15: Invasion of the Ponysnatchers

My outburst had attracted the attention of the creatures inside. One of them flew immediately to the window, pressing its face against the glass and hissing.

"Witnesses!" the creature at the window snarled to its accomplice. "We can't let them escape, it will spoil everything!"

"YAAAH!"

I continued to back away from the window.

"What are those things?!?" cried Sweetie Belle.

The monster's horn crackled with blue-green light, and suddenly the window exploded outward. Sweetie Belle flinched and covered her face with her foreleg as shards of broken glass rained down on us.

"Save yourself!" I shrieked, scrambling to my feet. I took off running as fast as I could.

"Hey!" Sweetie Belle shouted after me.

I was out of breath after two steps, but adrenaline got me as far as the wall. I vaulted over it a single leap, but lost my balance on the other side and fell face-first into the grass. Behind me I could hear the buzzing of insect wings as one of the creatures followed me over the top. I thought I was a goner, but somehow it missed me and kept flying off into the woods in the direction I would have run, hissing and cursing as it went. Whatever these things were, they didn't seem to have very good night vision.

"Mr. Rusty! Help! I can't make it over!"

I heard Sweetie Belle squeaking in terror on the other side of the wall. I hesitated, torn between my natural instinct for self-preservation and this nagging, insistent voice in my head, telling me that I might have some small responsibility here. Against all reason, the voice won out.

I stood up and peered back over the wall. The second monster had caught up. Sweetie Belle was flailing her limbs helplessly, being slowly cocooned inside one of those big blue orbs.

I reached into my pocket, but all I had were a few asparagus stalks. It was better than nothing, though, so I flung a handful of them at the creature. It hissed, its concentration broken by a sudden hail of vegetable matter. The half-formed orb popped, and Sweetie fell to the ground, coughing and sputtering.

While the monster was distracted, I leaned over the wall and pulled her up. The alien meanwhile had recovered its composure. It hissed again, and took to the air.

"WAAAH!"

I cried out, cowering against the wall as it lunged after us. It flew over the top, but instead of pouncing it just hovered a few feet ahead with its back to us, hissing angrily. Its head darted from side to side, sniffing the air and looking into the darkness.

I let go of Sweetie Belle and grabbed the last few pieces of asparagus I had in my pocket, then flung them in the general direction of the woods. They didn't go very far, but the distraction worked. The creature hissed, and darted off into the trees.

Sweetie Belle and I sat there, panting quietly and not daring to move, but the night was once again still. There was no sign of any more of the creatures.

"Mr. Rusty, what were those things—"

Sweetie Belle was whispering, but I was already crawling around in the grass, trying to recover as many of my asparagus stalks as I could find.

Neither of us had much to say to each other as we made our way through the darkness, back to Ponyville. Those two aliens were still buzzing around out there somewhere, and every snapping twig or moving branch was enough to set us on edge. Being a professional soldier of fortune I was naturally in my element, but I had to figure that Sweetie Belle was pretty scared. I knew I would need to keep all my wits about me if we were to have any hope of surviving the night.

"YAAAAAAAGH!" I shrieked, as I felt something brush against the back of my leg.

"Shhh!" hissed Sweetie Belle. "Sorry, that was just me. I can't see anything out here."

I recovered my composure and checked my six. Finding it secure, I checked all the other numbers. Also secure. My heart was thumping in my chest, so I lit an asparagus stalk to quiet it down.

"That's okay," I whispered back. "But try to keep quiet, or else you'll give away our position."

We carried on in relative silence, until finally we were out of the woods and back in the town proper. By then it was well past the bedtime of most respectable ponies, and the streets were dark and quiet.

Sweetie Belle didn't want to approach her house from the front, on the off-chance that her sister might still be awake. She took us through a small opening in a nearby fence, and we threaded our way through a bit of underbrush until we came out through the hedge behind Rarity's garden. We sat there awhile, watching, but the carousel was dark and there was no sign of the monsters.

"Do you think we lost them?" whispered Sweetie Belle.

I took a long, thoughtful puff of asparagus.

"For now," I said. "But they'll be back."

"What should we do?!?" she whispered. Now that the immediate danger had passed the reality of what we'd seen was sinking in, and there was a note of panic in her voice. "We have to warn everypony! Maybe we should go to the library and wake up Twilight—"

"SWEETIE BELLE!!"

Sweetie Belle cut herself off mid-sentence at her sister's sharp tone. Her entire body went instantly rigid, her back arching like a cat's. We both turned slowly in the direction of the voice.

Rarity, still in her curlers and bathrobe, was standing in the middle of a yellow square of light spilling out from the back door. Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to speak, but the words seemed to freeze in her mouth. For all the rancor in her voice, Rarity didn't seem to have even noticed us. Instead, she was talking to... us.

Sweetie Belle's doppelganger flashed her sister an insolent grin.

"Sorry," she said. Her voice had an unfamiliar nasal quality to it. "Guess we just lost track of the time."

Rarity huffed indignantly.

"I should say so, it's past ten o'clock! Honestly, Sweetie Belle, I just don't know what to do with you lately! You're turning into quite the delinquent, young filly, and I do not much care for it!"

Sweetieganger smiled pleasantly at her.

"Sor-ry!" she repeated, in a mocking, sing-song voice.

Rarity huffed and sputtered, evidently too incensed to notice the ominous green glow in her baby sister's eyes.

"Just—get in the house," she snapped finally. "We'll discuss this later. And YOU!!"

She rounded suddenly on my doppelganger, who was rocking back and forth on his heels, whistling nonchalantly and staring up at the night sky.

"How dare you corrupt my poor, sweet sister this way! Just what do you have to say for yourself, Rusty Shackleford?"

"I am terribly sorry," said me, in a voice that didn't sound even a little bit like me. "We went into the forest to gather throwing-vegetables. We were then sidetracked by a conversation about how old and boring you are, and we lost track of the time. Please forgive us."

Sweetieganger had her fetlock pressed against her mouth to stifle laughter. Rarity's entire body trembled with rage.

"Why, you boorish, ill-mannered, malodorous... miscreant!!"

"You are correct," said me. "For I am slow-witted and smell terrible."

Sweetieganger finally burst out laughing, which earned her a withering glare from her sister.

"Sweetie Belle! In the house, now!!" Rarity commanded, pointing her hoof towards the door with a theatrical flourish. "And you, Rusty Shackleford, will return to Twilight's this instant! You may rest assured that I will be having words with her regarding your conduct. In the meantime, you will stay away from my sister. And I do not ever want to see you around my shop again! Hrrmph!"

She spun around dramatically and strode back inside. Sweetieganger trotted gaily after her, nose in the air. As she went, she turned and looked directly at us, flashing us an absolutely evil smirk before disappearing into the carousel-house. The Gribbleganger, meanwhile, was already crawling up the side of the building like some kind of lizard, slithering through Sweetie Belle's open window on the second floor.

The real Sweetie Belle turned to me in dismay.

"Come on!" she hissed. "We can't let those things get my sister!"

I wavered. Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes in disgust and then took off at a gallop. Before she could go, however, I grabbed her by the tail, holding her in place as her legs thrummed uselessly against the grass. She turned and glared at me. I took a deep drag of asparagus.

"Hold your horses," I said, grinding the stalk out on a nearby decorative stone. "That's just what they want us to do. Come on. I've got a plan."