//------------------------------// // Tales around the campfire // Story: Tales around the campfire // by skytail //------------------------------// Tales around the campfire “Let’s tell scary stories.” Rainbow Dash, a light blue Pegasus with a rainbow striped mane and tail, said. Rainbow dash and her 5 other friends, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, planned to have a bond fire in the cool pre-autumn night. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were the first to arrive. Twilight, a purple unicorn with a purple mane and tail with a light pink stripe going through them, scowled at her friend who had already started to put out the ingredients for the s'mores. “Rainbow Dash, this is supposed to be nice quiet night. Not an excuse to try and scare us.” The orange earth pony with a straw colored tail and mane, known as Applejack, began to stoke up the fire. “Actually Twi’” she said. “That’s not such a bad idea.” Twilight had a shocked expression on her face. “Applejack, you think so?” “Well, the way ah see it is that scary stories could be a good way fer us to bond and what not.” The farm pony explained. “pluf shay aref fary fun oo kell.” Rainbow dash said with a marshmallow in her mouth. “Dash, save those until the others get here.” Twilight reprimanded the Pegasus as she pulled the bag of marshmallow away with her magic. “And I’m just worried about Fluttershy. You know how easily she gets scared.” Rainbow scowled at having her tasty, mushy, and fluffy treat taken away. Her disappointment disappeared as she heard the chitter chatter of somepony coming down the path. A few seconds later a white unicorn with a curly purple mane and tail, a light yellow shy looking Pegasus with a very long pink mane and tail, and bouncy pink pony with an unruly poofy pink mane and tail, came through the break in the bushes that seemed to make a natural barrier around the area that held the fire-pit. Twilight turned her head to greet the newcomers. Rainbow took this brief moment of distraction to swoop around Twilight, grabbing the bag of marshmallow out of Twilights magic field. “HA!” she said victoriously. Twilight just rolled her eyes then turned back to the ponies that just arrived. “Hello Rarity, Pinkie pie, Fluttershy.” She greeted them, nodding her head in turn to each one. “Glad you could make it.” Pinkie Pie, the pink pony, set down the basket she was carrying next to where the S’mores were, minus the bag of marshmallows that Rainbow Dash was devouring. “Hello Twilight. Are you ready for the most fun bond fire night ever? I sure am. And don‘t worry about running out of S’more stuff, I brought extra, you know in case of S’more or S’more related emergency.” The Pinkie pony said excitedly in one breath. Twilight just smiled and said. “Good, because it looks like we might run out of marshmallows first.” She said annoyed, looking over at Rainbow Dash. Dash stopped right in the middle of popping another one of the white fluffy snack into her mouth. Her mouth was hanging open and her tongue slightly out. She quickly strained up putting the marshmallow back in the bag and blushing. Heh, Sorry.” She apologized, and then trying to get the subject off of her, Dash added. “So guess what, we are going to tell spooky ghost stories tonight.” “That was never agreed upon.” Twilight said. “Actually, that sounds like a simple marvelous idea, Darling.” Rarity said. She was sitting on a nice looking cushion she had brought with her, not wanting to sit on the dirt. She had on a pink and slightly lighter pink stripped scarf around her neck. “But what about Fluttershy?” Twilight asked Rarity. Before getting an answer she turned to the yellow Pegasus, who was setting up logs in the fire pit gently. “Are you Okay with this, Fluttershy?” she asked. Fluttershy sat on her haunches and stared at Twilight. “Oh, um…yes? I mean I don’t want to be the one to stop you girls from doing something you really want to do.” She said quietly and with a very shy look on her face. “Are you sure?” Twilight asked. “You already heard the lady, she said its fine.” Dash answered for the Shy Pegasus. “Dash.” Twilight scolded, glaring at dash. Fluttershy then spoke up. “No really it’s okay. In fact I might have a story too. If you want to hear it I mean.” Dash had to cover her mouth with her hoof to keep from laughing. “You have a scary story to tell?” she asked between snickers. “BWAHAHAHAHA!” she burst out laughing. Twilight just rolled her eyes then leaned down to the Fluttershy, who had a sad look on her face. “It’s okay Fluttershy, I want to hear your story, I bet it’s really scary.” She said, trying to comfort her shy friend. “Okay.” Dash piped up. “If you’re such an expert on scary stories then you tell one.” Dash challenged the purple unicorn. “Oh, I don’t.” Twilight said unconvincingly. “C’mon Twi. Why, I bet you can come up with one frightnin’ tale.” Applejack encouraged. “I bet you could come up with a super spooky tale of horror, suspense, romance, and spit takes.” Pinkie piped in. Twilight gave in and then thought for a moment. She brightened up as something came to mind she magically lit the fire and cleared her throat. “Okay girls, I remember an old story that, according to the journals of the legendary star swirled the bearded, really happened. Sit tight and get ready for… The lost spell Many years ago, in the beginning of Celestia’s rule, there was a powerful unicorn named Starswirl. He was the personal mage to the princesses. He had a young apprentice named clover. Clover was a very special unicorn. He was smart, helpful, but most of all, he was powerful, and Starswirl could sense it. In the early days of his apprenticeship, clover made many mistakes, but one so terrible that it is rumored to be the cause of nightmare moon. One day in the early summer season, Starswirl in trusted his young apprentice to a very special task. “I want you to get rid of these spells.” Starswirl told Clover. Clover nodded his head. “Certainly, teacher, I will conjure up a fire spell and-“ Clover was cut off by Starswirl, losing the fire spell he was conjuring up in his horn. “No! These spells are powerful.” He warned. “Using magic on them could cause them to activate and mix with whatever spell you used causing a deviation of unknown origin.” Clover was surprised. Glad that he didn’t mix the spells. “Then what am I to do, teacher?” he asked. Starswirl gently laid the spells on a board then laid that board on another, and levitated the bottom board to lift the stack. He took it over to where a cauldron had been cooking something greenish blue. He tilted the stack until the top board holding the spell slipped in to the strange concoction. “Come and see, my boy.” Clover complied and walked over to his teacher and looked into the liquid. “What is it? What’s happening?” he asked, not sure what he was looking at. Starswirl simply smiled and motioned him to look back into the caldron. “It’s a special mix of ink thinner and gremlin blood.” Clover wrinkled his nose at hearing the strange ingredients. “This mixture should wash the spell away and the effects it had on the paper.” Starswirl continued. “But teacher, why are we getting rid of these spells if they are so powerful?” clover asked. He winced when he saw that the ink on the paper faded in to almost nothing. “With the rise of nightmare moon, we cannot take the chance of her getting her hooves on these, so we must destroy them.” Starswirl explained as he gently levitated the board and scroll that barley held any remnants of the spell on it. Starswirl placed the board on a table and teleported a strange brush from across the room to his apprentice. “What is this?” clover asked, inspecting the brush by turning it about in his magic. The brush was about 8 inches long and looked like any normal scrubbing brush except that the bristles were made from an ever moving fur. Clover touched the bristles with his hoof and the fur felt soft like a cloud, but had the texture of the wind. “This certainly is a strange brush.” Clover commented. “That is because it is made from the hair of a banshee; now scrub the spell from the scroll and do what I have shown you with these.” He gestured to the stack of 30 or more spells on the edge of the table. Clover scowled at the stack and muttered, “This is going to take me all day.” under his breath. Starswirl whipped his head around to stare at Clover. “What was that?” he asked with a sarcastic tone. “Oh, I w-was just saying, um, I’ll do just as you say.” Clover fumbled out, giving a silly looking salute. “Hmm, of course.” The wise unicorn master said. “Please do try to be careful.” “I will do my best to finish this task as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.” Clover promised. Starswirl gave a light smile and then went to attend to other duties. When clover confirmed that his teacher had gone, he set to work on the plan he had formed in his head. “My master told me not to use spells on these,” he thought to himself. “But using my magic to summon somepony to help me get rid of these would not be using magic on them.” “Now where was that spell?” clover asked out loud, swiveling his head around the room to find the book with the desired spell in it. “Ah ha!” he exclaimed as his eye fell upon the book he needed. He used his magic to levitate the book to him. The book had a dark brown leather skinned cover and the text, “summon spells and potions.” scrolled in silver ink on the front. He flipped through the pages until he got to “S”. The summon spell he found was called “shinigami” and the spell overview read this: A pony-noid demon, the Shinigami is an entity in Jump-anese pony-lore that is responsible for seeing that a pony dies at their appointed time. This spell can summon this demon to do ones bidding. Be forewarned that when one summons this creature it can be seen by all. You should make sure you keep an eye on it at all times or you run the risk of having the Shinigami wander off… Clover just turned the page to the spell itself skipping what the overview had to say. He looked over the spell making, sure he could get all the details of it right. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on the spell. His horn glowed a soft green, but gradually got brighter as he put more energy into the spell. When he cast the spell a figure began to fade into existence. It was a pony shaped being but it had extremely long front legs and a cream colored head that actually floated off its shoulders. Its blood red mane acted like a bridge as it started at the top of the creatures head and went the whole length down it back connecting to the tail. Clover was taken aback at the look of the Shinigami but tried not to show it as he began to speak to it. “Hello my name is Clover. I have summoned you to take these spells,” he motion to the stack.” And hide them in your world down in Tartarus.” The Shinigami said nothing but nodded his head slowly. After a long awkward silence with the Shinigami not doing anything clover spoke up. “I’m going to step out for a minute and let you work alone.” Clover smiled awkwardly and slowly backed out of the room, leaving the creature alone. An hour later Clover returned with his teacher, Starswirl. Clover had managed to find his teacher, who was quite astonished that his apprentice finished so quickly. “Trust me, master. I have gotten rid of the entire stack of spells, we will never see them…” he stopped mid-sentence as he opened the door, “…again?” The whole chamber was trashed and ransacked, and there was no sign of the Shinigami. Torn up books littered the floor, potions and other magic fluids were covering the whole room. Starswirl was shocked, his mouth agape. “Student, what have you done?” he asked. Clover hardly heard him as he stared in horror at what he saw before him. It was an open window with a piece of blood red fur sticking to the window seal. The Shinigami had wrecked the chamber stolen the powerful spells and then ran off to wonder the living realm. “…And they say that the spirit of death that Clover conjured up is still roams Equestria, seeking for a way back into the realm of death.” Twilight finished the story. The whole group said nothing when Twilight finished her tale. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. “WOW Twi, I didn’t know you were actually able to tell a scary story but I have to admit that was pretty good!” Pinkie Pie Suddenly spoke up. “Hay, wait a minute. I thought Starswirl the bearded and Clover the clever lived before the founding of Equestria and the ruling of the princesses.” She tilted her head as she said this. “There is a reasonable explanation for that.” Twilight said “And what would that be, Twilight?” Rarity asked as she spread a perfectly browned marshmallow on the gram cracker and piece of chocolate bar she held in her magic. “Starswirl the bearded and Clover the Clever are just Titles given to the ponies in that line of work.” Twilight stated matter-of-factly. “The Titles were discontinued after nightmare moon’s banishment.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah Yeah. You’re an Egg head we get it.” Rainbow teased. “I thought we went over this, Twilight’s head isn’t an egg, it’s not even egg shaped it’s more like a-“Pinkie started but was stopped when Rainbow Dash put her hoof in Pinkie’s mouth to silence the pink pony. “Okay who’s next?” Rainbow asked her hoof still in Pinkie’s mouth. “Twilight’s story was good an’ all, but ah have an even better one, because my own grandpa saw it happen.” Applejack spoke up. “Listen up evry’ pony as ah tell ya’ll about the time my Grandpa saw… Long John: the pony with the hay hook horn. It happened, ah’d say, twenty or so years ago. There was this unicorn named Long John. His special talent was clerin’ stuff, because of this he was always picked to clear the snowy forest paths durin’ winter warp up. One day, he went to go clear the paths in the woods. But he was not seen again after that. The citizens of Ponyville wrangled up a search party to go look fer em’. One search team found the snow clearin’ cart still activated in the woods but there was blood everywhere and what looked like a horn jammed into the plow. What the detective concluded was that Long John must have been clearin’ the wood’s path until, what they guessed was a deer, crossed his path and he ran smack dap into it. Long John musta’ tried to pull the broken dead animal free of the snow plow with his magic, but he forgot to turn it off, so he probly’ tugged and tugged until, SNAP! His horn broke clean off. Judgin’ on the trail o’ blood leadin’ away from the scene, he must have hobbled deep into the woods. Well, with a fatal wound and the fact he trailed deep into predator territory he was presumed dead. But the strange thing was that no body was ever found. Now a few nights after, mah granddad, Crab Apple, noticed that one of his hay hooks had gone missin’, so he thought nothin’ of it. That was until he found the slaughtered cow just outside mah family’s property. Grandpa Crab guessed this musta’ been some sort of prank from some thoughtless teens, and notified the authorities. Mah grandpa took it upon himself to catch the varmints responsible for the murder of one of his fine cows when the police took no heed to his complaint. The next night and every night after that, muh grandpa would find another dead cow, chicken and even a few pigs. He’d had enough, these killins’ were hurtin’ the family’s profits! So one night he stayed up, hidin’ near where the kills happened most. That’s when he saw him, just as another cow was being slaughtered, Grandpa Crab got out of his hidin’ place but wished he hadn’t as he saw a dirty, scrawny, and downright crazy lookin’ pony. He noticed that this pony looked an awful lot like the feller who had wandered off a few nights prior, except the mane and tail where styled in somethin’ that could only be described as creepy. But other than the crazy hair, and patches of fur missin’ on his flank, what he said was the scariest thing was that his cutie mark looked as if it had been slashed to an unrecognizable state and instead of a horn there lay, sticking out of his head, my grandpa’s missin’ hayhook. The pony said nothing, but at being startled bah muh Grandpa’s sudden appearance, he turned tail and ran into the darkness. Just as Grandpa Crab was about to run for help he saw the silhouette of Long John in the full moon, his hay hook horn casting a beam of moon light into muh grandpa’s eyes. “…and they say that Long John still wonders the forest around Equestria lookin’ fer victims to slash with his hay hook horn.” “AAHHHH!” Pinkie blurted out as she leaped in to the air and ran to hide behind Twilight. “It’s long John, he’s trying slash me!” The Ponies looked to where pinkie was sitting to find Rainbow Das with a sharp stick laughing hysterically. “HAHAHA, you should have se-seen the L-looks on your faces, Priceless!” Dash giggled out. Pinkie, realizing that it was just a prank began to burst out with her own giggle fit, laughing so hard that she actually started snorting like a pig. “Good one, Dashie!” Pinkie said after she calmed down enough to talk. “OOOO, I want to tell the next story, can I please, Can I?” Pinkie asked ash she bounced back to her seat. “Sure Pinkie, you can tell the next one. I’m saving mine for later.” Rainbow dash said then stuffed another S’more into her mouth. “Okay, hold on a minute.” Pinkie said, then got up and took a stick, she had leaned against a rock with the end near the flames of the fire, which was cooking a marshmallow, She smooshed the warm gooey treat between two gram crackers and a part of a chocolate bar. The other five ponies were waiting, annoyed as pinkie stuffed her face with S’more after S’more. “Oh please, dear, pace yourself with those.” Rarity commented. Pinkie just grinned and swallowed what she had in her mouth. “Sorry, okay. My scary story is so terrifying, younger readers may want to skim ahead.” Pinkie said. The group was dumbfounded as to who pinkie was referring to. “Read in shock as I tell you the story of…” The ugly Parasprite. Once upon a time there was an Ugly Parasprite; he was so ugly that everyone died the end. Pinkie grinned, as if she had just given the best advice known to Ponykind. Rainbow dash facehoofed then groaned. “Pinkie, we’re supposed to be telling scary stories.” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. “We’re telling scary stories?” she asked. Rainbow fell onto her back in defeat. She suddenly sprang back up. “Okay, to make up for pinkie’s lack of scary in her scary story,” Rainbow floated in the air rubbing her hooves together diabolically. “I guess it’s my turn now.” Rainbow Dash landed on the ground and began. “This is a true scary story.” She said. “Have any of you ever heard…” The tale of Red Eye. “C’mon let’s just see if it works?” A light blue earth mare, with short brown hair and long brown tail, asked. “No, that would be tampering in the dark arts.” The second pony, a deep orange Pegasus mare with just as short light green hair and short but curly tail said with a shaky voice. “It acts like a gate to let evil spirits into my house.” “So we have to call an exorcist? Don’t you think it will be fun, Moss?” the light blue pony asked. “No, Balsa, I don’t think it would be fun.” Moss answered. “I’m you best friend, let’s just try it once, besides, Red Eye is just an urban myth. You don’t expect anything to actually happen, do you?” Balsa asked skeptically. Moss shook her head. “Fine, we’ll try to summon him, but I swear if you try any funny business-“ “Like, don’t worry. It’s probably just gonna be lame and junk.” Balsa reassured. “Like, scouts honor and all that.” Balsa put a hoof to her chest and the other in the air. It did not take long for the two to set up summonses: Just a few candles, a pentagram star, a mirror, marker, and the instruction on how to summon Red Eye. The two ponies set the candles around the pentagram star and sat in the barrier of the candles. “Let’s see. The instructions say to chant this,” Moss pointed to a little paragraph that was the chant. “Then we write “Red Eye Dead Eye” Three times backwards on the mirror. With shaky hooves, Balsa gently placed the large hoof mirror between her and Moss. Then in unison they said: “Red Eye, Dead Eye is looking through; Red Eye Dead Eye will get you. Red Eye Dead Eye is almost here; Read Eye Dead Eye is your fear. Red Eye Dead Eye standing still Red Eye Dead Eye Came to kill.” Moss took the black marker and wrote Red Eye Dead Eye Backwards on the mirror three times. She shut her eyes after she finished. Nothing happened. Moss let out a relieved sigh. It was short lived when Balsa grabbed the marker from Moss and scribbled her own full name, Balsa Woodchips, in the little space left. Moss stared in horror and confusion. “What did you do?” she almost yelled. “I was, like, just thinking maybe we need to write our names or something. Maybe that would work.” Balsa answered, rolling her eyes. They both waited for a few seconds. “Well, I guess it was just a whole bunch of urban legend mumbo jumbo.” Balsa finally said. Moss let out another relieved sigh. She then checked the wall clock; it read 10:15 P.M. “It’s getting late,” moss said. “I really should be getting back home.” Balsa smiled. “Okay, like thanks for hanging out today. I guess I will see you, like, tomorrow?” Moss grinned and nodded her head. “See you tomorrow.” Balsa waved a goodbye to her Pegasus friend as she flew off. She didn’t know why, but as she stood there in the door way of her house she couldn’t help but feel like that she was being watched. She looked out across the street; she thought she saw some kind of figure standing on the other side of the road. This freaked her out and she quickly went inside and locked the doors, hoping that her parents would be home soon. She went all throughout her house turning out lights she wouldn’t need to use. As she finished her rounds around the house the phone rang. *BRRRRING, BRRRRING, BRRRRING-* “Hello?” Balsa answered the phone. There was no answer. “Hello?” she said again. Balsa hung up the phone. “Must have been a butt dial.” She said to herself out loud trying to calm her nerves. “I, like need to calm down and…” she trailed off as she looked around the room, looking for something to occupy her time. She spotted a hair bush on a coffee table. “…brush my mane!” She picked the brush up in her teeth and walked to her room where there was a mirror. On her way to her room, Balsa walked past a window. She did a double take as she thought she saw something catch her eye. She thought she saw something red and glowing in the street, but when she looked back she saw nothing. She took another deep calming breath. I, like, need to calm down. She thought to herself. She went into her bed room and began to brush her mane, the brushing calming her down. As she was about half way done, she saw something move in the corner of her mirror. She looked back but saw nothing. She put down her hair brush and walked out of her room. “Hello?” she called. “Is that you, Mom? Dad?” she asked hoping that they had come home while she was preoccupied. She once again walked through her whole house. But found that she still was the only pony there. She was beginning to panic. “AAHHH!” she squeaked as the front door, which she was standing next to, resounded the knocking of somepony at the door. “Coming” she said. Slowly, Balsa opened the front door. She almost screamed in horror at what stood there: at her door step was a large pony with a dark trench coat and large fedora coving his whole face, except for what looked like a bright, glowing… red eye. Balsa screamed in horror. “AAAHHHHH-.” her scream was cut off as she suddenly collapsed onto the ground, dead. The funeral was a few days later. The Doctors and detectives alike where baffled on how she died, but an autopsy revealed she died from a heart attack. The strangest part was not about how she had a heart attack at her young age, but that there was no reason for the heart attack, it was like her heart just stopped. Moss Stood, at the casket that held her dead friend, she cried deeply. She had no idea how she could have died. “This is my fault.” She said, weeping to herself. Moss then remembered the ritual they did to try and summon Red Eye. What if Red Eye was real and he killed her? Moss looked up. Something out of the ordinary caught her eye. Out on the other side of the cemetery there was a rather large stallion in a trench coat and hat. She had to squint to get a better look. She continued to stare on and realized that the pony was staring straight at her, almost through her. Then she saw it, coming from under the hat of the pony there was a soft red glow. Moss’s head began to get light and she fell to the ground. The world around her began to get darker and darker. The last thing she saw, before the darkness incased her, was one glowing red eye. The five ponies sat quietly as rainbow dash finished her tale. No pony said anything; even pinkie pie seemed at a loss for words for once. “Dash, that was horrible.” Twilight finally said after several seconds of silence. Dash looked insulted. “You have to be kidding me that story was the best one told tonight.” Dash defended herself. “I agree with Twilight.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “Same here.” Applejack agreed. “Me three.” Pinkie said holding up two of her front hooves and one of her back hooves, balancing on one back hoof. Pinkie quickly sat back down before she fell over. “Well How about, Fluttershy?” Dash said quickly. “What did you think of my story, Fluttershy?” Fluttershy, who had been completely silent this whole time, looked up at dash meekly. “Oh well, It was…um, nice?” she said in a quiet shaky tone. Dash smiled victoriously. “You see, Fluttershy said it was nice.” “Whatever.” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “I think we have time for one last story.” Twilight announced. “I do believe Fluttershy, mentioned she had a story to tell.” Rarity reminded. At that, Fluttershy perked up. “You really want to listen to my story?” She asked. “Why, sure we do Sugarcube.” Applejack encouraged. Fluttershy smiled “Ok, here’s my story.” Train runner There was once this train driver named Track crossing. He loved to drive trains and was always excited when he was called into work to drive. Well, one night, while he was driving his train he had to take a short detour because of construction on a bridge that went over a gorge. He would need to go around the gorge which, at night time was dangerous, but Track knew he could do it so he went. After about fifteen minutes of slow going, Track noticed some cute little deer running by the track, actually running right outside his window. He smiled, happy that he would be able to see beautiful wild life while maneuvering the twisty winding railway. He noticed that if he did not pick up the pace he would be late so he slowly increased the speed. As he was speeding a bit faster through the gorge he once again noticed the deer running outside his window. He was a bit confused, he didn’t even know that deer could fun that fast, so he increased the speed a little bit more to get away. All was calm until once again the deer appeared right outside the train window. Track was terrified beyond all belief! No living creature could run that fast so he picked up the speed up to get away. But it was no use. The deer was still right beside the train now starring straight at Track. The eyes of the deer were soulless. Track looked down to see how the deer could possibly be keeping up, but instead of a deer body, there was the scrawny body of a young buffalo. Track was so frightened that he put the brakes on the train as hard as he could. The train slowed down and then came to a screeching stop. Track saw the deer head, wearing buffalo zoom way ahead then disappear. Track looked up ahead of the train tracks. He had stopped just in time to keep from possibly tipping over at a really sharp turn. Track had realized that the Buffalo was trying to get him to run right off the rails. Ending his and the lives of the passengers in the crash that would have happened. The five friends stared in surprise at their shy friend. Even rainbow dash was shocked. “I had no idea you could tell scary stories like that.” Twilight was the first to talk. “That was a great story.” “Ok, so you were able to tell a halfway decent tale.” Dash commented. “But I think mine was the scariest.” “Well, this was sure one good night.” Applejack said. She then yawned, stood up and stretched her hooves. “It’s gittin’ mighty late.” “I must agree with Applejack. Tonight was fun but I do need my beauty sleep.” Rarity said packing up her things. Tonight was so much fun!” Pinkie exclaimed. “We should do it again sometime.” “Yeah, we should.” Fluttershy said. The six friends said there good byes and began to part ways. Twilight was the only one left in the small fire pit. “Tonight was a good night.” Twilight whispered. She then doused the fire and walked back to her Library, the Luna’s moon rising higher in the sky in front of her. The End, and a happy nightmare night.