Matches and Monsters

Matches and Monsters

It was a beautiful night. Snow gently fell from the darkened sky as the Moon illuminated the mostly desolate streets below. On one of those  snow-covered streets, a man in an expensive looking suit stood under a street light, face pointed towards an alley leading between two tall brick houses. The man had a look of an older gentleman, giving of an appearance of dignity and patience with nothing more than a look in his eyes. Or he did, as right before he reached the  back-alley the appearance of silent grace was replaced with a revolting grin, his smile spreading a bit too far to be friendly and showing a bit too much teeth to be comforting. The dimly lit back-street in front of him seemed empty, save for a smallish figure of a woman a good stone-throw distance away. As he looked over her, the smile on his face, already too wide to be anything but menacing, started spreading even further. The woman, despite facing the man, appeared to not have sighted him. This suited the grinning man, as his chosen toy for the night could still escape.

Suddenly with a loud crack the man’s head jerked to his right. What he saw made his smile, if it could still be called that, wider than should have been possible for a human face. The street-light above him flickered, and the suited figure was gone.

0000000000000

The young man was grinning. With a bottle of rum in one hand, and soda in the other, he walked down the snow covered street with a slight spring in his step. In his mind the thoughts of revelry and debauchery to be committed tonight, he could not help to keep a small laugh from escaping him. The good mood however was quickly replaced by puzzlement when he passed the mouth of a narrow passage, illuminated by a flickering street-light. First the smell of ozone reached his nose, causing him to stop mid-step. Looking around for the source of the scent, he spotted a strange figure down the alley. What he at first glance guessed to be a huge dog laying in the middle of the side-street turned out to be a woman, dangling from an open manhole. As soon as he sighted her, she raised her head, stared directly at the former reveler and cried for help. It took a second for the youth to process the scene, before he dropped his bottles and rushed for her aid. Wincing slightly as he heard glass shatter, he nevertheless rushed to save the damsel in distress. Reaching the manhole, he noted in confusion of her lack of clothes on her exposed upper body, but that did little to halt his rescue plan. Reaching down to pull the unfortunate nudist up, he grabbed hold of her arms.  He had no time to react as the damsel suddenly shot out of the manhole, wrapped her hands around his waist and dragged her dazed victim down to the sewers. In his final moments, the adolescent saw in horror that the lower body of the woman, previously hidden in the sewers,  was not as it should be.

00000000000000

The thing below liked to think of itself as the Librarian. Thought that was not what others had called It. Its father had called him a “success”. The father’s companions had given It many complex and confusing names, but they all boiled down to ’’advanced living factory’’. Fathers kin had called it a tool at first, slave the second and a monster the third time. When “success” came to dry land, the humans here also had many names for It. The sane had not named It, but rather fled in despair. The insane however, had more often than not called It and all its brothers the name ’’Shoggoth’’.

The beings current self-given name however was derived from from it’s ’’hobby’’. Over the aeons, even an immortal living factory can know boredom. To stave off the dreaded feeling, the being had started to read and tinker with the minds of its captured prey. To its great delight, the minds of men and beasts were an endless array of fantastical stories and practical knowledge. Among those captured minds It had its favorites. Few minds so odd, useful or funny that the Librarian wanted to keep and preserve those forever, saving  them inside his massive bulk for company.

To its horror however, the being discovered the limits of those simpler organic minds. While practical from an evolutionary standpoint, the minds in its care were too wasteful of space, weak to trauma and degraded with age. A solution to this problem was needed, and developing it took the Librarian ages, during which time many of its most prized and special minds were lost to the endless march of time and entropy.  But in the end, the librarian had engineered a solution. The same solution it was now using on the latest catch. While most of the human’s body was consumed, the info on the nervous system was copied and compressed into a new form. Nerves were sought out, translated and the knowledge replicated. At the end of the process, the original mind, with all its wasteful and squishy cells,  was disposed. The new mind however was an almost exact copy of the originals knowledge, way of function and limits. Only the ’format’ was different. Instead of a small bundle of interconnected cells, the copy was only the size and shape of a black marble. Small, easy to store and hard to destroy, the newly made copy was easily preservable in the toxic and ever-changing body of the Shoggoth.

The Librarian was about to indulge on its newest addition to its vast and  ancient collection, when something alerted It. Shifting attention to its body’s outer regions, where a few hidden above ground stalks tipped with eyeballs had alerted of movement. Through one of its above-ground eye It saw  another human approaching down the alley. Filled with what humans would call glee, the Shoggoth sent the ’lure’ out of the open manhole again. Before the lump of meat masquerading as a woman could once more send its siren call, the librarian noticed something odd. No matter from what eye it looked at the approaching figure, the man always seemed to stare straight back. This would not be a problem to an being with less than ten eyes, but the Shoggoth had hidden eyes all along, above and below the street. Even in the eyes the approaching  oddity had recently passed told the observer that the man  was staring straight at it. Then it suddenly dawned to the Librarian.

With haste, the lure part of Shoggoth lunged for the nearby manhole cover and pulled it into place. The massive tide of flesh in the sewers started to move with haste down the waste channel path. It had not gotten far, when suddenly with a great crash the pursuing figure smashed through the road above into the same sewer path below. To the librarian’s horror, its escape route had inexplicably ended with a wall. How had it gotten there, the creature had no answer. It could see soiled water flowing through the wall, but the barrier itself felt more solid than the ground beneath.  Trapped between the wall and the approaching entity, the desperate librarian tried to smash through the barrier. As the frightened abomination tried to batter its way to safety, the suited man calmly approached. Its hands spread wide, the antagonists grin had never stopped growing, as of now his lips had spread over his nose, exposing a full row of white teeth and red nasal cavities,  stopping only where the  now empty eye sockets  began. When the figure had reached  within striking distance of the Shoggoth, he calmly placed his palm on the now frantic monster. In a bright flash, the multi-ton abomination vanished.  Only thing left behind afterwards were the half-digested remains of its latest victim. The man stared  at the remains, his eyes returning once again and smile dropping from inhuman to just unnerving, and after a short contemplation reached down for the mutilated hand. “Shame to let it go to waste’’

00000000

The Librarian was not happy with this situation. The moment its monstrous form appeared in the strange forest, its denizens had started to harass it. At first it was just a few territorial beasts too dumb to flee from the living mass of tentacles and claws. But what was odd was not only their unusual lack of self-preservation in-front of an irate wall of pure flesh, but also the attackers’ forms. The first to bother the misplaced Shoggoth was a giant four headed lizard. The beast, while in mass similar to the newcomer, was easy to beat off. A few scratches from some saw-toothed appendages were enough to deter the attacks and force the multi necked titan to retreat into the murky water it had spawned from. Next to assault the librarian however was more persistent. A giant, see-through bear the size of a small mountain charged. This one however, while much more aggressive and determined, was surprisingly lightweight, and was with contemptuous ease thrown and trapped into the cave it ethereal hide had crawled out from.  The final and current opponent however had thoroughly frustrated the Shoggoth. It was another over-sized reptile, but this time a winged, fire breathing one. Wisely, the flying menace had stayed out of the range of the tentacles, and had resorted to bombard it with flames from above. While the librarian’s body was too big to be cooked by the flames in a single moment, the persistent barrage of flames was slowly but surely burning the flesh away. Its target out of reach but still harassing, the Shoggoth had slithered into the same murky pool the four headed one had retreated before . While the four-head resorted to now  ignore the intruder in his domain, the dragon had landed near the edge of the lake and started roaring. While the Shoggoth opted to wait for the beast to either tire and give up or foolishly charge into the water,  the dragon did nothing but shriek at the lake edge. An hour passed before the reason for the impromptu ovation was made clear. As time went by, dragon after dragon was drawn near the screaming one. Some large, some small, but all of them started roaring the moment they reached the lake. The four-head, driven to rage by the noise had charged the dragons. The drakes went airborne immediately and burned him to a crisp.

The Librarian was trapped. The small murky pool was a safe haven, but as more and more dragons started to convene in its shores, the feeling of safety started to erode. As its desperation grew, the Shoggoth started a plan that had a bitter price. To escape from the wretched lizards, he needed a diversion. While the four-headed one from before would have been a fine distraction, the trapped monstrosity did not realize its use before it was too late. Instead, it was forced to create the diversion from its own flesh. The Shoggoth swiftly crawled along the bottom of the pool to one of the less contested shore and set down. From within its flesh suddenly came forth all manner of creatures. From rats, dogs and cats, to humans, elephants, bears and more. And in every creature was one of the librarians prized ’books’, flesh hastily chained to the mind to give the diversion more credibility. The spawning, as expected had attracted the reptiles’ attention.

0000000

The young man was confused. Before him suddenly was a wide array of different animals. While that itself would weird out a city boy like him, the strange thing was their size. They were all huge!  Rats the same size as him, dogs monstrously gigantic and even an elephant that he had first mistaken for a smooth gray mountain. He saw some people too, giants like all the rest, but for some reason all of them crawled and howled in inhuman ways. Before he could come to the logical conclusion that he was abducted and feed LSD by a death cult operating from a zoo, a loud whoosh was heard. Looking towards the sound he saw a wall of flame descending down on him. Acting out of instinct, he jumped up and ran away. It was difficult to balance, but he attributed that to the obvious drugs coursing through his abducted body. Hobbling away from the scene, he briefly looked back to see the herd of animals suddenly immolated. Some got away, but most were burned by what he could definitely swear were dragons. What’s worse, some of the flying lizards were looking at his direction and starting to pursue. Once again rising to his two feet, the man ran until his route was blocked by a large fallen three. Too big to vault over, he tried to find some handle for his hands to climb. To his surprise, getting a grip was shockingly easy. Climbing over the log even easier. Yet when he tried to run again the balancing issues came straight back. He had little time to contemplate this as a gout of flame went past his side. Running with all haste he tried jumping over another rotten log, when suddenly the ground below him screamed, opened up and sucked him in.

000000000

The Hoofington docks are the pride and joy of the local citizenry. While not as aesthetically pleasing as the towers and castles of Canterlot, nor as ingenious and legendary as the Cloudsdale airship-yards, the Great dock is often considered the beating heart of the neighbouring region. Serving the large trade fleets, both local and foreign, has brought wealth and prosperity into the city and nearby countryside. As one of the few pony towns that not only accepts but even encourages trade with foreigners in the whole Equestria, Hoofington has gained notoriety as a cultural melting pot for the in-equine and equine races. Quick to accept foreign fads, traditions and foreigners themselves, Hoofington In whole has often been considered strange by most of  other equestrian populace.

On a warehouse near said docks however, things were about to get much stranger.

0000

The warehouse looked derelict. Little moon-light shined through the grime encrusted windows as half-rotten wooden boxes littered the stone floor. This however did little to hinder the work of a small group of ponies drawing sketches on the ground. While the others are drawing, a white unicorn stallion of remarkable  height walks between them, often checking into a tome levitated nearby, sometimes ordering a symbol to be corrected or wiped off. A bit farther away from that group of drawers, two mares stand guard over a muffin.

“Soo, what are we actually doing here? “  The first asked. All she had known about the event was to bring the currently guarded pastry to the docks and to not panic. The last part was stressed, but never explained, and if anypony else but Longhorn had asked her to do it, she would have told them off a long time ago. But Longhorn was a good friend with a silver tongue and considerable wealth at his disposal, and her unease was generously compensated.

“Hopper Longhorn is convinced he can summon a being called “Soo-Goth” or something, and bind it to his will“ the second mare replied with slight annoyance in her voice. She had understood Longhorn’s persistence on “need-to-know” basis up until this point, but explaining the purpose of this little gathering for the fourth time this night had started to grate on her nerves.

“What does he need with that thing for anyway? “

“Soo-Goths are described as the perfect builders and slaves, being simple to control, and capable of constructing anything and everything  using only its own body. Longhorn wants an underwater fortress “ the second replied in monotone. Saying the same answer to the same question asked from her many times before. She could bet her life on knowing what the next question from her accomplice will be.

“What in the name of Tartarus is Longhorn going to do with an underwater fortress? “

“No idea. He has had that obsession ever since he found that book of his“, pointing to the old worn tome held in the stallions magic.

“Oookay… So what does a Soo-....     whatever its name is look like? “

“The book described it as a monstrous mass of tentacles, eyes, claws, teeth and whatever-have you“

“Yipes. Is such a thing safe to be near? What happens if it does not want to build him an underwater castle? “

“Well, the book told us this thing is laughingly weak to magic, specifically mind-control spells. If that don’t work, I have a whole pack of fire-glass I brought off a zebra trader few days ago. But I don’t think we will need that. Those things have been summoned and controlled easily before. How do you think they build the Canterlot on the side of a mountain in seven days? “

“Really  fast? “

“Ha… No, one of the old unicorn nobles summoned one, and told it to make the thing there. The castle is still in pristine condition even after all this time. Not a single crack has been discovered insofar in the whole castle. The city surrounding it has tried to imitate the building style, but nothing has ever come close to the originals form nor durability.“

“So why do we not use these things to build everything around us? “

“So-Goths seem to adapt quickly and steadily become more magically immune. Usually they can be controlled safely for about a month before the more strong willed ones start to get funny ideas. We plan to get the construction done in three days, and then we banish the beast. “

“And if the construction takes longer? “

“Banish the beast, and get a new one. “

“A little wasteful, don’t you think? “

“True, but the book warned that persistently held Soo-Goths are damn notorious for suddenly eating its summoner, summoners city, and anything in 20 feather-lengths radius that is not capable of flight, so we’re not taking any chances. “

“And we are using this thing for construction? It seems kind of irresponsible. “

“Have you ever tried to build something underwater, under all that pressure, while keeping it a secret from any of her majesties officials, patrols and mages?“

“Oh,  So this is like  the last resort.“

“No… the last resort is releasing and bargaining with Discord, but I’d prefer the fortress not to be made out of flaming cotton candy, and equestrian populace not trying to lynch us.“

“Still, summoning an unpredictable monster to do our bidding does not seem like the most reasonable option. “

“Compared to releasing Discord, even setting yourself on fire is the more reasonable option. “

“Still, the old saying goes as the draconequis you know is better than... ”

“Shush now, the preparations seem to be complete. Take your position“

Last of the symbols is drawn, and the whole warehouse floor seems to be covered with strange glowing symbols that make eyes water when looked at for too long, spreading out in a haphazard spiral from the center of the room . As the other ponies move step back, Longhorn moves to the edge of the summoning ring and starts to slowly chant. As the summoning progresses,  his eyes bulge, giving his face a maddened look, while his voice starts to sound strangely resonant, as if a whole choir of off-beat singers were slurring  somewhere along with him. He keeps up the chanting, while motioning with a hoof towards the muffin guarding duo. One of them brings pastry into the center of the spiral, places it down gingerly and quickly retreats back near the rear with her other companions. Longhorn, never pausing his chanting, glares at the muffin with a look like the pastry slept with his mother, stole his lunch and farted at an elevator all at the same time. The muffin seems unfazed by the stare, but not for long. As Longhorn’s voice rises, the muffin starts to shake while taking on otherworldly and unmuffin-like hue. As the white unicorns  voice reaches its peak, he rears up on his hind legs and bellows: “AAAAAAAAND TAKE THIS SACRIFICE FOR THE PRICE OF DILIVERIEEEEEEEEEEEEE“. He slams down his hoof down hard on the now levitating muffin, which splatters with a spectacular splotch.

As Longhorn loudly pants, his collaborators all tense up, expecting the worst. At first nothing happens, but suddenly a crack starts to spread from the centre of the circle as  the summoner quickly retreats to the edge of the warehouse. The hard rock floor tears like paper, revealing a portal. Strange and otherworldly colours swim in the tear, and suddenly something is thrown out of it. A small ball, barely the size of a hoof is flung directly onto Longhorns face. The stallion, reacting with all the rationale of an experienced summoner, screamed and ran in a circle.  “GetitOFFGETITOFFGETITOOOOOO” SMACK. He landed on his back as a pegasus tackled him to the ground. Holding him still, Longhorns unicorn affiliates  finally regained enough sense to levitate the source of his misery off him and hold it afloat. All eyes on the room fell on the summoned and disbelief was evident in all of them.

“A kitten? “  The Pegasus mumbled, breaking the silent stupor. “Somehow I think we did something wrong “. The captured orange feline was spasming, trying to break free from the magical grip as ponies neared to have a better look. As all the attention in the room was focused on the cat-turned-projectile, nopony was prepared for what happened next. The portal suddenly spewed forth five more critters, followed closely by a manticore sized dragon gripping the sixth one. The critters scattered quickly, while the dragon fell to the ground dazed, holding a trashing snake in its claws. The tear in the floor closed with a loud clap shortly after, erasing all the runes on the floor with it, leaving only a cracked stone beneath. The dragon recovered quickly from the fall  however, and set his eyes on the kitten suspended in mid-air.

0000

'What the hell is going on?' That single thought had repeated itself endlessly on the very second the man had regained consciousness .

'Why  was I chased by dinosaurs? Why did the ground swallow me up? Why did I suddenly saw so many trippy colours? Why was i suddenly holding on to a giant face? Where did gravity go? Am i in SPACE? Why am i being surrounded by giant horses? [“A kitten?”] Oh god, one of the horses whinnied something. [“Somehow i think we did something wrong”]. It did it again! What the hell does the winged bastard want? Wait...wings?'

A loud Clap resonated through the room.

'What the hell was that? Oh crap, it’s one of the dinosaurs!'

'Got to GO GOT TO GO GOT TO RUN! FUCKING ZERO GRAVITY! CANT RUN IN SPACE! MUST SWIM!'

00000

Longhorn was stunned. The kitten suspended in front of  him was doing swimming motions while the suddenly materialized dragon regained his footing and started approaching the group. The dragon breathed in, and acting on instinct long-ago drilled into him, Longhorn created a pink shield bubble around the group. The kitten however was outside the shield, and before he could drag the feline into safety the room was engulfed in flames.

000000

FIRE!!! WATER! NEED WATER!

The dropped man was instantly set alight. Dashing around the room, he left a trail of smoke and burnt hair.

NO WATER IN SPACE! MUST GO OUT! OUT OF THE WINDOW!

The man spotted a large panel of glass, and hurled through it instantly. The window broke with a loud crash, scattering the man and the shards of glass on the streets below. Looking around, the burning man spotted he was near a pier. Not thinking about it, he jumped from it into the dark waters below, plummeting straight to the bottom.

WATER! SWEET SALTY water! Thank the heavens. Wait. Why am i at the bottom of the water? Why am i not floating? OH GOD IM DROWNING!

The sunken man started making swimming motions, but could not rise himself from the sea floor. As if he weighted a ton , any attempt to paddle upward produced as little effect as trying to fly on dry land. Growing more frantic as oxygen started to run out, he jumped on the sea floor, fruitlessly trying to reach the surface. After a third jump he inhaled on instinct. Lungs filled with stinging salt water, the man made his last effort to reach for air. Jumping from the bottom to as high as his legs let him, he reached only halfway to surface before dropping like a rock. Despair and fatigue finally overpowering him, he sat down on the seafloor, letting fate claim him.

0000

Fifteen minutes had passed since the man had sat down, and he still lived.

How the hell have I still not drowned?

For the last few minutes he has had an internal debate with himself about whether he is dead or not. He concluded that as long as he can move around, he's still alive. Ignoring the disturbing existential thought that this all is just a hallucination of a dying mind, he started to seek for a way out of the water. Walking between the seaweeds, he spotted a row of large wooden posts sticking out of the seafloor. Trying to grip one of them, he discovered the posts to be easily scaled.  Climbing up the post onto the pier above, he coughed up the seawater and took a fresh breath of air. Sitting there, he finally had a chance to rest and take stock of his situation. He looked down on himself and for the first time noted his orange fur coat, paws and tail. This did not disturb him however, because he finally figured out what was the cause of his recent mind boggling adventure.

'Damn, I must be tripping balls.'

Checking over his now hairy body, he saw no burn marks or singes from before. Before he could have sworn it felt as if some of his hair was burned away, but now it seemed as nothing was wrong. Only slightly emptier feeling in his stomach.

'Guess I’ve must have hallucinated being set on fire by dinosaurs. All that other crazy stuff must also be a product of whatever the hell I’m on at the moment. Damn, i must have done something stupid at the party.'

'Ok, new plan! Ignore the hallucinations, don’t respond to them. I am just going to sit here till all this trippy shit stops and the world starts making sense again. Just remember: the hallucinations can’t hurt me, they are not real. And that giant gray horse-thing approaching me is not real....

Don’t respond to it, it’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real! It’s not real!'

'Oh please don’t be real!'

0000

Silverleaf has always been a big softie. Even by the lofty standards of Equestrians, her vulnerability to cuteness was notable. So when on her nightly walk the mare came upon a wet kitten near the docs, she almost lost all her self-control. When the same kitten looked her in the eyes and shivered, her heart could no longer take it. Mind made up, she started to approach the little thing, keeping her trot slow as not to scare the cat away. To her glee the pitiable bundle of fur did not move, and started to shake even more as she got closer. When within reach, the mare sat down on her haunches and slowly, carefully wrapped her hooves around her wet quarry. The cat shivered, but made no effort to escape as the affectionate mare pressed the soaked feline gently into a warm hug.

0000

[“Oh you poor thing”] 'Don’t move! Don’t react! It’s just a hallucination. It will go away. IT HAS TO!'

The mare kept the cat in a comfortable, but tight hug.

' I’m just imagining things. I’m not really feeling warm and comfy. This is just an illusion.' [“Do you want to come home with me?”] 'The horse did not just vinny in a complex and strangely friendly way that imitates language. Im just imagining it. As im imagining this horse-thing hugging me. In fact there is no horse-thing! I will just close my eyes, and it will go away.' [’’Aww, you fell asleep. Il take you to a warm safe place’’]. 'Keep eyes closed and stand still. It will all return to normal when i open them again.'

0000

The wet kitten in her lap had stopped shivering, and seemed to have gone to sleep. Taking the poor thing to her hoof, she placed the kitty carefully on her back and started to slowly trot home. The cat stayed on her back, and while she felt an occasional shiver from him, the feline seemed to have taken a liking to her presence, not moving nor attempting to flee. A smile graced her muzzle, as she thought of the new pet she would have for company. Oh, she knew there will be complications on the days ahead. The new cat must be housebroken, and if the kitty can’t get along with her little filly, she must give him/her/it away. And getting cat food was always a hassle when you live in a vegetarian culture. Also she should figure out what gender the cat is. But those were problems for tomorrow, and as she walked down the lamp-lit streets she never felt any regret for taking the poor feline into her home.

0000

'I’m just imagining it. I’m just imagining it. I’m just imagining it.'

The former man was on the horse-things back, and no matter how much he tried, he could not make the images before him disappear.

'Just go away… Just *blend in*. Just disappear, Please?'

The images remained, and the more he looked at them, the more real it seemed. The talkative horse-thing, he noted, had a silver-gray fur, and for some strange reason, a lighter shade of silver mane and tail. The buildings around him had been made of what seemed like wood and uncut stone, and while colorful, completely at odds with the concrete and steel towers he was familiar with. He looked over himself, and once again noted the silver-gray paws and a tail, last of which he could control with unusual ease. Moving it felt as effortless as tilting his head. The alien body, despite seeming so different, did not feel different. Nothing felt out of place or missing, nothing felt numb or tingly. Everything just seemed... normal.

'Wait... Silver-gray?'

He  once again looked over his body, and the body beneath him. His new-found coat was an exact match to the horse-thing he was sitting on. Had he not raised his head, he'd would seem to an observer just as a  gray hump on the mares back.

'Was i not orange before?'

As he mulled over his sudden change of coloration, the mare had reached a quaint little brick house.

000000000000