Some twelve feet off the ground, settled comfortably between two branches, a small blue bird shook its head quickly. Fluttershy, flapping her wings next to the nest, frowned her brows. “What do you mean, ‘you don’t want to show it’?”
The avian legs shuffled awkwardly on the branch, and the bird did its best to avoid any eye contact with the pegasus.
She tried again, smiling kindly. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t really important, you know?”
The bird shook its wings fervently.
Fluttershy had to back away a few wing beats before the fury of the little tit. “Okay, okay, I can see that your eggs are just as important, if not more so.” She tilted her head slightly, and weaved her most persuasive smile on her face. “I would really appreciate it if you could just take me a teeny-weeny bit closer to the place, okay? I mean, how bad can it be, really?”
The tit’s tiny eyes flickered in the sparse sunlight that the dense roof of leaves allowed through.
Fluttershy’s smile froze and withered on her lips as she understood. “Oh. I see.” She shook her head, and sighed. “Nonetheless, that is what I have to see. I’m on a royal errand, so I can’t back down, not in the face of…” A shudder travelled over her spine. “Please. I must see it.”
Somepony might think that a lack of shoulders would provide an insurmountable obstacle for shrugging. The blue tit would prove them wrong.
Gratefulness flooded Fluttershy’s face. “Oh, thank you so very much! No no, you don’t have to come the whole way, just take me as far as you can.”
The bird payed one last glance at its nestful of eggs, sighed, and flew on its way deeper into the forest. Behind it, Fluttershy followed as best as she could. Despite the extra effort she had to put on her wings to stay on the agile tit’s trail, her mind found enough leisure time to dig up the questions that she had hoped to have buried hours ago. What is Twilight thinking right now? She must be worrying herself sick over me, the poor thing. The thought of Twilight – the unicorn who could lose her mind because of an overdue letter – finding out that her friend had gone missing in a strange village in the middle of nowhere almost made Fluttershy bite through her own lip.
It had to be done, though. It will all be fine in the end, that was what Princess Luna told me, that was how it had to be…for whatever reason. The princess knows what she is doing. She glimpsed at the canopy above, but only the green shadows greeted her. “Whatever is touched by the stars…” Can you see me even now? No…You would let me know if you did…yes, yes you would. She tore her eyes from the hidden sky, and focused on the flying bird in front of her. After what seemed like the longest flight of her life, Fluttershy finally stopped as the bird did. The blue animal was standing completely still on a branch, its head turning rapidly from side to side.
“Is this it?” the pegasus asked, panting slightly. “Did we–”
The bird gave her a look that silenced her immediately. “W-what is it?” she whispered after a moment, following the bird’s example and anxiously looking around. All she could see was more swamp and trees, more wet misery and gnarled roots lifting up their twisted trunks, all painted with patchworks of gently swaying shadows. The dirty green waters stood still, undisturbed by even the faintest breeze. It was as if the whole forest was suddenly holding its breath.
With a nervous amusement, Fluttershy realized that so was she. “Uhm…It think it was nothing?” she said carefully.
The tit gave her a condescending look. It started flying again, although this time quite a bit slower. Fluttershy followed suite, now glancing behind herself every now and then. It could have been Luna. It was probably Luna. Oh Celestia, please let it be just Luna…
After half an hour of flight, the bird finally signed that it wouldn’t be going any further. Fluttershy thanked it for the one last time, and watched with longing as it quickly flew away towards its nest. Soon, only her own wing beats stirred the silence around. She swallowed, and headed towards the direction the bird had pointed at. Even while she could swear that the scenery looked just the same here as it did everywhere else in the forest, somehow the atmosphere grew more sinister by every minute she spent flying alone. It was not the lighting that changed, nor the lack of animals (there had been barely any to begin with), nor the silence that unsettled her. It was something else that created the sense of threat. Something unknown. Something terrible. Nonetheless, ahead she flew. And then she was there.
First, she smelled it. Next, she saw the carmine current that seemed to go on forever. Finally, she could see it, the thing she had asked about from every animal she could find, the thing that no animal had spoken directly of. The thing that once, not that long ago, had not been just a thing, but a deer. Now it was but a carcass of a deer.
A bitter lump choked her throat as Fluttershy stared at the corpse that lay on a hill rising from the swamp. She couldn’t tear her eyes off the sight. The disgusting feeling soon spread all over her body and mind, filling her with nausea. She felt as she was sinking into a mire, the cold creeping along her coat and the dirt seeping through. The taste of bile stained her mouth, her breathing grew more rapid, and sweat formed on her brow, trickling down onto her eyebrows that harbored her wide, wild eyes. Despite all this, and for the indescribable void that now occupied the place of her heart, she could not bring herself to cry.
I must be strong, I must be strong I must be…strong. I knew to expect something like this, something like…this. I must be strong. She swallowed, and landed on the grass and moss that covered the craggy mound. The scent of putrefaction lingered heavily in air, mixing in with the smell of the swamp. Another wave of bile climbed up from her stomach, but she gagged it down while slowly stepping closer to the deer, looking away. When she couldn’t bring her legs to move anymore, she glanced quickly at the body at her hooves. A terrible wound covered its side, stretching all the way from its ribcage to the lower stomach. The flow of blood had stopped long ago, and most of the muscle tissue was gone, along with some entrails. When a particularly large beetle run out of the deer’s mouth, Fluttershy finally retched on the brown-green grass, staggering farther away from the carcass.
Teeth marks, was her first clear thought when only a thin trail of saliva hang from her lips. Big teeth. A canine, or perhaps a feline. Most likely a canine. A violent shudder travelled over her, and last of the bitter spit dropped onto the ground. It hunted down the deer, fed, and left the rest for later. She turned the idea around in her spinning mind, but couldn't find any other explanation for the horror that lay behind her. With wavering movements, she turned to look at the ex-deer once more, the shaking of her legs gradually spreading all over her body. It should come back at some point. There’s still plenty of…meat…left. She spread her wings, and flew to the nearest tree that seemed to have suitable branches to lay upon. The thick moss that covered most of the trunks here proved to be soft and plenty enough so that Fluttershy could rest her back comfortably against them, yet somehow she couldn’t find it in herself to be grateful for the fact.
On her branch, the pegasus turned so that she wouldn’t have to stare at the deer below, although the stench was something she couldn’t escape from. The sudden loud crumbling made her flinch and, soon after, chuckle nervously as she realized that it had been her own stomach. I should’ve brought some food with me…I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t have noticed that. But what if she would have? Then she’d figure out that I left on my own initiative…no, I did right, I did like the Princess told me to…”take nothing with you but your courage”. The memory stirred another short and nervous chuckle out of her.
Hours went by, and the silence began to soothe Fluttershy into a disquiet drowse that tried to compensate for the lack of proper sleep she had suffered from lately. Were it not for the horrible smell that refused to grow more bearable, she might have fallen asleep by the time the shadows began growing around her. It was hard to tell under the canopy, for the light was always sparse there, but at some point Fluttershy could have sworn that the sun had already passed six o'clock. The lack of sensory stimuli, smells excluded, made it hard to get a hang of the passing of time. But what does it matter, anyway? All I need to do is wait, no matter how long it takes. No matter how long it takes…I wonder how long that is, exactly?
Not that long, as it turned out. As she was idly seeking her own reflection from the surface of the calm waters, a disturbance suddenly made the opaque and level waters ripple. Symmetrical rings spread under her gaze, each followed by another smaller one, and soon the greenish liquid was covered with waves. By every moment the water grew more restless, Fluttershy’s heart added another beat into its rhythm. She searched around with her eyes, ears, and even with her nose, trying to locate the source of the disturbance. When she finally saw it, she almost fell off her branch.
It’s a dog. But that’s impossible…dogs don’t… eat deers… She stared in terror at the large, dark-furred creature that swam towards the mound. Her mouth cracked slightly open as an involuntary gasp fled her. Immediately, the animal’s eyes darted at her direction.
Fluttershy blinked. It hadn’t smelled me yet, not for the deer. “H-hello!” she blurted as the beast crawled onto the dry earth, its gaze locked in hers. “P-pleasure t-to make y-your a-acquaintance!” She wanted to scream, but somehow the blind fear managed to come out in comparatively understandable form. Why is it looking at me like that? Why is it looking at me like a… like a… The thought knocked on her frontal lobe, but couldn’t quite turn into a word.
The creature moved closer to the tree that the pegasus inhabited, circling between it and the carcass. Water trickled heavily off its thick fur. Fluttershy could see powerful muscled moving on its back as it crouched and revealed its fangs. “C-could you p-perhaps l-listen to m-me a bit?” the pegasus said, pressing her back against the bark. “My n-name is Fl–”
The beast sprang into running. Grass and moss flew in wide arches as its claws digged into the soil, only to detach with incredible speed as it leapt from the mound. The pegasus, her mind suspended in fear-stained awe, followed as the huge mass of muscle, fur, claws and fangs soared through the air…and crashed into the tree with a stunning impact. Fluttershy fell sideways from the branch, her wings unable to lift her up in time. Before she broke the water surface, the thought that had been knocking by the entrance of her mind suddenly turned into a clear, explicit and easily articulated word.
Prey.
Her scream was cut short by the greenish waters that filled her lungs.
***
In the middle of a rustic village, laying in the shadow of the town hall, a lavendel unicorn listened to the blood rushing in her ears. The noise was something she couldn’t avoid, for the world was otherwise immersed in absolute silence. She would’ve screamed, but her voice had failed her a while ago; there was only so many times a pony could shout out a name from the top of her lungs. She lay on the grass, panting slightly. I’ll rest just a moment, just a short moment…I can’t carry on like this anymore… Her legs ached from the way she had been running around the village, and sweat covered her coat. The soft grass, cooled by the shadow it grew in, felt good against her flank, and for a moment, she closed her eyes. Just a moment…I need just a moment…The music composed by her own blood was almost soothing now, heard in the pristine quietness. Second by second, even that begun gradually fading as Twilight’s heart calmed down. The world itself seemed to disperse, carried away by weariness and desperation. A minute went by, then another, and suddenly, just on the brink of sleep, Twilight’s eyes flashed open. “Fluttershy!” she cried with a raspy voice. A series of coughs seized her as she stumbled on her feet. I must find her. I must find Fluttershy. I must–
Loud crumbling, followed by the sting of hunger, cut her train of thought and made her cringe. Food. I need to eat. Last meal I ate was the supper. Her vision shook a bit as she walked into the town hall and the library where their belongings lay untouched. Seeing Fluttershy’s saddlebag raised bitter lump to her throat, but she fought it down along with the tears that yet again tried to invade her eyes. Calm down, calm down, calm down. Whatever you do, you need to stay calm. She opened her own bag and found some sandwiches wrapped in checked fabric. And find Fluttershy. I need to stay calm and find Fluttershy. A bottle of juice was next to emerge from the confines of the saddlebag. Popping off the cork, Twilight took a long sip from it.
As food and drink filled her stomach, thoughts begun to ordain themselves more clearly in Twilight’s mind, for the body was doing something it knew how to do without supervising. After a short but thorough analysis of her situation, she had come up with the following facts: First, Fluttershy has gone missing. Second, there’s no way she wandered off on her own initiative. Third, that means she was forced away. Fourth, it is highly probable that whatever creature took her away, it is also behind what happened to the villagers. Conclusion: To find Fluttershy, I need to find the villagers. But how?
The last question, in the very annoying way of last questions in general, wouldn’t leave Twilight’s mind even after the fact was made obvious that there wouldn't be any answer there. “What the hay is going on here!?” she screamed at the silence that had followed her inside, bread crumbs falling from her lips. Along with them, a drop of liquid fell onto the floor. Twilight looked at the stain in disdain. It’s berry juice. Just some berry juice. Just…some… Another tear fell from her cheek. “Fluttershy,” she moaned. “Where are you? What happened to you?” She began sobbing, the rest of the bread dropping as the purple halo let go of it. By the corner of a bookshelf, a pair of gleaming eyes followed the bread spread on the floor.
I have to let Princess Celestia know about this, she thought while wiping her eyes with a hoof. I must let somepony know about this, this…horror. I need to make it to Owl Moor as soon as possible, I need to… Suddenly, a faint crunching sound carried to her ears. She looked down, and spotted a little grey mouse chewing her sandwich. She screamed. The mouse ran.
“No, don’t go!” she cried, reaching for the critter with her magic. But before she could focus intently enough, the mouse had vanished under the thick carpet that lay on the centre of the room. “You just startled me!” she continued, standing up and hurrying over to the carpet, which she quickly swept away with her magic. “Have you seen my friend? Have you s–.” Bafflement swallowed the rest of her sentence, for under the carpet there was nothing but planks. But I saw it skitter here a second ago. She looked closer to the floor, and soon spotted a small hole gnawed into its surface. “Are you there?” she asked from the hole. Nothing happened, so she lighted it carefully with her horn. She peered inside, closing an eye and bringing her face just centimeters from the floor. From the darkness, more darkness emerged. “What the…”
She stomped her hoof against the floor a couple of times. A hollow sound followed, as if an echo carried from underground. She stomped again, for the third and fourth time, and every time she was met with the same void answer. There is something down there. Something hidden. She rolled the rest of the carpet aside, and begun inspecting the floor plank by plank. Except the noise, nothing unusual stood out to her. Finally, she gave up and sat down, staring intently at the small hole. I should be on my way already…but there’s something about this that doesn’t make sense. Why would the villagers build a secret cellar into their library? Could Fluttershy be there, somehow? She bit her lip, and looked around, searching for something. Her eyes nailed at the closest bookshelf, a heavy and sturdy thing. Hesitation dwelled on her face a moment longer, and then a purple halo enrobed the bookshelf, lifted it slowly in the air…
And brought it crashing down above the hole. One plank broke instantly but others remained intact, while the bookshelf only lost most of its contents. With some effort, the unicorn raised the thing to the ceiling, and rammed it again on the floor. Splinters and the sound of shattering wood filled the air. On the third go, the bookshelf finally broke through with a mighty crack, sinking halfway into the pit that now occupied the centre of the room. Panting slightly, Twilight removed the thing and put it on its place where it immediately tipped off and brought another shelf rumbling down. Twilight paid the fuss not the faintest attention, for she was now staring, in the light of her horn, at what had been revealed under the floor.
Stairs? What the buck? “F-fluttershy?” she cried at the darkness that seemed to stretch an eternity away from her light. Not an echo answered her. The unicorn stood there a moment, peering into the dark and chewing her lip. After its short absence, the silence had returned to the world in its full sovereign emptiness. Twilight swallowed, and started her descent. The stairs and walls were made of tightly packed earth and covered with planks, or at least they once had been, for now the woodwork was mostly rotten away. Some of the earth crumbled away at every step that Twilight took, and somewhere in the back of her mind lingered a lonely fear of being buried alive.
Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four… thirty-five steps. I must be over ten meters underground. She looked behind herself, and could only barely see the opening of light above the stairs. In front of her, there lay a corridor about the same looking as the one she had followed so far, although it went straight ahead this time. It seemed to go on and on all the way to infinity. Mold and moist earth stank heavily in there, and the darkness was fighting back the light of her horn as if it was alive. Nonetheless, she took a brave step forward. And shrieked as the earth gave away under her hoof.
Her eyes darted down in panic. The once solid earth was caving in rapidly, revealing a void underneath. Twilight felt herself slipping as he tried to take a quick step backwards, but then the floor crumbled completely under her front legs. She tipped over, and fell. Blind fear filled her mind, but not before she could cast one last spell. The drop was short, only three meters, and the purple bubble that now covered her softened the fall so that she didn’t even get a bruise. However, when she dared to open her eyes again, the fear inside her chilled her heart like never before. Right in front of her eye, pressing against the magical bubble, there stood a sharpened stake.
That would’ve pierced my head like a cupcake. She blinked, and almost retched inside the bubble. Instead, she carefully landed herself to the bottom of the pit. Over a dozen other stakes covered it like daisies would a meadow. They’re all fresh, too. Somepony built this trap at least somewhat recently. She shuddered, and looked up. Above, some of the branches and twigs that had been used to conceal the pit still stuck from the floor. Why would anypony build a something like this? Did the villagers know about it? She gave one last frightened look at the stakes, concentrated, and levitated herself out of the trap to the other side of it. She didn’t land, though, but continued onwards by floating safely off the ground.
The corridor was shorter than what the absolute darkness therein would have suggested. Soon she came to a comparatively large room that still had most of the original woodwork holding the ceiling aloft. Before ending her levitation spell, she prodded the floor carefully with a hoof. When it didn’t sink, she landed with a soft thud. She studied the seemingly empty room in the purplish light that colored the dark walls in sinister shades. It’s a wonder that the place hasn’t collapsed already. By all reason there should be a flood here, at the very least. As she extended her circle of light, she spotted a door on the other side of the room. She took a step towards it, but froze as her hoof hit something hard. Very slowly, she looked down, half expecting to see a skull of a pony. Instead, she realized standing on top of some oblong object that lay half covered in the earth floor.
Another trap? Am I going to get shot by an arrow through the neck if I remove my hoof? She looked around, trying to spot a hole in some of the walls or anything else that might hint of danger. It’s no use; the whole place looks like it wants me dead. Abiding to extreme caution, she kneeled to inspect the thing that her hoof lay upon. Dirt and mud covered it completely, so beside the rough shape, she couldn’t say much about it. She took a deep breath, and swept its surface with her other front leg. A gasp fled past her lips. A book. It’s a book. This keeps on getting weirder and weirder…and not in the Pinkie way. Resting assured in the notion that a book had never once harmed her before, Twilight moved her front leg off it. She waited for four long heart beats, and sighed in relief as nothing happened.
She picked up the book with her horn, wiping more of the mud off its surface. It turned out that most of the stuff had practically become part of the cover and wouldn’t budge. It must have been here for ages…but how can that be? Any book I know wouldn’t last a month in these conditions. The humidity is almost making me fall apart already. She tore her eyes away from the mystical book, and towards the door that lay ahead. Should I go in? There could very well be more traps there. And how could Fluttershy be here? The entrance in the library was sealed, and the trap untouched. It would have taken some nifty magic to get her by all that without leaving any trace behind. She watched the door dubiously, trying to make sense of her situation and options. The more reasons she found to leave the room as soon as possible via the route she had come in, the more the door ahead seemed to lull her to open itself. As if in a dream, she took a step towards it, then another one. Before she had even realized it, she was standing right in front of it.
She pushed it. It didn’t budge. She pushed harder, with both of her front legs, but the door didn’t even creak. I could just leave it be. I could just walk away. I have no reason to believe that Fluttershy is behind that door, that there is anything meaningful for me in there. She put the book down. On the other hoof…I know for certain that she isn’t where I came from. A purple aura enrobed the heavy-looking door, and begun to bend it outwards. The old wood creaked painfully, but didn’t break. Step by step she began to increase the pressure. By the time the door gave up and broke in half, her neck and shoulders were tensed to the extreme. A proud smile tickled the corner of her mouth as she stepped over the wooden ruin into another corridor. Well, I’ve come this far… She was about to continue, but then she remembered something. Turning around, she grabbed the book with her horn and floated it to her.
The moment it crossed the threshold, the walls started caving in. Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she saw the corridor she had come from be buried in mud in seconds, and her heart jumped to her throat when she realized that the breakdown was rapidly advancing towards her. She ran. She ran for her life, away from the indifferent earth that was set to bury her alive. She didn’t look back, but heard the masses of soil coming down right after her. The noise was not so much loud as it was soft, wet, and squelchy. It almost sounded like a long, slurping kiss. I’m gonna make it I’m gonna make it I’m gonna make it… She was holding her breath, every muscle tensed to the extreme, every cell of her body reaching forwards. She was faintly aware that at some point, the corridor had begun turning upwards.
Then she saw it. Light. There’s light ahead. Dear Celestia, let me make it, let me make it, let me m–. Her head hit a water surface and broke through. Her confusion was too immense to become an actual factor in her actions. She swam, eyes closed, aiming for the surface that she did not know, kicking with her limbs and reaching up, always up; her lungs wailed for air, begged for it; she opened her mouth and water filled it, she almost screamed…
And then her head broke the surface again. Her eyes flashed open, looking wildly around. There was no shore in sight, just more water, more swamp, more trees that looked like they grew upside down. She gulped down the stinking air as much as she could, practically hyperventilating. At some point, her hind legs stopped just treading the water and she began to swim again, heading for no particular direction. In the end, she did end up on a shore, or at least she found soil solid enough that she didn’t need to make an effort to keep herself from sinking. She dragged herself a few meters, and finally collapsed in the mud, shaking violently. For some time, she just trembled, her eyes wide open and lungs working overtime. What just happened? What the hay just happened? Did I surface in the bottom of the swamp? How is that possible? What just happened?
She stood up. Her legs failed at the first attempt, but on the second she could bring their shaking to a bearable level. Her coat was covered in swamp water and mud, and the sight of her mane and tail would have made Rarity faint. But I’m alive. Dear Celestia, I’m alive. “I’m alive,” she sobbed, barely staying up. “I’m alive…” Movement in the corner of her eye catched her attention that was stretched to the point of snapping. In the pond from which she had just emerged, there floated a book. But books don’t float. They just don’t. She looked at the book as if it was looking back at her. The thing shored quietly on the same spot where the moss and soil had been ravaged when she had dragged herself over them.
She noticed that the water had washed most of the mud away from the book’s cover, revealing a beautiful carving underneath. Even from a few meters away, Twilight could clearly recognize the picture. It was the same picture she had seen in another book, one about astronomy. The Black Twig. Three branches at the bottom, five on top. The Third Day of the Fifth Turning. And thirty-five steps. She took a step back from the book. The Black Witch. The Witch of the Shallows. Three and five, three and five everywhere.
Fluttershy has been captured by the Witch of the Shallows.