Author's Note

As with the others this chapter is also unedited, for now.

Chapter 4

Rainbow Dash led Rarity and Feather Run in their dark hole of a sewer. The water was rising the further they got. The path seemed to delve down in the deep underbelly of Ponyville. They passed a few diverting paths but did not take them because they dare not get lost in this labyrinth. Rarity was not pleased by the rising water. She almost turned around and headed back out but she did not want to quit, and she certainly did not want to deal with Desert Rose calling her more unspeakable names.

The three ponies had walked for what felt like half an hour, their way only lit by the glow of Rarity’s horn. They had gone deep enough into the sewer network that the water had reached up to their thighs, and was only getting deeper the further they went in. Rarity held her eyes shut as much as she could and had to bite her tongue. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagined that she’d be trodding through sewage to look for some ungodly creature. She shivered at the thought of how long it was going to take to get the stench out of her coat.

Sometimes they heard the squeaking of a rat as it fell into the water and quickly scurried back onto the cracks in the walls. Other time’s the squeaking came from Rarity as a rat would bump against her leg. Their path came to an abrupt end when it dipped down to a submerged path that nopony could pass without going for a dip. Rainbow Dash was not so easily deterred by this obstacle.

“Alright looks like we’re going under!” She was just about to dive in when Rarity stopped her.

“Absolutely not! I have endured enough already. I’m not going any further in this maze of waste!” Rarity stomped her hoof in anger.

“W-with respect ma’am. We haven't even found the creature yet. Not even so much as a trail or hair.” Feather Run stood behind the two mare, unsure of what to do. Rarity stomped in the water, splashing it all over the two ponies including herself.

“I don’t care! We have spent Celestia-knows how long trying to find this stupid little bug and all we have managed to do is walk in somepony’s waste. I have some dignity left. I will not let that muck get in my eyes and mouth, or worse...my hair.” Rarity’s voice went an octave higher as she whined and pouted as she tried to fix her frazzled mane.

“C’mon Rarity we can’t just give up now. That bug needs to get squashed.” Rainbow Dash tried to talk Rarity out of it but she was too persistent.

“No no no! No more! I’ve walked down in the sewers, trotted about like a pig in a bath, searched for a pony killing bug, put up with Desert Rose’s insults! and now I’m covered in...SHIT!”

As Rarity stomped around and vented her frustration she did not notice the sunken path behind her bubble and a black mass slowly emerge from the depths. Rainbow Dash and Feather Run could only watch in horror as it climbed from below and hunched over the dirty white pony. It towered over her, almost hitting the ceiling with its head. Water was dripping off it’s face, along with an unknown yellow slime that lightly illuminated the water. It seemed to fizzle as it hit the water, giving off a burning stench of some kind of gas. None of the ponies noticed the ember pouring from its mouth. They were too fixated on its single giant eye. That eye which did not look away from Rarity. No sound, no movement, nor any kind of distraction would sway its gaze away from her. It’s heavy breathing sounded as if it was suffering through every breathe taken, as if the mere act of being alive was torture for the creature.

When Rarity had spun around in her frustration she finally saw it and screamed. Panicked, the white pony popped her light from her horn and condensed it into a beam of magic towards the monster. It ducked under the beam and tried lunging at her. In Rarity’s sudden outburst she tried pulling the beam towards the creature but did not take into account the damage she caused to the already crumbling walls around her. Debris fell from the ceiling and smacked into the creature. It gave a high pitched screech and retreated back under the water as chunks of stone smashed into its head. As it swam away Rarity stopped her beam but the damage had already been done. The unstable cobblestone began collapsing all around. Rarity froze in place unable to move. Unable to process the events taking place before her.

Before Rainbow Dash or Feather Run could help her, Rarity was struck by falling debris. A particularly large chunk fell on her back, forcing her entire body down, and then another cut across her eye and muzzle. She let out a brief scream before falling limp as more small chunks of stone covered her body. Feather Run bolted forward and used his wings to cover her from further harm. Rainbow Dash helped as well, using the opportunity to lift up her fallen friend and drag her away from the collapsing tunnel. The underwater path had already caved in and more of it was giving away. The two ponies hoisted rarity by her two front hooves, her arms wrapped around their necks. They held onto her and started running forward as fast as possible.

“Pick it up Feather! I can’t carry her on my own!” Rainbow Dash yelled at Feather Run. Trying to push him to move faster. He may be strong, but he was not as fast as her. She felt a slight lag as he fought to keep pace with the lightning fast mare. At the same time they had to deal with their path being blocked by falling stone and water splashing all around them. Not to mention the constant shaking from the cave-in. It felt as if someone was constantly pulling a rug from underneath them. A very rough, wet, and uncomfortable rug.

“I’m doing my best! There’s just...too...much...Ahh!” A significant portion of the wall had crumbled in front of Feather Run. He got caught in it and lost his grip on Rarity. Rainbow Dash kept on going without knowing and pulled her away from from him. She stopped and tried to help him, but so much was falling around him that she didn’t have enough time to get him and Rarity too. In a split second she made the decision to leave him. Rarity had been a long time friend, and as much as she hated it, her loyalty to her friends was stronger than to a stranger she didn’t know too well.

Rainbow Dash watched for a brief moment as he struggled to get past the falling blanket of rocks, earth, and stone, only to crawl backwards and save himself from being buried. He could do nothing as he heard Rainbow Dash’s screams as she ran further away, presumably leaving him behind. He scrambled up and felt his front right hoof shoot a sharp pain straight through his entire body. He had to limp away and backtrack as fast as he could. The walls still shook and rumbled around him. Wounded and blind, he stumbled his way through the darkness.

He fumbled along the walls, hoping for to find one of the paths they didn’t take. If he was lucky, he could use it to go back to the hub. He hobbled along until he found a corner. He ducked into it, the path was much more narrow. Here the walls rubbed along his sides as he squeezed his way through. It opened up a little but still didn’t give him much breathing room. Suddenly he bumped into a dead end. He fell back and rubbed his head. What luck. To hit a dead end in a crumbling sewer with no light.

“Fuck this place. Just can’t catch a break nowadays.” As he got back up he heard an all too familiar heavy breathing right in front of him. The sound of water splashing beneath heavy footsteps echoed through the tiny passage. A low growl came from where Feather Run hit a dead end. Some more of the ember liquid poured from the creature’s mouth and gave enough glow from him to make out its sharp teeth ready to bite into his supple flesh. Feather Run did not know what to do. It was so different, so unique, and so horrifying.

I’ve dealt with worse. He tried to encourage himself. I’ve hunted dragons, timber wolves, and taken down unicorn cults. This is nothing. He stood tall and prepared to challenge the creature as it slowly made its way to him. He charged at the creature, aiming to tackle the creature and go for its neck. It kept its pace while still drooling excessive amounts of the slop from its mouth. Feather Run was about to reach the glow when he felt something stop him. A sharp pain blazed through his shoulder, burning his muscles in ways even never knew where possible.

Before he knew it he was being lifted by something in his shoulder and being pulled towards the small glow coming from its mouth. He lifted a hoof to feel a long serrated tail impaled in his body. It was hard to move. He felt so tired. The creature brought him close to its face and opened its mouth. The last thing Feather Run did was let out a bloodcurdling scream that only a little fillie could match, that and piss himself while he screamed for his mommy to come save him.. He couldn’t even see everything fade to black as he lost his vision. His whole world was already black.

The back of his head blew out as it’s sub-mouth shot out and busted through Feather Runs skull. Throwing bits of skull, brain matter, and blood all over the shit-filth soaked walls.The creature slammed the now lifeless pony’s body to the ground, flinging him of it’s tail. It’s stood over it’s kill proudly for a moment before it scurried off into the dark depths of the chaos of a collapsing sewer tunnel. Feather Runs hoof involuntarily twitched before a section of the roof caved in and crushed the rest of his body.

Off in the distance the low rumbling of rock was mixed in with frantic cries of ponies trying to save their own lives.

Twilight stared out into the darkness of the forest as she made her way even deeper. A lantern floated next to her in her magic. She came across some markings on a tree, that indicated something large had either ran into it, or scratched it. But she figured it was the later based off the pattern of the markings. Down by the base of the tree the leaves had been disturbed by what seemed to be a pony. Twilight hoovered the lantern closer to confirm her suspicions. Upon closer examination she could see hoof prints that were gouged into the earth.

She set down her saddle bags and brought out a quill and parchment, along with a ruler so she could start taking notes. She was unsure that this had anything to do with what she was after, but it didn’t hurt to document the unknown, just in case. The longer she investigated the area around the tree, the more she started to notice more signs that pointed to a larger creature that was following a pony.

She took out a map of the Forest and marked her location, trying to judge which direction the tacks were going. After a few moments she realized that the track where coming out of the deeper parts of the forest and leading back into town. Twilight stood there for a moment, trying to decide on which way she wanted to go. She looked to her left, which was the path the lead out of the forest, but to her right was a path that twisted and turned. The branches seemed to form a giant open mouth that banked her deeper. She stared into the dark wooden ally, before she decided to turn the other way and head out towards the town.

As she trotted down the path she noticed a trail of a yellow substance that had dripped along side the hoof tracks in the leaves. She knelt down to get a closer look. It was in a somewhat solidified state, but seem to could still be molded into a different shape. She hesitantly reached out of hoof to touch it before stopping herself and mentally chastising herself for being so careless. She looked around for a twig which didn’t take her too long to find.

She picked up the twig within her magic and slowly poked the unknown substance. It’s outer shell seemed to be harden, but with a little more force applied she was able to push the stick within it. She tried to pull the stick back out and was met with strong resistance. With a little more effort she was able to release the stick from it’s new yellow prison. Twilight noticed that some of it had stuck to the stick and was dripping off painstakingly slow.

Twilight thought to herself. “Hmm, seems to resemble sap from a tree.” The purple Alicorn glanced up to see if any of the trees showed any signs of dripping sap. But none of them did. She pulled a jar from her saddle bags and picked up a sample for further study back in her lab. She sealed the jar and put it back within her bags and marched onward. As she walked the path started to dart to left, the back to the right, the back to the left, then back to right. It did this several more times before straightening back out.

“So our pony in question was no doubt being chased by, something, and tried to throw it off her trail. But what was it? And why her?” As Twilight was last in though she came to spot that the leaves had been very badly disturbed. Hoof marks in every which direction that had been trampled but something far bigger. There was also more piles of the sap like substance centered around one area in the opening. Twilight looked around to try and make out just where the pony was trying to get to and noticed a gap in the foliage that showed part of a street in Ponyville.

“So she was trying to get to town, but why stop here where you were so close?” Twilight muttered to herself while shaking her head as she tried to piece together the scene that laid out before her. A struggle clearly had happened,but why? Did she stop running, did whatever was chasing her finally catch up or. Twilight spotted a tree root that was sticking out of the ground. “Or did you trip?” Twilight had an idea come to her as she walked out of the forest and onto one of the many side streets that littered Ponyville.