//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: The Mare Who Cried Monster. // by ChromeRegios //------------------------------// Maybe my plan wasn’t exactly the best plan in the world and thought to myself… maybe the whole idea was stupid. You can bet I had plenty of doubts racing through my mind as I heard Mr. Warts return to the main reading room. My plan, of course, was to prove to myself that I was right. That he was a monster and then fly out of the library and hoped I wasn’t locked in that dark, creepy building with him unable to escape… (No offence to Twilight). Here I was… so far, I was okay. He had no idea that anyone else was here with him. No idea that he was being spied on. Pressed the tall shelves, I crept along the narrow aisle until I was as close as I dared to go. I could see his entire desk, caught in deep orange rectangle of light from the high window. Mr. Warts stepped behind his desk, humming softly to himself. He straightened a stack of books, then shoved it to a corner of the desk. He pulled open his desk drawer and shuffled things around, searching for something in there. As I crept a little closer, I could see very clearly that the afternoon sunlight made everything orangey-red, which reminds me of Applejack for some reason. I felt I blushed a bit and shook my head trying to get rid of dirty thoughts as I get back to focus on what I was doing and looked back at Mr. Warts. He rolled some pencils off the desktop into the open desk drawer by using his, oddly colored magic aura… as the last pencil dropped inside the drawer, he then closes it with a loud snap. “This is boring," I thought to myself “This is very boring, and normal.” I scratched my head in impatience... Maybe I must have been wrong last week. I must have imagined the whole thing. Mr. Warts was just probably a normal funny stallion… he isn’t a monster at all. I sank against the tall shelf, disappointed and thinking that I had just wasted my time hiding on that filthy shelf… for nothing. And now here I was, locked in the library after closing time, watching the librarian clean off his desk. What a thrill!!! “I need to get out of here,” I thought. I’ve been really stupid all this time… and to think I might be able to become a real spy. “Heh, some spy you turned out to be…” I said to myself almost as frustrated as Applejack when she didn’t get something she didn’t know. But when I was about to call it a day, I spotted Mr. Warts reach for the glowing-pink jar on the shelf behind him. I stopped and went back to my hiding place and swallowed hard as my heart gave a sudden lurch. A smile crossed Mr. Warts’ pudgy face as he set the big glass jar down in front of him, and then reached across the desk. With both of his hooves, he pulled out a rectangular cage with several small turtles closer. “Dinnertime, my timid friends,” He said in his high, scratchy voice then grinned down at the turtles. He reached into the pan and splashed the water a bit. “Dinnertime, friends,” he repeated. I stared without blinking with my jaw dropping lower and lower in disbelief as his face began to change again. His head began to swell up, his eyes began to bulge, and his mouth grew until it became an open black pit. The enormous head bobbed above the yellow sweater he was wearing, as his eyes swam in front of his head. The mouth twisted, opening and closing like a very huge fish mouth. “I was friggin’right!” I realized. “Mr. Warts is a monster! I knew it! I knew I was right all along, but Scoots doesn’t believe me. She’ll have to believe me now, and wait till Fluttershy hears about this!” I told myself. I’m seeing this very clearly as day, since the sun was shining brightly giving me the luxury of full sight with no darkness fooling my eyes now. I’m seeing it… and I’m now definitely imagining it! They’ll have to believe me now, they have to! While my mouth slowly opened wide in disbelief as I watched the gross creature the librarian had become, he reached into the pink-filled jar and shoved them hungrily into his mouth, sucking some of the fluid in it. “Dinnertime,” he rasped, talking as he drinks almost half of the contents of the jar. I could hear his gulp while drinking as I raised my hooves and pressed them against the sides of my face as I stared. Mr. Warts’ eyes swam out in front of his face as he drinks, slurping and gulping loudly like he’s having a feast of his lifetime. For a short, terrifying moment, the eyes stopped and they were staring at me! I realized I had leaned too far into the aisle! Had he spotted me? I jumped back with a gasp of panic as his bulging black eyes, like undulating toadstools, remained in place for another second or two. Then they continued rolling and swimming about. After hi sucked the last drop of that pink-stuff, Mr. Warts closed the jar as he licks his black lips with a snake-like, pencil-thin tongue. Everything went silent within the room once again, except for the ticking clock and my thundering heartbeats. “Now what?” I thought. Is that it? No… “Dinner, my timid friends,” the librarian said in a thin, trembling voice… the voice seeming to bob along with the enormous head. He reached a hoof into a small pan and picked up one of the little green-shelled turtles, as I could see one of the turtle’s legs racing… I vividly remember Tank that time, my dearest pet that I love~ but not showing the others my deep feeling for my pet. I kept watching him, wondering what he would do to that turtle. Mr. Warts held the turtle higher, studying it with his bulging, rolling eyes as he held it up at the sunlight while the turtle’s legs continued to move. I was staring closely to the turtle when the unthinkable happened! He popped the turtle into his mouth as the sound of cracking shell echoed throughout the library as Mr. Warts bit down on that defenseless critter! My eyes grew wider, as he chewed noisily several times making a loud crunch with each chew. Then I saw him swallow twice till he got it down. I’d seen enough…no, more than enough! I turned away and began to make my way blindly back through the dark aisle as I trotted quickly! I didn’t really care if he heard me or not, I just had to get out of there! Out into the sunlight and fresh air! Away from the crunching sound of the turtle shell as Mr. Warts chewed and chewed it… CHEWED IT ALIVE!!! I ran from the main reading room while my heart kept thudding and my hooves feeling heavy like stones. I was gasping for breath when I reached the front entry and ran through the door and grabbed the handle. At that moment, I remembered something crucial… something that I forgot that had happened earlier. The door was locked! I couldn’t get out, I was locked in! As I stood there staring straight ahead at the closed door while gripping the brass knob, I heard hoof-steps behind me, rapid hoof-steps! Mr. Warts heard me! I’m trapped! I froze in panic, staring at the door until it became a dark blur in front of me. Mr. Warts hoof-steps grew louder behind me. “Help!” I uttered a silent plea. “Somepony~ Help me!” The librarian would burst into the front entryway any second and there I’d be… trapped at the door. Trapped like a rat, or like a turtle! And then what? Would he grab me up like one of his pets? No… one of his dinner! Would he crunch me between his teeth?! There’s got to be a way out of there! There has to be! As I grew dizzy and my sight on the door grew more and more blurry, something suddenly struck my mind as everything came back to focus. I realized that maybe~ just maybe~ I wasn’t trapped at all! Mr. Warts had locked the door from the inside… The inside! That meant that maybe I could unlock it and open the door! But, if the door was locked with a key, then I was stuck and back to square one! But if it was just an ordinary lock that you can turn… “Hey, is someone out there?” Mr. Warts’ raspy voice burst into my thoughts. My eyes frantically searched the door for a couple of seconds before I found the lock under the brass knob… then reached for it. “Please turn. Please turn.Please turn…” The lock turned in my hooves with a soft click. The prettiest sound I ever heard! In a flash, I pulled the door open then dashed out on the stoned street. Then, I flew as fast as I could, flying across the sky, cutting through the clouds and diving on the opposite wind current – Flying for my life! Gasping for air, I turned halfway looking down at the ground. As I gaze back to the library, I could see Mr. Warts, a shadowy figure in the library door. He was just standing at the doorway, staring out, not moving. Just standing there… Had he seen me? Did he know that it was me spying on him? I shrugged my head and looked away. I just wanted to get away… get away before he realizes it was me. The late afternoon sun was ducking behind the trees, making the shadows long and dark. I lowered my head and glided into the long, blue shadows of the trees swaying back and forth. I was out… I was okay. I had seen the monster, but he hadn’t seen me… I hoped. I glided down, then trotted along until I reached Fluttershy’s house. She was still in the yard sitting on the stump of an old tree she asked to be removed from Applejack earlier that year. I could see the blue Frisbee-type thing on her head. Apparently she made it into a hat, rather than to play with it… Fluttershy had her head down, looking at two squirrels arguing about a nut in front of them. Probably Fluttershy was the peacemaker among them, and didn’t see me at first. “Fluttershy – Mr. Warts is a monster!” I cried breathlessly. “Huh?” She looked up, startled. The two squirrels leaped up and ran back to their tree hole. “Me. Warts – he’s a monster!” I repeated, panting like Winona. I put my hooves on my hind legs as I sat on my haunches. Trying to catch my breath. “Dashie, what’s your problem?” Fluttershy muttered, returning her attention to the two squirrels who ran away back to their home. “Listen to me!! I screamed impatiently. I didn’t sound like myself. I didn’t recognize my shrill panicky voice. “This is troublesome,” Fluttershy muttered. “They didn’t even get along…” “Fluttershy, please!” I pleaded. “I was in the library. I saw him. He changed into a monster. He ate one of his turtles!” Fluttershy gasped. “W-what?!” She was about to cry on that statement, but then quickly changed her expression. “R-right… is this another one of your scary stories?” She asked, looking away from me. “W-what?” I looked at her, my eyes wide open. “I-if it is… I don’t want to hear it…” She muttered, then just stood up and heads back to her cottage. “Fluttershy, I wasn’t kidding!” I cried, still out of breath. “I-I was so scared. He’s a monster. He really is! I thought I was locked in with him. I thought-“ “Tell you what,” Fluttershy said, stopping half way on her door. “If you can make those two get along, I’ll let you have some of my Apple Pie…” She smiled as she points to the two squirrels on the tree hole. “Aaaaaagh!” I let out an angry scream. “Why don’t you listen to me?!” “D-Dashie~” She stuttered, obviously frightened by my outburst. “Y-you don’t need to shout l-like that…” She said, almost cowering under her wings. “And besides… I don’t want to talk about monsters right at the moment… It’s kind of… childish~” “But, Fluttershy!” “Why don’t you save that stuff for Scootaloo?” Fluttershy suggested. “Just, don’t overdo it… okay?” She sighed and looks at the two fighting squirrels. “Do you want to help me calming them down, i-if that’s okay with you…” “NO!!” I screamed then I added: “You’re a lousy friend!” She looked at me, and then started to cry… she then sobbed and flew inside her cottage. I took off heading back to my cloud home. I was really angry. What’s her problem, anyway?! You’re supposed to take a friend seriously; you’re not supposed to think automatically that your friend is just making up a story. Couldn’t Fluttershy see how frightened and upset I was? Couldn’t she see that it wasn’t a joke? She’s a total airhead, I decided, as my house finally came into view. I’m never speaking to her again! I flew to my doorway, flung it open and stomped my way to my room. My heart was pounding so hard, my mouth was so dry, and I was grunting like a stallion. “Gee whiz…” I said to myself, as I head to my room. I was about to open the door when I heard a noise inside… After I’ve been through today, I expected something horrible was about to pop out of my room when I try to open it… I gulped and gathered my nerves then charged full throttle in my room and saw… Scootaloo. She was on my bed, laying there and reading my book… “Oh… it’s only you Scootaloo.” I sighed and sat on my haunches sighing in relief. “Huh? Who do you expect?” She said, glancing over to me. “Uhh… oh… nothing,” I managed to say… “Wait, how did you get here without Fluttershy’s help?” I asked, wondering if she managed to fly up here by herself. “Nope…” She squeaked. “I asked for Raindrop to lift me here…” She said with a grin. “I was gonna ask Fluttershy earlier, but she was busy with something… So I asked somepony else!” “Oh… o-okay…” I said, standing up and went closer to her. Scootaloo looked at me oddly. “Is something wrong with you, Rainbow Dash?” She asked. “You probably won’t believe me anyway…” I muttered, as I climbed up my bed and slumped myself beside her. “Come on, tell me… I’ll believe you…” She said to me while putting her hoof on my shoulder. At last! Somepony who would listen to me!! I looked at her and just spitted out the words I want to say. “I saw a monster…” I said to her in a raspy voice. “A real one!” Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. “A real m-monster?!” She stammered. “Yes!” I cried looking at her seriously. “Did it follow you home?” Scootaloo asked, turning pale. “I hope not!” I exclaimed. I wheeled around and faced the other side of the bed, thinking that if he followed me home, I’m in big trouble… worst, Scootaloo’s here and she’s gonna get the same fate if she didn’t get away fast enough if that happens. Though, I needed some company tonight… I asked her if she would like to spend the night with me, and of course she nodded quickly and snuggled along with me… Smiling at her, I turned off my lights and slept with her on my side… Hoping that tomorrow, nothing bad… or unexpected would happen.