Fluttershy widened her eyes in shock as she stared up at the creature before her. The gold colored bear suit towered over her, gazing down at her with its hollow eyes, two yellow orbs shining dimly in their center.
A broken chuckle came from the suit, though its mouth didn’t move. The unnatural sound was deep and raspy, and it filled the ears of whoever listened to it. The yellow mare felt the mascot’s paw on her back shifting to her side and pressing down, attempting to pull her closer.
“AHH!” Fluttershy screamed while jerking back. In her clumsy rush to get away, she fell backwards and landed rear first on the cold stone floor. The flashlight bounced to the floor and rolled to the side, casting light on the twisted visage of the mascot bear.
The Freddy suit staggered forward, its paw still reaching for her. Fluttershy crawled along the ground backwards, just barely managing to avoid eye contact with the yellow lights as she stared ahead fearfully.
Before the suit could catch up to the yellow mare, a blur of movement and color shot in from the side, getting in between her and the bear.
“Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while shooting out her foreleg and punching the mascot across the face. A hollow thwack resounded through the suit, followed by a stiff crack. The mascot stumbled back, reeling from the cyan pony’s strike.
Fluttershy stared at the pegasus bravely standing her ground against the ghostly creature. “R-Rainbow Dash…” She muttered in stunned shock. The cyan pony briefly turned her head back and smirked before facing the threat and adopting a serious expression. Fluttershy would have kept staring if it weren’t for Applejack reaching down and picking her up from the floor.
“Are you ok?” The orange mare asked with a concerned expression while briefly turning to watch Rainbow Dash squaring off with the yellow bear.
Fluttershy nodded, though her muscles were still jittery. “Y-yeah… I’m fine.” She said before turning to see how her cyan friend was doing.
“Listen up you creep! If you want to get to her, you’re going to have to go through me.” Rainbow stated, her eyes burning with determination.
The Freddy suit was still reeling from the punch to its face. It was backed out of the light so far that the ponies could barely see it. Suddenly, it staggered forward and steadied its feet on the ground. Its head was bent at an odd angle, with its immovable gaze tilted up at a slant. Something wet dripped from the suit’s neck and onto the cave floor, creating a faint plop.
Another crack rang out as the mascot readjusted its head. It moved its neck and jerkily managed to snap it back into place, creating a sickening display of sound. More drops of the yellow liquid fell to the floor, seemingly coming from inside the suit. A distorted laugh accompanied the bear as it looked back at the ponies’ almost as if it were taunting them.
“Alright…” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, glaring at the creature as best she could without making eye contact. “You want some more? Because there’s plenty more where that came from!” She leaped forward, using her wings to gain momentum. She zoomed straight for the yellow mascot, aiming right for its jaw with her foreleg reeled in and ready to deliver.
The Freddy suit stared ahead, not lifting so much as a paw as the pegasus sailed at it. Rainbow Dash prepared to sock her hoof out and punch the bear again until she whipped to a halt as an invisible force slammed into her chest.
“Ack…!” Rainbow coughed forcefully as all of the wind was knocked out of her lungs. She tried to flap her wings to back away, but the force holding her beat her to the punch as it wrapped around her fully and flung her backwards at high speeds.
The two mares gasped as they watched their cyan friend soaring over their heads. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called after her, taking a few steps toward her and watching her falling and smacking into the ground.
Rainbow Dash grunted painfully as she rolled and bounced along the hard cave floor. She tried using her legs to grab something and lose speed, but she just kept rolling as her bruised body kept going.
Finally, she started coming to a stop. Just before she did, however, she felt the ground beneath her giving way to a sizable drop. Even if it was pitch black outside of the reach of the flashlight, she could tell that she was near the edge of the chasm.
“Woah!” Rainbow Dash narrowly managed to halt her momentum as she teetered on the edge. She rolled over and let out a sigh of relief as she rested on solid ground. Although she could have used her wings to save herself, she would have rather not careened off the side and into a dark pit.
The demented bear laughed giddily as if it enjoyed seeing the pegasus being tossed like a Frisbee. Applejack and Fluttershy turned from their friend to see the mascot staring at them. Just having the two yellow dots on the side of their vision made them feel uneasy.
Applejack turned to Fluttershy before looking back to the bear costume and lowering her expression into a serious one. “Stay back, Fluttershy. I think it’s time this bear learns why I’m the best apple bucker this side of Equestria.” She pulled down the rim of her hat, steadying it on her head and smirking confidently.
Before the yellow pony could even offer any of her insight, Applejack rushed off at a gallop toward the Freddy suit. The spirit inside of the suit hadn’t changed where it was looking, choosing to stare through the orange pony as she approached at full steam.
Freddy reeled up on its back legs and raised its paws in the air. As Applejack got close, the suit lunged down at her, but she was wise to the tactic. The farm pony dodged to the side as the suit pounced, landing with her back legs to it in the perfect position for what she had in mind next.
“Hold onta’ your head, Fred!” Applejack stated with a wry smirk while reeling in her back legs. She shot them out, aiming square for the side of the bear’s mask.
Her hooves collided with something solid, and a sound like bones popping rang out. The mascot’s head twisted to the side and kept going, letting out a sickening rip. As Applejack turned to admire her handiwork, she was stunned into a disturbed silence.
Freddy’s mask was separated from its body, but it wasn’t falling to the floor. Instead, it was hanging limply by something thin and stringy. It was dark due to the flashlight being on the ground a short distance away, so the orange mare couldn’t see the fine details of what she was looking at, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. Whatever was keeping the head connected to the body, it looked organic.
More of the yellow liquid fell to the floor in thick, curdled chunks. The sour smell of the substance filled the air, mixing in with the already foul odor of the thin layer of ectoplasm covering the suit. Suddenly, the silhouette of the string connecting the head to the body retracted with a wet, sloppy sound. The mask of the bear twisted and jerked, apparently searching for the right orientation its head should have been in.
“What the… uulgh… what are you?!” Applejack recoiled in disgust as she watched the sickening display.
My head comes off… does yours?
The mascot asked in a hushed echo. As it finished its disturbing question, its head snapped back into place and jerked to the side in one motion, leaving it staring at Applejack.
Applejack swallowed uncomfortably as any sense of bravery she felt before left her. “N-now hold on a minute there feller… I like my head right where it is.” She spoke softly, unable to hide a hint of nervousness as she slowly backed up.
“Applejack!” Fluttershy called off to the side. “Get away from it!”
The orange mare turned to see the pegasus standing just outside of the light where she left her, a concerned look in her eyes. She would have followed her friend’s advice, but something prevented her from doing so.
“AH!” Applejack yelped as she was suddenly shot backwards by some unseen force, almost as if a unicorn had grabbed her and flung her. She flailed her legs wildly, trying to right herself so she could land. Unfortunately, she suddenly found herself coming down and nearly sailing over the edge of the chasm behind her.
Fluttershy gasped as she barely saw her orange friend falling off the edge. “Applejack!” She yelled fearfully, reaching out a foreleg and inching forward.
Thankfully, Applejack managed to reach out and cling to the ground with her forelegs before she completely plummeted. However, her grip was tenuous at best as she struggled to prevent herself from sliding on the many loose rocks along the cliff.
“Hghh… gah…” Applejack strained to pull herself up, barely making any progress. Suddenly, she felt her hooves slipping and her body receding back toward the drop off beneath her. “Ah… UAH!” She yelped as she desperately clawed at the rocky ledge, trying to find a grip on something. Her heart plummeted as she realized that she was going to slide off and into the darkness below.
“Hold on, AJ!” A voice called from behind Fluttershy. The yellow mare turned her head just in time to see Rainbow Dash sprinting past her at full speed toward the earth pony.
The cyan pegasus beat hoof as fast as she could, skirting the edge of the cliff and racing to make it to her friend before she fell into the dark abyss. She completely ignored the yellow mascot still present to the side and made a flying leap while reaching out with her forelegs.
Applejack screamed as she started to fall. When suddenly, she was stopped dead in her tracks by something grabbing onto her forelegs. She looked up to see the dark shape of Rainbow Dash, reaching down and locking hooves with her while dangling over the cliff partially.
“I got you… I got you!” Rainbow said frantically, managing a slight chuckle of triumph.
Applejack couldn’t help but smile and chuckle back at the pegasus. “What took you so long?” She asked, her voice holding an audible sense of exhaustion, relief, and panic.
While the two ponies were laughing quietly to themselves at their miraculous rescue, they heard another laugh coming from behind them, though this one was deep and distorted. Rainbow Dash turned her head and glanced behind her, only to widen her eyes as she saw the golden bear staring directly at her and slowly staggering toward her.
“What’s goin’ on up there?” Applejack asked hesitantly as she listened to the demonic sounding laughter.
Rainbow Dash dug her hind legs into the ground and started pulling urgently to get the orange pony up from the cliff. “Hurry up and start climbing!” She instructed anxiously. Applejack needed no further information to know that they were in trouble if she couldn’t get up with the cyan mare’s help.
The pair struggled to gain ground, with Rainbow Dash pulling with all of her might, and Applejack pushing against the cliff face with her hind legs. Still, they were making slow progress due to the disadvantage both ponies had with their positions. The pegasus had most of her body flat against the ground while her forelegs dangled off the cliff, and Applejack was, for lack of a better word, dangling off the cliff.
The disembodied chuckling became more intense as the possessed costume inched closer. It bore down on the pair, staring at them with the endless pits it had for eyes, letting the yellow orbs of light pierce into them.
Rainbow Dash cringed nervously and used every ounce of her strength in pulling. She even flapped her wings to get more lift, but even that wasn’t working very well due to her awkward positioning. Slowly but surely, the orange mare was making progress in getting hoisted up, but it wasn’t happening nearly fast enough for the urgent situation they were in.
Before the yellow bear could reach the struggling ponies, something small flew through the air and harmlessly bounced off of its head. Soon, another rock smacked into it, drawing its attention to the side. Standing just outside of the beam of light made by the flashlight was a yellow pegasus with a rock clutched in her hoof.
“Hey!” Fluttershy yelled, managing to momentarily suppress her fear. “Leave my friends alone!”
Rainbow Dash watched from the edge of her vision with a stunned expression as she saw the timid pegasus standing tall before such a frightening foe. Although she trembled slightly as the mascot stared at her with its glowing yellow eyes, she stiffened her expression and tossed another rock at it as hard as she could.
“If you want to attack something, attack me!” Fluttershy glared at the ghostly creature, making sure not to look it directly in the eyes.
Much to her confusion, the yellow bear didn’t react any further to her taunts. In fact, it turned back toward the two ponies dangling off of the cliff and started walking again. Fluttershy gasped as she saw that her tactic didn’t work.
Rainbow Dash desperately tried to grab the orange pony by the shoulder for better leverage, only to fail. “Hrrk… AJ… I really need you to be up here right now!” She stated urgently.
“I’m tryin’, I’m tryin’!” Applejack replied. All she could do at this point was attempt to push herself further up with her back legs while the pegasus pulled her up.
Finally, Rainbow Dash managed to pull the earth pony’s upper body back over the edge. She let Applejack grab onto the cliff side while she went to pull her by the shoulders. A sudden hollow footstep in front of them made them look up, only to have the color drain from their faces as they saw the yellow bear a mere foot away.
Freddy, or at least the spirit inside him, chuckled to itself as it raised a paw up and reached for the pair. Rainbow Dash and Applejack felt their heartbeats racing as they were caught between a possessed mascot suit and a cliff. Sure, the cyan mare might have been able to get away, but the earth pony still had her lower legs dangling off the cliff.
Before the possessed bear could finish whatever sinister thoughts it had for the two ponies, a loud yell from the side drew everyone’s attention away. The two mares and even the yellow bear turned to see Fluttershy making a mad dash straight toward the mascot suit and jumping onto it at full speed.
“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash widened her eyes as she watched her friend clinging to the mascot’s back while it moved around sporadically.
“What in tarnation are you doing?!” Applejack asked in shock while staring at the pegasus.
Fluttershy had her legs wrapped around the yellow suit’s body, and she clung to it tightly while keeping her eyes clenched shut. “G-go! G..g..get out of h-here!” She stammered, partially from fear and partially from the fact that the bear was trying to buck her off of itself.
Finally, Rainbow Dash managed to pull Applejack up from the cliff. The orange mare rolled onto her back, while Rainbow fell onto her rear. They quickly got up and rushed to assist their friend, but as they spun around, they saw that they were too late.
The Freddy suit stopped moving around. Fluttershy did her best to keep her hold after being jostled around so much. Suddenly, however, she felt something grabbing her back. Before she even knew what was going on, she felt herself being violently ripped off of the mascot and flung through the air.
“AHHHH!!” The yellow mare screamed as she flew wildly into the dark. She tried to spread her wings and break her momentum, but she didn’t have enough time before she smacked into the ground, hard. A stabbing pain shot through her abdomen as she landed on her back, eliciting a shocked yelp. As she brought her hoof down to clutch the area where the pain was, she felt warm, sticky liquid, along with something foreign sticking out of her skin.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack watched the pegasus’s crash with pale expressions of shock. “*Gasp* Fluttershy, no!” They both cried in unison.
The possessed mascot let out another chuckle as Fluttershy cried out in agony as if it were satisfied with its actions. Whether or not the chaotic spirit was laughing at the wounded pony or not, it didn’t matter. The mere sight of it filled the other two mares with rage.
“Why you… you… Grrr,” Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth while glaring at the bear. “You’ll pay for that you freak!” She stamped a foreleg down, fully prepared to run up to the creature and rip it limb from limb. Applejack was prepared to join the pegasus with how upset she was.
Before either of the two mares could rush forward, the spirit used its invisible influence to fling them to the sides. Rainbow Dash went flying to the right, while Applejack went to the left. Both ponies yelped in surprise and grunted as they skidded to a halt along the ground.
Applejack pushed her battered body off of the floor and looked over to see Rainbow Dash doing the same on the opposite side of the creature. “Ow… ugh, are you ok?” The orange mare spoke in a concerned tone as she noticed how worn out her friend seemed.
The pegasus clutched her head briefly and groaned before standing up. “Yeah… I’m alright… gah.” She shook her head and ignored her soreness. After she got all the way to her feet, Rainbow looked over at the yellow pony off at the back of the cave before looking back to Applejack. “Go grab Fluttershy and get ready to run. We can’t fight this thing and win.” She explained with a hint of frustration in her voice.
Applejack looked to the possessed mascot uneasily before glancing to the cyan mare. “Alright… but what are you plannin’ on doing?” She frowned as she noticed an expression on her friend’s face that she knew all too well.
“Don’t worry about me right now! I think Fluttershy is hurt. Go and get her, I’ll keep this thing busy until you two are ready to run.” Rainbow Dash said, more urgently than before.
Applejack glanced at the ground in front of her, spotting the flashlight where it had been laying since Fluttershy dropped it. She quickly grabbed it and started trotting toward where the pegasus had fallen on the other side of the area.
The Freddie suit turned to look at the earth pony running across the area and took a step forward. It was interrupted as the cyan pegasus rushed in front of it and got in between it and the others. “Hey ugly, you’re dealing with me, not them.” Rainbow Dash said with a determined expression. She kept low to the ground, ready to jump one way or another or to hold on for dear life if she got picked up again.
Meanwhile, Applejack quickened her pace to reach the yellow pony faster. She saw Fluttershy writhing in pain, with blood trickling down her side from her lower stomach. As she got closer, she halted and gasped as she saw what was wrong.
Fluttershy had landed on an outcropping of rocks. Most of the rocks seemed to have broken upon impact, but one must have remained solid. There was a thin spike made out of stone jutting up through the side of her abdomen, which was bleeding profusely.
“Fluttershy… Oh my gosh…” Applejack covered her mouth as she stared at her wounded friend. The sight of the pegasus lying on the ground, covered in blood and with something impaled through her made the farm pony’s face pale.
Fluttershy whined softly while lifting her head. “A…A-Applejack?” She spoke, though her voice was weak and strained. Her eyes widened as she saw the extent of her injury in the light. “Hhngh… w-what the?! Owww!” Her head rocked back as another wave of pain hit her from her attempt at moving.
Applejack cringed sympathetically while rushing to her side. “Easy, girl… easy… You’re gonna be fine sugarcube.” She said while placing a comforting hoof on the yellow mare’s shoulder and further examining her wound. The more she tried to wrap her head around what to do to help, the more uneasy she became.
“Where’s… ungh… w-where’s Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked, giving up on trying to look around and laying back. She was breathing heavily, and her movements were shaky and weak, either from the fear or the blood loss.
“Rainbow Dash is fine, don’t you worry,” Applejack assured before turning to check on the other pegasus. Rainbow Dash was still having a standoff with the possessed mascot suit. “Dash, we’ve got a big problem over here!” She called over to the cyan mare before turning back to Fluttershy and flashing a reassuring smile. However hard she tried, she couldn’t hide the concern in her face.
Rainbow Dash briefly glanced back to the two ponies behind her before taking a step back as the yellow bear moved toward her. She couldn’t see anything other than the two yellow lights in its eyes getting closer. “Problem? What kind of problem?” She asked with a groan of disbelief before adopting a worried expression. “Is she alright?”
Applejack bit her lower lip and hesitated before answering. “Umm… not exactly… she’s hurt kind of bad. We can’t move her like this… she would bleed out before we could even get back to the others.” She explained uneasily.
“Dangit…” Rainbow Dash cursed under her breath. She tried to think of a possible solution to their problem. However, her thought process was interrupted as she felt something gripping her by the neck and lifting her upward. “Ack!” She let out a strangled cry while clutching at her throat. Her hooves didn’t collide with anything other than her neck, but that didn’t stop the force from tightening its grip on her.
Hearing the cyan pony’s muffled noises of distress, Applejack turned and shined her flashlight in that direction. She was startled to see the pegasus floating in the air, most likely being held by the same invisible power that the inhuman spirit had displayed before.
“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack gasped as she saw the pegasus getting the life choked out of her. The golden Freddy suit was nearby, slowly walking toward the suspended pony with clumsy movements.
Before the earth pony could even consider rushing forward to assist her friend, she noticed something that made her turn to the side. Another beam of light was shining toward them from the direction of the path back, and footsteps could be heard. Soon, Applejack could make out a tall, humanoid shape approaching from the distance.
Applejack smiled in relief as she saw her human friend walking closer. “Tom! Help us!” She yelled as loud as she could while waving her forelegs frantically.
Up ahead, Tom slowed to a stop as he heard the orange pony calling to him. He could see faint silhouettes of the group, and his confusion swiftly turned to concern as he noticed the yellow bear suit near Rainbow Dash. “Oh crap…!” He muttered before urgently rushing forward.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash croaked while kicking her hind legs and flailing her wings. No matter how much she struggled, she only succeeded in putting more pressure on her throat. Her lungs were burning, screaming for air that she couldn’t provide. Her vision started to fade, and her struggles grew weaker and weaker.
Suddenly and very abruptly, the pegasus was sent falling to the ground as the force let go of her neck. She laid motionless on the cave floor, one hoof still resting on her throat as she gasped and gulped down precious oxygen.
While she was still recovering, Rainbow Dash lifted her head up and looked ahead. She saw the Freddy suit illuminated by Applejack’s flashlight, but its head was looking off to the side. She suddenly noticed a second flashlight beam bouncing rapidly along with the sound of someone running. Before she could process what was going on, a flash of blue light flooded her vision, forcing her to clench her eyes shut.
A distorted wail of pain rang out from in front of the pegasus, followed by the sound of something sizzling. She opened her eyes back up, only to see the possessed mascot shrinking backwards with steam trailing off of it as a bright light died down.
“T…Tom?!” Rainbow exclaimed in stunned surprise as she turned and noticed the human rushing toward her. He finally reached her and jumped between her and the still smoking bear suit.
“Are you guys ok?” Tom asked without breaking his focus on the recovering mascot.
“Nngh… I’m alright… I think.” Rainbow Dash said before glancing upwards and looking toward Fluttershy and Applejack. The pair were staring back at her and the human with stunned expressions. Although she was conscious and aware of her surroundings, Fluttershy looked like she was in bad shape. “Fluttershy got hurt fighting that thing, though… She’s bleeding.” The cyan mare explained with a worried expression while looking back to the human.
“I’ll take care of her once this thing is gone.” Tom replied in a serious tone of voice. Not wanting to mess around, he readied his hands in front of him and formed his claws.
The Freddy suit finally steadied itself and looked ahead at the others. Another deep laugh echoed through the cave, though this one sounded like it wasn’t being made directly by the bear. The yellow lights in its eyes burned fiercely as it stared at the slayer standing in front of the ponies.
Tom yelled fiercely while charging at the spirit. He reeled his arm back, ready to swipe sideways and cut into the possessed suit. Before he could make contact, however, an invisible blow sent him flying backwards.
Rainbow Dash watched as the human tumbled along the ground beside her. Deciding that she wasn’t just going to sit idly by, she got to her hooves and readied herself for battle once more. “Hey, over here!” She yelled while quickly trotting to the left of the creature, drawing its attention away.
As Tom recovered from his brief flight, he looked up and saw the cyan mare jumping around the possessed suit, taunting it and running circles around it. “What the heck are you doing?” The human asked with an expression of disbelief.
“Helping you, what does it look like I’m doing?!” Rainbow Dash retorted. “Stop worrying about me and start worrying about beating this thing!”
The Freddy suit lifted a paw off the ground and raised it toward the annoying pegasus. Rainbow Dash felt its invisible grip washing over her legs, gently tugging her upward. Before she could be flung, however, another flash of blue erupted from behind the mascot, stumbling it and forcing it to let go.
The mascot yelled and cried, filling the cavern with distorted echoes. It spun around to face the human, preparing to defend itself. The demented bear made an attempt at tossing the human into the air again until something crashed into it from behind.
“Hyah!” Rainbow cried fiercely while following her yellow friend’s earlier example and jumping onto the creature. She locked her legs around it, doing her best to ignore the repulsive ectoplasm covering it and the effect it was having on her senses. Just being this close to whatever was inside of the suit made her skin crawl.
Freddy staggered from side to side, clumsily trying to buck the pegasus off. Either it was losing strength, or its chaotic nature was getting the better of it because right now it seemed to be unable to make coordinated movements.
Rainbow Dash felt the invisible force trying to pull her off of the mascot. She locked her legs tighter and cringed while trying her best to stay on its back.
Just when the cyan mare thought she was going to lose her grip, both her and the yellow suit looked ahead as they heard footsteps rapidly approaching. A disgusting stabbing sound rang out, and Rainbow looked up to see Tom stabbing one of his clawed hands into the bear’s chest cavity. Like what happened before with the previous inhuman spirit, yellow liquid spilled out around the boy’s claws, and the area around the impact burned intensely as steam poured out.
Tom turned to the pegasus still hanging on the creature’s back with a serious look in his eyes. “Jump off, now!” He yelled while lifting his other hand up and using his palm to cover the bear’s mouth. Seeing what was coming next, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and let go, falling roughly onto her side.
A soul shattering scream pierced the air as blue light erupted from the human’s other hand. The light traveled into the suit, leaking out around the edges of its mouth and even through seams in the suit itself.
After a solid few moments had gone by with the possessed bear struggling in vain to free itself, Tom gave it a mighty shove, sending it backwards and ripping his claws out of it. Despite the light being gone, the creature sizzled and burned from the inside out. The golden Freddy fell roughly into a seated position. Its body still steaming, its head limply rolled to the side. Suddenly, it burst into flames around its chest and mouth.
As Rainbow Dash pushed herself up on her forelegs, she looked ahead to see the mascot suit burning. The cave was lit up with orange tinted light as the flames licked at the bear costume like a bonfire. Shadows danced along the walls in time with the stunning display.
The ponies and the human watched in stunned silence as the suit burned. The ghostly creature within was still present, evident by the intense yellow lights in the suit’s empty eyes. A runny substance started dripping out of the eyes and the seams of the costume. The liquid was either ectoplasm or the strange yellow substance from before. It was hard to tell due to it being blackened by the fire.
Amid the crackling of the fire and the faint sizzling of the creature, a distorted whistling could be heard, humming a slow tune that was familiar to the three ponies. The droning sound was eerily chilling on its own, but it was even more so when accompanied by the sight of the bear suit burning.
…Bye bye…
A warped voice called from the suit, almost sounding amused and contented. All at once, the flames died down and the whistling faded on the final note of its melody, leaving the cave dark once more. The yellow lights had vanished from the now charred suit, and it moved no further.
Rainbow Dash blinked a few times while processing what just happened. “It’s… gone?” She asked in a quiet tone while turning to the human for confirmation. She looked back to the blackened mascot as Tom nodded in response.
The sound of a pained groan drew the pair’s attention behind them. They immediately noticed Applejack sitting next to Fluttershy, comforting the wounded pegasus as best she could.
“Fluttershy…!” Rainbow Dash sprang to her feet and rushed over to the yellow mare. As she knelt down beside Fluttershy and got a better look at her wound, Rainbow’s face paled and she frowned with concern.
“Ungh… h-hey Dashie…” Fluttershy smiled softly while looking up at the cyan pegasus beside her. She cringed and laid her head back down while reaching for her wound again. Her voice sounded weak and quiet, almost like she was struggling to make herself audible.
“Don’t worry, Flutters… Tom is gonna fix you up,” Rainbow Dash assured while resting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. The yellow pony felt cold to the touch, eliciting a saddened frown from the cyan mare. “You can fix her… right?” She asked while turning to the human, desperation evident in her eyes.
Tom knelt down and examined the extent of Fluttershy’s wound. The pegasus was impaled clean through her lower stomach region, but thankfully the wound was off to the side, so it didn’t seem like it would have hit anything vital. Either way, it needed to be dealt with soon or she would die from blood loss.
“I think I can… but not while she is still on this spike.” Tom explained while sizing up the rock that was jutting through the mare.
“So… we need to… *Gulp* pull her off of it?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily. She turned to see Fluttershy with an understandably fearful expression on her face, or rather, in her eyes. The pegasus was so weak that she had difficulty emoting anything but pain through her face.
“How bad is it gonna hurt her?” Applejack asked hesitantly. Although she knew from previous experience that the human’s healing powers canceled out pain, she wasn’t sure if that would work for something this severe.
“It shouldn’t hurt at all as long as I at least touch her while starting to heal. I won’t be able to lift her up very well if I do that, though… so you two need to be the ones to pull her up.” Tom explained.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared uncertain glances with each other. Their faces softened up as they looked back down at their injured friend and saw her looking back at them with a trusting expression. Finally, they nodded to each other and turned back to the human.
“Alright, we’ll do it.” Rainbow said with a determined expression.
Tom nodded. “Good… get on opposite sides of her. I would recommend picking her up from the front and back while I focus on making sure she doesn’t feel anything.” He said while scooting over and gently placing his hands above and below where the entry and exit wounds were.
The two mares quickly got into position, with Rainbow Dash at her tail end, and Applejack up by her head. They each took a moment to figure out the best way to lift her straight up and off of the rock. Even if the human was making sure she felt no pain, they didn’t want to make things worse for her.
Rainbow looked down at the resting pony and flashed a reassuring smile. “Just sit tight, Fluttershy. We’ll have you up and about before you know it.” She stated with a confident façade, despite her inner feelings of nervousness.
“Are you guys ready?” Tom asked curiously while turning between the two.
“Ready…” Applejack reported while gently placing her hooves under Fluttershy’s shoulders.
Rainbow Dash did the same, putting her hooves under the yellow mare’s lower back. “Ready.”
“I’m ready…” Fluttershy said, managing a weak nod as the trio looked to her for her opinion.
“Alright… lift her straight up on three.” Tom said while channeling energy to his hands. His palms glowed a soft shade of blue and he pressed down on the pegasus’s wounds. Fluttershy immediately felt the pain in her side vanishing and being replaced by a warm fuzzy sensation that was rather pleasant.
“One…”
The two mares readied themselves anxiously.
“Two…”
They sweated nervously as they pictured a million different things going wrong. Despite their apprehensions, they were more than willing to do whatever it took to help their friend get better.
“Three!” The human announced, using whatever leverage he had and pushing upward on the yellow mare.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack heaved and gradually started lifting Fluttershy up. The rocky spike slid out of her slowly, making a disconcerting squelch as it went. All the while, the pegasus seemed to be feeling no pain, making sure to remain as still as possible while her friends struggled to free her from her impalement.
Finally, the trio managed to raise the fragile pony up and completely off of the spike without it breaking. The rock was stained crimson with her blood, and a decently sized puddle had formed where she was laying. Blood was already pouring out of the two holes in Fluttershy’s abdomen, though she seemed relatively calm despite this fact. The group gently moved her and set her down on her side on the relatively flat ground. Once the two mares let go of her, Tom went to work.
The human held his hands back a short distance and projected his healing light at full force onto the two gaping holes in her body. Much to the relief of everyone present, the wounds started to close up. Once all visible surface damage was healed, Tom placed his hand on Fluttershy’s side in the middle of where the wounds were and continued projecting light into her body.
After a solid thirty seconds had gone by, Tom groaned from exhaustion and let his light die down. He let the pegasus sit up and examine her side.
“Does anything feel like it still hurts inside of you?” Tom asked curiously while still catching his breath.
Fluttershy poked her stomach gently where her injury had once been. Even though the warm tingling feeling had subsided, nothing felt out of the ordinary with her insides. “I think I’m alright…” She smiled brightly as her strength was returned to her. “Thank you so much, Tom.” She said while looking up at the human with a grateful expression. Her joy swiftly turned to concern as she noticed how much the boy was struggling to catch his breath.
“Are you ok, Tom?” Applejack asked with a worried expression.
The human groaned heavily as he got up from the floor. “I’m fine… I just need to… *Pant*… get my strength back.” He explained reassuringly. “I should be alright by the time we make it back to the others.” He added, looking toward the way he came with his flashlight.
“Yeah… I think it’s about time we headed back. Don’t you two agree?” Fluttershy asked lightheartedly while turning to her two friends. The two mares shared a chuckle with the pegasus before nodding.
“Definitely… I am sick of this place already.” Applejack stated in agreement.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here already… it smells like burnt bear.” Rainbow Dash cringed as she inhaled through her nose. The others cracked a smile and joined the cyan pony as she started walking back through the cave.
Twilight and her three companions searched around the undiscovered portion of the cave they had found. While their curiosity had peaked ever since entering un-treaded territory, they were quickly growing frustrated with the lack of progress they were making.
Aside from one or two scrap pieces of wood or metal, there weren’t nearly as many signs of debris from the old amusement park in the relatively smaller space. The ceiling was much closer to the ground than most other places in the cave, making it seem like a more cramped area despite it actually being fairly large. Still, there was nothing but rocks and darkness as far as their limited view could see ahead of them.
Pinkie Pie looked ahead to the purple unicorn and audibly sighed. “Twilight… I don’t want to sound like I don’t believe your visions… but are you sure that Dream Catcher guy fell down here?” She asked with an exhausted tone.
Twilight turned to look at the group behind her. Glitterball and Sparkplug were just as tired of walking around and finding nothing as their pink companion, and the unicorn couldn’t blame them. “I know what I saw, Pinkie. He’s down here somewhere…” She trailed her eyes back ahead, trying to remain optimistic.
“Ok… but what if his body got buried under a ton of rock? For all we know we might not even be able to reach him, let alone find him.” Sparkplug considered, further dwelling on just how pointless the search seemed at this point.
“That may very well be true,” Twilight replied. “But we have to keep looking. Even if we don’t find his body, we need to make sure that we’ve exhausted all of our options. If we can’t find those remains, then it will be a lot more difficult for Glitter and the others to get rid of the ghosts.” She turned toward the other unicorn sympathetically.
Glitterball looked down and frowned as she began to think about what else they could do about the ghosts. Without their equipment, and without a surefire way to track the ghosts down once they were forced out of whatever body they were inhabiting, they were essentially up a creek without a paddle if they couldn’t find the remains and burn them.
As they continued walking through the blackness, they gradually saw something coming into view up ahead.
The expanse of rock formations and stone floors came to an end at a pile of rubble and another wall.
The rubble seemed to be from some larger building, and it seemed relatively intact. The whole structure was upside down, and it was crumbling in on itself in many places, but it looked like someone could get inside and have a bit of room to walk around. There were many openings in the walls, and the windows also allowed for a way inside.
Sparkplug shrugged while noting the closed off area around them. “Well… it looks like we've hit a dead end.”
“Not necessarily,” Glitterball said. “It looks like we could take a look in that building. Maybe we can find something in there?” She mused, trying to remain optimistic.
“I don't know about that… That place it looks like it could come down on top of us at any minute.” Sparkplug added while scrutinizing the ruins warily.
Twilight examined the far off building curiously. The gray mare’s concerns were well founded from just looking at the integrity of the walls.
“It's worth checking out, just to be safe.” Twilight concluded.
Sparkplug cringed apprehensively while eyeing the pile of rubble. “I don't think safe and that thing go together in a sentence.”
Despite any initial hesitations they might have had about the ruined structure, the ponies approached it, looking around and sizing up any entrances they might have had. Many of the openings were either too small or blocked by debris from the inside. However, a few of the windows had broken open even further, allowing easy entry.
Twilight peered in through one of the openings and looked inside. Much of the space inside was cluttered by debris, but much of the floor was traversable. As she glanced up, expecting to see some crumbling remnants of a ceiling, she was surprised to see that much of the roof- or perhaps it was the floor? - was absent, leaving a gaping hole that looked up into the cave above.
“Huh…” Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously. “Doesn’t look like there’s much of anything to come down on top of us,” She climbed through the hole, turning and looking back at the others. “Come on in.” She motioned with her foreleg toward the inside.
Pinkie Pie was the first to join the purple mare, eagerly crawling through the opening. She was followed by Glitterball, and then Sparkplug. Soon all four mares were standing inside of the twisted remains of the ruined structure.
Glitterball kicked over a smaller piece of wood lying on the ground, taking a look around. “Not so sure about our chances of finding anything here anymore.” She flattened her ears and sighed as she saw nothing but piles of rock, wood, and scrap.
“Yeah… right there with you.” Twilight admitted hesitantly. “Still, we’re already here, so we might as well check the place out.” She shifted her expression to a resolute one and tried to focus on the task at hand. The others shrugged and nodded before spreading out around the area and searching the building.
The four mares searched through every nook and cranny they could reach. Many of the rooms were blocked off, or at least weren’t easy to get to. Still, they were thorough in their inspection.
Twilight was exploring around one of the rooms on the first floor. Glitterball was in sight, standing through the doorway to her rear. Sparkplug was near the back of the structure, searching through the small section of the upper floor that was present and accessible. Pinkie was somewhere up ahead on the first floor, though the purple mare hadn’t seen her in a little while, only managing to keep in contact through speech.
Walking over a pile of rocks and looking around a destroyed counter of some sort, Twilight scanned for any signs of yellow. She wasn’t even sure if she believed that anything could be found in the cave, let alone where they were right now. At this point, she was starting to think that Dream Catcher’s body had either fallen into a chasm or gotten stuck between some rocks.
“Anything look promising?” Glitterball asked, walking into the room and up to the other unicorn.
Twilight sighed through her nose and shook her head while turning to the white pony. “Nope… nothing.” She reported, feeling a little less than enthused.
“Right…” Glitterball paused and frowned briefly before clearing her throat. “Maybe Sparkplug is having some luck?” She suggested, looking toward the section of the upper floor that the gray pony was searching.
“I doubt it. She said that there wasn’t much up there last I checked. I don’t think much of the furniture in this place survived the quake.” Twilight said, growing more disheartened and frustrated by the minute. “Who are we kidding? We’re not going to find those remains. I’m starting to think we aren’t even going to be able to beat the ghosts another way. Ugh… what are we going to do?” She asked, not really expecting an answer. The white mare beside her wasn’t sure what to say to reassure her, not that Twilight could blame her.
“Hey, guys!” Pinkie Pie’s voice called from somewhere off in the building. “Get over here, I think I found something!” She announced urgently. Although the pink mare was usually energetic, she seemed to be really excited by whatever it was she found.
Twilight and Glitterball shared a brief glance with each other. They felt a slight smile building on their faces before they both rushed to go find their pink friend. The two unicorns winded around the many blocked off paths through the ruins, making their way toward the back of the structure.
As they neared where they thought they heard Pinkie from, they met up with Sparkplug, who had also come running to see what the party pony had discovered. The trio walked through another doorway until they paused as they spotted Pinkie standing ahead of them, looking away at something else.
“We’re here, Pinkie… what did you find?” Twilight asked curiously, slowly walking up to the pink mare while catching her breath slightly. Pinkie pointed ahead with her foreleg, though the others could already see what she was referring to. The unexpected sight made them pause mid-stride and look ahead with stunned expressions.
Over at the back of the room, lying atop a pile of rubble, there was an aged mascot suit. Of course, this suit was special. It was a yellow rabbit, slightly resembling the other Bonnie suit if it had teeth and eyes. The sections of the suit were bulkier than regular costumes, and the pieces connected to each other more closely, almost like they were stuck. It was almost completely deteriorated, with its fur dirtied and faded beyond recognition by the ravages of time, and a heavy covering of dust and debris.
Twilight and the others stared at the suit silently. Their initial excitement quickly shifted to mild disturbance and unease. Inside of the costume limply sprawled out on the ground was the dead body of a stallion, and not just a regular stallion, a stallion that had kidnapped and murdered numerous children.
“Did I do a good job?” Pinkie asked with a giddy smile, taking pride in showing off her discovery to her friends.
Twilight opened her mouth to chuckle, but the sound died out as she stared at the sight in front of her in disbelief. “You did a lot more than a good job, Pinkie.” She smiled widely. The pink pony seemed satisfied with her job well done.
“So that’s the guy…” Sparkplug spoke, a slight somber inflection to her voice. The gray earth pony was still processing every tragic event that she had learned about, and now she was standing in front of the one responsible… or at least his corpse.
“It’s… just a body. Dream Catcher died seventy years ago.” Twilight reminded everyone, including herself while shaking the unnerving thoughts from her head. “Still… I wonder what he’s doing here? This place doesn’t look anything like the building I saw him die in.” She wondered curiously while noting the different building. The yellow rabbit seemed incredibly out of place. It wasn’t even really buried under anything, instead only sitting on top of some rubble. She expected it to look more worse for wear considering it went through an earthquake and sat in an underground cave for seven decades.
“Who cares how it got here? Let’s just grab that pouch and burn it. The faster we get rid of the ghosts, the better.” Glitterball suggested eagerly.
Twilight nodded, turning to the yellow suit with a serious expression. “Right…” She stepped forward, her expression falling as she drew closer to the rabbit.
As she slowly walked over to the costume and looked down at it, a disquieting feeling of hesitance washed over her. Although the lack of a rotten smell indicated that the body was most likely a skeleton by this point, it was still skin-crawlingly disturbing to even look at it.
With her friends watching from behind, Twilight knelt down and examined the suit. The area where the neck met the chest piece was very tightly put together. She wasn’t sure if that was how the suit was designed, or if that was a side effect of the mechanical parts within breaking off and snapping shut. Even through the holes in the suit, she couldn’t see any signs of the pouch, and she didn’t want to look too closely at those for fear that she might see something else.
“Ugh… I feel so wrong doing this. I know he was a terrible person and all, but technically this is body desecration.” Twilight cringed with disgust while rooting around with her hoof, trying to find a way to reach into the suit. She could feel a thick layer of grime covering the costume, and she shuddered to think of all it might have been. In all likeliness, she was touching the remains of seventy-year-old dry blood.
“Just…” Sparkplug paused, trying to find something helpful to say behind her slight revulsion. “Just think of it like an animatronic.”
Twilight nodded sporadically, averting her eyes while still groping around the suit. “Right… an animatronic.” She parroted while trying hard to suppress the skin crawling sensation she was feeling.
“Yeah… it’s just an animatronic. With wires, and oil… and… *gulp* an endoskeleton… oh, princess… I think I’m gonna barf.” Sparkplug paled slightly as she dwelled on the thoughts that everyone else was trying to avoid.
“Not… helping… Sparkplug.” Twilight suppressed a shudder, focusing on the task at hand. Finally, she shrugged with frustration as she failed to find an opening in the suit. “Dangit… there’s no way inside large enough to find the pouch and get out.” She stepped back and wiped her hoof on the relatively clean floor.
“Hey, you said that he died from some metal parts snapping inside of the suit, right?” Pinkie Pie asked with a thoughtful expression.
“Umm... yeah,” Twilight replied, unsure of what her pink friend was thinking of.
“Well, what if the pouch got stuck inside some of the parts? It would probably be really hard to get it out if that were the case.” Pinkie suggested, somehow able to skirt over the gruesome thoughts implied by her words.
Twilight glanced down to her hoof and held it up with a disgusted expression. “Pinkie, you couldn’t have brought that… rather simple deduction, to my attention before I started touching the dead body?” She asked with an agitated tone, partially towards the pink mare, and partially towards herself for not thinking of the same thing.
“Sorry… I figured you had something in mind when you volunteered to be the one to get the pouch out.” Pinkie responded, shrugging her shoulders with a sympathetic expression.
“So what’s the plan now?” Sparkplug asked curiously.
“Well…” Twilight stepped away from the body while thinking, the others following close behind. “We could just burn the whole body… can’t believe I didn’t try that first.” She suggested, looking to the others for their opinion.
Glitterball brought a hoof up to her chin pensively. “I don’t know if we could get it to burn up as well as we would need. There are presumably a lot of metal parts in there to get between the fire and the pouch. And… for all we know the suit could be fire retardant.”
“That is a good point.” Twilight exhaled while struggling to think of a solution. “Maybe we should try pouring some oil on it? I’ll bet if enough flammable liquid seeps in through the holes in the suit, the pouch should burn up along with everything else.” She thought out loud with an intrigued expression.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was staring at something else while the others were still gathered in a circle. “Uh… guys?” She spoke up timidly, though her question was lost on deaf ears as the others were still formulating a plan.
“That sounds like it might work. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring any oil with us.” Sparkplug’s eager expression deflated slightly.
“We’ll just have to head back and get some, then.” Glitterball stated in a matter of fact way.
Twilight nodded in agreement. “Of course… we already got the hard part out of the way. It’s not like this guy is going anywhere.”
“Guys!” Pinkie raised her voice urgently, garnering the attention of the three mares. They looked ahead to see her staring at them with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong, Pinkie?” Twilight asked with a concerned expression.
The pink mare merely pointed behind the group with a fearful look in her eyes. All at once, they heard a shuffling noise behind them.
The ponies turned around hesitantly, a sizable knot developing in their stomachs. As they looked behind them, they froze up and widened their eyes in shock. The rabbit suit was moving.
Twilight backed up slowly as she watched the pony suit on the floor stirring. The yellow mascot made stiff and uncoordinated movements as it groped at the floor with its legs and tried getting up. The purple unicorn mentally kicked herself as the realization dawned on her. There was a reason why the mascot wasn’t anywhere near the shed he fell with, and that it was just sitting out in the open, surrounded by other things that got buried under rubble.
“Of course… Dream Catcher’s body is still in there. His spirit must still be trapped here as well.” Twilight reasoned, a palpable sense of fear in her voice.
Gradually, the mascot managed to get to its feet. It shook and faltered, managing to move its jittery body to face the group of nervous ponies. The cracks in its mouth, along with its blocky teeth, formed into a permanent grin. Through the tiny holes in its eyes, a set of faintly glowing silver dots could be seen. Its body shook as a grating roar emanated from within. The noise held a slight distortion that indicated it being made by a ghost, but otherwise, it sounded organic like some poor dying soul was crying out from within its metallic prison.
“Umm… Twilight, I think now would be an excellent time to kill it with fire!” Glitterball suggested urgently while watching the animated corpse stepping closer.
Twilight glanced to the white unicorn before turning her attention back to the yellow rabbit, her eyes swimming with uncertainty. Finally, she shifted her expression to a serious one and pushed her fears aside. “Alright, stand back!” She instructed while taking a step forward and charging up her horn. The others watched as the purple mare lowered her head and prepared to fire a blast of fire magic at the possessed suit.
Twilight’s horn buzzed as she focused her magical energies. The sparks forming at the tip intensified until a solid flame appeared. She aimed her attack and planted her feet, fully prepared to incinerate the walking corpse.
Before the unicorn could discharge her spell, however, something happened to interrupt her; something, in this case, being an invisible force sending her flying backwards at an alarming speed.
“Wh-AHH!” Twilight yelped fearfully as she was flung through the air. Her body smacked into the wall behind her and kept going, crumbling the already fragile structure and sending her crashing into the next room.
“Twilight!” The others exclaimed in shock as they watched their friend getting propelled into the next room. As the purple mare smacked to the floor with a painful grunt, the three ponies rushed to gather by her side.
“Oh my gosh, are you ok?!” Pinkie asked in a panic while watching the dust settling from the unicorn’s impact.
Twilight groaned softly while sitting up. Her back was sore, and her head had seen better days, but otherwise, she was unharmed. “What the… hay… just happened?” She muttered while holding a hoof to her head gingerly.
“You totally just went through a wall!” Sparkplug stated, pointing out the obvious lack of a wall between the two rooms.
“I think she gathered that, Sparkplug.” Glitterball said while helping the purple pony to her feet.
The ponies looked ahead to see the decayed rabbit suit staggering towards them. Despite its slow pace and stiff movements, it held a very menacing air about it as it stared holes into them with its eyes.
“I didn’t think these ghosts could toss people around like that. None of the other animatronics could do that.” Twilight noted, still feeling a few twinges of pain from her brief flight.
“Maybe this one is different somehow?” Glitterball reasoned uneasily while standing in front of the others protectively.
Twilight walked up beside the white mare and squared off against the approaching threat. “Let’s try this again…” She lit up her horn, pointing it at the mascot same as before. This time, however, she wouldn’t give the ghost as much of a chance to fling her away before she could cast her spell.
With an orange flash, a burst of fire shot out of Twilight’s horn and zipped through the air. The ball of flames collided with the rabbit suit, staggering it backwards a step as the fire exploded outwards. The spirit within let out a painful outcry that nearly made the four mares’ ears hurt.
Twilight and the others smiled triumphantly as they watched the flames flickering on the suit. Although the area affected was small, it would spread soon enough and engulf the entire costume inside and out.
Suddenly, a violent gust of wind surged through the room, seemingly coming out of nowhere. The wall of focused air blew the ponies’ hair over their heads and nearly knocked them off balance. The wind surged forward, hitting the burning mascot and snuffing out the flames spreading across its body.
“What the hay?!” Sparkplug exclaimed with a startled expression.
Pinkie Pie’s jaw nearly dropped at the sudden upset. “That’s not fair! He can’t just do that… it’s cheating!” She said, turning to the others with an appalled look on her face.
Dream Catcher, or whatever spirit inhabited his body, let out another bellowing cry. The very walls of the building around them seemed to shake with the yell. The ponies quickly grew alarmed as they realized that the walls were indeed shaking.
“What’s happening?!” Glitterball asked in a panic. She struggled to steady herself as the shaking intensified.
Twilight looked ahead to the angry spirit. It didn’t seem to be having any trouble with the ground trembling beneath it. “I t-think the ghost is more powerful than we thought. We… s-should probably get out of here!” She suggested urgently. With how much the area was shaking, the walls around them could topple over and crush them.
The other mares had no objections with following the purple unicorn as she bolted toward the other direction. They looked back as they left the room to see the yellow rabbit stomping after them at a surprisingly fast pace.
Twilight did her best to wind through the path back to the entrance as fast as Equinely possible. As she slid to a stop to make a turn, she looked behind her to see her friends running along with her. Another droning yell erupted from behind them, indicating that they were still being followed by the creature.
Somehow, the ponies managed to escape the ruined building and shot out into the cave. They continued running for their lives, stumbling over the rocky outcroppings on the floor and racing to gain as much distance from their pursuer as possible.
As they neared the opening out into the discovered portion of the cave, their hearts were all pounding in their chests and their lungs were burning. The shaking had stopped some time ago, and they hadn’t heard any noises since they left the ruins. Still, they ran up to the hole in the wall urgently and gathered in front of it.
Twilight panted heavily while turning around and scanning the area behind them. As she had suspected, there was no sign of the yellow rabbit anywhere. “I… *Wheeze* I don’t… think it’s following us any… anymore.” She said in between breaths.
Satisfied that the purple mare’s observation was correct, the others took a moment to sit and rest. Sparkplug took off her hat and used it to fan herself while leaning up against the wall. Pinkie Pie was breathing heavily with a drained expression, using Glitterball as a support to lean on. Glitterball was exhausted too, but she managed to quiet her gasps for air while her companions looked like they were about to pass out.
“What… ugh… what do we do now?” Glitterball asked with an uncertain expression. She contemplated calling her teammates, but perhaps it would be better to go to them rather than asking for help.
Twilight pondered the matter for a moment in between catching her breath. Finally, she turned to the others and inhaled once more to reset her breathing. “I think we need to head back to the others and let them know what happened. We can come up with a better plan once everyone is on the same page.” She suggested while leveling with the others. They seemed to have no idea about what to do as far as beating the ancient mascot suit was concerned, and she wasn’t faring much better at the moment.
“I… *Pant*… I like that plan. That sounds like a good plan.” Sparkplug nodded with a content smile plastered on her face.
Pinkie Pie nodded slowly, still having trouble with calming her breathing and racing heart. “What she said… Just… please, no more running.”
“Alright…” Glitterball smiled softly while getting up and gently pushing the pink mare off of her. She started making her way through the small opening in the cave wall. Once she was on the other side, she motioned for the others to follow her. “Let’s get moving.”
The others quickly moved to start crawling through the hole. Pinkie Pie went first, and then Sparkplug. Twilight lingered while the other two ponies made their way through to give them light. Once all her friends were on the other side, the purple unicorn ducked and walked forward. She paused before arriving on the other end, turning and giving one last look toward the distance. Somewhere out in the darkness, the key to their freedom was waiting, and Twilight was determined to make sure that everyone made it out of the cave in one piece.
Back at the central area of the cave, Sunspot and Glimmer Shine were waiting anxiously for their friends to return. It had been a few minutes since Tom called ahead with the news that he had found the three mares and defeated the inhuman spirit. While the pair was confident that the human and his group would be fine, they hadn’t heard anything from Glitterball since she had begun her search with Twilight and the others.
Sunspot paced back and forth uneasily, her eyes shifting around as she muttered to herself in thought. The yellow stallion was watching her from a short way away; dealing with his concerns internally as he patiently waited and watched either of the two paths out into the cave.
“Relax, Sunspot. I’m sure Glitter and the others are fine.” Glimmer Shine spoke up, tired of the exhaustion by proxy he was getting from watching the pegasus wearing a hole into the floor.
Sunspot glanced over to her companion and briefly paused. “Why hasn’t she called us then?” She asked with a hint of paranoia in her voice.
Glimmer shrugged and rolled his eyes before flashing a reassuring smile. “She probably hasn’t found anything worth reporting. You need to stop worrying so much about things.”
“How can you not be worried about things? We’re in a haunted cave looking for dead bodies to burn so we can un-haunt the cave. There’s like a million things that could go wrong.” Sunspot replied, continuing her routine of pacing and staring off into the distance.
“I am worried… You’re just, like… a smidge too worried for your own good.” Glimmer Shine said.
Sunspot made an attempt at staying still and relaxing. She made it around fifteen seconds before fidgeting her hooves uncomfortably. Finally, she gave up and continued walking around. Glimmer Shine shrugged and turned away from the pegasus. He was tired of watching her driving herself up a wall, even if he understood where she was coming from.
Suddenly, a light from across the left bridge caught Sunspot’s eye. She squinted for a moment while the light drew closer. Soon enough, she could start to see the familiar shapes of four ponies approaching from the distance.
“Hey… check it out!” Sunspot spoke up eagerly, gathering the attention of her yellow companion.
Glimmer Shine looked off into the distance and noticed the four mares walking closer. “See? I told you they were fine.” He smirked wryly while glancing to the pegasus from the corner of his eye. Sunspot shot him an unimpressed look before walking over to the bridge to greet the group once they made it back.
As they made it over to the bridge and started crossing, the four mares smiled when they saw the pair waiting for them.
“Hey, guys!” Glitterball walked up to her two teammates and happily gave each of them a brief hug.
Sunspot looked around at the group, smiling brightly. “Glad you all made it back alright.”
“Believe me… we are just as glad as you are.” Twilight added with a relieved sigh.
“I take it you found something?” Glimmer Shine asked with a guarded sense of curiosity.
“Yeah, you could say that…” Glitterball replied distantly, looking around the area in search of something that wasn’t present. “Hey, uh… where are the others? Are they still out searching?” She asked.
“They’re on their way back right now.” Glimmer explained before shifting his attention elsewhere. “How about you tell us what happened with you guys while we wait for them?”
The four mares looked at each other with uncertain expressions, seemingly trying to delegate how to divulge the information they had. Finally, Twilight cleared her throat and spoke up. “We found what we were looking for.” She explained, her eyes strangely holding a hesitant look in them despite the seemingly great news she was dispensing.
“You mean you found the remains?” Sunspot asked eagerly. Her excitement only doubled as the others nodded. “That’s great news! Were you able to burn them?” The pegasus probed, completely unable to read the shared expression of hesitancy between the four ponies.
“Umm, not… exactly,” Twilight elaborated with a nervous smile. Her expression fell as she decided to stop beating around the bush. “We found Dream Catcher’s body, but we ran into a problem before we could try to burn it.”
“Problem?” Glimmer Shine repeated the unicorn’s statement with a confused tilt of the head. “What kind of problem?”
“It woke up…” Twilight finished with a blunt delivery. The others nodded with similar expressions of unease on their faces.
“Oh… that kind of problem,” Sunspot’s excitement all but vanished. “Well… at least we found out where he is. It shouldn’t be too hard to light him on fire, right?” She asked, chuckling nervously at the blank frowns she was seeing. “Right…?”
“Normally? No, it wouldn’t… but this ghost seems to be a lot stronger than any of the others we’ve found thus far. It has a very powerful control over telekinesis and other abilities you might see a ghost using.” Glitterball explained, a troubled tone to her voice.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Glimmer Shine shrugged uneasily.
Pinkie Pie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it tossed Twilight through a wall like she was a hoofball!”
“Ugh… don’t remind me, Pinkie.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head tenderly.
“Yikes… through a wall?” Sunspot cringed sympathetically for the purple unicorn. “Are you alright?”
“To be fair, it was a really old wall. It might as well have been made out of cardboard… still didn’t feel too good. That thing really had some oomph behind it.” Twilight explained. “I was trying to light it on fire when it threw me. I tried a second time and actually landed a hit, but it must have made a gust of wind blow through and snuffed out the fire. I think it has a very good sense of self-defense.”
“We ran out of there as fast as we could… Figured it would be better to come back here and plan things out with you guys.” Glitterball added.
“Good thinking. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.” Glimmer Shine said with a smirk of admiration. “Speaking of which… how do we go about taking care of this?” He asked while looking around, open to suggestions from anyone.
“Well, if we’re all fine with the assumption that the pouch of hair is still inside of the suit with Dream Catcher, all we need to do is find a way to light him on fire without him being able to put it out.” Sparkplug pondered out loud. “Twilight had a pretty good suggestion earlier. We could douse the suit in oil and then roast him like a marshmallow.”
“Hmm… toasty.” Sunspot cringed slightly at the thought of burning a dead body.
“Morbidity aside, that does sound like a good idea. It would be much harder for the ghost to put itself out before the fire destroyed the remains that way. But… if it is so powerful and aware of its surroundings, it would probably be able to deflect anything it sees coming at it.” Glimmer Shine added while thinking about the matter further.
Twilight glanced back toward the bridge behind her, her eyes drifting upward. As she looked at the many rocky outcroppings along the cave wall, she grinned slightly as a plan started formulating in her mind. “I think I might have an idea.”
Tom walked through the darkened cavern with the three mares he rescued earlier trailing behind him. Everyone was eager to be reunited with their friends, and they were hopeful that the others were having more luck than they were in finding something useful.
The human looked ahead, spotting some lights in the distance. “I think we’re almost there.” He announced to the ponies behind him. The others sighed with relief as they saw the familiar sight of the flat clearing.
Fluttershy smiled warmly as her thoughts turned to her other friends. “I’ll be glad to be back together again… especially after everything that just happened.” She trailed her eyes down nervously and suppressed a shudder as she pictured the yellow bear suit.
“I don’t know, Fluttershy… you handled yourself pretty well back there.” Rainbow Dash said while looking to her fellow pegasus with an impressed smirk.
“R-really? You think so?” Fluttershy asked bashfully.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Think so? You were totally awesome, Flutters! You jumped on that creep without so much as a moment of hesitation.”
“Yeah… you saved our hides if you ask me.” Applejack added, eager to give the timid mare the praise she deserved.
Fluttershy looked away and put a hoof up to her mane, her cheeks flush and a small grin on her face. “I don’t know about all that… I was just trying to help any way I could.”
As they approached the stone bridge leading over to the flat clearing, they could see the others busy doing something. The closer they got, the more confused they became by watching their friends. Glimmer Shine and a couple of the others seemed to be breaking down some of the rope barriers around the area. Twilight could be seen lifting a barrel of some sort high above her while Pinkie watched, and Sunspot and Sparkplug were somewhere in the background holding something.
Once she noticed the approaching group, Pinkie rushed over to them with eager excitement written on her face. And of course, once the pink mare got the ball rolling, the others gradually paused what they were doing to either walk over to them or look their direction cheerfully.
“Hey everyone,” Rainbow Dash greeted her friends before shifting her attention back to what they were doing. “Did we miss something?” She tilted her head in confusion while looking around at the various things that were going on around her.
“Twilight and the others found Dream Catcher’s body.” Glimmer Shine explained, briefly looking up from his seated position tending to some rope.
The cyan pegasus raised a surprised eyebrow. “Really? That’s great!”
“Unfortunately it woke up and started trying to kill us…” Twilight added while attempting to balance the barrel in her magical grip on top of a rocky ledge over by the leftmost bridge. “So, now we’re setting a trap for it so we can douse it in oil.” She paused anxiously as the barrel teetered on the edge. Thankfully, it settled into place as she let go of it.
“Ok, the barrel I get, but what is all of this other stuff for?” Applejack asked while pointing out all of the commotion going on back toward the tents. It was hard to make out what the two mares were doing, but Sunspot and Sparkplug seemed to be fiddling around with many small jars and other containers. Not to mention whatever it was Glimmer Shine and the others were doing.
Twilight made sure that the barrel was secured up on the ledge before turning to her friends and preparing to break down her plan for them. “Well, as you most likely figured out, I plan on dumping that barrel of oil over Dream Catcher once someone lures him here over that bridge.” She nodded behind her. “As for what the others are doing. Glimmer Shine is stripping some rope so we can use it to distract Dream Catcher and hopefully hold him in place.”
“Makes sense,” Rainbow Dash chimed in with an understanding nod. “But what are they doing?” She asked while turning toward Sunspot and Sparkplug. The pair smiled and waved as they noticed the others looking at them.
“They are taking whatever oil we could spare from the barrel and putting it into separate containers. I would rather not put all of our eggs in one basket… or barrel, in this case.” Twilight said while glancing up at her handiwork. “Assuming my plan doesn’t work out, we’ll still have some containers of oil to throw at him.”
Applejack nodded while looking around with an impressed, and slightly confused, expression on her face. “Well… it sounds like you know what you’re doin’. How can we help?” She volunteered eagerly. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy seemed willing to help out as well.
Twilight briefly looked around to see how things were progressing. “Uh… you can go help Sunspot and Sparkplug with the oil. After they are done with that, we’ll still need more rope.”
“Roger that.” Rainbow Dash replied before quickly making her way toward the tents where the two mares were working. Fluttershy, Applejack, and Tom all did the same.
While everyone else was tending to their given tasks, Twilight briefly admired the sight of her friends working together. “Everything’s coming along nicely…” Her smile faded as she looked across the bridge behind her and thought about the yellow mascot suit and the body inside. “I hope this works.” She muttered to herself with a hint of unease in her voice. Finally, she turned and went to go help with preparing the plan that would hopefully lead them to victory, and freedom.