“Hear me now…henceforth with the defeat of Discord at the hands of the Elements of Harmony, shall Equestria know peace from within. Peace from without, however, will mean your eternal vigilance against what malevolent forces lurk beyond the borders…”
*
Prologue
The hooves thundered down over the hard, frozen path. Never slowing, never stopping. Never sounding any less frantic to any tree that cared to listen. The smooth, unbroken drumbeat on the earth was accompanied by a shiver of ice-cold air and the thrum of dozen of enormous wings flapping overhead.
The moon was hidden behind the clouds. It would, of course, make sense that it would disappear on a night like this - it was a wild moon, not raised by magic, and would not serve any who dwelt beneath. There was no time to stop and remove the storm clouds either.
“We’ll never find our way in this soup,” one of them ground out, gritting his teeth against the stinging lash of half-frozen rain.
“It will slow us,” the one at the head of the column agreed. “But it will also hide us from prying eyes and ears. We can never be sure who or what awaits us in these woods.”
“With them overhead?” the other one jerked his head up at the winged figures above, spitting tobacco. “I’d say we’re sitting ducks anyway…”
“Enough. You are too pessimistic.”
“Well, it was you who said we need to keep away from prying eyes and ears! And forgive me if I sound apprehensive about charging into the most dangerous region of the world, in numbers so few, with no idea if we’re even going the right way!” he snorted, the sharp puff of breath steaming in the air. “Or even if we’ll find anything but certain death at the end…”
“We’ve all been dead for years. You know that.”
A sliver of the moon finally showed, briefly illuminating the snow-white branches of the trees. They were unmistakably thinning out. “We are entering a clearing. This must be it!”
They slowed to a canter. Ahead of them, a deep, black pool of darkness began to take form. With the lash of freezing rain, the gloom of the hidden moon, and the dark, foreboding aura of this cursed place, it was almost impossible to see ahead. Even the flyers could barely see more than a few feet.
The village was a broken, pulverized ruin. Bone and horn stakes had been ripped right out of the turf, the hides torn and strewn haphazardly over the snow. Demolished fire-pits and fences dotted the landscape here and there, and evidence of a battle was plain to see from the broken snow banks and strewn debris.
And red snow.
But as they looked around, the flyers sweeping the perimeter, they found no sign of any bodies. It was plain to see that there had been killing and dying here, but the victims were gone.
“Something must have taken them…”
“Why on earth would any…?”
“Those shapes in the trees…” one of the others interrupted, looking up at the dark silhouettes perched on top of the branches.
“Snow cats…” one of the flyers hissed in annoyance and disgust. “They usually stay in the deeper woods. Filthy vermin must have been feeding on the dead before. But don’t worry, they’re harmless enough to the living. Hiding in the trees to escape danger, it looks like…”
…aaaaa….oooo…
“Hold!” the leader declared, planting his hooves into the frozen turf and pulling to a halt.
The others did not need to question his order. They had all heard the high shriek in the distance.
“What was that?!” one of them said, swivelling his head as though trying to determine which way it came from.
The leader snorted and grimaced. “Whatever that was, it didn’t sound friendly. We must finish here and get back before…”
…AAAAA…OOOO…
There was another high shriek, louder and much closer than the other one.
One of the flyers let out a scream and flew several paces away from the snow cat on the branch next to her.
One of them growled at her, “What?! They’re just cats, completely…”
He trailed off, staring up at the branch. The others followed his gaze.
The dark shape that had scared her…was not a snow cat at all.
It was something far more frightening. Dead, but still a gruesome, terrifying sight.
“AAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOO…” another one, even closer.
For the first time in years, the leader felt a knot of fear tighten in his guts.
And then, there was an immediate scream that every one of them heard, though it was completely soundless. A warning.
The leader stiffened. “Shin-Rei…” His eyes widened as the warning became clear.
This was a place of death. And the danger had not passed. It was only waiting. And watching.
“CLOSE FORMATION NOW!”
Too late.
With an ear-splitting howl of fury, an enormous, clawed arm ripped out of the snow and wrapped around one of the flyers. She tried to scream, but the sound was cut off in a split second by a crack. She hung, neck flopping, for a moment before the thing howled again and tossed her away.
Amid the gasps, screams and shocked yells, the thing pulled itself free of the snowy turf and stood on clawed feet, snorting and screeching in a high, pained whine. It was hard to say what it was, but it was big. And clearly deadly.
“NOOOO!” One scout screamed, looking at the poor unfortunate who had her neck broken by the thing. It was obvious he was heartbroken and, a second later, filled with boiling rage as he lowered his head and charged.
“NO! GET DOWN!!!” the leader roared. But the gallant idiot did not heed him, galloping horn-first at the monstrosity.
CRUNCH!
“FALL BACK! RETREAT!!!” the leader shouted, as the thing lifted up what was left of the scout and stuffed him roughly into its fanged maw.
His companions did not need to be told twice. Wheeling around, they charged back towards the woods. The monster thankfully did not follow, its mind bent on its meal.
But the leader’s relief was short-lived. With audible yells of panic, he and his host screeched to a halt before the woods they had come from…
…where before there had been only silence and gloom…
…and there were now hundreds of eyes and thousands of teeth.
*
Chapter 1: A Visitor in the Snow
Spike struggled, straining on his clawed heels, reaching for the book on the highest shelf. He groaned inwardly at the incessant chattering he always heard whenever Twilight Sparkle whipped herself up into a studying frenzy. He admired his boss/best friend/guardian’s dedication to her work, but did she really have to make such a racket - not to mention a big mess - with her enthusiasm?
And making matters even worse, Twilight was making a new spell. One with the extreme and hopelessly complicated goal of increasing the Equestrian birth rate! Spike had to groan continuously as Twilight kept flogging the dead horse (so to speak) about stallion shyness and the enormous number of stuck-up mares who refused to settle down with a decent mate.
He sighed. It was his fault partially. Last time Twilight had been summoned to Canterlot, Spike had picked up a magazine to read whilst she was in a private audience with Princess Celestia. The article by Hearty Quills about the dangers of Equestria’s declining births and the hilarious conjecture about the need to ‘stop being so detached, stallions and mares of Equestria’ had made him chuckle so badly that Twilight had levitated the magazine out of his claws when she returned and read the article herself. Naturally, Twilight had missed the fact that Hearty Quills was a loopy gossip writer, and she took his over-zealous urgings very seriously.
Spike, however, knew it wasn’t any attitude or a lack of fertility responsible for the problem. The honest truth was: less than one-third of Equestria’s population was male, and the proportion of male births seemed to shrink with every generation. Some said it was the long matriarchal rule that caused it, others said it was the ancient magic of Equestria itself changing foals in the womb, and others said it was simply natural change in the pony race.
Whatever the reason, the lower male population meant fewer marriages and matings, and hence, fewer births. Marriages between mares obviously meant no foals without expensive, complicated magic or the Magic of Love, and they simply didn’t make a difference often enough. Spike didn’t know how Twilight could fix that problem, but it most definitely wasn’t by making stallions more bold by wizardry; that might result in more facehoofs than births.
But he’d grin and bear it, since Twilight had promised him the rest of the day off if he helped her gather what she thought she needed for this new spell. He’d already made plans to follow Rarity around…
“Spike, have you found that book yet? I think I’ve got something here…hmm, let’s see…‘Alcohol may produce an increase in stimulation when faced with even the least desirable mate…’”
Spike quelled the rising urge to cackle like a dragon. Was Twilight’s glorious new ‘spell’ going to involve getting all the mares in Equestria drunk? Now that would be a sight…and no doubt the happiest day of Berry Punch’s life.
But he simply set the book down on her table. “Here you are, Twilight. Is there anything else you need?”
She gave him a brief half-smile out of the corner of her mouth as her horn lit up to open the book. “No. I think that’s it for now. Go ahead and enjoy yourself, Spike. I think I can guess what you’re going to do…”
“You bet, I’m going to go find Rarity and ask her out!”
“Like you tried to work up the guts to do last time? And the seventy-six times before that?” Even with her face screwed up in concentration, the purple unicorn still managed a smirk.
“Hey, it wasn’t seventy-six, Twilight,” Spike pouted, crossing his arms. “Couldn’t have been more than five…”
“I’m not exaggerating, Spike. I counted. Seventy-seven times you’ve tried and backed down before you got all the words out, whipping up some lame substitute instead and running off...and if you don’t believe me, check that parchment over there - I marked the tally every time.”
Spike glowered at his boss for a good long moment, before turning to leave, bracing himself for the cold, and then slamming the front door behind him.
Twilight, her eyes still on her book with horn lit, chuckled briefly to herself before deciding it probably hadn’t been nice to do that to Spike. She’d have to apologize later, but for now…
*
The dragon cub wandered through the outskirts of Ponyville in a huff, kicking at the snow on the path with his hind claws. It was cold and blustery, but he wasn’t in the mood for a crowded town right now. Just who did Twilight think she was? What did she know about love? The only thing she loved was her precious books. He didn’t see her caring for anyone like he cared for Rarity…
“HI SPIKEY!”
He knew what was coming and turned around just in time to get a bright pink, blue-eyed mug right in front of his face.
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in front of him, jabbering as she did so. “It’s so good to see you out and about tonight. It’s been so boring working all day at Sugarcube Corner and I really need to get out have some fun. I was thinking we can have a party tomorrow for Gummy’s second and have a big delicious cake and lots of balloons with all of our friends! Yum yum! You’ll come, won’t you, Spikey? You weren’t there for the last! Please be there, please oh please!”
Of course, Spike was out of breath by then, and he wasn’t even the one talking.
“Uh…sure Pinkie. I’d love to be there. I’ll tell Twilight too, but I’m sorry - right now I have to go find Rarity. I think I’m really gonna do it this time…”
The pink earth pony stretched her neck impossibly far towards him and gave him an over-exaggerated sideways wink. “Oooohhh, the sly dragon is finally going to confess to his secret love, eh? Well, don’t worry, Spike! This earth pony won’t be getting in your way. And of course, I won’t say a word to anypony!” She zipped her mouth closed.
‘Somehow I doubt that…’ Spike said to himself, but he smiled and, to his relief, Pinkie Pie bounced off. He really liked Pinkie Pie, but there were times when he needed a break.
But he hadn’t gone more than a few clawsteps away before he heard an ear-splitting scream.
“SPIIIIIKE!”
Normally, Spike would have thought it was “just Pinkie being Pinkie” but the shrill note of terror in her voice made him spin on the spot and look around for her quickly. The landscape around Ponyville was a sea of green and white, but after a moment, he spotted a flash of pink in the distance next to the river and sprinted over to her.
As he drew closer, he could see red. Red in the snow.
Spike’s heart skipped a beat and he ran faster.
She was standing with her back to him, and as he ran up to the terrified Pinkie, he heard her breath coming in trembling gasps.
She wasn’t hurt, but she was utterly transfixed on the scene in front of her. And Spike froze up too when he saw why.
Black. And red.
The black mare was lying in a pool of her own blood that steamed on the snow, sending acrid wisps curling up into the air. She was wearing thick boots and what looked like a shredded overcoat in rags, soaking wet and half-frozen, lying half-in and half-out of the river that flowed through Ponyville. Long gashes graced her flanks and limbs. The eyes were closed and the mouth lying open.
But there was a faint, weak puff of steam as she breathed out.
Spike dived for the body and felt its neck. He cringed as he felt broken bones beneath his claws, but he definitely felt the tremor of a weak pulse.
“So much blood…” Pinkie whispered, her eyes wide and never wavering from the broken mare.
“Pinkie! She’s alive,” Spike said, standing up and turning. “She’s still alive! I…I’m going back to Ponyville for help! Stay here, okay?”
Pinkie’s breath steamed as she continued to stare. “So…much…blood…”
He decided to take that for a ‘yes’ and ran for the library as fast as he could. This was bad. That pony was in bad shape, and from the looks of things, she was either bleeding out or dying of hypothermia. Spike considered he probably should’ve tried first aid, but he didn’t know how and there hadn’t been time to think. He only hoped Pinkie would manage to get out of her usual quirkiness and administer it herself, but his hopes weren’t high on that; she had been shocked into complete stillness…
There were only a few ponies outdoors in Ponyville during this season, walking around in warm coats, boots and earmuffs, but Spike didn’t stop to speak to any of them. He knew it was unlikely they’d be any help. Ponyville was a quiet town and this sort of thing probably didn’t happen often with the locals. He needed Twilight.
He began to pant as he ran. It seemed he had never noticed before how tiring and slow it was to run over completely flat roads as compared to the hills. The small lump of the library in the distance seemed to be taking forever to reach, and his breath – and probably that of the dying mare – was growing shorter with every step.
Keep going…need Twilight…
The unicorn mare looked up from her spellbook in surprise as Spike banged open the front door and rushed in, drawing a gale of freezing air with him that snuffed out her horn’s light. She looked displeased and was about to open her mouth to admonish him when Spike collapsed, out of breath.
“Spike?! What in Celestia’s name…?!” She trotted up to him and bent down.
“Hu-hurt,…by…the…river…”
“What?”
Spike, furious with himself and Twilight for every second’s delay, took a deep breath and shouted, “THERE’S SOMEPONY BY THE RIVER WITH PINKIE PIE! AND SHE’S HURT! REAL BAD!!”
She looked startled, then her eyes narrowed. “Where, Spike?”
“The…the west road out…out of town. Twilight…I-I think she’s gonna die!”
She nodded and motioned with her hoof for him to warm up by the fire before levitating on a coat and rushing out the door.
*
As she galloped across Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle knew her first order of business was to contact the guards and the hospital. If Pinkie was at the scene, it wouldn’t be difficult to find, but she knew she needed to be quick. If Spike’s demeanor told her anything, she knew there wasn’t much time.
There was a flash and a splash of color and, to her great relief, Twilight saw the blue Pegasus Rainbow Dash flying behind her in the air.
“Twilight?! Where you off to in such a hurry in this weather?”
She craned her head to answer, for some reason annoyed with Rainbow’s usual upbeat tone. “There’s an emergency!”
Rainbow Dash looked at her for a moment, before putting on a determined expression. “What’s going on, Twilight?”
“Injured mare near the west road. Pinkie’s there. She’s gonna die if we don’t hurry! Get to the village guards and the pegasi! I’m going to the hospital!”
With the weight hitting her, Rainbow Dash didn’t bother with one of her dramatic declarations of victory or even a salute. She just set her jaw hard and zoomed away without a word in the direction of the guardhouse.
The hospital was only a few gallops away, and Twilight knew from experience she had to be blunt and hard to get Doctor Needles moving…
*
“Oh my word…”
The good doctor stared down through his whiskers at the wounded, half-frozen mare as Nurse Redheart and the town's other nurse mares worked furiously to stop her bleeding and move her into a harness.
“Her neck isn’t broken, doctor, but there are multiple fractures and haemorrhaging in major internal organs. We’re going to have to move her very carefully…”
Doctor Needles nodded slowly, and Twilight groaned inwardly as she sensed the old sawbones was likely way out of his depth. He was probably going to have to ask for expert help from Life Flight.
Twilight herself was no expert, but as she gazed at the horrible scene, she found she could hardly blame the doctor. This pony nopony had named yet was a real mess. Through the tattered rags, most of her ribs looked like they were broken. Her long legs and flanks had been horribly gashed by something, it looked like her back had swollen up, and she had yet to regain consciousness or make a single sound. Her blood coagulated thickly on her freezing coat and the snow she lay in. The unicorn felt a twinge of fear that she was going to die.
“Is she going to make it?” She asked the closest nurse.
The mare looked up at her briefly before going back to fastening the harness. “We will do everything we can. Are you the one who found the patient, Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight shook her head. “Not me. My friend Pinkie Pie did.”
The said pink party pony was sitting on a log not far away with Rainbow Dash next to her. Pinkie’s eyes were wide and staring at nothing as a couple of town guards tried, unsuccessfully, to get answers out of her. Twilight sighed and trotted over.
Pinkie Pie was obviously very deeply in shock. She just opened her mouth and closed it soundlessly as the guard tried to ask questions. Twilight didn’t blame her; finding a dying pony in such a grotesque state hadn’t been easy on her eyes either. Twilight had never seen anything like that outside of pictures in books, and Pinkie…well, she doubted the thought of blood or death had ever even crossed Pinkie’s mind.
After a while, the frustrated guard gave up questioning the trembling Pinkie Pie and turned to look at Twilight. “You alerted the hospital, Miss Twilight Sparkle?”
She nodded. “Yes, and we got here just before you did. Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”
The pegasus looked up from her seat next to Pinkie Pie, not sporting a smug, self-congratulating smile as she usually would. She stopped rubbing her traumatized friend’s back and glanced over at the nurses. “Say, Twi…what happened to that mare anyway?”
The unicorn shook her head. “I don’t know, Rainbow. Probably mauled by a wild beast or something from the looks of it. Those scratches were pretty deep…”
Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Ouch. If whatever did that turns up again, I’m gonna have to dish out some major flank-kicking,” she glanced at the mare’s injuries, “‘cos it sure must have a lotta flank to kick!”
Rainbow Dash wasn’t usually the one to turn to for ideas, but her musing did set off a few lights in Twilight’s brain. Just what would there be around Ponyville that could do something like that?
A bear? Not likely. Thanks to Fluttershy, Twilight knew enough about bears to know they weren’t active this time of year. Diamond dogs? No burrows anywhere this close to Ponyville, and they wouldn’t be interested in anything that didn’t glitter anyway. The hydra? Probably not. If that thing left the swamps, somepony would’ve noticed. It was too big to miss…
She shook her head. Whatever the cause, this somepony was obviously near death. No-one even knew who she was – which was odd, considering Ponyville was a very close-knit community.
Even weirder, she was wearing boots – which wasn’t too unusual by itself in this weather – but these boots were made of hide, crudely, but tightly, wrapped together with cord as if for a long gallop. Maybe this mare wasn’t from Ponyville. She watched as she was carefully placed on a stretcher, wheels loaded and legs extended before she was carted to the hospital.
“Go tell the other pegasi to be on the lookout,” she told Rainbow Dash as the pegasus hopped back onto her hooves. “If there’s something dangerous out here, they need to see it coming. Pinkie Pie and I will get this sorted with the guards. And we’d better tell Mayor Mare about this when she returns from Canterlot. Hurry, Rainbow!”
*
Doctor Needles and the nurse mares had been in the emergency room for almost two hours now, and - judging from the frequent panicked shouts and the number of frantic nurse mares galloping back and forth from the operating ward with various medical paraphernalia - they were having horseapples of a time keeping her alive.
Twilight and her friends were waiting in the outer theatre. Pinkie Pie was still in shock, remaining quiet and detached, sitting on her haunches and staring down at her hooves. Rainbow Dash was flying tense circles in the air, grinding her jaw and looking for all Celestia like she just wanted to zoom out the window and set the new record for laps around Ponyville just to get rid of her anxiety. The orange earth pony Applejack had arrived a few minutes ago, startled and full of questions. Twilight had filled her in, but the apple farmer had only repeated the same questions the rest of them were wondering about.
“Whaddya mean, Twilight? The west road? That don’t make no sense. I been cleanin' snow outta the orchards by the road all day and I ain’t seen any such stranger come wanderin’ through Sweet Apple Acres…”
“We thought the river carried her down from the north, Applejack. If you didn’t see her, then we were probably right.”
“This is mighty fishy, Twi…I know Equestria ain’t always the safest place, but…”
It was true. Equestria could be dangerous to those that went off the beaten track. Many of Twilight’s adventures in Ponyville revolved around the dangerous country and wildlife. It was only the influence of Princess Celestia that kept the dangers of Equestria away and prevented the collapse of pony civilization. Who’s to say this stranger couldn’t have been just another victim?
Still, Applejack was right. It was unusual for any traveller to have met any mishap that big just outside Ponyville. She sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to wait for her to wake up.” If she ever does, she added silently.
Whatever caused the mare’s state could have come from almost anywhere north of Ponyville. Wonderful. That was very wild country – few ponies lived there or visited the area for long, but if there was something dangerous out there…
It might have been possible it was just a spill in the river dragging her down south, with some rapids and sharp ice floes on the way – if it weren’t for the unmistakable pattern of claw marks on her. It could possibly be that there was some kind of river-dwelling Equestrian predator with claws to the north, but…if that was the case then she would almost certainly have been dead before washing up in Ponyville…
Though she hadn’t spoken aloud, the other ponies seemed to hear her thought nevertheless. “Poor darling,” said the purple-maned unicorn sitting closest to the door, craning her head and dramatically raising a hoof to her brow at another shout of dismay from the ward, “that must have been an absolutely ghastly experience…I do hope they can save her. Do you think Doctor Needles has ever done this before?”
“Um, h-he is a doctor, Rarity…” put in the light yellow pegasus sitting between her and Pinkie Pie. “I’m sure he knows what to do…”
Twilight groaned again, not sharing Fluttershy’s optimism. Ponyville doctors dealt with things like indigestion and cracked hooves. Thanks to the blessings of Princesses Celestia and Luna, serious injuries and illnesses had become increasingly rare in all civilized places in Equestria. She wouldn’t have been surprised if this was by far the worst case Doctor Needles had ever seen in his long career.
That proved to be a reasonable guess when he poked his scrubbed and masked head out of the ward and yelled for Nurse Redheart to tell Life Flight to hurry the hay up.
That was enough for the last of Rainbow Dash’s patience to shatter. She folded her wings and thumped loudly on the floor in front of Twilight. “We’ve gotta do something!”
“I hate to say it, Rainbow…” Twilight said, “but there’s not much we can do…here.”
The pegasus looked at her expectantly. “Rainbow…girls…maybe we can look for this pony’s family or friends. It might not be much, but I’d say it beats sitting here and waiting.”
“I don’t know, Twilight…” Fluttershy said slowly. “If she was from Ponyville…I think somepony would have recognized her by now…”
“I’m going to keep betting she’s not…” Twilight said. “And if she was carried here by the river, somepony might come looking for her. Let’s head out, everypony. We’ll ask every visitor in Ponyville if we have to…” She turned and flinched as she heard another ominous shout from the ward. “…I think it might be easier than staying here right now…”
*
The purple unicorn paced a circle in the library, undeterred by the stares and sarcastic groans from her draconic assistant as she bored another ring in the floor. What did this mean?
She, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy had galloped around town all day to the likely spots where they thought visitors might be searching for somepony they knew: town square, the hotel, and even the botanical gardens. But almost every stranger they had asked stated they weren’t looking for anypony matching that description. After hours that seemed to last for days, everypony (except Applejack of course) was almost too tired to stand. Rainbow Dash had spotted them in the square too and reported nothing unusual from above (except four ponies whizzing around town harassing tourists).
Twilight, coming down with a bad case of the grumps, had told her friends they’d try again tomorrow. After all her friends’ hard, disheartening work, Twilight reasoned nopony was in any rush to go home and spend the whole evening alone. She proposed they all had a takeout dinner at the library, and after a quick draw of straws, Rainbow zoomed off in a cloud of complaints to go get Sugarcube Corner’s finest haybacon cheesy pizzas and banana cake.
Pinkie Pie was resting on a couch nearby in the library. After the business at the hospital, she had told Spike to take her to the library and ask the Cakes to let her off work for the day. She had stopped shaking, but she was eerily quiet, and Twilight knew it was trouble when Pinkie Pie had been quiet for more than five seconds.
Spike had been subdued as well at first, but after a whisper or two in the ear from Twilight, he started to think, being his helpful self, he’d feel better himself if he tried to make the others feel better about it. He’d outdone himself cleaning up and getting the library ready for an impromptu six-pony-and-baby-dragon dinner.
“Pinkie,” Twilight began slowly, “did you see anything? Was there anything with her when you found her?”
Pinkie slowly looked up. Her eyes were wide and her jaw clenched as though she was terrified, and she slowly shook her head. Exactly how she’d done the first dozen times.
Twilight couldn’t help but feel sorry for Pinkie. It must’ve been a shock to be bouncing off the ground one moment and all of a sudden land in front of the most gruesome scene of your life. Pinkie Pie wasn’t made for it. Parties? Great. Sugary snacks and sweets? Just try to stop her. Balloons and trombones? Why not? But blood and bone? No way.
Pinkie Pie – being Pinkie Pie – was of course completely unpredictable and spontaneous as a glitterbomb, but Twilight had never imagined she would ever in a million years see the crazy pink party pony in this state.
“Pinkie…” Twilight began gently. “You’ve got to remember. There might be something important…something you’ve just forgotten. I’m sorry, but just what did you see when you found her?”
Pinkie shivered, opened her muzzle, and, in a quavering, quiet voice very different from her usual bubbly music, she said “Nothing, Twilight…really, I’m sorry, but it’s true. I just turned around and…opened my eyes and…there she was…” She looked down, her lips trembling and eyes starting to tear up. Twilight quickly trotted up and nuzzled her soothingly to calm her down. The last thing she needed right now was Pinkie Pie drowning the library in a flood of tears.
Any hope of quickly bringing her back on track was quickly crushed though when she wrapped her hooves around Twilight and began to breathe deeply as she calmed down. Twilight smiled with mingled relief and exasperation, sensing she might eventually need a crowbar to pry Pinkie off. She shook her head. It probably didn’t matter anyway – if she really hadn’t seen anything, there was no point in asking her anymore. Better to let her forget it.
All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door. Spike, predictably, jumped right to his feet and dashed to answer it fast enough to leave a vacuum in the space he’d just occupied. “Got it!”
He opened the door to reveal a concerned-looking Fluttershy, who had left briefly to close up for the night along with her other friends and to feed her animals. “H-hi Spike. Can I come in if it’s okay?” A shy smile graced the muzzle of the timid, animal-loving pegasus as Spike shuffled aside and extended an open claw to invite her in. Rarity and Applejack followed.
Fluttershy, never one to sit around at home when her friends needed her, immediately trotted over to Pinkie Pie and nuzzled her. Pinkie Pie was rarely ever in a sad mood, and almost never in a near-catatonic state (except for that one time when Rainbow Dash slipped rainbow paint into her cupcake mix), and any help in pulling her out of it would be welcome right now.
“Twilight dear, is Pinkie Pie feeling any better?” the fashionista asked worriedly.
Twilight shook her head, “Not really, Rarity. Finding that stranger really shook her up…”
“It’s scary, Fluttershy!” Pinkie whined, burying her muzzle into the pegasus’ mane. “I found a horse in the snow, with blood everywhere! It looked just like raspberry juice! I don’t think I’ll ever drink raspberry juice again, which means there won’t be any at all my parties anymore, and then nobody in Ponyville will ever drink raspberry juice because I’m the only one who ever finds any raspberries under the rocks, so there’ll be none at all, and –“
Twilight smiled slightly despite herself. Pinkie’s rambling was slower and more subdued than usual, but still it was probably a good sign she was starting come back to herself.
Then the other horseshoe dropped. “Now that’s not a very nice thing to say, Pinkie…” Pinkie raised her head and looked at her. Twilight squared her shoulders and raised her head with mouth open and nose turned up in a perfect lecture pose. “Now I know she gave you quite a scare, but I don’t think you should really start calling her names or anything. The poor pony’s really been hurt and it’s not fair to call her a horse for that.”
Pinkie just looked at her blankly.
After a few seconds of silence, those two unwavering blue orbs began to creep Twilight out – especially considering who they belonged to.
“Twilight…she…she was a horse!”
“Pinkie, that’s really-“
“No, Twilight, she really was! Didn’t you see? I did! And the doctors did. She wasn’t a pony!” Pinkie shook her head, eyes wide open.
Twilight opened her mouth to reply…
…and then promptly shut it again.
Now that she thought about it…the mare had looked rather odd. Of course, Twilight had been looking at the injuries for the most part, but…her legs had seemed rather long. Her back also looked disproportionate for a pony’s body, but Twilight had put that down to swelling from another injury. Since she had been lying down, Twilight probably hadn’t gauged her height properly, and she thought the rags and blood covering the victim had hidden her cutie mark - but what if she’d never had one in the first place?
“Horseapples!” Twilight groaned with a facehoof. It all made sense the mysterious mare was a horse.
Fluttershy gasped, Rarity gave a bemused little hum, and Applejack raised one eyebrow, “A horse? In Ponyville?!”
Here? We’re a long, long way from Verdantine! Why in Celestia’s name would…? Twilight shook her head to clear it.
As Fluttershy gently pulled Pinkie Pie away, murmuring soothingly, Twilight returned to her usual pacing spot and proceeded to drill away at the poor tree trunk. Again, just how could it be?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the all-too-familiar sound of a split-second whine from a high-speed object approaching from just out of sight, a loud crash and wooden thump on the floor, climaxing with a high shriek from Fluttershy, that heralded the arrival of a certain speedy, cyan-colored Pegasus with a sack over her shoulder. “Hey, Twilight! Sheesh, you should put up a sign so I can see when that window’s closed or something…”
Twilight groaned and glared down at Rainbow Dash, who stared right back with a cheesy grin on her face. “Why is it that everypony else manages to get in here without…” she sighed, “you know what? Never mind.”
“What? Was there a problem?” Rainbow kept grinning as she got to her hooves and unceremoniously dumped the food on the floor. Spike, every the helpful assistant, waddled forward and snatched up the sack to set dinner (with a half-serious warning glance from Twilight against any plundering).
“This is no time for that, Rainbow! Listen, did the pegasus team find anything else when you were on the way back?”
“You mean anything that coulda hurt that pony?”
“She’s a horse.”
“Hehehe…now that’s just rude, Twilight!” Rainbow said with a light chuckle. “Naw, there wasn’t hide or hoof of any pony-eating monster anywhere…” she turned her head and grinned as she caught sight of Fluttershy. But then she seemed to wilt slightly. Considering the horrible sight they saw earlier, she apparently thought better of making a joke about how the big, dangerous, three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monstrosity could just be hiding out looking for a nice, juicy, low-flying pegasus for dinner.
Sadly enough, it seemed Fluttershy didn’t need any encouragement anyway. She let out a frightened squeak and started looking around nervously.
“There’s no big, dangerous, three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monster, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, before realizing with another facehoof that she had just said what she dreamed up Rainbow would say.
Fluttershy leapt to her hooves with a loud squeal, arching her back in fright, teeth chattering and her whole body seizing up as her eyes darted to every window in the library.
“Twilight! Shame on you!” Rainbow said a faux-reproachful toss of her head and folding of her forehooves as she hovered in the air. “How could you first call that poor pony a horse, and then scare Fluttershy like that, you big bully!?” she said with a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth.
“You know what I meant, Rainbow! And she is really a horse! And calm down, Fluttershy! We’re perfectly safe.”
CRASSSSH!!!
“EEEEEEEEK!”
“You were saying…?” Rainbow grinned. It looked like poor Fluttershy had fainted dead away.
“SPIKE!!!”
“It’s not my fault, Twilight!” the dragon gritted his fangs and clutched his hind claw, hopping on one leg. “That spare table never stays up straight!”
*
Twilight groaned with relief as she lay down on her bed in the welcome darkness.
Dinner had, as many of these things so often did, turned into an enormous crash-riot - with Fluttershy boarding up every window against the pony-eating monster, Rainbow and Applejack starting a food fight, Rarity hiding behind Spike complaining she had just been to the spa that morning while the little dragon took every pizza or cake slice headed their way, and Pinkie Pie standing in the middle and taking a great deal of the crossfire while Twilight yelled and tried to calm things down, finally resorting to a massive levitation spell to hoist all the food, nails, wood and her guests into the air…and drop them again.
She loved life in Ponyville, but there was no denying these get-togethers with her friends left her with many more headaches than she ever had in Canterlot. And even that wasn’t when they were unlucky enough to go to bed with a job unfinished.
What the princess would think if she could see me now…
Suddenly, she had a dreadful thought that she just jinxed herself. All she needed to make this the worst day ever was to look out the window right now and see Princess Celestia hovering outside with the library in this state.
She shut her eyes, rolling over to avoid looking out the window until she just couldn’t stand the suspense anymore and peeked over her shoulder. Fortunately, there was no sign of a white coat or sparkling mane anywhere in sight.
Lucky… she thought, settling back onto her pillow with a sigh. I wonder if I should tell the princess about…no, we don’t even know what this is all about yet. What happened to that mare could just have been an accident, and we don’t even know who she is or where she’s from yet…
She sighed. We’re going to have to keep helping if we can. My friends have work to do, and so do I…still got to try and find an answer to that sticky birth rate problem…but we’d better keep doing what we can to find that mare’s family or friends. Somepony…or somehorse, I suppose, is bound to come searching for her sooner or later.
She felt a renewed twinge at the thought of those horrible injuries. But I do hope she’ll be alright. Doctor Needles should have her in expert hooves by now. If she can be saved, Life Flight are the ponies to do it.
Spike stirred in his basket. “Twilight…” he mumbled sleepily. “How in Equestria can you think so loud?”
For what was probably the first time since the river, the unicorn felt a smile touch her lips. “Sorry, Spike. G’night.”
“G’night.”
*
…Where am I…
<Doctor, we’ve got activity!>
…what happened…freezing…
<Sedatives! Quickly! If she awakens now, the pain will induce arrhythmic shock!>
…cold…so cold…cold fingers in me…
<We’ve got movement! She’s trying to move her hooves! Hyperbaric threshold breached! Give her those sedatives now!>
…what happened…to me…
<No kinetic reflex, doctor! Anaesthesia intact! Cardiac output falling.>
<Good work, nurse. Help me stabilize over threshold and begin frozen tissue removal.>
…now I remember…
…dead…
…screams…silent scream…couldn’t answer…
…sunrise…green everywhere…Equestria…
…had to stop them…
…had to stop…
<Brain activity receding, doctor…heart rate falling back to normal…>