“So let me get this straight; we broke out of the poor excuse for prison in this measly little village, rescued some dumbass-” the earth stallion glared at Foggy; -“and are now on. The. Run.” the mare screeched.
“You missed the part where I did something useful. I’m sure there was one.” Crimson Thorn groused.
“Yeah, well, what would I know, right? You know, because I have no memory of the past four hours.” Foggy rolled her eyes.
“How the Tartarus did I end up with two idiotic mares with actual crap for the one brain cell between the both of them?” The stallion whispered, his hooves coming up to his face.
“Oh shut up… uhhh… Hunchback Tugboat?” Foggy narrowed her eyes. “What was your name again? Seriously you’re just so forgettable.”
“Honey Tongue, buckwit.”
“Did I tell you to shut up or not?”
He shot another glare her way. Foggy bared a mouth full of teeth quickly sharpening into fangs.
“Ugh, Crimson, was it? Keep your marefriend on a tighter leash, would you?”
Crimson Thorn twisted her hoof in an obscene gesture towards him. Honey shut his eyes tight and held his face in a firmer grasp.
“Wha- we- no- oh bucking shut up will you!” Foggy snapped.
“What she said. Also, pretty sure the guard said your name was Bittersweet Bee. Honey Tongue my ass.” Crimson spat.
“I’m going to kill you.” He grumbled.
“Oh yeah, try to kill the undead Vampony, why don’t you. Tell me how that works out when you’re done murdering my cold, already dead body.”
“I think I will. Give me one more minute out here in the Everfree-trying-to-bucking-eat-me-forest.”
“Me telling you to shut up is still in effect.” Foggy’s sclera were pitch black now, and her pupils were naught but slits.
“I’m going to have to knock her out. Again. Thank you Bittersweet Bee.”
One week before.
The sky was barely pushing dawn when Cobblestone finally discussed his long, sleepless night with Cream Partridge. The hues that danced across the heavens were a pale blush mirroring pink, though not enough of a shade to become an actual pink colour.
He was absolutely sure that Moonbeam Thought was the monster.
He was absolutely sure he knew what he saw the last night.
But despite his absolute surety, Cream Partridge wouldn’t stop needling Cobblestone on the details. He knew that there was a deadly monster hiding behind the thin facade of that grey pegasus, she didn’t know any such thing. And so, that other pegasus he knew kept debating him on everything about his chance encounter in the darkness of the woods.
“Are you certain that you weren’ jus’ sleep deprived, or you didn’ jus’ hit your head? It happens to the bes’ of us!”
“No, Cream. I knew exactly what happened, and I know exactly what I saw.”
“I’m pretty sure I know that you didn’ know what you actually saw.”
“Oh shush up will you?”
“No, I really don’ think I will ‘shush up’, sincerely, me.” Cobblestone internally rolled his eyes. Her voice was giving him a headache.
“Yeah, well, once everypony else hears my case, I’m sure they’ll agree with me!”
She sighed. “If this is the hill you’ll die on…”
“We’ll all die if I don’t warn everypony!”
“On a hill?”
He ground his teeth together. “Possibly.”
“And I don’ suppose you have a plan?”
Cobblestone grimaced. “Half of one.”
“Hit me with it!”
“One word for you: Mutiny. We’ll rise up, take over the camp, and make the world a few monsters safer.”
“That makes no sense.”
He fought the urge to sock her in the face.
This would work, and Twilight help him if it didn’t.
Gybh woke up with a bad feeling. Her back paws ached with a dull pain, her eardrums popped almost a second after she awoke, and most damning of all, she felt sick to her stomach.
Today was not going to be a good day. But until she knew what she could even do about any of it, she’d just have to go about her day as usual. Did this stop her morning brain from speculating wildly about what could possibly be wrong?
No. Why would it?
She pulled her snow-socks on and draped her poncho over her shoulders. With a flourish, she set this morning’s flower crown on her head. Fake sunflowers interwoven with sprays of snowdrops and finished off with a crown jewel in the form of a blue, two layer flower with five petals she’d found in the forest the afternoon before when she’d been constructing the crown. Her suitcase lay open, bundles of fake flowers spilling out in all conceivable shades of the rainbow.
Once she was properly attired, flower crown and all, Gybh set off for the Staff Basement. Foggy would presumably be awake by the time she got there, and hopefully not all…
Well. If Foggy Bramble was still a danger to the camp at large, then she could just stay down there until she was safe to be around fillies and colts again.
When she did finally get to the Staff Basement’s door, opening it and calling out into the darkness, Gybh wasn’t met with snarls, howls, or vicious ferocity, but laughter.
Two pale yellow-green dots, glowing in the darkness, flickered and shook as giggles erupted from the darkness. To her relief, the noise sounded decidedly identical to Foggy Bramble.
“Foggy? What’s so funny?”
“Oh, you should see yourself right now! I can’t stop! It’s too- hahahahahahahahaha! Oh my ever-loving Twilight! What have you done!”
“Hey! Stop fooling around! I can and will leave you in the murder basement!” She threatened.
This threat was met with more laughter. What could possibly be so funny? One of Gybh’s claws unconsciously shot up to her flower crown, fearing that it was crooked. What she was instead met with was a long, sharp point jutting cleanly out of her forehead, just below her crown.
“WHAT THE TARTARUS IS THAT” She screamed.
Foggy giggled. “A horn. Guess who’s a birdicorn now!”
“WHY IN- IN- I- ARGHHHHHHH” Gybh spluttered.
“And that’s not even the best thing!”
Dreading the answer, Gybh shook her head, claw still firmly grasped on the offending protrusion, as if she could pull it off with enough strength.
“It’s magenta!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Not magenta! To say Gybh hated magenta was a vast understatement.
“YESSSSSSSS!” Foggy shouted back.
“Wha- but how- I can’t- no- oh pleas- argh how?!”
“Wait, you didn’t notice the poison joke in your flower crown? I mean, I’m all the way down here in the murder basement and I can see it!”
Gybh lurched forward. She’d heard rumours of such a flower, but never in all her years as a Group Leader had she encountered it. The pinpoints of light in the darkness noticeably shrank back, as if flinching away from her. No- not her -the poison joke she’d unknowingly put in today’s flower crown.
“Is- is there a cure?”
“Of course. It was covered pretty well in the guidebook.”
“Thanks for reminding me you seem to be the only one who actually read that when it actually matters.”
“Ok, ok. Let’s get out of here and fix your, in my opinion, marvellous horn.”
“Moonbeam?”
“Yyyeah?”
“Do you know how hard it was to get you back to your senses last night?”
“Nnnnope.”
“Well great, because you ate a squirrel last night.”
The pegasus shot bolt upright, all the drowsiness evaporating into unfortunate clarity. Their face flicked between horror, disgust and fear before finally settling on and sticking with cold understanding.
“I… did… what?”
“Check your teeth. I think you’ve still got a bit of tail fur stuck between…” Vig opened her mouth and pointed at a spot in her lower jaw.
“I- I- hurk! Ohcrapohcrapohcr-” she was cut off by a violent retch. No bodily fluids hit the ground, though.
“Oh, and you already threw up everything in there.” A questioning, but pained glance reminded Vig of the apparent memory loss that comes with complete physical change.
“Did I fail to mention how damn hard I hit you in the gut last night?” She shrugged. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“…screw you, Sauvignon…”
“Not interested. And also: sorry. And also also, don’t bucking call me that!”
“Urgh I’ll murder you. Even if you’re already dead, mosquito ass!”
“Says the literal bit-” Vig was cut off with a raised hoof and a vehement glare that could kill a basilisk.
“I’m not not sorry.” She mumbled.
“What else went wrong last night?”
“Well between you puking your guts up- which I am still sorry about, by the way -and Cobblestone screaming his cutie-mark-less ass off, there was that strangely shaped tree…”
“Can you circle back the part where, oh, I don’t know- Cobblestone saw me?! Like, wouldn’t that have been better to lead with? Wait, no, please tell me he didn’t see me. Vig, tell me he didn’t see me!”
“Well, uh…”
“Twilight damn me to the Twilight-damned moon!”
“Hey! Not my fault your pitiful coltfriend walked in on you in the middle of being a terrifying creature of the darkest parts of the Everfree.”
“Not my coltfriend. Don’t insinuate for a second that Mr. Snowball Massacre is even remotely romantically involved with me!”
“You’d think…”
“I don’t even swing that way! Even if I did, not my type!”
“Can you take a joke?”
“Not really.” Moonbeam muttered.
“And so, as the monsters that slumber beneath the skin of our friends and family wake up to a new dawn where they are not wanted, we shall flourish! We! The true ponies who walk without fear in the light of the sun!”
Once you got him going, Ice Desert was a brilliant public speaker. Once you had him convinced that the monsters that resided only in nightmares were rising up to kill everypony in the camp, though, he was downright inspiring.
“How do we achieve this glorious new future, an era that shall be remembered as golden for years to come, but by rising! Rise up, my friends! Together, we shall do what has never been done before! We shall not be content in the shadow of monsters any longer! Rise and create that new dawn!”
Was that a cutie mark on his flank? Ice Desert was going to be one happy colt as soon as his tirade finished. A white outline of a pony, with bright yellow wavy lines encircling the head of the outline. Something to do with public speaking or how he was perceived? Yeah, special talents tended to be pretty damn ambiguous sometimes.
“No more will we cower in the dark! Let us fight for our light! The light of our new dawn!”
And with that, he let out one last roaring cheer, he lowered himself off his hind legs and graciously bowed to the crowd of young ponies who were assembled in the lunch hall. Thunderous claps and whoops broke out almost as soon as he finished.
At the back of the hall, two mares and a stallion glanced nervously at each other. Cobblestone watched the trio with mild fascination before his attention was again captivated by the revolutionary uprising happening right before his eyes.
The colt on the makeshift stage at the front of the hall had launched into another speech, still oblivious to the mark on his rear end. The way Ice’s snow-white hair bobbed around up there was reminiscent of a mad dove flapping about as if caught in a hailstorm.
All in all, this mutiny was coming together quite nicely. The monster would probably be slain by the days end. The only problem left were the Group Leaders. Oh yeah. They’d definitely try to fight back against his amazing push for glory.
He turned back to the back of the hall, only to find that Bright Stream, Crimson Thorn and Sage Mercy were nowhere to be found. Foggy Bramble and Gybh hadn’t even turned up to breakfast.
He’d have to deal with them later, as Ice Desert was beckoning him to come onstage. He may have been a good talker, but Cobblestone was the one with the plan. The orange colt gave one last round of bows before stepping off to make way for Cobblestone.
This was it. His moment in the spotlight. Time to shine.
But the sea of fillies and colts- the majority older than him -seemed to stretch on into the distance of eternity. When had his throat gotten so dry? Everypony was looking at him. Everypony was expecting him to say something.
Eyes, eyes and so many eyes in all shades of the colour spectrum leered up at him. So many eyes.
“Um, ahem. So, uh… we will…” he looked desperately offstage. Public speaking had never been this hard for him. Ice Desert flashed him a quick smile before he went back to gazing at his new cutie mark.
“So, yeah, uh… I know most of you don’t know me… but, um… we share a common enemy! The monsters that lurk in the shadows… uhhh… waiting to kill us all! We have to rise against them! Stand with me! We shall kill those who wish to slaughter us from the darkness!”
He could see a few wayward glances being cast around the room. Muttering flowed throughout the audience. He was losing them. Time for the real talk.
“I- I know where this monster lurks. It has made the Nurse’s Cabin it’s lair, masquerading under the face of somepony I knew. We will- no, we must venture there and put an end to the danger it imposes upon us all!”
“So, who’s with me?”
Nopony stood. More and more pairs of eyes turned away from him and towards the door. Some actually began to move towards the exit.
“I am.” He hadn’t heard Ice Desert come up behind him, but suddenly all the attention was back on the stage.
“I am!” Cream Partridge, down in the audience, stood and gave a mock salute.
“I suppose?” Juneberry Stag.
“I am.”
“I am!”
“I’m with him!”
“I am.”
More and more ponies, and some that were at least half-ponies, standing and calling out their allegiance, their dedication to him and his just cause.
And yet he couldn’t help but notice that the ranks had thinned a bit. Most of the camp was present, but there were definitely a few deserters. Cobblestone wasn’t mad. After all, if you couldn’t trust somepony to be loyal to the cause, then why keep them around?
“Then we go! To the monster’s lair!” He shouted.
A cheer erupted from the gathered fillies and colts. Ice Desert gave him a winning grin.
This was all going to go according to plan. He could just feel it.