Sunset Shimmer struggled against her bonds as Trixie shoved her down against the rocky ground, hitting her head on a larger stone and spinning stars in her eyes.

Earlier, she had just been walking back from a day at the park with a nice cup of coffee when Trixie and her goonies jumped her, pulling a bag over her head and binding her arms with rope. The next thing she saw was this place when the bag had been removed. She was at some kind of stream, and there was a sort of a sewage smell coming from somewhere close by. Trixie and her sidekicks, Fuschia Blush and Lavender Lace stood before her, along with Zappy Ozone, whom Sunset remembered to be Fuschia’s boyfriend. A giant water balloon sat on the ground next to them, filled to the brim with brown liquid and most likely a combination of other foul ingredients.

“The dunking we did the other day wasn’t enough,” Trixie said.

“Really? It wasn’t?” Sunset groaned. She really didn’t want to have to deal with this again.

“Trixie figures you deserve more after all you did to us. It took us time to collect everything, but our efforts have paid off. Behold! The foulest water balloon on the face of this earth! You would not believe what we have in there.”

“I’m sorry, Trixie. I’ve said that so many times,” Sunset said. “I didn’t know any better. Just give me time. I can prove I’ve changed.”

Trixie rubbed her chin, then shook her head. “Changed or no, what’s done is done. You did some bad things, Sunset Shimmer, and you still need to pay for those.”

Sunset sighed. It seemed nothing she said was going to get through to Trixie. But her bonds were tied pretty well. Unless she was going to crawl like a worm on this hard gravel ground, she was going to have to take the balloon like a boss.

Guess I do sorta deserve it…

“Prepare the weapon!” Trixie raised a hand.

With effort, Zappy Ozone, Fuschia Blush and Lavender Lace lifted the balloon and walked over to Sunset, the giant rubber thing now casting a shadow over Sunset.

The fiery haired girl shivered as she remembered what had happened the other night. She tried to scurry out of the shadow, but they had really tied her up pretty good. She could already imagine the shadowy arms coming out to grab her, along with that devilish clown, sneering at her from under the rocks, with his sharp fangs ready to sink into her neck.

“No, no…” Sunset began to utter, shutting her eyes. She could already picture shadowy hands snaking out of the darkness, trying to grab her legs and drag her in.

Trixie grinned at the sniveling girl and signaled with her fingers. “Do it.”

Sunset readied herself for the torrent of disgusting liquid, but after seconds and seconds of screwing her eyes shut, nothing happened. Was Trixie waiting for her to open her eyes and let her guard down before dunking her with the balloon? She didn’t know, but she also didn’t know if she was willing to try it.

“Trixie, don’t do it!” Sunset heard someone say.

She cracked open her eyes to see a very familiar group of girls stop along the small stream, standing across from Trixie and her sidekicks.

“She doesn’t need another one o’ these.” Applejack pointed a finger at them.

“Yeah, just leave her be,” Rainbow yelled.

“Come on. Why should we?” Trixie sneered at them. “After everything she did to us? You want us to stop? This could be a lot worse, but Trixie knows her limits. Sunset Shimmer does not. She deserves to be punished for what she did to all of us. Even you. Trixie remembers what she did to you. She tore you apart, did she not? She divided you. Don’t you think she should be punished for that?”

“She’s already paid enough, Trixie.” Rarity stepped past her friends, stopping right beside the stream.

“Or what? You girls going to stop me?” Trixie looked to their large water balloon. “No chance. Dunk her.”

With more effort, the three of her goonies lifted the balloon again, higher this time and Sunset prepared for the worst, but from the side, she heard a swish of an arm, like something being thrown, and the water balloon, the disgusting water balloon, burst over Fuschia Blush, Lavender Lace and Zappy Ozone, drenching them with that brown gunk they filled it with.

The smell was immediately more noticeable. It reeked, and Sunset had to squirm away to get as far as she could from the smell, in hopes of not gagging, her eyes already watering from the intensity of the stench. Her hands were tied, so it wasn’t like she could even cover her mouth.

Trixie had gotten her fair share of the gunk as well, her white hair now brown. “You… You…! How could you do this to the Great and Powerful Trrrixie! You pick saving her over helping Trixie?!”

Rarity held up a rock and tossed it from hand to hand. “She may have done wrong, but she doesn’t deserve all this. I believe she’s trying to change, as do the rest. Give her a chance.”

Lavender sniffed at her arm. “Eww, we stink so bad!” She turned and barfed all over the ground, leaving a nasty greenish patch there.

She was right about the smell. It smelled like a combination of rotten eggs, a garbage dump, and leftover cheese, multiplied by a hundred. It was really nasty.

“Just beat it, Trixie. Come on.” Rainbow picked up another rock. “You don’t want to tangle with us. We’re all about that friendship anyway.”

Trixie looked between them and Sunset, then balled her fists and waved one. “Trixie’ll remember this!”

And she and her crew were off, faster than a speeding bullet, though the trail of smell followed very quickly behind them, not letting them go.

“What were ya gonna do, start a rock war?” Applejack knocked the rock out of Rainbow’s hand. “We’re more civilized than that, ain’t we?”

“It worked, didn’t it? What matters is that they believed we were gonna start one.” Rainbow motioned to the fleeing Trixie and her group. “Besides, I’m sure we would’ve won. We have me.”

“Wow, it really smells!” Pinkie pinched at her nose, then she was over the stream and undoing Sunset’s bonds. “You okay, Sunset?”

“Thanks, you girls…” Sunset’s right hand was the first to go free, which was quick to go right to her own nose. “You didn’t have to help me. Really… Trixie has been pranking me for weeks now.”

“Enough is enough, ain’t it?” Applejack helped her up. “Hooweee, that smell is just awful. How ‘bout we all head on outta here to someplace better smellin’?”

“Won’t argue with you there, Applejack.” Rarity waved a hand in front of her nose. “This is just terrible for the skin.”

“Of course she’d say somethin’ like that…”

“You girls too?” Sunset drank from a warm mug of coffee. “You’ve seen… That?”

After leaving the Muddy Place, they had gone back to Sugarcube Corner for another round of drinks, or really, the same round. When they got back there, they found all their cups still on the table, and their ordered milkshakes on the counter.

“We think it has the ability to assume the forms of what we fear most,” Rarity continued, tapping a finger on the table. “But in the end, it always turns into that… that clown. Perhaps that is its true form.”

Sunset nodded, remembering the hideous face that appeared through the shadows. She shivered. She had never liked the darkness before, but since that incident, the smallest of shadows passing over her made her freeze with fright.

“What do you think it wants?” Sunset whispered, her hands shaking.

The other girls all looked at each other.

“We were hoping you could tell us, darling,” Rarity was the first to say.

“W-We were thinking it could be from Equestria too or something…” Fluttershy added on.

Sunset sipped at her drink to calm herself before speaking. “No. I’ve… I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this…”

“So… we’re stumped.” Rainbow slurped at her milkshake loudly. “We don’t know why this is here, we don’t know why it takes the form of our fears, we don’t know why it wants to bounce us or something.”

“It said… taste.” Sunset looked up at them. “Didn’t it? Did he say that to you? He had said… I think… I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think it eats our fear.”

“Eats fear?” Applejack scratched at her forehead. “How can somethin’ eat fear? Fear ain’t even touchable.”

“Well, no one said it had to follow the laws of our world!” Pinkie shrugged. “I mean, Sunset turned into a flying demon with mind control powers. Uh, no offence, Shimmy.”

Sunset sighed. “None taken.”

“Pinkie does make some sense,” Fluttershy added. “This clown has already demonstrated it can do things that we haven’t thought possible. Like turning into things we fear.”

“I suppose, yes, if it can turn into our worst fears, then consuming our fear isn’t too far fetched.”

“So none of us know what it is…” Applejack rubbed her forehead and sighed. “Any ideas how to beat it, then?”

“Sounds easy!” Rainbow pumped a fist up. “It feeds on fear. So if it doesn’t have fear to eat, then it’ll starve!”

“It can’t be that simple.”

“Yeah, it can.”

“Uh, definitely not.”

“Why not?”

Everyone waited for Applejack to say something.

“Ah-Ah mean…” She pulled at her hat. “It’s never been anywhere near that simple for any of the world dominatin’ plots we’ve had to deal with.”

“Well, this one isn’t a world dominating plot now, is it?” Rainbow challenged.

“Well, it ain’t that simple. We can’t just stop bein’ afraid.”

“She has a point…” Fluttershy said.

“What if we go look for it and kill it?” Pinkie butted her head between Rainbow’s and Applejack’s. “I mean, we know it’s living in the sewers or something, right?”

“Umm…” Sunset looked at the others to make sure they were all on the same page. “No. No, we actually don’t. What gave you that notion?”

“Meh, just a hunch!” Pinkie leaned back to where she was.

“I say we find a way to kill it.” Rainbow slammed her fist on the table, which spooked Fluttershy and got others in the cafe to look at them. “Sorry. But uh, Scootaloo must be there with… with That. We need to find her. She’s been missing all this time, but I knew it. I just knew it! She’s been taken hostage by that clown!”

“Rainbow, uh, look dear…” Rarity leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I… I don’t think the clown takes hostages.”

“Well… Well… Doesn’t matter.” Rainbow stood up. “I say we find it and kill it. We just need to find out how to find it, wherever it hides.”

“Applejack, isn’t there that spooky house on the way to your farm?” Pinkie bounced up and down on the booth seat. “Maybe the clown’s hiding there! Spooky and spooky. They go together!”

“What, seriously? That old house over on Neighbolt Street?” Applejack scoffed. “Ain’t no one’s been there in years. Never seen a soul come in or go out.”

“Well, you should totally check it out,” Rainbow said. “Don’t take any weapons with you though. And go alone.”

“Uh…. Right.” Applejack narrowed her eyes.

“I really hope we can get to the bottom of this…” Sunset sighed and looked into her now empty mug. “I haven’t slept well in days. Not since that clown was in my house…”

“We’ll figure this out, Sunset. I’m sure we will.” Fluttershy managed a smile for her.

“Maybe we can find something out at the library?” Rarity suggested. “Some sleuthing ought to help.”

“Well, we all have our assignments.” Rainbow arranged her shirt and stepped out into the aisle. “You eggheads go read books, I’ll go search around. Applejack, that Neighbolt house is all yours.”

Applejack got up too and groaned. “Ah’m tellin’ y’all, if Ah die from this, Ah’m stranglin’ Rainbow.”

Not too far from Sugarcube Corner, Candle Wax was on her way home, finally collecting all the art supplies she needed to make her next sculpture. She blew up at her white and red hair to get it out of her eyes as she hefted her paper bag of acquired goods higher so that she could walk better.

She had just seen a movie yesterday, Xeno: Pact, which was a movie about aliens and spaceships. It wasn't all that bad, but it had definitely inspired her next art piece. She was so excited thinking about it that she almost dropped her bag. Again.

Almost home, Candle Wax found herself next to the river running along her house, its surface sparkling in the sunlight. She took some time to admire its beauty, and the tiny little dragonflies darting over its surface. And then she noticed something weird floating above the water as well.

It was a red balloon.

That sent shivers up her spine. Candle hated balloons ever since she was young. She hated how the rubber squeaked and how they popped in a deafening explosion. It was almost like a bomb going off and she really despised anything that was too loud.

"Gross..." She quickly left the waterfront and rounded the corner where a short stairway led up into her apartment.

As she turned, she came face to face with another red balloon and this time, it popped, disorienting the girl and making her throw her bag's contents into the air. Candle's hands were immediately at her ears as she reeled from the sudden sensory explosion, her lip trembling as she fought to keep herself under control.

As her heart pumped hard in her chest, Candle Wax looked around to see her supplies strewn across the grass and pavement. But that wasn't the only thing to catch her eye. Above her descended another balloon, this one much larger than any balloon she'd ever seen and it was coming straight for her.

"No, no!" She scrambled back, her hands still plugged firmly in her ears. "Don't come near me!"

As the balloon continued to get closer, she curled into a ball and jammed her eyes shut, hoping for the pop to be over and done with so that she could return home. With her eyes shut now, she didn't know just how close the balloon was to her, but it had been too long now and she still hadn't heard even the tiniest trace of a balloon popping.

Deciding to crack an eye open just a bit, a reflective red filled her vision and in a second, it was gone.

The balloon popped with the force of a hurricane and Candle Wax found herself sailing into the river, her hands still over her ears, shock scrawled over her face.

She hit the water with a large splash and she quickly swam to the surface, gasping for air as she rubbed the water from her eyes. When she could see again, she spotted someone standing by the river side watching her.

"He-help!" she cried out as she tried swimming over to them.

The person on the side crouched down and reached a hand out to her. It was then that she noticed something weird about this person. They had gloved hands and they were dressed in some kind of silvery suit.

"Come on now, Candle Wax," that person called. His voice was odd. "Come with me. You'll bounce too. You'll never need to worry about balloons again."

Author's Note

Well, it's been some time, hasn't it? But I've decided to try picking this up again. If the story gets a little bland of less scary, do let me know and I'll try my best to spice things back up again.

Cheers!