Chapters "W-what happened next?"
Scootaloo smirked at the horror in Sweetie Belle's voice as she coyly held the flashlight under her chin. "Then the monster emerged from its cocoon!"
Crack!
The clubhouse rattled from an unknown force as the trio cried out in surprise. Sweetie Belle had jumped a full foot into the air before landing back down, whimpering under the blanket she'd wrapped around herself.
“What the hay was that?” Apple Bloom asked, glancing out the clubhouse window. “Sounds like somethin’ landed nearby.”
“Lemme see!” Scootaloo shoved Apple Bloom out of the way, nearly smacking her head against the window with how fast she moved. “Where did it land?!”
“Who cares?” Sweetie Belle whimpered. “Girls, I just want to go back to bed. I don’t want to spend half the night in the Everfree Forest.”
“It landed in the Everfree?!”
“It doesn’t matter! Let’s just go back to bed, please ?”
Apple Bloom frowned. She trotted over to Sweetie Belle and placed a comforting hoof on one shoulder. “Sweetie, we don’t have to go that far. Applejack always tells me that the edges of the Everfree Forest are pretty safe—”
“—your sister wouldn’t want you going anywhere near the Everfree in the first place.”
Apple Bloom blushed. “My point is, we’re not gonna be in any danger. We might even get our cutie marks for adventuring!”
“Yeah Sweetie Belle, don’t be such a wuss,” Scootaloo chirped, her wings buzzing with excitement. “Besides, we’ve never done anything that dangerous.”
“Speak for yourself,” Sweetie Belle mumbled under her breath.
Scootaloo ignored her remark, snatching Sweetie’s hoof and dragging her toward the door. “C’mon, we’ll be fast! We can be in and out of that forest in ten seconds flat!”
Sweetie Belle huffed. “You’re not Rainbow Dash.”
She ignored that remark too.
The door was unceremoniously flung open as the trio bolted out the clubhouse; their eyes glowed in the dark, almost cartoonishly so. Scootaloo was still gripping down hard on Sweetie’s hoof, dragging her along as the three of them soon met the edge of the forest.
Sweetie Belle gulped. “Are you sure we have to go investigate it? Maybe we could wait until tomorrow? You know, when it’s actually bright out?”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “If we wait until tomorrow mornin’, it might be gone.”
The Everfree Forest was an ominous sight, but at night, it was a different kind of beast altogether. The wind scraped against the dense foliage, making the forest look alive—and in a sense—it was. The girls stared at the seemingly endless maze of trees, temporarily forgetting what they were supposed to be doing.
They took three steps forward, then promptly stopped.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all…
Scootaloo puffed out her chest. “C’mon girls, we’ll be fine. Nothing bad has ever happened to us before!”
Sweetie Belle gave her a sharp glare. “Then why don’t you lead way?”
“I—er, well…”
“What are you, chicken?”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, ignoring their bickering as she continued walking toward the forest. “Both of y’all keep quiet an’ stick close. Remember, if either of ya gets lost, it's just a straight line walkin’ back to the clubhouse.”
They didn’t argue, opting to stay within hoof’s reach from one another as their hooves crunched down on the underbrush of the forest. Despite Apple Bloom’s confident-sounding voice, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but occasionally look up as they made their way deeper into the forest.
It only took a few minutes of walking for Sweetie to wonder if her mind was playing tricks on her. If she focused hard enough, she could barely hear the sound of something hissing above them, but it didn’t sound like a snake or really anything she’d ever heard before. The nervous glances she got from her friends told her that she wasn’t the only one who noticed, but she dared not ask them.
Because if she asked them, then it might be real.
Scootaloo suddenly paused mid-stride to sniff the air. “Hey girls, do you smell that?”
“Is that smoke? That’s gotta be the source of the noise then. What coulda crashed all the way out in the Everfree to cause this much smoke?” Apple Bloom replied incredulously.
“It’s obviously a meteorite,” Sweetie Belle grumbled. “I just don’t get why it had to land in the most dangerous place in all of Equestria.”
“We must be getting close then!” Scootaloo momentarily forgot her fear and galloped deeper into the forest.
“Hey! Don’t get ahead of us!” Apple Bloom cried, speeding up in an attempt to catch up to her.
Sweetie Belle let out a frustrated sigh. Before she could follow Apple Bloom’s trail, that familiar hissing sound filled her ears.
It was coming from right behind her.
Sweetie whipped her head around, turning to face the source of the noise and jumping back slightly, ready to face whatever horror was about to come her way.
…But there was nothing there, only the sound of the wind, and her heartbeat hammering in her ears.
Sweetie Belle could hear Apple Bloom up ahead now, calling out Scootaloo’s name. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring her shortness of breath and the obvious trembling in her hooves.
Sweetie Belle yelped as she slammed into a yellow blur ahead of her. It was Apple Bloom, who stumbled slightly from the impact. “Oh, thank Celestia yer here, Sweetie! I can’t find Scootaloo anywhere!”
“But she was right in front of us. How could you have lost her just like that?”
“I-I dunno. One second she was there an’ the next she was just… gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”
Apple Bloom stared ahead, though it was difficult to see much of anything in the dark. “She couldn’t have gone too far, she must already be at the crash site. We’ll grab her an’ get outta here. You were right, we shoulda just stayed in bed.”
“Is it too late say I told you so?”
“Oh shut up,” Apple Bloom replied, giving Sweetie a light shove. “The sooner we leave, the better. I’m guessin’ it’s right past this clearing up ahead.”
She pulled away the vines that blocked their path, carefully ducking under them to avoid the thorns. The smoke was denser now, and Sweetie Belle swore she could still hear a hissing noise nearby. It was growing louder.
“Hold up, Sweetie. There’s a bit of a drop ahead of us.”
“What do you mea—ah! ”Sweetie Belle tumbled down a sharp depression in the earth. It was the site of the crater, but Sweetie Belle wouldn’t know that until she cleaned away the grime and soot from her eyes.
“Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom carefully scrambled down the crater's edge to Sweetie’s side.
“Pfeh! Oh great, Rarity is going to be so mad at me,” Sweetie Belle groaned as she spit out the dirt that had filled her mouth on the way down. “How am I ever gonna get this stuff out of my mane?”
“I don’t think yer mane is the problem right now,” Apple Bloom said. “We still have no idea where Scoots is. I can’t think of anywhere else she’d be other than this…”
“—crater.”
“Yeah, crater,” she finished with a sheepish expression.
“If Scoots fell down this crater like I did, she would definitely have some brain damage,” Sweetie said with a smirk.
Apple Bloom found herself struggling not to smile. “What’s there to damage?”
There was a long pause before the two of them erupted into a fit of giggling. Apple Bloom offered a hoof to Sweetie Belle as they slowly pressed on into the heart of the crash site.
Moments later, Apple Bloom did a double take, nearly tripping over her own tail as they stumbled upon something only describable as otherworldly. “What is that?”
Sweetie Belle looked as green as the object in front of them. “I don’t know, but it’s slimy, it’s gross, and I don’t want to be anywhere near it.”
“Wait a sec, do you see that?” Apple Bloom squinted at the odd, oval-shaped object. It reminded her of an egg, but that couldn’t have been right. How could anything be alive down here?
Sweetie Belle took a few tentative steps forward, concentrating on it through the haze of smoke. “Is it… moving ?”
“Boo!”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle screamed in unison as a figure emerged from the smoke. It was Scootaloo, who donned a shit-eating grin as she hopped over the egg to face them.
“Who’s the chicken now? Haha, I got you good!”
Apple Bloom’s face immediately shifted from terrified to annoyed. “Are ya kiddin’ me? Scootaloo, we were worried sick about you, an’ ya decide to pull some stupid prank?”
Scootaloo raised her hooves in mock defense. “What? I thought it was pretty good.”
“If you’re trying to kill us, maybe,” Sweetie Belle huffed, flicking her tail at Scootaloo’s face as she turned away from them. “I’m going home and taking a shower. I’ll see you gals tomorrow.”
Scootaloo slumped her shoulders. “Oh come on, Sweetie! It was only a joke—”
Screeeeech!
All of them froze in place, not daring to make a sound as ice flooded their veins. It was close, whatever it was. Sweetie Belle knew it had to be the thing that had been following them; she didn’t want to believe it, but she didn’t have a choice anymore, it was coming for them.
“Scootaloo? P-please tell me this is another one of your pranks?” Apple Bloom whimpered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Scootaloo didn’t respond. Sweetie Belle didn’t try turning around to see if she was even still there.
“Scootaloo?”
…
“S-Scootaloo?”
Author's Note
Giving the ‘Sci-Fi’ tag another try. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Don't forget to track this as well.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I am pleased to inform you that I have personally selected you as the lead researcher and excavator of the meteorite that crash landed in the Everfree Forest yesterday night.
The point of impact has been traced back to the center of the forest, which means that investigating said crash site will not be easy. You will have all the resources of the academy at your disposal and will receive a large stipend for your efforts.
I want you to arrive in Ponyville as soon as possible; relay information back to me every chance you have.
Take care, my faithful student, for nothing good has ever come out of that forest.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Nothing good has ever come out of that forest.
Twilight blinked as she reread the last sentence of the letter. What was that supposed to mean? The Everfree Forest didn’t have a large body count associated with it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. Did that somehow correlate with the crash? If it was Princess Celestia’s goal to keep her guessing, she was doing a damn good job so far.
“Come on, Princess,” Twilight grumbled as she shoved the letter back into her saddlebag. “What am I supposed to be cautious of in the first place?”
“Annoyed again?” Spike smirked at her. “It’s not like she wouldn’t tell you anything she didn’t already know. Maybe it’s just, like, a princess thing or something.”
She shrugged. “I’m surprised she chose me for the job in the first place. Princess Celestia has never let me do anything dangerous before. I swear, it’s like she’s my mother or something.”
“I think Velvet would probably disagree with you on that, Twilight,” he replied.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh ha-ha, Spike. Do me a favor and send a letter to Princess Celestia when we arrive.” She turned on her side, facing the carriage window. “I’m going to try to get some sleep.”
“Didn’t you just have a cup of coffee?”
“Shut up.”
After a couple hours of just laying there with her eyes closed (she’d never admit Spike was right), the jolt of the carriage signaled their arrival in Ponyville.
The carriage compartment filled with green light as a scrap of parchment dissolved in a plume of smoke. Twilight yawned as she glanced over at Spike with a curious look.
“I wrote the letter just before we landed. I figured you’d want to get out of this stuffy thing as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Spike.”
“Sure thing, Princess.” He mock saluted.
“As if.”
He shut the door behind them as they exited the carriage. Twilight gave a thankful nod to the pair of pegasi guards piloting it as they took off toward Canterlot once more.
Spike took the time to stand and stretch. “So, where to now, Twilight?”
“Well, let’s see…” Twilight spun around, ignoring the suspicious glances of onlookers who had witnessed them land; the one with the mulberry mane looked particularly irritated. “We need to speak to Miss Mayor Mare at Ponyville’s town hall to discuss living arrangements. We’ll probably be sticking around for a little while, so I need to know where we’ll be staying.”
“Isn’t that something Princess Celestia could have done?”
Twilight gave him a familiar, annoyed look. “She called it a learning experience, whatever that’s supposed to mean.”
The town hall was an easy find; it was next to the town’s library, which was apparently a living tree in the heart of Ponyville. Twilight could spend all day dissecting the number of enchantments it took to keep it alive, but she didn’t have all day.
Twilight put on her most professional smile as she trotted up to the front desk. “Hello ma’am. I’m looking for Miss Mayor Mare. Is she available?”
The mare at the front desk didn’t smile back, willing the energy to put her newspaper down and peer over at Twilight from behind her glasses. “She’s busy. Sorry.”
She didn’t sound so sorry.
Twilight’s smile twitched. “I was deployed here by Princess Celestia herself on a very important mission.” Twilight shoved the letter in the mare’s face to emphasize her point. “So I would appreciate it if you lead me to her.”
“...”
“Immediately.”
The mare raised an eyebrow as she scanned the contents of the letter, letting out a low sigh as she sagged her shoulders. “Fine, but I was telling the truth, y’know. She’s being chewed out by some ponies already.”
“Chewed out?” Twilight glanced back at Spike, who only offered a shrug in response.
“Yeah.” She stood up, ushering them to follow behind her. It was quiet, save for the voices at the end of the hall growing louder. “Good luck with that. All I know is that it’s not my problem.”
“Not like you’d care either way,” Twilight mumbled under her breath.
The mare quickly shuffled back toward the front desk as Twilight stared at Mayor Mare’s office door, the voices behind it were frantic and angry. She sighed, opened the door, and walked inside.
“Whaddya mean ya can’t find ‘em?”
“Miss Applejack, please be reasonable—”
“Reasonable?! My sister is missing!”
“Surely somepony must have saw them?”
“As I said, we can put out an alert—”
“It’s already been a whole day!”
Twilight was only one hoof in the door and she already regretted walking in. Three mares surrounded a pony who Twilight assumed was Mayor Mare, each looking more irate than the last. The one Mayor Mare called ‘Applejack’ adjusted her Stetson hat. “Yer not listenin’ to us. We told ya we already got a pretty good idea of where they are. They gotta be somewhere in that Celestia-damned forest.”
“The poor dears must be so hungry and lost,” the unicorn mare said, nervously fiddling with her hair. “Can’t you send in a search party to look for them?”
“The guards are already searching for Rainbow Dash’s friend: Fluttershy, who disappeared this morning as well,” Mayor Mare snapped. “We’re understaffed as is, and we can’t divide what little resources we have left.”
Rainbow Dash seemed appalled by this response. “Fluttershy’s gone too?! Rarity, did you know about this?”
“I-I… Sweet Celestia.” Rarity held a hoof to her head, struggling to stand as she leaned against the wall for support.
“Ahem.” Twilight cleared her throat, closing the door behind her. “S-sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak to Mayor Mare?”
The room was silent, the tension thick enough to cut. Twilight struggled to maintain eye contact as Rainbow Dash flew over to her. “And what do you want? We’re kinda busy trying to find our sisters here!”
“Chill out,” Spike said, taking his place next to Twilight. “We just got here, cut us some slack.”
“I… are you a dragon?”
“Geez, what gave it away?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, walking past the two with an unamused expression, facing Mayor Mare. “Look, you’ve already received a letter from Princess Celestia, right? I’ll be staying in Ponyville temporarily. Can you please assist me with my housing situation?”
“Wait, did Princess Celestia send you?” There was a glint of hope in Rarity’s eyes. “Is… is there any way you could help us?”
Mayor Mare bit her lip. “I’d offer to let you stay in the town’s library, but it’s still undergoing some renovations for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. I’m not sure where else—”
“She can stay with me,” Rarity replied, now uncomfortably close to Twilight.
Twilight gave her a nervous chuckle. “Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude or anything—”
Spike bolted over and pressed a claw against Twilight’s lips. “We’ll take the offer.”
“Wonderful, darling,” Rarity purred, grazing her hoof against Spike’s chin. He melted like putty in her hoof.
Twilight gave him an annoyed glare, but her anger instantly fizzled out as the Mayor Mare’s office door slammed open.
Slam!
A massive earth pony stood in the doorway, ragged and panting for breath. His eyes frantically darted between the mares inside the office before landing on Applejack. He spat out something from his mouth directly onto the floor. “I just found this in the orchard, near the forest!”
Twilight could hear the mares gasp, one of them screamed. She couldn’t tell which one; she could only stare in horror at the object that had been so ungracefully spat onto the ground.
In the dim light coming through the office windows, she could see it so vividly: a bloody, battered red bow.
Author's Note
Expect the next chapter to come later this month, probably. I need to finish another short oneshot I have planned, so we’ll see where to go from here.
Author's Note
598 views with only 52 upvotes? C'mon ya'll, I know you're better than this.
Let's see how things are doing on the other side of town...
3 - Pursuit
Fluttershy typically liked morning time: it was quiet, no one was around to disturb her, and she could spend the beginning of her day waking up in peace.
Waking up in the morning was a different story entirely, as it generally entailed being smacked with a cotton paw repeatedly. This was the part of her morning she didn’t like.
“Angel,” Fluttershy murmured, shifting to the other side of the bed. “Please, I have an alarm clock.”
She could feel him glaring at her, even though she couldn’t see him. It was a glare that said “I am your alarm clock.”
Fluttershy sighed as she sunk deeper into her pillow while holding another, only to grimace as the paw came down across the back of her head once again.
“Oh, fine,” Fluttershy said, sitting up with a frown. “You don’t have to hit so hard you know.”
Angel smirked. To her, it was endearing, to anyone else, it was sadistic. It was a strange relationship. Fluttershy yawned, salvaging the mess of her mane as she trotted to the kitchen and filled a kettle with tea. It was early enough that the sun was just grazing the horizon, filling her small cottage with a soft warm glow.
Fluttershy hummed to herself as Angel hopped up on her shoulder. She had a good view of the Everfree Forest every morning—despite its insidious presentation—it was actually quite beautiful.
Clink! Clink! Clink!
Her ears twitched at the sound of the wind chimes. Why were the birds at their feeders already?
“They must be really hungry, Angel. I should go out and feed them now,” Fluttershy remarked. Angel, oddly enough, seemed uneasy rather than jealous for once. She’d ask him about it as soon as she was back in the house, she reasoned.
It would only be a minute.
Fluttershy slowly unlocked the door, stepping outside and being greeted with a slight breeze that tussled her feathers. The birds were nowhere to be found.
“Mr. Robin? A-are you awake?” Fluttershy called out. There was a slight shakiness to her voice. It was probably just the wind making her cold, she reasoned.
The vibrant red robin that Fluttershy had so affectionately named did not call back. He was still asleep, she reasoned.
Fluttershy’s ears twitched again as a low hissing reverberated from the treeline.
She didn’t reason this.
“T-tea!” Fluttershy blurted out, the hissing now overshadowed by the sound of the whistling tea kettle coming to a boil. The door slammed hard enough behind her to wake up the rest of the critters. She slowly slid down the door as the whistling intensified.
“S-sorry,” Fluttershy said, attempting to stifle her hyperventilating. “I didn’t mean to wake you all up.”
A baby ferret wrapped itself around one of her hind legs as her ragged breathing slowed. “I’m fine now, thank you.” Fluttershy smiled as she scratched the ferret’s chin, causing him to let out a content purr. “Angel? Would you be a dear and move the pot off the stove?”
She could almost hear his eyes rolling as he begrudgingly hopped onto the kitchen counter.
It took another minute for Fluttershy’s breathing to reach a more comfortable level; shambling across the living room in her weary state, she shakily drained the kettle into a ceramic teapot. Fluttershy felt her eyes wandering over to an object laying on the windowsill above her kitchen sink: a small white feather.
“T-that’s not mine…” Fluttershy murmured as she slowly unlatched the lock on the window, grasping the feather with a trembling hoof. In her peripheral vision, more white feathers littered the ground just outside the window, becoming increasingly red as the trail went on.
Her pupils constricted. “W-what?”
Thud!
Fluttershy yelped as a heavy weight slammed into the ceiling, forcing the window back down as dust from ceiling rained down on her.
“I-it’s just the raccoons making themselves at home in the a-attic.”
“Someone, help me!”
Her ears twitched at the sound of a cry emerging from the Everfree. For a moment, the pit in her stomach vanished, being replaced with a different kind of fear. “S-Sweetie Belle?”
“Is anyone there?!”
“Rarity, your sister…” Fluttershy stood up, filled with a sense of conviction. “I…I have to help her!”
Fluttershy was many things: brave was not one of them. Nevertheless, she found herself bolting toward the front door, ignoring Angel who tugged at her tail.
“Let go,” Fluttershy hissed. “Sweetie Belle is my friend’s sister .I can’t leave in her that forest alone.”
Angel pointed at the mass of bloodied feathers just outside the kitchen window. Fluttershy gulped; her saliva felt like fine sand going down her throat.
“I… I know that thing is still out there, but what am I supposed to do? If I don’t help Sweetie Belle she’ll—” Fluttershy glanced out the window once again, letting out a heavy sigh. “I have to help her. I don’t have a choice.” Angel stopped resisting, nervously biting his lip as she walked outside.
Fluttershy listened for the origin of Sweetie Belle’s voice. Earlier it had been chilly; now it was freezing. She couldn’t tell if blood was still moving throughout her body, considering how hard it was to actually breathe. The voice rang through the air, even more distressed than before.
“I just want to go home!”
“I-I’m coming, Sweetie Belle!” Fluttershy called back, bold enough to raise her voice above a whisper this time. The monster likely heard her too. She’d need to move fast. “Just stay where you are! It’s me, Fluttershy!”
“O-okay!”
Fluttershy kicked up dirt and dry grass as the galloped toward the edge of the Everfree Forest. There’d been no sign of any monster during her sprint, but she had no intention of letting her guard down.
She bowed her head low, panting and heaving for breath as she peered into the Everfree. It had been a short run, but she felt exhausted. “S-Sweetie Belle? Are you there?”
…
Two bright green eyes illuminated the darkness that pervaded the forest. Whatever it was, it wasn’t Sweetie Belle.
“W-what?” Fluttershy tumbled back, her ears flattening against her head. These weren’t the gentle green eyes that she’d grown accustomed to seeing over her many visits to the Carousel Boutique.
It hissed at her, a series of guttural clicking noises emerged from the monster’s mouth, drowning out the panicked thoughts that raced through her head. It sounded like nothing Fluttershy had ever heard: like hornets buzzing around her, threatening to crawl inside her and eat her from within.
Whoosh!
Fluttershy yelped, glancing at her body for any visible signs of damage. She was mostly untouched, save for a lone lock of pink hair that fell to the ground in front of her.
A flash of bright green light erupted from the tree line. A figure emerged from the darkness, the monster’s frame twisted and contorted into impossible shapes, and for a moment, it simply smiled at her. Fluttershy trembled, her body petrified with fear. “P-please… no…”
Angel had finally caught up to her, his eyes widening in horror as Fluttershy turned around to face him.
“Angel!” Fluttershy screamed. “Please, help m—!”
She couldn’t finish her sentence, as a chitinous tail wrapped around her throat, slamming her to the ground as the thing dragged into the heart of the Everfree Forest.
Angel ran.
Author's Note
Sorry for the late update. It's been hard for me to get back into the groove lately. Expect more from me again soon in the form of a short story.
Thank you for your patience.
4 - Folly of Fools
“For the last time, Spike, the answer is no!” Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground. “I’m not about to let you walk into the most dangerous forest in all of Equestria!”
“Oh c’mon, Twilight,” Spike moaned. “This is the first time I’ve been anywhere outside of Canterlot and you’re not going to let me come with you?”
“Not if there’s a risk of you getting killed,” Twilight huffed.
“So it’s okay if you do something dangerous, but not me?”
Applejack moved between them, her expression growing more irate with each sentence they exchanged. “As much as I’d love to sit here ‘an listen to ya two argue, my sister is still missing.” She glared at Spike. “Quit yer whining.”
Twilight gave him a sympathetic look as he stormed off. She turned back to face Applejack, a sheepish smile on her face. “I… sorry about him, he’s still a baby dragon.”
Applejack shrugged, not looking back at Twilight as she trotted toward the Everfree. “It’s fine, but we’re wasting daylight just sittin’ out here, and I don’t have the patience for it neither.”
“Right.”
“Never took you as the assertive type, Applejack.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “I kinda like this side of you.”
“Rainbow Dash, please,” Rarity tittered. “This is not the time for joking around.”
“I mean, I wasn’t joking, but alright.”
Despite the stern expression on Applejack’s face, Twilight could faintly see the edges of her lips curl into a smile.
The light mood that the four of them had going into the forest had long been replaced by a sense of dread, hanging humid in the air, suffocating them. They were getting close now, Twilight could feel it.
“Everyone stop.” Twilight paused for a moment, the other three following suit. Applejack opened her mouth but promptly closed it again as she watched the unicorn stare up into the sky. “Do you see that? It’s smoke. We’re getting close to the crash site of the meteor.”
Rarity pursed her lips together. “Pardon me, darling, but what makes you think the three of them would even go out this far?”
Twilight sighed in exasperation. “Think about it for a minute, you said they were having a sleepover, right?”
Applejack nodded. “That’s what I told ya, yeah. I last saw ‘em at the treehouse that I helped my sis built.”
“And they’re a bunch of kids, right?”
“...Yeah?”
“Fillies are naturally curious, and stupid. It’s not a coincidence that this meteor lands close to Sweet Apple Acres and they just happen to go missing. They probably went off to go explore the crash late at night and got lost.”
Applejack didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t protest. Twilight took the silence as a sign to continue, briefly glancing behind them before marching forward. “The quicker we find these fillies, the better. I don’t want them tampering with any of my potential research material.”
“Are you serious?!” A blur of color shot past Twilight, her muzzle practically against Rainbow Dash’s face. “This is not a joke!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and moved past her. “Of course this isn’t a joke, I conduct my research very professionally, and I can’t have three helpless fillies messing it up.”
“They ain’t helpless, and they aren’t stupid neither.” Applejack glared at Twilight. “Just keep yer little comments to yourself and we’ll be out of your mane when we find ‘em, alright?”
“Fine by me,” Twilight said with a shrug. “I didn’t exactly come here to make friends.”
“Rainbow Dash!”
Twilight felt a gust of wind blow her mane into her face as Rainbow Dash zoomed through the air. There was a mixture of panic and excitement in the pegasus’s eyes.
“Scootaloo? Scootaloo, where are you!” Rainbow Dash called back—not checking to see if the others were behind her—and not stopping when they definitely weren’t.
“Dash, please, slow down!” Twilight’s efforts were in vain. Even if Rainbow Dash had heard her, she certainly wasn’t acting like it. Dash had gone too far too fast, and there was no keeping up with her at that point.
“Dash,” Twilight heaved, her voice barely audible, “I swear you’re going to get me killed.”
“Do try to go easy on yourself, darling, no pony can keep up with her,” Rarity chided. “Though I wish she would attempt to restrain herself at least a little .”
“Can’t be helped none,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat as she peered through the forest clearing. “Come on, I can tell we’re gettin’ close now.”
“I certainly hope so. The sooner I can get Sweetie Belle out of this dreadful forest, the sooner I can scrub myself free of this awful mud,” Rarity replied with a slight pout. “Where do you think she went off to, Twilight?”
“...Twilight?”
Their voices were nothing but white noise to Twilight’s ears. This was going well, far too well for her not to feel somewhat skeptical. Maybe she was just being cynical, but the little voice in the back of her head told her that something was very wrong.
“Let’s just keep moving forward.” Twilight didn’t know why she suddenly felt the need to whisper.
The soft hissing she intermittently heard did little to aid her morbid imagination either.
It was only another minute of brisk trotting before Twilight spotted the silhouette of a familiar pegasus. Rainbow Dash was pacing in front of what seemed to be an entrance to a cave. It made Twilight nervous, as up until now the pegasus had made a point of never letting her hooves touching the ground. For her to be anxious enough to be willingly grounded was… troublesome, to say the least.
“Took you long enough!” Dash barked, pointing a wing at the cave entrance. “They’re in there, I’m sure of it!”
Twilight raised a brow. “How can you be sure?”
Dash rolled her eyes. “Duh, I’ve already scanned this whole place and found no sign of them. They have to be in here!”
Twilight took the time to glance around the crater they stood in. Not a soul in sight, that was a definite. It was strange though, because even after reviewing all the available information she had regarding the Everfree Forest’s geography, never once had she recalled any caves existing in the forest. Was this the result of the crater?
“What stopped you from going inside?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash looked at her as if she asked yet another stupid question. “Are you kidding me? It’s super dark in there! I didn’t think spelunking would be on my agenda today so I had to wait for you. You got a spell or something that can light up this cave?”
Twilight scoffed. “Of course I do. Here, let me lead the way.”
She barely hesitated as the entrance to the cave was illuminated by a bright purple light that emanated from the tip of her horn. Dash wasn’t wrong; where the light faded away only pitch black remained, as if the cave itself was feeding off any light inside.
“Watch your step,” Twilight said to no one in particular, “I didn’t plan on going into a cave today, so I don’t know what we might find down here.”
A dull blue light shined to the left of Twilight, revealing Rarity’s sheepish smile. “I may not be adept at magic, but I hope I can be of some assistance.”
Twilight’s pacing was slow at first, but after hearing nothing more than moisture dripping off of the large stalactites that littered the cavern’s ceiling, she sped up.
Clang!
Twilight drew her hoof back and peered down. She’d stepped on a large piece of sheet metal. Using her telekinesis to hold it upright, she could faintly make out a decal etched across it:
USCSS Nostromo 1809246-09
Twilight stared at it for a second, before sighing and turning back. “Do any of you know what this–”
Her sentence echoed throughout the cave. No one was behind her anymore.
“I-is anyone there?” She called out each of their names, but the only response she ever got was the sound of her own voice. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Twilight bit her lip, a pit of ice forming in the bottom of her stomach.
She walked along the closest wall to her, painfully aware of the fact that the cavern was becoming increasingly narrower as she continued walking. If she listened close enough, she could hear the hissing—
“Twilight!”
Twilight jerked her head toward the sound of the voice. “Rainbow Dash? Is that you? Where are you?”
“Farther down, just keep walking straight!”
“As if I even had a choice,” she mumbled. It didn’t take long for her to reach Rainbow Dash, but when she did, Twilight found that she no longer needed her light to guide her, for the cavern was already brightly lit by a green glow.
Eggs were littered across the cavern floor, hundreds of them. Twilight would have been repulsed if she wasn’t so thoroughly horrified.
Twilight halted in place, fighting the urge to gag as she held one hoof over her muzzle. “W-what are these things? Some kind of eggs?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I have no idea, to be honest. I didn’t want to get close to them to find out.” She pointed ahead with one wing. “We should leave, this place is... scary. Come on, there’s an exit this way.”
“Scary? I never thought the Rainbow Dash could be scared, especially by some random dark cave,” Twilight huffed. “Let’s just go back the way we came, I know the way.”
“This way is quicker,” Dash urged, “I don’t want to sit down here any longer than I have to.”
Twilight shook her head incredulously. “Wait a minute, what about the others? What about the fillies? Just a moment ago you seemed so sure that they were down here, what changed?”
Dash chuckled. “We already found them, Twi. They were huddled together in some crevice, scared out of their minds. Just follow me and I’ll take you to them.”
Twilight felt compelled to move, but her hooves felt like they were stuck in place as if caught within a spider’s web. That little voice in the back of her head was there again, warning her. “...What’s her name?”
Dash blinked. Weren’t her eyes magenta?
“Whose name?”
“The name of that filly that matters to you so much, what’s her name?”
Dash scoffed. “What does that matter to you anyway? You’re not here for them, right? All you care about is your research .”
“Just answer the damn question,” Twilight growled, priming her horn with a vibrant purple hue. “What is your sister’s name?!”
…
…
“Looks like you caught me, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight screamed, letting loose a magical concussive blast, which flung the imposter against an adjacent cavern wall. She panted, making a one-eighty before galloping off in the opposite direction.
Behind her, she could hear the sound of fire erupting, she was then tackled and hoisted into the air, the flapping of wings filling her ears.
“Hang on Twilight!” A familiar voice shouted at her. Terrified magenta eyes stared down at Twilight as the real Rainbow Dash expertly weaved through the maze-like tunnels.
“S-slow down, Dash! You’re going to kill us!” Twilight yelled, narrowly avoiding being decapitated by a nearby stalagmite.
“If I fly any slower, that thing is going to kill us instead!”
They were out of the cave in seconds, stray branches occasionally cutting Twilight’s face as she was met with the full wrath of the Everfree’s flora while in the air. She didn’t realize how suffocating and oppressive it really was down there until she took her first breath outside the cavern.
Rainbow Dash never stopped once. Never looking behind her to see if she was being chased, or even if Rarity or Applejack were nearby, only staring straight ahead until they were out of the Celestia-forsaken forest.
Eventually, Twilight tumbled to the ground as her vision blurred, a wave of nausea passing over her.
...
Twilight stood up slowly, nearly puking as she regained her vision. “D-Dash, what just happened?”
She glanced across the field where Dash was, in her hooves she cradled a sobbing pegasus filly, rocking back and forth while gently stroking her mane. Rainbow Dash said nothing for a while, just sitting there and holding the filly close to her chest. Finally, she stared up at Twilight with a haunting thousand-yard stare, murmuring only a single sentence.
“I wasn’t fast enough, Twilight.”
Noise.
Someone was reaching out to Twilight, yet she stayed isolated in her little bubble. She hadn’t needed her bubble in a long time. She sat there with a blank stare plastered across her face. IT was as if she was staring at the world—
—and the world was staring back at her.
Twilight could see now. It was Spike, staring up at her with a bewildered and disturbed expression, yelling something at her.
The bubble was quivering. Just a little longer, that’s all she needed. She just needed enough time to collect herself, to think .
Slap!
Twilight reared her head back, gasping as Spike looked at her apologetically. “Wake up, Twilight!”
“W-what? Spike, where am I?” She blinked multiple times, briefly attempting to stand up before collapsing to the ground again. Her head was pounding, visions of what she saw in the cave swirling in her mind…
“You’re still out here in the forest. We have to get you out of here, fast!” Spike grabbed Twilight’s hoof, helping her up. Twilight groaned as her headache dulled. She looked around. Rainbow Dash was still holding the little orange filly, but she was no longer crying. The silence was deafening.
Twilight looked around, still in a daze. “W-where are the others?”
Rainbow slowly lifted her head towards Twilight. Their eyes met and Rainbow slightly shook her head. “I don’t know, Twilight.”
Twilight turned to Spike. “I don’t know how you found us, or why you’re here, but that doesn’t matter right now. Have you seen the other two?”
Spike gulped. “I uh… haven’t seen anyone else but you guys.”
Twilight sat down and rubbed her temples, still processing what she had seen down in the cave. Applejack and Rarity; now she also had to worry about where they had gone. She’d hoped they weren’t still down in that awful place...
But the other two fillies were definitely still down there. They would have to do something, anything, she couldn’t just leave them down there. She knew that she couldn’t do this alone. This was a whole lot bigger than just a simple geological land survey.
“Twi?” Spike was standing near Rainbow Dash now, twiddling his claws. “What are we going to do?”
Twilight didn’t answer for a second. Her grim expression growing as she stared deep into the forest.
“We’re going to need some backup, Spike.”
“W-what?”
A plume of smoke filled Spike’s vision as Twilight conjured a hefty amount of parchment from the air; he knew better than to question it.
“Take a letter…”
“Keep runnin’! We gotta put some distance between us!”
Rarity was panting, her mane matted and her coat gleaming with sweat. She didn’t reply to Applejack, she was entirely focused on getting away from whatever-the-hell was chasing them.
Applejack didn’t know how long they’d been running for, and she didn’t exactly have the time to count the seconds. Her hooves ached and she was beginning to wonder where she was even running to .
There was nothing in that stupid cave, nothing but what looked like eggs from what Applejack could tell. Then that thing showed up, and the frying pan felt much hotter than before. Now they were in the fire, and she could only pray to whoever was looking down on her that she hadn’t just abandoned her sister.
“Applejack, watch out!” Rarity screamed.
Applejack slammed her hooves into the ground, sliding a few more feet while kicking up dirt. She was so lost in thought that she didn’t even notice the cliff right in front of her. Her head whipped side to side before she spotted a bridge. “Over there!”
Rarity wasted no time rerouting herself towards the bridge. “Is that even safe!?”
“Looks like we’re gonna find out!” Applejack galloped straight for the bridge, ignoring the fraying ropes and barreling past Rarity. She quickly crossed and turned around to see if Rarity was alright: she was about halfway across the bridge. Applejack couldn’t see that thing behind them anymore, but she knew they weren’t out of the woods yet.
Snap!
Rarity yelped as the bridge gave way, the bridge collapsing underneath her. She lunged for the edge, half her body smashing into the ground right at the end of the bridge.
“I gotcha!” Applejack dove and grasped Rarity’s hooves with her own and reared her body back. Rarity’s horn lit up as her lower half was doused in a soft blue, as she attempted to pull her lower half onto the cliff. Together, they managed to pull her up and promptly collapsed to the ground.
“Well, I think we should be safe now…” Rarity heaved, chuckling nervously after nearly dying.
“Yeah, but what are we going to do now that the—”
Applejack stopped.
There it was again, the same hissing she heard back in the cave. Except this time, it was much louder. She swerved her head around trying to locate the source of the hissing. Sweat poured down her face as she feebly attempted to stifle her shaking.
A tree, right across the short bridge they had cross, swayed and shook.
“Rarity, run!”
Without question, Rarity scrambled to her hooves and booked it in the opposite direction of the chasm.
Thud!
Applejack’s skin crawled as she heard the creature presumably jump clean across the gap. “Faster! Go Faster!” Applejack tried her hardest to keep the fear out of her voice, kicking it into overdrive with Rarity following suit.
“Up ahead! Look!” Rarity yelled behind her. Focusing on the path ahead of them, Applejack spotted an ancient, decrepit castle. “We can hide in there!”
They ran up the decayed steps, hooves clacking on the stone as they burst through the broken doors. “Over here!” Applejack grabbed Rarity’s hoof and dragged her down the hallway into the closest room to them.
The interior of the room was filled with shelves upon shelves of books reaching as high as the ceiling. Wasting no time, Applejack dragged the pair towards another door on the other side of the room and whipped it open. Stuffing Rarity inside the dark room, she quickly but quietly shut the door and pressed her body against it.
“Be quiet,” Applejack murmured. She pressed her ear up against the rotting wood and listened carefully. Rarity was pressing her hooves into her muzzle. Neither one of them could see anything.
They both stayed silent for a minute, slowly but surely gaining control of their breathing. Applejack concentrated on hearing through the door. She swore she could hear a faint stomping far away.
Slam!
Applejack and Rarity jumped as the library door smashed open, splinters flying to the ground, a hiss resonating throughout the room. Applejack silently scooted over toward Rarity, pulling her close and muffling her breathing with her forearm.
Thump.Thump.Thump. Thump.
Each step the alien took, Rarity’s breathing became more and more erratic. Applejack pulled Rarity close into her chest. They could both hear the creature knocking over chairs and desks, slowly making its way to the door.
Applejack could feel Rarity shaking violently against her. With the alien coming closer, Applejack leaned down right next to Rarity’s ear and whispered, “Just breathe. It won’t find us.”
Applejack slowly slackened her grip on Rarity, in what she hoped was a soothing gesture. It seemed to have worked; she ceased her hyperventilating, and her breathing becoming steady once again, clinging onto Applejack’s sweat-covered body.
It was close. Applejack could hear it, and she prayed to Celestia that Rarity couldn’t. If she started freaking out again, it would be over for both of them. Applejack closed her eyes and calmed herself down, thinking of her family and if she was going to see them again. No, she would see them again, she wasn’t going to have it any other way.
A few seconds passed—minutes? It was hard to tell.
Hiss…
There was one more frustrated slam of debris as the creature stormed out of the room. Rarity flinched at the sound, before slowly relaxing in Applejack’s frame, sighing in relief.
They both laid on the cold floor, catching their breaths. Rarity let out a small chuckle, not believing their luck. Applejack quietly got to her hooves and looked through a small crack in the door. In the dim moonlight, she could see the room in disarray. There was no alien in sight, nor could she hear it.
“I… they were there, Applejack. They were right in f-front of me… and I couldn’t... I couldn’t—”
“What are you goin’ on about, Rarity?” Applejack’s voice was soft with concern.
“Both of them… I saw them down there, Applejack. We could have saved them, and if it doesn’t find us, it’ll find them instead. I-it’s only a matter of time.”
Applejack slumped down onto her haunches, eyes drifting to the floor. So they were down there, in that damn cave. She didn’t want to believe it, but part of her knew the second she’d stepped foot inside.
She looked up at Rarity. She was crying; what was left of her mascara making fine lines down her face. Applejack shook her head. “We have to go back.”
Rarity didn’t answer, nodding weakly as she buried her face into Applejack’s chest.
“Don’t worry, Apple Bloom. I’m comin’ for ya.”
Author's Note
Feel free to let me know if you spotted any syntax errors in this chapter!
