The moonlight cast a strong shadow over the zebra who stood waiting outside the Everfree forest, the dark cloak obscuring her face from all angles. The striking black and white stripes that covered her body were smothered by the heavy, brown material, its hood magically sharpening her eyes and colouring them a deep yellow. The cold air was perfectly still, the grass underhoof making no movements other than when it was trod on. Despite this, Zecora could smell the nasal bouquet emanating from the forest- the sweet scents of mysterious flowers and various berries, poisonous or otherwise, undercut by the stench of rotting carcasses, the leftovers of many an animal unfortunate enough to cross the path of one of the hungry carnivores that made the forest their home. She didn't have to wait for long before she was greeted by six mares, all nervous but rather excited. A purple unicorn stepped forward.
"Zecora?" She ventured. "Is that you?"
The mare paused for dramatic effect before answering at what she deemed to be the right moment. "Yes, my ponies, it is your zebra friend. Follow me; we must make haste before the festivities end. Tonight's tales will be more than the foals' last year; these stories will be much more frightening to hear. So come along then, and soon you and I will find these woods hold more than meets the eyes."
Rainbow Dash, her wings unfurled from excitement, cackled manically. "This is gonna be so awesome! Cool hood, by the way," The pegasus added.
Zecora chuckled. "Indeed, my friend, it is enchanted. It covers my face no matter how your view is slanted."
"C'mon! Are we gonna stand around talking 'bout capes or do this?" Applejack said eagerly.
"Is this definitely a good idea? The forest is full of monsters, and poisonous plants, and monsters, and nasty trees, and super-scary monsters..." Fluttershy whispered, shrinking visibly.
"Don't worry, darling," Rarity reassured her. "With Zecora escorting us through the forest, I shan't imagine we'll run into trouble."
Pinkie was the only one, of course, taking this more lightheartedly than the others. "This is gonna be so much fun! Come on Zecora, let's go already!" She cried, spronking about in circles round the group. "We're going into the Everfree to hear some scary stories, we're going into the Everfree to hear some scary stories..."
With that, Zecora turned to the side and motioned with a hoof, and, with a little trepidation, the six ponies stepped into the forest, their guide following not a moment later.
-/_-
They had been waking for some time, with Zecora regaling scary tales about the forest and the strange occurrences around Nightmare Night. "Now we all know that this forest, home to many monsters is. But ponies say that on this day, stranger beasts come out to play." The latest was about the creatures that populated the forest, and how they would change during the festivities. "Claws grow long and teeth grow sharp, and eyes burn red despite the dark." Had they been paying more attention to where they were going, perhaps they would have noticed their current predicament sooner.
"Left, right, one, two, three," Zecora said to herself, gesticulating with her front hooves as she attempted to remember a mistake in the directions they had taken. "Perhaps- no. Well- maybe."
This time, it was Rarity who made the first move. "I'm sure we've passed that tree before. Zecora, are you sure we're going the right way?"
"No, I should say," She admitted, before dropping the rhyming. "I really do not know where we are."
"We're lost? Great..." Dash muttered. "I'm gonna get up high and try and find out which way to go." With a flap of her wings, she jumped up and made to burst through the tree line but instead simply smashed into it. "What the hay? Something's wrong with these trees, I can't get through them." The pegasus complained, and indeed, despite the combined efforts of both the pegasus's physical strength and the two unicorns' telekinesis, the leaves and branches refused to move.
As she watched the three, Applejack said, "This is getting weirder by the minute. I don't like this no-more Twi, I think we should go."
The unicorn nodded grimly. "Look, girls," The others turned to her as she spoke assertively. "I hate to cut the night short, but there's no doubting any more that we're lost, and besides-"
There was a sudden splashing sound, like a large quantity of water being abruptly dropped. The six ponies whirled around to look where there should have been a zebra, but instead found a pool of water, still rushing outwards from a brown cloak. The water stopped moving and there was silence.
"Z-Zecora?" Twilight said, before calling it a little more loudly. "Zecora? Zecora, this is too much now."
Nothing.
"Umm... Twilight? I'm scared now, could we please leave the forest?" Fluttershy said, trembling.
"Zecora? Zecora? Ooh! She wants to play spooky Nightmare Night hide and seek! I'm great at hide and seek!" Pinkie Pie squealed, popping in and out from behind bushes and tree trunks, calling her name each time. Frowning at her friend, Twilight grabbed Pinkie midair and yanked her back into the clearing.
"Right, I think we've had enough scares for one night. I'm teleporting us back to Ponyville." Twilight said, and attempted to do so, but her magic simply fizzled out before she could do a thing. Rarity began to panic, and Fluttershy very nearly fainted.
"Twilight, dear, I appreciate how difficult it must be to teleport six ponies at once, but I want to get out of this forest and I want to get out of it now!" Rarity said, growing quite flustered.
Twilight screwed her eyes up in concentration. "I'm trying! Something's blocking my magic!" It was at this point the group decided that Zecora's stories about the forest changing over Nightmare Night were, whether the zebra knew this or not, more than just stories.
"Look, let's just go back the way we came," Applejack said nervously. "We're sure to get out the forest then, ain't we?" With which she turned to leave, and would have done so if not for hearing another sudden splashing sound.
The others spun round again, finding to their horror that the butter-yellow pegasus was no longer in the group. Water rushed out from where she before stood, washing over Rarity's fetlocks. She flinched. Fluttershy's disappearance was different to Zecora's, however, as the water, rather than simply dissipating, continued to flow, coating the grassy floor in a layer of liquid.
With a cry of terror, the unicorn galloped away, tears of fear and confusion streaming down her face.
"Rarity! No, wait!" Twilight shouted after her, before setting off in the same direction, the others leading up the pair. The chase went on for a few minutes, ended by Rarity putting a hoof down a rabbit hole and crashing to the ground, where she lay cowering, her eyes covered with her forelegs and sobbing with ragged breaths. Twilight caught up and rubbed a hoof on her grass-stained coat.
"I-I just want to go-go home," The white mare choked out. "I want to go h-home."
"Come on Rar, let's go." Applejack said soothingly as she helped her friend up. "We ain't gettin' back to Ponyville by layin' 'round on the ground."
"Yeah! You can do it Rarity! Ponyville's just a hop, skip and a jump away!" Pinkie said enthusiastically. "We'll get back, get lots of other ponies to help us find Fluttershy and Zecora, and then we can throw a super duper 'Fluttershy and Zecora are ok again' post-Nightmare Night party!"
Rarity smiled at the energetic pony. "Yes... You're right Pinkie!" She said, courage rising in her voice. "Everything's going to be alright, we'll find them and everything we be back to normal. Thank you for making me see reason, Pinkie."
Twilight gasped in realisation. "I've just noticed something! Everypony disappears when no-one else is looking at them." She said triumphantly. "We all watch each other and we'll be fine!"
The five mares organised themselves into a circle, all glancing furtively around at each other. An awkward tension built up as they moved their stares from onto another, shifting their gaze should they catch anothers' eyes. Unbeknownst to them, of course, the water was moving towards them, a circle contracting around them like a noose. It rushed in closer, into the circle, before meeting in the middle and crashing upwards, the fountain of water blocking the ponies' views for a split second; just long enough.
There was a sudden splashing sound, and Rarity was gone. The circle broke immediately, Twilight stamping around in the shallow water in frustration while the others stood stock-still. Pinkie's mane deflated visibly as she began to take the situation more seriously.
"Twilight?" She said quietly.
"Yes, Pinkie?"
"Where do they go?" She asked.
"I don't know."
"Will they be okay?"
Twilight sighed before answering. "I don't know."
"Are-"
"I don't know, Pinkie!" Twilight shouted, making her friend recoil. She dropped her head. "I don't know."
Still, despite her difficulties, the purple mare attempted to be a voice of reason. "Ok, we can still get out, if we can think of a way-"
"Gosh darn it, Twi, we can't afford to stand around talkin' and figurin' out our plan!" Applejack cried in exasperation. "This- thing, whatever it is, ain't gonna give us the time to do that, we need to get ourselves out of the forest as soon as possible, before it gets us too! Am I right, Dash?"
The polychromatic pegasus nodded. "We need to just get out, Twilight, we can't hang around."
With all eyes now on Rainbow, there was a sudden splashing sound, and Applejack was gone.
"This is what we're talking about!" Dash said. "Every second spent waiting is a second that we can be taken! I'm going!" And with that, she sped off.
This time, there were no complaints, and the other two ran after her, traversing rocks, roots and trees alike in their escape. The forest, though, was surely endless, as the trio had been running for what felt like hours, Twilight had been taken and the other two, despite their athleticism, were unable to keep moving and had been forced to stop, gasping and panting.
"Do you, think we'll, do it, Dash?" Pinkie managed between drawing in great lungfuls of air.
"I wish, I knew, Pink-"
Rainbow Dash stopped as she looked over her friend's shoulder. "What is it, Dashie?" Pinkie Pie said, quite unaware of the swell that rushed towards them. Without any other option, Rainbow Dash ran away from the advancing wall of water, cold sweat running over her body. Pinkie turned just in time to see the dark entity before it slammed into her.
Leaping over roots and flying wherever the trees gave her room, the pegasus moved as quickly as possible, but the water still came towards her at the same intimidating pace. The mare turned her head to see how far away the water was and a low branch came out of nowhere, catching her foreleg and sending her tumbling head over hooves. She sprang back up as fast as she could, but the water was still closing in, and finally, it reached her- only to splash around her legs, barely up to her flanks.
"Sweet Celestia, I don't, want to die..." She whispered frantically as the water slowly rose around her, growing more and more choppy, blown by an unfelt wind. "I'm so sorry, Pinkie, I'm so sorry." She began to cry as it buffeted her, the absurd monstrosity, a two-foot-high sea in the middle of a forest. "I'm a terrible friend, abandoning you when you needed help." Fear consumed her as the situation grew still more desperate, the water thickening and glistening, becoming more violent as each second passed, its level ascending more quickly than ever before, and she became more vocal in her sorrow. "Element of loyalty, yeah right. Oh Celestia, please save me."
As the oily blackness made its way up her neck, she could hear something over her own screaming and the raging water. It was quiet at first, a slow beat of three, which rose with the water, forming barely distinguishable words.
Water always wins.
There was a beat of three before the disembodied voice said it again.
Water always wins.
Pum, pum, pum.
Water always wins.
Pum, pum, pum.
Water always wins.
At this point another phrase interjected into the space the first left.
You will always lose.
Water always wins.
You will always lose.
Water always wins.
You will always lose.
"No!" Rainbow screamed, "Nonononono! No, no, no!" She didn't expect her cries to make the water, or whatever hellish liquid it was, abate, but it helped to drown out the noise it made. A little bit, but not enough, and the roar still coursed through her ears.
Water always wins, you will always lose.
Water always wins, you will always lose.
Water always wins, you will always lose.
As the mare was forced to tread water, the voice grew in volume and numbers, the voice becoming voices, all chanting the same phrases.
Water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose.
As Rainbow's head met the branches of the trees above, her fear redoubled as she pushed desperately at the rigid and impenetrable boughs. She fought in vain as the water finally rose above her nostrils, but her strength was leaving her body, and soon enough her limbs slowed down before stopping altogether, and she sank below the surface.
Water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose.
The pegasus could feel the water seeping into her fur, penetrating her body through her mouth, nose, skin, her entire body as she fell through the liquid. She forced her eyes closed, trying to wish away the terror that gripped her.
Water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose.
Dash's eyelids moved apart, but the black orbs in her skull were not eyes, and the voice coming from her mouth that joined those surrounding her was not her own.
Water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose, water always wins, you will always lose
Water always wins.
