Rainbow and Twilight were walking through the Everfree forest. Twilight focused her attention on the seeker spell while Rainbow kept a look out for any predators that make their homes here. Eventually, Rainbow broke the silence.
"So, is this good or bad?" Rainbow asked.
"Huh?"
"This magic thing, is it good or bad?"
Twilight sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. The only thing it's really done is this buzzing, and if I focus enough I can feel something calling to me. It's hard to explain. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Not really. I just don't want this to come back and hurt us later," she said and took off in a slight hover.
Twilight turned to look at her friend. "Oh don't worry Dash, as long as we're careful nothing bad will happen," Twilight said confidently, and then immediately afterward she got caught in a snare trap. "Aah, what in the-?"
"Yes, I finally caught one!" shouted a pegasus from the nearby bushes. He was smiling until he saw Twilight hanging from the trap.
Rainbow Dash, for her part, was incredibly confused.
"Wait a minute," he said and flew up to Twilight's face. "You're not a Beholder." He sighed and landed. "Once again, my total lack of insight has failed me," he said mostly to himself, "Then again, this is a bad trap. Beholder's don't even touch the ground." Twilight cleared her throat. "Oh right, hold on I'll get you down."
He went back into the bushes and lowered Twilight to the ground. With that done and Twilight untied, the pegasus continued to babble to himself.
"This has been a learning experience to me. I'm going to have to rethink my traps. Anyway, sorry about that, I hope there are no hard feelings." He then trotted down the path Twilight and Rainbow came from, leaving the two very confused.
"Did that really just happen?" Rainbow asked. Twilight shook her head.
"I don't know. Let's just keep going and never speak of this again." Rainbow nodded and the two rushed to catch up with the seeker spell, which had gained a bit of ground.
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When they caught up with the ball of light, silence fell over them. After a while, the two of them felt they recognized where they were.
"Hey Twi, is it just me or does this place seem familiar?" Rainbow asked. Twilight looked around and had to agree.
"I think you're right. Isn't this where Pinkie sang that song during the Nightmare Moon incident?" Twilight looked at Rainbow. "You don't think?"
Twilight didn't need to finish the question. Rainbow nodded and flew above the canopy. In the distance, she could see the ancient castle of the royal sisters, where the Elements of Harmony used to reside. And sure enough, the seeker spell they were following was heading right for it.
Rainbow landed next to Twilight. "Yeah, we're heading for the old castle."
"That's weird, why there?" Twilight asked. Rainbow gave her a look, causing Twilight to chuckle nervously. "Oh right, well we better get going."
Rainbow grinned. "Ok, hold on," she said.
"What?" Twilight asked, but the question was lost to a scream when Dash grabbed her and flew straight to the castle. When they got to the castle and landed, Twilight was understandably shaken.
"Geez Dash, give me some warning next time!" Twilight said. Rainbow flipped her mane a little.
"Sure, egghead," she said, and then turned to the castle, which was in a greater state of decay than when they were last there. "Geez, the forest was not kind to this place. Your source thingy is here right?"
"Let me check," Twilight said and got ready to cast the seeker spell again, but after a minute of nothing happening she shook her head and rubbed a hoof to her forehead.
"Are you ok?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah, I just have a really bad headache. I guess we are close to the source." Twilight lowered the hoof and tried casting the spell again. She managed to focus through the pain and succeeded. The new ball of light circled for a bit before drifting into the castle.
Twilight sighed and rubbed her forehead to try and sooth some of the pain, though it was clear to her it wasn't a normal headache. "Alright, let's go," Twilight said and walked into the castle, Dash following behind her.
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Rainbow Dash was right about the state of the castle. Moss, Ivy, and various other plants had taken root in the walls, which had started crumbling. While the overall image hadn't change that much, it was still noticeable if one looked hard enough.
The pair followed the spell past the chamber where the elements were once held, up a staircase, and finally into the room where they had defeated Nightmare Moon. Twilight smiled upon remembering that night; when she had made the best friends she could ever hope for. Her headache, which had gotten worse, brought her back to reality. The ball of light had drifted to the right of the entrance and stopped in front of a painting and glowed a little brighter before dissipating.
"Is this it?" Rainbow asked and flew over to examine the painting, which was disturbing to say the least. It showed a scene of numerous creatures that Twilight had never seen or read about; creatures that stood on two legs, had hands like a dragon, and only had a mane for hair. Most were running away frightened from the center, some were lying on the ground in pools of blood. The scene seemed to be in a small town with most of the buildings on fire. In the center of the painting stood a shadowy figure wearing a manic grin, with several of the strange creatures lying around it.
"Yes, it has to be it," Twilight said and examined the painting more closely. "Was this here the last time we were here?"
Dash landed and shrugged. "I don't know, the last time we were here we were kinda busy with an evil goddess trying to destroy the world."
"Hm…" Twilight closed her eyes and started probing the painting with her magic, hoping to find something out of the ordinary about it. "Hm, watercolor, it hasn't been moved recently…that's weird."
"What?" Rainbow asked. Twilight turned to her.
"I don't sense any enchantments on it, so I don't know how it could be giving off the magic I'm feeling, but that's not the weird part. What's weird is that, from what I can tell, it's only a couple of years old and hasn't been moved since it was made."
Rainbow shook her head. "Wait, you mean this thing was here when we beat Nightmare Moon, and nopony noticed it at a-WHOA!" Rainbow jumped a little with wide eyes.
"What?" Twilight asked and turned back to the painting, and was shocked to find it was different. The strange creatures and the figure in the center, which had the same shape as the other creatures, had changed into ponies. The figure in the center still had its grin and now had red eyes.
"How did it do that?" Dash asked, trying and failing to keep the small bit of fear out of her voice. Twilight started probing the painting again, trying to find an explanation for the change.
"There are still no enchantments or anything on it. It's still giving off magic, but that's more like an attractor than anything. It's just a painting, but that's not possible. Paintings don't just change when you're not looking!" Twilight said, fear and panic slipping into her voice.
"Twilight, let's get out of here," Rainbow Dash said, not even trying to keep the fear out of her voice, "I'm starting to get a bad feeling." She looked around the room, "And I think something is watching us."
Twilight turned to her friend and nodded. "Yeah, let's go." Dash nodded, then her eyes widened and her wings flared up. Twilight swallowed and said, "It changed again, didn't it?"
"Yep," was all that Dash could say. Twilight looked back at the picture to find the figure in the center wasn't there anymore. Twilight was about to tell Dash to run when a black hoof reached up and held the bottom of the frame, like it was a window sill. A second hoof followed, and after that came a head. The pony seemed, for lack of a better term, to be made of shadows with small bits dripping off of it like water. It opened its red eyes and seemed to take in Twilight. It turned and stared at Rainbow Dash for a minute and then turned back to Twilight. Twilight wanted to run so badly, but her legs and mind were frozen in fear. The creature squinted its eyes, bared that same grin, which Twilight could see had razor sharp teeth, and it let out a horrible roar that nearly deafened the two of them.
The creature then started melting and slipped through the bottom of the picture and onto the floor. It soon stopped and started reforming itself; first a foreleg, then another, followed by the head, body, hind legs and tail. When it was done, it shook itself a little with some small shadows falling off. Its eyes opened and grinned again.
Then it spoke.
"This is what is heard when Carver's bones are disturbed," its voice fluctuated between a normal and deep voice, separate yet one. It started walking towards Twilight, who in her frightened state could do nothing more than fall on her rump and stare.
"Twilight, run," Rainbow Dash yelled, and yet despite how much she wanted to, she couldn't. The creature's face was now next to hers. Her mind somehow took in the detail that it was big, maybe a head taller than Big Macintosh. It sniffed at her and then spoke again.
"Sins resurface fluently the fog horn is heard." After that it seemed to chuckle and reared up on its hind legs.
'Oh no,' was all Twilight thought before it brought it fore legs down. But before they could connect, Twilight was knocked out of the way by a rainbow colored streak. When she regained her senses, she found Rainbow Dash holding onto her and that they were outside.
"Dash?" Twilight asked.
"No time Twi, hold on!" Dash yelled at her and hugged her closely. Twilight did as she was told and wrapped her forelegs around Dash's neck. Once she did so, Dash took off away from the castle. Twilight couldn't help but notice that the sun was setting. She also saw the creature leap out a window and give chase.
"Dash, its coming!" Twilight yelled.
Dash grinned. "Let's see it try and keep up." Dash then started flapping her wings faster to gain speed, pulled sharp turns, and even doubled back on her flight path to try and lose their pursuer. Unfortunately, it matched every move beat for beat, never taking its eyes off the prize. Dash looked back and saw it was still there.
"Dangit, that thing doesn't know when to quit," She said. No sooner had she said that then their pursuer looked ahead of its path, grinned its terrible smile, and sped up. "What's it doing now?"
"Dash look out!" Twilight yelled when the creature planted all four hooves on the ground and launched into the air and twirled right into Dash's path.
"Oh crap!" Dash yelled and tried to get away while Twilight's horn glowed and she cast a protection spell. Dash managed to get mostly out of the way, but the thing still managed to clip the side of her head, which didn't do much more than knock stars into her vision and sent them spiraling out of control. Twilight kept the spell up while Dash instinctively maneuvered herself into a better crash position to lessen the chance of injury to them both. Thankfully, they were near the edge of the forest.
They brushed past the tops of a few trees before clearing them and crashing into the field. Rainbow Dash took the brunt of the impact, which wasn't as bad as it could have been thanks to Twilight's spell, but she still lost her grip on Twilight. When the two stopped tumbling, they were a good distance away from the forest and were coughing from the impact.
Twilight almost felt relief until their pursuer launched out of the forest and skidded to a stop halfway between them and the edge of the woods. It looked angry until it saw them and changed back to its usual manic grin. Twilight tried to stand up, but couldn't. She watched as it took a couple steps towards them before it stopped, dropped its smile, and started roaring and convulsing, its shadowy skin giving off smoke. It rolled on the ground for a moment before getting back on its hooves and darting back to the trees. It caught its breath under the shade of the trees and, when it stopped smoking, stuck a hoof out into the sunlight, where it started smoking again and was pulled back. It stared at its hoof for a second before angrily slamming it into the ground, which created a small hole, and glared at the two ponies.
Twilight stared at it, thankful for their good fortune, and heard it speak again.
"Listen for the call that brings them when the day falls," it said and started backing into the forest, "The capsized crew returning to abolish them all." With that, it disappeared into the Everfree forest.
Twilight waited a minute, both to catch her breath and to see if it really was gone, before she stood up. Rainbow Dash also stood up and flapped her wings a couple times while Twilight walked over.
"Dash, you ok?" Twilight asked. Rainbow flapped her wings a couple more times before answering.
"I'm fine, nothing permanent; How about you?"
Twilight checked over herself. "I'll be ok," she answered then grew a little worried when she some blood on Dash's wing. "Dash you're bleeding!"
Rainbow looked at the blood trail, which came from a cut on her wing. "It's just a scratch, it'll be fine," she said and folded her wings.
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, still a little worried. Dash shook her head and gave a comforting smile.
"Twilight, I've been in enough crashes to know a minor injury from a major one. Not every crash ends with a broken wing, despite what you may have read. This is nothing, give it a few days and you won't even know it had been there."
Twilight sighed. "Ok, if you say so." She then started to laugh, quietly at first, then louder as she drew Rainbow Dash into a hug that knocked the breath out of her. We're alive, Dash! We're alive!" Twilight yelled and spun around hugging Dash.
"Twi…you're choking me…"
"OH!" Twilight let Dash go, who started taking in deep breaths, "Sorry."
Dash coughed a couple times. "No problem," she said and then turned toward the forest. "What was that thing?"
"I don't know," Twilight said, "I'm just glad we got away from it." The two fell silent until Dash spoke up.
"Let's go home; I've had enough excitement for one day."
Twilight nodded and started trotting back to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash following. Twilight spent the trip back wondering how she would write to Princess Celestia about this.
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At the time, Dash and I wrote that encounter off as another one of our crazy adventures. I'd write a report to the Princess about it, and it would be just another memory me and my friends could laugh at. A couple of days later, the incident slipped from my mind, since I was sure it was over.
Boy was I wrong.
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The day after Twilight and Rainbow's little experience in the forest, a certain pink party pony was bouncing along on a path near the forest for no real reason. She was humming a song she couldn't remember hearing when she heard a rustling coming from the forest. She stopped bouncing and turned to where the noise came from.
"Hello, is anypony there?" She called out. There was silence for a moment, and then something called out. To anyone else, it would have sounded like grumbling and gibberish, but to Pinkie it was perfectly clear.
"Why, I'm Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's premier party pony. What's your name?"
The grumbling continued, dismissing the question. It went on, causing Pinkie's ears to perk up.
"Candy?" She put a hoof to her chin, thinking deeply. "I was told never to take candy from strange ponies."
The grumbling called her closer to the forest, which Pinkie reluctantly did.
"Well ok, I guess a peek wouldn't hurt." Pinkie stopped when she felt her knee get pinchey.
'Something scary is going to happen? I wonder what?' Pinkie thought. Her question was answered when a black tentacle shot from the trees, wrapped itself around Pinkie's right hind leg, and slammed her on the ground.
Pinkie saw stars as the tentacle pulled her toward the forest. She managed to regain enough sense to grab onto a tree on the edge and tried to struggle out of the tentacle's grip. That was stopped when a second one wrapped itself around her neck.
"Oh no," was all Pinkie could say before she was dragged into the forest.
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The lines that the creature has are the lyrics to 'Old Carver's Bones' by CKY, which more or less provided the inspiration for the creature itself. I couldn't not put them in.
And so now the real fun begins.