//------------------------------//
// The Town of Innsmareth 
// Story: The Shadow Over Innsmareth 
// by flutterjedi 
//------------------------------//

    After another night of restless, nightmare filled sleep, Twilight awoke and began to drag herself out of bed. Today was the day she would learn the truth about this mysterious town.
She ate a bowl of cereal then set out for Hoofington. After a few hours she reached Hoofington to find few ponies doing anything. Twilight figured they must have been afraid to go out when the Innsmareth carriage was coming. The dreary weather didn’t help her nerves at all. She neared the center of town and saw a large statue of a pony wearing a cloak and hat with the inscription at the base: “TO THE SAVIOR OF HOOFINGTON - THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE! LET ALL URSA MAJORS TREMBLE IN TERROR WHEREVER SHE MAY TROT!” “Hmm... I guess she really did defeat an ursa major.” Twilight mused.
The carriage, Twilight knew, would be arriving soon. She was as excited as she was nervous. Soon her curiosity would be satisfied, but what if there was some truth in the rumors? What if these ponies were bad? She wouldn’t let her fear get to her though. She had to know the truth.
After a little under an hour, Twilight peered down the road to see a pony-drawn carriage heading towards Hoofington from the east. This had to be it. As the carriage drew closer, Twilight was able to make out the pony pulling it. She had never seen such an awful looking pony. His fur was falling off, his bulging eyes appearing as if they could jump right out of their sockets at any time, he wore old tattered clothes that appeared to have never been washed, and on top of all of that, he smelled as though he had never been near a bar of soap in his life. Twilight wasn’t sure how she would deal with his smell all the way, but she wanted to know. The carriage approached and Twilight requested to go to Innsmareth.
“That’ll be ten bits.” The pony croaked, sounding oddly froglike.
His voice startled Twilight for a moment, but she quickly came back to her senses and paid the pony. She thought to herself that this would at least make an interesting story even if she didn’t find anything one way or the other.
The carriage pony went to a nearby apple stall and paid the pony there a fair amount of money for ten baskets of apples. The vendor behind the stall was shaking with fear as she accepted the currency. Twilight was feeling a bit nervous after seeing this pony. She now easily understood why everypony was so revolted by their appearance.
“Get in, pony. We’re leaving.” A chill went down Twilight’s spine as the Innsmareth pony croaked for her to get in the worn carriage only twenty minutes after arrival.
Twilight quickly climbed aboard so as not to have to hear that voice speak to her again. As the carriage began to make its way towards Innsmareth Twilight started to wish that she had tried to talk one of her friends into coming with her as she suddenly felt unsafe alone. What would the rest of the Innsmareth ponies look like? Could they be just as bad or worse than this one? She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know anymore, but she had made up her mind. She was going to do this.
It was about five hours later that the carriage slowed as it entered the port city of Innsmareth. Twilight looked out the window in the carriage and was shocked by how run-down the place looked. Buildings were caved in, all of the shops were closed, and most of the town she saw appeared to have been uninhabited for a long time. She was getting nervous. She desperately hoped she might find some normal ponies somewhere in the town.
The carriage slowed to a halt in the center of town.Twilight stepped out of the carriage as the carriage pony walked off muttering something in his deep frog-like voice. The center of town looked a great deal more used, but still very run down. The carriage was parked outside an Inn. Twilight looked around, taking in the hideous sights. All around her were old run-down stores and houses. Across the street was an old grocery store. To her left were a great number of buildings that looked as though they could cave in at any moment, and to her right was the only building that didn’t look like it’d collapse from a strong breeze. The building was large and near the roof was inscribed in stone “THE ESOTERIC ORDER OF DAPON.” She could hear movement from within the hall. Around her, several Innsmareth ponies walked around, equally as revolting as the first she saw. She stepped out into the street, looking around, only to be shoved out of the way by a pony who appeared as though she was less affected by whatever disease was causing the Innsmareth look. Her fur was only starting to grey and fall out, but she still had those bulging, staring, unblinking eyes.
“Outta my way, outsider!” The mare croaked at Twilight with the deepest voice Twilight had ever heard from a female pony. Twilight was shocked at how rude these ponies were. She decided to look for someone else from outside Innsmareth, there had to be one somewhere.
The friendliest place looked like the store across the street. She trotted over, careful not to bump into any more ponies on the way, and went inside. To her relief, she had already found a normal pony. She walked in and noted that the pony behind the counter seemed relieved to see her as well. He was a normal earth pony with cream colored fur, a dark brown mane, and a cash register as his cutie mark. Twilight had never been so happy to see a normal pony before. She walked in and quickly greeted him.
“Hello, sir,” She took a quick glance around the store to see if there were any Innsmareth natives around, “You don’t look like the other ponies here. I take you’re from somewhere else?”
“Why yes, I am. I was raised in Canterlot, but my family had to move out and I ended up working for this grocery store chain and they sent me here because the last ten people they had here ran off. Can’t blame them either.” The clerk said with cheery relief from talking to a normal pony.
“It’s nice to see a normal face. Do you know why all of these ponies here are so, um, odd?” Twilight questioned.
“You’ve got me. I think it’s some disease that’s gone through the families for a while, but if you believe old Duke Bristle by the docks, he claims it’s some ancient curse set upon the town by Rootbeer Marshmallow way-back-when. Sometimes I almost believe his stories. You don’t want to know the things that go on here at night.”
“I don’t think I really want to. This place gives me the creeps, but I came here to find out what’s up with it.”
“Well, if that’s your goal, you should probably talk to Duke Bristle, though you’ll probably want to take some alcohol with you. He doesn’t usually chat much unless he’s drunk, but he’s the oldest normal pony here in Innsmareth. I’d advise you to try to get out of here by dark, though. The Innsmareth ponies aren’t very fond of outsiders. Heck, probably the only reason they let me stay is because no one from around here would run the store.”
“Well, I’ve got no intentions of staying any longer than I have to! Thank you so much for the help! Know where I might find something for Duke?” Twilight finally asked as she started to head towards the door.
“You could probably get some from the bar a few blocks down the road, but they keep strange hours and the Innsmareth ponies might not be too willing to sell you anything.”
“Thank you sir, you’re very helpful. Have a nice day.” Twilight walked out feeling a bit refreshed. She wasn’t completely alone here.
Her next stop would be the bar. She headed down the block in the direction the cream pony had indicated and finally came up to it. She tried the door, but it wouldn’t budge. It was locked. She looked around and thought she saw a familiar plum colored pony walk down an alley. She trotted over to the alleyway and looked down to see if anypony was there, but nopony could be seen. She called out, “Berry? Berry Punch? Was that you?” But no response, however she saw something made of glass glint in the brief sunlight that peeked out from behind the clouds. She crept up to it to discover it was a bottle of rum. She wasn’t sure who she’d seen, but it seemed someone was helping her, or luring her. She couldn’t think of that though. She knew these ponies weren’t bad, just misunderstood.
With the rum in hoof she was ready to go talk to Duke Bristle. She headed towards the docks at a canter; she knew she didn’t have much time before it got dark and she’d have to get out of the town. Fortunately, she reached the docks within a few minutes and saw an ancient looking pony sprawled out near the edge. His fur was a dark brown and his mane very grey. As he heard her trot up towards him he raised his head to see who it was.
“Shwat is a reglur pony luk ya doin’ her?” He slurred, the smell of alcohol on his breath.
“Are you Duke Bristle?” Twilight asked, just to be sure.
“Aye, ye got me. Now shwat do ya wan’?  Luckily for Twilight, it probably wouldn’t take much of the rum to get him ready to tell his tale.
“I’ve got some rum for you if you’ll tell me about the town.” Twilight used her magic go pull the rum around into his view.
“Rum? That’d be shwell. Gi’ it her’ filly!” He reached his hoof out for it, flailing it around until Twilight lowered it to his level. He quickly took a few swigs of it. “That’sh bettah! So ya wan’ tah hear me tale?”
“Please,” Twilight begged, “I need to know everything I can about this place before it gets dark.”
“Well, quite a few years ago, our lil’ town wa’ ‘bout tah collapse, ya know? So ol’ man Marshmellah wen’ ou’ ta find somfin’ tha’ could save the tow’. We’ he came back wif a big ol’ bag o’ gold. Bu’ this aint ordinary gold. Nah this wa some strange whitish gold. Well, ba’ then, we didn’ know no bettah and just wante’ ta save the town! An’ so we went wit’ that damn Marshmellow feller. Claimed he traded wit some islan’ ponehs. I uh know wha’ he did thar, bu’ it made us rich so we di’in’ care none. Well, few years latah and he says he can’ fin’ none o’ them islan’ ponehs. A few weeks latah an’ lil’ Stormy Storm went missin’. Tha night aftah he disappear we hear chanting comin’ out from Devil Reef and see these lights then we hear a horrible scream. Nex’ few week Ol’ Rootbeer Marshmellah say he foun’ gol again. Woun’t say where from though. So we all ge’ suspicious. Tal’ abou’ kickin’ ol’ Marshypants outta town. Well, a week latah, there be this awful soun’. A bunch o’ these horrid beasties come out o’ the sea and start tearin’ appart everypony. There, there wa’ blood e’erywhere. I was jus’ a colt then. I hid. The monsters, they kill’ nearlah every pony ah knew, and took abou’ half o’ the town. I miss ol’ Dreamsickle. Anyway’ aftah ah tha’, them folks that was left were all forced by ol’ Marshmellah to join this order ah dapon thin’ so them creeps wouldn’ return. What else woul’ we do but accept. Town ain’ been right since. Ya see, filleh, you ‘on’t jus’ cut up animals for these thin’s. Nah, you gotta marry ‘em! Hell, ain’ a fellow from Innsmareth who aint trunin’ intah a deep ‘en these days.”
Twilight interrupted, “Deep one? What’s a deep one?”
“Them terrible beasties, ain’ you listenin’? Them things kinda hop arroun’ like frogs. Look a bit like ‘em too. Like some fishy frog ponies. Bu’ erryone now’a days is turnin’ inta one. Ya see, the final rite in the order is ta mate wi’ ‘em. Hell if I’d do that, bu’ all o’ the ol’ Innsmareth folk be turnin’ inta them, so tha’ mus mean I’mma the only one with brains left!” He chuckled at the thought.  “Anyway, that’s the story. It’s gettin’ late filly, you wouln’ wan’ to be here when those fish ponies come out. They don’ like outsiders.”
“So I’ve heard. Well thanks for the time. It’s given me a lot to think about.”
“An’ thank ye for the drink. Was most appreciated.” Bristle said as she left.
Twilight figured half of it must have just been the alcohol talking, but some of it did match up with reports from the town she had read. Perhaps these ponies really were bad. Either way, the sun was getting low in the sky and she needed to get out soon, so she headed back into the middle of town. About halfway into town she heard some scratching on a door then a horrifying screech come from the other side as a deformed hoof, that appeared to be growing appendages and claws, burst through the wooden door. Twilight shrieked and galloped as fast as she could towards the middle of town, slowing to a canter so as not to alarm anypony.
She reached the middle of town to find the carriage still sitting there and the carriage pony was coming out of the inn.
“I just remembered I have something really important that needs to be done, is there any chance you could make a quick trip back to Hoofington? I would be very greatful and would pay you two hundred bits. Please?” Twilight pleaded, though trying not to sound too anxious to leave the town, though admittedly was doing a poor job at it.
“Cart’s broke. You’re just going to have to stay the night!” The carriage pony croaked at her.
“But it looks fine to me!” Twilight said, inspecting the carriage for any problems.
“Take my word for it as the pony who pulls it. It’s broke. Now go inside and rent a room.” He rudely croaked at her again.
Twilight didn’t like this. Something was fishy. She went inside and the man at inn’s desk was the most horrifying looking pony she’d seen so far. He still had a bit of a dirty white mane left, but nearly all of his fur had fallen off. His skin was white and flaky and his eyes were wider than she thought physically possible. He just kept staring at her, never blinking, looking as though his eyes were going to jump right out of his head and attack her.
“Can I help you miss?” He said with the most guttural croak she’d heard so far. Had it not been for his calm manner of speaking, she’d have thought it was a frog.
“Um,” Twilight stammered, “I guess I could use a room for the night.” She became very nervous as this strange pony grinned as though he was overjoyed that she wanted a room. Normally it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, but from someone like him and in a town like this, that was just disturbing.
“Right this way, miss. We don’t have guests too often, so forgive us if the room seems a little unkempt.” He said in his calm and welcoming, yet insidious voice.
Twilight was more terrified than she had ever felt in her life. She forced herself to think of Pinkie Pie’s advice for dealing with fears and giggled a little.
The inn keeper turned around and looked at her with a puzzled look, “Is something funny?”
“No, I just thought of something a friend of mine said.” Twilight quickly, trying not to cause suspicion of her fear.
“Very well, here’s your room.” He said as he brought Twilight up to a numberless door and showed her inside. “If there’s anything you need, miss, let me know.”
Twilight thanked him then went in and shut the door. She was relieved to be safe in a room, for now at least. She saw that the door had a bolt on it and bolted it, then pushed the nightstand from the bed over in front of the door for safe measure. Nopony would be getting in. Unfortunately, it seemed as though this was an adjoining room and the other door had no bolt on this side. She no longer felt comfortable in her room so she moved over to the other room, closed that door, bolted it, then bolted the door to the hall way in this new room, pushed this room’s nightstand in front of the door and tried to get to sleep.