Bursting Bubbles

by Rainy Meadows

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Adventure
Length: 8769

Dusk Shine finds himself running for his life while trying to unravel a friend's sudden insanity.

The official prequel to Rainbow's Lament!

When an emergency arises in the middle of the night, Dusk Shine finds himself on a journey into the Everfree Forest to uncover the reason behind Bubble Berry's sudden, unexplained insanity. There's just one problem: something is chasing after him on his quest. Something mysterious, dark and horrible...

...and it's catching up.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to Hasbro.

Genderbent pony designs belong to Trotsworth.

I do not own any other properties contained within this narrative.

Special thanks to Smoking Gun for the name suggestion and JaquelinDreamz for the cover art.

Published 2012-08-27 08:24:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-27 08:24:02 UTC

Bursting Bubbles

Terror.

Of course I knew the meaning of the word. There are barely any words in Equestria which I don’t know the meaning of – for example, I know the meanings of “irregardless” (there isn’t one) and “clemen” (you don’t want to know) – but I knew I’d never get a chance to experience them all.

I found my mind wandering back to the circumstances which had led me here in the first place…

I knew it was going to be bad news.

Why else would somepony be knocking on my door in the middle of the night? That’s something I grew to understand while living in Canterlot: if it’s the middle of the night, the pony at the door will only bring bad tidings, particularly when your sister is the captain of the Royal Guard.

When I was a colt I made a small guidebook to door knocks. It detailed the kinds of knocks that a pony might hear, and what to expect once you open the door. For example, the “Shave and a Manecut” knock indicates a casual visit, as from a friend who thinks they have an impressive and original sense of humour. Three knocks followed by your name shows that the visitor is possibly obnoxious.

Five quick knocks in a row, followed by a two second wait and then a repeat, shows that the pony at the door is extremely worried, and the situation is one of utmost urgency.

“Barb, could you get that?” I asked.

“Barb?”

She grumbled and rolled over in her bed, and pulled her pillow over her head.

If you want something done properly…

I climbed out of bed and lit a candle, the flame streaming in the cold draught from the open window. I’d definitely have to close it when Owlowicia came back from hunting.

As I descended the stairs, the knocks at the door became increasingly frequent and frantic.

“Alright, alright!” I shouted. “Try not to wake up the rest of Ponyville while you’re at it.” To myself I added “Who’d come at this time of the night anyway?”

When I opened the door, there was nopony there.

Stupid foals. I have half a mind to set up a force field again. Or just write a strongly worded letter to their parents if I ever find out who they are. Oh well, I’ll just go back to-

Oh, come on!

“WHAT?!”

There was still nopony there, but this time there was a tap on my hoof, and I looked down to see a small white rabbit desperately trying to gain my attention.

“Angela?”

Butterscotch’s faithful companion nodded.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She started to hop away down the street and indicated for me to follow her, so I blew out the candle, closed the door and ran out into the cold midwinter night.

The snow crunching under my hooves was deafening and the freezing breeze bit at my unclothed body as I galloped after the pale creature with only the light of the moon and stars to see by. Seeing as she was almost the same colour as the snow, I had a lot of difficulty just making out where she was.

But I had to follow her. Something was definitely wrong, and because it was Angela I knew it had something to do with Butterscotch. Was he hurt, or ill, or under attack? A thousand scenarios flashed through my mind as I ran; each one more terrifying and stomach wrenching than the one before. Sometimes I curse myself for having such an active imagination.

There was one advantage to the horrible visions and freezing weather, though: I wasn’t tired anymore. The temperature was much less than agreeable though. It must have been at least five degrees below zero, if not more. It’s supposed to snow every day this week. It’s alright for Hearth’s Warming, but not for every other day of the season, where you have to protect your books from becoming moist and developing mould.

As I drew nearer to the cottage on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, I began to sense that the situation might not be as dire as I had led myself to believe. There was no visible damage to the structure of the building and all the lights were on inside. I could also make out the silhouette of my pegasus friend crossing in front of a window repeatedly. He appeared to be pacing, possibly in impatience.

When we finally arrived Angela knocked on the door, equally as frantically as when she had first summoned me. The door was opened, and she darted inside, obviously eager to get out of the cold. Butterscotch quietly thanked her and then turned to me, and I found myself startled by the fear in his eyes.

“Dusk, thank Solaris you’re here,” he said, standing aside so that I could enter his home. “I’m so sorry for having to wake you up in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t think of anypony else who could help!”

“Butterscotch, what’s going on?” I asked. “What’s so urgent that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning?”

The butter coloured pegasus sighed.

“I-I think it would be easiest if you saw for yourself,” he replied. “Just- Follow me.”

He led me upstairs to his bedroom. I found myself growing increasingly apprehensive – this was looking suspiciously like a setup from something pornographic – but that apprehension was multiplied tenfold when I saw the hunched shape in Butterscotch’s bed.

I can recall only one time in my life when I had seen a pony with such a deathly straight mane and tail, but remembered it like yesterday.

It was Bubble Berry.

He was curled up in a foetal position under the sheets, clutching his shoulders and shivering as though he were outside, but closer inspection brought suspicion that this trembling had nothing to do with the temperature. There was a bandage wrapped liberally around his right shoulder, and it was stained crimson from blood.

“I found him on the edge of the forest,” Butterscotch explained as I approached my party-loving friend. “I thought at first that he must have gotten lost and hurt himself, but then I…”

He trailed off, not wanting to finish that sentence.

I rounded the bed and came face to face with Berry, and it took all my self-control not to leap back or cry out in shock.

His eyes were… They were terrifying. Every drop of jubilance in those orbs of brilliant blue had been sucked away, leaving two circles of icy blue which chilled me more than a cold breeze or snowfall ever could. They darted frantically around the room, never focusing on a single detail for more than a second, before finally coming to a focus on me.

He was muttering too.

“Seven pages,” he mumbled, “seven pages… seven pages…”

“Berry, what’s wrong?” I asked.

As I watched, waiting for his reply, he fell silent and his face split into a massive grin. It bore no joy or pleasure, and sent a shiver up my spine.

“Berry,” I said, experimenting with a comforting smile, “it’s me. It’s your pal Dusk Shine. Can’t you speak to me?”

His smile grew bigger, and he started to giggle.

“Do you even recognise me?” I asked.

“It’s no good,” Butterscotch interjected. “I tried to talk to him, but he just kept laughing. I think- I think he’s gone completely insane!”

Despite this quite obviously being the case, I steadfastly refused to believe it. I sat down on the floor so that I was at the same level with my distressed friend.

“Berry, what’s happened to you?” I asked. “Why are you acting like this?”

As soon as I finished talking, his giggling became full blown, hysterical roars of laughter. It was the same as his eyes: there was no joy, none of the usual happiness that defined Ponyville’s resident party colt. It was the laughter of true insanity.

“You said you found him on the edge of the forest?” I asked Butterscotch.

“Yes,” said the animal carer. “And… he had done something to himself. Take a look.”

He pointed at Berry’s bloodied shoulder.

Very carefully, for fear of further injury, I started to telekinetically unwrap the strip of gauze which bound his leg to his torso, but nothing could have prepared me for what was underneath:

He had carved into his flesh.

I could tell by how rough the cut was. It must have been done with a sharp stone, because I’ve never known Berry to carry a knife except for when he’s cooking. He’d hewn a symbol into his own shoulder – a circle with a cross over it.

“What is that?” I asked. “What does that symbol mean? I’ve never seen anywhere before.”

“I don’t know,” Butterscotch admitted.

I had never seen my friend in such a state of abject terror. I would have taken him straight to a mental hospital, but I was determined to get to the bottom of this before I did anything like that.

“Take him back to Sugarcube Corner,” I told Butterscotch. “Make sure he’s comfortable and warm, but above all that he feels safe.”

“What’re you going to do?” asked the nervous pegasus.

“I’m going to investigate this,” I explained. “Normally I’d go straight back to the library and study the buck out of this, but I want to know what I’m studying first. I can’t just go by that symbol alone – I need to know more. I especially want to know why he’s muttering ‘seven pages’ over and over again.”

“What?! No! Haven’t you seen Bubble Berry? Do you want the same thing happen to you? I don’t want to know one of my friends went crazy trying to find out why another of my friends went crazy and I did nothing to stop him! You should wait until morning. We can- we can all go in together-”

“Butterscotch, please try to understand,” I replied, trying to keep as calm a demeanour as possible. “If I go insane I will take full responsibility, but I think we both want to know what Berry was doing at the Everfree Forest in the first place.”

“It’s the middle of the night! In winter! You-”

“Look,” I said quietly, “I’d think you were an idiot if you weren’t scared, but I’ve been into the forest at night before-”

“Yeah! With all of us!” Butterscotch insisted.

“It doesn’t matter what you do…”

We both stared at the dull pink pony huddled on Butterscotch’s bed.

“You can’t escape,” he muttered in a singsong voice. “No matter what you do, you’ll never be able to get away. He’ll come after you.”

He started to laugh again.

“Like he came after me!”

After finishing this statement, Bubble Berry descended into loud, hysterical cackles of laughter.

The memory faded from my mind as I proceeded through the forest, finding my way by the light of my horn. It wasn’t long before I extinguished it – I’d have to navigate by moonlight for most of my time, because I have to conserve as much of my magic as possible. You never know when your magic’s going to run out, and after that, you’re timber wolf chow.

It hadn’t been too hard to locate where Butterscotch had found Berry. As well as carving the symbol into his own shoulder, the young stallion had drawn it in the snow, as well as scratching it into the bark on some of the trees. It left a trail leading right into the forest. At least, I presumed it was him.

As I moved further and further in, the familiar poison of fear began to seep into my mind. The forest was even more eerily quiet than it had been on my very first night in Ponyville, when Nightterror Nebula had escaped his imprisonment on the moon and tried to bring about eternal night. The usual sounds of animals – even the owls that hooted above or the occasional snore of an Ursa – had been completely silenced. It was unnatural and more than a little frightening.

Wait a minute.

I know this place. This cliff… This cliff is where I almost died that night! Well, that is, the first time I almost died. And I’ve got this feeling that something important is here…

What’s that over there?

It’s a piece of paper, and it’s covered in writing, but it’s really, really old. I’m afraid to touch it in case it crumbles to pieces. Not just that, but the writing’s in some ancient dialect that I don’t recognise.

I should take this back to the library for further study.

The moment I touched the paper, a chill shot up my spine. I felt as though a huge drop of ice water had just dripped onto the back of my neck, and I started to shiver like crazy.

And now…

I feel as if there’s something behind me.

But when I looked around, there was nothing there. Even when I lit up my horn, which I did because I knew I would need the light to navigate my way down the cliff. The moon was bright, but not quite bright enough.

I’m beginning to think that Butterscotch was right and that I should have waited until the sun rose before venturing into the forest, or at least allowed somepony to accompany me.

What would that be like, though? I know they’d be more than capable of helping, but ever since I moved to Ponyville I’ve become afraid of putting myself in danger, because I know they’ll always be there for me and I don’t want to endanger their lives when I don’t need to. There’s so much that could have been prevented if I was just a little more careful.

I think the most obvious example is from a couple of months ago, at Gleaming Shield’s wedding. I wasn’t thinking straight when I charged into the rehearsal and started shouting that Prince Tempo was evil – why didn’t I just ask to speak to Lord Solaris in private about my suspicions? As it was, I lost the respect of my friends, my mentor and the sister I had idolized since birth.

I mean, it turned out that I was right and that Tempo had been replaced by an incubus-like monster, but it was still a stupid mistake. Every time I think back to it I feel like an absolute idiot.

There’s another piece of paper pinned to that tree over there.

When I approached it, I saw that it too was covered in writing in the same dialect as the other sheet, and it was just as aged. I touched it and again I felt as though my body was freezing, but when I checked myself I was clear of ice.

I know you may think that the cold of the night has something to do with it, but that’s the kind of cold that bites your cheeks and makes you wish you’d wrapped up before leaving home. This was a completely different kind of cold: one that makes you feel almost as if…

…as if somepony were watching you.

But when I looked around, there was still nopony there.

Wait.

What was that?

This place is making me paranoid.

Now, if my memory serves me correctly, the next place I should go to is the grove of trees – the ones which were distorted to resemble frightening faces. Looking back I wonder how I could ever have been so silly. They’re just trees, after all.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought it extremely strange when Bubble Berry started singing. It worked and everything but it would have been nice to have a little warning. Maybe Blitz could have just mentioned that Berry has a habit of erupting into song in the strangest of circumstances? Or that his singing and laughing was infectious?

The trees look odd and blank without the faces, but if you squint and turn your head then some of them have gnarls and knotholes that could be faces if you have an active imagination.

I wonder if there’s another page around here somewhere…

No. Nothing.

Of course, I couldn’t expect there to be pages at every turn, could I? If Berry’s mutterings prove true then there’s only seven of them, and they could be all over the forest for all I know. It’s a strange coincidence that I would find two of them at the landmarks which led me and my friends to the castle of the Royal Pony Brothers.

The forest is still eerily silent, and the only things I can hear are my heartbeat and my own breath as it escapes into the air in a thin mist from my nostrils.

Did something just rustle behind me?

I-I’m not going to look back. I’m not going to turn around, I swear. Not because I’m afraid of what I might see, but because I’m afraid of what I won’t see; for example, some terrifying creature. If it’s not there, that probably means it’s hiding. And if it’s not there full stop, I’m just becoming more paranoid.

Here’s the river. It’s amazing how calm it is now that there isn’t a sea serpent thrashing around and crying because a wisp of purple smoke slashed her hair off. And… yes, there’s another page pinned to a tree, covered in the same ancient writing.

I wonder what’s on the other side…

What the- It’s that symbol. A circle with a cross over it is scrawled in black ink on the back of the paper, and now that I look it’s on the back of the other two sheets as well.

Okay, something definitely rustled behind me.

I’m going to look back, but only for a split second. I want to know what’s chasing me.

And…

I didn’t see anything. I thought I saw somepony’s face, but it couldn’t have been a face because it had no features. No nose, no mouth, no eyes, nothing. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end, so there must be something there, though…

It looks like there’s another page pinned to a tree on the other side of the river. I teleported across, but still felt as though I was being watched. This page looked less aged than the others, and I even recognised a couple of words here and there, but most of it was still unreadable. And again, the symbol was roughly drawn on the back.

What was that?

Was that hoofsteps?

It- They sounded like they were right behind me. The sooner I get out of this Solaris-forsaken place, the better.

As I moved onward, heading for the bridge leading to the castle, I thought I saw something between the ever-thickening trees. It resembled a pony, but it was tall – far too tall to be natural – and wore a dark suit which Elusive would be rather proud of. It had appendages resembling tentacles or roots protruding from its back.

And no face. Just blank white skin.

I only saw it once, and after that it disappeared.

What was that thing? I’ve never seen a pony like that before, if that’s actually what it was. It looked more like…like a monster. The kind an irresponsible mother would invent to keep their foals from getting up in the middle of the night or leaving the table with their dinner uneaten.

Maybe it’s what drove Bubble Berry insane. He may be a young stallion, but he has the mindset and maturity of a pony less than half his age. And if a foal found out that the creature terrifying them into eating and sleeping was real…

They’d be committed to a mental hospital.

I’m not going to let that happen. I’m not going to let some strangers in white lock my friend in a padded room and fill him with drugs. Who knows what might happen to him? They mean well, but I’ve heard of cases of perfectly normal ponies being locked away in sanatoriums, and when they emerged they were emotionally empty. Broken, you might say.

Something just rustled again.

I am not turning around again.

When I reached the bridge, I found another page stuck to a post, this one also looking far more recent. That brings the total to five unreadable sheets of paper with a strange symbol on the back. If this turns out to be some pointless scavenger hunt then I am not going to be very impressed.

I’m shivering like crazy, every time I so much as look at the pages now I feel like my bones are freezing, my heart is thumping so hard that they can probably hear it in Canterlot… all in all, I’ve never been so scared in my life.

When I was halfway across the bridge, I stopped.

There was definitely something behind me. I could hear its hoofsteps on the rough wooden boards which creaked under both our weights, but I still didn’t dare to turn around.

I remember when I believed the apex of fear was losing your mother in a store while out shopping. I was so scared I started crying in the middle of the building, too afraid to ask anypony for help or try to find her in case I got even more lost. Looking back, I don’t know how I could ever have been so naïve.

I was only a foal, of course, but…

Never mind.

I kept moving forward, not even daring to glance to the side in case I saw that creature.

But when I got to the end of the bridge, curiosity temporarily overwrote my fear and I did the stupidest possible thing: I looked to the other side.

And it was there. Despite having no eyes, I could feel it watching me.

I turned on my tail and fled into the castle, snatching away the page attached to the doorway and barely even looking at it or noticing the chill shooting through my body like a shower of ice. Once inside I huddled in the corner between the door frame and the tall stone wall…

…but I knew it was still there. No matter where I went, it would always be there, watching me, following me, waiting for the right moment to strike.

No wonder Berry went insane.

I can see the pedestals that once held the Elements up ahead. Chances are there’s a page attached to it, but I can’t tell from over here. Oh no, does this mean I’m going to have to leave my hiding place?

It does, doesn’t it?

Maybe if I teleport over there, it’ll lose track of me. I’ll have moved too fast for it to keep up with me. It’s a ridiculous plan, I know, but at this point I’m willing to try anything.

Let me just concentrate…

There’s nothing here.

It’s another dud.

I… I need a breather. But I can’t get one. I can’t afford to pause again, because that creature – that-that nightmare – it’ll catch up to me. It’s just like Berry said. I can’t escape. No matter what do it’ll come after me!

But-but perhaps I should just try to find the final page. If I have them all, it might realise that it can’t beat me or stop me.

I-I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die alone.

Not in this place- please, not alone…

There’s only one place left to try, and that’s the room where Nightterror Nebula was defeated. If the last page is there, I’m going to teleport straight home and try to find a way to calm down. After barricading the library against tall, thin, faceless monsters.

I’m going to have to invent some sort of name for that thing. I can’t just keep calling it “the creature” or “the monster” or “the thing with no face”. But how are you supposed to come up with a name for something so terrifying?

I never thought I’d encounter anything so tall, or dark, or-or slender…

Slender. That’s the one. I’ll call it the Slender.

Okay, here goes…

I made it. I’m right on top of the pedestal! And the final page is right there on the floor.

Strange. It’s written in modern Equestrian. I’ll read it when I get back to the-

…

…

It’s right behind me.

I can feel it. The Slender is literally standing right behind me.

They do say that the best way to overcome your fears is to confront them, and this monster has frightened me to the core since I saw it for the first time.

So I decided to do exactly that:

I turned around.

The Slender loomed over me, far more than twice my height, and even with no eyes it looked at me down its featureless muzzle. That’s the thing: it didn’t stare or glare, it just looked at me. As if I was barely even interesting. It seemed even thinner up close, and the tentacles on its back swirled around as if it were underwater, or resistant to gravity like Lord Solaris’ mane.

One of them curled thrice around my neck and began to constrict.

It instantly became impossible to breathe. I struggled and scratched at the black appendage curled around my throat, trying desperately to intake oxygen and expel the carbon dioxide already in my lungs, but after a few seconds I could barely even see.

I felt my hooves leave the ground as the Slender lifted me up to its eye level, and I heard a voice whispering in my ear.

“The seven pages are mine!”

The tendril around my neck was tightened further and darkness began to cloud my vision... I tried, repeatedly, to cast a spell and teleport to safety, but the harder I tried the less air reached my lungs... My back legs started kicking, trying uselessly to find solid ground on which to prop my body… Even as my vision faded I felt my eyes rolling back in my head, and I think something was stroking my shoulder…

“The seven pages are MINE!”

So… this is where I die…

I guess I… I haven’t had a bad life. I just… just wish I… I could have… have seen my friends… just one last… last time…

I didn’t even… get a chance to… to say… say goodbye…

My only regret… is that I… I spent so much time… studying and… and I… didn’t meet them… and get to… to know them… sooner… I… I’m sorry… everypony…

“THE SEVEN PAGES ARE-”

The repeat of the whisper stopped as something knocked me clean out of the Slender’s grasp and the pressure was released from my throat. I crashed to the ground and started hungrily sucking in great greedy lungfuls of air.

My vision began to focus as oxygen made its way back into my bloodstream. I propped myself up on my forelegs and tried to make out who was standing in front of me.

There’s only one pony I know with a tail that vibrant.

“B-Blitz?” I choked.

“Dusk, what the buck are you waiting for?” he yelled at me. “Run! Go! Get out of here!”

He turned to the Slender.

“STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND, YOU BASTARD!” he roared.

And then he did what Rainbow Blitz does best: lowered his head, took flight and charged.

What took place next happened in one swift movement: the Slender swatted Blitz out of the air whilst curling a second tendril around my throat and pinning me against the wall, not tight enough to kill me but enough to silence me and prevent me from using magic.

I was forced to watch as the Slender dragged the spectral speedster towards itself, pressing him into the ground with a single tendril wrapped tightly around his body. He wriggled, writhed and flapped his wings in a completely fruitless attempt to get free.

“Let me go!” he shouted. “Get the buck off me! Let me GO!”

The Slender paid no heed to his enraged cries, reaching forward with another tendril and curling it around one of his feathers before yanking it out of the athletic pony’s wing.

Blitz cried out in pain, but didn’t stop struggling.

“You bastard!” he bellowed. “Get- get off. Just get off me!”

Again, the monstrous creature ignored his objections which were quickly turning from anger to fear. It reached forward with one of its forelegs and pressed his head onto the cold stone floor, all but immobilising him. Then it went for his other wing with a tentacle.

“The seven pages are MINE,” it repeated.

This time it didn’t select an individual feather – it curled the black extendable appendage around Blitz’s entire wing and gripped it tightly. It quickly became obvious that it intended to relieve the pegasus of one of his limbs, but Blitz was quick to notice, and was he ever unhappy about it.

“No!” he yelled. “No, let go! LET GO! Get off me, please, just let me GO! PLEASE!!”

It was no good. The Slender finished tightening its grip and started to pull. I watched and listened as Blitz screwed up his face and screamed in an intense pain I could never imagine.

Then, as if out of nowhere, a rope landed around the Slender’s neck and yanked the creature backwards. Apparently confused, it released Blitz’s wing, reached up and removed the long string of hemp, revealing it to be…

…a lasso.

“Get yer stinkin’ ten’acles offa mah friends, you damn dirty monster!”

As if from nowhere, Applejack charged into the room almost as fast as Rainbow Blitz flying on caffeine. He galloped right up to the momentarily stunned Slender and bucked it in the flank. It lost its grip on Blitz, who scampered over to me and started tugging at the tendril holding me against the wall.

“Blitz,” I rasped, “I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be,” he said. “We wouldn’t be your friends if we left you to die out here. Anyway-”

He was effectively silenced when another tendril curled around his neck and smacked him against the stonework next to me with his stomach to the wall. He tugged at it with his hooves and tried to fly away, but another curled around his body and tied his wings to his sides.

“Appleja-!” he managed to cry just before his airways were restricted.

“Don’t you guys worry none,” said the farmer confidently, “I got this guy.”

He pawed at the ground and got ready to charge, but before he could even get another hoof off the floor the Slender curled a tentacle around one of his back legs and lifted him into the air. His hat fell off his head and drifted slowly downward – he tried to catch it, but failed.

“Wh… What’re you gonna do to me?” he asked the creature, fear straining his voice.

What happened next almost made me sick.

The Slender began to stroke the farmer’s flanks, circling his cutie mark with the end of one of its tendrils. With every passing nanosecond Applejack visibly grew more and more uncomfortable.

“He-hey! Get away from there!” he shouted. “G-get off! That’s mah private area! Lemme go!”

“The seven pages are mine,” the Slender said again.

Still standing atop the pedestal, the faceless monster pulled the orange earth pony over to itself until the two of them were almost muzzle to muzzle, and stroked his face as though feeling his features. Applejack clearly had guts though, because not only did he bite the tentacle but spat in the creature’s face.

Next to me Blitz tried to say something witty, but failed due to the tendrils still binding him and choked instead.

“Get away from there!” Applejack yelled as the tentacle started moving back towards his tail and teasing the base where a red band held the straw coloured hairs in place. “Get off! LET ME GO, YA DISGUSTIN’ PERVETED VARMINT!”

A rock surrounded in a pale blue aura smashed into the Slender’s head, and the new arrival spoke three simple words:

“En garde, bitch.”

The creature turned its eyeless head towards Elusive and eyed him curiously as the last pony I would ever expect to involve himself in conflict stood his ground, rocks and lumps of rubble of various shapes and sizes supported in telekinetic sheaths above his head.

Apparently losing interest in its orange-coated plaything, the Slender carelessly tossed Applejack into a wall. He smashed headfirst into the solid stone and fell to the floor, unconscious, as the tall monstrosity aimed another tendril at the white unicorn who deflected it with a rock.

“Now, really,” he said in a tauntingly calm voice, “is that the best that you can do? I must say I expected better from a creature of the Everfree Forest. I’ve seen baby bears more terrifying than you!”

I tried to warn Elusive to not make it angry, for Solaris’ sake, but all I managed was another small rasp. The ‘baby bear’ he was talking about was the size of a building and made primarily out of stars. It came dangerously close to destroying Ponyville!

The Slender aimed more tendrils at the designer, clearly intending to impale him rather than pick him up and/or strangle him, but the deft unicorn avoided half of them and refracted the rest with rocks.

“I may not be the most physically robust of ponies,” Elusive said with a sly smile, “but I’m beginning to wish you would put a little more effort in!”

From my vantage point, pressed against the freezing stone structure, I saw exactly what the Slender was going to do next, but there was nothing I could do to warn my generous friend.

“Well?” he asked. “Do you plan on-?”

At a sickening squelching noise, he fell silent.

He had successfully defended himself from an attack on his left, but failed to see the tendrils curling his way from the right. They had tapered out to needle-sharp points and rocketed towards Elusive, and Blitz and I were forced to watch as he was multiple impaled through the legs and abdomen.

We weren’t even able to scream.

“THE SEVEN PAGES ARE MINE!”

The Slender threw Elusive to one side, and the white unicorn stayed awake just long enough to see his wounds.

“Oh no,” he said quietly, “this is going to leave a… terrible stain.”

He passed out.

With everypony else dealt with, the Slender turned its featureless visage towards me and Blitz.

When I looked at his face his expression was one of heartbreaking terror and resignation. It had to have been one of the first times I’d ever seen him expressing fear. He tried to gulp, but was unable to because of the tendril around his neck…

…which was definitely getting tighter.

His eyes were bulging out of his skull, his forelegs scraped desperately at the wall as he was choking more than ever, but I soon lost sight because I was choking too as the Slender had another go at strangling me. Once again my vision was clouding with darkness-

“O-Oh my!”

At this latest distraction, the Slender’s attention was completely diverted and Blitz and I were dropped roughly to the ground, coughing and gasping for air.

The creature looked up at the yellow pegasus surveying the scene through a window, then reached out, plucked him from his vantage point and pulled him in for closer inspection, fortunately not by the neck.

“Butterscotch!” I shouted, or at least tried to. “Butterscotch, use the Stare!”

“What?” he cried. “But how? This thing doesn’t have any eyes!”

“What kind of idiot are you?” Blitz demanded. “Stare him in the eyes he hasn’t got!”

Butterscotch nodded and gulped.

Then he turned to the Slender, looking right at its face, and glared.

Several long minutes past, during which the tall faceless monstrosity and the meek yellow pegasus squared off in the staring match to end all staring matches. Butterscotch never broke his concentration. Not even once.

Not even as more and more tendrils curled around his body, squeezing him like a tube of toothpaste and crushing him from all sides.

I knew I had to do something. It’s my fault the others ended up like this. I have to do something about it! But what?! Blitz is taking advantage of the diversion. He’s trying to wake up Applejack, so why can’t I do something too?

Come on, Dusk Shine, think. Think, think, think, think and think some more!

A tentacle wrapped itself around Butterscotch’s head – the clearly petrified pony still didn’t stop staring – and it started to crush his skull.

I need to make some sort of beam of concentrated… what? Magic? Light? Magic light?

If I could just incapacitate this thing, just give it a large enough taste of its own medicine to give myself an edge, I might be able to beat it. Somehow. I just need to concentrate…

Blood started to leak out of Butterscotch’s ears, most certainly not a good sign, but he still didn’t break eye contact.

At that moment I let loose with everything I had. The beam of magic I fired at the Slender was one that I’m sure, if Lord Solaris were here, he would have been very proud. It hit the monstrosity right in the head and started burning away and tearing it to pieces right before my eyes.

Everything else seemed to fade into obscurity. I didn’t see Butterscotch drop to the ground, or Blitz shield himself from my intense attack. All that mattered to me at that moment was that this creature should PAY for what it’s done to my friends.

I don’t know how long I sustained that beam.

When I ran out of energy, my strength failed me utterly and I fell to the floor, completely drained.

The last thing I saw before I passed out was a tall, slender pony lying on the cold stone ground with a smouldering stump where its head used to be.

Ugh…

What… What happened?

Oh good! Moving Forest Scenery is on. That’s my favourite program! Wow, and this couch is so comfortable I just want to snuggle right into it-

“Uh, Dusk? You might want to buy me a drink first.”

Wait, what?

The more I blinked, the more the surrounding environment came into focus. I was lying on the back of Rainbow Blitz as he walked through the noticeably thin trees of the forest. Up ahead, Applejack was carrying Elusive, heavily bandaged, on his back and towing a small cloud with a still unconscious Butterscotch snoozing gently and securely underneath the lasso. The forest was growing brighter as we neared the edge and the sun rose higher above the canopy.

“Well, what do you know?” said Applejack. “He’s finally awake! Y’all okay back there, Dusk Shine?”

“Yeah,” I replied, feeling my sore neck. “Yeah, I-I think so.”

“Good!”

A small stone hit me squarely between the eyes.

“Then would you mind explaining to us all just exactly what you thought you were doing?” Elusive asked pointedly.

I started to explain about Bubble Berry, but Blitz cut me off after I had only just begun.

“We already know all about that!” he said. “’Scotch told us everything as we were going after you. Right now Berry’s in his room painting that weird circle-and-cross thingy all over the place. He likes to think he’s using blood, but it’s actually just red paint.”

“Why din’t y’all git us all up to help?” Applejack demanded. “Ya know we would’ve! But instead y’all just mosied on in there, not knowing what the buck y’all had to expect. Ah don’t s’pose ya even knew what y’all were searchin’ fer?”

I tried to find an answer, but couldn’t seem to come up with one that didn’t incriminate me even more.

“Oh mah gosh,” Applejack said in disbelief.

“Dusk Shine,” said Elusive, “I think I speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate the sentiment-”

“There was a sentiment?!” Blitz demanded.

“-you didn’t want anypony else involved,” Elusive finished, glaring at Blitz in an accusatory fashion. “You didn’t want us to get hurt. But you must admit that there’s every chance there was a safer way to go about what you were doing.”

“You could say that again,” said Blitz. “Dusk, do you know that ‘Scotch probably has brain damage thanks to you? For all we know he could never wake up! He’ll probably be a vegetable for the rest of his life-”

On the cloud, Butterscotch groaned.

“-but I’ve been wrong before,” Blitz finished rather unnecessarily.

The yellow pegasus rolled onto his stomach, propped himself up on his forelegs and shielded his eyes from the brightening sunlight.

“Butterscotch?” I said as I climbed off Blitz’s back. “Are you okay?”

He felt his forehead and rubbed it under the short waves of pink mane.

“My head hurts,” he said, “and I feel a little woozy – more than a little woozy, actually, but-but I think I’ll be alright.”

He looked down at me.

“Dusk,” he said quietly. “Y-Your shoulder…”

It was only then that I realised my right shoulder had been bandaged, just like Berry’s had been. I knew, even without looking underneath, that I would have that symbol – a circle with a cross over it – hewn into my skin. I thought the Slender was just stroking me. I must have not felt it properly because I was being strangled to death at the time.

I felt it tentatively. It stung a little, but not much, and some sort of poultice was leaking out from under the gauze.

“Zircon sure looked shaken when he saw that thing,” Blitz commented. “What the buck does it even mean?”

“Language!”

“Shut up, Elusive.”

“I don’t know,” I confessed. “It was carved on Berry’s shoulder, and I found it on the trees where Butterscotch found him, and it was on-”

Realisation hit me like a tonne of bricks. How could I have forgotten?

“The pages!” I exclaimed. “What happened to the pages?”

“Ya mean the ‘seven pages’ that thing kept goin’ on about?” asked Applejack. “We got ‘em safe, don’t worry. Ah’m bucked if Ah know what they mean, though.”

“Again, language!”

“Will you can it, ‘Lucy?”

“And don’t call me that!”

“’Lucy’s” horn glowed and he withdrew the seven pieces of paper from where they were stored in Applejack’s yoke. I looked them over and stored them in hammerspace until further notice.

“I think we should take them to Bubble Berry,” I suggested, “or at least let him know that the Slender is dead.”

“Ah’m guessin’ the Slender is that tall faceless monster that tried to violate me?” asked Applejack.

All of us shuddered at the memory.

“Let us never speak of this night again,” said Elusive, and the rest of us nodded in agreement.

I don’t know how I could ever apologise to them all. They almost died trying to save my life, and it’s a miracle none of them are seriously injured – well, Elusive might need help walking for the next few weeks, Blitz might have some trouble flying, Applejack could probably use some therapy and Butterscotch should go to hospital to make he doesn’t have any serious internal injury, but apart from that we’re fine.

I reached up again, feeling the sore area around my neck. Even without looking I knew that I would have a red rash of sorts for a few days, but it would fade with time. Everything fades with time.

We left the forest and made our way back to Ponyville when dawn had fully broken, but stopped in our tracks when we saw a huge crowd around Sugarcube Corner. The others stayed back and stared while I fought my way through the throng of ponies, eventually emerging into the café like a cork out of a wine bottle.

I’m not kidding: there was even a pop.

“I’m sorry,” said Mrs Cake as she emerged from the kitchen, “but we’re closed due to an emergency and oh my goodness what happened to you?!”

I must really look awful.

“I’m sorry to intrude, Mrs Cake,” I said, “but I’m here to see Bubble Berry.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Everypony’s here to see Bubble Berry,” she said in an exasperated voice. “Butterscotch brought him here in the middle of the night and the poor dear had gone completely insane! We’ve sent for a doctor to take him to the hospital-”

“No!”

My ears informed me that I had said that a little more loudly than I had intended.

“No,” I repeated in a softer voice. “Give me a chance to talk to him. Please.”

The older mare nodded and allowed me upstairs.

I think I know now why he won’t stop laughing: he’s scared. Terrified to the core. And what’s the response to fear that’s been well and truly hammered into his mind?

That’s right: giggle at the ghostly.

He laughs in the hope that the Slender will leave him alone and he thinks it will come back for him. I realise now that the symbol carved into his shoulder (and my shoulder now as well) is quite obviously the Slender’s signature. It shows something the monster has claimed as its own. Maybe Berry thinks that if he surrounds himself with that symbol, the monster won’t hurt him.

He’ll be so relieved when I tell him it’s dead.

I pushed the loft door open-

-and stopped.

And stared.

There was hardly anything in the room which didn’t have the Slender’s symbol painted on it: the bed, the walls, the lampshade, even the coffee mug which was sitting on the windowsill.

Berriswainer DaVinci Bubble was painting it again, in deep red paint as Blitz had said, on his bedpost. He was sniggering to himself and hadn’t noticed me coming in.

“Gotta stay safe,” he whispered between his quiet laughter, “gotta be safe, gotta keep everypony safe-”

“Berry?”

At the mention of his name he froze as if face to face with a cockatrice. I approached him and laid a hoof on his uninjured shoulder.

“Berry,” I said quietly, “it’s over.”

He turned to face me with the speed of a slug with a broken foot. And slugs only have one foot.

“No,” he said, insane happiness fading in a flash. “No, no, no, it’s not over! It’ll come after me again! It won’t stop chasing me, it won’t ever stop chasing me, I have to try to keep everypony safe or it’ll hurt them like it hurt me-”

“It’s dead,” I said simply.

He stared at me as if I had suddenly spoken Inponesian.

“What?” he asked quietly.

I brought forth the seven sheets of paper and showed them to him – both the sides with writing and the sides with the symbol.

“I should know,” I said. “I collected these myself and burned that things head right off. Well, it almost killed me and the others, but-”

I stopped talking when Berry wrapped his hooves around me and I was afraid he was trying to kill me too, but it was just a hug.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!” he cried joyfully, almost instantly returning to his usual, jubilant self. “I was so, so scared it was going to come back for me and kill me but if it’s really gone-”

“Trust me,” I said, pulling him off my shoulders, “it is.”

It was good to see Bubble Berry back to his old self, but his face fell when he saw my injuries.

“But-but your neck,” he stammered, pointing at the bruise. “Did it-”

“It doesn’t hurt so much now,” I said to reassure him. “I must admit you gave us all quite a scare. Everypony’s really worried about you!”

He got up, walked over to the window and examined the crowd outside.

“I can see that,” he commented. “Wow. I never expected the whole of Ponyville to be so worried about little old me! I guess I should go down and show everypony I’m okay, but…”

He turned to face me again.

“…are you absolutely, positively, one hundred and fifty six point two per cent sure it’s gone?” he asked, freshly-arising fear evident in his voice.

“Berry,” I said, and I walked over and stood next to him, “I highly doubt anything could survive having its head burned completely off. If you were to go into the Everfree Forest right now-”

“As if that’s gonna happen!”

“-all you’d find is a body with a frazzled stump where the head should be.”

Berry gave me a grateful smile and pulled me into a gentler embrace.

“I don’t know how I could ever make it up to you,” he said quietly. “I just- thanks.”

After a while I led him down the stairs, through the shop, past a stunned Mrs Cake and out into the street. The ponies trying to catch a glimpse of the reportedly crazy Element bearer quickly saw that there was nothing to worry about, and it wasn’t long before the crowd all but dispersed.

Up ahead, the rest of my friends were waiting. Blitz was helping Butterscotch down from his cloud and Elusive was standing supported by Applejack. It was only once the yellow pegasus was safely on the ground that they noticed my accompanied return.

“Berry!” Blitz cried joyfully. He zoomed forward and scooped up the stunned pink pony in a massive hug.

Once he was set down, Bubble Berry realised how beaten up each of us was.

“My laughing didn’t do that, did it?” he asked.

We decided to all go back to the library to rest and gather our thoughts properly. After Butterscotch had told me how he had rounded up the others after dropping off Bubble Berry at Sugarcube Corner, I explained to the others about finding the seven sheets of paper on the route to the castle, each one covered in writing and more fresh than the next. I finished at the part where Blitz knocked me out of the Slender’s grasp just before I lost consciousness, and after that we took turns detailing the fight to Berry.

He was a brilliant one-pony audience. He stared at Blitz in horror after hearing about how the pegasus almost lost a wing, looked very uncomfortable when he found out what the Slender almost did to Applejack and winced when Elusive described his own brutal assault. His jaw almost hit the floor when Butterscotch showed him the dried blood which had eluded cleansing from the bases of his ears.

“That sounds horrible!” he exclaimed. “Are you sure you’re okay, Butters?”

“Well,” said Butterscotch, “now that you mention it, I do feel ever so slightly… sore all over.”

“Ever so slightly sore all over?” asked Elusive. “My dear boy, you are either one or the other, you cannot possibly be both!”

“Actually,” I interjected, “he could be experiencing a small amount of pain in every part of his body, which isn’t at all unlikely considering what the Slender tried to do to him, and…”

I stopped. They were all staring at me.

“Sorry,” I said quietly.

We had reached the library, and without further ado I pushed the door open-

-and every single one of us froze.

In the centre of the room was a small pulsating orb of light. It throbbed and swirled with all the colours of the rainbow, but they were so pale they were almost white. Barb was huddled in a corner behind a large book.

“Barb!” I shouted, and we all ran in and surrounded the orb. “Are you alright? What the hay is that thing?”

“I don’t know!” the baby dragon cried. “I just came downstairs and it was floating there! I don’t know what it is or what it’s doing here!”

“It’s giving me a strange taste in my eyeballs,” said Bubble Berry.

And then he touched it.

The library was filled with blinding white, purple tinged light and I felt my body once again tossed against a wall and pinned there by the rush of light, sound and air…

…and when the metaphorical dust settled, there were six young mares in the library.

Six young mares who looked EXACTLY like me and my friends, right down the cutie marks and the injuries.

Barb stood up and stared around the room at us all.

“Did I miss something?” she demanded.