The Baying Moon

Red sneakers shuffled across the dark barren stretch of dirt with awkward steps. Moondancer stole a glance upwards past the towering heap of equipment in her arms. Stones jutted out high on both sides of the path, their omnipresence interrupted by the occasional tree or two. Above them all hung Luna’s moon in a cloudless sky. Moondancer bit her lip and calculated it had risen at least 15 degrees since the train dropped her off. At its current rate the moon would reach its zenith in less than half an hour. She quickened her shambling pace.

Although the altitude and observatories provided by Canterlot Mountain were unbeatable, the city’s nightlife would be detrimental to her research. Moondancer grumbled remembering the seven previous times her stargazing had been spoiled by pegasi hovering in her field of view, fireworks from any number of celebrations or parties blinding her, or foul weather being scheduled on a crucial night even though she had submitted the proper forms in duplicate weeks in advance requesting clear skies and--

Moondancer’s foot slipped.

She yelped and threw her body in the opposite direction. Moondancer overcorrected and took a dozen frantic steps to regain her balance, but as she stabilized, the lantern on the top of her lofty pile rolled free. The lantern snapped back and forth in mid-air; Moondancer’s magic caught the handle. The fireflies inside whizzed around and glowed from the jarring motion.

Moondancer sighed in relief. “That was a close one--"

The top half of her mountain of supplies tumbled down around her feet. Moondancer winced. She judged the weight still left in her arms she dared to open her eyes. Her telescope was safe and unscathed.

“Somebody up there likes me.” Moondancer smiled. She scouted her surroundings. “As good a spot as any.” She shrugged her shoulders and placed her telescope down.

Moondancer rubbed the soreness out of her arms and examined what caused her to trip. It was a massive hole wider than a pony and too deep to gauge the depth of. On the exact edge of it was a sunken shoeprint from one of her high-tops. She mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to the Princesses that her foot hadn’t crossed that event horizon.

Moondancer cocked an eyebrow. There weren’t any mounds of dirt anywhere near the volume of the hole around it. If something had burrowed its way down then there’d have to be displaced earth around it. What creature would dig a massive hole and take the dirt? This didn’t make sense, unless, the hole formed from the bottom up. Moondancer beamed in the moonlight. Had she discovered an underground geyser? She kicked a rock into the hole and listened for a splash, instead she heard a solid thump echo back up. Disappointed she ran through all the information she’d studied about sinkholes a couple years ago when she went through her… phase.

Moondancer let her hair down from its updo and shook her head wiping away her frown. She wasn’t that depressed pony anymore. She’d made amends with Twilight, she had friends again, and she’d even joined a bowling league! She moved her equipment a safe distance away from the hole. Out of one of her bags she pulled a small device that had a microphone attached. She pressed a red button on the top and reels inside rotated.

“Outskirts Stargazing Log Entry Number 4: Be wary of sinkholes in the vicinity.” Moondancer pressed another button and the red one popped back up.

Meanwhile, a large clawed hand reached around the trunk of a tree. A lime-green eye with a slit pupil that glowed in the moonlight followed. It sized up the mare scurrying around and setting up the junk she’d brought. Silver fangs gleamed in a rictus grin as the poacher hid back behind the tree.

* * *

Moondancer sat on her blanket and took a slip of coffee from her thermos. The night was warm but she hugged herself anyway and sighed blissfully into her cozy sweater. She shook her lantern re-exciting her light source and leafed through one of the half dozen books in front of her.

“Outskirts Stargazing Log Entry Number 5: Location selection has been a complete success. The weather is clear and the stars are out tonight. It’s beautiful.” She tied her hair back up with her pink beaded hair tie, lifted her glasses, and pressed her face against her telescope’s eyepiece. “The Horsehead Nebula looks sharp even though my portable telescope and I have everything I need to document the transit of the Moon across it tonight. Hopefully I can determine the identity of the space oddity I noted their last night.” Moondancer readjusted her glasses and stopped her recording. “Maybe they’ll name it after me!” She squeed and clapped her hands, even her tail swished in excitement.

Something scrapped behind her. Moondancer head snapped to the side to look behind her. She studied the dark environment but didn’t see anything unusual.

She picked up her microphone. “Note to self: Keep the fangirling down, I’m scaring the local fauna.” She joked without turning her recorder on.

“We’re not scared of you.”

“GAHH!” Moondancer leapt sideways. Her head spun and locked eyes with the source of the raspy voice. A bipedal canine-esque creature loomed above her. Trying not to panic Moondancer’s brain registered everything it could about the beast: It had grey fur, a protruding jaw with razor sharp teeth, disproportionate large forearms with matching large clawed paws, and a mace like tail. It wore a bejeweled collar, sleeveless vest, and ripped shorts.

“Oh, umm, Hi there...” Moondancer all but whispered as she scooted backwards, not risking taking her eyes off of it. “Sorry if I disturbed you, I didn’t know anycreature else was out here.”

“It’s okay.” The dog stalked forward and reached its arms out. “You’re just the pony we were looking for, Princess.”

“Princess?” Moondancer repeated. “I’m not a prin--”

A paw shot out of the ground like a zombie and grabbed Moondancer’s ankle.

“AHHHHHH!” Moondancer screamed loud enough to curdle blood. She kicked at the light brown paw with her other foot but it held tight. The creature’s head popped up from the earth and sneered at her.

“We’ve got you now--”

Moondancer kicked it in its face three times before it let go crying in pain. He was another one of those dog-things, although much smaller than the first.

“Oww! She kicked me!” The smaller dog wailed and rubbed his nose.

Moondancer bolted up, crashed into a third one, and feel back down on her ass. This one was the biggest yet, his claws twice the size of the first’s. He grabbed Moondancer by her shoulders and effortlessly lifted her up to his eye level. Her feet dangled above the ground. Up close she could tell his fur was a lighter grey and that he smelled like he’d never even read about a shower before.

“I’ve got her!” He announced to the others with a smirk.

Moondancer squeezed her eyes shut and her horn glowed with power. She disappeared from the dog’s grasp and reappeared a short distance away. She stumbled out of the air but hit the ground running.

“She can do that?” The mutt that lost her scratched his head.

“After her!” The first one shouted. All three dogs dove into the ground. Three trails of dirt took off after Moondancer.

“Everything’s alright. Everything’s alright.” Moondancer panted to herself running as fast as she could. Ponyville wasn’t too far away. She’d be safe there and then she could contact Twilight and the Royal Guard to rescue her books and telescope. She turned her head for a split second — no dogs, but didn’t risk slowing down.

Unfortunately, years of being an anti-social shut-in whose closest activities that resembled exercise routines were walking the few blocks to and from the public library and one memorable donut eating competition left Moondancer with very little stamina for physical exertions. Her lungs burned. She panted hard like an animal she refused to allow her brain to compare herself to right now. Her body slumped forward and begged her to stop and just read a book on exercise instead. She pushed on though.

Moondancer was proud of herself for that and she got to enjoy that feeling for an entire eight seconds before an enormous hole opened in front of her. No time to stop she dodged right. More earth fell down just a few steps ahead of her and she jumped over that hole and the claws that reached out of it. She hopped to a stop in front of dozens upon dozens more pitfalls. It was pocked marked with more holes than the legs in a swarm of changelings[1].

[1] Pre-reformation

‘This is insane! There weren’t any of these holes when I came down. How could they have dug all this so fast?’ Moondancer hiked her legs up and spun on the balls of her foot about face for a tactile retreat. Dirt fell away like quicksand behind her.

“Nowhere left to run little pony.” The first dog said as he climbed out.

“If I can’t run, then I’ll fight!” Moondancer horn glowed bright pink.

She psyched herself up, ‘Time to switch from defense position to attack mode!’

Wind swept around her body. “I’ll show you what a unicorn who’s read every self-defense text in the Canterlot Library is capabl--”

Moondancer swayed frozen in the air mouth agape. While she monologued the biggest dog had sprung up from behind her and reached his claws down the back of her khakis. He rocketed her underwear straight up and carried the geek wearing them into what felt like the stratosphere.

The dog bounced the nerdy mare a few times in the air, her mouth agape, wide-eyed, and hands cupped over her crotch from the massive wedgie. The dog let go and she fell face-first onto the dirt, her white women’s-style briefs[2] snapped back tight against her butt.

[2] Tighty whities

“Quick, she said we’d have to use this for the magic ones!” The lead dog scampered up to the stunned pony. He dug through the pocket full of gems on his vest, a few gems had fallen out but he paid them no mind. The dog pulled out a black ring with tiny jewels and etchings on it. He slipped the ring down Moondancer’s horn and twisted it tight, it locked in place.

“Now we’ll get all the gems!” The three dogs cheered in unison. The lead dog grabbed he shell-shocked Moondancer by her underwear again and dragged her down a hole. The two remaining mutts dove into other holes and dirt filled every one up.