Unleash the Magic - Nightmare Night: chapter 7 release this weekend · 2:28pm Apr 6th, 2018
If all goes well and I get it finished and my prereads back in time, that is. There are currently 5500 words written and only the climactic (pun intended) section left. Who's featured this time? All I'll say is that attention will shift away from Sugar Cube Corner for now so yet another Mane 6 member may strut her stuff and continue the chain of corruption, and you'll be able to tell instantly from the chapter title who it is.
A teaser? Yes, since I can offer one without giving away who the feature character is:
“What the...? Where did that pink-haired menace go?” Trixie looked around in a panic, thoughts of Twilight suddenly forgotten.
“Never mind that! How did she even wake up? That sleep spell I hit her with should have had her under all night!” Starlight was in equal disbelief, suddenly wondering if whatever part of the curse was in the air had somehow affected her magic… or conversely, had made the curse’s hosts more resistant to it. Okay, this is officially getting scary now! She had a restrain a moment of panic of her own…
Which was only redoubled when a new branch-and-bark-covered figure with glowing green eyes passed ghostlike right through the wooden beams of the clock tower, causing their surface to ripple and then materializing right out of it directly in front of them.
“AAAAIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!” Trixie shrieked at the Timberwolf’s sudden appearance, stumbling backwards in her shock and fumbling for a smoke bomb.
“Get back, Trixie!” Starlight shouted as she teleported to the other side of the tower and went for her bow again, notching an arrow in one smooth motion, unable to launch it until Trixie was clear.
The intruder looked surprised at the pair’s presence, and then annoyed.
“Dangnabbit! Will y’all shut up already! Ah ain’t that hard o’ hearing!” the half-Timberwolf spoke a stunningly familiar voice as she rubbed a wooden ear with a paw. “Sorry, but Ah didn’t know anypony was up here or I wouldn’t have shown mahself to you like this! And you mind puttin’ that little toy down, Glimmer? Reckon Ah’ve had enough to deal with tonight without being hit by an arrow!” she told her, staring at the cloaked unicorn mare through green-glowing eyes that faded to reveal her normal ones, her wood-and-stick body likewise melting back into normal fur and limbs of the Apple family matriarch. “It’s me, so kindly don’t shoot me!”
“G-Granny… Smith?” Starlight lowered her notched bow, but only fractionally, its arrowhead still charged with an explosive spell the unicorn archers of old had used against Timberwolves and Gryphon warriors alike. “But h-how could you…?”
“Long story, but the short of it is, we Apples got Timberwolf magic in us—something I’d never tell y’all if ya’ll hadn’t just seen it!” she said, and Starlight was surprised to feel a moment of satisfaction at having her earlier theory about Applejack’s suspected fate confirmed. “But never mind that right now… Ah just came from the farm and found AJ, Big Mac and Fluttershy all transformed! Had to rescue Apple Bloom from them!”
Trixie and Starlight exchanged a startled glance. “Wait… Fluttershy was with them? And they’re all Timberwolves now?” Starlight asked. Was I wrong about the sexually transmitted curse, then? Are we dealing instead with the proverbial curse of the Timberwolves here? she wasn’t sure any longer.
“Well, AJ and Big Mac are now, yeah. But Fluttershy’s ain’t! From the looks of it, she’s turned back into that danged bat-pony creature Twilight accidentally turned her into a couple Nightmare Nights back!”
“Wh-what?” a shaking Trixie pulled herself back up while Starlight was struck speechless.
“Ya heard me! And as for AJ and Big Mac, I knew they might transform someday, but not like that! They’re completely mindless and wanna rut anything that moves! They even all got stallionhoods now! And that ain’t normal, even for Timberwolf magic! And if I hadn’t been able to do this—she let her eyes glow green with her inner power take hold for a moment, causing them to flinch again—“they’d’ve likely taken me and Apple Bloom too!”
“Two… separate transformations… an overwhelming desire to have sex... and they now have stallionhoods?” Starlight didn’t understand, though her brief hope that they weren’t dealing with a sexually transmitted curse was shattered. So this is not only an STC, but one that induces physical transformations in its host… that is somehow appropriate TO that host? To what end?
“So enough of mah life’s story, would ya y’all mind tellin’ me just what in the hay is goin’ on ‘round here?” Granny Smith looked between them both. “Ah tracked AJ back to here—before y’all ask, Ah can follow their scent back through the wood they passed through; that’s how Ah found this place. AJ changed here! Ah was hoping to find some answers from the place she first transformed, but so far, just more questions! Like, what was Fluttershy doin’ here too?” She asked as she sniffed at the area around Applejack’s discarded stetson and costume. “And why the hay was she having sex with my granddaughter? Both their spoor is all over the floor!”
With that, everything clicked for Starlight and Trixie. “To spread the curse further and faster…” the former realized with a chill. “To gain and corrupt new hosts…”
“Um, Starlight?” a still-freaked Trixie was staring at Granny Smith, who simply arched an eyeridge and stared back. “Have you noticed that…”
“Think I’m finally starting to understand the parameters of this thing. It first releases some sort of potent magical pheromone into the air that makes potential new hosts amenable to sex even if they wouldn’t have been before, and renders them ripe for the taking,” Starlight recited, mostly to herself.
“Yes, but—” Trixie was ignored as Starlight continued.
“But it’s not just airborne. If it was, us and the entire town would already be infected and fully converted. So clearly, there’s a physical component as well—it needs actual rutting with a fully infected victim to complete the process of corrupting its new host,” she continued grimly. “Fluttershy was patient zero, and Applejack was her first victim. She must have plucked AJ right off the street and brought her here… and of course there’d be no evidence of her if her feathered wings were replaced by bat ones. There’d be nothing to shed.”
“Trixie gets that, but you’re still missing—”
“Once it gets it, the curse transforms new its host into a form most suitable for spreading itself.” Starlight put the remaining pieces together. “When you’re seeking prey, you want to become more predatory, so that’s the common thread between the different transformations to bat-ponies and Timberwolves, then. It’s just drawing upon whatever internal darkness, powers or abilities the host possesses to do so…” she swallowed hard, not even wanting to think what that might mean for her.
“Starlight!”Trixie shouted, finally gaining her attention. “Trixie understands and agrees with all of that, but haven’t you noticed…?”
Both Starlight and Granny Smith turned to her. “Huh? Noticed what?” the former asked.
“Her!” Trixie pointed a hoof at the latter. “She was around three corrupted ‘hosts’ as you’re calling them, but somehow... she’s not infected!”
Still got about 2000 or so words to write, but those should be done tonight and tomorrow, at which point, my prereading crew goes to work. Aiming for Sunday morning release, which should hopefully also earn a fresh visit to the featured list.
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