it?”

“Yes. It seems like she’s just here to try and fit in.”

“And you’re sure she isn’t dangerous?”

Margrave made as if to reply, but found that he didn’t actually know the answer himself. “I don’t… know that for sure,” he admitted. “Judging by what I’ve seen so far, I’m perfectly willing to believe that she isn’t dangerous.”

Mayor Mare sat back in her chair and thought for a moment. “Good enough. Bring her to me and we’ll get the initial bureaucracy out of the way.” Margrave started on his way out of the office, only for Mare to stop him. “Oh, and Margrave…”

“Yes, Mayor?”

“I don’t trust what I don’t know. Keep your eyes on her.”

“Do I really have to?”

“Yes! Otherwise Mayor Mare will have to come to you with the forms.”

“But I don’t know anyone in Ponyville! Other than you, Pinkie Pie, Mayor Mare and Quilliam.”

Margrave gave one final push and shoved Cuddlhu off the cottage porch, and onto her face. She got up with an annoyed whine and realigned her eyes. They focused on the town laying far too close at the bottom of the hill. The sight reminded her of something Pinkie told her. She looked back to the ground and picked up the wide-brimmed sun hat she had been given to hide her horrible injury. Margrave entered her vision and offered her a hoof, before offering it to Ponyville.

Cuddlhu frowned in confusion. “What?”

“I’m asking you to come on,” he replied.

“Oh.” With nothing else for it, Cuddlhu placed the hat back on her head and followed behind Margrave as they set off down the path.

At this point in the day the sun was mercifully low in the sky, and the heat from earlier on was starting to dissipate. The town was still just as busy as before, but everyone seemed to be moving at a slower pace.

Cuddlhu stopped at the edge of Ponyville. She was already beginning to look uncomfortable. “Hey, Margrave?” she asked.

Margrave stopped and looked back. “What is it?”

“It’ll be ok, won’t it? I know I’m not a pony, and others keep figuring out that I’m not a pony. What will I do if everyone finds out?”

That depends on how it happens. “Well, I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Margrave responded. His tone managed to mask just how unsure he was in his answer. “Come to think of it, you mentioned Quilliam just before. Quilliam Strange, right?”

Cuddlhu nodded. “Yes. He was the first pony I met here.”

“Interesting…” The two of them crossed the threshold and entered town. The forests and plains to either side were replaced by flimsy-looking thatch roof houses. “And how did you get here?”

“Well…” Cuddlhu thought for a moment. “I wasn’t awake for the trip itself, but my mother brought me here from a land called Manehatten.”

Margrave internally chuckled at that, but stayed composed, just as always.

“That was five years ago. Since then I’ve been doing my hardest to grow up strong just like her.” She tried to hide her face behind the hat as a pony waved to her.

Grow up. Needs lots of water. Green all over. An idea came to mind. “What exactly do you mean by ‘grow up’? Do you mean your mother brought you here as an infant and left you to develop, or did she… plant you?”

Cuddlhu thought to herself once more. “Well… I’m not sure if I count as a tree or a flower or a vegetable, but yes. I came to Ponyville as an offshoot and now here I am, ready to learn how to live as a pony!”

Margrave found warning signs going off in his head at that last line. But for what purpose? There’s still so much I don’t know, still so much I’m not willing to ask yet. Not until I get my sword, at least. Again, he stayed composed. “Thank you. That answers a few questions.”

Ponyville was a small town. Small enough to cross in just a few minutes at a steady pace, not that the town’s borders were very well-defined given the slightly lonely-looking houses scattered over the surrounding landscape. Before Cuddlhu even realized it, she and Margrave were standing in front of a large building with a tall, red roof. It was covered in windows and, like the other structures in Ponyville, its supports wrapped around it like a giftwrapped present.

Cuddlhu looked up with curiosity as the lower of two balconies passed overhead. The town hall had large double doors on the side facing the river, while this side had a single wooden one that gave a slight creak as it was opened.

“Here she is,” said Margrave. He stepped aside, giving Cuddlhu and Mayor Mare a look at each other.

The room was located on one side of the town hall; a small office with most of the walls covered in bookshelves, and the rest in filing cabinets. Cuddlhu found that the inside of the office was cooler than outside. Mare sat behind her desk, a sheet of paper sitting in front of her with an ink stamp laying next to it, ready to call the document official.

Mare’s stomach turned at the sight of Cuddlhu as images of what had happened flitted through her mind. She quickly shook them off and put on a smile. “Hello again,” she said, picking up the stamp. “I trust you are well?”

Cuddlhu nodded and smiled in return. “Yep!” She removed the hat, revealing the exposed portion of her scalp. “I don’t feel in pain or anything anymore. I’m all better now!”

Mare’s face dropped at the sight of what she had been trying to put out of her mind all day long. Margrave facehoofed before taking Cuddlhu to the side for a moment. “Mayor Mare already knows about you. I shared the details of what happened today.”

Cuddlhu’s eyes went wide as she realized the mistake she had made. “O-oh… I mean… ow.”

“Cuddlhu, remember that ponies generally don’t act so calm when they have a hole in their head. All things considered, I should have probably brought your… missing piece along.”

Mare removed her spectacles - an act used to both draw the attention back to herself, and blur her vision enough that Cuddlhu’s wound looked more like a large splotch of strawberry icecream. She internally yelled at herself for making the association. “Anyway…” she began, “it’s very nice to finally meet you properly, Cuddlhu.”

Cuddlhu noticed Mare’s left hoof. It was stretched out further than the other, and suspended a few inches off the desk. It was preoccupied with holding a stamp, but there was no reason not to be polite. Cuddlhu grabbed the hoof and shook it in greeting. “Hello!”

Mare looked surprised, then confused, then accepted the gesture with a short chuckle. “Shall we get started?”

“Sure! What do I need to do?”

“I need you to fill in this form, and then you’ll be officially recognized as a citizen of Ponyville. Write your name here, give your age and date of birth here…” A thought occurred to Mare. “You can write, can’t you?”

Cuddlhu shook her head, looking worried all of a sudden. Mare gave the form a frown. “Ah…”

“Will I need to write? I don’t know how…” Cuddlhu asked.

“You won’t need to yet, at least. I’ll write for you,” said Margrave, taking the pen and popping it into his mouth.

To the young stallion’s surprise, Mayor Mare placed a hoof between the pen and the paper, stopping him. “No,” she said, “I’m sorry, but Cuddlhu needs to do this on her own.”

Margrave frowned and put the pen back down. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Mayor Mare, the happy, friendly, helpful mare who did whatever she could to keep Ponyville running smoothly, suddenly took on the face of a bureaucrat. Blunt and cold, as if disconnected from the situation. “This is Cuddlhu’s form, so she needs to be the one to fill it in.”

Margrave couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “But… she just said she can’t write,” he stated.

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t fill in someone else’s details. It’s just the way it’s done.”

Cuddlhu glanced between them and picked up the pen with her tongue. “Ith ok. I cang do ith.”

Margrave ignored her. “Yes, that makes sense for the sake of security, but… she can’t write. How can she fill in the form if she can’t write?”

Mare looked at the pen. Cuddlhu was looking worried herself, and could only drag the end of it across the boxes, leaving behind nothing more than a faint trail to serve as her personal information. She shifted back into her normal demeanor. “I don’t know. She’ll have to learn, and I’ll... give her the form to update once she’s good enough.”

Come on, Mayor, don’t be like this. “But until then she’ll still be counted as a resident of Ponyville, right?”

Mare sighed. “Filling in forms can be quite a messy business when it comes to technicalities. Filling in one’s own forms is one such thing,” She pulled the paper out from under Cuddlhu’s pen, and the odd creature tried to follow it for a few moments to finish blacking out the ‘name’ section. “and writing outside of the boxes is another. The Regional Council can be quite stingy when ponies get things wrong.”

“Thorrth,” said the tentacle monster apologetically, blushing with embarrassment.

An idea popped into Mare’s head, one that caused her smile to return. “However… Cuddlhu isn’t a pony…” She quickly replaced the form with a blank copy and passed it over.

Margrave watched, satisfied, as Cuddlhu began filling the form in again. She kept within the boxes this time, making short, innocent scribbles in each of the boxes.

While Cuddlhu didn’t know how to write the Equestrian language, thanks to Quilliam she knew a little of what she was reading. For these sections she did her best to mimic the characters her changeling friend had shown her. A very messy “5” with an extra rung went into Age, and a barely-directed scrawl of random letters into her Location of Birth, meant to say “Manehatten”.

Even though it wouldn’t be readable to pony eyes, Cuddlhu still felt a great sense of accomplishment from what she was doing. Keep within the boxes, almost a pony, apply enough pressure, almost a pony…

After another minute, the form was filled and stamped in red ink, confirming its authenticity.

Mayor Mare smiled and filed the sheet away. “Come back tomorrow, Miss Cuddlhu. The council might be picky, but they aren’t slow. You should be officially recognised as a resident of Ponyville by 6 AM tomorrow morning!”

“Yay!” Cuddlhu cried, clapping her hooves together in joy.

“Thanks a lot, Mayor,” said Margrave with a smile. He patted Cuddlhu on her side and motioned to the door.

“What’re we gonna do now that I’m a pony?”

“Well, I could show you a nice café, if you fancy taking a look through part of Ponyville? And if you can… actually eat pony foods.”

“I think Pinkie mentioned having a bakery. I’d like to go there.”

“That works too.”

Mare watched the two with a smile as they disappeared from view. She leaned back in her chair, let out a sigh and looked at the space on the desk where the form had been. The smile fell from her face and she brought it back out of the filing cabinet. “The council will never accept this,” she said to herself solemnly. Even so, she filed it away again, somehow managing to completely miss Cuddlhu’s answer to what her race was: A perfectly legible “Earth-pony”.

50% Mare, 0% Stallion, 50% Everything in the Other Direction

Penny Withers pulled the drawer of turnips out of her turnip wagon and placed it on the front of her stall. The wooden thing was made heavier by the dozen or so pieces of produce held within, but Penny, old as she was, lifted it with a practiced grace, pulling it out of the small wagon and onto the front of the stall in one smooth motion.

The earth-pony mare let out a sigh and looked back at her wagon. Seeing that she had finished removing her labor’s worth from it, she gave the odd knob on the side of the vehicle a firm knock with a hoof. In a few moments, the wagon’s shelves folded into one another, shrinking it down to the size of a large hoofstool. Withers sat herself atop it and waited for her first customer.

A young mare, blue of coat, red in the eyes, and with a big, soft mane of light brown, trotted down the streets of Ponyville with a twitch in her step. Her tongue hung out of her mouth, panting in the heat. Her coat was starting to get matted with sweat, and the skin beneath was a sea of fizzing itchiness. It was all she could do not to start scratching at herself like a dog with fleas, or pulling a muscle just to get at the spots she couldn’t reach.

The mare looked about, trying to find something to relieve herself of the annoyance. There were stands selling all kinds of fruit and vegetables, but none with anything to drink. Starting to feel like she would have to take a few gulps from the stream, the mare turned to leave the marketplace.

“Hello there, dear,” came a voice from one of the stands. “Would you like to try some turnips to sate your appetite?”

Pricking her ears up in response to the voice - a movement that caused an odd crease at their base - the mare looked back at the old farmer, and then at her produce. “It’s sweltering hot today,” she commented. “Do turnips help prevent itchiness?”

Penny looked confused at the question and glanced at her turnips for a moment. “I’m fairly certain they don’t, but it couldn’t hurt to try, I suppose.” She picked one up and passed it to the blue mare.

The earth-pony looked at the item, opened her mouth, and swallowed it whole.

Penny couldn’t help but squint at what she had just seen and readjusted her spectacles. “I must be losing my vision…” she mumbled to herself. “Are you new here, my dear?”

The mare smiled at the question and nodded - a steady, calculated movement. “I came here with my mother to find a settling ground. I live in the dilapidated shack at the edge of this town.”

The old mare frowned, confused once more. “Oh… well that’s nice. I hope you enjoy living here, Miss…?”

“Tentacle Demon in a Pony Suit. That’s what ponies call me, at least,” the mare replied with a blush. “But you can call me Cuddlhu.”

“My my, what an unusual…” Penny stopped. What had the mare just said? One side of her wrinkled face attempted to cringe itself into an unnerved smile. “What...? Oh! It’s just a joke, isn’t it?” She laughed. “Forgive me, old ponies like me take a while to understand what the youngsters talk about these days. But putting that aside, what an odd name you have. Cudd-lhu? Mine is Penny Withers. You won’t find a more bog-standard name around here, I’m afraid.”

Thinking she had managed to outwit the times once again, Penny failed to notice the look of complete and utter terror on Cuddlhu’s face. The strange pony was practically writhing under her skin over what she’d just said. Her face had gone white as a sheet and her whole body had tensed up.

“H-here is your turnip back,” Cuddlhu said suddenly. “It didn’t work b-by the way, but thank you.” While she said this, the surface of her skin slightly bulged in places, getting at her persisting itches from within. As soon as she spoke, the area around her belly shifted and something - or, many somethings - traveled through her body and up her neck. Penny watched in mild horror as the mare’s green tongue emerged out of her mouth and stretched all the way over to the rack of turnips. It held the one she had just swallowed, coiled up and covered in slime.

With a soft thud, the turnip was placed amongst the rest of them and the tongue vanished once more into her mouth. “I-I’m sorry, but I have to go!” Cuddlhu cried, turning to leave. Before Penny Withers could speak another word, her strange customer was galloping away down the road, stumbling past a basket of apples and scattering the fruit in her wake. To many of those who noticed, she looked like a thief escaping a crime scene.