//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - Friends and Graves // Story: The Fiend that heralds Dark Skies // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Hours before Princess Luna entered the Dream Realm to hunt down Luminous Horizon, Applejack, Rarity, their younger sisters and Scootaloo were still sitting in one of the countless numerous lounge areas in Twilight’s castle. Rainbow Dash was worriedly looking Scootaloo over, having just caught wind of the event that morning. Fluttershy and Pinkie had arrived as well. Starlight Glimmer was absent, but she had opted to head to the Crystal Empire to help them defend themselves against the fiends with her magical abilities. Twilight herself was still sleeping in her room, recovering from the wounds she had sustained in her battle with Skeintooth. “Rainbow Dash, I’ll be fine.” Scootaloo said weakly, clearly not believing her own words. She was still horribly shaken by what she had been through, that much was clear as day for all to see. “I know, I know, just, ya know, gotta make sure.” Rainbow replied with a small, forced grin as she looked at Scootaloo’s neckline. There were small scabs in irregular patterns from where Skeintooth had clamped down before she fainted. “Let us be honest with ourselves, everypony.” Rarity cut in while looking disdainfully at her still very scarred forelegs. “None of us are doing particularly fine. We’ll recover, I’m sure, but... “ she went silent as Sweetie Belle snuggled into her, burying her face and trying to hide from the world in her big sister’s chest. “I just can’t believe you were all hurt so badly.” Fluttershy mumbled sadly, drifting from Applejack to study the long, still red line along Rarity’s side and shoulder from Skeintooth’s threats to Sweetie Belle. “Ah can’t rightly believe just how fast Big Mac and Ah went down. The thing was just… unnatural.” Applejack muttered her own thoughts, pulling her hat down over her eyes and pulling Apple Bloom closer. “Where is Big Mac, anyway?” Rainbow asked, looking to the farmer with deep seeded worry. “The varmint didn’t have Big Mac in the same pods as Rares and the rest of us. He was off in another location for some reason. Big Mac got out of his cocoon-thingy. He’s currently back at the farm, tendin’ to Granny.” Applejack replied, wincing. “I just don’t want you all to get hurt again.” Pinkie piped up with a frown and trembling lower lip, shifting uneasily in the chair she was sitting in. “I can’t stand it when you all aren’t happy…” Rainbow sighed tiredly. “Tell me about it…” A knocking reverberated throughout the castle. Everypony looked up for a moment before Spike went scampering by in the hallway. “I got it!” he called out dutifully. After a few minutes, he came walking back with a smile on his face. Behind him trotted Moonrise Drifter, Palmwood and Wonderboom. Drifter gave a friendly grin as she saw everypony. “Hey, everypony. What’d I miss?” “You missed a lot of our friends getting hurt and foal napped by a really big fiend.” Rainbow said bluntly, though the warm smile she was wearing was an indicator that she was happy to see the hybrid. Drifter, however, lost her smile. “Come again?” “Everypony here was abducted by some new fiend called Skeintooth.” Spike explained, looking back to Drifter with a small frown. “It, uh, wasn’t pretty as I understand it. But Twilight went and rescued them!” “And was grievously wounded in the process…” Rarity added under her breath, before smiling at Drifter herself. “It’s good to see you again, Drifter. I don’t think I’ve met the two foals with you, though.” Drifter smiled and gestured back to them. “To be fair, I didn’t introduce them the last time I was around you all. I wasn’t expecting them to still be with me.” she knelt down and pulled them both forward to say hi. “This is Palmwood, a little knucklehead with some strong opinions on romance and kissing and stuff.” she said, ruffling said colt’s mane with a teasing grin. Palm glared at her with a mighty pout. “Driiiifteeeerrr.” he groaned out in embarrassment from how she said that. “Eh, suck it up.” Drifter chuckled before playfully shoving him. She then turned to Wonderboom. “And this here is the little wonder of the group, Wonderboom. She’s a real sweetheart and also a master of getting on Palmwood’s nerves just as much as he gets on hers.” Wonder smiled at the room of ponies. “Hello, everypony!” “Well howdy.” Applejack greeted with a charmed smile. “Ah won’t lie, ah’m curious as to how y’all wound up travelin’ together.” Palmwood and Wonderboom shrunk back the moment Applejack said that and Drifter shot the farmer a stern look, shaking her head. “Let’s, uh, not go there, okay? It’s a sensitive topic for them…” Applejack flinched and nodded, putting up her hooves. “Sorry, mah bad.” “It’s okay…” Drifter sighed before giving the two foals a comforting squeeze. “Say, why don’t you two go and get to know the other fillies here?” “That sounds like fun. C’mon, Palm!” Wonder said before trotting over to say hi to Sweetie Belle. Palmwood trotted over to Applejack and Apple Bloom. Drifter simply smiled at them before looking at Fluttershy. “So, Twilight’s wounded?” “Um, yes, she’s hurt. She’s healing and will make a full recovery, but, uh, it’s gonna be a few days. The potions Zecora made can only heal so much so fast.” Fluttershy said morosely as she recalled the state the alicorn had been in. “I’m glad to hear she’ll be fine. I assume she’s in her room, then?” “Yes. Princess Luna just left about an hour ago. Twilight should be waking up in another hour or so.” Fluttershy replied with a timid smile. Drifter raised an eyebrow. “Luna was here just an hour ago?” “Um… yes?” “Wow. Poor timing on my part…” Drifter sighed and glanced up towards a small window at the top of the room, letting in a faint shaft of dimmed sunlight. “I was going to ask her about the state of the sun… do you know anything, by any chance?” Fluttershy only shook her head. “Hm… well, thanks anyway.” Drifter began to turn for one of the seats in the room, presumably to rest, when Fluttershy reached out and gingerly grabbed her by the shoulder. “Um… Drifter? Can I ask you a question?” She mumbled uneasily. Drifter glanced back at her curiously. “Sure.” “What… um, what happened to their parents?” Drifter’s ears fell flat and she sighed heavily. “They… their mother almost certainly died in the train we were using to evacuate Canterlot civilians in when the fiends attacked it. I don’t think they ever even knew their dad, so... “ “...Are you raising them now?” Fluttershy asked quietly but firmly. Drifter went stiff and gasped slightly in surprise at the suggestion. “I… I don’t… I guess I am, in a way.” Drifter said with a frown. “But I am not their mother. I never will be. I can’t replace her, either. We are all in agreement on that.” Fluttershy frowned deeply and glanced at the foals, all five in the room now seated in a circle and talking enthusiastically amongst themselves. She then turned back to Drifter. “Maybe not, but, um… Maybe you can still be like a mother for them. Ponies their age should not go without parents of some sort.” Drifter looked at Fluttershy with growing surprise at the firmness in her normally quiet voice. She then frowned and looked away. “I don’t know… I’m not really cut out for that. I live a pretty brutal and violent life.” “Then why are they still with you?” Drifter blinked and looked at Fluttershy with wide eyes. She then laughed quietly and pointed at Palmwood with a fond grin. “Because that little ball of spontaneous action and enthusiasm forced all of us to make a promise that we’d stick together.” “And you’re letting them stay with you?” Fluttershy pressed, then shrunk down a bit when Drifter looked at her with a hard look. “Oh, I’m sorry… I can just, uh, go away now, and uh…” “It’s fine, Fluttershy.” Drifter said solemnly. “But, yes. I’m letting them stay with me because they have nowhere else to go, and, well… they want to stay with me.” Fluttershy simply nodded and backed off a bit. “Okay… I just wanted to make sure they will be okay.” “You think they’ll be okay with me and the life I lead?” Drifter asked incredulously. Fluttershy simply nodded with a warm smile. “With how much you want to protect fillies and colts, yes. I don’t think there is another pony more suited to making sure they’ll be okay.” with that, Fluttershy returned to the rest of the group to check for more wounds. Drifter stood silently before turning and trotting quietly from the room. That night, Skeintooth prowled through the streets of Canterlot, drooling profusely and breathing rapidly at all of the wondrous, delicious smells of living ponies in the air. He whined pitifully as she passed under another window with ponies sleeping just beyond. It would be so easy to break in and feast upon them, but he knew that doing so would draw attention that he surely did not want to draw to himself. He rounded another corner of the alleyway, stopping briefly to smash his head into the stonework of the ground to crush a small bundle of flies that was starting to flit about his maw. He looked back up and then wiped the broken remains of dead insects from his face with a quick brush of his claws and a lick of his tongue. He shuddered in disgust. Insects were revolting to him. “Hey, who’s there?!” Skeintooth perked up and hissed instinctively before slithering swiftly back into the shadows of the alleyway. A lunar guard pony slowly trotted into the alleyway. He was a thestral, his eyes pulling in the images of the night as easily as daylight. He saw Skeintooth and swiftly reached for the sword sheathed on his shoulder. Skeintooth was far faster. Before the guard could even utter a sound, Skeintooth lunged forth and dug his coiled teeth into the guard's torso. The bat pony could only wheeze out a gasp as the teeth crushed his windpipe and ruptured his lungs on the way through his flesh. He fell, truly dead. With a gleeful shiver, Skeintooth dug in, devouring the first pony he had eaten for sustenance in several days. Soon, there was nothing but a pool of blood with shrapnel that was once his armor scattered around to show that their had ever even been a guard here. With new energy, Skeintooth shot silently through the alleys and streets, making his way to a very specific plaza. He felt his heart leap with joy as he found it. The statue of Princess Celestia, sculpted by the very finest of Equestria’s artists and masons, stood over the grave of the pony it depicted. Skeintooth grinned hungrily and stepped forth out of the shadows. At the foot of the great statue, he saw that there were etchings into the base. Celestia’s cutie mark stood in the center with the shapes and designs of her regalia and crown below and above it, respectively. With a small smirk, Skeintooth let his claws extend before bringing them down onto the pedestal, splitting the etchings of cutie mark and regalia down the middle. That done, Skeintooth dug into the stone, peeling it away until the coffin came into sight. It was a wonderfully well crafted item of bright silver with gold trimmings. The beauty and artistic value of the coffin was wasted on Skeintooth, who tore the box open at it’s center point. Princess Celestia’ corpse rested within, mostly decomposed. Her mane had gone grey and still, resting under her bones as if it were a cushion. What little flesh remained was brown and rotted considerably. All the same, Skeintooth merely needed the bones. With a quick snap of his jaws, he tore away the last piece of flesh on the old bones, chewing it and letting the grotesque slime of decomposition dribble onto the bones below. Then he set about devouring the bones themselves. He consumed her skull, her pelvis, three ribs and her spine before deciding he had enough material for his master. With a sadistic smile, the fiend clambered from the desecrated burial place and fled into the alleys. He would hide and wait. When Princess Luna saw what had become of her sister’s grave, her anger would draw her to pursue Skeintooth recklessly. That would be when he would get the sample of her flesh that he needed. With his smile widening with bloodlust, Skeintooth vanished into the night, waiting for the right moment to pounce and claim his prey.