Moonlight Terror

Ginger Flake stopped again to adjust her harness. The new parts still chaffed in all the wrong places, forcing her to stop every few minutes to adjust it, and making this trip one of her longest. It would be another hour or two before she would even see Canterlot. Stupid, she thought to herself. Why hadn’t she just decided to tough it out and pack the camping supplies like Silver Note said? She could’ve been warm, or at least asleep by now.

She kept trudging on. The last thing she needed was to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a full mail-cart and nothing but her own head for company. Every step dug the cart further into her sides, the clop, clop, clop of on the worn path beginning to echo inside her head. By now she could barely see her hooves in front of her face. She sighed and unhooked the harness, then went back to the cart and dug around for a lantern and some matches.

Little sounds of wind flowed through the previously still night. Ginger looked up at the sudden noise but saw nothing in the blackness. The sounds of rushing air died as quickly as it began and returned to her task. She took the matches in her mystic grasp and struck the head of one on the side of the box. Little fizzles came from the tip, but the match refused to light.

Stupid match.

She pulled out another and struck it. This one didn’t even spark. “Aaugh,” she groaned, furiously rubbing the match against the little phosphorus strip. But nothing happened. Ginger brought the matchbox as close as she could to her eyes, trying to read the fine print in the glow of her magic.

“Expired,” she read, “Figures,” then tried another match. Then another. And another. Why hadn’t she just learned that fire charm like Silver said? Down to her last match she carefully drug the little stick across the strip. A tiny insignificant glow appeared on the end, so dim it wouldn’t have been visible if it wasn’t pitch-black. Carefully she opened her mouth wide and gently breathed life into the tiny flame, slowly growing to engulf the tip. She shoved the flame into the lantern and smiled at her little victory. Lantern creating a small bubble of light in the sea of darkness, she eased back into the harness, painfully aware of her still tender sides. She doubted it was too much farther from-

She was suddenly tumbling end-over-end; the cart was spinning and carrying her with it. The lantern fell from her grasp and smashed into the ground, plunging the world back into darkness. The cart landed with a great crash and she slammed into the ground with it. Ginger slowly shook the stars from her eyes back into the sky before looking around. She could hear something, a deep growling noise from the other side of the cart. She struggled against the harness, unable to see anything. The bright light from the lantern had ruined her ability to even slightly see in this dark.

The straps came loose and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her away from the cart and the noise. She thought she could hear the rush of moving air, but in adrenalin and panic she barely noticed. The road under Ginger’s feet turned to grass and dirt a long time ago but she kept running in any direction she could, sure that she was being followed. But fatigue began to take its toll and she had to slow down before stopping altogether.

Ginger Flake stood panting for several moments before she finally caught her breath. She lifted up her ears and listened closely, but heard nothing. ”Heh, it’s just in your head… monsters… like anything like that would actually be this close to Canterlot,” She turned and started to head back towards where she thought her cart was. She tried in vain to remember how long she had been running. It seemed to take hours in the pitch black of night, all the while the sound of moving air rushed behind her. She would have passed by the cart completely if she hadn’t tripped over some of its debris.

Ginger looked up, seeing two bright yellow eyes glowing back at her. The noise started to come from right beneath them. She tried to scoot backwards, screaming; The Beast was already on her though, ripping and tearing at her. Lightning shot up her legs, the thing biting and ripping to the bone, leaving deep furrows in the gleaming red and white. It ripped and tore up into her stomach, viscera tossed haphazardly into the grass.

Ginger struck out on instinct with as much might as she could, connecting somewhere near The Beast’s glowing eye. The Beast merely growled louder, but it gave Ginger time to move away. She tried to run, but her torn legs gave out sending her to the ground. She scooted back further, trying to see the glowing eyes in the darkness, but nothing was there. She moved further back, trying and failing to replace her organs in her abdomen, tears streaming down her face; a single thought running through her mind. I wanna go home, I wanna go home, I wanna go home…

Two yellow eyes opened in the darkness, starting towards her. Now she could make out gleaming fangs in the darkness, dripping in anticipation. She screamed as much as her lungs could before the fangs closed onto her throat. The Beast shook back and forth once before snapping its head back, tearing away flesh. Blood poured down in a wall along her front and drowning her in her life-force. The Beast roared, sending blood mixed saliva flecks onto Ginger’s face. But she didn’t register any of it as the cold and the black engulfed her.