Chapters The dragon flt awake, but he couldn't tell. All he could do was stare into the darkness and wonder what had happened, where he was. All he could think of was the shine in Rarity's hair, and how beautiful the dress making pony's voice was. Soon, a voice came into his head.
"Please," It asked, "Tell me about yourself."
“My name, is Spike." he began, I’m a dragon from a land called Equestria, a land ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I had six friends: Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Diane Pie, and... Rarity. I had a job, assistant to Twilight Sparkle... I was happy.”
“Good,” another voice called from what seemed like nowhere, “Now tell me, what happened Spike? Why are you here?”
***
It had been a long trip, but they where almost there. Twilight had been planing this trip for weeks with Spike’s help, and it was finally about to pay off. The purple unicorn had invited all her closest friends to join them on a week long trip to the Everfree Forest. At first the others had protested...
“Isn’t it too dangerous Twilight?” Fluttershy had said in her own soft demeanor.
“Yeah Twi,” Applejack added, “that forest is crawlin’ with Celestia knows what, and you want us to stay in a cabin up there?”
“Girls, you arn’t listening,” Twilight was starting to get a bit frustrated, this argument had gone on for hours now, “Princess Celestia offered us a chance to use her own personal cabin.”
“I never thought of the princess as one who enjoys *blech* getting her hooves dirty.” Rarity piped up, she had obviously been the first to reject the idea of going anywhere that may have dirt in it. As for camping, she literally shuttered at the thought of it.
Twilight shook her head and turned to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, the only two who had jumped at the chance of camping. Rainbow looked Applejack in the eye and laughed a bit, “Never thought I’d see you chicken out cuz of a little thing like Manticores AJ. Guess that proves who here is the toughest and fastest pony in Equestria.”
“Now wait just an apple buckin’ minute!” the farm pony walked up to her blue pegasus friend, “Just because I don’t want to end up part of a four piece meal doesn’t mean I’m chicken!” At that moment, Scootaloo walked by and looked over at the group, then walked on wondering why her ears where ringing.
“Then prove it.” Dash just smiled as she saw how red Applejack’s face was getting in anger.
“Fine then! Twilight, I’m in!” The Stetson wearing pony then took her place next to Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing with excitement.
“Oh this is going to be so fun!” the pinky pony called out, “I’ll pack marshmallows and chocolate bar and we can make s’mores! Then, we can tell scary ghost stories! And give each other make overs!”
Rarity’s ears perked up and she turned to Pinkie, “Make overs? Did you say make overs Pinkie darling?”
The party pony nodded, “Yep, make overs. You know, with facials and mani...”
“Yes darling, I know what a make over is.” the fashionesta proudly held her head high, “But, I suppose that you still need to buy all the various products for them?”
“Well... Actually...”
“Say no more! I’ll come along, and bring my own. I’ll have you girls looking fabulous in your hiking books or my name is Mudd!” Rarity then rushed to the boutique to quickly gather her supplies. The only pony left was Fluttershy, her face almost hidden behind her long pink mane. As she looked up, she saw Twilight smiling warmly. The purple unicorn’s eyes begging the yellow pegasus to some along.
Rainbow Dash landed next to her old friend and smiled, “Hey, I promise I’ll protect you ok? And we have Applejack too, so you’ll be fine.”
“Hey! What about me?” Spike chimed in, he had been busy putting the last of Twilight’s books about camping into her saddle bags.
“Yeah, that a good point! We’ll have a dragon with us Shy, so what do you say?” Rainbow’s eyes jointed Twilights, begging for the timid pegasus to come.
“Um... well...” Fluttershy, put a hoof to her chin. She trembled as she thought of all the scary things that could be out in the woods, but she would also be surrounded by her friends.
“We’ll play spin the bottle.” Pinkie said, seeming to have teleported in front of Fluttershy. A seductive look on the pink pony’s face as she smiled.
“Oh... Oh my...” Fluttershy blushed and looked up at Twilight and Rainbow Dash, both still begging with their eyes.
***
Needless to say, Fluttershy agreed to come with, but only if everypony agreed to let her cook the meals. They did, mostly because the last time anypony else cooked they wound up eating nothing but sweets the entire time... Then again, it was their faults for asking Pinkie to cook. Twilight couldn’t help but smiled as she looked around the carriage at her friends, all of them talking amongst themselves as they went deeper and deeper into the woods. Finally, the carriage stopped and the six ponies and a dragon got out. The wooden thing was powered by the combined magic of Rarity and Twilight, as well as a little extra pull from Rainbow Dash and Applejack every now and then. Still, it was nothing compared to the cabin.
“ What a dump!” Pinkie Pie piped up as she stepped out of the carriage, and she was right. Princess Celestia’s cabin looked like it had been banished to the moon and back: chipped wood, tiles coming off the roof, not to mention the smell coming from the trash can. It almost made Rarity faint on sight, but thankfully, Twilight had a plan. In a matter of moments, the purple unicorn had the old cabin looking habitable, if not brand new. As the seven entered, the sun was beginning to fall, leaving the cold shadow of the moon hovering above them.
Spike looked outside around nine and shuttered, the shadows from the trees outside looked like nightmarish demons getting ready to attack the cabin. It took all his courage just to lay down and get some sleep next to Twilight. The baby dragon slowly closed his eyes, hopping his dreams would take him away from the strangeness of the unfamiliar bed, but as he drifted off he couldn’t shake the dread that tickled the back of his next. Suddenly, he heard a voice, barely over a whisper, echo in his ears. It was a deep, rugged voice, and it only told him one thing.
“Get out now... Or they’ll die...”
***
The next day, Spike woke to the smell of pancakes that , for once, he wasn’t cooking. The purple and green dragon rushed out the door and into the kitchen, where Fluttershy was already putting out plates full of her special recipe Super Deluxe Oat Pancakes. The baby dragon’s mouth was watering as he sat down next to a unicorn, but it wasn’t until his first bite when he realized it was a white one. He bit his lip as he looked down at Rarity’s hoof, and if it weren’t for his scales the dress maker would see his blushing face.
“Good morning Spike, did you sleep at all last night?” Rarity asked, her voice sounding frazzled and tired.
“A bit,” Spike replied and looked up at the unicorn’s face, even with the bags under her eyes she was still beautiful to the baby dragon. Spike smiled at her, but his only reply was a slight nod. He wasn’t sure if it was because Rarity was tired, or because of...
“Spike dear...” The fashionesta said, “What’s your tail doing?” Spike looked behind him, and saw that his tail was slowly sliding up Rarity’s flank. He quickly stopped, but something in Rarity’s eyes told him to keep going. So he did, but it wasn’t until the tip of the dragon’s tail was inches away from what he desired that Spike sighed and shook his head.
“Time to wake up yet?” He asked himself, then the room disappeared as the baby dragon slowly returned to the land of reality...
Once awake, Spike noticed that the bed was empty and it was still dark. Slowly, he walked into the main room of the cabin and saw Pinkie Pie kissing Fluttershy. The baby dragon couldn’t help but laugh, after all it was Pinkie’s mention of spin the bottle that was the last push for the yellow pegasus to join the camping trip.
“Have a nice nap Spike?” Twilight asked, floating upside down, much to the dragon’s confusion. “Truth or Dare.”
“Ah, makes sense... Can I?”
“Sure,” the purple unicorn smiled, then turned to her friends, “Spike’s in!”
“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash quickly landed next to the baby dragon, “So, truth or dare Spike?”
“Um... Dare.” Spike replied.
“Ok, I dare you to kiss Rarity.” the blue pegasus said, right before the dragon pinched himself. It hurt, so he wasn’t dreaming... It was finally his chance! All he needed was a jewel the size of his head to make his moment perfect. He slowly walked up to Rarity, who was lying on a couch on the wall near him.
“Are you ready?” Rarity asked, smiling shyly.
“Y...yeah...” Spike answered, leaning in slowly... inch by inch... until...
“Hey ya’ll!” Applejack yelled from the next room, “Come and check this out!” And just like that, the five ponies in the room all ran towards the sound of their friend’s voice. Spike, on the other hand, was so enraged that he blasted a small trophy on the wall with a ball of green fire. (Moments later, in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was knocked unconscious by the same trophy.) The baby dragon finally joined the group, only to be disgusted at what he saw.
There, on a small table, was a book. But it wasn’t the fact that there was a book there that made him feel sick to his stomach, it was what the book was made of. From the smell and look of the tome on the bedside table, the book was bound in the tanned skins of ponies. The cover itself showed that more then anything, as it had the pained face of a pony nearly burnt on the cover.
“Wh...what in the name of all of Equestria is that?” Rarity asked, looking completely green. The group all looked at Twilight, the smartest of the bunch, but even the purple unicorn shook her head.
“I... I have no clue girls...” Twilight replied, “But it feels... evil.”
“I see,” the voice in Spike’s head replied, “So, after your friend...”
“Applejack.” Spike finished.
“Yes, after Miss Jack found this ‘book’ what happened?”
Spike sighed and closed his eyes, trying to pull the horrid memories out of his head like it was the last cookie at the bottom of a sticky jar. “We found, something else with it... Something strange...”
***
“Hey Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said as she pushed a large grey object onto the table, “what’s this?” The thing that Dash found was the size of a small box, but it looked like it was made of metal. It looked like it had some old tape sticking to the front as well.
“I’m not sure Dash...” Twilight Sparkle leaned in to have a closer look, until Pinkie almost knocked the purple unicorn out with an accidental head bash.
“OH! Oh! I know, I know!” Pinkie Pie raised her front hoof and jumped up and down like a school filly trying to get the teacher’s attention, “It’s a tape recorder! My Granny Pie had one, she used to use it for taping her recipes and thoughts and she even used it for my sisters and my first words, mine was pie, could you believe that? Anyway, it was really really REALLY old when I last saw it, but this one looks like it’s brand new and...”
“Pinkie, darling...” Rarity finally piped up, “could you please try and explain it a little slower? I believe you’ve lost all of us.” The other ponies and Spike nodded in agreement.
“Oh, sorry.” the party pony giggles and started again, “It’s a tape recorder. My Granny Pie used to use one to record sounds, but it looks like this one already has stuff on it.” Pinkie pointed to the protruding tape that perplexed her pals.
“So,” A.J. scratched the back of her head, “Should we play it? I mean, after findin’ that book... I’m not sure if I wana stay here at all. Let alone hear a tape that was made here.”
“Applejack has a point...” Fluttershy whispered, but was ultimately ignored. “I’m sure it’ll be fine girls.” Twilight used her magic to find the switch to begin the recording, “What could go wrong?”
Slowly, the tape began to roll between the two rolls until a voice began to sound from the speakers...
“Hello, my name is Professor Hard Cover of the University of Canterlot,” the shaky, yet booming voice sounded from the device, “I have been tasked by the Dean of the University, Doctor Walk N. Hooves, to studies a strange book that was found in our library a few weeks ago...”
“A book in a library? Dear sweet Celestia, that’s amazing!” Rainbow said sarcastically.
Twilight quickly hushed her friend, “This mite be important Rainbow.”
“Fine fine... Sorry.” the cyan pegasus said just as the tape skipped.
“... The date is July 31, the year is 2000 by the Equestrian calender.” the recording continued, “I have decided to let my wife and two foals accompany me on my investigation. The princess, Celestia herself, has allowed me to use her personal cabin to conduct my research into this mysterious tome. So far, I have finished looking through the first couple of pages of the book, and I have realized it is not written in an ancient pony language, as I first thought.
“It is, however, a form of the language that the fabled race called Sea Ponies may have used.” the professor’s voice drowned on, causing Pinkie Pie to pass out from boredom next to Applejack, “From transcribing the first page, I have learned the title of the book is Ne....”
The tape skipped and stopped for a while, complete silence filling the room as the six ponies and dragon waited. Finally, one of the seven spoke up.
“Hey...um... Twilight...” Fluttershy said quietly, “I’m going to go out for a quick walk, um... if that’s ok...”
“That’s fine Fluttershy.” the purple unicorn said, only half listening as she waited for the tape to begin again. The yellow pegasus began to walk out of the room, stopping only to kiss Pinkie Pie on the forehead and cover the party pony up while she slept. Then, the yellow mare stepped out into the foggy woods, the light of the moon exposing a path through the trees.
Suddenly, the voice of Professor Hard Cover erupted from the tape recorder. “Passage one, paragraph one is very... strange. While most tombs of this type would begin with some form of introduction, this book jumps right into a spell. Unlike most spells, this one is meant to be said out loud... It reads as follows in Equestrian: ‘Upon the fog and darkened skies, there lies a world of which I pine. I call upon you, oh grand Chrysalis, oh Mare in the Moon, and the great Gods of Tartourous below. Unleash the one they call Undeath, and allow them to feast and live within further more.’”
The voice on the recorder paused and all was silent, until the sound of a door slamming could be heard in the background of the tape and the cries of a filly flew from the device. “I’ll continue this on a separate tape.” the professor’s voice called out. Twilight looked at her dragon assistant and frowned, the unicorn had heard Princess Celestia talk about the missing Cover family, but she had never mentioned this.
“Spike,” Twilight said as her eyes looked over at the pony bound book next to the tape recorder, “I think we need to get out of here...”
***
Fluttershy couldn’t believe her luck. The yellow pegasus had found a field full of mushrooms, eatable mushrooms. She was so happy that her animal friends had shown her what the good ones looked like, she’d have to come back with a basket and pick some for dinner tomorrow. The mare leaned down and licked at one of them, nibbling on the bulbous top and swallowing the satisfying vegetable down. If only she could get Pinkie to eat things like this, then maybe the pink pony could loose a little of that baby fat.
“Oh, who am I kidding?” Fluttershy said out loud, “It’s just more of her to love.” Pinkie and Fluttershy had begun a rocky relationship a few weeks after Big Macintosh had broken things off with the yellow pegasus. It started out as a way to get Big Mac jealous, but after a while Fluttershy began to enjoy the... benefits of being with the party pony. She felt that Pinkie Pie brought out the best in her, but sometimes she was a handful. Especially after that last party, the one where AJ had brought over a few barrels of cider, and Fluttershy had caught Pinkie making out with Berry Punch. Needless to say, the pair fought for at least a week after that. Soon, however, they had worked things out and Pinkie apologized so many times that the yellow mare had lost count.
“Still...” Fluttershy said to herself, “I do miss one thing about Big Mac...” The pegasus blushed, then shook her head quickly to erase the thought. She was with Pinkie now, it wasn’t right to fantasize about Big Macintosh... In the fields... with her bent over one of the apple buckets... Fluttershy couldn’t help but lean her back against one of the trees on the edge of the clearing and try and release herself. Just as she came close to her breaking point, Fluttershy heard the sound of something sliding through the brush.
“H...hello?” the shy mare asked the darkness, “Is anypony there?” The slithering noise came closer and closer to her, and Fluttershy began to sweat and her mind started to race with fear. “Pi... Pinkie? If that’s you could you please stop? I... You know how your pranks make me feel...” Slowly thought, Fluttershy began to realize that it wasn’t her beloved pink pony. She screamed as her front hooves became tangled by a pair of tree branches, then a couple of roots laced tight around her back hooves.
“What! WAIT! HELP!!!!” Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs. Suddenly, the yellow pegasus could hear soft voices chanting. Slowly, the voices got louder and louder, the noise soon erupting in her ears as she could finally hear what they said.
“Be...A...Tree...” the voices rhythmically chanted, “Be...A...Tree...” It wasn’t long before Fluttershy could feel something thick rubbing on her flank, she turned and saw something that made her jump. It was a large, thick vine that was edging its way to her soft mare-hood.
“No! Oh Luna please no! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” was all that Fluttershy could cry before everything went black.
***
Twilight and Spike finished loading up their bags, just as AJ and Rainbow Dash had successfully woken up Pinkie Pie. The party pony rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her front hooves and yawned, then looked around the room and noticed something important to her was gone.
“Guys... Where’s Flutter?” she asked, and everypony’s eyes went wide.
“Oh no,” Twilight Sparkle said, opening the door in a rush of magic, “she said she was just going for a walk!”
“A walk?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Fluttershy taking a walk alone in the dark? In a spooky forest? Sorry Twi, that just doesn’t sound right.”
“Dash has a point Twilight,” Applejack said, pulling the clip on her saddle bag closed with her teeth, “Fluttershy’s meeker then a yellow bellied chicken trying to fight a lily liveried pole-cat. It wouldn’t be like her too...”
“Ow...” the small cries of Fluttershy interrupted AJ. The yellow pegasus stumbled into the cabin, cuts and bruises covering her coat as she held her stomach with one of her front hooves.
“Flutter!” Pinkie cried and rushed to her marefriend’s side, “What happened? Who did this to you?”
“I... It was... IT WAS THE TREES!” Fluttershy broke down and began to sob, laying her head on Pinkie Pie as she curled up into a ball.
“The trees? Are... Are you sure Fluttershy?” Spike asked, kneeling down by the yellow mare.
“Yes! I’m sure!” The yellow mare sobbed and sobbed, “They held me down with their branches and roots... And then... And then...” But Fluttershy never finished her sentence. Just as the yellow mare looked up, she began to gag and choke. A thick sap filled her mouth and she spat it out, followed by a long line of vomit. It wasn’t long before the sickly mare closed her eyes and nuzzled up to the pink pony she loved, purring. The other five ponies stared at Fluttershy, the purring dying down as the yellow mare stopped breathing.
It was then that Pinkie Pie’s mane flattened out, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. It was then that the sound of wood being chopped filled the air, and Twilight looked outside to see a tree had fallen on their carriage. And it was then that Spike knew the night would be a long one, and one he would wish he could forget for the rest of his life.
“Interesting,” the voice mused as the sound of hoofbeats filled Spike’s head, “and you say that you and the Element Barrers didn’t bury Miss Fluttershy?”
“In that place?” the young dragon replied, “Would you want to be buried in a forest that... That hurt you so much?”
“Touche, either way please continue.”
***
Pinkie Pie’s hoof beats could be heard throughout the cabin as she tucked her fallen lover into her bed, tears falling onto the cold, yellow fur. Fluttershy had been good to her for the past couple of months, always looking after her and trying to get the pink pony to eat healthier foods.
***
The main room of the cabin was quiet with grief, the only sound stirring was from the kitchen as Spike made tea to try and help everypony through what had just happened. Applejack had her Stetson’s brim pulled down over her eyes, hiding her tears, while Twilight paced slower than she usually did, as if she was the only member of a sad parade. Even Rainbow Dash, who usually put on the strongest of faces in any situation, laid curled up on the couch, trying to hold back her tears. It had taken an hour for Rarity to come out of the bathroom, and even then the evidence of her tears still showed in her reddened eyes. The only one who didn’t cry was Pinkie Pie, but each pony knew that Pinkie had her own way of showing grief... And it was worse than any of the others.
