"The Mare of the Rye haunts this road, I tell you." The lanky, light-green colt ogled the forest on the side with the same kind of distrust usually reserved for venomous snakes or, at least for another couple of years, fillies. "We should have gone along the river, it's safer."
The red colt, a massive pony shaped either by hard work or by stubbornness and a bad attitude, rolled his eyes. "That would take far too long. I don't want to waste the whole day. And there's no rye here, only woods and meadows."
"She only comes from the rye, and there are fields of it near Sottile's farm. Wouldn't be surprised if they summoned her. Can't trust unicorns." From the crown of the trees came a fluttering. The green colt jumped to the side letting out a squeak.
"Damn you to the icy wastes, Mint. Will you calm down?" The red colt huffed and stomped. "There's no Mare of the Rye, and I don't have all the day. Look—" he turned his head and rummaged in his saddlebags. A moment later he pulled out a rope knot made of three differently colored hemp-threads. "—I brought a Talisman of Concord. Now, will you finally calm down and let us bring the order to those damn cows? I have a mud battle with Sottile's blank-flanks to prepare, troops to rally, plausible deniability to put in place. That's tons of work."
Mint just stood there, mouth hanging open, eyes wide.
"What? I told you about it last week, we prepared for it. By the stars, you are so stupid it beggars belief. I have no idea why I even bother with you."
"Cl…Cl…Clay, the M…M…Ma…"
Clay gritted his teeth and turned around. "The Concord be my witness, if this is another of your—"
The thing stood in the shadows of the trees, just behind the border of the forest. It was vaguely shaped like a pony, but completely black. Dozens of eyes covered its surface, staring at the two colts, sometimes blinking.
The silence was oppressive. Clay's ears swiveled, but the only sound was the breeze ruffling the leaves. No bird sang, no cricket chirped. The subtle scent of decay reached his nostrils. It was weak, barely perceptible over the flowers and the grass of the meadows behind them, but it was there, and once noticed it stood out.
Clay gulped, then glanced at the talisman in his hoof. With a sudden jerk, he held it out in front of him, pointing the amulet at the thing. His leg shivered, behind him he could still hear Mint stutter incoherently.
The monster stood simply there, unmoving. Clay felt sweat form on his brow. A thick drop fell on his muzzle. It itched.
A white fleck appeared on the chest of the being. It slowly grew into a horizontal slit, then become wider and wider until a crooked grin had formed, almost going from shoulder to shoulder. It parted its lips, fangs glinted in the morning sun, and a growling sound came out. "Frrrreeeendzzzz."
The screaming had a hammer-like quality to it, shattering the silence like cheap pottery. The subsequent dust-cloud didn't do much to dampen it. The rapidly departing ponies, and the admirable speed they managed to keep, on the other hoof, contributed a lot more to re-establishing calm.
Celestia rolled on the moss holding her sides and laughing while Slimey poured off from her.
"That was a bit mean." Luna stood a couple of steps away and giggled. "They will have nightmares for weeks. That was too much."
"Ah, shut up. If you were worried then you shouldn't have given me the idea with the smile. That was a stroke of genius." Celestia crawled over to Slimey and hugged it. "And you heard Clay, they were coming at us again, with mud. Did you want to return tonight to Donna Copper Horn caked in dirt? I already had my bath two days ago, and I want it to be enough for at least another week."
Luna glanced at the thing pouring over Celestia's legs. "Baths aren't so terrible. And you get Slimey all over you, mud sounds a lot better than that. How can you stand it?"
"Slimey is pretty comfortable. You have no idea what you are missing." Celestia harrumphed and turned her nose upward. "And she doesn't even stink on the inside. She's warm and soft and I'm pretty sure she would be great to not get wet under the rain."
"No, thank you. I still think she's kinda weird. I like her a bit more, but not enough to put her on my head." The goo coagulated around Celestia's hooves. Luna pulled out her tongue. "I'm pretty sure Slimey is trying to clean out your frogs."
Celestia blinked and looked down at the black mass covering her fore-legs. A couple of eyes looked up at her, while a slight tingling ran up and down her coat. She snorted and smiled. "Maybe, she eats pretty much everything, so I'm not really surprised. She still likes honey-bread better."
"Everypony loves honey-bread. That's like a law of the Concord. I think. We should ask Master Sottile. And if it isn't a law it should be, because it foments agreement." Luna glanced over at the road. "What do we do now? I guess they won't attack today anymore, so we have a free evening."
Slimey crawled on Celestia's back as she stood up. "Well, I think we can get ready for when they will try that again. In the stories Garvino tells us he always says that good preparation wins the war and stuff."
Luna tapped her chin. "Are we at war with Clay? He is kind of a jerk, and I guess I would like to have him go home full of mud for once, but war sounds dreadful."
"I want the creek to play and to swim. He doesn't want us there. War is the only solution. Do you remember the scrolls Master Sottile made us translate from Minoian? Where it said that winning the battle of the mind means you won't have to fight the one on the field?"
Luna tried to raise an eyebrow. She had trained very hard to master it, and was sure that in a couple of weeks she would be able to do it and to express her doubt in the right way. For the moment she managed to imitate the dance of drunken caterpillars, but she felt she was on the right path. "Wasn't that how it was better to talk stuff out instead of fighting over it?"
Celestia snorted. "Yeah, if you are a quitter. But we aren't quitters." She turned her head and smiled at Slimey. "Don't worry Lulu, I have a plan."
Donna Copper Horn passed the brush over Celestia's back, raised it to eye's height and squinted at it. After a couple of seconds of silence, she smiled and put everything down. "Well, little Sun, I found no lice at all. Isn't that splendid?"
"So, no washing my coat with vinegar?" Celestia looked up to the minotaur.
"No, my little Sun, that won't be necessary." Donna Copper Horn turned to Luna. The filly was sitting in the corner, her hoof half raised toward her head, her eyes shifting left and right. "Tell me, little Star, does it itch somewhere?"
Luna glanced at the door and bit her lip. "N—no. No itch at all. No need for vinegar."
Donna Copper Horn patted Celestia on her back and moved the wooden stool a bit to the side. She called Luna with a gesture and said, "I shall be the judge of that. Now, come here and let me have a look. You know I won't hurt you."
Luna looked down and whimpered, "But vinegar burns."
"Only for a short while, and if there are no lice, then you won't have to worry about that, right?" Donna Copper Horn smiled. "Now, come here and let me see."
It was a dejected Luna that sat down in front of the minotaur.
After a couple of minutes Donna Copper Horn glared at the brush, then sighed. "I'm sorry, little Star, but it seems that you caught them."
Luna whimpered, then wiggled out from under the minotaur's hand and looked up, tears in her eyes. "I… I don't want to get the bath. And the comb hurts, and Willowbark's lotion stinks, and— and it doesn't itch that much. Maybe we can wait and they'll go away?"
"Hush, little Star, you know it has to be done. Lice can hurt the balance of Harmony in you, we can't have them infesting you. And it isn't so bad. You like it when Meadowsweet steams the blankets, right? They smell so nice and are so soft after she does, it will be nice to sleep in them tonight." Donna Copper Horn patted Luna on the head. "And you won't be alone, I will have to wash too. We can go into the bath together, and I can brush you after that." She leaned forward and whispered. "Only the two of us, it will be fun. You'll only have to stay away from your sister for a while. Just until tonight."
Luna sniffled. "That's not fair." She raised a hoof and scratched her head. "It burns and it hurts and I don't want to do it and Celestia hasn't to do it and it isn't fair."
"Well, I didn't get lice." Celestia blew a raspberry. "So it's only right."
Luna pointed her hoof at Celestia and cried, "Just because I don't want Slimey to go all over my fur. Your pet stinks and eats weird stuff and it's still unfair that I have to take the bath!"
Celestia glared at Luna. Luna huffed.
"Who's Slimey?"
Master Sottile was, without a doubt, one of the most knowledgeable ponies around. He was a doctor of law, he dabbled in medicine and alchemy, he was a wizard and a pretty good physiologist on the top of it. His grasp of philosophy and mathematics was second to none in the region, he spoke and read a dozen languages, and he had studied the great works of Zebrican naturalists and Minoian architects and mechanists.
And yet, despite a life dedicated to science, when the glow around his horn subsided, he still had no idea what the strange, horrible thing sticking to the wall of the cistern was.
"So, what are we dealing with?" Donna Copper Horn's voice was tense. Master Sottile glanced to his side and saw her opening and closing her fists around the large bronze mace she held. Her eyes were pointed forward, and he was pretty sure she refused to blink.
"I don't know. It is completely inert to every scrying spell I tried on it." He adjusted the lanterns and widened the illuminated areas. The thing clinging to the wall looked back at them, a black mass the size of a melon hanging like a mold on the bricks. A shudder ran down his spine. "If what you told me is true, it hasn't hurt the fillies, but I can't shake the feeling that it is dangerous. You did say it had fangs, am I correct?"
"Luna said it sometimes had them. It seems to change continuously." Donna Copper Horn sighed. "Celestia assured me that it was harmless. I love her with all my heart, but I fear her judgment, in this case, can't be fully trusted. Do you think that thing poisoned their minds?"
Sottile stepped forward and squinted at the being. "Difficult to say. Poisoning a mind usually leaves traces that can be perceived by those holding the victim dear. I didn't see anything strange in their behaviour—" He stopped and bowed his head to the side. "—anything stranger than usual. I think the only thing that changed in the past days is the times they came back covered in mud. It happened less often, right?"
"I think that depended on it not having rained in a week."
"That never stopped them before." He halted two lengths away. There was something in those eyes, some form of intellect observing him, evaluating him. Master Sottile sorely missed his staff now, it would have helped understanding it better. "Where's Garvino? I would have expected him being here to contain this creature."
"He is checking the rest of the farm and is assigning some guards to the wall. He suspects there may be more of these things." Sottile heard her hooves behind him. He also heard the worry in her voice. "I don't want that thing near the fillies. It reeks, and I have a bad feeling about it. I'm also sure it was the thing Celestia talked about last week when she was scared of something. How could I have been so blind as to think Old Scar frightened her?"
"We couldn't have guessed what truly happened." He raised a hoof and scratched his chin. "If I remember correctly, you told her that sometimes creatures behaved that way and that she shouldn't worry." His eyes followed a tendril hidden in the joints between the bricks. It disappeared in the darkness further down the wall.
"That was different. We are not talking about a cat here. By the Harmony, we are not even talking about a manticore. At least with that, we knew what we were dealing with."
The tendril pulsed briefly.
Maybe there was another way to examine the situation. Something more indirect. Sottile ignited his horn and felt the flow of magic around the thing. There was the underlying structure of the universe. His magic passed over the tapestry of reality and moved on. He stopped, there seemed to be some kind of creasing around the creature. He followed the contours of the deformation. It surrounded the being, roughly approximating the physical form. He moved further towards the center.
His pupils dilated, his mind stared into the void.
There.
Was.
Nothing.
Master Sottile screamed and stumbled back. The glow of his horn dissipated, and he felt his legs give out under him.
Two strong hands caught him, immediately followed by the sound of something metallic hitting the floor. "Master Sottile, are you alright? What happened?"
He closed his eyes. A deep breath. Another one. "I… I never saw something like that, and I hope I will never see it again. I do not know what that is, but we cannot risk it being near the fillies. We have to remove it somehow, even if I don't know how."
"No! You can't!"
Sottile's eyes shot open and he turned his head just in time to see Celestia and Luna pass him and run to the thing. He was about to open his mouth when Donna Copper Horn's voice thundered, "What are you doing here? I told you to stay with Fidelis!"
"You can't take Slimey away, she hasn't done anything wrong!" Celestia skittered to a halt in front of the wall and opened her forelegs. Luna stopped at her side and looked back and forth between her sister and the two adults.
The thing on the wall fell down and crept towards Celestia.
He could almost feel the floor vibrate as Donna Copper Horn thundered, "Celestia, you will leave this instant. That thing could be dangerous, and I won't allow you to endanger yourself or your sister."
Sottile could feel the hands holding him trembling. He gritted his teeth and stood straight again. "Listen to Donna Copper Horn. She only wants the best for you."
With a sweeping move, Celestia picked up the thing and turned her head to glare at him. "No! You are just afraid because you don't know anything about Slimey. She's sweet and she likes me and she isn't dangerous at all. Tell them, Lulu."
Luna bit her lip and looked at Celestia's pleading eyes. She nodded, then turned back to Master Sottile and Donna Copper Horn. "It's true. Slimey stinks and is creepy and she has too many eyes, but she never did anything bad to us. She didn't bite me even once. And she likes honey-bread!"
"Please be reasonable. We can't allow that—" Donna Copper Horn took a step forward, then halted when a row of fangs appeared on the thing.
Celestia seemed to ignore the implicit menace and simply hugged it harder. "You only say that because she's not a pony. If she was, you wouldn't say those things. She's my friend and I won't let you take her away."
"That is not true." Sottile scanned the room. There was some debris he could use as projectiles. "We are only worried about you."
"But if she was a pony you wouldn't simply take her away, right?" Luna's question cut like a blade. "Right?"
Master Sottile looked up to Donna Copper Horn, then back to the fillies. "We—"
Outside of the ring of light cast by the lanterns, in the nooks and crannies of the cistern, the shadows began to move.
Master Sottile whipped his head around and glared at the darkness.
"What is the…" Copper Horn's voice faded as a drop of pure black, barely larger than a pebble, crawled out from the darkness on her left on thin, spindly legs. It wasn't as much as walking as flailing its limbs around, proceeding on the floor in irregular skips and rolls, now falling forward, then dragging itself towards Celestia, Luna, and the creature.
The filly turned her head and asked, "Did you make little ones, Slimey? Are you a mom now?"
"I'm not sure, Tia. Don't they need to be in two to make something like that?" Luna squinted at the thing, just a step away from them. "But yeah, I guess they are kinda similar."
"Luna, Celestia, move away." Master Sottile's voice was barely a whisper. "Now."
Celestia looked up, then her eyes became as large as dishes.
All around them, the shadows flowed into the light. A black flood of scuttling, scratching, flailing creatures moved from all edges. Slithering out of cracks, dropping from the ceiling, it was as if the walls sweated them out.
Two massive hands shot forward towards the fillies. Master Sottile's horn lightened up and burned in an azure aura. Slimey pulsed.
A wave of un-light raced out, time slowed down, the sounds muffled.
For an instant, the cistern knew peace in immobility. Donna Copper Horn's face was frozen in a silent scream, her body leaned forward, arms extended. Celestia and Luna looked outwards, surprise painted on their muzzles. Master Sottile stood lower, teeth gritting, magic flames shaped like claws jumping forward from his horn. Slimey stood at the center of it all, its body bulging upwards.
When time recovered and decided to resume its due course, everything happened almost instantly.
The flood rushed forwards and collapsed on the goo and the fillies. Donna Copper Horn screamed as the mass submerged her, muffling her voice. A brief hiss was all Master Sottile's magic was able to accomplish before being extinguished.
Black encompassed the world.
As sudden as it started, it was over.
Light returned, Donna Copper Horn's scream resounded in the room as she stumbled forward. Master Sottile wavered, his magic dissipating as he brought a hoof to his horn.
Celestia blinked at the thing she was hugging.
Where the formless creature had been before now stood a shining, black column going from floor to ceiling. Its base resembled roots of a tree, and at half-height was a bulging mass, the surface corrugated and slowly pulsating.
"Slimey!" The anguished cry of the filly echoed through the cistern.