The Strange Ponies

3:15 A.M.

“They smashed the window and bucked the door.” Marble calmly sighed showing off the damages done to the cabin.

“The two mare's I went to find, returned and attacked you?” Mac repeated the phrase to his friend, not completely believing the story which had been told.

“Two mares were here, but not the same two!” The mare huffed her cheeks inflating slightly in annoyance.

“Right, one was a Wonderbolt.” Mac chuckled aloud shaking his head to the side.

“It was a Shadowbolt! Old,worn and stitched!” Marble stomped a tiny hoof on the floor in a pouty voice.

“Shadowbolts are a popular Nightmare Night costume, Dash had one a few years ago for pranks!” Mac reassured the mare in a tender tone.

“They were not playing Mac, they were trying to hurt me!” Marble gave a shrill yelp as tears were forming in her eyes once more.

“Marble, in all the years of Equestria have you heard of ponies harming other ponies?” Mac gave a knowing shrug across the room.

“No, but why don't you believe me!?” Marble bit her lower lip as her mane fell over her face in shame.

“I do believe that perhaps some ponies are playing a prank, it went too far in the excitement and the window accidentally got busted.” Mac gave a soft smile, using his hoof to brush the mane away from her face.

“They've been inside.” Marble took a sharp breath in worry.

Her injured hoof lifting upward to the photo on the wall, Mac turning towards it slowly as he inched closer for a inspection. A small muddy hoofprint had been stamped onto the dusty frame of the picture, the print fresh and still damp from the moisture outside.

Mac gave a deep frown and sighed loudly, his large hooves stomping down the hallway as he entered a pitch black room to the left. The small room being used as a storage with old brooms and mops scattered around the floor, no windows inside or had anything been moved.

Marble watched the stallion shuffle into her hiding room, he checked the windows which were firmly locked and under the bed to find nopony at all. His hooves gaining pace while checking the kitchen, all was in order and all was secure.

“Is that your print?” Mac flashed a confused frown to his friend.

“Mac!” Marble pouted in shock.

“I'm sorry Marble, there just isn't anyway inside!” Mac gave a heavy sigh.

Marble batted long lashes in silence, her eyes locked on something outside the shattered window. The stallion turning his head towards the window slowly, outside in the cold night air stood the mare in the jacket.

She had a crimson colored hood sown onto the collar, lifted up to hide away her features from anypony in the world. She gently shifted to a sitting position outside upon the damp grass, tail swishing side to side playfully in the pale moonlight.

“I'm going outside.” Mac seriously stomped towards the door.

“Why!?” Marble lunged to hug her friend's leg, her eyes full of fear.

“Because she has to want something, nopony just waits in The Everfree for no reason!” Mac huffed before nudging Marble off his leg and trotting outside.

The weather was chilly and damp tonight, a thick hazy stream of fog was slowly working its way across the forest. The jacket mare gazing his way silently while he took his time to reach her, a sense of unease filling the air around him.

Mac walked next to a large stump of wood off to his side gently, an old rusted axe dug deep into corner of it after years of neglect. He swallowed a lump in his throat softly, eyes trying to get a decent look at the mare only able to see shadows.

“What do you…” The pattering of hooves dashing through the woods behind him, caused the stallion to jump backwards a bit.

A flash of beige galloping amongst the trees in a swift manner, Mac starting to take deeper and more worried breaths. Turning to face the jacket bound mare only to see the abyss staring back to him, his head snapping behind him as he noticed the axe was missing from the stump suddenly.

“What the buck is going on?” He shook his head in confusion while standing dumbfounded in the night.

A shadowy mare in beige lifting on find hooves behind him silently, leaning so softly closer to the back of his neck. Her warm wet tongue lapping across the nape of his collarbone wickedly, Mac jumping back in horror before crashing to the wet ground loudly only able to spot a blur dashing off.

He wasted no time climbing up to his feet and running towards the front door of the cabin afterwards, turning around to gaze into the darkness around him. Spotting a old worn down shed in the distance, a few blurs of beige galloping across the forest and a nearby bush wiggling.

A small hoof tapping his shoulder gently, Mac gasping in terror as he spun to see Marble standing in the open doorway.

“Are they gone?” She asked in a hopeful chirp.

“No, they're still here and I don't know…” Mac looked to the wall in absolute horror, the photo of Limestone now removed from the wall completely and missing.

“We need to go now!” Mac shook off the numbness from his shoulders, looking to the mare who whimpered scared.

“I don't know if I can!” She quivered.

“I believe in you, when I open the door just run as fast as you can!” The stallion gave a firm hug to the mare, only to watch her lift her injured hoof towards him.

“They'll catch me like this!” She began to sob.

“Buck, I saw a old cart near the bushes earlier! Dash to it and sit low, I'll hitch up and get both of us out of here!” Mac nodded to the mare, taking a deep breath before he swung open the door.

Both ponies galloped at top speeds to the dinky rotting cart in a overgrown bush, Marble flinging herself into the thorn covered back swiftly. Mac hitching himself to the front in a blur of red color, using his powerful strength to yank the cart free from it's grassy prison.

“Ahhh!” Marble gave a piercing scream of terror, before them standing in the moonlight was a scowling Shadowbolt holding an axe near the hilt as if praying.

Her large lanky hooves lifting the axe up high before slinging the sharp weapon into the night sky wildly, Marble leaping off the back barely as the axe dug into her old spot, her tiny body hitting the moist earth hard.

Mac watched in disbelief as he yelled out to his friend in despair, a tiny earth pony in a beige hoodie suddenly tackling into him from the night. The air being knocked from his lungs as he toppled backwards, his huge frame smashing into the cart as it splintered off into a thousand directions.

“Heehee heehee heehee!” The hooded mare giggled in front of him cast in shadows, her tiny frame running in place proudly as if ready to tackle again.

Mac rolled to his side in horror while his body burned in pain, quickly dashing to his hooves as he helped Marble up from the wet soil. Both ponies running back inside the safety of the cabin, the sound of the tiny earth pony hopping onto the cart debris crushing the remnants of the wood filling the air.