The Shadow Over Innsmareth

The first day Twilight had planned on sending a letter to a friend of hers in Hoofington, but realized that there was no way Derpy would find it in time so she resolved to ask the ponies around Ponyville if they knew anything about the subject. Hopefully she could find some rational explanations from some of the other ponies, but her hopes weren’t high. After all, look how they reacted to Zecora when she hadn’t even done anything.

First on her list was Pinkie Pie. As she approached the bakery where Pinkie Pie was, she could smell some wonderful freshly baked muffins and cupcakes.

“Hi Pinkie.” said Twilight as she stepped inside and saw Pinkie eating some very tasty looking rainbow colored cupcakes. “Those cupcakes look delicious!”

“Mmhmm! They are good!” Pinkie said through a mouthful of cupcake, spewing crumbs all over the floor in front of her. “Dashie gave me the recipe! Want some, Twilight?”

“Well, that would be nice, Pinkie, I’ll have one or two cupcakes, but the real reason I’m-”

Pinkie cut her off by grabbing about ten cupcakes, stuffing them in a bag, and pushing them in Twilight’s face.

“Ok, thanks, but back to the real reason I’m here.” Twilight continued. “Have you ever heard anything about some little town called Innsmareth?”

Pinkie froze, shaking a bit at the that name. “Innsmareth?” Pinkie said rather shakily. “I don’t know much about that place, but I’ve heard it’s evil! Once, a few ponies from Innsmareth came through Ponyville, and they were all creepy! Their manes and tails were mostly gone and their fur looked like it was falling off. But that wasn’t the worst part. They kept staring at me. They wouldn’t ever blink. They just stared!” Pinkie made her eyes wide and stared at Twilight to demonstrate, “No pony wanted to even go near them they were so creepy! I even wrote a song about how evil and creepy they are!”

“That’s nice, Pinkie, but I don’t really have time for a song. I’m sure this is all exaggerated. In fact, I bet those ponies you saw from Innsmareth just had some kind of disease. Did anyone bother to ask them why they were like that?”

“I tried to talk to them because I’d never seen them before and they were rude and told me to buck off. I’ve never met ponies so rude or creepy in my life!”

Seeing that talking to Pinkie about Innsmareth was a mistake, Twilight came up with an excuse and left. There was no way these ponies were evil. They must be just misunderstood. Anyways, Pinkie Pie exaggerates everything, as Twilight knew well. Rainbow Dash probably flies around Innsmareth a bunch and could explain some of the mysteries of that town.

Twilight came up to Rainbow’s house and hollered up towards her cloud, but when no one responded Twilight figured Dash must be out clearing clouds or practicing for the Wonder Bolts. Either way, she’d have to wait ‘till later to talk to her pegasus friend.

Next on the list was Rarity. Maybe she had some answers. Hopefully her generous nature would make her a little more understanding of them.

Twilight entered Rarity’s Carousel Boutique to see Rarity, as usual, stitching together a new dress.

“Hello, Rarity, that’s a lovely dress.” Twilight said.

“Oh yes, darling, I think so too. I was hired to make a few dresses for a fashion show in Canterlot, and I think they’re coming along marvelously!”

“Say, Rarity, have you ever heard anything about this town called Innsmareth?”

“Innsmareth?” Rarity gasped. “That place? Their fashion sense is atrocious! Why, they wear perhaps the ugliest garments I’ve ever seen! And then there’s that smell! Ugh! They are the most repulsive ponies in all of Equestria!”

“Ok, but besides fashion and smell, what have they ever done wrong?” Twilight asked, realizing that fashion, inevitably, would be Rarity’s only concern with them.

“Well,” Rarity paused to think. “I’ve never seen anything, but I’ve heard that there’s strange things that happen in Innsmareth. I’ve heard talk about ponies who were supposed to be dead but are still living and being hidden away from everypony. That’s more than creepy enough for me to stay away.”

With the tiny bit of information Twilight had gathered, she left to go see if Fluttershy knew anything. Perhaps she’d even been there to care for a sick animal sometime! At least Fluttershy will think reasonably. So far all Twilight had to go on were the crazy exaggerations of Pinkie, and Rarity’s disgust for the fashion of Innsmareth.

When Twilight arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage, she found Fluttershy, as usual, taking care of the her many animal friends.

“Hi, Fluttershy. How’s Angel doing?” Twilight asked as Fluttershy gave a carrot to her favorite bunny.

“Oh, hi, Twilight.” Fluttershy said, timidly. “Angel’s doing fine, he just has a habit of eating his carrots too fast and getting tummy aches.” Fluttershy gently rubbed Angel’s tummy with her hoof as he chewed on a carrot.

“Glad to know your animal friends are doing well; you take such good care of them. I have a question though. Do you know anything about a town called Innsmareth?”

Fluttershy looked frightened at that name and backed up a few steps.

“I don’t... um... really want to talk about... *squeak*” Fluttershy stuttered.

“Oh, come on, Fluttershy. What you know can’t be that bad.” Twilight coaxed.

“Let’s just say they do really horrible things to the animals there. Or at least they did when there were still animals there!” Fluttershy answered with a very concerned and upset voice.

“How do you even know they do things to the animals there?” Twilight asked with a tone of disbelief.

“I’ve rescued several animals from Innsmareth. In fact that bunny over there,” She pointed to a rather sickly looking rabbit cowering in the corner, “came from Innsmareth a month ago and doesn’t seem to be doing very well. I don’t like thinking about what they might have done to him. I used to find so many animals that come from that direction that are in horrible condition! How could anypony do that to sweet innocent creatures?” Tears were forming in Fluttershy’s eyes as she explained to Twilight.

Twilight, realizing this is very upsetting to Fluttershy, decided that it was best to just drop the subject.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, I didn’t know this was so upsetting to you, but at least all of your animal friends here are OK now that they’ve got you to take care of them.”

“Thank you, Twilight. I’m alright. I just don’t like thinking about that awful place.”

“Well I need to be going anyways. You know me, I’ve got lots of studying to do! Take care, Fluttershy.”

“I’m sure whatever happened to those animals probably happened somewhere in the woods.” Twilight thought as she left Fluttershy’s cottage. “They probably just went too far into the Everfree Forrest and had a run in with one of the dangerous animals that lives there.”

It was getting late and Twilight decided to call it a day and talk to the other ponies after she had a good night’s rest and time to think over what she’d already heard.

The night, instead of holding the peaceful sleep that Twilight had expected, was filled with nightmares. Horrific visions of underwater cities, disturbingly fish-like ponies, and the ceaseless murmurings of voices speaking frightening other-worldly languages. One nightmare after another; Twilight waking up between, sweating and shivering at the same time. She fell back to sleep, again and again, each time finding herself in another nightmare. She dreamed of titanic, cyclopean cities, the walls of which all were covered in a sickly green ooze. The cities she visited, the sounds she heard, and the things she saw all possessed an uncanny horror she couldn’t, and wouldn’t want to describe. All the time, persisted a feint presence and subtle vision of a tentacle covered face.

Twilight was suddenly awoke from the nightmares and unearthly visions by the sound of books crashing to the floor. It would seem that Spike had knocked over a stack of books on his way out the door. Twilight sleepily got out of bed to scold spike for not being careful, but it seemed he had already left.

Being able to make no sense of the dreams, she resolved to continue her quest for understanding by trying again at Rainbow Dash’s house. When she arrived, however, she still got no response from Rainbow Dash. Perhaps she was out of town visiting someone? Whatever the case, she was one of the toughest ponies in Ponyville, she could take care of herself.

“Well, I still can talk to Applejack. Being the element of honesty, she’ll probably be the best pony to talk to anyways.” Twilight mused.

She arrived at Sweet Apple Acres to find Applejack and Big Macintosh applebucking through the red delicious trees, and could smell Granny Smith baking an apple pie.

Applejack saw her friend coming towards her and ran to greet her.

“Well howdy, Twilight! What brings y’all to Sweet Apple Acres today? Come to buy some apples?”

“Not today.” Twilight said. Applejack’s face lost a little bit of cheer, but was still happy. “I’ve actually come because I figured you might be able to tell me about this place called Innsmareth. I never heard of it until yesterday, but everypony seems to be terrified of it. Surely it’s not as horrible as everypony keeps trying to tell me.” Applejack began to look upset.

“Those gosh darn ponies. I tell you, Twilight, they are the most inhospitable ponies ever. And to think, us Apples gave them a chance when everypony else was runnin’ from ‘em, we decided to be nice an’ try to sell apples to ‘em. We even went there one day. The place was awful smelling and the ponies there seemed like they had more problems than yah could shake a stick at, but we thought we’d be nice and give ‘em a chance. We set up a little ship and those darn ponies kicked us out. Said they didn’t want no apples. We even were offering them for a discount! Well we decided to hang around outside of town after they kicked us out to see what all the fuss was about, and ya’ know what they did? A bunch of creepy ponies in hooded cloaks brought out a bunch of stones right where we had our apple cart set up and started chanting and dancin’ ‘round like crazy ponies! I aint never goin’ back there. They can keep their bits!”

“Wow, Applejack, that seems pretty rude of them to just kick you out like that, but are you sure they actually put on cloaks and started dancing around a bunch of stones? That seems too strange.” Twilight said.

“Twilight, ya know I’m honest, if it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t of said it! Them ponies are crazy. You’d do well to stay away from it.”

“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I’ve already planned on going there tomorrow.” Twilight said to the now utterly shocked Applejack.

“Good heavens, Twilight! Why in the hay would you go an’ do somethin’ like that? And I thought those ponies were crazy.”

“Applejack, I have to see this for myself. I know it can’t be as bad as everypony’s saying it is. I’m going to go there and see it for myself. Even if it is bad, I need to know.”

Applejack was now highly concerned for Twilight. “Please Twilight. Don’t do this! I don’t want to lose my friend. Who knows what kind of bad things they do to ponies who don’t get kicked out!”

“I’ve made up my mind, Applejack. I assure you I’ll be fine. I’ll be back home in a couple days to prove it, and I bet I’ll also know exactly why these ponies are so strange!”

“For goodness sake! Why would you stay there over night? That’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard! If you must go, just walk in and walk out!”

“I’m going to stay there until I get to the bottom of this. I’m sure I won’t even have to stay that long before one of them tells me everything that’s going on.”

“Twilight, I trust ya, but I think you’ve gotten in way over your head! Y’all be careful. Don’t give ‘em a chance to hurt ya!”

“Thank you. I assure you I’ll be fine. I won’t be gone long.”

With that, Twilight left the orchard. The day was only half over so she decided to get some lunch and spend the rest of the day talking to all of the ponies around Ponyville. They all, however, had the same things to say as her friends. “The place is evil,” “the ponies are weird,” and “stay away from that place!” Twilight would have to see it for herself. There had to be some misunderstanding. Sacrifices? Chanting? Cultists? It was all too silly to be true.