Chapters Cauldrons in the Everfree
The Everfree forest is an ancient and magical place. From the natives of Equestria to the colonists who traveled from far away lands, all of them could feel the energy from the enchanting and mysterious forest. Most could feel that it wasn’t a friendly essence though. Native tribes stayed away from it, and many of the colonists who entered never came out. That isn’t to say everyone saw this forest as evil, however. Some welcomed it, and started to delve into the dark arts. Though many attempts to silence these individuals occurred, it never wiped them out, and the Everfree continued throughout the ages to be used by these people. Including tonight.
Deep in the forest a small group of hooded girls finishes lighting their circle of candles. It was the middle of the night, so these candles, along with a fire heating up a cauldron of liquid, were the only sources of light for these girls. They move around the cauldron to start their ritual. Two of them had bags of ingredients necessary for this and the last held up a leather book. She opened the yellowed pages carefully, the book looking decades if not centuries old. Finding the correct page she raised a hand over the pot and looked to the others before beginning.
“Spirits from beyond our time, hear our wretched, spiteful rhyme. Wronged we've been by wicked means. Rapid vengeance takes our dreams. Off'rings take and thus depart,
One of the girls projects her voice into the darkness as another deftly brings out a lock of hair from their bag. Barely pausing to recognize the red and yellow divisions in her ingredient, she quickly casts it into the cauldron. A thin trail of smoke wafts from the water, and it turns red. The spell has begun. She takes a deep, shuddering breath as a thick atmosphere descends upon the clearing. Looking up, she speaks again.
"Bring to life our single wish. On Sunset Shimmer be't unleashed, Through the power of your gaze. Teach the error of her ways."
Her accomplices are stirring the cauldron together now. Slowly. Deliberately. The liquid bubbles hungrily.
"With the life we freely give, take our will, to once more live."
She extends a hand and deposits a small, twisted bat's carcass into the liquid before stepping back to resume her chant.
"A target too, we must impart. Our anger, traced back to the start."
No longer stirring, one of the other girls quickly adds an ant, still squirming in its innocence, and resumes stirring with trembling arms.
"Complete your task, die once more free."
A shape reaches from the cauldron. Burning, keening. It falls back in as it starts to burn.
"Unbound for all eternity."
With a deep scraping noise, the girls peer into the cauldron. The liquid is no more, and their ladles scuff the sides. They fall back as one when a larger, angry red bat bursts from the dark recess of the pot. As they watch it fly towards the city, they laugh.
For Sunset Shimmer, it was late night. Last minute harvest emergencies left her apple farmer friend having to cancel the sleepover their group had planned. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, however, the sleepover was already happening and the group of friends had to, unfortunately, part ways and head to their own respective homes. Despite many pleas for Sunset to join a friend in driving home with them, Sunset instead decided to walk home herself, she reasoned it wasn’t that far. She regrets that now.
While the streetlamps cast light upon the road, it was still spotty and didn’t help the lonely girl that much. The heavy fog wasn't helping her either, rolling in as the hot weather of the day met the cool air of the night. It left her field of view down to a few yards in the light and mere feet in the dark. Perhaps it was the sense of loneliness, or the lack of vision, but the red haired girl couldn’t shake the feeling someone or something was watching her.
A sharp screech causes the anxious girl to let out the breath she was holding. It took her far longer than she cared to admit, to realize that the sound came, not from a monstrous figure from the mist, but simply of a bat flying somewhere overhead. Taking a few moments to steady her panicked breaths, Sunset continued her journey home, albeit with a quickened pace, failing to realize that no other sound besides the squeaking of the bat and the hum of the lampposts overhead accompanied her. She simply didn’t seem to care for anything going on overhead, instead keeping her eyes on her surroundings.
Minutes go by with seemingly no changes to anything around the lone traveler. Yes, she crosses streets and continues to move from one light source to another, but in the cloudy environment, everything looks similar. One street is interchangeable with the next. The only reason Sunset knows she was about halfway home was due to muscle memory. She’s walked back home several times in the past, she knows the route by heart, even if her eyes can’t see it. She still doesn’t understand her own thinking, however. Her friend’s had offered her a ride home, yet she didn’t take them up on the offer, even though she knew this fog was rolling in. Whatever the reason, she is stuck with her flawed decision, it is nearly two hours into the new day and her friends were probably lost to the land of dreams by now. Sunset reasons that nobody should be driving in this fog anyway, so she is stuck to journey alone… with these damn bats.
Sunset pauses. Her tired mind, entranced by the monotony of the foggy land slowly starts to put things together. She hasn’t been hearing the squeaking of multiple bats. She would have heard them overlap at some points she’s sure. There was only one bat, and it was following her movements for whatever reason. Not only that, but no other creature in the area seemed to be present. There was no chirping of crickets, no hoots of owls, and Sunset hasn’t even been getting bitten by insects at all. Animals only disappear from an area when…
The girl gives a sharp intake of air, her eyes becoming pinpricks. No time to think, only time for instincts to kick in. It isn’t a hard choice for Sunset to make, she has no clue what kind of animal flies above her head, watching her every move, she has no way of combating it. She puts one foot in front of the other and flees. She is only a couple blocks from her salvation, she could make it if she was fast enough. She tries to avoid the nagging question in the back of her head. What if the creature is faster?
Evidently, the beast was willing to answer the unasked question. With a loud screech, it dives upon the running teen, passing by her right side, dangerously close. Sunset, going on base instincts jerks her body to the left to get out of range of the living projectile, resulting in her scraping her shoulder against a chain link fence. Sunset cursed under her breath as this caused her to slow down. Whatever this thing chasing her was, it looked like a bat, though far larger than any bat Sunset had ever seen. Another screech steals her attention away from her thoughts. She looks over her shoulder just in time to see the winged creature dive by her left side. Once again, the girl jerks her body, this time to her right. Her eyes track the bat as it flew past her, right in time for her brain to realize that there was a vehicle right in front of her.
With a cry, Sunset brought her left arm up as she slams into the hood of the car, before rolling off it to crash into the ground besides it. She gives a pained groan, moving her right hand to her left elbow, hissing in agony at the mere touch of the joint. Looking up, the car is still in the same position it was in before, and there was no lights on. Sunset mentally smacks herself, the car was parked and she foolishly ran into it. The girl’s eyes widen again in recognition of the car’s owner. It’s her car! She’s home! She uses her right hand to rise to her feet once more, grunting by the movements, the force of her crash obviously hurt something in her elbow. The girl runs towards the front door to her townhouse, hearing the screeching of the bat as it realizes it’s prey is still fleeing.
Stumbling up the few stairs to her porch, Sunset can’t help but feel her mood rising. She made it home, she just has to wait for whatever this thing is to go away. The screeching right behind her tells her, however, that she isn’t out of danger yet. She fumbles with her keys trying to get the front door open. It’s too late however, turning her head, Sunset lets out a scream of terror as the beast dives at her, enveloping her in darkness.
Author's Note
For the approval of the Midnight Society. I present:
Cauldrons in the Everfree.
Huge thanks to Nonchalant for helping with the spell rhyming and wording.
Updates will occur once a week. Unless I feel nice, perhaps for a certain holiday.
Cauldrons in the Everfree
Sunset grits her teeth as she passes yet another group of people. There are too many damn witnesses around, she’s starving! What does it take to get a couple pints of blood around this city? She’s had to stop herself a few times from just grabbing one of them and enjoying her meal. While a major part of her head is screaming at her to do just that, she isn’t stupid, she has to play things safe. That, of course, means waiting for the perfect targets. Though, perhaps, she doesn’t have to wait long.
Down the street she hears a pair of voices. One of them was unfamiliar, the other had an owner that shared the same class as Sunset in school. Sunset lowers the hood of the sweatshirt she had put on. She has a plan, or at the very least the makings of one. The scheming girl strolls her way down the street towards them, messing with her hair a bit to make herself look a bit disheveled. She moves her legs lazily, as if zapped for energy. As she approaches the pair, still a half-block away, she begins to pick up pieces of their conversation.
“Come on Lyra, you know I can help if you just tell me what happened.”
“It was just a bad dream, I just couldn’t get back to sleep after that.”
“Lyra, you wouldn’t have called me if it was just a bad dream.”
“I just wanted to be with you for a while Bon Bon, it was a really bad dream.”
Sunset smirks slightly, knowing that this will be rather easy. She makes her mouth frown again and sighs as the three girls finally come within speaking distance. Lyra is the first to speak, looking up to see Sunset.
“Sunset? Is that you? I thought you were home sick.”
“Yea, I was, I still am, I was feeling a bit better and figured some fresh air would help a bit,” Sunset makes herself sound nazely, it isn’t that hard, the transformation did make her sick, and she would remain that way until she gets her beverage of choice.
“In the middle of the night?” Bon Bon raises an eyebrow, crossing her arms. Sunset groans slightly.
“This flu is fucking with my sleep cycle, I slept all day and now I’m pretty much awake, great right? Besides, that sounds odd coming from the two of you, taking a walk, at night.”
“Come on Bonnie, Sunset is in my class, it’s not like she’s some random person,” Lyra intervenes, “Heading home Sunset or do you want to walk with us?”
Sunset gives a small shrug, looking between the two girls. Bon Bon’s eyes spend more time glancing to Lyra than are spent paying attention to Sunset. If she thinks that Sunset is up to anything, she isn’t showing it at all. Lyra, on the other hand, seems especially willing for Sunset to join them. If Sunset has to guess, it is probably due to whatever her nightmare was about, though the more cynical part of her mind says it might have something to do with Lyra’s grades in class. Either way, it gives Sunset an in.
“I guess if you two don’t mind. Some company might be nice,” the red haired girl gives a smile of appreciation.
“Yea! The more the merrier,” Bon Bon sighs, starting to walk down the street. Sunset and Lyra give each other a shrug before heading out behind the disgruntled girl.
Bon Bon was going to be the biggest pain to Sunset’s plan, she was on edge and already a bit suspicious of the group’s new addition. If the red haired girl was going to feed, Bon Bon would need to be taken care of first, but how to do that? That’s something she’ll have to think about as they walk. She, unfortunately, doesn’t know how long she’ll last without having her meal, she was already feeling weaker, starting to match the look she had given herself. But at the same time, she feels like she’ll go off the rails any moment, she really wants to honestly, but, perhaps, luck is on her side.
After about ten minutes of walking and talking about anything and nothing, they come across a convenient store. Bon Bon turns to the two others.
“I’m going to grab something to drink, you guys coming?”
Sunset raised a hand dismissively, “I think i’m going to stay out here, just thinking about food is making me a bit sick.”
“Oh? Uh in that case i’ll probably stay out here with Sunset, Bonnie, to make sure she’s ok,” Lyra moves towards Sunset, putting a hand on her back and giving a small pat.
Bon Bon opens her mouth to say something, but then waves her hand dismissively, “Fine, I’ll be out in a few minutes, don't go off without me.”
With that, Bon Bon went inside, leaving the hunter and her prey all by their lonesome. Sunset could help but give a small smirk, though she swiftly hides that from her victim, can’t have her seeing that this is all going according to Sunset’s newly developed plan. Suddenly, Sunset let out a retched gag, bending over slightly.
“Sh-shit, I think i’m going to be sick,” Sunset quickly ran towards a nearby alley, ducking into it. Lyra, after a moment of surprise, took off after her calling out her name.
When she got to the alley, however, it was empty. No sign of Sunset, nor the sound of a girl being ill. Did something happen to Sunset? Is there something in the alley? Lyra had no clue, but she can’t leave her sick friend there just because she was a bit scared. She slowly makes her way into the alley, calling out Sunset’s name occasionally. No responses. Lyra gives a small shiver, slowing down her advance into the alley.
She gives a small gasp as she spins around, she knows she heard footsteps behind her… but there’s nothing. What’s going on?
“S-sunset? Where are you?” She calls out, but her voice sounds too quiet. More footsteps, Lyra gasps again and looks to try to find the source. Nothing. This was too much for the mint haired girl. Her eyes kept looking this way and that way as she started to back up. Unfortunately for her, she backed up right into a hungry predator.
“Hello Lyra,” Sunset whispers in her prey’s ear. Lyra froze in place, feeling Sunset’s hands on her hips. She is about to yelp out in surprise but a quick, “Don’t scream.” makes the scream catch in her throat. Her eyes widen a bit, not entirely sure why she can’t defy Sunset’s order.
Sunset, on the other hand, smiles, discovering a new power is always fun. She put her head on Lyra’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around the girl’s waist, a hug from behind. Lyra twitches slightly, but it seems she’s completely frozen, either from fear or due to Sunset’s power.
Sunset slowly runs her cheek against Lyra’s smooth neck, moving her mouth to whisper into lyra’s ear, letting out a soft, sensual voice, “Oh Lyra, we would have a lot of fun if I had time. Unfortunately for both of us, but I’m starving right now , and Bon Bon will be out here any minute. Too bad, right?”
As Sunset whispered to Lyra, her hand slowly made its way up the frozen girl’s body, dragging her fingers sensually up her stomach and chest, Lyra squirming ever so slightly. Sunset really wished she could stop there, but there was no time, she continued to drag her hand up to Lyra’s shoulder, moving her head to get a nice access to her lovely neck.
“I promise this won’t take that long,” Sunset claims as she closes her eyes, opening her mouth to let her longer fangs come out, clamping her teeth down on Lyra’s awaiting neck.
As soon as she bites, her mouth fills with the sweet, glorious taste of Lyra’s life force, her blood. It’s better than any drink she’s ever had before and was quenching her thirst perfectly. She can’t help but let out a satisfied sound, drinking more and more, she needs as much as she can get, it is late and she doubts she could get any more victims tonight. She just needs to make sur-
“Bon Bon!”
Sunset’s eyes shoot open, hearing Lyra’s voice cry out. Shit, she must have let her control on the girl fade while she focused on her meal. Thankfully, it seems that cry used the last of Lyra’s energy as she faints in Sunset’s arms. Sunset moves to put her on the ground, wincing a bit seeing the state of Lyra. She was very pale, Sunset definitely was too ‘in the moment’ and drank too much. Oh well, time to get out of there. She turns around and, in an instant, was out of the alley and nearly two blocks over. Let Bon Bon deal with the aftermath, Lyra will be fine… probably.
Sunset briefly glances at her phone, seeing it is still quite a while till sunrise. She debates wandering around, testing out her powers. It was certainly fun to use! However, she has to go to school in the morning, as much as she hates the thought of going out during the day. Still, she has appearances to keep, can’t have her mini- friends think there's something wrong with her. She chuckles to herself as her mind races with plans on how to enthrall her friends, the next few days are going to be very fun.
Author's Note
Sorry for the long delay, the real world is crazy, am I right? Enjoy the new chapter and cover art!
Cauldrons in the Everfree
Sunset gasps, her body jerking into a sitting position, her bed covers flying off of her. She’s breathing heavily, eyes wide and darting from one corner of her room to the other, in search of an enemy that isn’t present. Memories from the night before flood her head, but, if that was the case, shouldn’t she be a body upon her doorstep, drained of life? Was it all just a bad dream? The girl slowly raises her left arm, rotating and feeling it. It doesn’t send waves of agony into her, but it does feel stiff though, perhaps she was simply sleeping on it? Sunset isn’t entirely sure what to think right now. She does know one thing though. She feels absolutely terrible. Her head is pounding, sending waves of discomfort through her system. Her throat feels as dry as the middle of a desert and her stomach twists and turns with each small movement she gives. The messy haired girl’s throbbing brain quickly gives her the excuse she needs to leave her bed. It was all simply a fever dream.
She reaches for the cellphone on the nightstand near her bed as she absentmindedly scratches at the right side of her neck. For some odd reason, that spot in particular is irritated. She lifts her device up, causing it to light up. Her eyes immediately tighten and she lets out a sharp hiss, the illumination blinding her and sending a wave of pain to her head. Just what she needs, a migraine. She quickly peeks her eyes open a bit so she can dim her phone. Thankfully, with only a few swipes of her fingers. What greets her as she enters the home screen causes her to let out a groan of annoyance. It’s nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. She pretty much missed all of school. The several notifications lighting up her call and message apps show that her friends definitely noticed her absence.
Coughing due to her dry throat, she sent a quick text to her group message explaining that she is sick and that hopefully she’ll be in school tomorrow. Deciding it’s about time she fixed her thirst problem she crawls out of her bedding, only realizing now just how dark it is in her townhouse. When did she draw all the curtains? Why did she do that? She chalks it, again, up to the night she can’t seem to remember. All she can remember is that nightmare. Anyway, she doesn’t mind the dark anyway. It feels better for her, more comfortable.
The frazzled-haired girl moves over to the steps to get down from her loft. She leans forward, takes a step, and promptly hits her couch. Her eyes widen and she leans forward over the arm of the couch. The room is practically pulsating, her head throbbing harder. She hacks and gags, thankfully her stomach is empty, or she surely would have just emptied it onto her couch. She grips the couch as her body slowly rights itself, finally able to work her mind around what just happened. She barely even blinks and she’s gone down twelve stairs and across about five feet of floor. This is the weirdest fever she’s ever had. She takes a few slow breaths before standing up straight, though keeps her hand on the couch. Sliding her feet along the floor, she moves towards the kitchen, keeping her hands on the couch or the wall, just whatever she can grab, she has no idea if she’ll get another sudden bout of motion sickness.
Finally, after a few moments of shuffling into her small kitchen, she opens the fridge, squinting her eyes as she tries to ignore the burning light and grabs her water bottle. She swiftly unscrews the cap and upends the bottle, starting to drink from it. She realizes just how thirsty she is, she takes gulp after gulp, trying to satisfy her thirst. Soon she feels the stream of water end, and she finally takes a heavy breath. Thankfully, her throat no longer feels like she swallowed a mouthful of sand. Unfortunately though, her thirst doesn't seem to have gone down at all. Well, she knows she should drink a lot of fluids when sick, so that might explain it. She again itches at that pesky spot on her neck, heading over to the sink to refill her water bottle.
Suddenly a loud “ding” hits her ears, startling her but also making her recoil in a bit of pain, the sound ringing in her ears. Sunset groans as she slowly starts to walk to her front door, the ding being her doorbell. The girl couldn’t believe how unlucky she was, sick, a migraine and sensitive hearing now? How could things get worse?
“Sunset? Darling? Are you alright?” Comes a voice from her front door. It was Rarity, though Sunset catches the sound of two pairs of feet walking in, meaning her fashionista friend brought someone else. The sick girl gives a small sigh, not really wanting to see her friends while she probably looks like a mess, heck, she feels like a mess. Still, they’re here, so she slides her way over to the living room to meet them.
“Hey girls, sorry about the dark, I have a migraine, the light’s killing me,” Sunset explained, noticing that the other arrival is Twilight. Unlike her two friends, Sunset doesn’t have any problem seeing them, in fact, it’s as if the lights aren’t even off in her view, though that’s probably because she spent so long in the dark. Due to this, however, she notices how her two friends seem to be… cuter? She never really noticed it before, how Rarity carries herself, her hand on her hip just so while she’s resting, and then Twilight with her cute glasses and her somewhat messy hair and that nice se-. Sunset shakes her head, getting those thoughts out of her head, why in Tartarus she thought about that she doesn’t know.
“It’s ok, Sunset. Getting sick can give some side effects like that,” Twilight smiled as she steps forward, adjusting her glasses, “We just came to see you to make sure you have everything you need. The others wanted to come but they all had prior engagements.”
“Yea, I’m fine girls, just feel like shit. Oh yeah, you reminded me: I was refilling my water bottle when you girls rang the doorbell,” Sunset says, turning around to walk. She immediately hits the counter, bending over it as she starts to hack and gag. The wave of nausea overwhelms her senses as he body tries to right itself. She doesn’t even hear the two others call out to her over her heaving and gagging. Finally, after a moment, she regains control of herself, breathing heavily as Twilight pats her back.
“T-thanks girls…” Sunset coughs one last time, slowly standing back up straight, “You can tell this is going great for me.”
“Maybe you should go to the hospital dear, your flu seems to be rather bad,” Rarity keeps a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, just in case the sick girl’s weakness overtakes her. Sunset moves some hair behind her ear, trying to maintain some semblance of normality as she waves her hand.
“I’m fine Rarity… well I’m not that sick at least, I’m sure I’ll feel better in a day or so. If you want to help though I just kind of want to get a glass of water then head to bed.”
Her two friends nod, Twilight taking the job of getting water while Rarity starts to help her at the journey back to her bed. It isn’t a long walk, but in order to keep Sunset from being sick her purple haired friend decides to take things slow, not that Sunset minds much. In fact, she can’t help but enjoy the smell of her friend. The shampoo she used this morning was a nice lavender, apparently, Sunset can still tell, it accents her pretty well. Rarity always works so hard for her beauty but Sunset knows she doesn’t have to, she’s so beautiful as is.
“Uh… Sunset? Dear? What are you doing?” Rarity’s crystalline voice catches Sunset’s attention and she has to mentally close her drooling mouth. The girl also noticed finally that she had her face in the fashionista’s long flowing hair. Blinking, Sunset shook her head, though more for show, her brain not really understanding why what she did was wrong, she was showing affection and interest. Still though, part of her mind told her that it wasn’t the thing to do right now.
“S-sorry Rarity, I kind of just zoned out, I didn’t even realize. Uh sorry.”
“Right… well here’s your bed Sunset, do get some rest, you could really use it,” Rarity gives her a small smile, probably trying to forget that little interaction between the two. She helps her friend sit down in bed and Twilight comes along with the glass of water, placing it on Sunset’s night stand. Sunset gives a nod.
“Thanks girls, sorry for all of this, let’s just hope this will be over in a couple of days.”
“Just be sure to drink water and eat when you can, not eating won’t help at all,” Twilight smiles, adjusting her glasses.
With a quick set of goodbyes, her two friends made their way down the stairs and to the front door. Sunset hears them say something to each other but it is a bit too quick to hear fully, the only word she makes out is ‘oddly’. Shrugging, the girl lifts the glass of water Twilight kindly got her and sips from it a couple of times. Unfortunately, like before, it does nothing to help her thirst. She gave an annoyed sigh as she places it back on her nightstand. She’ll deal with thirst later, it’s not bothering her that much anyway. She lowers herself onto her back and pulls at her covers, going to try to nap whatever it is that’s happening to her, away.
The bright white orb that is the moon hangs high in the sky. The streets are mostly devoid of people, save for the occasional person or group walking to a club or going to their homes. Not Sunset, however. When Sunset awoke from her nap earlier, she still felt thirsty, but she didn’t feel weak anymore. The thirst gave her energy. Energy to get up and go feed. Sunset Shimmer is on the hunt. Gone is her hope that it was all just a sickness; replacing that, is the knowledge of what she became, and the desire to live, live more freely and powerfully then she ever has before. Fuck being the calm, shy, and insecure Sunset Shimmer, she would never amount to anything when it came down to it. This Sunset Shimmer? She would take what she wants; by force if necessary. Right now, she wants blood.
Author's Note
Happy Hearths Warming everyone! Here's an early present.
