//------------------------------//
// Where Is My Child?/To the Library! 
// Story: Bloody Marey 
// by A Wise Pony 
//------------------------------//

"My child!" the spirit wailed. "Where is my child?" Its eyes, closed before, suddenly snapped open, revealing empty black pits.

Everypony screamed. The three fillies and the dragon raced for the door. "It's locked!" Sweetie Belle said, hooves rattling on the sealed knob.

"Where is my child?" The mare took a step toward them.

"This can't be happening, this isn't possible…" Twilight muttered over and over.

"Twilight! Snap out of it and help us get the door open!" Spike shouted. Twilight shook her head a few times to clear it and concentrated on unlocking the door. The knob suddenly glowed and the lock clicked open. Spike and the Crusaders wasted no time in flinging the door wide and fleeing down the stairs; to their alarm, the shadows were spreading, seeping around the door jam and across the walls. "Twilight, get out of there!" Spike insisted.

"My child! What have you done with her?" The sanguine mare took another step towards Twilight.

"I haven't done anything—I don't know anything about your child!" Twilight was backing away now. So far, the spirit was slow. If she could just get through the door…

"Where is she?" the ghost howled, and sprang at Twilight. The purple unicorn's horn glowed defensively, but the ghost simply passed through her on its way out the door. A nebulous feeling of ice spread up and down the purple mare's spine, and she shivered, unable to move for a moment—until the ghost shrieked from the library proper, "Are you my child?" 

"Spike, girls, get out of here!" Twilight galloped out of the room and cast a shield between the four children and the specter. It howled and ran into the magical barrier, slamming its body against it. Wisps of red began seeping through to the other side. "Stop standing there and run!"

The Crusaders bolted out the front door, followed closely by Spike. Bloody Marey screamed as they fled. "My child! Where are you?"

"Not here!" Twilight said. She gritted her teeth and increased the field's strength. "Your child is not here!"

"Not here? Then where? Where?" The unearthly howl that tore from the mare's throat heightened in pitch until Twilight was forced to cover her ears. The screech rose to a crescendo, and then the ghost collapsed in on itself. With the sound of space itself rending, it vanished in an implosion of scarlet wisps. Twilight's jaw dropped. That had been a teleport. Which meant…oh no. She galloped out of the library into the evening air, ears twitching around to seek the sound of the screams that were sure to follow.

***

"Come back soon, dearies!" Mrs. Cake called after Derpy and Dinky. The mother and daughter had stopped in for quick muffin before closing. 

Dinky levitated the blueberry muffin she'd picked in front of her, taking tiny bites. "Thanks Mom," she said with a smile.

"Oh, just a muffin for my muffin," Derpy said, nuzzling her daughter.

An unnatural tear appeared in front of them as a rip in the universe spewed forth a creature of nightmares. "My child!" it exclaimed, and it reached out for Dinky.

Derpy blinked once, her eyes shifting from confusion and shock to complete rage. "Get away from my daughter!" She flared her wings and swept them forward, blowing the apparition backwards.

With a screech, the mare leapt back to its feet and charged the mailmare. Derpy stood her ground, bracing for the impact, but it never came. 

With a tinkling pop, Twilight appeared in front of her, horn glowing as she trapped the creature once more.

"I can't hold her for long! Run!" 

Derpy grabbed her daughter and tossed her onto her back, and flew away as quickly as she could. Twilight watched them go, then turned back to face the spirit. "I know you can understand me. Your child isn't here. You're a ghost, you and they have been de-" The ghost started caving in on itself again. "No! Wait, I'm trying to tell-" The same bloody collapse completed, and Bloody Marey vanished again. "No, no no!" Twilight looked around wildly. "Where did you go now?"

***

Sugarcube Corner was dark now; the two foals had already been put to bed, but only Pound Cake was asleep at the moment. Pinkie Pie was still trying to get Pumpkin to close her eyes. "Fall asleep, fall asleep, fall asleep little Pumpkin," she crooned. The foal's eyes were starting to droop. Any second now, any second…

The cosmos screamed as a blood red form tore through the fabric of the universe directly over the cradle. "My child!" it cried, reaching out for Pumpkin. Pumpkin looked at the spirit with interest, then horror as she realized the ghost intended to take her.

Pinkie gasped and did the only sensible (to her) thing to do. She'd laugh later; right now, this called for an explosive reaction—no ghostie was taking Pumpkin on Pinkie 'Responsibility' Pie's watch! Her Party Cannon suddenly in her hooves, she aimed at the ghost and pressed the trigger. A pie (razzleberry) coated the sanguine mare's head—and the spirit's spun to facePinkie, empty eyes somehow burning with anger. 
"You!" it screamed.

"Uh oh." Pinkie fired again. This time, the cake that flew from the cannon passed through the ghost and splattered on the wall. Pinkie laughed nervously. "Um, hi?"

Bloody Marey flew at the party pony, who readied the cannon once more. The ghost would have to be solid to grab her, and when it was-

Twilight winked back into existence in front of Pinkie. "Leave my friend alone!" The field formed again. The ghost howled all the louder. Pound Cake woke up with a wail; he and Pumpkin were both crying now. The ghost's howling stopped as it turned towards the foals. Twilight blinked. Was it just her imagination, or did it look…guilty? "You have to listen to me: The reason you can't find your child is-" The ghost was gone again. "Why does it keep doing that?"

"Twilight, what was that? It tried to take Pumpkin!"

"It was a ghost."

"But I thought you said there's no such-"

"I know, but obviously there is. We don't have much time. I need to keep after it and stop it from hurting anypony. Can you get our friends and have them meet at the library?"

"Okie dokie!"

"Good. Once everyone else is there, you come and find me." Twilight teleported away, and Pinkie rushed for the door. She skidded to a stop as Mr. and Mrs. Cake burst through.

"Pinkie, is everything alright?"

"Sure is, but a mean old ghost tried to take Pumpkin. Don't worry, Twilight scared her off."

"What?!"

"Can't talk now, have to hurry!" Pinkie bounded out the door. The worried parents approached the crib, where Pumpkin had stopped crying and was now nibbling on some of the pie filling that had fallen in.
***
"Apple Bloom, where have you been?" Applejack demanded as the three fillies and a dragon slowed to a stop at the farm's gate. "Oh, howdy, Spike. Why are you four outta breath?"

"There's a ghost in the library!" Spike exclaimed, panting. "And it's looking for its foal!"

"A ghost? Are you sure this ain't just another of Pinkie and Rainbow's pranks?"

"It sure isn't!" Pinkie said as she screeched to a halt in front of them. "I don't know what it is, but my spine is crawling, and my back isn't itchy, so I'd take it seriously. Twilight wants you all to hurry back to the library!"

"Isn't the ghost still-"

"Nope. Not sure where it is now. Gotta get everyone else!" Pinkie raced off towards Fluttershy's cottage.

"Well then, we'd better hurry." Applejack galloped away, the four children close behind. "Come on everypony, to the library!"

***