//------------------------------// // "Arc2: Tsd" Ch6 Time on the run // Story: The String of Fate // by Omior Falroc //------------------------------// “Woah hold on, what is with the rush?” Vigil suddenly started pushing Omior back into the domicile as he muttered under his breath. “Just get inside. Pinkie’s gone and started another blind panic.” Vigil managed to shove Omior into his house as he shut the door behind them. “Sometimes she even gets the town so riled up they mob whatever it was that Pinkie identified as the center of the cause for alarm.” He went rushing around the house locking windows and lowering blinds, one of his last stops was the back door which he quickly locked with a sigh. “We should be safe until the heat blows over.” “So who is this Pinkie, and why is she so excitable?” Omior decided to sit down and listen to what the pony had to say, it sounded important enough to take note of. “Pinkie Pie is the element of Laughter, and she tends to cause the town to go into a frenzy for the dumbest of reasons. If she has any reason for it other than ‘because she can’ then I’ve no idea.” The sound of a large group of ponies screaming and running about was resounding in a muffled fashion into the domicile. Vigil was a bit more on edge as he talked faster. “We need to find a way out of town inconspicuously someway quickly before the ponies start a dang mob.” True to his word, the sounds of panic decreased and the sounds of angered cries began to rise. “Dammit, already?” Knocking at the door signalled that indeed, there was a mob present, and it had moved fast. The sound of hastily chatting and slightly anxious ponies came from outside. Over the loud semi-panic, both parties heard the sound of a mare trying to converse with Vigil. “Eye spy! Open up! We know the monster followed you in now open up!” Vigil ignored it as he tried to find an alternate path out of there. Again, the same pony yelled for him again. “If you need help just show us a sign! We’re coming in.” As if to prove this, the ponies behind the door began to pound on it trying their best to break in. Vigil gave an irritated sigh as he yelled out, “I’m fine! Now stop damaging my property and get outta here!” “Eye spy! What about the monster? We’re coming in. Is it manipulating you?! Or making you do something terrible. Break the door down!” The pony on the other side yelled out. The banging increased in rapid intervals as the door started to crack. Vigil looked around and noticed that the back door was devoid of noise, he looked through the blinds next to the back door to find it completely devoid of ponies wanting the head of a monster.Vigil quietly cracked it open as the front door started to give way. The two heroes, Vigil and Omior started to make distance by the time the door broke down. ______________________________________________________________________________ *five minutes later* Vigil’s house was in tatters to say the least. The door was off its hinge and lay on the floor as but another doormat, the back door was ajar from where Vigil and Omior had escaped from, and the house was a mess with ponies who searched high and low to make sure the door wasn’t a facade. Mayor Mare was, to put it delicately, in complete shambles. She was nervous because another creature from the everfree had supposedly come into town, and anything from there meant bad news no matter how innocent looking. And anything bad news related from the forest usually meant a lot of repairs to the town. And all of that meant plunging into the town funds for repair with what little they have, which meant borrowing extra from outside towns like Canterlot, and that would create more debt. So while Mayor Mare had cut the mob into two groups, one to search the edges of the Everfree forest and the other with her to make sure Vigil had not tried to fool them and only feigned his escape. Vigil and Omior had long gotten away inside the forest. Though the town forming a mob brought about some unexpected eyes. “.......C’mon Twilight, please.” Spike begged Twilight as they turned the corner to the next road, the main one to the Tree of which they lived of course. “For the last time Spike, we aren’t getting any gems this time. Maybe next time okay?” Twilight said as she walked along. Keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead and..... “Hey look. What’s going on there?” Spike had practically jumped onto Twilight’s head and began pointing to a house not far ahead on their left, Twilight had the unfortunate timing of being blinded by her assistant’s intrigue. “What’s going on where Spike? I can’t exactly see when you're covering my eye-oof!” The purple unicorn said as she tripped over somepony. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t see where I-Pinkie?” Now that Twilight could see, she noticed the pony she tripped over was none other than her pink party pony friend. And that friend was watching a house being pretty much ransacked by everyone in the town. “Oh hi Twilight, don’t worry i’m okay.” She said as she turned from her violet friend to the happenings inside. “Uhm, Pinkie...?” “Yes Twilight?” Pinkie said turning back and smiling to Twilight. “What’s happening with the ponies going crazy?” Spike inarticulately beat Twilight to the punch. Twilight huffed a bit to herself and waited for Pinkie’s almost immediate answer. “Oh silly! We’re just playing hide and go seek with Eye Spy, he’s really good at hiding, ooh and there was this big monster thingy that looked all mean like he would be all like rawr and I got scared and told the town about it and now we’re all playing this game and aren't games fun because-” Twilight put a hoof in Pinkie’s mouth before she could stray too far from the conversation at hand. “Pinkie!” Twilight released her hoof from the unsilenceable pink party pony’s mouth; after she quieted and paid attention that was. “Yeeeesss?” She asked sweetly, almost sing songy with a kind of bubbly naivety. “What’s this about a monster?” “Oh well, it was wearing this fancy clothes kind of like what Rarity would make mixed with some kind of fancy Gryphon armor, oh it was so scary to see it, it was on two legs and was talking with Eye Spy, oh it looked like something out of the Everfree, maybe even worse. I hope he didn’t scare Eye Spy too much!” Twilight had a frown on her face. ‘Biped? Adorning armor, frightening, urgh Pinkie’s gotta have more than that.’ “Is that all Pinkie? I mean, did you get a good enough look at it to know anything remotely close to what it looked like?” Pinkie placed a hoof under her chin as she went into deep thought to remember some of the finer details. “Oh yeah, he looked kinda like a diamond dog, only more, uhh.. short? Yeah I think something like that. He also looked like a bald chimp, like the kind Fluttershy has, I wonder if he likes bananas like a chimp too? Wouldn’t that be just silly?” Pinkie giggled to herself from pondering on that thought aloud before continuing. “He had this flat face really weird if you ask me, well, anyway, I think that’s all I got to see before running off and telling Mayor Mare about it.” ‘Okay, so it’s tall, looks like a mix between a diamond dog and a monkey. What could it be?’ A loud crash from inside the house snapped Twilight from her current thoughts before they could further evolve. “What the hay are they doing?” Twilight muttered a bit to herself before stepping towards the house. She spotted Mayor Mare and quickened her pace a bit. “Mayor Mare. What’s going on? Why is half of Ponyville tearing the house apart?” Twilight called out as she got to the mare in question. Twilight garnered no response from the mare who looked to be silently distraught, muttering to herself a little bit. When Twilight repeated the question, she poked Mayor Mare in the side a little bit. This got her out of it and she turned to Twilight, a tad surprised by the suddenness of her appearance. “Oh, Twilight it’s just you. I didn’t see you there. No, Pinkie came running through town about an Everfree monster. So we are looking to make sure it fled, rather than hide somewhere in his house.” A few pillows started flying out of the opened window from the second story along with a few other unmentionables. Shortly thereafter a few drawers. Twilight raised and eyebrow and spoke up, “And you don’t think you’re reacting too badly?” “No, no we’re reacting just fine actually. It’s far from overboard I think.” Mayor Mare turned back and observed the scene again. “Well, not too far overboard.” Twilight gave Mayor Mare a questioning look. “So, you all are digging through and ultimately destroying a house because a creature from the Everfree was in the area?” Mayor Mare nodded. “And we seem to have creatures from the Everfree here every other week. I’d say you may be overreacting, especially if Pinkie’s the one who started this whole thing.” “No no. Er, well, yes Pinkie was the one who informed us of the ‘Spooky Dooky Monster’ but I still think we’re, eheh, taking the rational course of action.” Mayor Mare almost looked a bit unsure now. “Really?” Spike interjected. Mayor Mare sighed and looked down. “Fine. I’ll call off the search and have the construction team fix Eye Spy’s house. I’d have to assume at this point the creature’s long gone in the Everfree, maybe Eye Spy will come out of hiding wherever he is if we repair his house and apologize.” Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’m glad you saw reason Mayor. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get home. I’ve got a busy schedule.” Twilight turned to start leaving. “Alright Twilight, goodbye.”