//------------------------------// // Ch. 10 - Summer // Story: The Monster in the Twilight // by Georg //------------------------------// The Monster in the Twilight Summer The setting sun rested at the horizon behind a gentle bank of pastel clouds arranged in long stripes of soft violet and mauve. The evening weather team had made a creation of prismatic beauty more glorious than words could describe, but some of the most deadly creatures in Equestria had beautiful colors too, and that did not make them less lethal. The Solarium stretched out from the tallest tower on the south side of the castle, wide glass windows allowing the sunlight to fill the cheerful room with a happy glow at all times of the day except when the rain or clouds were heaviest. For some reason, the sun shining through the colorful clouds this evening brought the whole room to a reddish hue of freshly-spilled blood, backlighting crimson across the princess standing on the balcony in her white gown as if she had just committed some horrible murder. Princess Celestia took several long, slow breaths while looking out across her kingdom to brace her mind. When she could not delay the moment any more, she reluctantly raised her gaze to the sky and the sun waiting impatiently for its rest. The demands on her waning strength were far worse than any of the ponies of the city could ever be allowed to know. Even her cooperative sun was getting more difficult to move. She gently laid the sun down below the horizon with a bare touch of her magic, treasuring the peace inherent in the moment before turning to her nemesis. At first, the silvery globe of the moon gave no resistance, sliding up to crest above the horizon so smoothly Celestia was positive something had gone horribly wrong. Then a brutally strong wave of vile hatred and spite blasted over her, forcing the princess to her knees on the cold tiles of the balcony. Hello sister. I’ve missed you so much. “You are not my sister,” she snarled, forcing more power into lifting the suddenly leaden moon while rising to her hooves with her mane snapping in the ethereal breeze. It did little good. A light cackling filled her head and the moon remained stubbornly stuck at the horizon. Oh, she’s still in here, you old fossil. She’s just being very, very quiet. Do you think she will come out and play when I have you helpless at my hooves, begging for your pitiful life? “You are not getting out of your prison, you heartless liar! I’ll hold you there until the stars burn to ashes before you hurt my ponies!” Inch by inch, the reluctant moon ascended into the star-strewn sky as Celestia traced its path with her horn, the cords of muscles in her slender neck standing out like knotted cables. This year I shall feast upon your bitter defeat, and enfold your beloved ponies in Night Eternal. “Over. My. Dead. Body,” panted Celestia, her sides heaving with exertion. Foam flecked the creamy ivory lace of her dress which she wore to conceal the protruding ribs and gaunt sides that had slowly crept up on her over the last few years, but the fatigue in her cracking voice was unmistakable, and no amount of makeup could disguise the toll placed on her immortal frame. Oh, look. My stars have moved again. “No!” Ever so slowly the errant star moved back to the location it had occupied rather impatiently for the last two years. “Stay!” Celestia wavered uncertainly on shaking legs, wheezing for breath while glaring at the night sky as if daring the heavens to misbehave. Finally, she bowed her head while the suppressed tears fought their way out, overcoming her weakened resolve with grief. For nearly an hour she stood under the night sky, the silent stars the only visible witness to the slow drip of tears falling to the granite tiles of the empty room. Only after all of her tears had been expended did the princess turn her back on the darkness and her lost sister, traveling back into the castle with slow, plodding hooves to leave the Solarium empty and cold. Long after the slow steps of the princess had died out, the quiet click of smaller hoofsteps echoed quietly around the room. They followed the same path the princess took, the door opening and closing by itself without a pony to be seen, leaving only the cold stars shining down into the room. As one star began to inexorably move. * * * “I notice you’ve got quite a bunch of my students going out to Sweet Apple Acres just about every afternoon, Big Mac.” Cheerilee took another bite of her dried apple chips and waved at the happy horde of students at the picnic tables, all eating their own lunches and chattering among themselves. The spring sunshine was warm, and lunch hour had gotten ever so slightly longer ever since Big Mac had started taking his lunch at the school with their teacher. In short, it was a perfect school day in Ponyville that only proclaimed more perfect days to follow. “Eeyup,” said the quiet stallion, digging into a gigantic salad with a plum to one side for dessert. “How in Equestria do you keep up with all of them?” Big Mac appeared thoughtful for a while, as several pounds of lettuce, radishes and a tomato were properly processed by his massive jaws. Granny had impressed good table manners into the young colt, and it was not proper to speak with your mouth full unless you really liked limping for a few days. “They got a friend.” “Well, some of my students have had imaginary friends before. Diamond Tiara used to write about ‘Prince Amber,’ and Snails once turned in a report called ‘My Father, Snailzilla,’ but I’ve never seen one imaginary friend for five different little ponies before.” Big Mac considered the pause in the conversation, and deduced a response was required. “Nope.” “They each seem to be imagining this ‘Monster’ differently, but it has made a positive difference in their work at school. Twist is bringing in all kinds of different treats to share, Apple Bloom hasn’t been late once, Sweetie Belle has been turning in the most imaginative creative writing projects, and Featherweight seems to have taken up photo editing. He’s gotten really good at it. I’ve sent some of his best ‘monster’ pictures in to the Equestrian Enquirer contest. All of their homework has improved dramatically too. Even Scootaloo, and I never thought I would say that.” “Eeyup. Do you wanna split a plum for dessert?” * * * A quiet, rapid clicking sounded over the grassy expanse of the small clearing in the Everfree forest, much like a creature giving audible warning to any predators or a mating call of an insect. However, the sound of other voices in the vicinity made the noise quite unique. “Wow.” “Oh, they’re tho cute.” “Are you sure this is safe?” “This is so awesome!” The mother manticore looked suspiciously at the small knot of strange creatures making the annoying noises at the edge of her forest clearing. Her three small cubs were happily rolling around in the spring sunshine, joyfully clawing, maiming, mangling and stabbing at each other with the enthusiasm that only youth could bring, paying little heed to their mother who continued to make little ‘harumph’ noises and annoyed snorts. Finally, she had enough of the interference. Moving slowly as not to scatter her cubs, she advanced with deliberate steps on the intruders, only to come to an abrupt stop as the larger one in the group advanced in front of the small ones. The clicking rose to a rapid clatter, but that was not what drew most of her attention. “Ooo, look at the muscles on her.” “She’s bigger than Big Mac.” “Those are beautiful eyes.” “Do you think we could pet her?” The manticore paused, looking at the familiar creature with an unchanged expression of malice before giving a huff of exasperation and turning back to her own cubs. She had met the creature before, and if she was that difficult to deal with on her own, the manticore had no intention of threatening the creature’s little cubs. Although the strange flashing one that made the annoying clicking noise would have tempting to eat, if it were not so small. “Hey Monster, can you get the mother manticore to turn sideways? I didn’t get a good shot of her profile.” Then again, the tiny creature did seem to be impressed by her presence, so perhaps it would be best to leave it alone for now. * * * Monster’s purple magic wrapped around the last white root at the edge of the stream and slowly pulled it free of the mud, then floated it up the bank to where three ponies sat with a nearly-full basket. Twist caught the root when it floated up, giving it a good shake to get the last of the mud off before tucking it into the basket and tying down the cover. “Thank you, Monthter. I think Pinkie Pie ith going to flip when the tasteth cupcaketh with thith grated on top. It’th cold and hot at the thame time. I just don’t underthtand why we had to thtay all the way up here when picking them?” Monster gave feather a little bump and nodded at the middle of the wide stream. The little colt always got so excited when he got a chance to make a picture, and this was going to be good. She really liked the pictures, and had been very excited when Monster had begun bringing them home. She was happy. twitht was happy. feather was happy. Monster was happy. There were only a few creatures that were not going to be happy, and that was just too bad. They could go get food somewhere else. Once she was sure the little colt had his flashing box out and pointed the right way, she picked up a stick with her magic and threw it out into the water. Everfree Freshwater Crocodiles were very quiet predators, able to move almost undetected through the mossy water of the forest as they sensed the small vibrations of animals near the water’s edge. They were also very competitive for food, so when the stick splashed into the water, all three of the crocs lunged to the surface with jaws agape, lashing about viciously in search of their prey while a rapid clicking and flashing captured their motions. “Cool!” * * * “Wheeee!!!” screamed Scootaloo, flying almost effortlessly around the forest clearing, making a one-and-a-half flip before ricocheting off a tall branch. “I love it!” Four little ground-bound students winced in sympathetic pain moments later when the little orange pegasus rebounded off a tree branch in what seemed to be the only way she could change directions in the air. “Yahoo!” As she slowly descended to the ground despite the frantic blur of little filly wings, the rest of her friends gave a sigh of relief. “Hey, that wasn’t five minutes! Well, maybe,” Scootaloo continued when Monster tapped a small hourglass on loan from Twist’s kitchen. The purple magic around the little filly gently landed her in front of an open book, and with a last longing look at the open sky, Scootaloo put a hoof on the top of the chapter heading and began to read. “And when they got to the top of the hill, they counted… themselves: one, two, three, four. ‘Now where in the wold… world is that pokey little pony?’ they… wondered.” Behind her, Monster looked down and struggled with the strange memories the book evoked of a pony with a purple and white striped mane, and a voice much like mom. * * * The short waterfall in the forest clearing opened up into a wide, shallow pool that drained into a fairly large pond colored in traditional deep Everfree green. The crystal-clear water cascaded down the rocky cliff-face in rivulets and erratic streams before falling into the shallow pool. The impacts sprayed a cool mist to push back the steamy heat of the summer, as well as making almost musical tones when the falling water sprayed off the stones below. Monster moved to the far end of the shallow pool at the edge of the lake, staying on the ground at the edge of the water while nodding at the five little ponies, indicating the pool was safe. “Yea!” shouted Sweetie Belle, jumping from the shore onto one of the hundreds of flat stepping stones that were scattered all across the shallow pool. “Best first day of summer vacation ever! Thank you, Monster!” The little unicorn stopped and began to hop up and down on the stepping stone with joy, listening to the musical note it made. “Hey guys! See if the rest of them make music like this.” In moments, all five of the little ponies were happily bouncing from musical stone to musical stone through the mists of the waterfall, laughing and screaming in joy as the stones rang with the notes of a childish symphony to the joys of summer. * * * Deep in the lake, a nameless⁽*⁾ monstrosity stirred from under the lake mud and began to ooze to the surface. The Song of Summoning was being played, and deeply ingrained reflexes from before recorded history drove it ever so slowly to the surface, drawing near the place where the sacrifice would be offered. In a glacial movement, it extended an eyestalk above the surface of the lake to examine the area, to ensure its arrival would be timed correctly. (*) Not an Urlock. Too small. There were several participants striking the Summoning Stones in a discordant melody that brought out thoughts that had been buried in its sluggish mind since the Night of Creation. And sitting to one side on dry land, was The Watcher Who Gave Pain. Almost unconsciously, the abomination rubbed the raw stubs of two tentacles that still had many centuries of growth before they would regain their normal length. Perhaps that was not the Song of Summoning after all. The little creatures dancing on the stones were not wearing dark cloaks, it was not night, and the notes of the song were nowhere near accurate. It decided instead to settle down in the shallow mud to wait, something it had gotten quite good at over many centuries of practice. Nopony but the monstrosity noticed when it tapped the tip of one tentacle ever so gently against a rock in time with the happy song the little creatures were playing on the Stones. And when the occasional beach ball or frisbee flew out into the deep water, nopony noticed that their rapid return was not accompanied by Monster’s violet magical aura, but by a quick flip of a tentacle instead. - - ✶ - -