//------------------------------// // The Tale of the Sea Song // Story: Tales Around the Campfire // by Cinders of War //------------------------------// It had been precisely one o’clock in the morning when Sunset Shimmer had first discovered it. Under the vessel they had commandeered for their research grew a bioluminescent shape, which she couldn’t tell whether it was blue or green; it looked similar to the two colours, but at the same time, it was unlike any colour she’d ever seen. It seemed to shift between the two colours as well, but whatever it was, it was beautiful. With it came the softest, but the most melodious tune, entering her ears almost like a kiss of a lover; it was a soft and delicate touch and it felt as though she could let all her troubles go. “Wait, why me again? I just have to ask.” Sunset Shimmer lowered the hand she had raised and waited for Pinkie Pie to reply. “I didn’t give it much thought!” Their storyteller beamed and stopped in her tracks. She had been walking around the campfire while telling her tale. This night was a warm night and they didn’t really need the fire to stay warm, but as always, it was a welcomed source of light that kept the darkness away. This night, Sunset sat among her friends, consisting of Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Velvet Breeze. The rest had decided to call it a night, as they had already spent most of the day canoeing in the nearby lake and they were bushed. Pinkie had really wanted to tell her story, so Sunset and the rest had volunteered to listen. “Sounds like it’s shapin’ up to be a mighty fine story, Pinks.” Applejack leaned back on her log. “Keep goin’.” “Yeah, I want to know what’s up!” Rainbow added, and waited. “Right!” Pinkie cleared her throat and continued. Sunset marveled at the spread of the glowing shape, leaning over the side of their ship to have a better look. It was glowing brighter by the second, like some expanding out of the water. They had come out on an expedition to research whale migrations and throughout the day before, they had filled up on more research than she has hoped to find in a single day, but all this… this was something incredible no one would’ve thought to find out here. “Sunset? What’s that sound?” Rainbow Dash wandered out of the ship’s interior, rubbing at her sleepy eyes. “Sounds rather nice. But it’s like… early.” Their vessel, the Lorelei, was a splendous white jewel in the vast ocean of blue. It had a single red stripe lining its edge and along its sides were two life buoys in case of emergencies and under the deck were two bedrooms. The space wasn’t really big, but it was still quite cosy.  Sunset had set out on it with Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy on the latter’s plan to study whales. Sunset didn’t feel like it at the time, but once they were out at sea, she had changed her mind. The smell of the salty sea and the wind in her hair was a nice change from the usual hustle and bustle of the city and she loved the sound of waves as they crashed against their ship. But now, that was nothing compared to the song that was rising from the ocean. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, Dash, but…” She leaned slightly off the edge. “It started when this glowing shape appeared.” “Nah, there’s no way this thing would be singing, right? I mean, what even is this stuff?” “Might be some form of algae…” They both turned to see Fluttershy standing by the ship’s bow, a camera in hand. “It’s beautiful…” “Fluttershy, how long have you been there?” Sunset asked. “Quite a while. I was here before you came out…” The meek girl replied and snapped another photo of the glowing phenomenon. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The closest resemblance, like I was saying, is bioluminescent algae. They’ve been sighted around the world and they’ve been appearing more frequently due to the warming c-climate… This could be something like that too. But it’s… different.” “Doesn’t that like, make it bad for the environment?” Rainbow asked and scratched at her head. “I’m no egghead, but won’t this cause problems for the fish?” “Speaking of fish…” Sunset eyed the water. Other than the expanding glowing mass, Rainbow did bring up a good point. She hadn’t seen any fish since the glow pierced the night. “Where did they all go?” “It’s still growing… Whatever it is.” Rainbow painted at the mass of colour. “Do we need to be concerned? I mean, it’s cool and all, but we don’t really know what’s up.” The song too, in Sunset’s head, grew louder, now sounding more like a soft whisper than a tune. All of a sudden, there was a bump from under their ship and they had to hold on to the sides as it rocked about on the sea. “Woah, what was that?” Rainbow held on to a railing by the side to steady herself. “I don’t know.” Sunset went to look over the side again. The colour under them had intensified tenfold since she last looked at it. It was almost solid now, unlike earlier where it just seemed to be a glow underwater. It looked almost like it was an actual object now.  Rainbow and Sunset both peered down at the source of the glow. Through the veil of water that separated them, Sunset felt herself being pulled towards it, like a magnetic force, the faint melody coaxing her closer. She didn’t even notice that she had one leg over the railing until Rainbow Dash shouted. “Sunset! What are you doing?” Sunset blinked. She found herself with one foot on the guardrail of the ship, staring down at the glowing sea. The song still echoed in her ears, gently pulling her down into the water. She shook herself and climbed back over onto the deck of the ship. “I… I don’t know…” Sunset shook her head and pounded one palm on one side of her head. “I really… have no idea.” Fluttershy jogged over, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe you should lie down, Sunset. The sea’s not for everyone, you know…?” “You girls are alright?” Sunset had to ask her friends. Rainbow scoffed and raised an arm to flex. “What do you think these are for? I’m tough!” Sunset cast one last look over the side of the ship at the glowing patch. It seemed a little dimmer now. She shook herself and allowed Fluttershy to lead her below deck to her cabin. Perhaps it was as Fluttershy had said and she was getting sea sick and she had lost her footing before she knew it. Like they had all said, she hadn’t really been on the sea very often, even back home in Equestria, so all this was still pretty new to her. Perhaps they needed to go on a yacht some time. “Ha, I get it. Cause we were on a yacht once,” Rainbow laughed. “How’d you like that ride, Sunset?” The girl in question shrugged. “It was okay, I guess. I did enjoy the seabreeze. Pinkie’s right though. I think I still get seasick.” “Yup.” The pink haired girl smiled. “I know! Anyway…” Sunset sat herself down on her bed as she took a few deep breaths to try to settle her nerves. With the ship still rocking in the ocean current, she decided to have a bit of a lie down while she waited for things to calm down. As she drifted off to sleep, her last thoughts were of what that glow in the water could be, and what might be causing it. An indeterminable amount of time later, Sunset was jerked awake by a bloodcurdling scream. She tumbled out of her bunk and fell onto the floor. “Ow…” Sunset groaned as she hit the ground. She picked herself up off the wooden boards and hurriedly wobbled outside. The rest of her friends were gathered around a table in the lounge room of the ship. All of them looked surprised to see Sunset barreling in looking so concerned. “What happened? Who screamed?” Sunset blurted out. “Screamed?” Rarity repeated, checking the puzzled faces of the rest of the group. “No one screamed, darling. We were just discussing what we should catch some fish for an early morning snack.” “B-But as I’ve said… there hasn’t been any fish for a while…” Fluttershy rubbed the back of one hand anxiously. “It’s as though s-something’s… s-s-scared them all away…” “Could be that glowing algae as you were saying.” Then Rainbow turned to Sunset. “But no screams, Sunset. Not even that soft song we were hearing outside. “I… I can still hear it.” But Rainbow wasn’t correct. Sunset could still hear that song in her ears, ever so faintly. It almost blended in with the sound of the waves outside, but it was still there. She knew it was. She wasn’t imagining it. “I think you just need more sleep, dear.” Rarity pointed to the face mask still plastered on her face. “Would you like one? It helps to relax your facial muscles.” “No, no, I know I heard it. I hear that song. And I definitely heard that scream!” Sunset waved her hands wildly, trying to convince her friends she wasn’t crazy. “Are you sure it wasn’t just a parrot or something?” Rainbow asked. “Did you girls hear any parrots?” “Nope.” "I didn't bring any parrots with me," Fluttershy poked her fingers together. "Maybe it was just a bad dream," Rarity suggested. "We have been at sea for a while now. It could be you're just restless." Sunset rubbed at her jaw. “I don’t know. It only started when we first saw that glow out there. Does algae emit any sounds?” Everyone turned to Fluttershy. "Um, I've never heard of algae that makes noise," she said. "But it could be that we're dealing with something completely new here." “Why don’t we just move the ship away from the algae, then? If you’re still hearing whatever that song is, then it’s not that.” Rarity pulled at her light sweater. “But really, Sunset, I don’t hear anything other than the waves.” Sunset swallowed and nodded in defeat. “Yeah… I guess I’m just hearing things. I’ll go and reposition the ship, then we can eat.” “Ah, no. You stay here and rest,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ll take the wheel.” Sunset nodded and sat down with the others as her rainbow haired friend pushed up and headed above deck. She gazed out one of the portside windows, where she realized she could see some colour reflecting off the glass. Whatever that glowing algae was, it was still there, just floating under their ship. Part of her wanted to go out there and look at it and analyze it again, but another part of her kept her bum seated on the ship’s plushy orange leather seats. Something about that phenomenon was off, something in their original sighting of it was incomplete, she knew that, but as to what it was, she couldn’t know from her initial speculation. Perhaps the algae released some kind of intoxicating fumes that made her feel good, or perhaps the glow had some kind of disorientating effect to her brain and it was making her see and hear things. She pulled out her phone from her pocket and opened the mapping app that Twilight had created for them. She put a pin on their current location, in case they wanted to go back to look at the algae in greater detail. The ship gave a small lurch as the engines kicked into gear, and the vessel began to move, slicing through the water with ease. Sunset watched through the windows as the glow began to lessen and finally, disappear completely. It was then that she realized the singing in her ears was gone and it was as though she had unclogged her ears for the very first time. It felt refreshing. “Ahhh…” She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Somehow, it just felt relaxful again. “It’s gone…” “So that algae was emitting sound?” Fluttershy scrunched up her face in thought. “That is unusual…” “I do wonder if we’ll find fish now, away from that.” Rarity rubbed at her tummy. “I still fancy an early morning bite.” Sunset sat there in silence, contemplating the ordeal since her time above deck. She didn’t know any kind of algae that could sing like that, nor really any kind of animal. What had produced those sounds? Before she could think any further, it returned again, but this time, louder than over. The once soothing lullaby in the air was now more of a strong wind blowing through, a high pitched whistle in her ears, rushing through her like a steam engine. She bent lower and threw her hands over her ears as the whistling got higher and more intense. “Agh, what is that?!” She groaned and stood up, unfortunately at the wrong time. There was the sound of something that sounded like a foghorn, followed by something knocking their ship from underneath. Sunset flew from her spot and smashed her face against the side of a bar counter, before being thrown into the corner, where she landed on her side. Fluttershy and Rarity had to hold on to the table to maintain their positions, and once the rocking had stopped, they ran over to Sunset, who was holding her face in both hands, curled up to her knees. “Sunset, dear, are you hurt?” Rarity helped her to her bum and tried to move her hands aside, but the fiery haired girl shrugged their hands away, then lifted one hand, which was coated in blood. There was a long gash across her face, starting from her left eyebrow and ending just beside her right nostril and blood was still trailing down from it. Sunset still had stars in her eyes, but the pain was brilliant across her face and she groaned in agony as she tried to think of something, of anything to stifle the pain. Eventually, Fluttershy ran over with a towel and an ice pack, and the girl was quick to wrap it around her face before pressing the pack against it. “What was that…?” Rarity looked around the lounge, then scurried over to one of the windows to have a look outside. “Did we hit something?” There was a clutter of footsteps and Rainbow Dash reappeared at the stairway. “Hey, the engines are dead. Whatever hit us has gotten the boat pretty beat up.” “Something hit us? Are you sure you didn’t just run into something?” Rainbow scoffed. “What, me? Running into something? I’m too awesome for that! As for that, Sunset! What happened to you?” “I lost my balance…” Sunset didn’t know what happened, but there was a part of her that was afraid of what it might actually be. She grunted as she fought to her feet. “The glow… Is it… Do you see it?” “Just off the starboard bow,” Rainbow reported. “Anyway, I’ll go to the radio transmitter and call for help. Being out at sea with a busted engine isn’t really high on my to do list. You girls look after Sunset.” With that, Rainbow Dash left the room, leaving the rest of them to process this turn of events.  “We still have the anchor, right?” Fluttershy asked. “Of course,” Rarity nodded assent. “We will simply stay in this spot until help comes to us.” “But… But the algae…” Sunset looked out the window. “Did it… follow us?” “Don’t be absurd. Algae is not like any living creature to simply follow a ship.” Rarity laughed her comment off. Sunset took out her phone and held it out. “Look. We must’ve moved some distance from where I pinned the algae’s location. Have a look.” Fluttershy took the device from her and gazed at it as she cupped it in both hands. “We moved on about twenty meters east… But… It’s outside now… How?” “Something’s not right here…” Rarity stood up and looked to the window, where the greenish-blue light was now changing into another colour, a colour Sunset herself couldn’t even describe. “We should check if Rainbow got the word out that we’re dead in the water.” And Rarity disappeared above deck, leaving Fluttershy to care for the fiery haired girl. All the while, that song was still floating about Sunset’s head, but her friends didn’t seem like they could even hear it. It was louder than before, still that shrill whistle of wind blowing by a valley. Unlike the first melodic, almost hypnotic tune, this one sounded more angry, as though they had made a mistake traveling away from the algae in the first place. Something was very wrong here, and Sunset still couldn’t figure out what it was. All she could do now was try to mend the injury on her face and try to block out the song in her ears. And then there was a new sound. A scream. A very familiar scream. Rarity’s scream. It jolted Sunset and Fluttershy up and they both turned their heads warily to the stairs. After that single scream, there was no more. The only thing Sunset could hear now was her beating heart and the sea song, still singing away in her head. “You heard it, right? It wasn’t just me?” Sunset asked to make sure she wasn’t just hearing things again. “Y-Yeah… Wh-what should we do?” Fluttershy trembled on the spot. “We need to see if they’re okay…” Sunset folded and tied the towel around her face, then gestured for Fluttershy to follow her. The pink haired girl followed after her reluctantly and they slowly made their way up the stairs to the deck. It was an odd sight above. The railings reflected the unknown and bizarre colour from under the water’s surface, making it look like some kind of demented night club of sorts, and there was blood. A lot of blood sprayed out from the railing all the way to the walls. It was too much blood and it was also too much for Fluttershy. She bent forward and- “Woah, woah! Okay, okay, too much information, ain’t it?” Applejack waved her hands madly.  “What, the blood’s okay for you, but not barf?” Velvet Breeze wore an amused face. “I mean, we see blood all the time on TV shows and stuff,” Rainbow said. “You see how they always usually keep the barfing off screen?” “She’s got a point there,” Applejack added in. “Yeah, alright, guess we can keep at it.” “Yeah, come on, I see it all the time!” Pinkie grinned. “Remember when I had to look after the cake twins? And then they ate three whole cakes in a matter of seconds and then they-” “Yeah, alright, alright, can we just continue with the story, Pinkie?” Applejack held on to the edge of her hat like she was ready to pull it down to cover her eyes to block out that mental image. “Righty-o!” The poofy haired girl leapt up on her feet and put one foot on her log. “So as we were seeing…” “Whe-where did all this come f-from…?” Fluttershy eyed the trail of blood. “It’s… It looks like it started from the railing. But that’s weird… What happened?” Sunset wanted to approach the side to have a look, but something inside her stopped her. Something was telling her to just go back down and get in bed and throw the sheets over her head. But at the same time, she needed to know just what was going on here. “Let’s find Rainbow and Rarity.” The pair carefully made their way to the bow of the ship. There was the sound of muffled speech. “Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called. “Rarity? Are you there?” “I told you, I saw it! It came on board! It did!” Rarity’s voice squealed, almost desperate-sounding. “And I haven’t seen anything! The lights must be playing tricks on your eyes.” Sunset and Fluttershy found their other two friends arguing in front of the window to the helm. Rarity looked manic, and Rainbow looked… as she always did. Calm and cool. “Hehe, you know it, Pinkie.” Rainbow flexed one arm and grinned smugly. Applejack simply rolled her eyes. “Well, Sunset was hearing things earlier. You could’ve been seeing things yourself.” Rainbow spotted her two friends coming and pointed to them. “Go on, tell Sunset and Flutters what you saw.” “You saw something, Rarity?” “On-on the side. Near the entrance to the lower decks.” The violet haired girl was very much on edge, like the smallest twang of string would set her off. “It was like… a meaty lump of flesh. I would not make this up, darlings… I wouldn’t! But I saw it. It came up over the railing and it looked straight at me!” Sunset gulped and looked at Fluttershy, who already had her head pointed at her. She knew they were both thinking the same thing. They had seen the trail of blood and Rarity had mentioned it looked like a fleshy… thing. Flesh generally had blood. Was that why it had trailed from the railing? That just meant… “It’s on board...” Sunset reached her conclusion. “There’s something here with us.” “What? Are you girls serious?” Rainbow threw her hands up. “There’s nothing on board! I mean, except us!” “Something weird is going on here, Dash, don’t you see it?” Sunset grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her. “Whatever’s happening, we can’t explain it, but there’s something on board with us. You’ve got to believe us!” “That light below’s just messing with your mind.” Rainbow made a swirling motion with a finger beside Sunset’s head. “Here, I’ll show you. I’ll get in the water with that and you’ll see.” “What? No! What, are you crazy?!” “Not any crazier than you lot.” Rainbow took off her jacket, kicked off her shoes and placed one foot on the railing. “I’ll be right back.” “No, wait!” Sunset reached a hand out, but Rainbow kicked off the railing and she went sailing into the water, breaking the surface. Now, she was just a dark shape over the brilliance below, slowly swimming deeper. “She’s mad.” Rarity made a fainting gesture. “We need to get her back.” “I’ll get a lifebuoy…” Fluttershy ran off to find it. “Wh-what are we going to do?” Rarity grabbed her own head. “She’s going to get herself killed! The water is freezing! And what if there are more things down there?” “I… I don’t know…” Sunset gripped the railing till her knuckles had turned white. They could still see her shape under the water, but at this point, they couldn’t tell what she was doing, with the waves rolling around their ship. She could be staying still for all they knew, just watching the glowing light. “I think I’m going to be sick…” Rarity put the back of a hand to her head and leaned back. Before either of them could say anymore, the shape underwater suddenly burst back up, and Rainbow Dash took in a huge gasp of air, then kept her mouth open in an ear-piercing scream. “Rainbow, what, what happened!” Sunset looked around furiously, hoping Fluttershy would be back with the lifebuoy soon. “It hurts!” Rainbow screwed her eyes shut. Sunset was about the jump in to get her back up, but then the water around her friend began to turn dark and it was then that she noticed Rainbow’s skin was melting off her body. Literally melting. “Aaagh, it hurts so bad!” “Woah, woah…” Rainbow sat back down and stuck her tongue out. “Are you for real? Am I going to die already? I thought I would survive till the end!” “Ya can’t always be the hero in every story, Dash.” Applejack smiled as she watched her friend’s disgusted face. “Still, skin melting off…” Velvet looked into the fire. “That’s gross. Even for an Assassin.” “Sorry, I guess I got a little too into it!” Pinkie answered happily. “But, since I’ve already introduced it, I’ll just continue to roll with it. Don’t puke, okay?” In less than a minute, Rainbow Dash was no longer recognizable. All that was left of her was a globule of meat with eye holes, a nose hole and a mouth. Rarity fainted on the spot, but Sunset just couldn’t take her eyes off her friend. Tears stung her eyes as she watched the shape flail in the water, trying to make its way to the ship. The meaty mess of her friend touched the side of the ship and began screaming more, but then it began climbing. Sunset’s heart skipped a beat and she let go of the railing. Somehow, whatever was left of Rainbow was still alive and it was sticking to the side as it made its way up towards her. Sadness left her and dread began to take its place as the shape got higher and higher. She scrambled back against the cabin wall and tried to calm her breathing, but it only got worse as a hand reached the top of the railing, followed by its head. “Ra-Rainbow?” Sunset called out, but she received no response. All she got from the meaty mess was a low groan. And then it was fully over the railing, now standing opposite her. It was still roughly the same shape as Rainbow, but it no longer had hair or facial features. All that remained on its face was a gaping maw. Blood pooled around the shape as it stood there, further staining the deck. Without warning, it raised both hands and charged at Sunset. She reacted instinctively and rolled out of the way as the shape crashed into the cabin’s wall, splattering blood in all directions. Sunset took in a breath of cold air and backed away, but then something grabbed her from behind, something sharp and thin. She slowly turned her head to see yellowish spiky appendages gripped onto her shoulder, even poking through her coat. Turning further, she spotted a familiar head of pink hair, but under it was a pulsating sac where Fluttershy’s face used to be. There were white spots on it, beating like a heart and occasionally dripped sticky white fluid. “Ew. You know, I’m not even going to ask what that is…” Sunset said. “Come on, I know what you’re thinking there, Sunset.” Rainbow nudged her and winked. “Disgusting, that you even thought of it.” “I didn’t say what I was thinking of.” “You don’t have to say it. Rainbow Dash knows all.” “Uh, right. Pinkie, could you continue, please?” “Suuuuunsseeeeettttt…” the Fluttershything breathed, but Sunset saw no mouth on her. From her chest, more spiky legs grew and they grabbed Sunset’s back and held her firmly, preventing her from moving. “Iiii haaavvveeee seeeeen ittttt allllll. Thheeeee truuuuutttthhhhhh… Suuuuunnnssseeeetttttt, allllll wiiilllll beeeee reeeevvveeeaaaallllleeeedddd…” “What? Let me go! Fluttershy, stop!” Sunset tried to struggle. The meaty mess that was Rainbow Dash walked over to Rarity’s unconscious body and picked it up. “No, leave her alone!” Sunset wailed, but her struggling was still to no avail. All this time, Sunset had been so focused on what her friends had been up to, she almost forgot about the song coming from the ocean. It was still going and it was picking up speed now, like a rollercoaster plunging down after reaching its maximum height. It wasn’t a song, not in the way she had been thinking. Something was calling to her from the water, something old. The shape held Rarity’s body high, then threw it into the frigid waters below. Sunset screamed out, but the Fluttershything held onto her with its spindly legs. “Shhheeee willlll nooowwww knnnooowwww thhheeeee trrruuuuttthhhhhh…” the Fluttershything slurred. “Asssss wiiillllll yooouuuuu…” Sunset was walked over to the edge as the meaty shape threw itself off next, following after Rarity’s body. Sunset could see her form under the water’s surface, but like Rainbow’s body had been, she had no idea what was happening. Under her, the bright light shone up, turning their shapes into black masses. “You will know all soon, Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset looked around. That hadn’t been the slow voice of the Fluttershything. Something else had spoken to her. In a split second, the light in the water was gone, and then it was back, almost like it had been switched off and on very quickly. Sunset looked down at the light now, and it did it again, but it disappeared from view from top to bottom, then reappeared from bottom to top. It wasn’t switching itself off. It was blinking. “It’s… an eye…” Sunset’s own eyes widened in realization. Whatever was below them was alive, and it was massive. “To know all that the universe holds… I will open your eyes, Sunset Shimmer… And you will know all…” The voice floated around in the air, in tune with the sea song. “Your mind will be opened. Your thoughts will transcend.” The eye began swirling below as Rainbow and Rarity disappeared from view completely. It was as though a whirlpool was forming within the light. Then images flashed into Sunset’s mind. She could see worlds throughout the galaxy, some red, some pink, some multicoloured, some in colours she didn’t know existed. Each world existed in the palm of gigantic beings, their bodies made out of more stars and dark space. In their heads were blue suns, lighting up the darkness around them. There were tens of thousands of such beings, each one monitoring a planet and her view soon zoomed in on one particular planet: Earth itself. It moved to the oceans, where Sunset could now see creatures of mammoth proportions, sleeping deep under the earth’s surface. The giant being over the planet began to wave a finger across the atmosphere and one by one, these giant beings began to wake, stirring from the depths and rising up towards the surface, breaking underwater mountains and causing the waters to churn and swirl. One such creature had a familiar single giant eye, which shone of an unknown brilliance, fixed above a huge mouth filled with rows of stalagmite-like teeth, each one bigger than Sunset’s apartment complex. It had no body or even arms and legs, but tentacles trailed from behind its head, long and thick, swishing in the water as the thing moved. “Hamoraeyl, the Revealer, the first to show the way to the Universe’s Truth… Rise from the deep and reveal all…” a darker voice spoke in Sunset’s ear, a voice that filled her with dread beyond anything she had ever known. And her view shifted once more, revealing all the giant planet entities circling around a dark shape, something black beyond any black Sunset had seen before. In its center was a blinking red light, like that of a signal tower. The giants were lined up as they revolved around the darkness, and one by one, they threw their planets into the dark void, which opened up in rows of teeth, consuming them entirely. “The end of the universe. It comes. And you will wait it out in bliss.” Sunset screamed and her visions ended, bringing her back to reality. But nothing would be the same again. With her mind now opened, with the truth of all worlds revealed, her head itched. No, not her head. It was her mind. Her brain itched, and it was an itch Sunset could not reach. The Fluttershything had let go of her, but Sunset did not try to escape. She instead tried to get at the itch within her skull, clawing at her head, trying to get in. “Stop. Stop itching!” she cried out, desperate to scratch it. From the top of her head, tendrils began to sprout and they pierced through her skull like it was made out of mud and they extended up as high as they could before falling past her face like hair. Each tendril was like a worm with a single eyeball on each end, writhing in place as Sunset lost her sanity to the Universe’s Truth. “All is now known, the true workings of the world.” Sunset’s mouth opened and closed on its own. Then together with the Fluttershything, they both threw themselves off the railing and disappeared into the water below, which was now dark and unmoving, as though nothing had ever been there in the first place. “Moral of the story? Don’t go looking for the truth. You might not like it!” Pinkie finished ecstatically. “The end!” “Woah nelly, Pinks. You really come up with the weirdest things.” Applejack took off her hat, trying to comprehend tonight’s story. “How’d ya come up with all this?” “I dunno!” Pinkie tapped the side of her head with a knuckle. “It comes as it comes!” “Well, I enjoyed it.” Velvet stood up and pulled her hood over her head. “For the most part. Wasn’t a big fan on the gross stuff, but it was interesting. Very, uh, how should I say this… out of this world.” “You can say that again. I can’t believe I died.” Rainbow pouted, then picked up the bucket of water by her log. “Well, time for some shut eye. Hopefully we won’t dream of the stuff. Everyone ready?” “Well, may you find out the Universe’s Truth, Rainbow. Go for it.” Applejack laughed. “No thanks. Not after what Pinkie’s told us.” And she poured the water over the fire, plunging them all into darkness. “Till next time we meet for more spooks.”