Flurry Heart lay in her bed as Auntie Luna’s darkness wrapped around her. It had been a long day – there had been magic kindergarten, playing with Mommy and Daddy and Sunburst, and even a tea party, complete with tales of Lord Lordington of Lordsdale and Viceroy Stuffins and how they competed and plotted against each other for the favors of Lady Buttoneyes.
Now the tired filly held Whammy clutched in her arms and pleasant memories should have been turning into pleasant dreams, but, for once, her beloved snail plushie gave the young filly no comfort. Mommy, Daddy, and Sunburst had all told her that there were no monsters under her bed or in the wardrobe, she knew that she should be brave -- after all, Flurry’s parents and her aunts and uncle were all heroes, and her crystaller was really smart (if there was anything Sunburst didn’t know, then Auntie Twilight would). They would never, ever, lie to her.
But the bogeymare was coming.
Creeping through the darkness, invisible to the adults as it stalked foals while they lay in their beds, the bogeymare was the nighttime fear of all foals, even big fillies like Flurry (she was almost five-and-a-half years old!), because without the protection of the big ponies (even Auntie Luna, who guarded ponies’ dreams, couldn’t see the bogeymare), the foals were left all alone in the dark.
As Flurry huddled under her blankets, the shadows turned the familiar shapes of her toys and furniture sinister (she knew that “sinister” was a big pony word for when something was worse than bad or scary). Wait … hadn’t Mommy closed the wardrobe when she tucked Flurry in? The foal’s breath caught in her throat, there was an eye glowing at her through the cracked door!
Flurry’s heart thundered painfully in her chest as a clawed hand – covered in scales and patches of fur – slid out to grab the wardrobe door, the door ghosted open as a head leaned out to leer at her; it looked like a panther from one of her animal books, but it was splotched with scales and had great, dripping, fangs longer than her forearm!
“Well, well, what do we have here?” the bogeymare asked in a rasping voice as Flurry frantically tried to move arms and legs that refused to obey her, “Such an odd-looking morsel, I wonder how you will taste, hmmm?”
Flurry couldn’t speak, fear seizing her throat so tightly that she couldn’t even squeak, ‘Daddy!’ she thought desperately, ‘Mommy! Sunburst! Auntie Luna! Anypony!’ the filly’s terrified mental flailing brushed against a slumbering connection, one that she had known for as long as she could remember, and she grabbed onto it with a death grip, :SISTER!:
There was a flicker, and a massive black sword appeared in Flurry’s hands, pale-yellow runes running down the blade as the bogeymare recoiled with a hiss.
The foal had the strange sensation of being gently moved to the side within her own body as strength and skill flooded through her limbs and someone else looked out through Flurry’s eyes, “I vas just thinking how nice it vould be to have a snack, and here I find you threatening my little sister,” Kragor’s metallic voice rang out, “That vas a mistake,” Flurry felt her lips curl in a vicious smirk that showed far more fangs than the little alicorn actually had.
Cadance bolted up in her bed and was already through her bedroom door when her brain consciously registered the commotion coming from Flurry’s room that had awoken her, Shining Armor ran beside her, her husband’s horn alight with magic. As they neared Flurry’s room, the door shattered outward as some … thing was thrown through it.
The misty shape laying among the splinters was vaguely equinoid, but misshapen, with one arm-like protrusion ending at around where the elbow would be, and the entire creature fading haphazardly in and out of the Crystal Princess’s sight, Cadance’s wings flared as she lunged forward – only to fly through the nebulous form and slam into the stone floor with jarring force.
As the alicorn rolled over, and the indistinct figure rose to its feet, Shining’s rosy magic lashed out, playing over the silhouette, but instead of gripping or blasting, it made random, moving, patches of the creature more visible; a bipedal, pantherish, being stood revealed, covered in a nauseating amalgam of purple fur and blue-green scales, black blood poured from its missing forearm and leaked from the great slash that carved through its muzzle and the ruined remains of an eye.
The monster snarled at the royal couple as guards clattered around the corner, vanishing back into mists as Shining’s spell dwindled, but a lash of pale-yellow magic whipped out from Flurry’s room to drag it back inside.
Lunging towards the doorway, Shining and Cadance saw Flurry standing before the hazy figure, a sword bigger than she was clasped in her tiny hands. Kragor’s laughter filled the bedchamber as the blade lashed out, runes blazing, to carve through the monster’s stomach, before looping back to slice across its throat.
As the creature fell to the ground and began to fade away, Flurry let the sword clatter on the floor, her bloodthirsty smile replaced by a frightened little filly who needed her parents, “Mommy! Daddy!”
Kragor had been returned to her place between the Crystal Thrones, and Flurry was finally bundled into her parents’ bed with Whammy cuddled in her arms after a glass of warm, cinnamon-sweetened, milk to calm her. No trace of Flurry’s “bogeymare” had been found, leaving only the shattered door and witnesses to confirm that it had ever existed.
Cadance and Shining stood at the bedside, looking down at their sleeping daughter, “I’ll write Luna in the morning,” the unicorn said, “See if we can get a detachment of the Night Guard to train some of our legionnaires in monster hunting.”
Cadance shuddered, “You think there could be more of that … thing?”
“The number of truly unique beings in the world can probably be counted on one hand,” Shining shrugged, “So, yeah, whether it’s something newly come to the Empire or something ancient that has recently woken up, I think there will be more of them, and I want our ponies to be ready.”
“We’ll need to arrange for Flurry to see a therapist,” Cadance sighed sadly, “Our Pumpkin is a tough little filly, but this … being puppeted and forced to kill – even if it was in self-defense … this will almost certainly leave her with psychological issues … and at such a young age, too.”
“I’m glad Kragor is no longer retreating into herself away from the world, but we’re going to have to have a talk with her,” Shining frowned, “We knew that her bond would affect Flurry, but I don’t want Flurry picking up Kragor’s casual attitude towards violence.”
“I doubt she’ll understand why we’re upset,” Cadance replied, “To her view, she just helped Flurry defend herself – like a good soul-sister.”
The stallion grimaced, then gave a wry chuckle, “Does it make me a bad father that as unhappy as I am with Kragor, I still want to go around bragging about how my little filly went after the bogeymare with a sword?”
Cadance snickered, “Auntie Luna will be thrilled,” she sobered, “At least once she gets over the fact that there is something new in her night preying on foals.”
The royal couple got into bed, Flurry Heart snuggling against her parents, and no monsters haunted her dreams for the rest of the night.
Author's Note
Lord Lordington of Lordsdale, Viceroy Stuffins and Lady Buttoneyes are all creations of Chengar Qordath, and come from his Midnight Sparkle stories.
