Letters

by joe mother

4: Engraved

Author's Note:

A slightly shorter chapter. Very slightly shorter.

I'm so glad you guys have stayed until now, reading my crap all the way to here. You need medals for my crap.

Here's your reward for staying with me. :D

Medal.

LETTERS - CHAPTER FOUR: ENGRAVED

How cold it was. That was all the six could think as the night fell upon the forest. Their breath frosted out in front of them, getting less visible as the sun set and what little light remained was taken with it. The world frosted in front of them in a slow wave, the trees collecting an icy layer across their leaves, glittering lightly.

Pinkie looked at her friends and sighed, no thoughts crossing her mind other than the impending encounters. They were peering into the dark, wondering whether they should continue for a while longer or stop here.

“What do you think, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie was snapped out of her trance and she shook her head, “Here is good for now. It’s getting cold, so going any further could be bad.”

“Pinkie, you don’t sound quite normal,” Rainbow Dash said, coming up to her while the others began setting up camp. “Is everything alright?”

Pinkie looked at Dash with pleading eyes.

“I’m so scared, Dashie,” she whispered. “I know that we’re going into something horrible, and that there’s a lot that could go wrong.”

“Not with your friends around,” Dash said. “We’re here to help you kick flank anytime you need us. If now is a time, then we’re there.”

“Thanks,” Pinkie said, turning away. Dash’s words had helped, but it still felt like something was going to go wrong.

Her suspicions became reality when Fluttershy screamed. Pinkie turned and saw her being dragged into the bushes, hooves flailing helplessly in the dirt, tears streaming down her face. They all ran towards her and grabbed her hooves.

Rainbow Dash flew into the bushes and tried to find the source of what was pulling Fluttershy.

“There’s nothing!” she exclaimed, flying back to help the others.

“My leg!” Fluttershy screamed, trying to gasp in air. “It’s cutting my leg!”

Suddenly Twilight flipped on her side and let out a puff of surprised air.

“Twilight!” Applejack and Rarity yelled, now trying to keep hold of two ponies being dragged by an invisible force.

In an almost instantaneous moment, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity fell and began getting pulled away as well. Pinkie tried to keep a hold on all of them, but they soon were taken into the bushes until she only held onto Applejack, who had lost her hat and scars marked her face from the branches on the forest floor.

“Don’t let go!” she yelled, her hoof squeezing Pinkie’s in an impossibly strong grip.

The world spun as Pinkie was tripped up by something, and her grip dropped.

“Applejack!” she yelled as her remaining friend was lost in the bushes and the screaming went silent.

Pinkie was alone in the dark, the camp only half set up and the cold night approaching.

“What’s happening?” she asked herself, stumbling as far away from the trees as possible. She stepped near the tent and began to put the rest up, never taking her eyes from the trees. She needed somewhere to hide, anywhere but out in the open.

The pole for pinning the tent down fell, and she groped frantically for the object. She turned her head for a moment to grab it, but as soon as she did, a needle sharp point pricked her hindleg, and she turned... or tried to. A grip wrapped around her head and kept it still as the sharp sensation drew tracks into her fur and skin.

Warm blood trickled down her leg, and she gulped as the point went away and the grasp around her head disappeared. She looked at the marking the thing had made, and saw a single letter, “B.” Blood ran from the bottoms of each line, marring the wound but still leaving it legible.

“What is this?” Pinkie asked herself as she heard rustling and scraping from the undergrowth. “What’s going on?”

Suddenly five things burst out, landing in heaps of colored fur and red splotches.

“Girls!” the pink pony shouted, running to them. They moaned and opened their eyes.

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked, her voice slurred. “What happened?”

“I don’t know!” Pinkie said, checking her friends to see if they were all right. She found each one had blood on their hindlegs on the same place where she did. “Stand up!”

“What, why?” Applejack mumbled, pushing herself up anyways.

“I need to see your legs!” Pinkie replied, helping the rest of her friends up.

“Now’s not the time for this, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said as Pinkie lifted her up.

When Pinkie had finished, she took long looks at each of their legs.

“G, E, O, E, N,” she read off, trying to understand it.

“What are you reading, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“Your legs,” Pinkie replied, squinting. “They’ve got letters in them just like me. I’ve got a B, Applejack has a G, Fluttershy has an E, Rainbow Dash an O, you an E, and Rarity an N.”

“Is it an acronym?” Twilight asked. “Or maybe an anagram.”

“Whatever it is, it’s abhorrent and terrifying,” Rarity said, stomping her hoof. “I think we shouldn’t even bother. I think leaving now would be the best plan.”

“But after what Pinkie told us about, shouldn’t we be all fired up to help her?” Fluttershy said meekly, her body pressed close to the ground. “Besides, we’re the Elements of Harmony, it’s not like we can’t handle it.”

Applejack stepped forward, “Fluttershy’s right. We can’t give up over one thing. We beat Discord and Nightmare Moon and so many other things. We can beat this.”

“I agree,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I don’t understand why Fluttershy had to tell us that, but we can do it. We’re the saviors of Equestria. We’re awesome. Now let’s set up camp before things get bad again.”

They set up the tent and darted inside. Twilight stayed outside to put up protective spells around the tent. When she came back in, her friends still were huddled close together and shivering.

“Girls, I put up spells,” Twilight told them, lying down on the ground. “We’ll be safe.”

“But what if they fail?” Rarity asked apprehensively.

“They won’t,” Fluttershy said, turning to her friends. “I’m scared as well, but we should trust Twilight’s ability to protect us.”

Rainbow Dash laughed, “Here’s Fluttershy giving us the pep talk again.”

They all giggled, and eventually settled down and went to sleep.

- - - - - -

“Why won’t you die?!”

All she could see was red and felt hole all across her body, screaming pain and blood onto her.

“You should be dead!”

She coughed and blood splattered down her muzzle. It dripped onto her chest, where it ran into a wound, causing it to sting from the spit mixed with it.

The knife plunged into her stomach, and more pain erupted from the wound, causing her to moan loudly. There was no more screaming from her throat, already torn raw from previous screaming, but also strangled with blood.

Every breath was an inferno, consuming her every fiber, but yet she remained completely conscious, unable to pass out or die.

“Why won’t you die?!! Begone! BEGONE!”

- - - - - -

Pinkie’s eyes snapped open and she jumped up, “I know what the letters are!”

Her friends darted up and screamed.

“Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash yelled, her eyes in a frenzy. “Don’t do that!”

“But I know what the letters are!” the pink pony replied, lining her friends up, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight. She placed herself in front of the line.

Fluttershy stared at her letter in confusion, almost as if she was wondering where it came from.

“It spells, ‘BEGONE,’” Pinkie said. “That’s what it wants us to do.”