Applebloom sat in her bed and stared at the monster from her wardrobe. The monster sat on the floor and stared back. The two just sat there perfectly still in the crepuscular light like some unhinged painting.
Growing up Applebloom had never suffered from any kind of fear of the dark, or of monsters under the bed or whatnot. Oh of course she enjoyed the scary story or two but the Apple family was a no-nonsense hardworking practical family, and not about to let any nonsense woo-waa get their manes ruffled. Ghosts? Ghouls? Phht, Shredder-Lice getting into the crop, now THAT was scary.
But here it was, a genuine monster that no-joke had just climbed out of her wardrobe and was sat staring at her. Applebloom just sat staring at the creature, sweat pouring down her into the ruffled up sheets. Her eyes were locked onto the monsters, not only terrified that one glance away would prompt it to attack but also somehow mesmerized by how wrong it looked.
So much of the Creature was pony like; it had hooves, pointy ears, a tattered coat and an equine shaped head, but what these features where mounted on that sent ice through her gut. It was humanoid, which on its own wouldn’t have been too bad if it wasn’t so grossly out of proportion, like someone had taken a pony and tried to mould it into something else. Its knees were level with its head as it sat propped against the wardrobe, its gangly arms ending in long, ragged digits that looked like they had been cut from card using blunt scissors, and filthy bandages were wrapped randomly most of its body.
The bandages obscured most of the Creature’s face wrapping in tightly and covering its nose and mouth. In the half-darkness Applebloom couldsee the faintest reflection of the moons light in its wide voids of eyes that pointed unwaveringly back at her own.
She didn’t know what had woken her. There had been nothing out of the ordinary when she’d opened her eyes in the middle of night. The night had lain perfectly quite, her room partially illuminated by a great bright full moon. But something had stopped her from going back to sleep.
A deep animal instinct had compelled her to keep her eyes open long enough to watch in as this…thing had pulled itself out of her wardrobe. An unreal creepying horror had forced her to watch unmoving as the wardrobe door creaked open, as one long arm poked and brushed across the ground as it were a insects feeler. The moment it saw her it had sat down and just…stared. It did nothing but STARE at her.
For what seemed like an eternity Applebloom stared and the creature stared back. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t scream, her body had frozen to a block of ice unable to move or think. The only sound was the steady tick-tick-tick of her clock. The only sensation was a small trickle of warmth as her bladder emptied itself.
Suddenly out of nowhere a thought popped into her head. Hadn’t Cheerilee talked about something like this just the other day? Yes, sleep paralysis! She couldn’t remember why Cheerilee had been talking about it but the bits of the lesson that had stuck with her were coming back! Inability to move? Check. Vivid hallucinations? Check. Specifically hallucinations about intruders? Check!
“Ok.” Applebloom thought to herself, “I just need to wake up. Just move or something. Blink maybe.”
This was easier said than done. The monster looked so real. And if she was wrong would it take her moving as its moment to attack? No she had to move, she had to do something, anything was better than sitting there in her urine waiting for the unknown. Maybe if she just blinked? Ok she could manage that.
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3
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2
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1
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Blink.
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No. it was still there. Applebloom let out a distraught sigh as the Creature swayed its head at her then adjusted its position like it was the most casual thing in the world. Then, almost to add insult to injury the creature produced a huge bulwark out of nowhere. The shield sharply edged and clearly splattered in congealed blood. Applebloom felt her mouth hang open in disbelief as the creature pulled out a whetstone, again out of nowhere, and began sharpening the glinting edges.
Applebloom was still scared, her body trembling with every ‘shink’ of the whetstone, but the sheer formless terror had lifted allowing the survival instinct to kick in. She was not going to die here at the hands of some story book monstrosity.
A cold logic descended over her as she tried to think over her options, all the while not taking her eyes off the monster as it quietly stared back.
Going for the door was out of the question. Her wardrobe sat right next to the doorway putting the monster directly in her path. She could call out for help but again her stupid wardrobe scuppered her. Any pony who walked through the door would be immediately blindsided by the Creature and its great blood-stained shield.
As if sensing her thoughts the Creature glanced at the door, turned back and slowly shook its head. A series of choked sobs escaping Appleblooms throat her body wracking as a gust of cold air sapped the last of the warmth from her.
Wait…
Cold air…
Her window was open…
The Creature had stopped sharpening the edges of its shield and was sitting cross legged. Its misshapen fingers tapping in time with the ticking clock. Ever so slowly Applebloom pulled up her legs under the bunched covers. She was a lot closer to the window than the Creature was, and it would have to try and launch itself from a sitting position.
She could do it.
If she made it outside she could run and hide. There were a thousand places on the farm she could secrete herself that the creature could never get itself into. It even looked too big to fit easily out of the window. She could make it. Even if she couldn’t get away out in the open it didn’t stand a chance against the Apple family protecting one of their own.
The creature cocked its head at her. Could it read her mind? She had to go soon anyway. One of the two of them had to break this statement of just watching and waiting. Apple bloom help her breath and each second ticked by. Time seeming to slow with every tick from her clock and tap from the Creature. She was going to bolt the second the clock hit 2 o’clock.
Tick
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Tick
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Tick
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Tick
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Tick
Applebloom bolted. Twisting as she shot out her coiled up back legs and launched herself outwards. Her leap carried her halfway across the room and she hit the ground hard but without losing any precious forward momentum. Her legs pumped hard and she raced forward, time continuing to crawl achingly slowly.
Behind her somewhere she heard a clatter and thump as the Creature tried to run after her. She ignored it and concentrated on putting down each hoof in front of her with all the energy she could muster.
Applebloom ran faster than she’d ever run before, fuel by the singular burning desire to survive. Senses hyper alert she could feel every scrape, clatter and thump though the floorboards as the Monster tried to chase after its prey
The window sill was so close now. One hoof in front of the other. More footfalls behind her. One hoof in front of the other. The sill was nearly within reach. Time was moving so slowly. One hoof was up on the sill, launching her forward again…and…
.
Step
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Step
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Step
.
With a scream of victory Applebloom shot out of the window and began to tumble down to safety.
For one moment hope flooded her body before, with a sickening snap, a hand clamped around her throat wrenching her back.
“No…” She squeaked. “I made it. I made it.” The broken filly mumbled over and over as the arm smoothly retracted dragging her back into the darkness.
N̫̻̣̣̫̥͚̰̗ͦ̒oͩͬ̈̓̓ͦ̓̽͏̡͇̩w̸̧̤̠̥̫̤͈̅̇̐͒ͮ̓̋,̠͈̤͒ͫ͂̽ͪ͠ ̓̇̓̄̅̆̆͒͢͏̩l͔͎̻̄̎̌ͤ͒͋͐̍é̩̭̂ͮ͊t̉̅͛ͧ̃̉̕͏̳͎͈͔͍ ́ͫ̎̈́̄҉̢̹͢u̖̗̤͎̠̘̻̖ͤ̉s̩̳̲̭ͧ̿͠ͅ ̱͕̠̝̗̈̒ͦͨ̔̐̑͝b̪̬̰̠̺̼͚̫̋̃ͤ́́ͫͦe̱͓͐g̡̜̭̮̞͈͍̩̲ͯͪͮ̔͝ͅi̠̪̹̙̩̻̔̀ͦ̌̓͂̚͡ͅņ͕͉̬̪͌ͥ̾̈́ͩ̿̍͟͠.͎̟̼̦͎͈͇ͫͪ̒ͨ͗̎̌̇͟ ̜̝͇͓̝̙̒̎̉̔̂̍̏͞
********** ****************************************************************
Applebloom opened, her eyes, too stunned to move. She was lying back in her bed. In a fugue she slowly propped herself up. Her room was normal, no monster sat against the wardrobe, the only sounds a soft rustle of the warm night air through her open window.
“That…that was a dream?” She thought to herself as shock, relief and utter confusion fought for dominance in her mind. She glanced sideways to look at the clock;
12:30
“It was just a stupid dream!” Applebloom choked out between heaves of breath halfway between laughing and crying. Warmth rushed through her as her unsteady breaths sunk fully into relived laughter. “Just a dream!” she squeaked, barley able to see straight from the bubbling joy at being alive.
Flushed with success Applebloom flung herself out of bed and flicked on the light, intent on flinging open her wardrobe and proving to the world there was no stupid monster for her to be scared. As her hoof came into contact with the smoothly carved handle a tiny flicker of doubt shot through her.
Could there actually be something in there? This would be one dumb way to die it there were.
The doors swung open with an ominous creak to reveal…nothing.
Applebloom grinned as she quickly ruffled around inside to make sure. Nope. Nothing. The scariest things in there was a frilly-frou-frou dress from some distant Aunt and Appleblooms diary buried under a pile of blankets.
“WOO!” She exclaimed firmly shutting the doors, “Maybe I should get twilight to lodge a complaint with Luna! Ha!” Still chuckling at the crazy state she’d worked herself up into Applebloom walked back to her bed. A sharp smell cut across her right before she jumped in making her pause for inspection. Ah, it appears she had indeed wet the bed.
She began quickly stripping the bed, intermittently giggling and shaking her head. Applejack was sure to get out a kick out of this when she saw the sheets in the laundry tomorrow. “Monsters in the wardrobe?” She muttered to herself as she prepared to flip the mattress, “Have you ever heard of something so ridiculous?”
“I know right?” The unicorn lying under her bed grinned as the mattress swung up, “Down here is a much better hiding place!”
