In an instant they were all jammed into the entryway, trying to see what had given Fluttershy such a fright.
“It was big, no, massive!” she quavered, trying her best to inch through her pack of friends back into the cabin. “It just came out of the woods and picked him up! He was gone so fast…”
Twilight peered into the blizzard. Sure enough, the stallion’s hoofprints were still barely visible in the snow. Deep indents intersected with where his path ended, showing where something quite large had touched down.
“There, there,” murmured Rarity, offering a consoling hug. “Just tell us what you can.”
Fluttershy stuttered for a moment or two before finding her voice. “It was a monster!”
There was a beat. “You mean, a big animal or something?” asked Pinkie Pie.
Fluttershy shook her head vigorously. “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Uh, well…” She shuffled her hooves. “I didn’t see much, but still, I’ve definitely never seen anything like it.”
“Well what are we standing around here for? We need to get help!” cried Rainbow Dash as she launched towards the door. Applejack stomped down on her tail as she passed, Dash’s wings flapping furiously as she hovered in midair.
“Hold on now, you can’t go out in this blizzard. You can’t see the nose on your face out there, and you’d freeze to death before you got anywhere,” said Applejack. She firmly kicked the door shut.
Rainbow Dash gave an exasperated sigh and landed as Applejack cautiously let go. “Fine. But we can’t just do nothing!”
“Rainbow Dash is right,” said Twilight. “We may be stuck here for now, but that shouldn’t keep us from helping the best way we can.”
“But how?” squeaked Fluttershy.
Twilight shifted on her hooves for a moment before voicing her thoughts aloud.
“Alright Twilight, think. We need to get help.” She looked up at her friends. “Let’s search the lodge and see if there’s anything we can find that might get somepony out here faster. That way we don’t have to wait until sunrise, or even worse, until whenever this blizzard decides to let up.”
“Twilight’s right,” said Applejack. “Let’s split up into pairs and meet back here in five minutes.” And with that the three groups parted—Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash climbed the staircase while Fluttershy and Rarity headed towards the kitchen to begin their search on the main floor. Twilight turned to Applejack.
“Well, do you feel up to braving the storm? This cabin is on a steep part of the mountain, and I want to see if there’s anything under the deck,” she said.
“I reckon there’s a good place to start,” said Applejack. “As long as we do it quick, and always keep a hoof to the wall. We don’t need to lose nopony tonight.”
Twilight nodded. It took them only a moment to don their winter gear, and as an added precaution Twilight located a rope from some hiking supplies in a hall closet. She tied it around their middles and soon they were out in the snowstorm.
Applejack headed out first since she had the surer footing. Twilight levitated a lantern before them to light their way.
“That was a great idea,” the earth pony called over her shoulder as they reached the far edge of the deck where it met the mountain. “It looks a might dark under the deck.”
They slid only once or twice as they trudged through the deep snow. As they neared the lowest point, Applejack began to slow down.
“AJ, what’s wrong?” Twilight yelled against the increasing gusts.
“C’mere and look at this!”
The unicorn left the side of the wall and huddled next to her friend.
“See it? There in the wall?” She pointed to a metal panel in the rock.
Twilight squinted, making out the shape of a large keyhole. She brought the lantern closer, casting light on a very large door. “Where does this go to?”
“Dunno, see if you can open it!”
Twilight nodded. Bringing her horn to the keyhole, she screwed up her face and focused. A purple spark erupted from her horn, but the door refused to open.
Applejack turned her back to the door. “Hold on, let me try.” She gave the door a swift one-two and… nothing budged. They even tried their cabin keys, but the lock was too big for them to properly fit.
Twilight sighed as she glanced around. Before the blizzard there was a spectacular view of the slopes, but the oppressing curtain of snow just made mountains seem barren and isolated. The biting cold kept them from sticking around much longer, and there wasn’t anything of note on their trip up the opposite side. They came back in through the front door, shed their coats, and met the others in the common room.
“We didn’t find anything,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Neither did we,” said Rarity. “Er, well, nothing relevant. We did come across a small wine cellar in the kitchen that we hadn’t noticed before. And there was a closet where they probably keep the cleaning supplies.”
“We found some doors under the deck,” said Twilight as she and Applejack shuffled over to the fire. “It looks like they lead to a basement, but we couldn’t get them to open.”
“If I had to guess,” mused Applejack, “I’d say it was full of groundskeepin’ equipment. Probably not somethin’ to get excited about.”
“I guess you’re right,” sighed Twilight. She turned to stare into the fire. Hopefully the concierge was okay. And surely somepony at the front desk noticed he was missing, right?
Rarity spoke up after a moment. “You know, it might not snow all night. We can stay awake, and if it lightens we can go to the main lodge. And at the very least it should be bright enough to go by morning.”
And so it was decided. They tried to pass the time in conversation, but the tension had already taken hold, despite Pinkie Pie’s best efforts. There was the odd nervous chuckle to a forced joke every now and then, but it was mostly just the ticking from the grandfather clock and the crackling fire.
Twilight turned to Fluttershy. “Hey, do you know much about the kinds of animals that live in the mountains?”
“Oh,” said Fluttershy, “a lot of the animals here aren’t too different from the ones back home. There are hares and foxes and bears and quite a few birds—”
“But do you know about any of the bigger things that might live here?” Twilight pressed. All eyes went to Fluttershy.
She sat for a moment in thought. “Sorry, not really.”
Twilight rolled over and stared at the ceiling, watching the last bits of the long skylights collect snow. What could possibly be out there? She went up to her room and returned with a few books she had pulled yesterday. The common room returned to silence. It continued this way for nearly an hour when a sudden knock rapped at the front door.
Everypony just stared. There was such an oppressing silence that Twilight began to wonder if she had simply imagined it, but that was quickly dispelled when the knock sounded again in the same even tempo. They all slowly stood.
Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a nudge. “You should go check it out.” Appejack cocked an eyebrow at her. “W-What? You’re a brave pony! Not that I’m not, but… you’ll need… someone to watch your back?” Rainbow Dash offered an uncomfortable-looking grin.
Applejack looked at her terrified friends’ faces and sighed heavily. “Okay y’all. Just… Just stay behind me.” Everyone fell into a nervous huddle as Applejack steeled herself. They approached the door as a clump as their impromptu leader carefully opened it. Just beyond, a yellowish light glowed. Twilight squinted, but she couldn’t make out much through the snowy air. Was it a lantern?
Curiosity piqued, Applejack hesitantly ventured forward. “Y’all, I think…” She started to trot. “I think it’s…” She slowed, pausing just past where the blizzard made her outline hard to see. Suddenly, with a cry of surprise, she was sucked down into the snow as the little light began to glow intensely. A rumbling growl emanated from its spot.
Immediately Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all threw their weight on the door and slammed it shut.
“Applejack!” shouted Twilight, panic in her eyes. “We need to do something! Now! Oh, but what can we do?”
“I’ll tell you what we do,” said Rainbow Dash, “we fight this thing! No more hiding and no more screaming! This monster’s going down.”
“Wait,” said Rarity. “We need to think this through. We can’t go out there unprepared.”
“She’s right,” said Twilight, regaining her composure. “If we just run out there unprepared, we’ll be totally vulnerable. And we won’t be very useful to Applejack that way.”
“So what’s the plan?” said Rainbow Dash.
Everyone thought for a moment.
“Well, maybe we should use a rope to guide us. That way we won’t get lost in the blizzard,” offered Fluttershy.
Twilight smacked her forehead with a hoof. “Of course! Applejack and I found some climbing equipment earlier and used the rope when we went outside!”
“Hey, yeah,” said Pinkie Pie. “And Dashie can lead the way—that way she can’t get sucked into the snow, and if the monster is too scary, she can just fly away! Nothing’s faster than you!”
“Alright!” Rainbow Dash turned and shouted through the closed door. “You hear that, Applejack? We’re coming for you!”
It took less than a minute for Twilight to relocate the rope. They tied one end around Rainbow Dash’s middle and secured the other to the thick leg of a table in the entryway. Fluttershy also gave the pegasus the lantern that Twilight had used earlier.
Rainbow Dash zipped up her coat. “Let’s do this.” She took one bound out the door and she was off, her outline growing fuzzy but her lantern and voice only slightly fading.
“Applejack!” she yelled around the lantern’s handle in her mouth. “Applejack, where are you?” She hovered just over the spot where Applejack had vanished. “I think I found the hole,” she called back to her friends in the doorway. “There’s already more snow in it.” She landed just next to it and dug, shoveling out great clumps and sticking her head in where she excavated. “Applejack! Can you hear me?” The pegasus shouted a few times more before Twilight cut in.
“Rainbow Dash, I don’t think she’s there anymore! Can you find any clues where she might have gone?”
“Hold on,” came the voice from out in the storm, “I’ll see what I can get.”
She flew back up into the air, the light bouncing around as the wind buffeted her a little more than before.
Only a few moments passed before the lantern’s glow stopped moving.
“Ugh, there’s nothing out here! Twilight, this isn’t working,” she yelled back at the cabin. “Okay, monster,” she shouted, “I dare you to come out and fight! No more of this stupid hiding stuff!” She whirled about in the air. “I bet you can’t lay a claw on me! Are you a beast or a chicken?”
Though they could hear the insults, the ponies in the doorway soon saw Dash’s light flicker and die.
Twilight yelled, “Hey, Rainbow Dash! Are you okay? We can bring you back in and re-light it.”
“Hold on,” she answered, “I just need—whoa!”
There was a visibly sharp tug on the end of the line. A loud snap sounded in the distance.
“Oh no,” Twilight moaned. “Hold on Rainbow Dash, we’ll pull you in!”
Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy grabbed onto the rope and reeled it in.
“Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,” Twilight chanted over and over. She couldn’t stop the anguished groan that escaped when they pulled in the end of a severed line. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!”
“Rainbow Da-aaash!” yelled Pinkie Pie to the quiet woods. She was answered by a ripple in the trees. The ponies stood tense in the doorway, watching it pass through the forest. It zig-zagged here and there, then stopped. The woods fell silent again.
“Okay,” said Twilight, trying to keep the bubbling panic down. “Let’s take the rope and—”
The tree tops began to ripple again, almost violently. The air swirled in place roughly where Rainbow Dash’s voice last came from, before blasting straight to the cabin door. It bowled everypony back inside, the blow-back from hitting the wall causing the door to slam shut.
All four lay on the floor in stunned silence. There was a slight whimper from Fluttershy. Twilight could feel herself shaking.
“Okay,” mumbled Twilight, “okay. We can beat this thing. Maybe if… Maybe if we…”
Rarity’s hoof was on her shoulder. “Maybe we should take a minute.”
Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. She knew Rarity was right. No more screw-ups. They were going to go out there and catch this thing, and more importantly find their friends.
They slowly headed back to the common room and tried to regroup. Nopony seemed eager to try the rope again, or at least not while it was still dark out. They thought about trying a net, but after there was no volunteer to be the bait, they decided that it would have been a perfect way to lose their volunteer anyway and discarded it. Most other ideas were quickly shot down after that.
Rarity glanced at the clock and yawned. “Perhaps if we just found out what it liked, we could just make a trade,” she said. “Do you think it would like diamonds?”
“I have no idea,” groaned Twilight, hooves over her head and in desperate thought.
“Surely I have something valuable somewhere in my luggage. I’m going to go and see what I can find,” said Rarity as she headed into her room.
Twilight felt like they had been sitting there for ages and getting nowhere. She looked at the clock and gave an exasperated sigh. Rainbow Dash hadn’t gone missing for too long, but Applejack had vanished nearly an hour ago. She hoped they were okay…
“Hey,” said Pinkie Pie, “does anyone else hear that?”
“Hear what?” asked Twilight.
“It sounds like a rap-tap-tapping!”
Fluttershy perked her ears up. “I think I hear it too.”
“Oooh, it’s getting louder!” said Pinkie Pie.
Twilight lifted her head to listen. “Is it… Is it coming from the windows?” She got up and inspected the glass double doors to the deck. They seemed to be lightly vibrating.
A belting shriek erupted from Rarity’s room. Twilight rushed to the door and threw it open with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie hot on her heels.
Rarity lay dazed on the ground. Twilight scanned the room, but nopony else seemed to be there.
“Rarity, what—” Twilight started, but was immediately cut off by another shriek from Rarity. She raised a quaking hoof towards the double doors leading out to the deck. Twilight peered across the room but couldn’t make out much past the windows before the doors blasted inwards, gusts of wind sending cascades of snow into the room. It looked as if unseen hands clutched at Rarity’s legs as she was dragged, flailing and screaming, into the blizzard and the doors slammed shut behind her.
With horrified gasps everyone rushed to the doors. Twilight flung them open, but only to find the outside eerily calm. Even the blizzard seemed to lighten a little.
“Rarity! Rarity, where are you?!” Twilight cried to the quiet woods.
“Look at this,” said Fluttershy. She stood next to a deep streak in the snow that ended before the edge of the deck. “She… She just disappeared,” she mumbled.
“And there aren’t any prints anywhere else,” said Pinkie Pie. “Well, except there are now that we’re out here.”
Twilight could only stare at the gash Rarity had made in the snow as she was dragged away. She sat down hard.
“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie ventured over. “Twilight, are you okay?”
Twilight looked up with hard determination in her eyes. “Yeah. And I’ve got a plan.” She stood and headed back inside, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie following right behind. The two exchanged a look as Fluttershy closed and locked the door after her.
“Grab your stuff and come upstairs,” Twilight told the pair, a renewed lift in her step. “We’re going to let it come to us.”