//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Other Other // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// The world was suddenly quite empty and Peekaboo struggled to make sense of what had just happened. Her brow furrowed as she put her brain to work and looked at her companions, who seemed to be the only ponies around. They had been on a play date with the Cake twins at Aunty Rarity and Coco’s house, and Sweetie Belle was foal sitting them while Rarity and Coco worked together. Peekaboo, along with Harper, Pumpkin, and Pound, were all sitting in front of one of Rarity’s many mirrors making silly faces and amusing themselves when Peekaboo had tried to make herself vanish in the mirror by closing her eyes and holding her breath. It was how she could sometimes become invisible or at least a little dim. All she had to do was close her eyes and hold her breath and Peekaboo became a little difficult to see if she truly believed the grown ups could not see her. She had peeped open one eye ever so slightly to see if she had vanished in the mirror, and now, she found herself and her companions here. She had no idea why. “So… where is everypony?” Pound asked. “I dunno,” Pumpkin replied. “Want mama,” Harper demanded, her face darkening and her frizzy orange mane beginning to droop alarmingly. “Why did everypony suddenly vanish?” Pound inquired, getting up to have a look around. He was a very take charge sort of pegasus, bold for a yearling, and while not the leader of their little group, he was certainly the sometimes brave forward scout. “I see Rarity’s sewing machine, but no Rarity,” Pumpkin said, one eyebrow attempting to lift in a very grown up manner. “We should stick together. The grown ups say if something ever happened, we must stick together and keep track of Harper. She’s only half a year old,” Pumpkin ordered, mustering up every bit of her insufferable adultness that she had and taking charge. “Yeah, whatever you say Bossy,” Pound muttered. Pumpkin cleared her throat and glared daggers at her brother, her eyes narrowing. “Brute,” she whispered just under her breath, her ears perking forward and her nostrils flaring wide. “Snob,” Pound grumbled in reply, not bothering to look at his sister. “Scared,” Harper announced as she clung tightly to Pumpkin. “I know,” Pumpkin soothed, giving Harper a squeeze. “RARITY? COCO? SWEETIE BELLE?” Pound called out, looking around. He stood in the kitchen doorway and looked around. “Well, no grown ups,” he muttered, heading off for the fridge. After a monumental struggle, he managed to pull the door open and then sat down on the floor, his eyes beginning to water as his mouth hung open in fear. He hugged his own barrel with his forelegs and a few tears began to trickle from the corners of his eyes. “What’s wrong?” Pumpkin asked, breaking away from Harper to run to her brother’s side. She immediately threw her forelegs around her brother's neck, squeezed as much as her tiny unicorn foal body would allow, and rubbed her cheek against Pound’s own tear stained muzzle. “Look!” Pound cried, pointing with one front hoof. At this point, Peekaboo and Harper were with the Cake twins, and Peekaboo along with Pumpkin looked into the fridge, both gasping in unison from what they did not see inside of the ice box. “There’s no food,” Pound whined. “It’s empty,” Pumpkin whimpered. “What’s going on?” Peekaboo sniffled, wiping at her face with her foreleg as tears began to slip down her own cheeks. “Bad,” Harper announced, sitting back on her haunches. “Want mama.” “I think I want mama too,” Peekaboo agreed. “I can never tell who she means,” Pound said in confusion. “Bucky, you big dummy,” Pumpkin grumped as she wiped her snotty nose on her fetlock and pushed the fridge door shut with her other foreleg. The door clicked shut with a “whump” sound that echoed strangely in the kitchen. “So no grown ups, no food, we’re gonna die,” Pound whined, admitting defeat. The idea of missing lunch was pretty much the worst thing he could think of. “I want my mama too. Or Pinkie Pie… right now a Pinkie Pie hug would be the best thing in the whole wide world.” “What’s that?” Peekaboo asked, pointing at a stuffed animal that was moving toward them. Its movements were jerky and wrong. The small stuffed pony didn’t walk, it crawled along on its belly, dragging itself forward with its legs, inching towards the group of foals. “Oh boy that’s creepy,” Pound said, rising up on all fours and his stubby little wings flaring out. He went stiff legged and puffed out his barrel, trying to look as intimidating as possible. The little stuffy pony inched forward. It was lumpy and misshapen, and something moved under its fabric skin, its sides and legs changing shape and thickness as it crawled along. It’s little button eyes glinted in the strange light of the kitchen, and a weird clicking scritching scratching sound could be heard from within the small stuffy pony. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Pumpkin screamed. “KILL IT POUND! BE A BRUTE!” Pound lept forward, reared up, and brought his hooves down upon the squirming stuffy. It burst open on contact and hundreds of creepy crawly bugs came writhing out, horrible icky bugs with too many legs and big scary pincers. Centipedes and beetles and earwigs and so many other unspeakable unnamable horrors spilled out on the tile floor, wriggling and crawling over one another in a big disgusting pile of icky. “Foals! Fresh meeeat,” a disembodied voice moaned, seemingly coming from the stuffed animal. “Deeeelicious foal flesh,” it hissed. “Bad!” Harper shouted. “No touchy touchy!” Seeing Harper’s horn glowing and smelling ozone, Peekaboo lunged forward, tackled Pound, and then she rolled away with him, getting him to safety. A second later, there was an arcing crackle loud enough to leave everypony’s ears ringing. Pumpkin, who had covered her face with her forelegs, peeked out from between her fetlocks and looked around, peering out with one opened eye. The stuffy toy was now a smoking charred mess and the bugs were mostly dead, blackened, burnt, and some had popped like popcorn. She looked at Harper, who was standing on trembling legs, horn still glowing, and electrical sparks danced along the stubby length of her horn. The air smelled like thunder. “Bad stuffy,” Harper scolded, her muzzle scrunched up in an attempt to look fierce. “Bad stuffy no touchy touchy,” she repeated. “You tell ’em Harper!” Peekaboo said as she let go of Pound and climbed up onto her hooves. She helped Pound stand up and then trotted over the scorched stuffy to have a look. It was blackened and the tile floor was burnt. There were all kinds of dead bugs, killed by Harper’s lightning. The stuffed animal wiggled a bit for a moment, and a few more insects crawled out of the burnt split seams. “So no grown ups, no food, and stuffed animals filled with bugs,” Pumpkin said as she trotted forward to join Peekaboo in examining the fried stuffed animal on the floor. “That wants to eat foals,” Pound whimpered, coming to his sister’s side and pressing up against her. “If I use my fire magic mama will be mad,” Pumpkin said, her face furrowing with worry. “We should get out of here. I don’t think it is safe. Sweetie Belle has a whole bunch of stuffed animals in her room.” “Go outside? Alone? With no grown ups around?” Pound asked, blinking his eyes in disbelief. “Any better ideas?” Peekaboo questioned. “No,” Pound admitted in reply. “We stay near Harper and her zapper,” Pumpkin instructed. “Zap!” Harper shouted, nodding her head, her poofy frizzy mane bouncing. “Mama Lyra told me zap zap zap!” “She sure did,” Peekaboo agreed. “To keep little Harper safe. Zap zap zap. Can you zap stuff for us Harper?” Nodding Harper smiled, her small white teeth visible as she beamed. “Zap for Sissy,” the foal announced as she looked at Peekaboo. “Love Boo.” “Okay. We go outside. Where do we go though?” Pumpkin asked. “To the Ponyville library? Maybe we could draw on a wall and get in touch with Twilight Sparkle somehow?” Peekaboo replied. “That’s a good idea. Maybe grown ups are there and can’t see us,” Pumpkin agreed. “So what about the black spot here?” Pound asked. “Wouldn’t that tell them something?” “Maybe they can see it but not us and don’t know how to scold us?” Pumpkin reasoned, sitting down and trying to think. “Mreow,” Opalescence mreowed, strolling casually through the kitchen. “Kitty,” Harper announced. “Kitty see us.” “Opalescence?” Peekaboo called out, looking at Rarity’s cat. Hearing her name, Opalescence turned to look at Peekaboo. She raised one paw, licked it a few times, and then washed her face while practically ignoring the foals who were watching her every move. “Opalescence, here kitty kitty,” Peekaboo coaxed trying to call the cat over. “Are you nice and real or is Harper going to have to zap you?” “Oh that would be quite rude,” Opalescence said disdainfully, pausing mid bath to glare at the foals. “That would ruin my perfectly coiffed fur. The very thought,” she sighed, shuddering once she was done speaking. “Do you know what is going on?” Pumpkin asked. “Not kitty,” Harper hissed, her eyes narrowing. “What?” Peekaboo asked, her eyes widening. Folding its ears back, the cat glared at Harper angrily. “Some foals are too clever.” “Not kitty!” Harper cried. “Not kitty at all!” she warned as her horn began to glow alarmingly bright. “Not kitty go buh bye! Tootles!” A stream of lightning burst from Harper’s stubby horn and flew towards Opalescence. Pound and Pumpkin screamed, and Peekaboo covered her eyes with one foreleg. “Oh bother,” Opalescence gasped just before the lightning struck her. The not kitty exploded, a cloud of white hairs filling the kitchen and drifting down like snowflakes. There was another big black scorch mark on the tile floor, and some thing writhed around on the floor, kicking, hissing, and popping, now deprived of its cat suit. It was burnt black, had four legs, a lumpy misshapen head, a tail, and looked like a rat with too long legs, a too thick tail, and great big fangs. It was covered in blisters and completely charred from nose to tail. It died with a gasp, letting out a smoke ring as it finally expired. “Not kitty,” Harper muttered. “Good job,” Peekaboo praised. “Want cookie,” Harper demanded. “There are no cookies,” Pound said, looking frightened. “But maybe later when we get out of this.” “If we get out of this,” Pumpkin interjected. “Cookie!” Harper shouted. “Later Harper, I promise,” Peekaboo promised. “Okay,” Harper agreed. “Cookie later. Promised. No cookie… zap.” “So what was that thing?” Pound asked, approaching the burnt remains. “Not kitty,” Harper answered. “Bad not kitty. Lives under the bed.” “I told you Pound! I told you I told you I told you! There are too monsters under the bed! Didn’t I tell you!” Pumpkin shouted at her brother. “I believe you now… I was trying to be grown up about the whole thing!” Pound retorted. “So the monster came out from under the bed while there are no grown ups around. I wanna go home!” “Home will be empty,” Pumpkin said in a frightened voice. “How do we know that for sure?” Pound asked. “We could go look,” Peekaboo suggested. “We have a lot of stuffed animals. And beds in our house,” Pound replied as he paced around in a circle, his stubby wings fluttering, his face creased with worry. “I’m so scared.” “We’re all scared Pound. Come here, I’ll hug you and make it better,” Pumpkin offered, sitting back on her haunches and extending both forelegs. Looking around sheepishly, and knowing that big tough pegasi didn’t go running to their sisters for hugs when they were scared, Pound ran to his sister anyway, threw his legs around her neck, and squeezed her tightly. “Snob,” he whispered. “Brute,” Pumpkin whispered back. “So… we go outside, and the either go to the library or we go to Sugarcube Corner. I don’t think there are any grown ups anywhere. We need to be on the lookout for stuffed animals and not kitties, or not animals of any sort. We need to keep Harper safe and Harper will keep us safe. Pumpkin, can you use your magic at all?” Peekaboo said, trying to sum up the situation and figure out what to do next. “I am not supposed to use my magic. I catch stuff on fire,” Pumpkin replied, looking guilty. “I don’t have very much control.” “We’re going to have to make due if we ever want to see our parents again. Now let’s go,” Peekaboo commanded, trying to be brave like her daddy Lugus. It was either be brave or cry, and crying was something her daddy didn’t approve of. She could tell when she ruffled his feathers. “I’m getting kinda hungry,” Pound whined. “We all are. And if Harper keeps using her magic, she is going to have to eat soon,” Pumpkin replied. “We’re in trouble.” “We just have to stick together,” Peekaboo responded. “Now let’s go!”