“Are you sure you know where we’re going Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle said with a concerned tone, “we’ve been walking for hours.”
“Ya Scoots, Applejack and Big Macintosh are gonna be awfully sore if I get back late.” Apple Bloom complained.
Sometime during the past few hours Scootaloo had found a strange cave. It had a wider entrance then a lot of the other caves she had seen. It also had several strange things near the entrance, which Scootaloo didn’t say much about. She had also seen a strange light deep inside the cavern. She didn’t want to explore the cave alone, so she convinced the other crusaders to come with her.
“Don’t worry girls; it’s not that far away.” Scootaloo said, brushing away a large bush.
The trio had been walking for several hours, with the gritting feeling of something watching them being present the whole time. The Everfree forest always had this kind of effect on ponies, with all the dangerous creatures and pony eating plants it was easy to see why. They would occasionally hear something scurrying through the trees, and other times they would hear something that sounded like static. Sweetie Belle had been pleading the others to return to ponyville. But, she was ultimately convinced with the allure of finding her cutie mark. ‘Cutie mark crusaders cave explorers’ scootaloo told her.
They had finally reached the entrance to the cave. It was a lot bigger than scootaloo had remembered. The mouth of the cave was at least opened seventeen feet, the wind whistled from deep within the tunnels. The light Scootaloo had seen before had dissipated, and the faint smell of smoke tainted the air around the cave.
“See, isn’t this the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?” Scootaloo said pointing to the black tunnels.
“Uh, sure scoots, but… it’s just a cave.” Apple Bloom said, tilting her head.
“Ya, what’s so special about it?” Sweetie Belle said.
“Look at it, how is it not special?” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked into the cave. They saw nothing different than what they would find in a regular cave. The two looked at their orange friend with looks of frustration. Scootaloo was too busy searching the dirt ground for some unseen object. She peered at one particular area, one that seemed to carry an imprint of such.
“See, over here!”
“It’s just an animal foot print” Sweetie Belle said.
“No, look closer.”
When looking closer to the print, they could see that it didn’t look like a normal animal print. It was longer in length and slightly curved. There were also some etchings on the sole of the print, mostly triangular and circular shapes. When they looked forward, they found that there were more of the same prints, one in front of the other, leading back into the cave.
“So, you wanna check it out?” Scootaloo said.
“Are ya sure it’s safe scoots? You remember what happened last time we went exploring in a dark, dank cave.” Apple Bloom said with a raised eyebrow.
“Stop being a couple wussies and let’s go exploring.”
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom sighed heavily and scurried to catch up to their friend, who was already several meters inside the cave.
The cave was pitch black, only being lit by the dim light from Sweeties horn. The further the trio went the heavier the air got, to a point where it was almost a chore to breath. But, the crusaders pressed on, feeling that turning back would be pointless. Looking back they could see that the light from the entrance was still visible, so even if they did turn back they wouldn’t get lost easily.
As the girls pressed closer to the heart of the cave, the air felt lighter and easier to breath. The smell of smoke dissipated, but was replaced a foul stench, like rotting meat.
“Ew, what’s that smell?” Sweetie Belle whined.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, I think we’re getting closer to it.” Scootaloo said.
They heard light rustling along the cave wall. With Sweetie Belles magic only lighting the center of the tunnel, the source of the sounds remained cloaked in the inky darkness. The smell was getting stronger now, and the rustling had stopped. The trio had stopped, with the stench leading to a corner of the cave. Sweetie Belle stepped forward, followed by Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. The purple light was growing brighter as Sweetie concentrated more and more on seeing what was in front of her. The shadow covered object was lying sprawled out on the ground. At first glance it looked like a pony, but there seemed to be light shining through to the other side of it. Sweetie Belle glanced back to her friends, fear beginning to leak through, before she turned to the pony in front them.
The sight before them made Apple Blooms stomach release her lunch, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle only looked in incomprehensible terror. The pony before them, which had been producing the stench, had a hideously disfigured face. Pieces of its face had been torn away or decomposed, only one eye remained. From what little the crusaders saw of the rest of the corpse’s body, entire chunks of flesh had been torn away, revealing the stained red bone underneath. They noticed that it wore dim blood stained gold armor, similar to that of a soldier.
While the three petrified fillies were staring at the body of the dead pony, the rustling began again, now joined by what sounded like snickering. Sweetie Belle looked up from the corpse, looking toward the dimly lit wall. She saw what looked like long, slender legs covered in some type of dirt covered fabric. The legs began to move forward and, before either of her friends could react, Sweetie Belle screamed and ran for the entrance of the tunnel. The two remaining crusaders ran after her, hearing the legs beginning to shift and move quickly behind them. Sweetie Belle was a lot faster than her friends thought, leaving them in the dark of the cave, with only the light from the sun and their unicorn friend to guide them out.
Running out of the cave so fast it put lightning bolts to shame, the three fillies aimed for home. The sound of the running legs was quickly catching up to them, until they reached the edge of the forest. Only glancing back to see if their pursuers had given up, the crusaders ran nonstop towards Ponyville.
The Apple family was in the middle of a very plentiful crop harvest. They were beginning to run out of room to store the excess wheat and apples, having to fill unused rooms in the farm house, much to the dismay of the houses residence. The food was stacking up faster than the family could get rid of it. They didn’t even notice when a few bundles had gone missing. They blamed it on animals, maybe somepony who needed to feed their family, or maybe some punk kids who got too bored.
Big Mac was bucking some trees that still had apples on them, while Applejack looked over the large field of remaining wheat. She let out a sigh of a job well done, taking a sip from a glass of cider. Her sister and her friends had been gone all day, looking for something to give them their cutie marks. Applejack had thought it was cute how they always tried the most difficult task, never giving up until they found what they were looking for. Her train of thought was broken by loud, broken screams. She looked over to see her sister and her friends running out of the forest, probably playing some game. She dropped the glass of cider when she realized why the girls were really screaming. Not too far behind them, a tall creature was running at equal running speed with them. The girls ran as fast as they could, the monster gaining ground on them faster than their little legs could carry them.
Applejack ran towards her sister and her pursuer, possibly forsaking her own life in the process. The creature began to walk, letting the crusaders escape past Applejack. She was only about four meters away from the being, speeding up her advance as it slowed down. At three meters she noticed that the creature was taller then she thought, almost six feet, even taller than the princess of the sun. It looked to be clad in some sort of clothing; it was ragged and dirty, holding different shades of green in small rectangles all over its chest, arms and legs. The creature slowed to a stop and drew something from underneath the multicolored green cloth. The object in its slender fingers was a small, silver brick that the creature held from the bottom which seemed to be a handle. It pointed the object at Applejack, the orange mare still charging head on. Applejack glared at the creature, anger filling every part of her mind. Nopony hurt a member of the Apple family, especially not some monster from the Everfree forest. That’s when the creature smiled. A loud bang, followed by a bright yellow flash erupted from the brick in the creatures’ hand. Applejacks hat was then thrown from her head, making her slide to a halt. Another bang rang out, making a patch of dirt beside the farmer explode and splash her coat with earth. She covered her head trying to impede the monsters next attack, when she heard something fall to the ground forcefully. Applejack peaked out from between her forelegs and saw that another one of the creatures had tackled her attacker and was now pulling it up from the ground. The new creature was the same height as the attacker, only with different clothing. This one was wearing the same green rectangle pattern as the first, the only difference being that the new one wore a less tattered version.
To Applejacks surprise the creatures didn’t team up and attack her but ran back into the Everfree forest. She stared off in terror, the adrenalin still fresh in her veins, as the creatures escaped back into the black forest. She slowly raised herself from the ground, making sure no other creatures were watching her. She quickly turned and ran back to the farm house hoping to find the girls safe and sound.
The Royal Canterlot gardens were always a sight to behold. The almost unlimited rows of rare flowers and plants sent aromas that could make the toughest warrior quiver. The gardens also boasted a rather large collection of statues; one statue in particular has caused much controversy.
The princess of the sun walked gently through the garden, taking in the sights she never gets tired of seeing. She found herself spending more and more time in the gardens, most likely because she had nothing much to do. Mostly there would be some kind of royal emergency or some kind of trouble, but now the only things she has to look forward too are Twilights letters, raising the sun and, occasionally, Luna playing one of her little pranks. But now, all there was for the princess to do was walk the garden.
She looked towards the statue of the vanquished Discord. She had always enjoyed chatting with him, even though he could not respond. She mostly told jokes about his entrapment, but sometimes she would let some other aspects of her life slip.
She noticed a tall, dark figure standing in front of the god of chaos. It was standing still, looking to be admiring the statue under a black robe. The figures head was covered be a hood, its arms folded with a straight back. Celestia smiled; at least she would have someone to talk to. She slowly trotted next to the figure, hoping not to startle it and chase them off. She stood next to the figure, both looking at the frightened looking statue of the once powerful Discord. The two were about the same height, the figure only being a few inches taller.
“Enjoying the sights?” Celestia said.
The figure only looked up at the statue and stayed silent.
“I see you have taken interest in the God of chaos,” Celestia continued “beaten by the elements of harmony, my student and her friends in fact.”
The figure remained silent.
Celestia looked up to the figure, sensing something familiar from this being. She felt as though she had seen this creature once before. The being breathed in, then began to speak.
“You started this Celestia” the creature said with a smooth, male voice.
Celestia looked confused.
The creature raised its hand to chest level, removing a thick leather glove revealing five thin, pale fingers.
“Just so this whole thing goes according to plan…” the creature put its hand on the statue of Discord. Several seconds after contact bright green cracks formed on the rock surface of the statue,before quickly disappearing.
“What did you do?” Celestia growled, moving into an offensive stance.
The creature ignored her and began to walk away.
“Answer me!” the princess shouted.
“Tell me Celestia, do think about all the pain you caused us?”
“Who are you?”
The creature turned half way around, revealing a metallic red eye to Celestia. “Someone who is going to destroy everything you hold dear.”
Celestias anger deepened. Was this creature threating her?
Then, in a flash, the creature disappeared in a swirl of black smoke, leaving behind floating bits of black ash.
Celestia was even more confused by this. What had she started that the creature was talking about? What had it done to Discord? Many questions swirled around the alicorns head. Her attention was lost when she heard shouting coming from one of her servants.
“Princess, princess!” shouted the servant, who looked to be out of breath.
“What is it?” Celestia asked.
“There’s… there’s been a…”
“What has happened?”
“There’s been a murder!”
The corpse looked to have been through a blender. Bits of flesh had been torn away. Teeth marks were found on the body, along with wounds that cut all the way down to the bone. It wore the armor of the royal Canterlot guard, along with the helmet with what was left of the head. Dried blood was splashed across the walls, as if whoever this was had been killed on the spot.
Silver Dawn had been the second to arrive, along with his new partner Spacer, who had been recently promoted to detective. The duo followed the bright chemical lights set up by the first officer on the scene.
“So, what do you think happened?” Spacer asked, looking over the stinking carcass.
“Well, judging by the tracks in the dirt and blood pattern, looks like whoever this poor bastard was, he was dragged down here and sliced to death,” Dawn said, kneeling down next to the eviscerated body. “By the color of the blood, he might have still been alive when they brought him down here, and recently too.”
“What makes you think it was a group?”
“The footprints, there all scattered around the place.”
Spacer looked to floor and noticed prints with sets of triangles and shapes crisscrossing in them. The majority of tracks were huddled around the body.
“So, we’ve got cold tracks, a dead royal guard and a statement from three fillies who were scared half to death,” Spacer said sighing heavily.
“Funny way to start your first day on homicide right?” Dawn said chuckling.
The other officer, a brown earth stallion by the name of Steeler, had been biting his hoof furiously while the other two had been talking over the body.
“What’s wrong Steeler, never seen a dead body before?”
Steeler jumped and blinked several times before answering.
“No, no, I-it’s nothing just… what those fillies said a-about those…. Things that chased them. My mother always told me stories about monsters living in the Everfree forest, ones that stand on two legs, they eat pony flesh…”
“…and they take little colts and fillies away if they’ve been bad. Last time I checked, myths don’t kill ponies!” Dawn shouted, his voice echoed along the cave walls.
Steeler lowered his gaze back to the corpse. Spacer looked at Dawn and Steeler.
“Well, we should bring the body to the labs so they can find out who this is.” Spacer said breaking the silence of the cave.
“Alright, you two take the body up, I’ll…” Dawn trailed off as he noticed that several of the chemical lights had gone out. Those were supposed to last eight hours each, there was no way those could have been duds.
Spacer and Steeler had picked up the body and were making their way up to the entrance to the caver. Silver Dawn had stayed in the cave to search for anything that the trio missed. As the two were close to the opening the sound of crunching dirt could be heard back in the cave. In the dim light of the morning sun, Spacer could see Silver Dawn slowly walking towards them.
“Thank Celestia you decided to help us Dawn,” Spacer said sarcastically.
Dawn continued forward without uttering a word. He looked to be limping.
“Dawn you alright?”
Dawn kept his slow stumble. When he was closer to the two they could finally see what was wrong. A thin red line had appeared on Dawns neck, staining his gray cost in a splash of crimson fluids. Spacer and Steeler froze in place, dropping the body, letting it fall to the ground. Dawn fell to his knees, gargling as he slid to the ground. Dawn coughed up a mouth full of blood, and then ceased to live. Behind the now dead detective, feet hitting ground could be heard, prompting the two remaining cops to get the hell out of there.
As the two officers ran to the entrance of the cave, something leaped from the shadows and tackled Steeler to the ground with a loud scream. Spacer left his companion to his fate as he ran faster, the exit becoming a shining beacon in a sea of darkness and dread. Before he could breathe fresh air something had hit him in the back of the head, sending Spacers mind into a haze. Before he lost all thought, Spacer could hear his assailants conversing. Five tall figures gathered around him, looking to one another for what do.
Spacer spent the last moments he had of conciseness praying to Celestia, praying that he could keep his short, unfulfilled life.
