Moonlight Terror

Hoops, Dumb-bell and Score were standing in a cloud field, surrounding the young pegasus Leeroy Wingkins. Score was hovering over him to make sure he didn’t fly off, whilst Dumb-bell stood on his tail, making sure that he did not try to run away.

“Let’s see what you have to give us this time.” Hoops laughed as he rummaged through Leeroy’s bag, throwing whatever he could find that was of no use to the ground, “Oh lookey here, looks like we got ourselves a few chocolate bars!”, Hoops’ mouth started filling up with saliva as he went to take a bite.

Leeroy interrupted him, “Come on Hoops, I got those for my family and my special somepony.” His voice alone told them that he was afraid. “How would you like to explain to the police how you stole my things?” Leeroy sensed that was a bad choice of words as soon as they left his tongue.

“Oh yeah?” Hoops was having none of it, he turned to face Leeroy, showing a smile that had no good intention. “Maybe you can explain to your family how you got that black eye and bruised jaw.” Hoops looked menacingly into Leeroy’s eyes. The other bullies laughed.

“Not again…” Leeroy braced himself for a flurry of hits as Hoops raised a hoof, taking it back, ready to hit the innocent young stallion in front of him.

The bullies’ laughter soon fell short as a strange noise came out of the distance. Hoops lowered his hoof slowly while looking over his shoulder to see what could have made the noise. “What was that Hoops?” Asked Dumb-bell, as he looked at Hoops, who was still looking behind him.

“If I knew I would have told you, don’t you think?” Hoops asked rhetorically, trying to hide his fear behind sarcasm.

They heard the noise again, this time it sounded more like a roar. “Maybe it’s Klutzershy summoning one of her animals to come and get us.” Remarked Score, as the trio laughed loudly. Remembering the days they bullied Fluttershy.

A roar came back at them again, this time clearer and closer. Instinctively, Leeroy tried to run away, but Dumb-bell was holding onto his tail far too tightly.

“And where exactly do you think you’re going?” Asked Dumb-bell, cocking up an eyebrow, looking at him in a condescending manor.

“I’m trying to get out of here, take my stuff I don’t want it anymore. Just let me go!” Leeroy was afraid of whatever was making that noise, nowhere near as afraid as what the bullies were about to do to him.

A loud growl could be heard in the distance, triggering an idea to form inside Hoops’ head. “But if you get away, who’s going to check whatever it is that’s making that noise?” Hoops stared down at Leeroy, he grabbed hold of him and pushed him in the direction the noise was coming from.

Leeroy was frozen to the spot, frozen in fear, he wet himself. “Nice…” Remarked Hoops’, a look of disgust written all over the trio’s face.

Leeroy slowly walked forward as the trio began to back away. As Leeroy moved forward, he saw a dark blue outline come out of the darkness, its eyes glowing in the darkness. The thing let out a roar as it began to run towards Leeroy.

The trio looked at each other as they heard familiar screams. Each of them suddenly feeling guilty, they ran to see what had happened. The screaming suddenly cut. The image they were greeted to triggered Score’s gag reflex, the other two just watched as this monster tore into Leeroy’s skin.

The beast was too fixated on the corpse it was devouring to notice the three bullies watching in horror. “What do you think we do?” Asked Dumb-bell, speaking louder than he thought, the beast slowly raised its head and stood up, towering over the three pegasi.

“Well I would say we run.” Suggested Dumb-bell, his voice started to stutter towards the end, he was clearly not trying to hide the fear that was building up inside him.

The beast now started to walk to them, slowly. Teasing them. “Run? That sounds like a good idea. Let’s run. RUN!” Hoops’ clearly sounded panicked, both he and Dumb-Bell ran. But Score just stood there, too afraid to move.

The beast ran into Score, biting off his head, leaving his blood to stain the cloud that he once stood on, now he lay there, headless. His head rolled along the floor as the beast of the night looked up, spotting the two fleeing pegasi.

“Did you just see that?! That thing just killed Score!” Dumb-bell looked back up at Hoops in disbelief. Hoops himself was not trying to look back, but to focus on where to go next.

The beast ran, gaining momentum whilst stretching its wings. It leapt up into the air, flapping its wings to keep itself afloat. Hoops looked back, his curiosity finally getting the better of him. He saw the monster catching up to them, quickly.

“Don’t look back, just keep flying!” He yelled at Dumb-bell, trying to focus on flying faster. They would never be able to outfly that thing, it was too fast.

Hoops’ had spotted an old building that had been used as a weather factory, but had been abandoned a few years ago during the Great Pegasus Strike. “Look over there, we can hide!” Hoops ordered Dumb-bell and pointed to the old factory.

Dumb-bell followed Hoops into the factory, not questioning what Hoops had told him to do. Neither of them realised they were trapping themselves within the building they as they walked through the entrance.

“Can you hear that?” Dumb-bell whispered as they heard a pair of wings flapping, they heard the flapping cut off when they heard something collide with the roof. The noise echoed around the empty hall, filled with cardboard boxes covered in dust.

Suddenly, the roof collapsed in on itself, with the midnight beast following through. They both looked in awe as the monster fell to the ground, maintain its sense of balance. A large piece of the ceiling had collapsed onto Dumb-bell, pinning him to the ground.

“Help me get t… this thing off of me” Dumb-bell pleaded as Hoops began to try and lift the fallen ceiling off of his friend, but he failed to do so.

Dumb-bell stopped struggling and thought to himself for a second, blood began to dribble from his mouth. “Just go. Go and save yourself!” Hoops just looked at him, a tear built up in his eye. He nodded at Dumb-bell. He ran and jumped through a window that had been boarded up, he injured himself, breaking a leg, but he flew instead of running to save himself the pain.

Dumb-bell watched Hoops leave. He turned his head to face the monster, coming terms to what was about to happen. The monster leant down, looking its victim in the eyes, breathing in his face. The beast’s breath smelled of rotten flesh, blood dripped from its fangs onto Dumb-bell’s face.

The last thing Dumb-bell ever saw was the gaping mouth of whatever it was that killed his friend. If he had not sacrificed himself Hoops would have been added to that list.

***

It had been a long day at work for Doctor Whooves as he left later than expected, one of the Doctors at Ponyville hospital had fallen ill and had notified the hospital before they could get a doctor who’s day it was to have off, but instead had to have the Doctor stay in late.

He had to miss most of Pinkie Pie’s party in order to stay at the hospital, but fortunately he managed to get out in time to catch the end of the party. In order to do so he had to take a detour through some back streets in order to get to the party in time for him to get there in enough time to have fun.

He made a quick stop at his house to put on his traditional party fez, washed his face and went on his way, trotting enthusiastically as he did.

Whilst walking through the streets of Ponyville Doctor Whooves thought he saw something out of the ordinary in the corner of his eye, something that looked larger than an ordinary pony, but looked to have the same body. He shook it off as his imagination playing tricks on him, everpony see’s things that are not real at night time.

As Doctor Whooves came to the first backstreet he though he heard a noise behind him, “Hello?” He asked, his voice had a hint of nervousness “Is there somepony there?” No response came. He shrugged it off as his imagination playing tricks yet again.

Doctor Whooves trotted further into the back street, this time a peculiar growling noise had come from behind the now anxious earth pony. “I think you’ll find this is not in the least bit amusing!” The Doctor’s voice now became shouting volume, letting anypony nearby know he is there.

Doctor Whooves continued walking through the back street, looking behind him to see if whatever it was that was making these peculiar noises was lingering about behind him. Maybe even following him.

He heard a small growling noise, although it was clear enough to let him know it was right behind him. He turned slowly, shocked at what he saw. He had never seen anything like it before, it was big, twice the size of any other pony.

The Doctor turned and ran. The beast following slowly, toying with him, watching as he panicked to get away. The Doctor eventually escaped the backstreets, he saw another back street, this time it had fencing around it to try and keep other ponies out.

Doctor Whooves ran towards the fence, making an attempt to leap over the fence. The fence caught his hind hooves, he fell forward and crashed onto the floor, twisting his hoof, and hurting his neck.

He got up and started limping towards the end of the alley, Sugar Cube Corner was just round the corner, he could hear Pinkie’s favourite song playing faintly in the distance. He fell over unable to take the pain anymore. “Please, somepony, anypony help me!” Doctor Whooves yelled, hoping that at least one of the ponies at the party could hear him.

The Doctor turned on his back, facing the fence he tripped over. The beast simply jumped over it with ease, not even bothering to use its wings. The Doctor let out a small whimper of fear as the beast walked closer, slowing down as it did so.

***

It was an exciting party at Sugar Cube Corner as it always was, but Twilight Sparkle’s mind wandered elsewhere, she could not help but notice that Princess Celestia was not saying anything about her sister, which was strange as she always liked to talk about her.

Suddenly Twilight’s ears had snapped to attention as she thought she could her someone yelling for help, she turned to Celestia, “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what my faithful student?” Celestia asked, clearly not knowing what Twilight was asking about.

“I think I heard somepony in distress!” Twilight tried to yell over the music, but at the same time she made sure Celestia was the only one that could hear her, and she was doing a good job at it too.

“Probably just your imagination playing on you.” Celestia suggested, thinking little of what the Unicorn was saying, no matter how serious Twilight was being.

“I think I’m going to go check it out.” Twilight told Celestia as she was getting ready to leave.

“Twilight wait,” Celestia looked serious now, “Did you really hear a pony in distress?”

“Yes, I promise I did.” Twilight made sure she was in no joking mood.

“Well then I am coming with you, and we will be accompanied by two of my Royal Guard.” Celestia pointed towards the door, where her guards remained on watch to ensure no trouble makers got inside, or in case things got too hairy inside the party.

Twilight and Celestia walked outside of the Sugar Cube Corner, Celestia pointed to the guards and then to herself and Twilight, to tell them to stick to them.

Each of the ponies heard somepony scream in the distance, whoever was screaming was clearly on no happy mood. Each of their heads turned to one dark backstreet as they could hear smaller screams, each one getting fainter, but not any better at all.

The two guards ran ahead to the backstreet. “STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA!” One guard yelled as they approached the street, closely followed by Celestia and Twilight.

The monster heard the guards, they startled it as it ran through the fence, leaving a feather tangled with a piece of metal where she had torn through.

The sight they were greeted to was ugly, and that was being nice. The Doctor lay there, one half of his face missing, torn off by the monster. The Doctor turned to face Celestia, clearly on his last few breaths.

Twilight let Celestia handle the dying pony, she was always better at dealing with other ponies than her. Twilight saw the feather that had been snagged by the fence. Not knowing what to do, she listened into what the Doctor was telling Celestia.

“Now tell me, what happened?” Celestia asked in a soothing voice, she knew the last thing this pony would have wanted is to become uneasy in his final moments.

“A p… purple monster c… ca… came out of the darkness a… a… a… and attacked me, i… i… it looked l… l… l… li…” The Doctor suddenly coughed up blood before he laid on his back. The Doctor had died in the Princess’ arms.

“What did he say Princess?” Asked, Twilight, even though she was eavesdropping on the whole conversation.

Celestia looked up at the moon, then she looked back at the Doctor. “He did not say anything.” Celestia stated whilst looking away from Twilight. Twilight quickly picked up the feather using her magic and hid it in her mane.