//------------------------------//
// Enter, the N.E.C.C.B. 
// Story: N.E.C.C.B. 
// by BowtiesandFedoras 
//------------------------------//

	Knock, knock, knock.
The sound of rapping came from the front door of Applejack's home.
"Ah'm comin'..."
She opened it to see a stallion standing before her. He had a gray coat with the cutie mark of a tape recorder on his flank. She couldn't see his mane under his brown fedora, save for his horn, but she assumed it matched his messy, dark gray-and-white tail.
"Hello there!" he said with perkiness. "I'm Headline with the Ponyville Daily. I'm here to interview you about life here on the farm and about the recent apple shortage, if you'd be so kind."
He looked at her with red eyes and a smile. Something about his eyes struck her as odd, though. Something she couldn't place.
She looked at him again, pondering whether or not to let this stranger in.
"Shouldn't I have gotten some sort of letter or somethin' before hoof so I knew you were comin'?"
He looked mildly surprised. "Oh; I was told that one was sent to you. Maybe it just got lost in the mail. You know how Derpy can get sometimes..." Headline countered smoothly.
Applejack was quite familiar with the wall-eyed mailmare that was recently hired for the postal service.
"Trust me, I know," Applejack replied. Then, after another moment of thought, "All right, Ah guess you can come in."
Headline clicked the pen he was holding with his telekinesis and lifted a notepad the same way as he proceeded into the living room. He settled down into the couch and patted the cushion next to him.
"Have a seat."
Headline asked her several basic questions about her life: what goes on in the farm, what her family does to help out, recreational activities, what the apple-selling business was like, etc. He smiled and nodded, and occassionally wrote down notes on what she said. He noticed that she seemed tired and unfocused while answering his harmless questions. He lowered his notepad and looked at her strangely.
"Is everything... all right? You seem despondent," he asked curiously.
"Huh? Oh, I've just been workin' extra hard after the apple orchards started going bad."
"Ah, yes. Do tell me about that," he said picking up his pen and paper again.
She hesitated a moment, and then, "Well, Ah just don't understand what's goin' on. We're tending to the crops exactly like we've always done, but somehow they're doin' poorly. We've tried everything: watering 'em, trying different fertilizers, anything we could think of, but nothing works."
"Hmm... And you say you don't know why they're acting like this?"
"No. No clue."
"Could it be something in the water? Maybe some sort of bug infestation?"
"No, and no. We boil the water to sterilize it to get rid o' parasites, and we're sure to use plant-friendly pesticides."
Headline tapped his lips with the pen, deep in thought, then shrugged. He closed the notepad and clicked his pen to close it. His light perkiness vanished, and his tone became one of seriousness. The sudden change sent a chill down Applejack's spine.
"Tell me, and this is unrelated, but, have you seen anything... odd around here recently?"
Applejack looked at him with curiosity. "How d'ya mean?"
"Just anything odd; out of place, out of the ordinary," he looked at her with a straight face.
She rubbed her chin and looked at the ceiling, trying to think back on things she's seen recently.
"Hmm... Can't say that Ah have."
Headline looked down slightly and sighed quietly.
"Wait-"
He looked at her again, intrigued.
"I did see somepony around the lake near the back of the orchard a few times--Here, I'll show ya."
She led him upstairs to her bedroom and over to her bedside window. He had set his pen and notepad on the couch to mark his spot.
"See that lake right there?" She pointed to it with her hoof. There was a moderately-sized body of water just between the edge of the woods and the back fence of the farthest rows of apple trees of the orchard.
"Yes; what about it?" His stern look had not faltered.
"Well, Ah sometimes see a pony comin' out of the woods and goin' into the lake. They usually come out at night, so I can't tell who it is. It's probably just somepony going fer a late-night swim. Heh, don't even know why Ah brought it up now." She rubbed the back of her neck with a tinge of embarrassment.
Headline looked intently at the lake now, though Applejack didn't notice. In an instant, he reverted back to his perky attitude as though he never put on a guise of seriousness.
"Well, thank you for your time, Miss Applejack. I'll be on my way now; see you in the papers!"
He briskly returned downstairs, grabbed his pen and paper, and exited out the front door just as she could quickly spurt out a goodbye.
He dropped the perky act the very moment he closed the door behind him.
His smile vanished, and his eyes became gloomier, darker. He walked down the dirt path until he was joined by two other ponies walking beside him, each matching his spooky demeanor.
"The target area is Sweet Apple Acres, definitely," he said as he pulled off the tape recorder stickers on his flank that covered his cutie mark. "We're each going to monitor the area behind the farm tonight. More specifically, by the lake."
As he talked, he removed his hat, notepad and pen and held them in the air along with the stickers with his telekinesis. "Silver, I want you to stay in the clouds to get an aerial view," he said to the female pegasus on his left. "Zen, I want you hidden in the woods and watching carefully," he said to the male earth pony on his right. "Right now, we've got to go talk to Grey about supplies. We are dealing with a high-threat situation, so we've got to be careful. Are there any questions?"
"Yeah, I've got one," the pegasus, Silver, said. "Where are you gonna be?"
"Trust me, I'll be there," he said sternly.
He lifted the objects higher into the air, and they spontaneously burst into flames, sending a light sprinkle of dust and ash to the ground.
Without another word, the unicorn enveloped the trio in a bright sphere of light, and then they were gone in a flash.

~N.E.C.C.B.~

All was peaceful in Ponyville as Luna's beautiful moon shone down on it. Well, almost all.
Applejack was just getting ready for bed. She hung her hat on the rack behind her door. She yawned and settled into her bed. A single moonbeam shone into her room through the window, one that proved too bright for her comfort. She got out of bed to adjust the blinds.
As she got to the window, she spotted that same pony she had seen several times emerging from the woods and going to the miniature lake. The moon was brighter than it normally was, so she could just barely make out a few features on it. Its distance, however, posed a hindrance to further examination.
It looked like a pegasus; she could see some sort of appendages on the sides, it looked reddish, and seemed to have a sea-green colored mane and tail, but the same green could just barely be seen on the backs of its hooves. There was something on its back, some unknown object.
She watched it wade into the lake until it completely submerged itself.
Dismissively, she closed the blinds and returned to bed. She was so close to becoming totally immersed in restful sleep, when a noise startled her. It was not a natural noise. It sounded like the howl of a timberwolf, but there was something... unearthly about it. Something... disturbing.
Slightly startled, she sat up in bed. It sounded far-off, and she remembered the pony by the water. She quickly went to the window and opened the blinds, hoping to see the stranger unharmed by whatever had made the sound. She could see nothing but the orchard, the lake, and the woods.
"Oh, please be all right..." she said to the stranger.
She saw the leaves of some of the apple trees rustle as a silhouette of something brushed under them, hidden under the greenish canopy.
She watched the mysterious shape walk through--no--skulk through the trees with no apparent aim or direction.
After several more seconds of watching, she felt that an investigation was in order.
She tiptoed downstairs and went out the door to the crops as quietly as she could so as not to wake her family.
"Hello?" she called as she ventured through the rows of trees.
Silence.
Just then, a pony-shaped figure passed calmly through the trees a dozen yards ahead of her. Minor relief filled her then; at least she could tell it was that odd pony, and not a timberwolf.
"Hold on a minute!" she called as she tried chasing after it.
This time, she saw it in the corner of her eye running off to the right.
"Stop! Ah just wanna talk!"
No matter how close she thought she'd gotten to the stranger, it would always evade her and lead her in another direction.
Eventually, she became fatigued, and reduced her speed to a slow trot.
Panting, she said, "Come on; where'd ya go? Whew... You can run, I'll give ya that much..."
She scanned through the rows, considering heading back home. She froze as she heard breathing coming from behind her.
Slowly, and oh so cautiously, she turned around to face the source of the eerie breathing.
The figure was standing there, just a few feet away, hidden in the shadow of a tree. Nothing was visible except its shape and a pair of red, beady eyes. There was something on its back, something that looked like it was riding the pony. Her brain instantly filled the silhouette with an image in her mind of Twilight with Spike riding on her back.
"Twi? Is that you?"
Applejack's heart skipped a beat as a second pair of red eyes opened on the thing on the pony's back.
She stepped backwards, but with every step she took, the thing took one in her direction.
Her eyes widened as the creature emerged from the shadows, revealing its pink, slimy, skinless, muscular form. In place of a mane, it had a slimy, green, fin-like extremity, the same kind found on the back of its hooves.
Pure, unbounded terror filled Applejack as the thing on the beast's back came into view.
It was a torso, a skinless, legless torso and head, and its waist was fused to the back of the pony, and its disproportionately long arms dragged the large knuckles along the ground, creating light grooves in the dirt. Steam passed through its jagged teeth as it exhaled in the cool night air.
The beast opened both of its mouths, and released that cry that was not of this world. It translated in Applejack's mind as: "Run."
She took off at full speed in an attempt to escape the skinless horror, but became frantic as the clopping of hooves began closing in on her from behind.
She made a sharp turn, and realized that she had run all the way to the edge of the plantation, and hopped the fence to end up in the field at the back of the farm with the lake in the middle.
She stopped to catch her breath. She stood in the field, panting, sweating, and looked back through the dark trees, hoping not to see that beast again.
She waited for minutes, on edge each slow, painful second. She finally edged forward, step-by-step, closer to the fence separating her from the rows of darkness, and peered into the rows of shadows.
"H-Hello?" she said meekly.
Why was she acting like this? She stood up to a manticore with no hesitation, but when one pony-like thing barely bigger than herself shows up, she turns and runs. She had to toughen up, she thought. Running isn't the Apple family way. She had to buck up or shut up.
"Hey!" she called. "I ain't afraid o' you! Come out here and face me like a real stallion!"
She regretted opening her mouth with such bravado as four, red, beady eyes snapped open in the dark. She only had time to gasp before the beast lunged at her, landing both of them in the field.
It loomed over her as she scrambled to regain her footing. She took one more frightful look at it, and frantically tried to get away again.
While her rear was facing the creature, it reached out with one of its oddly long arms and grabbed her rear legs and dragged her back.
It flipped her around and held her throat with its free hand, bringing her eye-level with its upper head. It stared into her fearful eyes with its own beady, soulless eyes. She took sharp, choppy breaths and nearly gagged at the smell of its own dank, warm, repulsive breath.
She flailed her legs and tried to break free to no avail. The thing began choking her, and she panicked even more before losing strength and growing dizzy, but the beast was sure not to strangle her to death, no, it was too cruel for that. It kept her just barely alive and conscious.
It made her watch with glazed eyes as it opened its primate-like head unnaturally wide, as if on a hinge. She stared down its throat as it lifted her up into the air, head-down, above its gaping jaws.
She had lost the energy to fight back, and let a tear drip down her face and into the monster's mouth as she closed her eyes and waited for the end.
Everything froze. The beast stopped moving, and Applejack heard it... sniff the air. She opened one eye just a crack to see it close its mouth, much to her relief, and glance around the area. It sniffed again, and tossed her aside roughly. She landed on her side and took deep breaths to recover from the choking.
It looked around the field warily, sniffed again, and covered its nose-holes. It sort of shrunk down and looked to the woods. After glancing around once more, it galloped towards the thick forest.
Just as it almost reached the edge, something stepped out and blocked its path. It was an earth pony with a maroon coat and a clean, neat blonde mane and tail. He had piercing blue eyes and was carrying a torch in his mouth with some green weed wrapped around the end.
"No! Wait! Get back!" Applejack shouted hoarsely at the stallion. He shot her a look of calm and charisma that made her freeze with surprise.
The creature screeched and turned towards the lake. It went into a full sprint in a panicky attempt to reach the water.
Just then, a swift object punched a hole through the clouds and shot straight down in front of the beast, obstructing its path again.
Her light blue wings were spread out intimidatingly, and her blue-and-white streaked mane moved lightly in the wind. She was also carrying a torch with the green herb burning at the end.
She waved it at the beast, causing it to rear back and turn around. It wanted to go back to the forest and lose them in the bush, but the calm stallion was walking towards it. The pegasus, smirking, slowly came in its direction as well.
It looked at Applejack. It could take her hostage, it thought. It could threaten to tear her to shreds if those two wouldn't let it into the woods. Yeah, that's what it would do. That had to work...
It shrieked once more and charged at Applejack. She fearfully clambered away, unable to stop looking at the skinless abomination. It got closer and closer to her, and the other two ponies got worried.
Applejack held up a front hoof in a futile attempt to get the beast to stop. As it screamed one more time, a flash of light startled the beast, and it stumbled. Applejack shielded her eyes, and when the light subsided, she saw another stallion standing there. He had a light gray coat, and his tail matched that of the news reporter this morning. She could see that his cutie mark was two drama masks, one happy and one sad, the sad overlapping the happy, and behind them a gold ribbon.He bore a set of saddlebags, and from the left side hung a sword, a thin, rapier-like weapon with a curve.
He swiveled his head just enough to see her in his peripheral vision.
"Are you okay?" he asked without emotion.
She quickly nodded her head. He looked back at the creature that was glaring angrily at him.
He addressed Applejack once more. "I suggest you stay back for this."
She obediently ran back towards the apple orchard, which was a safe distance away from the beast and the three strangers. But curiosity got the better of her, and she watched from just behind the fence.
The three closed in on the creature, two holding torches and the other just drawing his sword from its sheath.
The one with the sword spoke. "P-132, you're going to have to come with us."
"Resistance will only make this more painful than it needs to be... for you," said the earth pony with a disturbing calmness.
It looked around at them, contemplating who to attack first.
It swiped at the unicorn, but its gnarled claw was blocked by the dull side of the sword. He sighed deeply. "Fine, be that way..."
The earth pony charged it while the unicorn parried its follow-up attack. The earth pony bucked it in the side, sending it flying several feet and landing on its side.
It scrambled back up and fled to the lake, thinking it could evade any attacks from the pegasus.
As it drew near her, she spun around in an attempt to smack its higher head with one of her wings. The creature successfully ducked before her wing could make contact. It became frustrated to discover that this had merely been a fake-out. It had inadvertently positioned itself in the perfect spot for her to whack it directly in the face with her torch.
It let out a howl of pain and collapsed to the ground, clutching its bleeding face. The three moved towards it, the earth pony pulling a net and a syringe out of his saddlebags, the syringe filled with a clear tranquilizing liquid.
"Heh, how long did that take, thirty seconds? That's gotta be a record," the pegasus said proudly.
The earth pony tossed the needle to the unicorn, and he caught it with his telekinesis while simultaneously sheathing his sword.
"All right, big guy. This'll only hurt for a second," he said, squirting a little bit of the liquid out of the needle to test the flow.
The beast went limp, and the three stared at it for a while.
"Guess we don't need it. I must have hit it harder than I thought. Heh, heh."
The unicorn shrugged, and put the needle into his own saddlebag as the earth pony prepared to throw the net over the beast.
In an instant, it got back on its hooves and knocked the pegasus onto the earth pony. The unicorn drew his sword again and pointed it at the thing. It spared no time in dashing for the water. He chased after it as fast as he could, but it was too quick for him, and dove into the water, splashing each of them.
"No!" the unicorn grunted as he reached the edge of the water. He kicked the water and growled as he put his sword away.
The other two joined him by the edge and looked into the murky water.
"Well, great," the pegasus said. "What do we do now?"
"Well, we can't just dive in; it's in its element down there," the earth pony said. "If we hadn't had to assist Grey with the gremlins running rampant, we'd have the proper equipment now..."
The unicorn sat down and rubbed his temples. "Our best bet is to head back, grab some aquatic gear, get back here, and take this thing down."
"What if it comes out while we're gone?"
"Plant some torches around the area; it should stay under while we're gone."
The other two nodded in agreement. The earth pony looked back at Applejack, who was still hiding behind the fence.
"What should we do about the civilian?" he asked.
The others looked at her, and she shrank back a tad, thinking they might do something to her.
"Should we tell her?" asked the pegasus.
"Maybe later. We do have to warn her of the immediate danger, though," answered the unicorn.
They each planted some small torches in the ground around the lake, and began to walk towards Applejack. Not knowing what their intentions were, she backed away from the fence warily.
"Now, now. Hold on," the unicorn said. "We're not going to hurt you."
"It's kinda hard to believe that when ya got a sword strapped to yer side," she countered.
The earth pony stepped forward, "Miss," he said with a soothing, polite, and deep voice that held undertones of an English accent. "If we wanted to hurt you, we wouldn't have asked you to remove yourself from the danger, you see. We were trying to rescue you from that creature, now we only ask a moment to speak with you." He put on a smile that made it impossible to for her to refuse obeying this stallion's charm.
"O-Okay..." she sighed.
The unicorn looked at the earth pony irritably. He walked over to her and looked through his saddlebag while he talked. "Okay, look, we'll be right back. If that thing comes back out, just burn this and you'll be okay. It hates the smell." He handed her a torch with seaweed wrapped around the end and a match.
She took them, and asked the unicorn, "What was that, that... thing?"
"The technical term is 'Nuckelavee.' They're an amphibious species, and spread disease wherever they go. This little bugger's the reason your crops are doing so poorly."
"They?"
"Don't worry; only this one lives in Equestria."
"How do ya know all this?" she asked.
He sighed, "We don't have time to explain everything now; just hold down the fort until we get back, okay?"
Before she could answer, there was a flash like the one from earlier, and the three strangers were gone, leaving Applejack alone holding a seaweed torch, a match, and wondering what just happened.

~N.E.C.C.B.~

The trio reappeared on the main floor of their hub. Their dragon companion was sitting at his work desk, fiddling with a small metal contraption and wearing comically large spectacles. The adolescent dragon's white lab coat was stained with various stains from throughout the years of tinkering with mechanical objects.
"Hey, guys. Welcome back," he said without turning around. "No Nuckelavee, I see."
"There was a... complication," the unicorn answered.
"It got into the water, didn't it?"
The unicorn sighed and lowered his head slightly. "Yep."
"All right, follow me," the dragon said, getting up from his desk and leaving the spectacles next to the small metal object. He went into a room located on the far wall, and the others followed him.
The pegasus passed by his desk, and noticed the object. She picked it up and examined it curiously.
"What're you working on this time?" she asked.
Without looking at her, he continued walking as he answered, "Push the little blue button."
She located said button and pressed it. She jumped back when the device sprung open, revealing four thin, spider-like legs while gears spun around in the center. She dropped it out of surprise and watched it scurry around on the stone floor before hiding under the desk.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "What is it?"
To which the dragon replied, "I have no idea. Ah! Here they are..."
He emerged from the room carrying a mass of tubes and oxygen masks. "Ta-da!"
He handed one to each of the three ponies. When he finished, he leaned on his desk and cupped a hand over his mouth. "In the event of an emergency, please place the oxygen masks over your mouth and nose like so, and then proceed to beat the nuckelavee within an inch of its life. Thank you. Kssh."
The three chuckled at his joke, grateful that they had some comic relief on their team to break up the seriousness.
"Actually, Grey," the unicorn said. "We could use you for this situation, you being half water dragon and all."
Grey merely shrugged, "Okay." He went over to a small bucket by the wall that held two umbrellas, a cane, and an odd-looking metal rod. He grabbed the rod and examined it before blowing dust off of it. He set his coat on the back of his chair and joined the other three, who were standing in a ring in the floor made by the burns of several teleportation spells.
They looked at him curiously before the unicorn spoke up. "You know that's a trashcan and not an umbrella rack, don't you?"
"Is it, now?" Grey replied.
Four seconds of silence passed before the unicorn cast the teleportation spell and landed them all back in the field.
Applejack was still sitting where the group left her, but jumped back at the sudden reappearance of them.
"Wah! What the- Oh, it's just you. Wait..." she said, eyeing the dragon. "Who's that?"
He put on a friendly smile and strolled on over to her. He smoothed his bluish scales and slicked back his light green spines. He thrust out a hand for a handshake, "You can call me Grey." Applejack was about to take his hand, but refused when a glint of moonlight reflected off of his unintentionally frightening talons. He noticed her uneasy look and retracted his nails. "Sorry about that. Now, where is the pest?" he said, looking around the area.
The other three advanced toward the lake and Grey followed.
They all peered into the dark water. The three ponies began putting on their aquatic gear while Grey simply did some stretching while he held the rod in his teeth and flexed his gills.
The unicorn flipped a switch that turned on several lights in and on his mask to help see through the upcoming darkness. "Is everypony ready to go?"
The other two turned on their lights and replied "yes." Grey gave a thumbs-up and pressed a button on his rod that extended it into a large, metal baton with two small prongs on the end. The pegasus looked over at it and saw a small arc of electricity pass between the prongs.
"Electricity? In the water?" she asked.
Grey looked at his baton. "Yeah; you're right," he turned a little dial on the handle which retracted the prongs, turning it into a mere blunt weapon.
"All right," said the unicorn. "Dive!"
They all leapt into the water as one, making a giant splash.
They found themselves in total darkness. They swam rather clumsily through the dark water, save for Grey, who expertly fanned out the end of his tail, toes and fingers to make for perfect gliding through the murkiness. He contracted his pupils to maximize visibility.
They searched diligently for any motion in the weeds and sand at the bottom of the lake, but found nothing for the longest time.
"Anything yet?" asked the pegasus.
"Negative," said the earth pony.
Grey had separated himself from the group inadvertently as he searched for the nuckelavee. He skimmed the bottom observantly, but found nothing. This fruitless search continued for almost ten minutes, none of them turning up anything.
"I don't get it," the unicorn said. "It couldn't have just... disappeared..."
As if the universe had a sense of humor, Grey saw four red eyes snap open in the darkness, and was tackled by the beast savagely. He spun and tried to recover as the others quickly swam over to his position. They tussled with the monster and tried to sedate it with the paralytic syringe. Every attempt to attack it was thwarted, as it was swiftest and most agile in the water.
"We can't stop this thing!" cried the pegasus.
Just then, Grey looked at his baton, and pressed the button that extended the prongs. He looked at them all and signaled for them to leave.
"What? Are you sure?" asked the pegasus again.
He signaled again, and this time they obeyed. They clambered up to the surface and removed their masks, worrying for their friend stuck down there with the skinless beast.
Grey, determination in his eyes, turned the dial on his baton all the way up, and readied himself for the upcoming attack. The nuckelavee howled in the water and charged at him with the speed of a shark that just got the smell of blood in its nose. He masterfully dodged out of the way and grabbed it by the upper throat, swinging himself around to its front. He grinned wildly as he thrust the baton into the mouth of the pony head until it stopped at the back of its throat. He then sent a powerful wave of electricity through the both of them, the water amplifying the effect. The others up on top saw bright light strobing spasmodically, illuminating the entire bottom of the lake. He kept pushing the power until the beast spasmed wildly and then closed its eyes. He killed the juice, still twitching himself and took some time to recover.
The others were on edge as they saw a few dead fish surface, waiting to see if their friend was all right. They were startled when a claw burst through the surface and grabbed on to the edge of the ground. Grey emerged and pulled himself up and onto land, carrying the baton in his mouth. He flopped onto his back and, still twitching, looked at them. He spat out the baton and smiled up at them, gasping for breath.
"Heh... Heh; that felt good..." he said. The others were aware of his masochism, and he often reminded them of it as he put himself in dangerous situations repeatedly. "Now, would you mind helping me with this?" He hauled the unconscious body of the nuckelavee onto the wet grass with a grunt.

~N.E.C.C.B~

The four had tied up the beast and picked up their torches and other belongings. Applejack had watched the whole spectacle unfold before her eyes, and was stunned. She had sat in the same spot since they came back, wide-eyed.
They felt that they needed to explain to her what had just happened, so that she wouldn't live her life in mystery.
"All right," the unicorn said plainly. "First: names. This here's Silver Lining," he gestured to the pegasus with bright green eyes, blue coat, and blue-and-white streaked mane. "... And Zen," the earth pony with the piercing blue eyes bowed his head politely. "... You already know Grey, and I'm Headcase."
She looked at Headcase, tilting her head and feeling deja vu. "You look familiar... Do Ah know you?" She saw his red eyes, and could finally place where she'd seen him. "You're that reporter, ain't ya?" He nodded quietly. As she looked into his eyes more, she noticed that they were different from the last time. There were small scars around the edges, burn marks, perhaps. They looked strange that morning because he was wearing makeup to cover them. "But... But why were you... What did..." she stuttered, but couldn't properly force the words out.
"I was disguised as a reporter to learn more about the situation. We'd been getting strange readings from this general area, but before we launched a full-on sting operation on the orchard, I had to go undercover to get some information out of you, to confirm our readings. A reporter cover just seemed logical.
"And as for that thing, it's called a nuckelavee, as stated earlier, and it was our job to catch it. You don't have to worry about stuff like this bothering you anymore. And don't worry about your crops, either; they should be back to full health in no time."
They began to walk away from her, and Headcase prepared to use his teleportation spell to return to base, but Applejack stopped them.
"Wait!" she said with an outstretched hoof. "Who are you?"
Headcase turned to face her as his horn grew brighter and brighter with magic, his eyes like dark bullets that shot through one's soul.
"We are the Non-Equestrian Creature Containment Bureau," and they were gone again in a bright flash of blue light, leaving her alone again in the moonlit field.





The hooded figure watched Grey lift his pawn out of the water with mild irritation. His latest pawn had failed in its mission, and as a result it got itself captured, just like so many others before it.
"It seemed the nuckelavee failed me..." he said to his tall companion in the shadows. They hid together in the thick foliage of the woods. Headcase cast the teleportation spell and left Applejack alone while the hooded figure examined her from a distance. "Keep an eye on her..." he said as he slowly proceeded deeper into the dark forest to his distant, tenebrous lair.