//------------------------------// // Vierte // Story: Gestalt // by The Writer's Group //------------------------------// Hoopy McGee was given only the third chapter and was asked to write this fourth chapter. Twilight trotted back into Ponyville in the early evening, deep in thought. It was a pity she hadn’t had more time to talk to Zecora’s friend, the kudu named Shujaa. Meeting the enigmatic shaman from southern Zebrica had been both fascinating and frustrating, because she had left almost immediately after Twilight had met her. There were so many questions she’d wanted to ask! But only one that the kudu had answered, albeit using Zecora as a translator. Her thoughts once again turned to the charm in the small satchel that Shujaa had given her. Part of her itched to bring it into her lab and dissect it, to see if she could figure out how the charm worked. Another part of her was worried that she might need it, if she ended up having to seek out Shujaa in her homeland. “Twilight!” Spike’s voice broke her out of her reverie. She turned to see a mud-coated Rarity hauling a wagon with an equally filthy Spike riding in the back, atop a load of gems. The little dragon jumped off of the cart and ran up to her, wide-eyed. “My goodness, what happened to you two? Are you alright?” “No time for that, darling,” Rarity said, grimacing at her filthy mane. “There is some strange creature hunting around Rambling Rock Ridge. It seems fairly dangerous. It almost ate Spike!” “What?” Twilight replied, alarmed. “Spike, are you okay?” “Yeah,” the dragon said with a shudder. “I’m going to have nightmares about it for a while, though.” “All right, tell me what happened,” Twilight said, her horn flaring with a quick cleaning spell. “Oh, thank you dear!” Rarity said as the mud flowed off of her mane and coat. She still looked disheveled, but not nearly as bad as before. “What about me?” Spike said, and Twilight smiled before turning the cleaning spell on him as well. “Come on,” Twilight said. “Let’s head to the library, and you can tell me all about it.” The water from the stream was blessedly cool as Fluttershy simply submerged her entire face into it. Pulling her head out, she shook her mane, grimacing as the motion aggravated the pain in her head and neck, and caused her headache to spike alarmingly. With a sigh, she leaned back down to the stream and taking in a mouthful of water. She rinsed it around her mouth, then spit a stream of red back into the gently moving stream. Blood. She stared at it, wide-eyed and frightened. Was it her blood, or something else’s? She didn’t know. She felt her stomach roll with nausea as whatever she’d eaten lay unpleasantly in her gut. She put that out of her mind, as well. Rinse, and spit. Rinse, and spit. She repeated the action until, eventually, the red faded enough that she finally felt herself able to relax. Still, there was a taste of blood in her mouth, and so she ran her tongue around the interior. Several places were raw, injured. Fluttershy heaved a shaky sigh of relief, knowing that the blood was hers, and not some other creature’s. Her stomach rolled again, reminding her that it may not all be hers. Her memory turned to the belled collar that had been tangled up in her mane when she’d awoken just a few short minutes ago. She had pulled it out, staring at it with both confusion and vaguely-remembered horror, then dropped it there in front of her ruined cottage door before bringing herself to the stream. She collapsed on the bank of the stream outside of her cottage, crying miserably. Angel patted her, desperate to comfort the miserable pegasus. What was happening to her? Twilight listened as her friends, now comfortably seated in the Books and Branches library, related their tale. The mud that had covered them both was easily explained by a crash from an over-enthusiastic Rainbow Dash as she cleared away the last remnants of the previous night’s storm. However, the creature that had attacked them soon after sounded unfamiliar, and incredibly dangerous. “You’re saying it had a rose bush growing from it’s head?” Twilight asked, confused. “No, darling,” Rarity explained patiently. “I said it’s mane looked like thorn-covered vines. I never mentioned roses.” “It tried to eat me!” Spike added proudly. “But I clawed up the inside of its mouth pretty good, and it ended up spitting me out.” Twilight smiled fondly at the proud-looking dragon, though inside the thought of something eating her number one assistant filled her with a mixture of creeping horror and a smoldering rage. “And the sunlight drove it away?” she asked. “Yes, once Rainbow Dash cleared the remaining cloud cover. It seemed frightened, or perhaps hurt, by the sunlight.” “So, it will be more dangerous at night than during the day,” Twilight said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully with a hoof. “What happened after that?” “Rainbow went off to look for Fluttershy once again. She was concerned because she hadn’t seen the poor dear since yesterday.” Twilight felt her heart freeze in her chest. “You don’t think... Do you think this creature could have gotten to her?” Rarity dropped her teacup, wide-eyed. “Rainbow Dash did say that Fluttershy’s door was beaten up,” she whispered. Twilight bolted to her hooves, and Rarity did the same. Spike looked between the two mares, confused. “We need a search party, now.” Twilight said. “Rarity, go get the mayor. Spike, get my map of Ponyville and all the surrounding areas.” Rarity nodded and galloped off, while Spike started rummaging through a shelf for her map. A thought ate at the back of her mind. Shujaa. The intimidatingly tall kudu shaman with the gentle smile had come here from her distant homeland, chasing some sort of a spirit or demon. What if it wasn’t actually dead? What if it was still out there? Once again, she pictured the small tied satchel in her saddlebags, containing a charm that Zecora said would transport her to Zebrica “in under a week”. A week might be too long, especially if Fluttershy was in danger. She dismissed the thought from her mind as irrelevant. The first step, obviously, was to find out what happened to Fluttershy. Anything else was secondary. Spike brought the map, and Twilight laid it out on the table, taking a ruler and marking out a series of grids. They’d search everywhere on this map, if they had to. Twilight was determined to see that it was so. The sun was setting. Fluttershy watched as the horizon dimmed and the light faded. Her skin felt hot, itchy. Uncomfortable. Strange. She fell to her side, and Angel bunny, who’d been with her the entire time she’d been awake, scampered away warily, hiding in a hole underneath her cottage. Fluttershy felt a moment of sadness at her little friend’s fear of her before the pain came on her once again. Her vision blurred. Somewhere in the back of her mind, on the edge of her hearing, was a laughing, or a howling. It was hard to tell which. It sounded wild, raw. Mournful and joyful at once, and barely sane. Angel bunny watched with helpless frustration and terror as his friend twitched and moaned on the path outside of her cottage. Twin green eyes flashed open, glowing in the darkness. Hooves separated, becoming gnarled claws. As the last light faded, Angel saw the bright yellow coat fade into an ugly brown. Jagged teeth flashed at him from the shadows, and then the beast, its nose pressed to the ground, snuffled its way away from the cottage. A look of determination crossed Angel’s features. He followed, though from a great distance, ready to flee at any moment. When somepony was in trouble, Ponyville set to with a will. It was one of the things that most impressed Twilight Sparkle about the citizens of this small town. Nopony was left behind, nopony who was truly in trouble was left to fend for herself. Ponies trickled in, and she sent them out in groups of three to the various grids marked off on the map, making careful note of who went where in order to avoid covering the same ground twice. Pegasi were sent out both as arial search parties, and to keep the groups in contact with each other. She ached to go out and start searching, herself. One of her closest friends could be in danger, and here she was, stuck in the library. Objectively, she knew that the search would be much more effective if properly organized, which also represented their best hope to find her friend. Emotionally, it was taking every effort of her will to avoid galloping wildly out the door. Please be safe, Fluttershy, Twilight thought earnestly. Please come back to us.