The sound of one hoof clapping

by Foalicon_

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark
Length: 1134

When all of Ponyville is sleeping, why is their one hoof clapping in the night?

All is quite in the night. All but the sound of a single hoof clapping.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-29 05:35:46 UTC

Can you hear it?

Can you hear it? It's the sound of a single hoof clapping in the night. a steady repetition of clicks and clacks,you may not heat it, but spike does. He sits up and cleans out his ears, there it is again, he thought. The constant banging in his ears, causing his body to lurch at it's unwanted annoyance in the night.

"Twilight can you hear that?" He stood up and made his way over to the sleeping unicorn, the hoof clapping in his ear as he did so. He shook twilight gingerly, still tired himself. "Twilight can you hear that?"

"I can hear you well enough." Twilight yawn and turned toward the dragon. Her eyes widened, "Spike there's a charlic behind you."

Spike's head turned but was stopped halfway by Twilight's magic,"Ow, Twilight, what was that for?!" Spike shouted, trying to see what was behind him.

"Don't you know anything about these things? They're entities that are based completely on your imagination and if you look directly at yours, it takes your soul."

"What?!" spikes head quickly looked at the figure behind him but was blocked by Twilight, as she stood between Spike and his imagination. The repetition of clicking noises only became louder and more off beat. Instead of being steady and predictable, it became louder, more random and more annoying.

"Twilight do you hear that clapping noise, it's getting louder." The sounds of clipping and clopping, continued to ring in spikes head. Twilight merely shook her head, not knowing what the dragon was talking about.

"I hear muffled screams, like there's somepony in my ear screaming, into a pillow." Twilight tried to clean out her ear with her hoof but didn't manage to much of anything. "Do you see anything around me? You have a hooff behind, that's probably the clapping noise you're hearing. So if if hearing screams then that means..." Twilight turned around but didn't see anything, Spike's hoof was gone.

Spike turned around to look for what Twilight was looking for. "What am I supposed to be looking for again, Twilight?" There was no reply from the unicorn. He turned around but didn't see anything. "Twilight?"

He walked toward the stairs, only to see a shadow come quickly from a corner.  He closed his eyes, but what ever it was started nipping at his eyelids, as if it was trying to open them. He swatted in the air but he was met with no resistance, opening his eyes, he saw nothing, there was nothing there.

He started to shake and grabbed his blanket out of his basket, he started to head down the stairs."are you down there Twilight?"

"Yea just give me a second, I'm trying to find a way to get rid of your hoof." He heard hooves shuffling behind him but fought the urge to turn around. Something latched onto his neck and threw him down the stairs, his body fell like a rag doll, hitting every step. His body hit the floor and he opened his eyes. The sound of the hoof clapping returned louder and more violent.

"Twilight?"

"I'm in here Spike." Came a reply from the next room.

He started to run but tripped. He looked down at what he tripped on and saw Twilight. Her mouth was open and she wore a expression of shock and fear. He lifted her head, she was completely limp. "Twilight?"

"I'm in here." a cold wind blew over his spines causing him to shake more. He heard the hoof clapping again. *Clip Clop Clip Clop Clip Clop.*

He closed his eyes tightly, a orchestra of strange sounds started to play around him, mixed in with the sound of Twilight's voice. Something stuck him in his head and made him drop Twilight limp body. Things continued to touch his body, still attempting to get the baby dragon to look at them.

Flames shot out the dragons mouth and a scroll landed in his lap, but he he couldn't see it. He clutched it in his claw and started to crawl toward a corner, feeling his way along the floor. his head hit a bookshelf and a large number of books fell on top of him. The sounds stopped. He opened his eyes and peeked out from the cover of books. The door, a spark of hope rose from within the dragon.

He climbed out the books and made a blind-mad dash for the door the sound of the hoof clapping returned to his ears stronger than ever. He put his claw on his head trying to block out any sound that was being made by the creatures of his own imagination. He opened the door and shut it behind him as he left.

With the aid of the moonlight he read the letter.

"Keep your eyes closed tonight Twilight Sparkle, a spell of mine has gone horribly wrong and has caused me and Celestia to, temporarily,  lock ourselves up. After tonight all things should return to normal, at least for those who kept their eyes closed." Spike sighed in relief and took  step forward. He saw it.

He saw the disembodied hoof, he had opened his eyes to read the letter and was now looking at the thing it, and Twilight, had warned him not to look at. I t flew with snake like speed and pressed against Spike's mouth, trying to force itself in. He tried to hit it away but once again, his claw passed through it, as if it wasn't real.

"Spike, I'm here for you." Twilight's voice came from behind him

"Twi-" He was stopped, as the hoof took the opening he unintentionally made for it. Spike felt as if the hoof was ripping his tongue out. A tearing and pulling pain, mixed in with the taste of his own blood, came from his mouth. He managed to turn around wanting to look at Twilight, but it wasn't her.

It was a mix of all of their friends. Rarity's horn, Rainbow Dash's wings, pinkie's body, Applejack's hind legs, Fluttershy's mane and tail and twilight's mouth appeared to be poorly stitched to it's pale-green head. Spike wanted to say something but was unable to. His thoughts started to fade, memories that he had made over the years leaving his body, being taken by some thing.

He furrowed his eyebrows in anger and frustration, unable to do anything about what was going on. A small flame came from his mouth but the creature didn't seem affected by it, this was going to happen if he wanted it to or not And In the final moments of his thoughts, all he heard, was the sound of one hoof clapping.

I'm still tired. :/ Wrote this trying to resist Trixe (wrote this so  TheObserver1231 wouldn't win)