It was a lovely evening, the sun was slowly setting in the horizon, as in its place now wandered the moon, rising up as the sky darkened. And as the mellow warmth of the celestial body ended, the sky ‘cooled down’ to reveal more calmer and softer shades of the azure. Little stars glistened, forming the full picture of a beautiful, moonlit night.
Most ponies would either go to their homes and sleep or have a relaxed family evening with their beloved ones. Others would meet with their friends, partying with them until the next morning would come. And again some would sleep outside, camping in the wilderness of the forest. And this story here is going to be about a little group of ponies, consisting of a yellow unicorn stallion going by the name of Test Tube, a lavender pegasus mare called Cirrus, and an earth pony mare whose coat was lime green and was named Hydroponic.
Throughout the day those three ponies were setting up their camp whereas they worked perfectly as a team. The pegasus was scouting around in the search for a clearing until she had found the perfect spot. Once that’s been done she went back towards her friends in order to lead them back to the glade.
And while the unicorn did set up the tents as well as the fireplace where Cirrus helped him with, Hydroponic went on her way in order to find some firewood. Luckily for her, there hasn’t been a lot of rain the past couple of days, letting the mare find quite a bunch of sticks and dried branches. And while she was at it, she was thinking about collecting some mushrooms as a little ingredient for the vegetable stew she’d be cooking later on during the evening.
As time went by the ponies finished setting everything up and getting ready to make themselves some supper as soon as the fireplace had been built up. Their camp was set, the stew was already cooking in the cauldron as it swayed over the fire. Said fire also had the secondary purpose of bringing light into the deep and dark night.
Talking and relaxing as they ate their vegetable stew, the friends were discussing all kinds of topics with the typical joke and pun thrown in every now and then! And with time the fire slowly burned out, the last two logs were placed atop of it to keep it alight for as long as it could while they went inside their tents. Wishing each other a good night they laid to rest...and after several minutes of some crickets chirping away in the night one could hear a deafening snore, coming from one of the tents!
“Quiet!” the pegasus yelled loudly.
Knowing who complained, the unicorn concentrated his magic on the tent where Hydroponic slept, using it to pull on her sleeping bag. Turning her around she audibly thumped on her belly. The snoring ended, quick movements were made, and Test Tube immediately stopped his magic, laying low in the dark of the night as both he and Cirrus tried not to snicker too loud. The earth pony simply huffed for a moment before she went back to sleep as well...snore-free!
Soon enough the fireplace’s flames would diminish, leaving but a glowing heap of embers as the night went on. Occasionally one could hear crickets and grasshoppers chirping in the darkness…
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
A shrill and frightening sound, the way that only a scream of terror could properly be taken as an example to describe what it was supposed to be. The ponies jumped up, the unicorn illuminating his horn and the area around them as he quickly called out from the ‘safety’ of his tent, “G-guys? What was that…?” he half-whispered as both the earth pony and pegasus mare went out of their tents, visibly shivering. Test made his way out of his tent as well, cautiously and full of fear.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
There it was again, the scary and deafening sound, destroying every form of peacefulness that was there before and replacing it with feelings of dread. The three then jumped up in the air, with Cirrus nervously flapping her wings for a moment.
“S-should we...investigate?...” Hydroponic asked the group with her shaky voice before she then breathed in and out in a calm manner, trying to steady herself again, “Perhaps...someone needs help?...” she wondered aloud.
“No! Nononono! Nu-uh! I’m not gonna go into the woods when everything’s dark and Celestia knows what could be lurking around!” Test Tube interjected with a loud voice.
“Pff! Ya scared?” Cirrus then answered, faking confidence as she smirked. And said fake was almost perfect if it hadn’t been for the fact that her wings were shivering.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
And with that they all got startled once more, the earth pony shaking and speaking out, “A-alright, y’know what?! I’m gonna search for the source because I can’t stand to just lie around idly, trying to get some sleep and ignore whoever or whatever is screeching as if they’re about to die!...” she stomped on the earth beneath her. “Who’s with me?” Hydroponic asked the other two.
Cirrus hesitantly nodded, flapped with her wings and landed right next to her. The two mares were looking at Test Tube while he was shivering in place.
“C’mon, Test, it’s gonna be fine!...we’re three ponies here.” Cirrus pressed on, looking at the fearful unicorn.
Who, in turn, was looking on the grass while he nervously gulped down. Then he closed his eyes and as he flared his nostrils for the moment, breathing out slowly. “A-alright...I guess you two will need someone to light the way, right?” he then slowly but surely began to smirk once more, “If this is...if I’ll die I’m going to haunt both of you.” he stated with a grin.
“Alright, so...where did this scream come from?” Cirrus wondered, looking around the glade as Hydro was turning towards a path that was south-east to them.
“If my ears didn’t deceive me then I think the sound was coming from that direction.” the earth pony pointed to where she was looking and Test Tube illuminated the way as his horn continued to glow in the dark of the night.
And so the group went on, trotting through the dark and eerie forest as they were confronted with...nothing. As if the screams were taunting the little group, no sound was heard. Except for the chirping of little crickets. As those agonizingly long minutes were passing by, the three ponies became increasingly tired and annoyed.
“This just can’t be!” Cirrus said with a groan. “This is all so tiring…” Test stated, sighing and yawning afterwards. Only Hydro was still silent, looking around as her ears were flicking, moving about as if to echolocate any kind of sound around them.
As the unicorn’s nervousness slowly subsided, his body being taken over by fatigue and tiredness, his horn began to flicker, the light becoming less and less...until finally he’d find himself asleep for a couple of seconds, standing on his legs all the while he softly snored...and right then and there, just when the two mares turned around to wake him up again, they all could hear an almost deafening scream!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
While Cirrus flew into the next bush out of fear, Hydroponic was the one who instinctively turned away from the source of the scream, which seemed to be a tree, and bucked against the tree trunk. “T-take this!” she screamed and yelled all the while Cirrus and Test Tube were hiding away.
A loud ‘bump’ against the tree trunk, a sudden sound of further screaming, which was cut off as the source of the loud voice fell down through the treetop, buzzing a little bit before it landed in one of the bushes nearby. “W-what the buck!?” it called out.
Test Tube and Cirrus jumped out of the bushes immediately, the unicorn’s horn lighting up in order to illuminate the area around them once more. “Show yourself, now!” all three ponies yelled out in unison.
And with some rustling coming from the bushes, followed by a wicked laughter said creature jumped out of the shrubbery, “Surprise!” it yelled with a happy-go-lucky voice before it was punched in the face by none other than Hydroponic, its insectoid wings were buzzing and it was now lying on the ground.
“What the buck was that for?! Sheesh! Ow!” it yelled in anger. Its body was charcoal black, a jagged horn adorned its head, compound eyes were staring up at the group and the creature hissed at them for a second. Legs in the holes were the very last piece of proof to be sure that it was, in fact, a changeling lying before them. “Ever heard of personal space? S-stupid ponies!...” shaking its head it then slowly stood up once more, the right hoof moving its jaw a little as it then stared at them in disapproval.
The group was shocked, standing there in confusion, fear and anger. Seemingly oblivious, the Changeling just continued to stare at them for a second before it began to talk, “Alright! How about we start this anew, okay? My name’s Cicada, pleased to meet y-” it was interrupted by Cirrus and Test Tube screaming in fear as if they’d seen a monster. Cicada put a hoof to its head and sighed, “I’m surrounded by idiots…”
After what seemed like several seconds of them screaming at the Changeling. It shook its head once more, “I must say, you all really need to work on your skills if you want to join us in our little game.” Cicada chuckled a little and quickly stepped closer to the earth pony, booping her right on the snout with its hole-y hoof before getting back a couple of meters a second later. The mare let out a squeak of surprise, scrunched and shook her head.
“Not gonna risk getting punched in the face again...Can you at least apologize for punching m-” once more it was interrupted.
This time it was Hydroponic, “Apologize!? You terrified us with your screams! You kept us awake and we were searching for a reason why this screaming happened! We thought there were some ghosts out here! What even is the reason for this celestia-darned screaming?!” she yelled at the Changeling, angered and furious.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you found yourselves in our play area! Besides...it was just about 30 minutes that you have looked around...as far as I have counted the minutes. It was quite funny to watch!” Cicada then giggled, “And this screaming is kind of my trademark! It’s pretty nice playing hide and seek with my siblings and then I’d scream! Sometimes I see a little bit of movement from them or they just try to scream back at me. We’re just being a little silly like that sometimes.”
Then, Test Tube’s eyes went wide open, as he realized something. Immediately he spoke to the Changeling and asked, “W-wait...you said ‘my siblings’...w-where are they right now?...” a question to which the unicorn actually didn’t want to hear an answer to.
Cicada chuckled lightly, pointing up to the trees with its hoof. As the three ponies slowly turned their heads, gazing up into the crowns they could see dozens of blue shimmering eyes staring down at them! “Say hi to my siblings!” it grinned and giggled more so.
And that was the very same moment where all three of the ponies took a step back...before screaming and yelling in fear and terror as they were all bolting away at top speed!
Tilting its head the Changeling then just sighed and shrugged as it then looked back up at the other buggos, “Well...I tried!”
