The Tentacle Demon in the Pony Suit

by Parallel Black

Visibility

It was only her first day out of the dilapidated cottage, and already Cuddlhu was making friends. A small horde of smaller ponies trotted with Margrave as he tried to make a speedy escape through the middle of town, carrying the new mare across his back. The mayor had resigned to the town hall, awaiting news on her condition. Cuddlhu herself had gone limp as they began to enter the more populated areas of Ponyville. She didn’t want to have to deal with so many new faces all at once.

Luckily for her, Margrave’s Ponyville-based friends were there to help keep the young fillies and colts at bay. Unfortunately, most of them were still inexperienced Regular Guards, and their help was ineffectual at best.

“Runnigan, stop that, please!” cried Plaster Oak, glaring, but looking worried, at the little colt trying to play with his odd wing.

“Why is your wing broken? Did you break it in a fight?” asked the colt, poking at the misaligned feathers every chance he got.

“N-no, it’s just like that! Get off!” Plaster batted the little annoyance away, and then winced at the sharp motion. He looked back at Margrave who was power-trotting through the short crowd as briskly as he could, ignoring everything they said.

“What happened to her?”

“Why does she have the mayor’s collar-thing on her head?”

“I can see a seam! She’s a puppet!”

Runnigan’s ears perked up at the mention of the word puppet, and alarm bells went off in his head. He looked at Plaster Oak’s face with that naughty little colt glint in his amber eyes, before giving his bad wing a hard slap and running off to the other foals.

“Please keep back,” said Margrave, pushing another child aside just so he could continue moving forward. “This mare is badly injured, so I need to get her to the hospital as soon as possible!”

Runnigan pushed his way past the other foals and gazed at Cuddlhu, winking at the red eye looking back at him through the snoring mouth. He trotted alongside Margrave for a few seconds, pretending to squint to see if what they said was right. “No she isn’t a puppet!” he exclaimed suddenly, looking at the colt who had made the observation. “You’re an idiot!”

By the kid’s face, he looked like he had just been betrayed. His expression then changed to anger, but he was too slow on giving his retort before Runnigan landed a punch in his face. Margrave scowled at the sight. “Hey you, quit it!” he shouted. “Plaster Oak, stop them already!”

“But that white one’s trying to break my wing off!” Plaster cried in response.

The fight caught the attention of everyone around the group. The parents who had been trying to coax their curious kids away from Margrave now did so with panic in their step. The last thing they wanted was for their foals to get involved with a baby street thug.

“Runnigan Strange!” came a southern drawl from a few feet away. Upon hearing the voice, Runnigan immediately let go of his victim and tried his best to look innocent. Judging by the angry creases surrounding the mare’s freckles, he was failing. The farmer patted the crying foal on the head and offered him an apple, before shooting a glare at Runnigan. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Where’s your grandfather at? We’re gonna have ourselves a word with him.”

Crap. This isn’t good, Runnigan thought as he was pulled close to the disappointed farmer.

“Thanks for the help, Applejack,” Margrave said, giving her a smile as they passed.

“Ain’t no problem, Creek,” Applejack replied. “I’ll make sure this little twerp gets his head in line if I have to beat it into him!” She looked at the unconscious mare laying on Margrave’s back, and it took her a moment to realize she recognized her. She doubled back and followed by Margrave’s side. “Hey, is this the girl Penny said was some sort of… ‘demon in pony form’, the one living on the edge of town?”

The guard nodded. “She was squatting in Mr. Greenhooves’ old home next to the Everfree Forest.”

Applejack cringed at the wound. “Geez, this poor girl was lookin’ lively enough last time I saw her. Ran away like she’d seen a ghost. I didn’t think this would be how I’d see her again.”

Margrave glanced at her, then at the street ahead with a worried look. He didn’t want to have to go into the details of what had happened, or how odd it had looked. His eyes caught the shape of a little white colt running off down the road. “Your prisoner is getting away.”

“Dang it! Get back here, Strange!”

Unbeknownst to Margrave Creek, the mare he carried across his back wasn’t a pony at all. She was also fully conscious and had been watching everything. She let a smile cross the suit’s sleeping face. Thanks, Quilliam. Just then, an unwelcome feeling started appearing across her body once again.

The two of them were now, finally, reaching the other side of Ponyville. Just ahead, Margrave could see the roof of the hospital atop its hill. “That grandcolt of Mr. Strange is a piece of work,” he said to himself sourly, now that the foal in question was out of earshot. He felt his cargo shuffle. “Hm?” He looked back at the mare, slowing his pace slightly. She had moved. Not much, but enough to let Margrave know she was still with him. He smiled and sped up once more.

Help! Oh no, no, help! Cuddlhu shifted again. Small bumps appeared across the surface of her suit as she started scratching at the itchiness growing around her. So itchy all of a sudden! Get me out of the sun! The horrible feeling descended upon her and the hairs on her coat started standing on end with stress. She searched her mind for the link. Quilliam… what do I do?

The voice of her friend reemerged. Sorry, Cuddle, but I’m going to have to leave this one to you. You need to learn how to converse with ponies other than me.

What!? B-but, Quilliam! I don’t know what to do! I need your help!

I already helped you avoid detection. Twice in the space of a few minutes, in fact. There’s nothing more I can do. He paused. There’s also a bingo game on today that I can’t miss. I trust that you will find a way through this predicament, but for now I have some gingerbread cookies to win.

Cuddlhu tried to call out to him again, but the connection had gone silent. This is no good. This is no good at all. The ponies will find me and open me up, and then they’ll kill me! Her panic finally reached a head when she saw the doors of the hospital starting to open to welcome her into their depths, and she made her move. Placing a hoof over her wound, Cuddlhu got a hold of her legs once more and pushed off of Margrave’s back.

The stallion was shoved away in the opposite direction, leaving the doorway clear between them. “Agh! What in the- hey!” he cried as he saw Cuddlhu. When he saw how she had landed, his confusion turned into complete bewilderment.

Cuddlhu had had a rough landing, on her belly. Her back legs were spread out behind her with one of her front ones bent beneath. The thing that gave Margrave a scare was her front-right leg; it was bending in the opposite direction, with its upper half pointing down and the rest of it visibly broken at the knee.

Cuddlhu, whose eyes had been locked on her captor, slowly drifted down to what he was looking at. She let out a yelp and stood back up, the broken leg simply shifting back into position as if it were made of jelly. Without waiting around to offer an explanation, she turned and bolted away as fast as she could go.

“HEY! Come back!” shouted Margrave and made chase. The doctors watched with confusion as the two vanished off down the hill and away.

In a few minutes, the young stallion was galloping across the grassy hills at full speed. His bronze armour clinked against itself and reflected the rays of the sun, while his well-combed mane flapped about as he went, revealing tints of blue underneath. That’s it, I’m convinced, he thought with a frustrated scowl. That’s no Earth-pony!

“Stop!” Margrave shouted. “I order you to stop, in the name of Celestia!”

Cuddlhu kept running, as fast as she could in the suit. Her mind traveled even faster, with the discomforting feeling that covered her body long forgotten, but not gone. “No!!” she responded with tears in her eyes. “Stay away from me!”

The two were at the edge of Ponyville, with the town to their right. In the distance Margrave could see the Everfree Forest coming up, and he quickly realized where the mare was heading: Back home. He pushed himself and increased his pace, cursing to himself that the mare was so fast.

Cuddlhu’s eyes regained some of their spark as the shadows of the Everfree came into view. She would have gained enough speed at the wonderful sight to outpace her pursuer, had the lower reaches of her suit not been filling up with gooey, green slime in the heat. By the time the silhouette of her home appeared in front of the forest, Cuddlhu’s hooves were starting to drag behind her, making the next event inevitable.

The creature cried out in shock as the ground came up to meet her. Margrave quickly wrapped a forelimb around one of Cuddlhu’s own and pinned her to the ground with the other. “Come on, identify yourself! What are you?” he commanded.

Cuddlhu, her muzzle half-buried in the dirt, looked up at the sun. The celestial body was glaring back at her, hitting with unrelenting, blinding force. So hot, too hot! Cuddlhu barely registered what Margrave said, and chose the only answer she knew how to give. “I’m a pony.”

“No you’re not!” Margrave retorted. “You sustain terrible injuries, and yet you act as though you can’t feel a thing. Tell me why! Are you a Changeling? Are you undead?”

Because I’m not a pony. My suit, my flesh is tingling and I can’t stop it. “N-no… I can’t… I’m a pony, I swear. That’s all I want to be!”

“So you aren’t a pony!”

“No, I am! I just lost my mane!”

“You mean half your scalp! And yet there you are, acting perfectly fine.” Margrave expected the mare’s face to take on a far meaner look after her ruse was exposed. Instead, she looked away in a silent apology, as if she was disappointed in herself. What exactly are you? A sleeper agent?

It was at this point that Margrave noticed an odd change happening to the ends of the mare’s limbs; they were deflating. Anticipating some sort of attack, he released Cuddlhu and put a few feet of distance between them. Cuddlhu immediately rose back up - every one of her legs starting to fold and bend in unnatural ways - and continued to slog forwards as if she were dragging a quartet of water-filled bags behind her. Her tongue, an unusually long, green thing, hung out of her mouth and trailed along the ground as she walked.

I can see my home… just up ahead… it’s so close… Within the suit, a multitude of limbs writhed about, trying in vain to get away from the heat by dousing themselves in the steadily growing pools of slime at the bottom of Cuddlhu’s form. I feel like I’m melting… from the inside out. Suddenly, she bent over and spewed up a few globs of swampy liquid.

Margrave watched in disbelief. The scene of pain and distress buried the side of him that wanted to take the creature down and he relaxed out of his battle stance. In its place rose his caring side, the one that had believed the mare was a pony in the first place. “That’s the stuff you were bleeding before. What’s wrong with you?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

Cuddlhu looked back at him and found that she was no longer able to hold herself up properly. “Water…” she wheezed, before crashing to the ground once more.

Comments

[ferret]

She's a lot more fragile than I imagined.

It's so terribly sad when someone wants to be something else. It makes me want to comfort her and assure her that she can be as much a pony as anypony else. (And read more chapters )

[cornpone]

I love this idea, and the writing is nice! I really look forward to more ^.^

[Parallel Black]

5045492
Yep. You ever seen a slug all dried up in the middle of a path, with a tiny pool of slime surrounding it? That would be Cuddlhu if she left the suit for too long.

5046260
Thanks a lot! And more is definitely on the way. Chapter 5 is around half way done so far.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

Dude why doesn't this have more likes? I love this!

[ForSpite]

Unless that's intentional, you misspelled your chapter title. It should be "visibility". Titles are one of the areas you least want spelling errors.

[Malabazoo]

Damn girl can run

[tsaukpaetra]

Run Forest!