The Maw of The Mountains

by str8aura

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Thriller, Fluttershy, Original Character, Horror, Profanity, Violence, Death, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 10146

A girl returns home at the invitation of an old friend. A fanmade story set in the continuity of The Truth Behind My Little Pony.

[The dead one's] name has now passed into the heritage of common speech. Listing 'burbank' as a transitive verb, Webster's New International Dictionary defines it: 'To cross or graft (a plant). Hence, figuratively, to improve (anything, as a process or institution) by selecting good features and rejecting bad, or by adding good features.' 'Beloved Burbank,' I cried after reading the definition, 'your very name is now a synonym for goodness!'

Paramahansa Yogananda-Autobiography of a Yogi

Special thanks to MisterNick, who had little hand in writing this particular one, but writing any story in this universe and not crediting him is like creating a Donald Duck cartoon and not crediting Carl Barks. He's had such a big hand in creating this universe, and since nearly all of the original stories credit him as a co-writer, it would be rude to not acknowledge him.

Slightly bigger thanks to Casketbase77, who helped a great deal more with this one, both idea and grammar wise.

And of course, the biggest thanks to Opium4TmassS for creating the universe I write this in in the first place. Without his grace and prereading, this story would not exist. I have no idea how you hooked me onto this idea, but I must thank you; I greatly enjoyed reading this, and would recommend many of his own stories set in this universe to a curious reader, if they can deal with the grammatical and storytelling flaws inherent in earlier entries.

Published 2021-07-15 23:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-07-15 23:40:00 UTC

The Maw of The Mountains

/co/ - Comics & Cartoons

Anonymous 07/01/18 (Sun)11:01:14 No.124141989 [Reply]

Does anyone remember My Little Pony?

Not the 80s show, I mean the 2010 one. I swear I remember seeing a few episodes of it. I remember reading in the credits of one episode that it was directed by Simon Kuklachelovek, who had previously worked for Mattel and Disney, but information on his time at Hasbro just suddenly stops after 2010. I watched a few episodes with an old friend of mine when we were kids, I stg, but nowadays I can't find anything on it anymore. Someone please help, I need something.

Anonymous 07/01/18(Sun)12:38:48 No.124143639

great another fucking creepypasta trying to start on here. go back to reddit

Anonymous 07/01/18(Sun)12:40:49 No.124143670

ooh spooky, fuck off candle cove

Anonymous 07/01/18(Sun)12:42:25 No.124143697

i recognize a bad ARG when i see one. take your made up show somewhere else

Anonymous 07/01/18(Sun)12:43:12 No.12414890

I wouldn't concern myself with that which will not affect you, Tabitha. I'm sure you'll remember more than you'll ever need to in time, but for now, keep your mind where it belongs. You may not be able to for very long.

Anonymous 07/01/18(Sun)12:50:12 No.12414900

12414890

now they're dipshit friend is on with alternate accounts. go jerk each other off

Tabitha was a woman who didn't question much. Everything had its place in the world, and it was hardly befitting of her to consider herself equal to anything more impressive than a leaf caught in a river. Life only seemed to move faster and faster as it went on, and if she asked why she was moved where every time it happened, she would never get anything done. So she accepted what was given to her, kept to herself, and patiently kept herself waiting for the next thing at every moment; she reacted, never observed, consumed and never created.

Despite accepting how little she knew in the grand scheme of things, she had to admit she found displeasure in how little control she had over her own thoughts; She deserved that much, she reasoned, and given how often they seemed to drift off the track she had set herself in, her body didn't seem to agree.

Even stranger was the predicament she found herself in currently, high in the air on a passenger plane cross country. She knew where she was going, why she was doing it, and how she would get there; this was more information than she usually allowed herself, and it seemed enough to keep her thoughts satisfied, but as she sat in her seat, she consistently found herself returning to a feeling of inexplicable dread.

She couldn't explain it; The very thought of doing this disturbed her viscerally, deeply, like she was trudging deeper into a pit of oil. A part of her wished she could stop the plane, make her plight known to any who would listen; I want to go home. I don't want to see my friend again. I want to live the rest of my life without ever thinking about what happened here.Tabitha could barely think with the mantra ricocheting in her head.

It was an irrational thought, and one that would impolitely decline the invitation she had been offered. But it was one she just couldn't shake.

The man sitting next to her at the window seat stirred, sitting up from his mess of disheveled clothes and peeking out at the mountain tips rising into view, dashed by raindrops miles away.

"We'll be touching down soon, I reckon." He commented to her, the impersonal show of civility only offered to a stranger you sat next to on a flight.

"Oh, thank you very much. I need to go to the restroom real quick before we land, excuse me..."

Inside the airplane’s tight restroom, she brushed locks of hair out of her eyes and tossed cold water over her face. She would be alright, she tried to convince herself, but a part of her brain had divorced itself from reason, locking itself in a room deep in the inwardly expanding labyrinth within her and growing larger and hungrier in isolation.

This nagging part only dared to show itself for a split second where, looking past herself in the mirror, Tabitha swore she saw another woman her age standing just past her, looking down neutrally at Tabitha's hunched back. She stood up quickly and turned around, but it had already retreated into her psyche, and the woman only registered as the shape of the door behind her.

Tabitha splashed more water over her face and returned to her seat.

Flight attendants began passing through the aisle as the man turned to her again.

"Rain's dying, let's hope it stays that way, eh? What are you here for?" He grinned sleepily.

"Oh, just coming to see a friend of mine. I grew up here, see." She explained, tittering and wringing her hands without thinking about it.

"Oh, a fellow New Mexican. It's good to meet you." They shook hands briskly, already too close for Tabitha's comfort just from their seating. "You seem shaken up. Scared of heights?"

She laughed hollowly. "Not really into planes."

"Ah, well lighten up, it won't be much longer, then you'll be back home. Hey, you know what they say about the state."

"I don't, actually."

He turned, shaking his head with a laugh as he looked out the window at the land. "The mountains always call you back."

Some hours later, Tabitha pulled into a convenience store on the side of a long road leading into Albuquerque. The car she had rented sat outside as she strolled inside under the fluorescent lights, looking with disinterest for snack foods, seriously considering skipping dinner tonight.

Those blinding lights hummed above her as she dragged her feet through an aisle of snack bars and chips. As she turned a corner, she passed a spinning vertical rack of beanie babies, and one toy in particular caught her attention. It was a yellow winged pony toy with a pink mane, sticking out noticeably larger than the others, and clearly vandalized with some kind of black marker. The eyes were blacked out with streaks running down it like tear stains; any child that wanted it would be a disturbed child indeed. The doll seemed to be the only one of its kind, but most of the toys gathered here seemed randomly assorted, as if donated from various garage sales, the only evidence to the contrary the price tags.

She shook her head to make sure she was seeing it correctly. Then. snorting in annoyance, she pulled it off its shelf and carried it up front, laying it in front of the night shift cashier.

"Someone's vandalizing the toy section; is there any way to clean this at all?" Tabitha barely noticed the person coming into line behind her.

The cashier looked it over slowly and deliberately, crunching through routine lines for the one most appropriate to this customer. "We can try, but I think something like this is better suited for-"

"Can I have that?"

A female voice piped up from behind her, and Tabitha turned in surprise to see an intimidatingly tall woman reaching into her pocket under a faded leather belt with a knife satchelled at one hip and a matchbox satchelled at the other, pulling out a wallet. Tabitha looked between the brunette and the disfigured toy skeptically.

"You want... this toy? The pony scribbled over in sharpee?" Tabitha asked

The woman ignored her with an apparent twinge of distaste, turning her head away obviously to look at the cashier. "How much would it be?"

He checked the tag, blinking away sleep. "Twelve, uh, twelve dollars."

"Sold." Tabitha moved out of the way, shaking her head as the woman coldly took her place and began making the transaction without a second thought.

"I- Okay, I need some time to check out still." She muttered to the two, a hopeless experiment to see if either were still listening.

As she pulled away, she registered the jingle of the door opening as someone else entered, but didn't consider it until she saw the man enter and cross towards the restroom. Finally glancing over, she recognized his disheveled clothing instantly. The man from the plane rubbed the back of his head with obvious sleep deprivement weighing him down. He didn't even notice Tabitha as he passed her, which she silently thanked, even as she had to awkwardly put her hand down. He had disturbed her enough in the plane. She just wanted to grab some chips and leave.

She fell back into her lull, footsteps of the other woman meeting her ears distantly as she seemed to patrol, not paying it any mind at the moment.

A loud crack emanated from the bathroom, like skull against tile. She looked around, wondering if anyone else had heard it. Tabitha glanced back to the door, waiting for him to come out, nervousness growing as he didn't. Her head began spewing theories and images of the man laying in a puddle of his own blood after a fall, and she briskly crossed the store towards it, against her better judgement.

As she entered the single bathroom, she thought she saw the tall woman lying on her stomach, taking a picture of the plushie set on the floor with her phone.

The man quickly glared up as she entered, and she instantly felt silly; He looked fine, if a little peeved, wiping his lip and standing in front of the sinks just fine.

"Sorry, I... thought I heard something. It's me, the girl from the plane." Tabitha muttered lamely.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, a single unintelligable syllable coming out before he shut it and took a step back.

She squinted and tilted her head, approaching slowly. "Are you alright? I didn't mean to startle you, I just... got worried. Did you hear that noise, was that... You?"

He remained speechless, staring at her like an unsightly animal. She began to feel slightly creeped out, turning to the mirror instead, noting how fogged it was, as if someone had been taking a hot shower in the public restroom, despite not having a shower at all.

"Were you... blowing on this thing?" There was no normal way to pose that question, and she avoided looking at him afterwards as she cleared the fog away in front of her face, waiting to see herself staring back. When she didn't, she wiped harder, then lower.

She wiped it off a little lower, and a little lower, and a little lower, finally unveiling the shape on the other side. She wasn't reflected at all; the mirror barely seemed to be itself, closer to a window to a room identical to the one she was in, stains and all. The person who stood on the other end wore familiar disheveled clothes, and leaned against the glass heavily, beefy fingers squirming for a weak grasp on the surface.

None of these details registered before his acephalous appearance. He was completely headless; A black void nestled in his neck, bubbling with a horrible, almost oily liquid that filled his hollow cadavre to bursting.

She took a step back, fixated in that familiar looking oily substance. As soon as she remembered a dried version of it caking the cheeks of a yellow pony plush, the back of her head was grabbed by meaty fingers.

Tabitha shrieked. Both hands flew to the face of the man behind her, gripping him tightly as her body swerved to try and escape his grasp. She finally wormed to the floor, dragging him with her as his own grip fell back to her hair, wrenching it from her skull. She was on the ground now, screaming for help as he crouched over her, readjusting his hold to her shoulders to try and pull her back up.

The bathroom door swung open, and someone drove their booted foot into his face. The man's head came off cleanly, and he fell backwards.

Tabitha struggled up, looking up to see the tall woman focused on the headless body. She turned to Tabitha, eyes flashing with rage directed at the body on the floor. "Get out of the bathroom. If you leave the store, I'll find you." Whether that was a threat or reassurance, Tabitha couldn't tell.

"I-I- What?" Tabitha whispered, before the body on the floor spasmed.

No part of it moved like a human in pain. The neck facing away from them swelled, the arms shriveled from meaty hunks to empty cocoons from fingertip to shoulder, the dead eyes of the removed head stared into them, in complete detachment from the agony the rest of his body appeared in. The copy of the man in the mirror was gone, and it was reflecting the room again, but both versions were identically headless now. As he jerked on the floor, his skin swam, shapes stretching it from the inside, and something began to extract itself from his body through the hole in the neck.

"Leave!" The tall woman hissed at Tabitha. She took the advice this time, streaking away from the bathroom and the headless monster it contained, panicked confusion wracking her nerves as she emerged into the lights again.

Seconds after she did, the tall woman burst through the door, weighed down by something massive, as if it had thrown itself at her like a wild animal diving for the kill.

The Thing stood on four skinny, bony, veiny legs that constantly expanded and contracted as if big globs of liquid were being pumped into them and instantly dissolved, barely giving them the energy they needed to stay upright on powerful hooves as they constantly shook. It was covered in a rotting pelt of matted yellow fur that didn't reach the legs, stained and dirtied where it did exist by the same black oily substance. Its head was stretched into a long muzzle that bore broken and sharpened teeth spilling out from it, expelling gusts of frozen air as if its wretched insides were below zero, nostrils flaring as it looked down at the woman it had pinned down with eyes that barely seemed organic; pools of black that reflected no light, like seamless portals into deep space. A mane of pink strands of long hair stuck together hung from its neck. It was massive, easily the size of a bear, and powerful enough to bowl her over despite how sickly and diseased it seemed.

Tabitha watched as its muzzle peeled back, gums and teeth stretched as the jaw unhinged and her entire face was torn- not opened by hinges in the skull, but forcefully torn- open to show the waves of fangs inside. There was no tongue, no saliva, only hundreds of teeth that pointed in every direction, covering every surface but a circle of abyss right at the back of the throat.

Tabitha whimpered, the pitiful sound carried miles across the store to the creature's ears. It glanced up, locking gaze with her and freezing. As she watched in frozen dread its back began to rise and fall quickly, and its maw repeatedly fell open, as if it were trying to throw something up, before a single word oozed from its lips, hanging in the air toxically.

TABITHA

The pinned woman seized the opportunity as it was distracted, swiping her knife across where its achilles tendon would be and then attempting to stab up at the stomach. It staggered, but backed off rapidly, allowing her to stand up as the creature hobbled at a ridiculously fast pace for its impairment down an aisle, smashing aside stands.

"Go down by the doors, cut it off!" The woman hissed, gripping her knife again.

"Go towards it?" Tabitha barely restrained screaming, face a ghostly white as she listened to its rampage.

"For God's sake, help me out here!" Was the last thing the woman spared to offer before rushing down after it.

Tabitha rushed for the door, blindly entertaining the option of running but staying inside- call it braveness, call it stupidity, but she felt it was something else; she was remembering things she hadn't remembered in a long time, and as she faced down the thing again by the now empty checkout desk, she realized a part of her was burning to see this through.

The creature howled, and charged at Tabitha. The burning inside her was instantly snuffed, and she backed into the glass, wishing she could melt into it as the creature dashed towards her. Time slowed down, and she saw the woman skid across the floor behind the beast, gauge the situation many thousands of times faster than Tabitha could, and rear back with the hunting knife, throwing it blade point perfect at the back of the creature’s skull.

The maw widened before her, and she looked into that pinprick of void nestled at the back of it; then the hot black liquid hit her.

The creature stopped dead and keeled, losing all momentum and spitting its hellish blood to the ground. As it slumped over, Tabitha noticed the knife lodged in the back of its head, cutting through into the jaws that its skull almost entirely consisted of. The creature skidded between its feet, looking between the two like a cornered animal, then pulled itself onto the desk and leaped up. With a final screech, it seemed to disappear; Tabitha noticed the security footage displayed of the store’s front desk from the TV hanging behind it swim and cut to static before returning.

The woman kneeled down to pick up the knife dislodged onto the face of the table, in the trail of black bloody streaks. Even covered in ink, she looked completely in control of the situation, her eyes constantly narrowed as if against a tough wind, her belt and boots screaming the cowgirl aesthetic. Tabitha didn't feel very much in control of her life at all right now, and she was more than happy to delegate it to this stranger.

Unsurprisingly, she didn't seem willing to take it. She looked between Tabitha and the empty desk and sheathed her knife.

"Go get the police and come back here." She muttered.

"I- Hey, and what are you going to do?" Tabitha protested, spitting out the ink that was running down her face and the front of her shirt from the gash inflicted before the monster vanished.

"Doesn't matter; get the police."

"What- No, what am I going to tell them?"

"Doesn't concern me, but with the footage, they'll probably think you killed him." The woman knelt down to pick up the plushie she had dropped and began to leave. Even looking at it's blacked out eyes made Tabitha sick.

Tabitha followed quickly, still wiping her shirt off. "Are they going to miss the horse monster with the teeth?"

"If the horse monster has anything to say about it." She pushed the door open and crossed out into the parking lot.

"Please, you can't just leave me here. I need to know what that thing was."

"You don't listen much, do you?" The woman glanced back at her disdainfully, and faced a truck Tabitha assumed was hers.

Weighing the odds, Tabitha finally spat out what had been on her back. "I've seen it before!"

The woman stopped, resting a hand on the roof of her black pickup, keys in her hand. Tabitha waited, then strode forward, words slipping out through the cracks of her mind.

"I've seen it before. Fluttershy, right? I didn't recognize the plushie, but when I saw that... that thing, I knew what it was. Please. I need to talk."

The woman stroked along the roof, looking down thoughtfully.

She finally nodded at the truck and unlocked it.

After her name, the first thing Nickie said was "Start talking."

She cut right to the chase as soon as they were on the road, not that Tabitha could have stood the silence any longer. She didn't hesitate, rambling every memory she could as she wiped sticky blood off her face with her sleeve.

"It was with my friend. One of my oldest friends, when I was still growing up here. We saw an episode of the show."

If this news was surprising to Nickie, she didn't react. "Did they attack you?"

"No, they didn't. Nothing happened, we just turned on a horror movie late one night, and it suddenly turned into this kid's show. I distinctly remember the yellow one."

"They did not attack you?"

"No, nothing happened. I mean... Nothing happened to me."

She nodded. "Your friend."

The plane bathroom. Tabitha shuddered.

"I don't want to talk about my friend. She doesn't matter. What matters is that I saw this show, and I have a feeling it doesn't get broadcasted often."

Nickie squinted at her but said nothing. "Open the glove box."

Tabitha did so, pulling it open and shifting aside napkins to reveal a blue loose leaf journal.

"Find any you recognize."

Tabitha opened it and began paging through it. On every page was a different creature; all shared the same four legged, long muzzled, tailed and maned equine shape, but many had deformities or protrusions that separated them. Above them was a name and a smaller name in quotes. To their side was a smaller doodle of a cuter, cartoon pony resembling them, and notes on their mane and pelt color. At the bottom, a short blurb described them.

She looked through the bestiary with increasing dread, realizing how many there were of these; it seemed endless, but she tried to remain calm, picking out a few above the others.

"This one."

The one they had seen in the gas station. Hundreds of teeth, tear streaks of oil (blood?) running down its face messily, sick and diseased. It had been nicknamed The Maw, although the larger letters called it, "Flutt-"

"Don't say it. Not when she's this close. Those names have power."

Tabitha thumbed to the next one shakily. "This one." She began showing the entries to the woman as she called them out.

Twilight. Icarus. Winged, although one was hanging on by a thread of flesh. Her neck was twisted into a knot, skin pulled taut against her bones. Seemed to be a leader of some kind.

Dash. Siren. Dripping a liquid betrayed by a footnote to be water. Mouthless, although the blurb still referenced her eating habits. Furless at the head, bare skin an oxygen deprived blue.

Pie. Laughter. Pelt and mane both listed as vibrant shades of pink in contrast to the others. Chunks of fur and flesh missing sporadically across it, as if torn out by something. A large footnote at the bottom in messy handwriting read KEEPS MENTIONING AN 'ANNA'. Talks the most.

"These things talk?" Tabitha looked up from the book.

"A few. Given how tough they are, it's not a bad way to keep them stalled or distracted in a fight."

Tabitha thumbed through a few more. "How long have you been doing this?"

"I'll withhold information from you until you stop withholding information from me."

Tabitha snorted. "Can you at least tell me what they are?"

"As much as I can. What’s your name?"

"Tabitha." Neither extended a hand, and both seemed content with this.

Nickie bit her tongue, eyes focused on the road as she seemed to contemplate how to start.

"I have no idea what they are; few people do. If they’re an animal of some sort, they’re the most intelligent non-human animal on earth. All I know is that they've been among us since 2010, at least. That was when the first recorded incidents began occurring; incidents nobody could really explain. They started out cautious; it seems they don't want to be known to the general public. Better for hunting I suppose. But as the years have gone by and they've remained invisible, they've been getting bolder. They seem to travel or… manifest somehow through mirrors and electronic devices, and they like to broadcast their attacks as much as possible. Call it cockiness I suppose, but it seems to work for them. The stupid dolls, the show, little odd occurrences like that are how they make themselves known before they attack, and once they do they…" She grimaced, hesitant to finish in light of recent occurrences. "They take the bodies of their kills and wear them. Lets them get a couple meals in the same place before they leave."

Tabitha thought back. "So then… that man…"

"You found the doll before he went in, I assume? My guess is one was waiting in the restroom's mirror. Cleaned him out shortly before you came in.

Tabitha's mouth gaped open and shut, still partly in shock. "And you say nobody's noticed this?"

"They're awfully good at cleaning up and clearing out. Whatever keeps them safe." Nickie jabbed a finger into the book without taking her eyes down.

"Then how does anyone know about them in the first place?" Tabitha asked, still trying to keep up.

"The only ways they let people know; Survivors like me who happen to be consistently lucky whenever they find one- which isn't helped by how often I look for them- and the only traces they'll leave behind, recordings of their show. Someone whips out a camera at them, the videos get deleted. Someone whips out a camera at the tv before they come out, that's good publicity. It gets shared around online as a paranormal show, and that just lets them spread."

Tabitha was hit with a sudden spark of memory. "I... Opened a thread a while back, online, asking if anyone knew about it. It's not exactly a memory that's left me. They seemed to think I was making it up. Is it some deep web information?"

Nickie rolled her eyes, scanning the side of the road. "Why bother with deep web knowledge? I don't doubt it, but I'm not screwing around on illegal websites when there are far easier options. Obscure message boards, supernatural threads online, youtube videos with five views, they're all the backbone of my knowledge. People still like the 80s show it was adapted from, as much as it baffles me from my point of view. That's how I get most of my videos of… you know, this show."

Tabitha placed a hand to her forehead. "Wait, you look for those things? You said it spreads through them."

Nickie smiled grimly. "What do you think we're trying to do right now? It didn't die. We need to get away from the city, somewhere only we know, and bring it in with those recordings. Recordings, and this."

She lifted the plush Fluttershy, petting its head.

It occurred to Tabitha she had gotten into a truck with a maniac. "We just barely got away."

"Others won't be so lucky. You wanted to keep going this route, it's your turn in the barrel."

Tabitha looked out the window. Adobe houses were getting more sparse as they left the outskirts of the city, crossing into the desert.

She thought over what she had gotten herself into genuinely. Minutes ago, she had been gathering chips in a convenience store, and now she was on the path of a half-incorporeal monster. But she wasn’t going in completely blind; she knew it bled, she was with someone who knew their tricks, and it was already heavily injured. She cautiously allowed herself some resolve. It was a strong, capable, intelligent animal; no different than hunting a wolf.

For a second, the rearview mirror reflected a grinning maw of teeth before vanishing. Tabitha screamed, stopping only when Nickie rested her hand on her shoulder.

"Take it easy. That's what we want."

Tabitha sat back in her seat, trying to catch her breath again. This would not be like hunting a wolf, she reminded herself. Nickie nudged her again.

"This is your final chance to back out. I can't guarantee your safety if you leave, but it's safer than if you come." She glanced over at Tabitha, eyes softening ever so slightly.

Tabitha’s mind turned over images of her friend, recollections of the same monster she sought out calling her directly by name. She thought about how little she understood of a suddenly far larger and far more sinister world. Tabitha's gaze solidified in direct contrast. "I'm not backing out now. You can't get rid of me that easily."

Nickie nodded curtly. "I'm happy to hear."

When she told Tabitha the sites to choose from, they elected on a site along a canyon trail rarely visited at night. Nickie kept camping equipment in her truck (deadly deflecting Tabitha's pesters of whether camping was legal on this path), and the decision was made to set shop deep into a forested area, in the hopes that potential gunshots would go unheard, although she warned Tabitha to keep them to a minimum. Tabitha fired back that she would hardly be thinking of tourists if her life was in danger, and the complaint was dropped.

The moon was reaching its apex as they finally settled down at the campsite, both pulling themselves over into the bed of the trunk. Nickie rested her phone against the tailgate, turned off with the dead screen facing them.

"We don't know how long it'll take for her to show up. Make sure you'll be ready, is what I'm saying."

"They telegraph their attacks, right? I think we should be fine." Tabitha muttered, resting the safety activated rifle against her side pointed into the air.

Nickie raised an eyebrow at her blatant disregard of firearm safety. "That's the mindset they get you with."

Tabitha rested back against the truck, glancing back at the phone they were huddled around. "What's better than this? Watching cartoons with your friend and waiting to shoot a monster." She joked halfheartedly.

Nickie's finger hovered over the power button. "You ready to start?"

Tabitha tensed. "Never moreso."

The opening was an anticlimax, to say the least. She recognized many of the characters from that episode she had seen all those years ago, but it didn't seem to be the same one. Tabitha had read a horror story or two over the years, and half expected the screen to be doused in blood at any second, or begin glitching out, but for all intents and purposes it continued to be a completely normal episode of a children's cartoon, and aside from the uncanny sensation of knowing what the bright characters parading on screen appeared as in the flesh, she found it to be relatively enjoyable; a simple and dumbed down story about the blue one losing her pet tortoise. Seeing the monster she had seen doused and choked in Nickie’s book crying over an animated animal was… peculiar, to say the least.

"Keep your trigger finger ready." Nickie reminded, remaining tense.

Tabitha looked between her and the darkness surrounding them, then back at the screen. Beginning to feel stifled by the air, she attempted to cut through it.

"Okay, I've got to ask you this, because I've been thinking about it ever since you showed me the journal." Tabitha shifted closer to Nickie, resting her head on the taller girl's shoulders.

"Shoot." Nickie replied.

"Do you ever watch these and think, like, this is what I'm scared of? These are coldblooded killing machines?" Tabitha gestured to the rainbow-haired pony on screen.

Nickie was dead silent for a minute, then cracked a smile. "Yes."

Tabitha exhaled as the successful attempt at levity, pushing onwards. "I mean, look at them. Of all the ways these things could've looked like, nature chose these. Do you think they animate the show themselves?"

Nickie barked a laugh. "I doubt nature has much to do with them. I wasn't lying about how their names have power earlier, but it's not nearly as drastic as I made it sound. Do you know why I really gave them nicknames like that, and shortened their real names?"

"Hmm, why?"

"It's because, as I was writing it, I didn't have the heart to admit that the creature on this planet I detest the most is named 'Pinkie Pie'. She's not even the worst. I definitely didn't have the heart to admit that the creature I've spent years investigating the existence of, the debatably made up, insanely powerful creature the internet speaks of in whispers, the being who is said to only speak to the dead; do you know what her name is?"

Tabitha bristled with a smile. "What?"

"Derpy. Her name is Derpy. Do you think a possible goddess named herself after the internet slang, or did her name come first? How did the name of a deity caught between life and death become synonymous with 'wonky'?"

Their laughs echoed over the rocks, the wild lit only by the cellphone they sat in front of like a campfire. For a moment, only the tinny song the characters sang together played through the speakers.

Tabitha shivered. "...Goddess?"

Nickie bit her lip. "...I don't know. All I know is, some of these creatures are far more powerful than others. The two I've majorly heard of are Derpy, who seems to be the only vaguely benevolent one by inaction, and... Chaos? Entropy? Discord? I've heard a couple versions of the other one's name, but I'm fairly certain they're... one of the most powerful. Either way, I've never run into them, and accounts of those who have have all been debunked. I'm not sure he's ever done anything.”

There was another miserable pause. Even the characters in the show briefly ceased conversation.

“How many of the rumors and leads you find online are true?”

“More than I’d like.” Nickie admitted. “The problem is, people rarely know what they’ve come across. That, and they rarely wait long enough for whoever finds them to post online about it. Like I said; they're good at covering their tracks. Between that, and never being sure if the ‘haunted pony dolls’ people talk about are the old 80s ones or the actually monstrous ones, a lot more of my job is sitting at a computer and clicking links than fighting monsters. I’ve had to download a lot of antiviruses.”

It was clear the conversation had turned dour again. Tabitha stared into the small phone screen like a campfire, face illuminated in shades of blue.

"I just realized that man died. I didn't know him, but he's dead. He's never coming back." Tabitha muttered. "It seems obvious, but… I've had other things to think about. It still hadn't sunk in until just now. I never even called the police. I don't know how long it'll be until they find him."

Nickie shook her head. "It's not just you. I know what it's like."

Tabitha glanced down at Nickie’s boots. "You know, I'm thinking maybe we should find something else in common besides eldritch creatures. I barely know anything about you, and we seem to have some time before they show up."

Nickie glanced up at the stars.

"You like planes?"

Tabitha grimaced. “No.”

“You like horses?”

Tabitha didn’t even grace that with a response.

“You like, uh… Snack food?”

Tabitha deeply inhaled.

“Yes.”

It was less than an hour later when they heard it. They had long since run down their list of videos, and the Fluttershy plush sat like a figurehead on top of the truck, gazing out into the woods as an unofficial mascot.

Mid conversation, both feel silent, staring at each other as if daring the other to admit they had heard a sound. Come the second rustle, they lifted their guns and stood up.

"Back to back." Nickie hissed as they leapt onto solid ground and convened on a patch of dirt near the truck. Their position looked out onto the declining rocks, a cliff a little ways away from them; not steep enough to die if they happened to slip off, but steep enough that something trying to climb up it wouldn't go unnoticed.

Their surveillor didn't seem interested in the rocks. The noises all came from deeper in the gnarled trees, and after a long silence during which they had only each other to confirm the noises had ever existed, a voice emerged.

"Tabitha?"

It came from deep in the shadows, quiet and reserved, crackling and compressed like a doll's voice box.

"Answer her." Nickie whispered from behind.

Inhaling sharply, Tabitha obeyed.

"...Yes?"

The voice seemed satisfied. "I thought it might be you. I've heard good things about you."

"No human talks like that. Shoot to kill." Nickie spoke, eyes peeled.

"Fr-From who?" Tabitha robotically continued the conversation.

"A friend of yours. She speaks very highly of you. We're glad you came back."

"What do you want from me?" Tabitha's voice dropped octaves as it became hoarse.

"She wants to see you again. That's why you came back, isn't it? She misses you. Death is so rarely the end you think it is. Many of us are past that.

"You can be, too.

"All you have to do is-"

Tabitha fired at a rustling bush within view. Nickie leaped behind her, whirling around and darting her eyes about to try and find the disturbance.

"Jesus dick..." She muttered shakily.

For a moment, there was no response. Then, a simple, quiet, yet solemn-

"I'm sorry."

The clearing lit up with noise, all sorts, laughs and roars and whoops and whistles and cries and screams, like every human emotion was being bastardized by an alien trying to replicate them to communicate. There were far, far more than either had anticipated, and in the span of the split second where discordant noise was all that was, both realized their rifles brought nothing to this fight.

Panic overtook Tabitha, and for a moment, any flash of fur or meat was game for shooting, which they seemed to gleefully take advantage of. Nickie screamed for her to stop, and she ejected her clip, turning to the already short supply of shots; they had only expected one weakened creature, not multiple healthy ones. As soon as she did, she caught sight of the soundless attack from behind, swooping over the rocks in either flight or a powerful leap; it collided with Tabitha, who barely had time to lift her arm before she was slammed onto her back, hitting her head hard on the rocks with a painful crack.

Black eyes stared down into her as a gurgled croak met her ears, like a choked cry through a throat full of water. She barely had time to recognize it as the blue pony she had just seen singing about cleaning up for springtime before it was kicked off her and slashed at, Nickie forgoing her gun for close combat. Tabitha scrambled for it, taking a potshot at The Maw as it creeped closer, hissing through cascading teeth and circling around them from a distance.

Tabitha's head swam as she reloaded, noting how her own shot had been the only one fired from this gun. She was far from trained, and missed quite a few more before clipping through Fluttershy's good foreleg, planting her into the ground before she forced herself to stand up. The clip was empty already, and Tabitha found herself wishing they had brought handguns as she stood tense, unwilling to risk running for another box.

Nickie rolled beside her, Dash and her foe both acknowledging their current inability to best the other as they took strides away. It was then when the third foe took center stage, bursting through brambles and crossing the clearing in two bounds. Nickie grabbed her gun back, aiming, and heard the empty click. She grimaced over at Tabitha in the second before she was hit, her and the larger creature rolling down the hill, something crunching loudly as they did.

Tabitha looked between Dash and Fluttershy and rested her hand on the truck door, waiting for a reaction before quickly pulling it open and diving into the driver's seat. As soon as the door was shut, they slammed into it, Dash crawling atop the roof and banging down on the front windshield and Fluttershy tearing at the door.

The Maw and the Siren screamed in a hellish cacophony as Tabitha fumbled for the keys left on the dash, turning them in the lock and kicking the headlights on. The Siren rolled onto her hood, and Tabitha reversed instantly, desperate to get away.

Her split second decision pulled her back into the rocks, and she heard something dent before she was rolling backwards down the terrain, Dash, still gripping to her hood, reared back before slamming her head into the glass over and over like a warped perversion of a woodpecker.

Tabitha stopped suddenly, kicking Dash forward off the hood and out of sight as whatever they hit moaned a low, terrible moan. She slowly turned, resting a hand on the back of her seat to see what she had hit, and saw the front half of the largest one that had attacked Nickie lying in her bed, severed messily at the tailgate. This close, she could make out its matted dark colors and identify it as Twilight, The Icarus.

Tabitha pulled herself out, looking in shock at the bottom half of The Icarus mutilated under her tires, stopping the truck dead in its tracks, and began shaking.

"NICKIE!" She yelled, looking around wildly for her friend.

A low grumble emitted behind her, and she suddenly remembered the Siren, whipping around to watch it approach slowly, limping and covered in cuts.

She felt over herself for a weapon, looking to the rocks below her, and picking up the largest one she could carry; then, with all her might, lifted it over her head, took a single stride forward, and brought it down hard over Dash's head, crushing it into a black pulp.

She backed away from the pool of ink, taking a second to lean against the truck, breathing heavily.

Something loomed over her.

As soon as she noticed its shadow on the lit up rocks, she felt the burning hot black residue drip onto her hand, and her breath caught in her throat.

"What do I want from you?" The girlish, crackly voice from the woods whispered inches from her ear. "I want you to go back home. Alone and unarmed. Your friend misses you. I'll see you there."

When she finally worked up the strength to turn around, nothing remained but the burnt red spot on her arm.

"Tabitha?" She whipped around to see Nickie stumbling over, clothes torn in several places, hunting knife sheathed loyally to her side. "You..."

Nickie looked between the bodies. "This... isn't bad for a first time. Did The Maw die?"

Tabitha finally put the pieces together; the first time she had heard the voice in the woods, the dripping ink, and the entry on Fluttershy in the journal. Her face sunk into her hands.

"Nope." She muttered.

"Your friend is dead, isn't she?"

Tabitha didn't know when she had earned the right to drive the truck. She didn't care to ask. She just nodded morosely and kept driving.

The sun was rising by now, as they made their way down the road in the now undoubtedly street illegal truck. Covered in black corrosive gunk, windshield smashed, entire tailgate punched in, door covered in claw marks, it was a small wonder they hadn't been pulled over yet as they passed by houses.

"She... died a little later. I don't think they murdered her, I-"

"Was it an animal attack?"

"I don't want to talk about-"

"Children don't just drop dead."

"I don't want to talk about how she died." Tabitha snapped crossly. "The point is, going home, after it happened, sitting on my bed and waiting to hear the news... As soon as I started crying I- I saw her. It was just for a second, and... Ever since then, I swear I've been seeing flashes of her for... years. Every time I try to forget about her, I'll just see her out of the corner of my eye, or in a mirror. She's grown up with me, too- I see her as a grown woman now, she died as a teenager."

Nickie remained silent for a second, before a subtle sigh escaped her lips. "I'm sorry."

Tabitha kept her eyes on the road. "That's why I came here. I was invited to her death anniversary. She died today, as a matter of fact. I doubt many are going to show up to her grave, but I figured I had to. I don't know where she is, but I know she didn't pass silently. And if they’re to be believed, those things have something to do with it."

Nickie turned away, and Tabitha noticed. "Nickie, if there's any reason these creatures would take interest in me, or a long dead teenage girl who only saw them once, I need to know. Anything at all."

Nickie avoided looking at Tabitha.

"Does it have something to do with your fear of planes?" She asked quietly.

"I'll withhold information from you until you stop withholding information from me." Tabitha replied sharply.

Both avoided looking at each other as they pulled up to a house. resembling every other house that surrounded it.

"Here it is. This is where I grew up. This is where I first watched that tape. This is one of the last times I saw her... for real." Tabitha whispered.

Nickie forced herself to look over, resting a hand on her shoulder. "This is what they want you to do. Let me come."

Tabitha slowly removed it, but didn't let go. "I know. They said alone. I don’t know what they’ll do if I disobey. They could just decide I’m… Not worth the trouble."

Nickie sighed, removing her knife from her belt and lifting the Fluttershy plush they had found on the rocks, looking into its blacked out eyes.

"Stay safe." She muttered halfheartedly to Tabitha.

The house hadn't been sold. It was completely empty, and no for sale signs sat on the yard.

As Tabitha opened the door and stepped in, nostalgia washed over her; the rooms she could see had barely changed a bit. She tiptoed gingerly up the steps, unconsciously stepping over the second to last one she knew creaked, and began walking towards the room at the end of the hall, as if in a trance, as if the past 30 years had never happened and she was still a child returning home from school.

The walls whispered to her as she passed. The lights from the open blinds cast upon thousands of dust particles that seemed to vanish as she stepped through them. A smell drifted up from the floorboards; musty yet sweet, like her old grandmother's house in the spring. More memories of running through these walls as a young child, then a teenager lit up in her mind, each step bringing a different occasion to heart.

Another step brought hostility from the house; One moment it cared for and loved her as it had when she was young, the next it seemed to recognize her for what she was now; an intruder disturbing the dead. The same whispers turned from snippets of remembered conversation from parents and friends to the hushed panics of strangers, none of whom knew where or who they were; and Tabitha was among them.

As she approached the room at the end of the hall, more foreign sensations met her, funny familiarities she just couldn't place; the squeaking of old wheels, the protective grasp of a friend's hand at her own, the smell of rotting cloths. They formed a song she couldn't comprehend, could only parse into sensations of memory, and she somehow knew it reached its crescendo as she opened the door.

The room had the same dirty wooden floor as the rest of the house. Little remained in it, save an old busted TV set covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Filthy and fragile blinds swayed lightly, casting sunbeams over the TV. She remembered now, sitting up here as a child, and what she had seen on here for the first time; something she would barely consider worth remembering until now, decades later.

She remembered why she was here all at once, and quickly grew angry, sitting down in front of the TV and flipping the buttons and knobs on it, waiting for something to happen.

"Fluttershy!" She called out, no longer caring about whatever powers the names might hold. "Twilight!" No longer caring about staying safe. "Dash!" No longer caring about the danger of the monsters. All she wanted was answers.

She began shaking the TV, then banging on it, and then, finally, in a fit of rage, she punched it.

An infinite emptiness sat behind the broken glass, cold as the pits of hell, and she instantly withdrew her hand. On what remained of the screen, multiplied into many tiny copies by the cracks running along it, a small yellow pony smiled at her.

"Hi." Fluttershy said quietly.

Tabitha caught her breath from the shock, lying on her knees with her head tilted down, chest gently rising and falling.

"What do you want?" The tiny cartoon asked curiously. "The secret of your friend's death? There is none. You know exactly what happened.” She continued the conversation from the previous night as naturally as if it had just happened. “The secret of us? I suppose that is more interesting, but it's hardly something you'll get here.” The hand-animated figure barely showed a hint of emotion as it ran through the same frames of talking. “The secret of life and death? We're so far removed from both, we could barely even describe them to you."

"I..." Tabitha hesitated. The wind blew hard against the house, seemingly threatening to topple the rotted wood. She had left everything behind; All that remained was the corpse of a blissfully happy life. Time had moved on.

Her mind steeled. "I want to know where she is. I want to know what happened after she died. I want to know why a bunch of murderous machines care about a girl who died decades ago."

The TV turned off. And at once, the phantom grasp on her hand hardened and tugged, pulling her onto her feet.

"Come here."

She was led out of the room, and as she passed by the empty picture frames, the glass reflected the simpler, hand drawn Fluttershy walking her down the hall. No trace of The Maw remained, not even a drop of the inky liquid.

"Your friend pretends to understand us. But she does not; she has only caught glimpses of what lies beneath us."

Down the stairs, taking care to avoid the second step.

"You've thought too much trying to understand us. We are not monsters, or demons, or gods, or mutants. We are creatures just like you."

Towards a grand mirror hanging in the hallway, surrounded by gold laced furnishings. Tabitha remembered how she had loved it as a child, tracing a finger along the elegant designs carved into its borders.

"What separates us is one being. They allow us to live, to feed, to enter a world that does not belong to us. They care for us, and they care for you; and they know your dear departed friend. The dead have not left the earth for a long time; a body is fragile, and we find it... tragic that the universe steals so many souls before their time. So, this being has created a better system.”

Tabitha’s hands shook in horror as the bastardization of nature stared her down. She drew closer to it as Fluttershy’s voice migrated from the gentle whisper of a friend to the call of an entire race, beckoning her in.

“Whenever a human dies, they’re offered the option to become the superior species, whose bodies could never be so easily destroyed. And this being does this because they care."

The mirror was nothing more than a black hole to another reality now. When she looked into it, she saw no shadows, no light, nothing that suggested depth; And yet, she knew it existed infinitely within the mirror's depths.

"Discord cares." Her phantom guide whispered. "He cares enough to reverse the death that steals your kind. He cares enough to unleash us upon the world."

She stared deep, deep into the mirror. Her hand fidgeted at her side.

"Your friend Nickie, she thinks only about killing us, containing us. Neither is possible. We cannot die. We cannot be stopped. The way to salvation is to join the tide that will strip your kind clean; He can save you from death. He can bring you to the side that always wins. The side that knows nothing but the joy of creation, of feasting and living in a world we are soon to win. And when the day comes, we want you to be among our ranks, beautiful and free."

Her finger gingerly felt under her shirt. In the mirror was nothing; nothing upon nothing upon nothing reaching towards her, beckoning her in.

"After all, you came highly recommended."

Thousands of eyes were on Tabitha as a great mass of nothing reached for her, ready to celebrate the arrival of a new friend. All it took was her own death, and she would have far more than her friend; she would have bliss.

Tabitha thought she saw a woman.

Tabitha reached under her shirt, feeling at the leather belt strapped to her skin and the pouch attached to it containing Nickie's hunting knife.

She slashed behind her without looking and was rewarded with a blood curdling shriek and a splash of ink on her face, spurted horribly from nothing. The mirror retracted into glass, and she saw only herself.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. The house replied only by screaming.

I'LL TEAR YOU APART

She fumbled with the matchbox and fell back against the wall, lighting it quickly and holding it forward. A ghostly afterimage of The Maw seemed to retract into the darkness, and the walls shook.

The human ran out, every door in the house banging, every room seeming to shrink in on her, every hallway seeming to stretch into oblivion as she ran up the stairs. Every single step creaked like a screech, and as she ran along the final stretch to the room with the busted TV, every picture frame was full. She didn't dare to look at them, only catching glimpses of herself and her parents as she ran by them, knowing the house was using her own memories to beg her not to destroy it. It had been infested by now, by the many creatures clawing at their catch as it slipped away.

THINK OF HER, TABITHA

She ran past the broken TV, kicking it over and going instead for the window. The blinds caught aflame instantly, and the roof teetered as if something heavy was standing atop it. She backed out just before it caved in, and suddenly the entire house seemed to be trying to shrink into itself. Back the hallway, down the steps, down the hallway, down the hallway, down the steps, down the hallway, down the steps, down the hallway, and she realized there were thousands of rooms where none had been before.

THEY WANT YOU, COME BACK TO US

It seemed to be hundreds of voices at once. Tabitha charged blindly into a wall, and it fell apart like dust.

Every picture frame contained the same woman now, but she knew it wasn't her friend; it was a bastardized replica of her, salvaged from half memories of her human childhood and what she would have become. Tabitha knew the house was pleading with her- if not the house, whatever it contained. Whatever the figure was, whoever these beasts served.

The exit was now right in front of her. Her entire reality teetered in jerky shifts, as if the door was snaking away from her, before she finally outran it, bursting through and outside.

Smoke was rising through the windows as one last scream died behind her, and she dived into the car.

Nickie seemed on the verge of shaking, giving the wheel a death grip. "Jesus, Tabitha, I thought you had died. What the fuck happened in there?"

Tabitha didn't respond, grabbing the Fluttershy plushie off the floor. She stared into its eyes one last time before breaking away, sinking her nails into it, tearing holes large enough to worm her fingers into. Her hands burnt as she gripped the insides of it and tore, fissuring the inky blood onto her lap and finally tossing what remained of the creature out the car window.

"Drive." She muttered, catching her breath.

Nickie obeyed quickly, kicking the gas and leaving the row of abandoned houses behind her.

Tabitha took a slow inhale, unwrapping the belt from her waist and handing it back to Nickie gratefully, then wiping the splash of burning liquid off her face and shirt. As she did, she spared a glance back to her childhood house, watching smoke begin to waft from the windows betraying the death inside. Tabitha thought to herself it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Tabitha turned back, looking forward with her mouth hanging open before dropping her tired head into her hands. "This is what you do everyday?" She muttered.

The next day, Tabitha and Nickie stood over a familiar gravestone.

The name read Karen Spohn.

Tabitha watched it for a moment, saying nothing. Then, she cried. She realized she hadn't cried for her friend in a long time. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried at anything, for that matter.

Tabitha was a woman who didn't question much. Everything had its place in the world, and it was hardly befitting of her to consider herself equal to anything more impressive than a leaf caught in a river. Because of how often she considered life set in stone, she rarely let occurrences out of her control bother her. But her closest friend as a child was dead. Nothing could bring her back.

She didn't want anything to bring her back.

Tabitha cried for a very long time, finally finishing what she had began sitting on her bed as a teenager. It felt like a purge of emotions, a horrible but much needed expelling of every thought she’d had of this tragedy, every wish and hope and desire. She accepted that her friend was gone, and when she was done, she leaned down to the headstone and rested flowers on it.

As she did, she heard whispering, but didn't try to listen. It was best not to disturb the dead.

She turned back to Nickie, and gave her a hug. After a moment, they broke apart.

"Thanks for lending me your belt. And trusting me, really."

"Thanks for... meeting me, I guess. I needed real human interaction again." Nickie chuckled.

Tabitha smiled grimly. "I'm staying in the state a few more days. Do you want to do something…I dunno, casual? Normal?”

Nickie put her hands in her pockets and shuffled her boots. “I carry a knife everywhere and jump at small noises. I’m not the best for casualness.”

“Yeah, but… we could always get breakfast. I haven’t slept all night, I still don’t even know where my hotel is… we can figure our way through this, get back to a schedule we can work with. Then, if you still want, we’ll start looking online for more ponies. Find our next trail. I’m sure you don’t have any now. Two sets of eyes are better than one, right?”

Tabitha extended her hand in gesture. Nickie looked at it reluctantly, before lifting a trepidatious hand and resting it on her palm.

Her fingers closed. “Yeah. That sounds nice.”

They both left the headstone, hands locked. Tabitha thought about what she had been told, how they could never die, how they could reunite her with her friend, how futile any side that wasn't theirs was.

But their bargaining chip was dead. Karen deserved her rest; Tabitha had someone better now, someone who still had a life to lose. Someone she could help, who could lead her down a path harder, but more fulfilling than anything the deathless beasts could offer her. They offered numbness. Nickie offered purpose, which was something Tabitha’s current life didn’t offer often

Tabitha didn't look back.