//------------------------------// // The Battle // Story: The Creature that Came to Ponyville // by Friendly Uncle //------------------------------// The Creature That Came to Ponyville A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction by Friendly Uncle Part 7: The Battle Dear Princess Celestia, This is Spike. I'm sorry for contacting you without Twilight's say-so, but she's not here right now and something's really wrong that we need some advice on. I don't think Twilight ever told you about Applejack's friend, Dollars to Donuts, who died a little while ago. Zecora found her in the Everfree forest with a big hole in her chest and Twilight and some other ponies have been trying to figure out what killed her because I guess the hole came out of her but there was no place for whatever did it to go into her, so they were all really confused. Anyhow, what you do know is that Fluttershy found this really weird animal that kind of looks like a snake that doesn't have any skin or eyes and she seemed to think it wasn't a big deal but I guess you're worried about it, and Applejack's REALLY worried about it because she's going to see Fluttershy about it right now. Rarity- You know Rarity right? White unicorn with a purple mane and jaw-dropping haunches? Most beautiful unicorn in the whole wide world? Element of generosity? Well she's missing, and it looks like something slimy broke into her boutique and now Applejack's really worried, and she says she doesn't think it's a coincidence that some kind of monster nobody's ever heard of showed up just as a bunch of ponies are turning up dead or missing. So Applejack's going to see Fluttershy and Twilight's still in the forest with Zecora and I don't really know what to do I'm really sorry to bother you like this but is there anything you can do to help? I'm scared and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are scared and I really don't want anything to happen to Rarity. Please say you can do something. -Spike - Owloysius grumbled softly to himself as he finished clipping the worst of the singed bits out of his plumage and settled back onto his perch. Finally, with that little bastard dragon out of the way, he could get some much-needed sleep. A soft hoot escaped the owl's beak as he closed his eyes and ruffled his feathers. Odd, he'd just groomed himself, but he felt strangely... greasy. Eyes opening, he looked around and realized that it wasn't just him, the air in the center of the library's floor was shimmering. A smell like burning tin assaulted his nostrils seconds before a sphere of white light erupted a few feet above the floor, blinding the owl briefly before coalescing into the form of a lavender-colored unicorn pony. "...who!?" Twilight Sparkle hit the ground and stumbled, her hooves getting in each other's way as she tried to run for the door and wound up running circles instead, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it. "Oh wow that hurts more than I thought it would. SPIKE HELP MY BRAIN IS FULL OF SPIDERSES! Spike? Oh great he's gone oh no what if the monster got him I gotta get to Fluttershy's...!" Twilight managed to circle closer to the door and after the sixth or seventh revolution reached it, forgot that it had a handle, and slammed into the woodwork. She bounced backwards, stumbled forwards again, missed the handle with her mouth, and wound up on the floor. She made one last attempt to get up and managed to smack into the door again before she decided gravity had won this round and lay still until her eyes could uncross themselves. "Urgh... okay... definitely a good thing... I picked a familiar target point... if I tried this at Fluttershy's place... I probably would have wound up... fused to her couch...." Still breathing hard, Twilight forced herself back onto her hooves and managed to shove the door open. Just as she emerged from the library a familiar orange blur entered her field of vision. Applejack caught Twilight out of the corner of her eye and braked hard, kicking up a fountain of dust as she skidded to a halt just in front of the other pony. "Twilight? Ah thought you were in the Everfree Forest!" "Teleported back," panted Twilight, "Fluttershy's pet Scuttles, I think it's some kind of parasite, maybe killed Dollars, have to find Spike, I-" "Spike's at the farm," said Applejack, eyes narrowing as Twilight confirmed her worst fears, "Rarity's missing and he brought Sweetie Belle to look for her. Ah told him to send a letter to the Princess and tell her what was going on, but ah ain't found Rarity yet. I'm headed to-" "Fluttershy's," Twilight agreed, "I caught a glimpse of Scuttles when I was there, it's gotten huge, it could kidnap a pony... or... oh..." "We won't find out 'til we get there," said Applejack firmly, "come on!" "Right!" Twilight burst into a full on gallop, and made it about ten steps before she almost doubled over, gasping for breath. A second later she let out a cry of surprise as she felt Applejack slipping underneath her. "What are you-" "You can run fine when you pace yourself, but this here situation calls for speed, and y'all are already winded," Applejack answered as she settled the Unicorn over her back like a sack of potatoes, "Hang on." Twilight hung. Applejack took off like a shot for Fluttershy's cottage. - Fluttershy giggled like a filly as she finished her chores, nudging a basket full of greens towards a warren of bunnies that lived just across the stream from her home. The bunnies smiled gratefully at her as they took the food, though a few threw cautious glances over her shoulder as she did so. "Aw, don't worry little guys, Scuttles won't hurt a hair on your little heads. He's used to bunnies now, isn't that right Angel?" Angel, seated atop Scuttles' head as the creature finished consuming its breakfast, simply folded his paws and scowled as hard as he could. Fluttershy grinned. She didn't know why she was so happy today. The last few days had been so bizarre. But it was going to be okay, she thought. It was just like Twilight was always telling her. Focus on the positive. Let go of the things you can't change. Applejack's friend was dead, and that was terribly sad, but they were all going to be there for her, and it was going to be alright. Scuttles was a very strange creature, and more than a little frightening, but it had learned to listen to her very quickly, and she was going to introduce it to all her friends, and that was going to be alright. She was just wondering if she had time to sing a song before she went to Sweet Apple Acres when Scuttles finished crunching down the last fish bone and suddenly leaped towards her, running a quick circle around the surprised pegasus and then taking off in another direction. Blinking, Fluttershy hopped into the air and gave chase. Scuttles kept pausing and glancing back over its shoulder at her, then running ahead again, only to rush back to her when she took longer following. Fluttershy giggled and allowed the bigger animal to pull her along. "What's going on here sweetie, did you want to show me something? Okay, okay, no need to pull, I'm coming." It was leading her to the old woodshed in her back yard. It had been a warm spring, and she hadn't been back there in over a month. Maybe it was setting up a nest? Oh that would be interesting. Curiosity piqued, Fluttershy pumped her wings furiously and followed Scuttles around the back of the shed. "Okay sweetheart, what did you want to-" Fluttershy was interrupted by a panicked shriek that cut through the late morning like a knife. The pegasus' eyes widened as she took in the tableau of horror taking place in front of her. On the ground behind her woodshed was what she could only describe as a pile of corpses, three our four pony bodies piled in a heap and covered in translucent mucous that formed a second layer of lumps like boils on diseased flesh. Stuck to the back wall of the shed were four more ponies, hanging trapped by more slime, two of them clearly dead and rotting, one of them very still, the other... Terror gave away to bald panic. "RARITY!" Fluttershy felt her stomach drop to her hooves as a spidery nightmare launched itself out of the pile of corpses and into Rarity's face. Panting and sobbing in terror, Fluttershy took off like a shot towards her friend, but by the time she'd made it the eight-legged little monster was already glowing faintly violet and being peeled off of Rarity. The unicorn grimaced and spat a tube-like organ out of her mouth as she shoved it away with her telekinesis. "Fluttershy!" she gasped, "Quick, I need something sharp, anything!" Not thinking, Fluttershy zipped around to the front of the shed and grabbed the pitchfork she kept just inside the door, hauling it back around the tiny building between her front hooves. Rarity had the spidery creature hanging in the air a few hands from her face, its tail whipping and all eight legs spasming horribly. Her eyes lit up when she saw what Fluttershy had found. "Perfect!" The tailed spider was hurled away from both ponies with another push of magic, landing on the grass at what Rarity had thought was a comfortable distance, but without missing a beat it had flipped over and was furiously scuttling towards them. Fluttershy squeaked as she felt the pitchfork being lifted out of her hooves. The tool glowed almost incandescently as Rarity used her magic to throw it as hard as she could. The white unicorn didn't have Twilight Sparkle's raw power, but she made up for it in precision. The spidery beast was speared clean through the body by all four of the fork's tines and pinned solidly to the ground. It convulsed for several horrible seconds, and then went still. Then a black nightmare of teeth and razor sharp hooves threw itself at Rarity, screaming like a wounded animal. "Scuttles! NO!" Fluttershy interposed herself between the creature and her friend, and Stared. Scuttles' roar melted into a pained cry as it backpedaled furiously, tripping over itself in its haste to get away. Fluttershy continued Staring as it fled, slowly sinking to the ground, her wings rigid with terror. Her limbs began to tremble and the tears came without warning as she turned and looked at the pile of mangled corpses in her yard. She choked back a sob. "Fluttershy, dear, please... I know this is horrifying, but... please help me..." "Oh! Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy whirled around and immediately grabbed the edge of Rarity's cocoon in her teeth, yanking backwards as hard as she could. Rarity concentrated, and a slim blade of magic began to work its way into the hardened slime. It was a spell she'd originally learned for cutting fabric, not intended for a material this thick or tough, but it was enough to start a split in the side of the cocoon. After a few moments, between Fluttershy's insistent tugging and her own efforts, Rarity slithered out of her bonds and fell to the ground with a soft thump. "Oh eeeeuuuuggghhhh... this is going to take forever to get out of my coat... Oh, my mane, my poor mane. What is this stuff..." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Rarity sighed softly as a sobbing Fluttershy nuzzled her cheek. She put a foreleg around the shaking pegasus' shoulders and hugged her gently. "There now dear, it's going to... well, it's not going to be alright, but I promise we'll get through this. We just have to find our friends and..." "Fluttershy! Fluttershy!" Rarity perked up. "Twilight! Is that you?" "Rarity!?" "Applejack! How are yo-OOOMMMPH!!!" The orange earth pony came galloping around the back of the shed, face lit up with joy. Not bothering to slow her progress, she plowed directly into Rarity and rolled to a halt, hugging the unicorn as hard as her considerable strength would allow. Twilight, dislodged by the impact, landed in a heap next to Fluttershy, who squeaked. "Rarity! Oh mah gosh, you're okay! Oh ah was so worried about yah!" "Can't... breathe...!" Applejack sheepishly released her hold on Rarity, who made a show of panting theatrically for breath. Twilight was still somewhat dizzy after the ride and slowly making her way onto her hooves with Fluttershy's assistance. She started to say something, but halted with her mouth open and her eyes wide as she saw what was attached to the back of Fluttershy's woodshed. Applejack had yet to notice anything about their surroundings, and was carefully checking Rarity for injuries. "What happened Rare? Are ya hurt bad?" "I was fine until somepony tackled me." "Yer covered in... goo. So Sweetie Belle was right, you were kidnapped by some kind of slime monster?" "Something like- oh my gosh! Sweetie Belle! She saw it!?" "Naw, she just found the trail of slime on the floor of the boutique and told me y'all were missin'. She's safe at the farm with Apple Bloom and Spike. Now what in tarnation has been goin' on over here?" "Uh... Applejack?" Twilight's mouth was so dry she could barely speak. "Turn around." - A streak of rainbow colors a mile long stretched between the depths of the Everfree Forest and the large clearing where its edge met the city limits of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash's eyes watered from the wind, but she kept pumping her wings harder. "Just hang on Fluttershy," she muttered, "I'm coming." She sped past the borders of the forest and banked sharply to her right, zeroing in on her friend's cottage. Another few seconds and she would arrive, and Celestia help any creepy parasite monsters that were threatening her friends. She glanced to and fro as she flew, scouring the ground below for spiders with tails or whatever it was Twilight had said had killed Dollars to Donuts. She noticed the shadow being cast on her wing a split second before it was too late. Rainbow felt the movement of another creature's wings ruffling her feathers, and instinctively tucked into a roll. She cried out sharply as something dived past her, hissing like a snake. Pain lanced through her as she snapped her wings open and rose higher, dividing her attention between her side and whatever it was that had hit her. The wound cut all the way across her haunch, but it was shallow, and probably wouldn't scar. It went across her cutie mark, though, and that stung like blazes. Frowning hugely, Rainbow turned her full attention to her attacker. It was a monster, no doubt about that. Rainbow hadn't seen Fluttershy's new pet, but it wasn't a long stretch of the imagination to guess that it was related. She hadn't heard anything about it having wings, though. It was covered in what looked like some kind of pale gray armor, with a long blade-tipped tail and an unsettling banana shaped head. Those wings were even worse, not at all like Rainbow's feathered pinions but more like those of a dragon, each supporting bone ending in a wicked claw and the membrane in between them sickly translucent and full of holes, as if the limbs hadn't been formed right. They worked though, and as Rainbow watched the hideous thing suddenly pumped its wings and shot upwards towards her, shrieking like a demon. She dodged the initial charge, and then because she was reminded by a fresh stab of pain as her wound twisted, she took extra care to avoid the whipping follow up stroke of the thing's tail. Rainbow Dash's nostrils vented hot air as she carefully backed away from the beast, eyes narrowed in scrutiny. It was bigger than Gilda, and she would have expected it to fly like her- fast and strong, but without a pegasus pony's magical agility. As the creature air braked hard and then whirled on a dime for yet another pass, she realized how big of a mistake it would be to underestimate this thing's maneuverability. It let out another scream as it folded its horrible wings and dove. Rainbow Dash met it halfway. Shooting upwards with a sudden flurry of wingbeats, she rose straight at the thing's face, and was only mildly surprised to see that it neither flinched nor made any motion to avoid her. It was apparently entirely confident that it would come out the better in any collision. Willing to concede that the creature would probably be right about that, Dash twisted out of the way at the last minute, letting the motion send her into a tight spin. She called the maneuver the Cloudtwister, as she usually used it to artistically whip up clouds. Now when she spread her wings abruptly open the small whirlwind she created was sent right at the monster. Not prepared for the sudden turbulence, the creature shrieked briefly in rage and spun out of control, losing a fair amount of altitude before regaining its equilibrium and climbing smoothly back towards Rainbow. This time it did not immediately charge her head first, however, and began to circle her slowly, keeping itself aloft with occasional flaps of its powerful wings. Rainbow duplicated the maneuver, carefully keeping it within her line of vision. "I don't have time to play with you!" she yelled. The thing didn't react, but simply continued to keep pace with the slowly circling pegasus. Even without any eyes to speak of, Rainbow got the distinct impression that she was being glared at. "Alright," she muttered, "you wanna do this the hard way?" A sinuous, scythe-tipped tail lashed behind the creature as it growled, lowering its head and squaring its shoulders. It was clearly just as impatient as she was. "Good. I like the hard way." Rainbow Dash charged. - Applejack turned around. Her eyes widened as she stared up at the bodies arranged along the woodshed wall. Cloudkicker had already started to turn, her fur falling out and her skin turning sunken and pale. Snips hadn't been there long, and the round little unicorn might have merely been sleeping if it weren't for the bloody entrails still hanging out of his burst belly. The blue earth pony beside him was fresher still. "Oh mah goddess..." Applejack moaned, "Fluttershy's critter did all this...?" "I think so," said Rarity, "it cocooned us to the wall, and then that... thing..." she indicated the festering pile of bodies with a hoof "...it must be some kind of egg sac, because it spat that thing at my face." She pointed to the spidery monster, then jerked back in surprise when she saw the pitchfork pinning it to the ground had fallen over. She carefully lifted the tool with her magic, using it to prod the creature to make sure it was dead, and then examining the melted tines. "It's like it's insides are corrosive," said Twilight in near awe. "But this is definitely what Zecora found next to Dollars. The thing with the legs implants an embryo inside the host... Rarity, it didn't-" "Oh it tried," said the white unicorn, shuddering and spitting. "I got the tube out before it was able to implant anything but a foul taste." "You're saying this is the thing that killed Dollars to Donuts?" asked Applejack. "Yeah," Twilight sighed, "it all fits. Egg hatches the parasite, the parasite implants an embryo in the host, then the nymph erupts from the host, and grows to an adult... apparently really quickly." There was a soft choking noise and then a quiet splatter as Fluttershy threw up. Twilight patted her on the back gently. "Oh gosh that's Blues," Applejack looked like she was going to cry as she recognized her farmhoof. "It got Blues! Ah... wait a minute... he's still breathin'! He's not dead! Somepony help me get him down!" Rarity immediately leapt up and applied her horn directly to the blue earth pony's cocoon, cutting into it with her magic while Applejack tried to get a grip on it with her hooves. Twilight grabbed Blues with her telekinesis and eased him out of the cocoon as it split open, laying him gently on the grass. Fluttershy immediately ran over and placed her ear on his chest. "He's breathing," she said, putting a hoof on his forehead, "heartbeat's a little irregular, and I think he has a slight fever. We need to get him to Nurse Redheart as soon as-" Blues' eyes shot wide open. Fluttershy cried out in surprise. Applejack anxiously leaned over the waking pony, putting a gentle hoof on his chest. "It's gonna be alright sugarcube, you just hang in there. We're gonna get you a nurse and then you'll be right as rain." The blue pony's eyes focused on her, and his face twisted into a grimace. "Apple... Applejack...?" "Yeah it's me, ah'm here now, you're gonna be fine." Blues took a deep breath. "Applejack... please... kill me..." She took half a step back as if she'd been slapped, eyes going wide. Behind her, Twilight suddenly turned to stare at the bodies hanging from the wall of the woodshed, and then back to Blues. Her mouth fell open in horror. "Woah down there Sugarcube, you're gonna be alright! I just gotta-" Blues started to cough. "You... you don't understand... you didn't... see... please, you have to..." He was coughing hard now, deep racking coughs that came up dry and shook his entire body. His eyes opened wide, pleading, as he wrapped his forelegs around his chest and cried out in pain. "Please...!" Applejack was leaning in to try and calm him down when the first splash of blood struck her in the face. The ponies could only stare as Blues' chest erupted upwards in a small shower of gore, and a tiny phallic head full of teeth twisted around to hold them with an eyeless gaze. Fluttershy sobbed. "No." The creature coiled and leaped, but Twilight was already casting. It let out a tiny shriek as the unicorn surrounded it in lavender magic, then quickly turned and tossed it into the woodshed. The entire structure glowed purple as the door slammed. "Will that hold it?" asked Rarity. "I put together a pretty comprehensive locking spell, it should keep it in there. Now let's..." She paused, and turned to Applejack. The Earth pony was sitting quietly and staring at the fresh corpse in front of her. Twilight very slowly approached her friend, nuzzling her gently on the shoulder. Applejack didn't move. "So... that's what happened to Dollars?" she asked. Twilight just nodded. "That's where Scuttles came from?" murmured Fluttershy. Twilight nodded. "So this is where you all got to," said Pinkie Pie. Twilight blinked. "Pinkie!?" Rarity blurted, whirling, "what are you doing here?" Unusually quiet, perhaps because she sensed the mood, or perhaps because she was breathing heavily and clearly tired, Pinkie turned to point with one hoof. "I was running away from that." The other ponies turned. "Scuttles!?" squeaked Fluttershy. "No," said Rarity, turning to look at the corpse of Snips hanging on the woodshed wall, "Oh Celestia no..." The creature standing before them was almost identical to Scuttles, from the horrible eyeless cowl down to the deadly scythe-tipped tail. But instead of jet black its exoskeleton had a faint dark blue sheen. And in the center of its head, a few hands back from the rounded tip of its face, was a horn like a dagger blade jutting upwards from its skull. Twilight Sparkle took a step forward and snorted. "Everypony stay calm," she said. Her eyes narrowed. "I've got this." -End of Part 7