Nightmare Night Part 8 underway... · 2:33pm May 7th, 2018
It's already 3000 words long and I don't see it being much more than 5000, so a release should come later this week. Focus shifts back to what's happening with Spike, with a side of the CMC thrown in. So as to not spoil the Spike scenes, here's a teaser focused on the latter:
“Aren’t we there yet?” a nervous Sweetie Belle asked Scootaloo, was only going at a third her usual speed as she pulled them along the wagon, picking her way along the darkened Everfree Forest trail to Zecora’s house. “Pick up the pace, Scoots! I don’t wanna get caught out here!”
“Hey! I can’t see out here any better than you! Do you want the wagon to take a spill over a root or vine while you’re in it? If I can’t see the path, I gotta take it slow!” An annoyed Scootaloo answered, her wings buzzing, taking the time to buckle on her helmet a bit tighter.
“Dude, if we get ambushed by Timberwolves out here, it won’t matter!” Sweetie Belle replied, wishing Spike was there with them, both so he could light the path and for the fiery deterrent he could give to any of the magical woodland creatures who might menace them. “Can’t we just light a lantern?”
“No!” Scootaloo answered in as sharp and harsh a whisper as she could. “If we do that, then anypony could see us coming a mile away! And I don’t want to attract attention in here at night!”
“Yeah, well it ain’t like your wing buzzing won’t attract attention anyway!” Sweetie Belle shot back, still wearing a cardboard costume done up to make her look like a robot. “Seriously, could you be any more loud?”
“I’m doing the best I can! You wanna walk the rest of the way, Sweetcheeks?” Scootaloo threatened, calling her friend by the nickname Spike had for her.
“Guys, chill,” Apple Bloom replied, trying to be sensible one, still in the remnants of her scarecrow costume. “We all need to stay calm and we ain’t gonna get there any faster by fightin’.” In truth, she was afraid too, and still more than a little freaked over the revelation of a family curse; one that she in all likelihood shared, wondering how she was ever going to tell her friends. Granny Smith had been very careful not to give them away as she found the group huddled in their old HEDGE clubhouse, transforming herself back to give the three the same instructions she’d originally given her granddaughter--go to Zecora’s and stay there until she came to get them.
“How can you stay calm after everything that happened back there?” Scootaloo challenged, looking back at her in the gloom; Apple Bloom could just see her pegasus friend’s head turning to face her.
Because somepony has to, she didn’t say, instead resorting to… “Because everything’s gonna be fine,” she promised, grateful the darkness hid her reflexive swallow and badly forced grin. “We just need to get to Zecora’s place. She’ll probably be home by now, and we can hide out with her. We’ll be safe from the Timberwolves, and with all her potions, she might even have to way to fix all this!” she said hopefully, wondering if she could be cured of her potential curse before it ever manifested.
“Yeah…” Scootaloo was at least momentarily mollified, resuming their journey down the path and to their collective relief, before long, the lights of Zecora’s home were in sight.
“We’re here! And she’s there…” Sweetie Belle announced in relief, feeling some tension start to drain away as she and Apple Bloom removed their helmets and piled out of the wagon inside the perimeter of her compound, relaxing as they passed the barrier where her various alchemic wards were placed to prevent passage by Timberwolves and other undesirable forest denizens. “Let’s go inside.”
“Yeah…” Apple Bloom immediately agreed as Scootaloo left her scooter still hitched to the wagon and fell in behind them, waiting as Sweetie Belle knocked with urgency on the door.
They heard hoofsteps coming to the door, but it did not immediately open. “And who are you, that would come here so late? To be in the woods now is to sorely tempt fate!”
The next chapter will, except for this little interlude, be very adult, as will the ones to follow. It won't take me long to finish it and send off for prereads, so be looking for it in the next few days!
