Courage the Cowardly Dog In: Mare-anormal Activity

by lunabrony


9 - Castles and Spires

Courage made a run for it, leaving the safety of the Apothecary and dashing into the street, pursued by the mindless husks of the friend he had worked so hard to make. He ran outside where he thought for the briefest moment he might be safe, then realized with dismay that this was not the case. The sunset had begun while he was inside, as some miles away in the mighty castle, Celestia herself was finishing her daily routine and would soon retire to bed. The sun was barely visible over the horizon now, only a few lingering rays of light remaining.

He stopped for only a moment to look behind him, the doors to the Apothecary swinging open moments later as thick plumes of purple fog rolled out and spread in every direction, his former friends standing framed in the doorway. Fluttershy stared at him with her silver eyes for a moment before giving a terrible screech and lunging for him. Courage yelped and bolted away so quickly that it was only his skeleton which took the first few steps, before reaching behind to grab his own pelt, stuff it back over his bones, and continue running.

"Oooooooo!" Courage howled, making a mad dash to stay away from the fog. It covered the ground and spread ridiculously quickly, seeping under doors and through cracks in windows to take over the inhabitants laying within. He could not see their fall from normality, but heard the hissing and screeching of fogponies from within the buildings as the monsters awakened.

"It's getting worse!" He moaned, remembering Fluttershy's cottage. They had been extremely lucky the fog hadn't entered the building. Perhaps it had been an early first draft of the fog, or perhaps the cottage was just more well put together. Either way, the fog had not entered her home as it did these, and it was the only reason he was still here. He wouldn't be here for long, though, if he couldn't manage to keep ahead of it.

The small pup flew down the central street, turning the corner at the Library and spying the castle in the distance. That looked safe, he could hide in there! The fog would surely never find him hiding in a place that large! It was his best chance, being as though he was unable to fight the fog directly, and more monsters were being created by the minute as the fog rolled through Canterlot. He made a dash for it, running faster than he'd ever run in his life. Courage barreled through the front doors like a bullet, slamming them behind him and jumping up to lock the various latches with several clicks. "Yes!" He barked.

There was still no time to rest, however, as he wasn't sure if the fog could penetrate the door, and didn't want to stick around to find out. The front hall of the castle was mostly deserted, with the exception of the few pairs of identical guards which roamed around. None of them were paying any attention to him, he was just a dog, after all.

Courage ran up several sets of the spiral staircase, continuing his flight while he looked behind him to ensure that the fog wasn't coming to take him and drag him away.

It wasn't. Not yet, at least.

Looking behind him when he made it to the third floor landing, he never saw where he was going, and thus never saw the figure he crashed into. Courage felt like he'd run into a brick wall and slammed into it, tumbling over backwards several times as a result, and nearly falling back down the stairs. He did finally get a look at the tall, deeply purple figure he's run into, a pony of enormous size who stared at him with rich blue eyes filled with annoyance, her features framed by an eternally active astral mane that never seemed to stay in one place for more than a moment.

"Thou hast better have a good explanation for this," she said grimly, eyeing him with such ferocity that he may very well have found himself imprisoned should he give the wrong answer.

Courage babbled his explanation incoherently, using visual displays to increase the fluidity of his story. He stretched his body first into various pink incarnations, first a horse, then a spinning cauldron, then a zombie, rocking back and forth on two legs with his arms outstretched. He whined loudly, looking up at the dark purple horse with desperation.

"...So what thou is saying is," she began, "An evil sorcerer from another world has attacked these lands, turning the residents into mindless slaves, and is attacking my home at this very moment, and may very well take over Equestria completely if we don't stop him?" She asked.

"Yes!" Courage announced, holding up a large white scorecard over his head with 10/10 emblazoned upon it. "How did you know?" Most folks couldn't understand him, and he was immensely relieved to find she was the exception.

"Just a hunch," the mare said, and winked at him. "I am Princess Luna, and your efforts to thwart this evil scheme are noble, and will surely be commended. But first, we must act," she said. "Follow us quickly, dog, for we have an idea as to how to stop it before this night is over!" She turned and ran further down the hallway, with Courage having to hurry doubletime to keep up with her.

She led him down into a dark storage area, and her extensive horn lit up with light to brighten the area. She began to dig through to the back of it, objects flying over her shoulder and several nearly hitting Courage in the face. There was some board game he'd never heard of, a deck of cards, several plushies including what looked like a chicken, a fox, a rabbit and a bear, a tube of silly putty, and a frisbee.

"Aha!" Luna announced, grinning. "I knew it was back here!" She said. Courage leaned in to get a better look, and when he saw what Luna had dug out, he immediately knew what she was thinking. And he grinned, too.