Chased by the Moon
"Damnit. I knew something bad was going to happen. Didn't really have a choice though. If I hadn't come, Scoots would be either in a hospital, or even dead. All because of that stupid griffin!" Nightshade mumbled to himself. "Now I've got the moon princess, that farmer, and two I don't recognize to deal with. I can handle the farmer, and I think I can outrun the princess, bu the other two, they're the problem. I have no idea what they can do."
He was right that they were the issue, because no sooner than he said it did the Rainbow maned pegasus slam into his back, tackling him to the ground.
"Who the heck does this guy think he is, running away? Nopony is faster than Rainbow Dash!" Said the cyan mare. THIS is Scootaloo's old role model? Geez, she sure likes tooting her own horn. Rolling over, throwing Rainbow Dash off his back, he found himself face to face with the orange farm pony. She didn't look as mad as last time, but she was definitely serious. She turned to buck him, but he jumped. Landing with both feet on her back, her hooves connected with nothing, causing her to fall flat on her stomach.
"Nice try, but I won't fall for the same trick twice." He teased as he jumped off, and made a break for the forest. The moon princess and lavender unicorn not far behind. Upon reaching the edge of the woods, Nightshade found another three ponies. The first he recognized as Pinkie Pie, the one who had gotten the whole town riled up. There was also a bright white unicorn, and a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. At seeing him, the pegasus immediately began cowering behind her friends. Apparently Pinkie Pie had gotten her other friends together to try and stop him, but the yellow one looked like she just wanted to go hide somewhere.
Running straight at the yellow one, she ducked even further, and put her hooves over her head. Nightshade jumped right over all three, and headed into the woods.
"Blast, he has escaped into the woods." said Luna. "We will have to follow after him. He do not know what he is capable of, so we must prepare ourselves."
Rarity and Applejack were busy consoling their nervous wreck of a friend, Fluttershy.
"It's alright sugarcube, he didn't hurt ya none did he?" Said the orange farm pony.
"N-n-n-n-o, he didn't." She stuttered. "But he's dangerous."
"Have you seen this creature before?" Twilight asked.
"Once." She responded. "Right before you came to get me, so we could stop Discord. I saw him stumbling through the forest. It looked sick, and all the plants died when he came near them. He looked like walking death."
"Why didn't you say something before, darling?" Rarity was next to speak.
"Well, I was going to talk about it, but then we had to stop Discord, and I thought maybe it was some poor animal that he had changed, and I guess it kind of slipped my mind." Fluttershy became VERY quiet at the end.
"Don't worry about it. I can handle em." Bragged Rainbow. "And he can't be walking death, because me, AJ, and Gilda have all touched him, and we're fine. He seemed pretty quick to run away when he saw me, so he's probably just a big wuss."
Fluttershy was visibly shaken at the thought of Gilda being in town, but when given the explanation that she was currently unconscious, and being taken to the Canterlot prison, she relaxed a little bit. Maybe this thing wasn't dangerous after all, maybe it was helpful?
"Oh, well, if he's not dangerous then everything should be fine." Said Fluttershy, a bit calmer now that she knew the creature wasn't some unholy force of death and decay. "We can just leave it be then."
"I am afraid not, dear Fluttershy. While she Gilda is a criminal, and because of his actions she is not being detained, we must know what this creature is capable of, as well as it's intentions for Ponyville and the rest of Equestria." said Luna in a regal tone. "We must not stop till we have captured it, though since it is clearly afraid of us, it will not be an easy task. It will try to escape, and may become violent."
After they had gotten themselves mentally prepared, they set off into the woods. all but one that is. Fluttershy, was hesitant to head into the forest at night.
"Come on Fluttershy, we need you for this. You might be able to calm the creature down, and you can also talk down any animals that we come across." Twilight assured her friend." Besides, there are all six of us here, AND we have Princess Luna. We'll be fine."
"W-w-well, if you say so." Said the timid pegasus. With that, she rejoined the group, clearly still afraid, but her friends needed her.
"I think I've lost them." Nightshade thought to himself. "That was too close. I can't head home yet, not till dawn, I don't want to lead them to the cabin. Better just circle around and see if they're still following me." he doubled back, staying in the tree tops. Soon enough he found the group of seven ponies, slowly walking along the forest path. They weren't going to give up that easily. Making sure not to be seen, he got within range to use his powers.
"Rarity!" Twilight cried out as the white unicorn passed out. After further inspection, she wasn't injured, just sleeping. That was not a good thing however, as they were in the Everfree forest, at night, and were trying to catch an unknown creature. Applejack was next. Not wanting to get bucked in the nuts again, she was a priority for him. While she did have a very large reserve of energy, she had been up all day, since 6 in the morning, and it was now well past midnight. Even she was tired, making it easier to make her fall asleep.
"Applejack!" Rainbow yelled. "What the hay is going on here? Why is everypony just falling asleep?"
Things were going well for Nightshade. He had incapacitated two of the group, meaning that the others would have to take care of their fallen comrades instead of chasing him. While it was dangerous to be in the forest at night, they had the moon godess with them, as well as the very fast Rainbow Dash, the unicorn of unknown abilities, the frightened pegasus, and Pinkie Pie. Not seeing how the last two could be any threat, he figured the princess, cyan pegasus, and possibly the unicorn would have to protect the other's. They had lost over half their fighting force, and the rest had to protect their sleeping friends. Guerilla tactics 101, success. Or so he thought. Wait, where was the pink one?
"HI!" Pinkie Pie, who was now inexplicably right behind him yelled, startling him, and causing him to fall right out of the tree. He landed painfully on his face.
"What'cha doin up in the trees Mr. Monster?" said the bouncing pink pony. This didn't make any sense, she ran away screaming when she first saw him, and now she had no fear at all. Then again, he had been told by the crusaders that that was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.
"Uhhg." Nightshade moaned. and looked up to see an angry Rainbow Dash right in his face.
"What did you do to Rarity and Applejack?" She screamed, clocking him on the side of the head with her hoof. She had cut him, and now blood was pouring out of the wound. It hurt, a LOT.
"That," Nightshade paused, "was uncalled for." He said, grabbing the surprised pegasus around the neck, and throwing her at Luna. Luna grabbed her with her magic before she landed, and noticed that she was bleeding from the side of her head. Looking at the creature that had thrown her, he was no longer wounded. Rainbow Dash had passed out from the injury, but would be fine given a day's rest.
Using her own magic, Twilight Sparkle restrained the no longer afraid, but angry monster, pinning it to the tree it was standing next to. She felt strained. This was just basic telekinesis, why did she feel so tired? The restraints weakened, and the unicorn put forth more effort into maintaining them.
"Why..am I...so tired...?" she said between deep breaths, before collapsing like her friends. Now all that remained was Pinkie Pie, Luna, and the nervous wreck of a pegasus. Pinkie Pie wasn't much of a fighter, and was more useful for her randomness than her combat abilities, and the pegasus was too scared to do anything. Turning his attention towards Luna, the moon princess readied herself for battle, but was interrupted by a yellow and pink ball of rage.
"How DARE YOU!" Fluttershy screamed, eyes dead locked on the monster before her. "I don't care who or what you are, but you do NOT HURT MY FRIENDS!"
Nightshade was stunned. was this the same pegasus as before, the one that wouldn't even look at him because of her fear? Trying to look away, he found that he couldn't turn his head or eyes. He was caught in her piercing glare. Trying to use his powers to put the Pink maned pegasus to sleep, since she was clearly the most dangerous out of all of them, he found that he couldn't. He couldn't focus, he couldn't even think.
Nightshade had been stabbed, slashed, shot, clawed, stun, poisoned, and hit in the crotch with the force he equated to be similar to that of a cannon, but nothing NOTHING compared to the fear and mental anguish he felt with this pegasus staring at him. What was she, some kind of demon? To be able to house so much fury that she could paralyse someone who had been through hell and back, she was truly a force to be reckoned with. She was saying something, but he couldn;t hear what it was. He just couldn't get past those eyes.
Luna watched in amazement, as the creature that had so quickly incapacitated nearly their entire group, was reduced to a quivering wreck by the normally timid Fluttershy. It stumbled backwards, as his trying to escape from her gaze, and tripped, landing on its flank. Still being stared at, he curled up in the fetal position, put his hands on his head, and tears began to flow from his eyes.
Seeing that the creature became completely unresponsive, Fluttershy let up on her stare, and turned to her friends. She was relieved to see them slowly getting up. They were not injured in any way, except for a slight bruise on Rainbow Dash.
"Ow, my head." Complained Rainbow.
"Uuuug, I feel worse than that time I tried to do applebuck season all by myself." added Applejack.
"I slept in DIRT!" Screamed Rarity.
Once the whole group had recovered, (including Luna from her shock at what Fluttershy was capable of) they looked over to see the shivering pile of tattered, dark crimson robes, who even though Fluttershy was no longer staring at him, was acting as though she still was. He occasionally muttering something incoherent, the only part they were able to make out was, "The eyes."
"Very well done Fluttershy, I am impressed at your ability to handle the situation." Luna said.
"Yeah! Wait to go Fluttershy. Woohooo!" Pinkie Pie screamed. "When we get back to Ponyville, I'll have to throw you a 'Good job dealing with the scary monster' party.
"I'm afraid that will have to wait Pinkie." Twilight said, finally having woken up. "We have no idea what this thing is, we need to bring it to Canterlot so we can figure out what it is, and where it came from."
"I agree, Twilight Sparkle. In my many years, I have not seen anything like this, although it's appearance is disturbingly similar to and old rumor. Luna said while conjuring a cage around it, levitating the shaking monster. "We should take it to be examined. As for it's powers, given what I've seen, as well as from what you've said of your own encounters, I have an idea of what they might be, and it is of the utmost importance that we confirm it's nature. If I am right, it could be a danger to all of Equestria." She was met with worried looks from the rest of her group.
"Nothing is for sure though." She smiled weakly, obviously trying to ease their minds. "It might not be dangerous at all. We just have to make sure."
Glancing back at the creature in the hovering cage, there was a slight look of pity on her face. If it was what she thought it was, then there is know telling what her sister might do, especially since it had proven to be somewhat violent. She just hoped her sister would be merciful, considering it hadn't really done anything wrong, it was just scared, trying to protect itself.
"Come on, lets head back. Even though I lived here as a child, this place has changed, and it gives me the creeps."
Uh oh. Now he's in for it. Once again, Rainbow Dash fly's off the handle and does something brash. As for the guerilla tactics part, It's not like he was leaving them to die. As long as Luna was there, the group was never in any real danger from the animals. They could have distracted her while some other animals attacked the rest of the group, but with Rainbow Dash still there, as well as Twilight, even though her abilities were unknown, they should have been able to fend for themselves in the event of an attack by wild animals. The whole goal was to make it that while they weren't defenseless, they could no longer pursue him. Hopefully they would head back home, giving up on him to take care of their sleeping friends. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. As for why he didn't make Luna fall asleep, he couldn't. It would be like trying to push the moon. While he could recover his own energies, he couldn't drain enough of hers to cause any effect. So, does that mean Luna never has to sleep? No. She may have more energy, but that's because she needs it. She uses stamina at a much higher rate, which balances out her having so much. She would eventually need to sleep, although she could probably stave off sleep for a much longer time than the others.
As for why he decided to circle back and check, have you heard the phrase, 'If there's a wasp in the room, I'd rather be able to see it'? Rather than hoping they didn't follow him, he had to make sure. He didn't want to get caught off guard. Life in the forest has made him a bit paranoid.
What does Luna know about him? She must know the old legends, but had forgotten them for a time. What does Celestia know about humans? What will the princess decide to do with him. Will Pinkie Pie ever make sense? And what of Lyra? Did she see him in town? Will she ever shut up about being right about humans? Find out in next chapter, (or maybe the one after) of Monster.