The Creature that Came to Ponyville

by Friendly Uncle

The Hunt

Part 5: The Hunt

A soft moan escaped Fluttershy's mouth as she snuggled up against her lover, held safely between his powerful forearms as his enormous hooves stroked her fur with exaggerated care.  His hot breath pulsed against her ear, and she giggled a little, knowing he was eager but content to hold her for as long as she wished.  She felt safe in his embrace, sheltered from all her fears.  He nibbled at her mane and she turned in his grasp, smiling widely and leaning up towards him for a kiss.

A bleached white skull stared down at her, its eyes sockets empty pools of darkness, its breath the spectral hissing of a cold wind rustling through its nostrils.

"Aaaaiiieee!"

Fluttershy awoke with a start.  Her mane was plastered to her face with sweat and she was gasping raggedly for breath.  That had been a bad one.  She hadn't had a nightmare like that since she was a filly.

"Just a dream," she breathed quietly, settling back into the embrace of the pony cuddled up behind her.

...wait.

Fluttershy managed a high-pitched squeak and her eyes slid downwards.  She was being held between two large black hooves attached to hairless legs covered in ridges of hard ebony skin.  Swallowing, she careful twisted around until she was face to face with a smooth featureless cowl and a set of lethal silver fangs.  The creature breathed, a long hissing sigh escaping the cage of its teeth.

That really wasn't any better.

"Scuttles," said Fluttershy quaveringly, "when... when did you get there?"

She'd named it last night after watching the way it moved, scuttling across the floor or walls or ceiling in quick bursts of motion instead of the steady gait that most ponies settled into when they walked.  Fluttershy didn't know if Scuttles understood her enough to answer to the name yet, but it did seem to know when she was talking to it, and she thought that it was getting the gist of what she was saying.  It also apparently liked to cuddle.

Scuttles seemed to still be sleeping, so Fluttershy gently extricated herself from its grip and stretched.  She had to admit, as offputting as the creature's appearance was, it was nice to have a large room temperature body to sleep next to.  It didn't seem to drool when it was asleep, either, so that was a plus.  It had taken her an hour of scrubbing last night to wash the saliva out of her fur.

She paused to study it again, and noticed something odd.  With the light hitting it at just the right angle, Scuttle's cowl looked almost translucent.  Looking closer, Fluttershy thought she could make out a smooth pale surface underneath the hard covering.  It was lined with black veins and a few inches back from the front of its muzzle were two black openings, like eye sockets.  Like the ebon nightmare had only a thin layer of shadow covering its skull and the empty, bottomless wells of its gaze.

Scuttles abruptly raised its head and swung it around, as if looking for something.  Fluttershy flinched, but just as abruptly the creature was on its hooves and rubbing its head against her flank, caressing her with its whole body.  She blushed and nuzzled back, careful not to poke her eyes on the creature's ridged exoskeleton.

Somepony knocked on her door.

"Oh! Oh, oh dear.  Scuttles?  Scuttles come back here.  No, don't... Scuttles!"

The creature was through her bedroom door before she could blink and by the time Fluttershy made it downstairs Scuttles was already pawing at her front door, hissing softly.  She quickly interposed herself between the creature and the door, giving Scuttles a firm but gentle shove away from it.

"Now now Scuttles, please?  I still can't be sure that you won't maul whoever's out there.  I'll introduce you to some other ponies soon, I promise."

The pony outside knocked again.  Scuttles made a low keening noise in the depths of its throat, but turned and scuttled away into the kitchen.  Fluttershy heaved a sigh and opened the door.

Twilight Sparkle had been just about to knock again and wound up stumbling forward a step, nearly stabbing Fluttershy in the face with her horn.  Both ponies hopped backwards with simultaneous squeaks of surprise.

"Oh, Twilight!  Hello!  ...what are you doing up this early?"

Fluttershy was a bit puzzled.  Twilight tended to stay up late reading, and was rarely coherent before noon, but the sun was only just rising and here the Unicorn was on her doorstep.

"We've... got a bit of a situation here Fluttershy," Twilight said quietly, gesturing behind her.  Fluttershy blinked as she saw Zecora, Nurse Redheart, Big Macintosh, and a hooffull of other ponies she wasn't familiar with standing a few yards away and looking nervous.  Her eyes widened as she noticed Big Macintosh had a heavy wood ax balanced over his shoulder, while several of the other ponies were also carrying more obvious weapons.  Fluttershy swallowed and turned her attention back to her friend.

"Twilight, what's wrong?"

"It's Applejack's friend," Twilight answered, "I'm afraid she's been found dead... Fluttershy, are you alright?"

The pegasus' eyes had widened even more than usual, and her usually buttery complexion had gone pale.

"I... I'm so... so shocked..." Fluttershy managed after a moment, her voice trembling, "where... where was she found...?"

Twilight reached out to place what she hoped was a comforting hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder.

"She was in the Everfree forest.  We think one of the monsters must have gotten her."

"Oh."

For the barest instant Fluttershy almost looked relieved.  Then tears suddenly sprang into her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks.

"Oh no.  Oh the poor thing.  Is Applejack alright...?"

"Rarity's looking after her right now.  Fluttershy, I'm very sorry, but we need to try and figure out what we might be dealing with.  Do you know much about the monsters in the forest?  Do you know what might have killed her?"

"I know about some of them," Fluttershy sniffed, "But I'm sure Zecora would know more about that than I would."

"She's completely stumped, Fluttershy.  I... I'm sorry, but we need to know anything you might know. She was killed by a large wound in her chest, and it... it bent her ribs outwards.  It looks like something inside of her punched a hole out of her body.  Do you know of anything that might have caused an injury like that?"

Fluttershy stared at her friend for a long moment, tongue tied in sheer horror.  After a moment, though, she managed to get ahold of herself and quickly shook her head to clear it, frowning as she searched her memory.

"I... I'm sorry Twilight that... that's just so awful... I've never heard of... well, no, I mean, I've heard of something similar to that, but...  Do you know what a botfly is?"

Twilight slowly shook her head.

"Okay, well... no, on second thought, you don't want to know.  The point is they can cause an eruption similar to what you're describing, but it would be on a much smaller scale.  It certainly wouldn't be enough to kill the pony.  What you're describing would have to be... much larger."

Twilight frowned.

"So we're dealing with some kind of giant insect?"

"I don't know.  Maybe?  I'm sorry, I don't really... deal with this sort of thing very often..."

Fluttershy looked like she was about to start crying again, so Twilight quickly darted forward and gave her a brief hug.

"It's alright Fluttershy, every little bit helps.  We're going into the forest now to look at where it happened.  Do you want to know if we find anything?"

"Yes, I should probably know... I'll go into town and call on Applejack while you're gone, maybe I can help somehow."

"I think she'd like tha-ack!?"

Fluttershy and Twilight both reared back in surprise as Angel suddenly hopped onto Fluttershy and then onto Twilight Sparkle's head, squeaking madly and waving something that looked like a wet plastic bag.  Twilight jerked her head away in surprise, dislodging Angel and breaking his grip on the object, which hit the ground with a splat.  Angel tumbled to the ground but was back on his feet in a second, continuing to vocalize frantically.

"Angel?" Fluttershy blinked, "What on earth is wrong with you?  What is this?"

"It... looks like some kind of animal skin?" hazarded Twilight, prodding the limp mass and trying not to be sick.

"Oh!  That must be Scuttles'!  I was wondering where it was."

Fluttershy was suddenly grinning widely, slipping a hoof underneath the skin and holding it up, examining it from different angles.  Twilight's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Scuttles?"

"Oh!  Yes, that's what I named the little creature I found yesterday.  He's molted already!"

"Oh really?" Despite herself, Twilight was fascinated, and gave the skin a closer look.  "You think it is some kind of large bug, then?"

"No, he has a lot of structures that are too consistent with an endoskeleton to be an arthropod.  He could be some kind of reptile with unusual skin structures, but he grew awfully fast for an ectotherm, so I think he's probably an entirely new class.  It's so exciting!"

"...yeah..." said Twilight, finally noticing that Angel was by turns making begging motions at her and pretending to attack something, all the while with a terrified expression.

"How... how big did he get?  Exactly?"

"Oh, he's gotten enormous!  He's bigger than I am now!"

"...what."

"Oh yes!  It's really incredible, but I'm a little worried he might be aggressive around other ponies, so I'm trying to keep him isolated for now.  I'll be sure to invite you all over to meet him... when... Twilight are you alright?"

Twilight's eyes were the size of dinner plates, and they seemed to be focused not on Fluttershy but on something just behind her.  Glancing backwards, Fluttershy blanched as she saw Scuttles' scythe-tipped tail waving behind her.

"Oh Scuttles, I told you to- Eek!"

Fluttershy let out a tiny scream as she felt the creature's enormous head slipping between her legs and underneath her body.  The startled pegasus rose upwards on top of its cowl as Scuttles slipped underneath her to snuffle curiously in Twilight's general direction, lips slowly peeling back to drip slobber on Fluttershy's doorstep and reveal shining needle-sharp teeth.

"... Fluttershy... are... are you entirely sure that you can handle this?"

"Oh, I'll be fine!" Fluttershy said as she pushed Scuttles out from under herself, flaring her wings to block it from view.

Angel facepawed.

"...well... alright... we... need to be going... are you sure?"

"It's fine, Twilight.  Thank you."

"Alright, goodbye."

"Goodbye, and good luck!"

Twilight quickly trotted over to the others, frowning.  Nurse Redheart was the first to speak up as she approached.

"Well?  Did she have any ideas?"

"She said it reminded her of something called a 'botfly'," said Twilight, falling into step with the other ponies as they headed for the forest.  "But those are apparently much too small to cause that kind of damage, so maybe what we're looking for is a larger variety?"

Zecora made a choking noise.

"Eeeugh," said Redheart, "botflies?  I hope not."

"Why?  What exactly do they do?"

"You don't wanna know."

"Was Fluttershy alright?" asked Big Mac, "She seemed kinna flustered about somethin'.  And it looked like she was floatin' at the end there."

"Fluttershy... has a new... pet," said Twilight carefully.  "It is... very unusual.  And I'm kind of worried.  But... if Fluttershy could stare down a dragon, and she did, then there's probably not much in the animal kingdom that could really threaten her if she knows what she's doing, which she usually does."

"I reckon so."

Back inside her cottage, Fluttershy let out a soft sigh and sank down to the ground with her back against the door.  Scuttles was immediately beside her, nosing affectionately at her face and making quiet hissing noises.  Fluttershy giggled and stroked its neck with a hoof for a few minutes.

"That's right, you are a good boy aren't you... so affectionate... maybe I'll invite Pinkie Pie over to meet you first?  I imagine you'd have a hard time hurting her even if you wanted to."

Scuttles didn't seem to give a darn one way or the other and, deciding that Fluttershy had apparently been nuzzled enough, turned to slink away to do whatever it did when it slunk away.  Fluttershy's smile slowly melted as she saw the thin strand of sticky drool still connecting her cheek to the creature's as it walked away.

"Oh, nerts."

-

Cloud Kicker came to slowly, a low groan escaping her lips as she gingerly shook her head.  The gray pegasus felt like her skull was made of wood, and the rest of her wasn't doing much better.  Her limbs wouldn't move, but she felt like he was upright... on her back legs, even.  What was holding her weight?

She gingerly opened her eyes, then blinked and looked around, ears lying flat along her skull as she saw where she was.  It wasn't the location that bothered her, it looked like she was behind a shed in a heavily wooded area, but she didn't remember how she'd gotten there.  The last thing Cloud Kicker could remember was walking home to ice a wing she'd sprained while helping to clear the sky, and then... nothing...

She wasn't a veterinarian, but Cloud Kicker was pretty sure that getting knocked unconscious for an extended length of time could cause brain damage.  She was going to have to see Nurse Redheart after this.  Trying once again to get her legs to move, Cloud Kicker looked down at herself to try and see what was going on.  Her breath caught in her throat as she saw her entire body covered up to the neck in what looked like some kind of slimy greenish cocoon.

"What...?"

Cloud Kicker bucked powerfully in her bonds, twisting and flexing her body as hard as she could.  She shook herself so hard the wooden structure she was cocooned to began to rattle, but even her powerful wings were helplessly pinned.  She paused, panting and letting her chin droop against her chest.

That's when she saw Roseluck.

She probably cursed, but even Cloud Kicker couldn't tell what she was trying to say over the sound of her own vomiting.  She could barely recognized Roseluck, the pony's entire body seemed to have been subsumed by the same kind of slimy mass that now held Cloud Kicker, her skin and fur taking on the same sickly green shade.  Her head was listing at an unnatural angle, eyes and mouth bulging open, lifeless, while her body had become horribly bloated.  Roseluck's torso swelled upwards into a round shape, vaguely translucent, that terminated into four lips like the folded petals of a flower.

"Oh... oh Celestia... is that what it's doing to me...? What..."

Cloud Kicker's eyes widened as the fleshy lips on top of the slimy mass began to twitch, peeling back to reveal layers of pale membrane.  Suddenly terrified, she rocked against her bindings again, desperately struggling to free herself.  She heard the cocoon begin to crackle, and her hooves gained a bit of slack, but she still wasn't anywhere near actually escaping when the corpse egg yawned open wide and disgorged an eight-legged nightmare directly into her face.

She only had time to scream once before crashing back into terror and darkness.

-

Spike awoke with a jerk.  Owloysius, perched atop the no longer sleeping dragon's back, pecked him firmly on the head and hooted loudly.

Spike's eye twitched involuntarily.

"You have two seconds to improve my mood."

Owloysius let out another hoot and gestured with his wing.  Spike blinked and looked up to see a roll of parchment lying in front of his snout.  Behind that was an enormous blackened mark on the wall, a distinctly avian silhouette of clean wall situated in the middle of it.  Spike grimaced and glanced back up at Owloysius, who was looking decidedly charred around the pinions.

"Whoops!  Heh heh, sorry there buddy.  Um, thanks for waking me up."

The owl hooted again and flew upwards, alighting on his perch and starting to groom.  Spike yawned, stretched, and stood up, grabbing the scroll as he did so.  Usually if Celestia sent him one of these while he was sleeping the spell waited until he was conscious before coming out, but she could force the transfer if it was urgent.  Knowing that, he decided it would be best to open it sooner rather than later.  It wasn't like Twilight didn't have him read her correspondence aloud all the time anyway- she wouldn't mind if he went ahead and gave this one a peek.

To my Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle,

Thank you very much for completing the task I set before you with such competence and alacrity!  You have done an amazing job, and your report is more than comprehensive enough for my needs.  I hope you took a well-earned rest afterward; I'm sure that you have pushed yourself a bit harder than absolutely necessary to complete the project in such a timely manner.  Luna also expresses her gratitude, and wishes to inquire as to what brand of coffee you prefer.

We were also rather surprised to hear of your friend Fluttershy's find, and I must admit to being somewhat concerned.  Neither Luna nor I have ever even heard of a creature akin to what you are describing, and since there are very few things in Equestria that I have not cataloged in the past millennium this is somewhat worrying.  I would like to study this new animal myself, and as difficulties at court prevent me from traveling to Ponyville to do so, I must request that you and Fluttershy transport it to Canterlot at your earliest convenience.  Please write me as soon as you know when you might arrive, or if you would like I can send some of my guards to transport you.

Do not worry overmuch- I am sure that whatever this beast is we can discover its origins and take whatever actions may be necessary.  I look forward to working with you on this very intriguing matter.

-Princess Celestia of Equestria

"The Princess wants Twilight to work on something directly with her?" said Spike, rolling his eyes.  "She might as well inject liquid happy right into her veins."

Owloysius hooted in agreement.

"Well, she won't be back from the Everfree Forest for a while... might as well finish my nap!  It's not like anything interesting is going to happen here in Ponyville in the meantime."

-

Rarity sighed as she trudged down the dirt road connecting Ponyville to Sweet Apple Acres.  Poor Applejack!  The distraught mare had been up nearly all night mourning Dollars to Donuts, and it was only after Celestia's sun rose that she'd been able to stop sobbing long enough to fall asleep.  Rarity was in rather poor shape herself; her eyes puffy from lack of sleep, mane disheveled, and her usually perky tail in a shocking state.  Still, all she could think about was how terrible Applejack must have felt to lose a friend in such a gruesome manner. Once she got home Rarity planned on taking only a very quick shower and a power nap before she headed back to the farm.  Applejack would need her when she woke up.

Entering Ponyville proper, Rarity started to trot, heading with purpose towards Carousel Boutique.  The unicorn would normally pause to greet any pony she met along the way, but today she simply didn't have the time.

"Oh, Rarity!  Just a moment please!"

Rarity paused on the threshold of her boutique and turned to see Bonbon heading her way, a small smile on her face.  Rarity froze.

"Oh, goodness.  Hello Bonbon.  I... you're probably here about that dress... I... oh dear..."

Bonbon's expression slowly turned into a frown as she approached.  Rarity grimaced.

"You said it would be ready today," said the tan earth pony, "but..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Bonbon!  I lost all track of time... oh dear this is so unprofessional of me!  It's alright, I've done most of the work already so if you can just give me a few moments I'll-"

The earth pony put a hoof on Rarity's shoulder, cutting her rambling short.  Bonbon smiled gently.

"I heard about what happened to Applejack's friend.  Have you been at Sweet Apple Acres all night?"

"Well... yes, yes I have..."

Bonbon craned her neck around to open her saddlebag and pull out a small paper package.  Rarity blinked as Bonbon turned and placed it in front of her hooves.

"I made some treats for you both.  Apple cinnamon sweet rolls."

Rarity's agitated expression instantly melted.  Tears sprang to her eyes as she used her magic to levitate the package.

"Oh my... I don't know what to say..."

Bonbon just smiled and turned to walk away.

"Just help Applejack feel better.  And don't worry about the dress, whenever you can finish it is fine."

Enormously touched, Rarity waved enthusiastically as Bonbon left, and then slipped inside, grinning hugely.  She was such a lucky unicorn to have friends that she loved so much and that cared so much for her in return.

Then Scuttles impacted with the fashionista at high velocity, and she went out like a light.

-End of Part 5