P A R A N O R M A L

Chapter 5:

An Unsettling Development

As Bon Bon and Bravely walked towards the Ponyville police station, they were not prepared for the sight they came across at their destination. The entire front entrance of the building had been blocked off by police tape, many ponies gathering around to catch a look.

Though, those that did regretted it instantly.

Bravely had to hold dearly on to his lunch at seeing the blood splattered steps, bits and pieces of flesh tossed about in abandon. He was thankful that the actual bodies had been bagged away already, paramedics loading them into the ambulance carriage. Bon Bon looked back at her trainee and nudged him softly. When he looked back at her, she motioned for him to follow, which he eagerly did to get away from the grisly scene.

The two ponies walked around the crowd at a fast pace, but kept low to avoid being noticed by any curious passersby. Cautiously, the entered the police station through a side door, closing the door gently behind them.

“How were you able to open that?” Bravely whispered as they moved through the halls. “The door had to be locked.”

Bon stopped at an intersection, looking around for any police walking about. She held up a little, silver key with a skull engraved on the end. “Skeleton key. The original, actually. Tracked it down years ago; it’s enchanted to unlock any door.”

“That has to be illegal.”

“Maybe,” she said, smirking back at him. “But not like anypony would believe it even existed.”

Bravely stopped, considering those words before nodding with a slightly scrunched face. “Yeah, point there.”

Silently, they continued through station, stopping any time they heard movement and waiting for the ponies to pass on by. After a few minutes, and overhearing a passing pair of officers, they found themselves entering the autopsy lab after the technicians had left. Though, even Bon had to fight to keep her stomach from churning at seeing the carnage.

Blood was everywhere in the morgue, densely concentrated around the spot where the body most likely had been. Pieces of flesh had been torn asunder to the sides, splattering the walls and even the ceiling.

“Oh Celestia,” Bravely whispered, trying not to gag. Even he could recognize some pieces of the pony that had been scattered, including the brain matter he nearly stepped on. “That… thing did this‽”

“Keep it down, kid; your voice and your lunch. And yes, it did.” Bon started looking around, searching for patterns in the splatters or anything else she could find useful.

“H-how?” he asked, unable to take his eyes off the central pool. “I thought they said its neck was broken.”

“I should have known better to think it would be that easy to kill the Rake,” Bon said with a shake of her head. “We wouldn’t have had such an issue with it if it could be killed by a beginner. Must have simply been in a healing state until it could get free again.” She took a general glance around the morgue. “Had we known, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

“You know,” spoke another voice, catching both of their attentions, “somehow, I knew I would see you two again.” Sergeant Quiet closed the door to the morgue behind her, looking at both intruders with broken gaze.

“Officer Patrol,” Bravely started, “we, uh, we can explain…”

She held up a hoof, looking far more tired than she had the night before. “Don’t. I don’t care who you really are or what you’re doing for. Just listening the past few minutes, I gathered plenty. And if you’re going after that foal of a bitch, then you’re not leaving me out.”

“Sergeant, this isn’t some rogue creature. It’s a monster of discordian proportions,” Bon tried to reason.

“I understand,” Quiet said, glancing at the gore before refocusing on Bon Bon. “But that thing killed my own ponies. I’m not going to sit back and let it kill again. So whether you like or not, you have my help.”

Bon Bon looked at the officer for several intense moments, her eyes looking into Quiet’s orbs. There was pain reflecting back, just as well as a fire that was burning hotter than the star above them in the heavens. She let out a hesitant sigh and nodded. “Alright, you’re in. But once the Rake is down, this is done and you won’t speak of it with anypony.”

Quiet nodded, her eyes practically glowing with determination. “So that’s what we’re dealing with? It’s called ‘the Rake’? Not the most inventive name.”

“That’s what it calls itself. It’s been loose for centuries, but we’ve never been able to catch it. Today, that changes,” Bon informed her. “Debrief time, officer. We need to know everything that happened here.”

The sergeant quickly went into an explanation. She went into detail on the medical examiner that had been the first victim, his screams drawing the attention of the entire station. The creature burst out of the morgue and went on a rampage, killing any officer that got in its direct path. Its razor claws had shredded each one, seeing them as nothing more than a nuisance. It broke through the police line at the front door and escaped towards the Everfree forest, leaving twenty officers dead with several more in critical condition.

“Dear Celestia,” Bravely breathed, trembling slightly. “This thing is absolutely brutal.”

“You have no idea, kid,” Bon Bon sighed, wiping away a small tear. “Since we know where it went, it means that’s exactly where we’re going after it.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?” Bravely asked. “The Rake will be in its element out there.”

“Kid has a point,” Quiet agreed. “There has to be someway we can draw it back out of the forest.”

Bon rubbed a hoof on her chin. “Maybe, but let’s get out of this place.” She glanced at the stained walls and floor. “This is place is starting to get too depressing.”

The other two agreed and made their way out of the morgue, heading down the halls of the police station again, taking a more direct route for the front. As they walked, Quiet started to list off possible ways to draw the Rake to them.

“... Normally I would suggest bait for a creature, but we can’t put anymore ponies at risk with this thing. Maybe we could use a fake prop at night to see if the Rake will go for it.”

Bon shook her head. “The Rake isn’t an animal; it’s intelligent and stalks it prey to make sure for a clean kill. Bravely is one of the few lucky ones.”

Once they left the building, Quiet stopped. “We should continue tonight. I can’t leave while an investigation is ongoing. They’ll need me on staff.”

Bon nodded in understanding. “Alright. We’ll meet up at my shop. There we can discuss what we’ll do nex-”

“BON! BON!” came the cry of a familiar minty unicorn who pushed her way through the crowd in front of the station. Before Bon could even react, Lyra tackled her to the ground, nearly shoving Bravely over as she rushed past.

“Lyra‽” Bon Bon said out of shock. “What’s wrong‽”

“What’s wrong?” she asked, pulling back and looking down at her roommate, showing tear streaks in her fur with puffy red eyes above them. “What’s wrong‽ I thought something had happened to you, that’s what’s wrong!”

Bravely blinked, gathering his wits back as he looked at the two friends. “Oh right, we were heading for the station earlier.”

“What the buck is that supposed to mean‽” Lyra screamed, instantly in Bravely’s now nervous face.

With him stammering, Bon Bon got back to her hooves and quickly came up with an answer. “Sorry for worrying you, Lyra. Really. But we decided to go out to lunch before coming here and got sidetracked. We only got here a little bit ago after everything happened. Sorry.”

Lyra sniffed, searching Bon Bon’s face, seeing only assurance. “Okay. I thought you had gone after that thing.” She pulled her friend into a hug again, Bon Bon returning it.

‘She knows‽’ Bravely screamed in his own mind, looking incredulously at Bon. He caught her gaze and she shook her head. “Wh-why would she go after that thing?” he asked, noting Quiet had stepped off to the side to talk with the paramedics, no doubt wondering what’s going on her with coworkers.

“O-oh, n-nothing!” Lyra quickly replied chuckling nervously. “Just an inside joke. So, hey! We should get out of here and back home. I think the police might be a little too busy to let you back into your house, Bravely, so we should properly set up the guest bedroom for an extended stay.” A smile on her face again, Lyra started walking back down the steps on the station, Bon Bon moving up next to Bravely.

She whispered into his ear, “She only knows I fight monsters. We can’t tell her anything more than that. It would put her in danger.”

Bravely made an ‘o’ with his mouth before nodding. “I get you, Bon. I make sure to keep stealthy.”

“That’s good. We don’t want to put anypony at risk-”

For the second time in less than ten minutes, Bon Bon as interrupted, but this time caused her pupils to shrink to pinpricks. An ear-shatter shriek that chilled everypony to the bone tore through the sky, all eyes turning to the roof of the station where a hideous beast crouched, gazing down at them.

A mare screamed at the top of her lungs as the rest of the ponies took off running. Bravely couldn’t take his eyes off of the monster, keeping him in place. It was terrifying to see it in his own room the night prior, but to now see it in the light of day, made it all the more horrifying. Its skin was grey and decayed looking, barely stretched over the bones of its bipedal form. It had no eyes, only twin black voids that one could stare into and see their worst nightmares come to life before them. Long, spindly arms stretched to elongated fingers that were more claw than skin, looking as long as a pony was tall.

Its maw opened wide, dripping with drool as the sunlight reflected deadly off monstrous, razor sharp teeth. With the crouched stance, it allowed sight for parts of its own spine to be seen protruding from its back, looking like they could skewer any unfortunate soul that tried to sneak up on the beast.

All this was made far more horrifying by the blood splattered along its teeth, claws, and skin.

The Rake had returned to Ponyville. And it looked hungry.

Bon Bon was the first to react, shouting at the officers, “Don’t just stand there! Get in the station and block the doors!”

The other ponies were hesitant, but Quiet understood and repeated the orders and urged her fellows back into the station. Though, once they were, she cast a lock spell on the doors, while she was still outside.

“I said to get in there!” Bon urged, not taking her eyes off the monster leering down at them.

“And I said I’m going to make that thing pay for what he did to my mares.” She moved next to Bon, standing at ready with her horn lit with green aura.

Bon groaned, pulling out a pair of brass shoes and placing them on her forehooves. “Fine, but keep to my word.” She turned to Lyra, her gaze showing no arguments, “Get out of here and take the kid with you.”

Lyra wanted to say otherwise, but she knew it would be pointless, grabbing Bravely’s left hoof with her golden magic and dragging him with her as she raced off down a nearby alley.

“H-hey wait! Don’t I get a say in this!” he shouted, unable to break free of the magic pulling him along.

“We have to leave it to Bon Bon! She knows what she’s doing!” Lyra urged, running as fast as her hooves could carry her.

The screech of the Rake echoed through the air again, causing Bravely to look back at where they had come from.

He wished he hadn’t.

Racing across the roofs after the pair was the Rake itself, its eyeless gaze boring into Bravely’s soul. It leaped from building to building like a decayed gorilla; using its claws to grab and leap to each roof with momentum building each time.

It would be on them in no time if Bravely didn’t do anything.

“Lyra! Let go of me!”

“Are you nuts‽” she shouted back, noticing the monster following them.

“We need to split off! It’ll throw the creature off!” he reasoned.

“But that means it’ll just go after one of us!”

“Take through the houses! It’ll throw the creature off and give us time to regroup!”

“W-well… alright!” Lyra finally agreed, releasing her magic to which Bravely instantly took to running, though nearly stumbled.

“On three, we split.” Lyra nodded and Bravely counted down. “Now!” she shouted as they hit an intersection, Lyra heading deeper into town while Bravely headed for the outskirts.

As he ran, Bravely kept an eye on the roofs, seeing if the Rake was following. He didn’t see hide nor claw of the creature on the rooftops. But not for the reason he had been hoping for.

The creature was now following directly behind him, fulfilling its duty as a predator after its prey.

The pegasus picked up his speed exponentially at that point, his fight-or-flight instinct telling him to ‘flight’ and fast. He contemplated taking to the air, but he had a feeling the beast wouldn’t let him, possibly even making his wings a larger target for those ever-approaching claws. Bravely wracked his mind for anything he could come up with, before remembering he had taken weapons with him!

With a smile on his face, he used his wings to pull one of the weapons out of his mane and held it in front of him.

That smile dropped instantly.

“A boomerang‽ I grabbed a freaking boomerang‽” Indeed, the angular shaped piece of wood in his wind was a simple looking boomerang. Nothing seemed special about it the slightest, other than the rather nice artwork of blowing wind along it. Bravely groaned, using his other wing to grab the second thing he had snagged, only to groan louder, pulling out a similar weapon, though with one that seemed to have rocks along its surface. “Another freaking boomerang‽ Seriously‽ Buck my life right now!”

“Bravely!” His head shot up and saw Bon Bon out in front of him near the end of the street leading to open fields. She was in a defensive stance, facing him and the oncoming Rake with a determined look. “When I say ‘move’, you get out of the way!”

Bravely nodded dumbly, picking up his pace as he neared her, the Rake nearing him in return. Moments flew by longer than reality should have been, Bravely writing his last will and testament in his own mind.

Then he heard the call.

“MOVE!”

Bravely dove to the side, the Rake none the wiser as it slammed into Bon Bon. Specifically slamming its face into her brass covered hoof. The Rake’s momentum caused it to hit the ground from the strike and slide on its back passed Bon, skidding through the dirt until it stopped.

Not even a second later, the Rake sprang to a sitting position and pushed itself out of the ground to gaze at Bon Bon then its head looked to Bravely who was panting as he kept himself against the last building in the street.

“Hey ugly!” Quiet shouted, getting the beast’s attention as it was blasted by a laser of magic. “That was for my sisters and brothers, you ugly bucker!”

The Rake only staggered slightly from the attack, screeching in response at Quiet and lunging for her. Bon Bon stepped in just in time, nailing her hoof into its lower jaw and pushing it back. It simply bent its head back to its proper position, ready to continue for its prey.

“Well, now we know how it got back up snapping its neck,” Quiet commented.

“Yeah, just mean we need to hit it hard enough that there’s no bones to fix.”

Bravely watched on as Bon Bon and Quiet fought against the Rake. He could see it from the start; the Rake was just toying with them. He was certain they knew that, but they wouldn’t give up. They’d put their lives on the line to keep that monster from hurting anypony else.

‘And what am I doing?’

Those words repeated themselves over and over again in his mind. When he agreed to working for the agency, he thought it would great to be able to protect ponies, but now in a life-or-death situation, he could barely move his legs he was so scared.

That’s what he was doing: standing there like a frightened foal. He was scared, not brave. He knew his name was a lie, but it continued to burn at him. He wanted to do something, anything to stop the Rake. He didn’t want all those police officers, that doctor, and every other pony the creature had ever killed to be for naught. The Rake needed to be stopped, but how could a scared colt like him be able to do something nopony ever could‽

A memory suddenly flashed through Brave’s mind. The moment when he received his cutie mark years ago. On his flank, the black question mark-shaped bolt of lightning began to slightly glow. The moment he rose to defend his friends against a group of bullies; they’d called him stupid for doing it, but his parents. They called him, brave. Because no matter what, he wouldn’t let others suffer when he could stop it. Something called to him and now it was time to answer.

His eyes filled with determination and he moved. Each step of his hoof carried him closer to the battle against the Rake; a likely suicide mission. In his mind, Bravely was screaming at himself that it was stupid. It was stupid! IT WAS STUPID!

“BUT IT NEEDS TO BE DONE!” he screamed, jumping into the air, clutching the boomerang with winds on it in his wing.

Bon Bon, Quiet, and even the Rake were stunned by his sudden charge and shout, Bon’s eyes widening as she saw his weapon beginning to hum and glow with a soft, green aura. Bravely shouted again, throwing the boomerang with all his might. The weapon wrapped with magical energy as soon as it left his hoof, humming loudly as razor sharp winds gathered around it, transforming the boomerang into a sawblade the shot at the Rake.

Only for the beast to move out of the way, the boomerang flying off into the distance. The Rake watched it for a moment before turning back to Bravely, only to have the pegasus’ hoof hit it right in nonexistent nose.

The Rake staggered back, and Bravely was quick to move, jumping to the ground before pushing off and slamming his own body into the Rake’s gut. Bon Bon was quick to follow up, leaping over Bravely thanks to Quiet’s quick use of a levitation spell, and striking the monster once again in the face The monster went flying heel over head before landing a few feet away.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t down for long.

It jumped back to its feet and was near instantly on Bravely before any of them could move. It screeched at him as it swiped its claws down on the pony.

A snap echoed through the fields as claw shards flew from the Rake, making it screech again, holding its now declawed hand. It looked at Bravely, holding his other boomerang above him in a defensive position, the weapon glowing with a soft copper color.

“Guess it wasn’t useless after all,” Bravely commented, his voice uncharacteristically cool and collected. “Fun fact about the boomerang, monster.” He smirked, hearing the approaching hum. “They always come back.”

In that instant, the wind boomerang returned, slicing direct through the Rake at angle through its torso. Blood splattered out from the wound just as Bravely caught the weapon from the air, returning it to its normal appearance.

The Rake was eerily silent as the top half of the creature slid from the body, minus its left arm and most of its left side. The best collapsed to the ground in two separate pieces, black blood pooling beneath the corpse.

“So… that’s what it bleeds,” Quiet commented, looking at the corpse.

Bon Bon, however, was staring at Bravely, noting his demeanor. “Kid, we’re gonna need a serious talk when we get back,” she said. Strangely, her voice wasn’t that of a superior, but more one of shock and befuddlement.

“I don’t think I mind, as long as I get to sit down,” Bravely said, falling back on his haunches as he dropped his boomerangs. “Maybe then you can explain to me what just happened.”

“Death.”

Bravely screeched as he backed away suddenly from the Rake. “It talked!”

The Rake’s head turned to look at the ponies, its body bleeding out profusely. It tried to reach for Bravely, trying to make one last attempt for his life. “Death is what has happened, mortal. You have angered us. Your kind has lived in the light too long. Light-dwellers will bath in darkness, blood, and death. You.. all.. will… perish… the world… will belong… to the Rake...kind!”

The Rake moved no more.

“Did… did it just say the Rake-kind?” Bravely blinked, his eyes wide as he stared at Bon Bon who was gaping at the corpse.

“ I think… I think we just stumbled on something far bigger than a simply creep,” she said, looking between Bravely and Quiet. “And I fear what it means for Equestria. And the world.”