Child of Nightmares and Everfree
A Mother’s Loss
The only reason Sergeant Sunshine Symphony kept them from being eaten was because of his coffee habit.
That, and being without the beverage for two whole nights was making him twitchy.
Moonrise was still at least an hour away when his ears began to twitch to the low hiss of a noise almost exactly the way the barracks percolator sounded. At work, it was a signal that the Day shift was almost over, and their responsibility of making a fresh pot of coffee for their nocturnal counterparts was being fulfilled, much as Sunshine was careful to do for them every morning before dawn.
Occasionally while making coffee, some newbie in the Day shift would flip the lights on in the barracks before rising time for the Night shift, which normally triggered a barrage of pillows for the unfortunate guard and the derisive title of Princess Sunstroke, which they would keep until the next new guard managed to repeat the feat. The light filtering through Sunshine’s closed eyelids combined with the low hiss to make him reach for his pillow out of reflex.
That’s not a pillow.
His heart rate accelerated to a manic thumping as he grasped the soft and very warm mare’s flank, followed by his startled cry as his sun-blinded eyes caught sight of an unbroken dark wave of claws and jaws just starting to overrun their daytime nest. He flung both forelegs around Fluttershy and rocketed up into the air, spraying huge scout ants in all directions. It took until they were a good distance off the ground before he leveled off with an astonished look at the dark carpet sweeping over the forest floor, the noise of their passage making a low and sinister hiss.
Ants. Huge bucking ants, at least a hoof long, with jagged jaws and sharp stingers. Fluttershy was just beginning to wriggle in his grasp in what would have been a delightful and distracting way if Sunshine was not already distracted far beyond any comparison.
Fluttershy broke out of his weakening hold while he was distracted with biting furiously at an ant who had sunk its mandibles into a particularly sensitive section of his wingpit. He nearly had it, but almost crashed into the ground as she shouted at him.
“What are you doing!”
Petite little yellow hooves yanked his jaws away from biting down on the annoying ant, and Fluttershy swept the bloodthirsty little creature up for a good talking to. “Now I know Mister Symphony was in the way of your migration, but— Yipes!”
Something in Sunshine Symphony’s heart gave a little twinge of satisfaction as the ant clamped its mandibles down on Fluttershy’s sensitive nose, and once she had managed to paw the insect free, he quickly spoke up.
“I don’t think they speak your language, Miss Fluttershy.” He brushed off a few more ants which had not gotten as good a grip and looked down at the sea of dark hunger which was sweeping over where they had just been sleeping.
“Oh, no!” Sunshine’s heart almost stopped as Fluttershy flew down toward the churning mass, but stopping short at the hole in the top of the tree where all of the little bats had vanished last morning. “Wake up!” she shouted, hammering on the side of the tree with a hoof. “Hurry! They’re climbing the tree!”
Sleepy bats began to emerge out of the tree as Fluttershy continued to encourage their exodus. Small little balls of fluff clinging to larger bats squeaked plaintively as the line of dark ants continued to climb the tree, and in an attempt not to have Fluttershy still there when the ants reached her, Sunshine fluttered down to help with the evacuation in whatever way he could.
It was a little bit of a shock to be used as a baby bat carrier, with a few thousand (or so it felt like) tiny little bats clinging to the short hairs on his coat and his mane as Fluttershy made absolutely certain every little batling made it out of the den. The short trip over to a nearby tree out of the direct path of the swarming ants was made with great caution and only the slowest of wingflaps, but the itching sensation remained even after all of the little bats were hustled off his back and into the hollow of their new home. Still, it took two passes through his mane afterward to make sure no little batling was still hitchhiking.
Sneaking in a quick scratch while Fluttershy was occupied with a census and making sure no bat had been left behind, Sunshine squinted into the light to trace the trail of the swarming ants back into the distance. There was something wrong with their path, and as Fluttershy slipped back next to his side, he pointed with one hoof at a peculiar jog in the river of ravenous chitin.
“They changed direction. The ants were headed that way, then they shifted right toward us.”
“Could they have smelled us?” She tentatively sniffed his mane as he shook his head.
“We came up to the little bats’ tree from that direction, and the wind is all wrong. Something or somepony convinced them to change directions.” Sunshine lifted his tail and ran one hoof through it, looking at the sticky residue remaining. “Honey.”
Fluttershy blushed, paused, and recovered quickly, giving his hoof a quick sniff and a tentative lick. “Wild honey. But there’s no bees.”
“Spark Gap must have laid a trail of ant bait right up to my rear while we were sleeping.” Sunshine wiped his hoof off against his chest and sat down on the tree branch regardless of his precarious perch. “At least she’s alive, but I didn’t think she would try to get me killed.”
“Us,” said Fluttershy almost silently.
“It’s too dangerous for you out here. We have just about an hour or two before it gets dark,” said Sunshine as he stood up. “I’m taking you home. If we start right now and fly straight, we should be close enough to your house—”
Fluttershy held a hoof over his lips. “No. We’re too close to your daughter, and your wife is probably just afraid of us. When we find Emerald Dreams, we’ll just have to be very careful not to seem threatening, and to see if she can calm your wife down.”
Sunshine bit his bottom lip. “You’re sure? I mean, you almost got killed just now. Again.”
“Positive.” Fluttershy curled up next to him on the branch. “You’ve been a very good protector. I feel safe with you around. Once it gets dark, Eats Fruit will take us to the specific tree where she saw your daughter, and you can…”
In the resulting silence, Sunshine leaned back against Fluttershy and closed his eyes. “How am I supposed to tell a little filly that the father she hasn’t seen since she was very small wants to take her and her mother back to a place she can’t remember?”
Fluttershy did not have a response either, so the two of them sat together in silence on the tree branch until the moon climbed over the horizon.
~^^~
Dee stirred from her slumber with a sticky bit of hair stuck to her nose from where Mama was wrapped around her. She licked the sticky stuff, then spit it partially out before sucking all of the sweet honey flavor from the few strands. Only then did she spit out the used strands of hair and begin to look for more on Mama.
As she groomed her mother, Dee began to notice… odd things this morning, much as if Mama had slipped outside during the Burning and tangled with a beehive, even though Dee did not believe for a moment she actually did. Mama never went outside except in the darkness of night. But still, there she was, nursing the occasional painful lumpy bee-sting with splatters of honey on sections of her black coat as she slowly rose to a nearly awake state.
“Good night, Dee,” murmured Mama in a low squeak. “My daughter, forever.”
“Good night, Mama,” squeaked Dee in return. “I’ll never leave you.” She nuzzled closer to her mother’s sticky coat as memories of yesternight’s trip to the lizard’s collection of murdered stones swam up in her memories. “Am I really a monster, Mama?”
“You are my little batling,” chirped Mama, giving Dee a short nip around one ear. “From the night I found you, until the moon no longer shines. Now, let us put it behind us. The monsters will stay in their city and you will stay with me, forever.”
The chirp of ‘monsters’ echoed around the giant hollow tree filled with The Folk, repeated by many fanged mouths until a response came back in a series of alarm chirps.
“Monsters here! Monsters here! Flee! Flee!”
Mama whirled to look in the direction of Out with her scrunched-up face twisted into a vicious hiss. “Fight the monsters!” she cried. “Chase them away!” With strong beats of her wings, Mama darted down through the chaotic mix of The Folk and out into the moonlit night, with Dee right behind her.
Below, other members of The Folk gave short, dangerous plunges at two monsters who had stopped at the bottom of Home. Dee’s heart hammered with fear as she recognized the male monster who had chased her away from the city, as well as a terrifying yellow monster who looked like the one who lived in the cave with the bunny. Both monsters were cringing away from the aggressive motions of The Folk, while the Little Folk who had obviously brought them here scrambled to hide in the yellow monster’s thick pelt.
It was the smaller yellow monster who was closest to the plunging dives of The Folk, calling up to them in a voice Dee could feel all the way to her wildly-beating heart. She could almost understand the low, guttural words for just a brief instant.
Then Mama screamed and hurtled herself down at the two monsters, in a far more aggressive attack than any other of The Folk. It terrified Dee to see her dive straight at the two monsters with no intention to dart away at the last moment, made only worse when the smaller monster gave out a terrified scream of her own. The larger dark monster moved almost instantly in front of her and snarled his defiance, his hard shell glittering in the moonlight like the monster in her hazy memories.
Dark fur and bits of claws went flying as Mama and the dark monster clashed together. Despite being only half Mama’s size, the dark monster seemed undisturbed by Mama’s sharp fangs and talons, but also strangely reluctant to strike back even when Mama swiped at him, laying open thin red lines on his face before darting away. Dee did not think she was screaming, but the startled dark monster looked straight up at her with his golden eyes growing wide just as Mama returned to take another swipe. The pain seemed to send the monster into a fury and he bellowed loud enough to drive all of The Folk away in a flurry of panicked wings. Even Mama seemed frightened as she climbed up into the sky, and in the sudden empty space around the dark monster, Dee could feel his golden eyes burning in her direction, lit up with a hunger that sent her bolting away.
The huge trees of Home blurred past as she flew even faster than she had ever gone before, ducking and darting while her sharp ears could hear the huge dark monster gaining on her. He moved even faster than when he had chased her at the strange city, calling out in his deep booming voice as she wove through the trees. Somehow, she could understand bits and pieces of his words, and as she dove and twisted through the vines draped between the trees, that understanding made her fly away even faster.
She dove lower, through the twining roots of the immense trees and deeper into the grove, looking from side to side as she darted until spotting the telltale glint of silver threads among the vines. The heavy beat of wings behind her had grown as she flew, but when she twisted around the nearly invisible spiderweb, the monster took the obvious shortcut through the opening and came to an abrupt halt as it was ensnared.
Dee lifted her nose and began to climb toward the welcome open sky, but after a few wingbeats, she slowed, then turned around and landed on a jutting root in order to look back at the trapped monster. The monster looked… strange in the shadowy moonlight, with his golden gaze fixed on Dee as if she would vanish if he blinked. He did not even pay any attention to the huge spider a few body lengths away, which was eyeing its new dinner with many eyes.
After a long while of mutual staring, Mama fluttered down to perch next to Dee. She was breathing heavily and favored one wing, with a reddish patch of torn hairs on her coat where the monster had struck with one of its odd rigid feet, so much like Dee’s. They sat and watched the monster, who sat and looked back, and the spider, who watched all of them in apparent confusion. They might have sat there until moonset if the strange yellow monster had not fluttered down between the other monster and the spider.
To Dee’s sudden surprise, she recognized the other monster as the female monster who had the deadly bunny, only wearing a disguise, much like the bunny had. She was obviously a mate to the dark monster from the way she had placed herself to protect him from the spider, but oddly enough, she did not seem to be afraid of the spider either. In fact, she began to talk with it, in a low rumbling tone that seemed so close to Dee’s understanding.
“Mama?” Dee brushed her head up against her mother’s uninjured side, but her mother did not respond, not even when the spider began to carefully nip the captured dark monster out of her web instead of eating it. “Mama, should we fly away?”
“No.” Mama lifted her head up, her dark eyes brimming with tears. “They are here to take you to your new home, away from your Mama.”