//------------------------------// // 3. All Alone in the Night // Story: The 'Ling from Another World // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Foal. Frightened. No good. Can’t eat. Calm. Patient. Calm… --- Snails had stopped running a few minutes ago, and was now leaning against a vine trellis, trying to catch his breath. He had no idea where he was. Green Grape’s vineyard was large, he was the second-most successful farmer in Ponyville after the Apples, after all, though it was a pretty distant second. He could have been right next to the town proper, or all the way out on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Though Snails definitely hoped that the latter wasn’t the case. The unicorn colt flopped down on his stomach, mostly so that he could loosen his mummy costume’s wraps, which were way too tight for running like he had been. He’d been really proud of this costume, too, he’d done a lot of extra work to make the wraps look like they were really old and decayed, not brand new, having buried them in the back yard for a few days. But it definitely wasn’t any good for running as fast as his hooves could carry him from some kind of weird Everfree monster. The monster wasn’t an insect, Snails knew that for sure. Actually he was certain it wasn’t any kind of invertebrate. Snails’ special talent was communicating with animals, and he knew a lot about all his favorite kinds of animals, like insects and crustaceans and mollusks and arachnids and other creatures that ponies tended to not like very much, though Snails didn’t know why since they were so important to the world. But in any event, the monster that they’d seen clearly wasn’t any of those things. It moved and looked like it had a skeleton – not an exoskeleton – and it had to be warm-blooded. Most of Snails’ animal friends were dead due to the season (which was sad, but they’d lived their full lives over the Spring and Summer, and Snails would get to meet their children when next Spring came), and the ones that weren’t dead were either hibernating or specially adapted to the colder weather. But the monster, though it had sort of looked like some of his animal friends, didn’t have those adaptations, which had to mean that it was able to create its own body heat, just like a pony. Plus, it had talked. Like, out loud, in Equestrian. Snails could sometimes understand his animal friends, if they were in the mood to talk, but they never spoke Equestrian, even if Snails did speak Equestrian to them. So it couldn’t be a normal animal. And since it certainly wasn’t a pony, that left only one possibility: Everfree monster, like Twist had reasoned out. Snails’ parents and his big sister Raindrops had always told him the same thing about Everfree monsters: if he saw one, run. Which Snails supposed he had, though he’d meant to run home, but he hadn’t known which way to go. So he’d just run as fast and as far as he could. But now he had a problem. His parents and sister had told him to run if he’d seen an Everfree monster…but they hadn’t told him what to do if that Everfree monster could look like his friends, and he was with friends, and now he was lost and his friends were lost. He couldn’t just leave Pipsqueak, Dinky, or Twist. They were out there somewhere, and probably as scared as him. Sure, the Everfree monster was out there too…but there was just one monster but he had three friends to find. So surely he was more likely to find his friends than the monster. Right? Snails groaned a little as he stood up. “I’m gonna get in so much trouble…” he moaned, trotting into the vine trellises, horn glowing to give him some light. He was still a little afraid, but Snails had always had trouble trying to think about too much at once, and right now he didn’t have time to be afraid. He had to focus on finding his friends, and he also needed to think about what to do if he found the Everfree monster instead of his friends. He didn’t have time to be afraid. After several minutes of trotting, head swinging left and right to look down gaps in vine trellises, Snails finally heard something – somepony else trotting through the field. He almost called out, but then remembered that there was a one-in-four chance that whoever he was hearing might be the Everfree monster…maybe even the monster disguised as one of his friends! So instead, Snails quelled his horn’s light and stood still, waiting. After a few minutes, he was rewarded with the sight of Dinky Doo, creeping along slowly through the vine trellises, her horn dimly lit up with a lavender glow which was itself muted by the faux-fur pelt she wore as part of her eowolf costume. Or at least it looked like Dinky. Snails kept himself out of sight as he kept a close eye on Dinky – he knew, from camping trips with his family, that something outside a circle of light could see into it a lot better than something inside of light could see into darkness, so Dinky and/or the Everfree monster probably couldn’t see him even though he could see her. Dinky definitely looked scared, eyes wide, glancing around nervously. Snails didn’t think the Everfree monster would look scared, not if it was hunting him. Just in case, the colt picked up a small, loose rock on the ground with one hoof, then tossed it through the air, where it fell with a small but audible thump on the other side of Dinky. She let out a tiny eep of fright and turned in that direction, even as her horn’s glow disappeared entirely and she hunkered down. Snails remained still for a long time, as did Dinky, as the filly tried to determine what had made noise while the former waited for Dinky to reveal herself to be the Everfree monster somehow. But it didn’t happen. “Okay, I guess you’re real,” Snails said as he lit up his horn. Dinky shrieked at that, spinning around so rapidly that she fell over even as her horn’s lavender glow came back on as bright as it could. A nearby vine trellis was torn from the ground by Dinky’s telekinesis and swung in front of her; Snails had to drop to his stomach to avoid it. “Hey, watch it!” he called out. Dinky paused before letting loose a back swing. She had gotten to her hooves and was standing with them spread far apart to brace herself, even as she held the splintered trellis aloft with her telekinesis. She quickly had to put it down, though – it weighed a lot, and as good as Dinky was with magic, she was still a foal. She continued to stare at Snails for several long moments, however, before finally settling down. “Sssnails!” she exclaimed, one hoof at her chest. “Don’t s-s-startle me like that!” Snails sheepishly rubbed a hoof behind his head as he stood up. “Sorry,” he said. He started forward, but Dinky stepped back. “W-wait,” she stuttered, still looking terrified. “H-how do I know you’re really S-Snails? Twist s-s-said that bug-thing could look like a-anypony!” Snails frowned. “It’s not a bug,” he said. “Only hemiptera-order insects are bugs. And the monster isn’t even an insect! It’s too big and it only has four legs and it has to have a real skeleton at that size, an exoskeleton wouldn’t work, and it’s gotta be warm-blooded.” Dinky’s eyes fluttered a few times at that…then she finally dropped her defensive stance, and her horn’s light died down to just bright enough to illuminate the colt. “…okay, you’re definitely Snails,” she decided. “Yup,” Snails confirmed, then thought a moment. “…hey, wait a minute, how do I know that you’re really Dinky? Tell me something only Dinky would know!” “Okay, um…” Dinky thought. “My mother’s name is Ditzy Doo.” “Anypony could know that,” Snails objected. “The monster could if it was in Ponyville tonight. I bet it was! Maybe it was that really scary mare from earlier.” Dinky sighed. “Well…my half-sister is Sparkler. Amethyst Star, that’s her real name. She’s almost as old as my mom. And her and my dad’s name is Castor Cut.” Snails shook his head. “Somepony could still learn that in town, I bet. If they asked. Tell me something older!” The filly let out another long groan. “Okay, fine, uh…um…oh! Last year, me and Scootaloo got into a fight during recess after I said Rainbow Dash was lazy. Miss Cheerilee had to break it up.” She glanced down, scuffing a hoof into the ground. “Scootaloo won, though.” She scuffed her hoof a second time, one ear flicking. “She bit my ear!” Snails tried to think back to that fight. “Oh yeah!” He said, then laughed. “You tried to stop her by shoving your macaroni picture in her face, and Scootaloo just started eating it!” Dinky had looked up at Snails’ laughter, still looking annoyed, but after several long seconds she smiled as well. The fight had been last year, after all, and Scootaloo and Dinky had made up with each other and were friends now. “So do you think I’m the bug…the Everfree monster?” Snails took a moment more to consider, but then shook his head. “No. It couldn’t know about the fight…I don’t see how, anyway.” He trotted up to Dinky, giving her a friendly nuzzle to reassure her. “So you’re Dinky.” She leaned into the nuzzle wholeheartedly, wrapping one hoof around Snails…and after a moment, Snails that he felt wetness on his shoulder from where Dinky had buried her face. “Dinky?” The filly took in a shuddering breath, and Snails realized that she was crying. Dinky grabbed Snails tighter. “Ss-s-sorry,” she whispered. “But I was all a-alone and s-scared and…and there’s this monster out there and it wants to eat us!” “Aw, it’s okay,” Snails said, hugging Dinky with both front hooves and letting her cry. Sometimes ponies just needed to cry to help them feel better. Snails was tall and kind of lanky so he didn’t think he had a very good shoulder to cry on, personally, but he’d still do his best for Dinky, same as he would for anypony. “With you and me together, all we have to do is find Twist and Pipsqueak, and then we can go back to Ponyville and get some adults to deal with the monster.” Dinky’s head nodded a little against Snails’ shoulder. She took in a long breath again, squeezed Snails a little tighter, then let go and nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s get going!” --- Pipsqueak and Twist moved through the vine trellises, looking around as best they could when they could barely see more than a few feet in front of them, and that only because of the occasional moonlight breaking through the clouds. They were completely lost, they knew that much. They normally wouldn’t have been very worried about that, since Green Grape’s vineyard was big, yes, but not so big that they could become lost forever. If they picked a direction and kept to it they’d either come to a road, Ponyville itself, or the Everfree Forest after ten minutes of trotting at most. However, the fact that at any moment they might bump into a horrible bug-thing that wanted to eat them had a way of making them forget that detail. As far as either earth pony was concerned, the vineyard went on forever. It didn’t help that instead of trotting along, they were creeping at a pace that would have made a turtle ask them to get a move on. It took what felt like hours for them to finally encounter something other than more vine trellises. Up ahead there was a large, dark shape. Twist and Pipsqueak had noticed it and hidden from it as quietly as possible at first, but then the moon fully broke through the clouds finally, and revealed it to only be an old shack, with a single window. It wasn’t even a creepy shack, since they could see it was standing up nice and straight, and looked like it had been recently painted, with some grape vines growing along its side for ambiance, and its single window surrounded by stylized hearts. Of course, just a few dozen feet beyond the shack, the two foals saw a much more foreboding shape: another split rail fence, this one lined with chicken wire, and beyond it, the outline of twisted, gnarled trees that seemed to grow in entirely the wrong shapes, often twining around each other at the roots or the boughs. Pipsqueak crept right up to Twist, leaning over close to her so she could hear him clearly. “That’s the Everfree Forest,” he whispered. “I know,” Twist whispered back. “What do we do if the bug-thing took Dinky or Snails in there?” Twist shook her head. “I don’t know. But…we thould – should check out that shack.” Pipsqueak blinked a few times. “No we shouldn’t!” He whispered harshly. “That’s exactly where the bug-thing would make its lair outside the Everfree! Or would if it was some scary story monster!” Twist turned to look at him. “Exthactly,” she hissed. “Which meanth – means that if Dinky or Snails were captured by it, then they’ll be in there.” Pipsqueak couldn’t deny that logic, and he turned to look back at the shack. Every single instinct inside the foal told him to not go in there, don’t make a stupid choice like ponies always did in scary monster stories. Stay out of the obviously spooky places, don’t investigate the weird sound, don’t split up, just run away and keep running…but it was one thing to be sitting in bed thinking about how smart and clever he’d be if he was ever in those situations. It was another to actually be in that situation, and know that he wasn’t just looking out for himself, but for his friends, too. “O-okay,” he stuttered. “C’mon…” The two crept up, no faster than before – both were worried for their friends, yes, but it wouldn’t do to be caught by the monster before they could rescue them. When they were practically on top of the shed, Pipsqueak’s hoof came down on something other than dirt, something small and metal. Looking down, he saw that it was a broken lock, its bar eaten through by something caustic, though whatever it was had long since gone inert. Pipsqueak looked back up at the shack. All of a sudden the fact that it was actually painted nicely and looked clean and tidy from the outside didn’t help. It was a creepy shack in the middle of Green Grape’s field that he and Twist were about to go into and probably get eaten by a horrible bug-thing… But Dinky might be in there. Or Snails. Steeling himself, Pipsqueak drew himself up to his full height and came up to the door, putting a hoof on it. Before Twist could stop him, he pulled it open. It creaked loudly as it did. Pipsqueak backed away from the door…and then felt himself getting knocked lightly upside the head by Twist. “Oi!” he hissed, making sure to keep his voice low as he rubbed where Twist had hit him. “What was that for?” “Being thtupid!” Twist whispered back. “What if the bug-thing is in there? We could have thneaked – sneaked up on it!” Pipsqueak looked back to the shack. “Oh,” he said. Well, it was too late now. Both foals stared at the entrance of the shack, its dark interior, but nothing came out to menace them even after a full minute of waiting. The two carefully made their way forward, and peeked inside. The shack was just as clean on the inside as it was outside, at least from what the two foals could see by the moonlight that streamed in through the shack’s one window. The floor was wooden and slightly raised off the ground beneath it, with a straw mat for standing on at the far end next to a tool bench. There were various farming tools hanging from the ceiling or leaned against one wall, while cabinets lined another wall. “Green Grape’s really organithed,” Twist noted softly as she stepped into the shed. There wasn’t anywhere for something to hide in the shed, so the two weren’t afraid of ambush, at least. Once they were inside, Twist grabbed the door and pulled it closed. She looked to Pipsqueak. “Okay, so Dinky and Thnails – Snailth – Snails – ” she raised a hoof to stomp it in annoyance, but checked herself at the last moment, “ – aren’t here.” “Doesn’t look like the bug-thing’s been here, either,” Pipsqueak noted, wandering over to the window. He had to climb up onto a stool, and then onto a countertop that lined that wall of the shed, to look out it. “If we were all together I’d say we hole up in here and wait for morning.” Twist nodded at that, as Pipsqueak hopped from the counter and the stool, towards the mat – and then let out a cry of fright at the mat collapsed under him. Twist let out a shout herself, rushing forward to see what had happened. Apparently, she found, the mat had been covering a hole in the floor, and even in the ground beneath it. “Are you okay?” Twist asked. Pipsqueak picked himself up. “Yeah,” he said, looking up. The hole he was in was a little bit deeper than he was tall while standing on four legs, though when he reared up he was just able to look out over its edge. He couldn’t see much else due to the lack of light, but feeling around, he found that there wasn’t just a hole in the ground, but an actual tunnel just beneath it that led…he really didn’t care where, actually, because a dark scary tunnel under a creepy shed in a vineyard at night that was the hunting ground of a bug-thing from the Everfree Forest was emphatically not something he wanted to investigate. The moment he found it, he turned around to climb out – – but managed nothing more than putting his hoof to the wall of the tunnel when something grabbed his tail and pulled, hard, dragging him backwards and into the tunnel. Pipsqueak screamed. --- Twist could barely see Pipsqueak as it was from where he’d landed in the hole under the mat, but at least she’d verified he was okay. He’d started to climb out, and Twist was just about to reach down to help him out even as she was really, really, really hoping that it lead to Green Grape’s secret buried treasure that she’d never heard about and not to the bug pony’s lair, when all of a sudden there was a flash, and Pipsqueak fell down and was dragged backwards, screaming the whole time. “Pipthqueak!” Twist called out. Before she could even think of what she was doing, she’d hopped down into the hole, found the tunnel Pipsqueak was dragged down, and started crawling after him. She had to stoop down low and squeeze against the tight walls of the tunnel. It was cold and damp and smelled of dirt and rot, at least at first, but after a few feet of the tunnel sloping downwards its walls instead became wider, taking on a strangely sweet smell and no longer feeling like dirt, but instead almost like hard rubber with a rippling, organic feel to it. She didn’t have any time to think about that as there was another flash, blinding her, as her mane was grabbed by some invisible force and she was pulled. She let out a cry of fright as she was dragged down several more feet, then deposited roughly on a floor of the same material as the walls of the tunnel. Twist reached out, hooves flailing, and they touched something furry and she heard Pipsqueak yelp from right next to her – she’d found him, then. She made to stand, but hit her head on the roof of wherever they were – it was pitch black, she couldn’t see at all. But there was another bright flash, and the chamber they were in was illuminated. Twist squinted against the sudden light, falling back. She found that the chamber they were in was tiny, maybe five feet across at most, and two feet high. It was roughly almond-shaped, its walls made from some kind of greenish-black, rippling, flowing material that looked almost alive somehow, like it was the hard flesh of some kind of monster…or the interior of it, like they’d been eaten. And there was Dinky Doo. She was standing back from them, eyes wide, pressed against the far end of the chamber and glancing between the two other foals. At her hooves was a puddle of some kind of greenish, viscous liquid that reminded Twist a bit too much of whatever the bug-thing had been drooling… Pipsqueak stood himself – he stooped, but in truth he was just short enough that he might have been able to stand up without hitting his head. He looked at Twist. “Who goes there?” He asked. Twist was confused a moment, then remembered their code phrase. They had lost sight of each other for a moment, hadn’t they? And a moment was potentially enough. “The thing,” she responded. Pipsqueak almost relaxed, but then turned back to Dinky, bracing himself. “Wh-what?” Dinky – what looked like Dinky, anyway – demanded at their actions. She looked between the two foals, and fixed her eyes on Twist. “Pipsqueak, get away from her! S-s-she’s not really Twist!” Twist bristled. “Yeah I am!” she countered. “I just proved it! Me and Pipthqueak ran into each other earlier, and proved we’re really uth, and then came up with a code phrathe. That’th what that wath.” Dinky looked between the two of them, shifting a little. She glanced down at the goop she was standing in and grimaced, looking like she wanted to move out of it, but there was no way to do so without getting closer to the two earth ponies. “H-how can I be sure?” She asked, tears in her eyes. “H…how can I trust either of you now? If there’s one bug-pony there could be two, or more…” “If we were both those bug-things,” Pipsqueak said, “we wouldn’t need to pretend to be us. It’d be two on one.” “And bethideth,” Twist pointed out, leaning forward a little and pointing down at Dinky’s hooves. “How do we know that you’re Dinky? What ith that thtuff?” Dinky looked down at the goop she was standing in again, then back up. “I don’t know!” she exclaimed. She glared at Twist. “B-but you do! I found you after we got s-separated, and you acted all nice and helped me calm d-down and brought me to this s-shack…and then the next thing I knew you were the monster and you spat this stuff on me and shoved me down here! I managed to melt it off with my horn b-but it’s gross!” Pipsqueak started at that, looking to Twist a moment like she’d actually done that, before he shook his head. “There wouldn’t be time for that,” Pipsqueak said. “Me and Twist met up hours ago. We’ve been looking for you and Snails this whole time.” “I don’t know that!” Dinky exclaimed. Her horn’s glow changed, taking on an angry lavender hue, and Twist and Pipsqueak both backed away as far as they could, right up against the back wall. Dinky was arguably the best unicorn foal in town when it came to magic…and she was looking at the two of them as dangerous a look either had ever seen on her face. “Prove you’re you!” “M-my thithter’th Bon Bon!” Twist exclaimed. “M-my parents are Adante and Tropic Spring!” Pipsqueak added. “My thpecial talent ith making candy!” “I don’t have my cutie mark yet!” “My favorite Daring Do book ith The Eternal Flower!” “I kinda’ like Ponyville but wanna go back to the sea some day!” Dinky looked between the two of them, horn still glowing bright and dangerous for several long moments…before it died down considerably as Dinky’s lip started trembling and tears appeared in her eyes. After a moment, she fell to her barrel, heedless of the goop underneath her, hooves over her head, and started crying. “I’m sorry!” She exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Twist and Pipsqueak looked between each other; then as one came forward, lifting Dinky out of the goop she was in and hugging her. She didn’t even try to hold back her tears then, as she grabbed both as tightly as she could, burying her face in Pipsqueak’s neck. “I – want – my – momma!” she cried. Twist completely sympathized; she wanted to be back with her own mom as well right now. She squeezed Dinky a little tighter. “We need to get going,” she said after a few moments – not nearly the time that Dinky needed right now, but they didn’t have a choice. “We need to find Thnailth.” Dinky nodded a little as she pulled away from them. “O-okay…” she stuttered. She wiped her eyes, forgetting about the goop that was staining her hooves. “R…right! Let’s-s get moving!” Getting out of the chamber was, fortunately, about as easily said as it was done. Twist went first, following by Pipsqueak, with Dinky taking the rear. They managed to get out without issue, Dinky quelling her horn’s glow entirely once they were back in the shack. They fished out the mat that had lain over the hole in the floor and set it back to cover their tracks. “Okay…” Twist whispered, as they trotted to the shack’s door. “Let’th…let’s…get going – ” Just as Twist touched the door, it opened, swinging outwards – and she found herself looking at Snails, and Dinky. “Oh…thoot,” Twist groaned.