//------------------------------// // Chapter nineteen. The Spook part three // Story: Shadow in the Dark // by Thestoryteller //------------------------------// Silence. Absolutely pure silence. Nightwing always hated pure silence. Even times when he wanted to relax and the area around him became quiet, he never truly agreed with. Especially the kind of silence that was currently haunting the Everfree Forest. The kind of silence was almost as if all living things had their lives destroyed before they even knew they were dead. In the Everfree there wasn't any sound, there was no sound of frogs croaking, insects buzzing, trees moaning, leaves blowing, or twigs snapping. There was no sound of any Timberwolves, Hydra's, pony eating plants, deer, and other animals. There was only pure silence as Nightwing, Cheese, and 4/7 of CMC walked almost blindly ahead in the Everfree. "Mr. Nightwing?" Dinkie's question cut through the silence, which Nightwing was relieved about. "Yes Dinkie?" Nightwing turned to the small Unicorn. "Are you sure you know where your going?" Dinkie asked, causing Nightwing to raise an eyebrow. "Not that I'm judging your plan or anything." Dinkie quickly added. "It's just...I'm-" "Shhhhhh." Night hushed Dinkie. "It's okay I get that your all scared-" "I'm not." Cheese smiled. "Everyone, minus Cheese, I get that your scared trust me I am to. But right now your all in danger and I swear to Teach herself that I will do everything in my power and more to make sure you guys are safe." Nightwing said boldly. "But first we need to figure out where we are." "Hey Mr. Nightwing. I don't mean to rude or anything, but if you don't know where we are why not just fly above the trees and look for the castle in the air?" First base asked. "What?" First base pointed to Nightwing's bat wings which he unfolded, letting his wings stretch and extend. 'How in Tartarus did I forget about my wings?!?!' Nightwing shrieked in his mind. "Um...be right back." Nightwing said as he bent down and shot upward. Bursting through some trees tops Nightwing flew above the forest, the full moonlight shining behind him. His eyes widened as he gazed at the Everfree forest. Or rather the forest that had no end. Trees as far as Nightwing could see, it was official. Nightwing was dumbstruck. Soaring downward Nightwing landed near the group. "Okay, I got good news and bad news." Nightwing started, folding up his wings. "The bad news is we're not in the Everfree Forest anymore. We're in some kind of infinite replica of the forest." "What does that mean?" Rumble asked. "It means we're trapped in the Everfree Forest, and there's no way we can escape." Nightwing explained. The group stood wide eyed and in shock. Cheese literally deified the logic of muscle structure as his jaw literally dropped to the floor. "An-and the good news." Button asked. "I know where the Castle of the Two Sisters is, so Cheese place your hoof on Rumble, Rumble place your hoof on Button, Button place your hoof on First base, First base place your hoof on Dinkie, and Dinkie hold my hoof." Night said as the group did as Nightwing said, linking hooves with each other. "Now hold on." Nightwing said as he closed his eyes. The group waited in silence for somethings to happen. But nothing did, Nightwing reopened his eyes and saw that they hadn't moved. "Huh...that's new." Nightwing said as he closed his eyes again and tried to use Shadow stalking. But nothing happened. "Is something supposed to happen?" First base asked. "Well I was supposed to use a spell of mine that was supposed to teleport us to the castle but my crystal seems to be on the fritz." Nightwing guessed as he shook his crystal. "Has that happened before?" Dinkie asked with concern. "No, this is the first time it's done this. Gah!" Nightwing yelled in frustration as he threw his forelegs in the air. "This is just one total clusterbuck! First I have to tail around with someone who's more insane than Discord! Then I somehow get trapped in an endless Everfree Forest with a monster that can do Teach knows what! And now my Complex crystal just suddenly starts to freeze up when we need it the most!? What the Buck!" Nightwing's rants echoed throughout the forest. "Language Nightwing." Cheese sandwich scolded as he removed the earmuffs he had placed of the little ones ears. "Besides it could be much worse." Nightwing knew all too well what would happen if he asked the obvious question, so he kept his mouth shut. Dinkie however looked at Cheese and Nightwing knew what she was about to do. "No don't-" Nightwing tried to stop the inevitable but fail like the others that tried. "How could it be worse than what Mr. Nightwing just said?" Dinkie asked. "Easy, the monster could show up and eat us all up." Cheese smiled as he struck fear into the foals. "Why?" Nightwing asked in a 'how could you' tone. "Why would you say somethings like that?" "Oh relax." Cheese rolled his eyes. "Look around you, there's nothing here but us and this enormous number of trees." Cheese pointed to all around him. "Worse case scenario one of gets a massive splinter." "Cheese makes a point." Pipsqueak said. "But-" Pip paused as he looked behind him and into the dark area of the forest behind him. "I'd feel a lot safer in the castle." "I second that." Button raised his hoof. "The youngins are right, we need to head to that castle ASAP!" Cheese said, a green army helmet placed on his head. "All right troops let's move out!" Cheese shoved his hoof forward and then ran off. Leaving the group behind him confused. "...Does he-" First base was about to ask. "Give it a second." Nightwing cut through his question. A while later Cheese came running back and skidded to a halt. "Say, where is the castle anyways?" Cheese asked, his army hat vanished. "That's better, now follow me. The sooner we figure out what's going on the sooner we get the hay out of this place." Nightwing said as he trotted forward, the group following behind. Unaware of the dangers ahead. The group had been walking for what almost seemed like an eternity. Nightwing flew up above the Everfree to make sure they were on the right path. After a while Nightwing got tired of flying back and forth and decided to draw a map to the castle with the piece of paper Cheese had picked up and drew it using an ink and quill that Cheese also had. With a map the group continued there way to the castle. "Hey mr. Cheese?" First base asked, trotting forward a bit to walk side by side with Cheese. "Mr. Cheese is not present at the moment, please leave a message after the beep." Cheese answered, dressed up in a secretary outfit, a pair of black rectangle glasses sat on his muzzle, and had his mane style changed from a poof style to a more formal style. "Um...what?" "Just messing with ya buddy." Cheese joked as he ripped off his costume and threw it into the forest. "And please, call me Cheese. Mr. Cheese is my uncle." "Okay...Cheese." First base said unsure if he should be talking to Cheese or not. "I wanted to ask you what this monster your talking about is like." "Well I'm afraid that's impossible. Cause I have no idea what this thing looks like or what it does." Cheese smiled. First base had it, ever since Nightwing and Cheese showed up from 'who knows where' Cheese had been smiling almost as if nothing was wrong. But everything about tonight was wrong. First base frowned at Cheese and asked, "Why are you smiling?" "Why would I not be smiling?" Cheese responded. "Because we're trapped in a forest with a monster that no one knows anything about and our friends could be worried sick about us. And all you do is smile as if your happy that this is all happening." First base ranted, his chest grew and shrunk as panted. "You get all that out of your system?" Cheese asked. "Yeah." First huffed. "Good, because allow me to enlighten you for a moment shall I?" Cheese rapped his foreleg around Base. "See I love to smile, when I smile I feel like nothing in the world can take me down. But the real reason I'm smiling right now is to show you all that were gonna be fine. I mean would you want me to be more serious and blunt like Nightwing?" Cheese asked. First base eyes widened. He never thought about it like that, he should have assumed that Cheese would never be happy if somepony got hurt. Maybe he misjudged him. "Now come on let's go see if we can go catch us blood thirsty monster!" Cheese yelled giddily. Then again Base could have been wrong. The group had continued their quest to find the ancient castle of the two sisters. There journey had been long and treacherous. But at long last the castle remains were in sight. Their goal was almost achieved. Only a shaky and unsteady wooden bridge held by ropes was built over the large canyon stood in their way. "Someone call Daring do, cause someone stole her scene." Cheese joked as he stared down the what seemed to be bottomless canyon. "Nows not the time to joke Cheese." Nightwing scowled as he folded up the piece of paper that he drew the map on. "This is very serious, there's no way we're all gonna be able to cross that bridge. So we need to figure out a way to get everyone to the other side." Nightwing tapped his chin. "Can we just go around?" Rumble suggested. Nightwing shook his head. "No, it'd take to much time to go around the canyon. It'd be faster if I just flew you all one at a time across it rather than go around it." Nightwing said. "Yeah, and I could carry my friends to help quicken the pace." Rumble suggested. "Then it's settled." Cheese said, popping out of nowhere. "Now there's only one more problem that concerns us." "And what's that?" Dinkie asked. "Who's he and when did he get here?" Cheese pointed behind the group. The whole group turned their heads, immediately regretting that decision. Behind them, standing tall in front of the woods, was a creature with a slender body that had similar characteristics to that of a pony. A black suit with a red tie was dressed on the creature and it had no eyes, no nostrils, and no mouth. The group stood, petrified, of the creature in front of them. No one moved, no one blinked, and no one gasped. The forest became purely silent once again as the group stared at the creature and the creature stared back. Then Cheese broke the silence. "Hello there!" Cheese welcomed the frightening creature with not an ounce of fear in his voice. "How do you do, I'm Cheese sandwich, and these guys here are Dinkie, First base, Rumble, Button mash, and Nightwing. So what's your name?" The creature remained silent and still. "Hellooooooo?" Cheese waved a hoof in front of the creatures face. "Anypony home?" "Cheese please stop talking to that thing." Nightwing whispered. "Nightwing it's rude to talk about others when their standing right in front of you." Cheese frowned. "I'm sorry about him mr. Spook, he's not really a social pony." He turned back to the creature. "If you ask me he seems kinda crazy." He hushed "Calling the kettle black aren't you mr. Pot?" Nightwing asked. "You know what I mean, besides I doubt this guy is harmful." Cheese pointed to the creature. "It doesn't have a face, how does that make it harmless?!" Dinkie screamed. "Because he hasn't done anything but stand there, if you ask me he seems kinda pacified if you ask me." "That doesn't look pacified to me." Button pointed shakily. Cheese turned back to the creature to see four raging tentacles come out of the creatures back. "Yeah that doesn't look harmless anymore." Cheese nodded. The creature began to walk forward towards the group in a terrifying manor. The group wanted to run, to flee, to scream, but they were too petrified with fear to do anything. "Everyone across the bridge, now!" Nightwing shouted, forcing the groups scenes to return. "But you said-" Rumble was cut off. "Move, now!" Nightwing shouted, grabbing First base and Pipsqueak and placed the two on his back and grabbed Dinkie while Cheese grabbed Button mash and swung him onto his back and grabbed Rumble with his mouth. The two then ran across the unsteady bridge, the group could see the ropes starting to give out so the group ran faster and faster. Until the two leaped off the bridge and collapsed into the ground. Nightwing looked back to see that the bridge was still in tack and the creature was still moving forward. "Cheese do you have a pair of scissors?" "What?! No, scissors are way to dangerous to carry around. That's why I carry this sword instead." Cheese pulled a steel sword out of his mane. Not in the mood to question Cheese, Nightwing grabbed the sword from Cheese, stood on his hind legs, the sword held in his mouth, Nightwing then swung the sword down on the rope of the bridge. The sword cut through the rope with ease. Without the rope keeping the bridge held up, the bridge collapsed, it's other side crashing against the opposite side of the canyon. "Alright." Rumble shot his hoof in the air. "Thank goodness." Dinkie sighed with relief. "Yeah, there's no way that wanker's gonna get to us now." Pip smiled. The creature continued its walk towards the group, completely ignoring the now broken bridge, the creature took a step off the edge. And the hoof landed on air, step by step the creature continued to walk towards the group as it walked on air. "Come on." Nightwing whined. "What do we do now oh fearless one?" Cheese asked. "Get to the Castle now!" Nightwing shouted, throwing the the sword at the creature. Only for the sword to fazed straight through the creature, not having any effect on the creature. The group then ran away from the canyon an towards the castle. Cheese burst open the doors, once the group entered the castle, Cheese shut the door tight and began barricading it up with furniture. "What was that thing?!" First base shrieked. "I'm not sure, but I'm gonna go out on a hunch and assume that's the monster Cheese and I were sent here to find." Nightwing suggested. "Well that thing is definitely a monster. Why haven't the deer destroyed it if it's so dangerous?" Dinkie asked. "Speaking of which, where are the deer?" Cheese asked. "I told you this already, we're not in the Everfree Forest anymore. Where in some kind of illusion, or nightmare, or...something." Nightwing ranted. "You okay mr. Nightwing?" Button asked. "No I'm not okay!" Nightwing reared his head back and yelled. "This doesn't make sense. None of this makes any sense whatsoever. How did we leave the Everfree? Why can't I use my Complex crystal? What in the name of Tartarus was that thing and where did it come from?" Nightwing continued to rant. "Calm down Nightwing." Cheese gripped Nightwing's shoulders. "We'll all get through this, trust me." "That's not reassuring at all." Nightwing said. "That's the spirit, now let's go over what we know?" Cheese said, pulling a pair of rectangular glasses out of his shirt pocket and putting them on. Then, rolled a chalkboard out from behind a wall that was full of notes, paper, and numbers. "Now then, we know that this creature right here is the monster that were looking for." Cheese said, pulling out a ruler and pointing it to the picture of the creature that the group had seen. "We also can assume that the creature is connected to the disappearances, the place were currently in, and this note right here." Cheese pointed to the piece of paper with the title 'RULES' on the top of it. "Wait a minute...that's it!" Nightwing said, snatching the piece of paper from the board and examining it. "Scream once, permission to scare. Scream twice, permission to tag. Scream three times, permission to take. Find all eight pages to win." "What does this have to do with anything that's going on?" Button asked. "Don't you see, this is all a game to the creature. It's gaining power from our screams." Nightwing said. "When Dinkie screamed at you the creature grew tentacles and began to walk towards us almost as if it could see us." "That makes sense, so then if this is all a game then all we have to do is find eight pages and we can go home right?" Cheese asked. "I think that's right." "Great, then all we have to do is not scream and we should be fine, right?" Pip asked. Nightwing shook his head. "It's not gonna be that easy, we gave the creature permission to scare which means it's gonna do anything it can to get us to scream and gain permission to tag." "Well then I got just the thing to deal with that." Cheese said as he shoved a hoof in his mane and rummaged through it. Until he pulled out a roll of duck tape, tearing off piece after piece after piece Cheese stuck the duck tape on the foals and Nightwing's mouth. Then placed a piece of duck tape on his mouth. Nightwing rolled his eyes and made a hoof motion that said 'follow me'. Nightwing and the others began to walk away from the door when all of a sudden a tentacle bursted through the door and wrapped itself around Button mash and Pipaqueak's left hind leg. The tentacle then pulled the two towards the door as they scraped his hooves against the food in hopes to grab onto something. But it was no use as the two helpless foals were pulled through the hole the tentacle had made. The group made a muffled scream as they ran towards the door. The group then came to a halt when a piece of paper floated through the hole, grabbing it Nightwing began to read it. 'CHEATERS NEVER WIN' the words were plastered onto the paper. Nightwing ripped off the duck tape and looked at the group. "Take off the duck tape quickly." The group quickly tore off their pieces of duck tape. "Button." Rumble muttered in disbelief as he was about to give chase after his friend, but was instantly tackled by Nightwing. "Let me go!" Rumble yelled, trying his best to escape Nightwing's grasp. "I need to save my friend's!" "Going out there without a plan is an immediate death, and would your friend Button want you to that? Would he want you to throw everything you have away just for him?!" Nightwing demanded. But Rumble didn't care. He elbowed Nightwing in the jaw, causing him to loose his grip on Rumble. Now free Rumble flew out the hole and after the creature. "NO!" Nightwing yelled as he looked out the hole. But Rumble was no where to be seen. "Damn it!" Nightwing punched a piece of furniture. "I don't understand, we never gave it permission to tag. How was it able to take Pip and Button?" First base asked. "Because we cheated." Nightwing answered his eyes refused to leave the hole in the wall. "When did cheat?" Base asked. "When we covered our mouths with duck tape, I guess the point of the game is to at least be able to scream, if you can't then your disqualified." Nightwing explained. "That makes sense, if somepony was crippled and wanted to play tag, they couldn't because their legs wouldn't work." Cheese said. "Mr. Nightwing?" First base walked up to Nightwing. "Rumble and Button mash are gonna be okay right?" "I don't know, but I promised that I'd protect you all and that's what I'm going to do." Nightwing said with determination. Just then the creature busted the doors to castle room down. The blockade of furniture was no match against the creatures power. A black tentacle rushed across the room and wrapped around First bases leg and then began to drag him towards the creature. "Base!" Dinkie shouted. "Hold on!" Nightwing yelled as he rushed towards Base, but was blocked by three other tentacles. "Nightwing, what do I do?!" Base yelled as he tried to grab onto something to stop him from being dragged. "Don't worry you have everything you need to beat it!" Nightwing yelled back. "The power of friendship and to believe in myself?" Base asked. "No, a bat! Hit it!" Nightwing ordered. "Oh, right." Base said as he grabbed his bat in his mouth and with a swing, impacted it against the tentacle that had grabbed him. The tentacle instantly retracted from Base and back to it's master. Now free Base ran back towards the group. "Run!" Cheese yelled as he and the group ran away from the creature. Aggravated the creature's tentacles stretched out of its body and chased after the group. As the group ran the found themselves running straight for the library in the castle. "Oh no!" Base yelled. "Dead end!" Cheese yelled. "Keep running its right on our tail!" Nightwing shouted back. The group ran into the library stopping at the entrance. Having no where else to run the group had no choice but to fight the creature back. The tentacles began to close in on the library and then... They stopped. "Huh?" First base and the rest of the group looked in confusion as something was preventing the tentacles from entering the library. The tentacles then retreated away from the library. "What just happened?" Dinkie asked. "I think we just found a safe zone." Cheese suggested. "Doubt it." Nightwing said, turning away from the entrance and began examining the library. "Something in here must've prevented the creature from entering the library. We find it, we can shield away the creature and find Rumble and Button mash." "Okay, can we all agree that we need to give this guy a name, because creature is just to bland." Cheese said. "By all means call it 'Faceless death monster' for all I care." Nightwing answered, continuing to search the library. "How about...Bob?" Cheese suggested. "Bob? Why Bob?" Base asked. "Because it sounds better than 'Faceless death monster'." Cheese smiled. "Fine then, we'll name the creature Bob. Happy?" Nightwing asked. "Very." Cheese nodded. "Great, now help me search the library." Nightwing ordered. "No need, the object's clearly right there." Cheese pointed to a hard cover book with a red cover. "What makes you think that's the thing keeping Bob away from us?" Dinkie asked. "This library is over one-thousand years old, yet that book looks brand new. It's gotta be it." Cheese answered. Nightwing flew up to the bookshelf and picked up the book. On the cover was a picture of five young foals. He then flew down and walked to the table where the group joined him. Nightwing opened up the book and inside were words written on the paper. 'Once upon a time, there were five best friends who always loved to play games. One day the friends played a game where someone hid eight objects and the others had to find them. On that fateful day one of the foals fell down into a cavern and died.' The group flipped through the rest of the book but the rest of the pages were blank. "What a waste of paper" Cheese shook his head. "Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty sure this is one of the eight pieces of paper we need to beat this game." Nightwing assumed. "But why would the creat-I mean...Bob, not be able to attack us because of this book?" Dinkie asked. "I'm not sure, but right now I don't care. Cause we're gonna take the fight to...Bob, and get those two back." Nightwing said. "Alrighty then adventure's, let's do this!" Cheese pumped his hoof taking a step forward. And pressed down on a pressure plate, causing the ground beneath the group to open up. The group stood above the hole as if the ground had never opened up. Cheese then pulled a sign out of nowhere with the word 'help' written on it. Then the group fell down the hole. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The whole group yelled as they slid down a slide in pitch black darkness. "Oof!" The group grunted as the landed on a hard surface. "Everypony okay?" Nightwing asked. "I'm good." Cheese groaned. "First base? Dinkie? You guys okay?" Nightwing asked, only to get no response. "Guy's, you okay?" "Here, I have a flashlight." Cheese said as he turned on a flashlight that lit up the area. "Oh my gosh, Base and Dinkie are gone!" Cheese slapped his cheeks. Nightwing got up and frantically searched the area. Desperately trying to find the two currently missing foals. But there wasn't a trace of them. Nightwing stomped his hoof into the ground. "Damn it!" He yelled in frustration. "I made a promise to them, I promised them that I'd save them all. No matter how powerful this creature is. No matter what the creature does, I'm gonna rescue those foals. And nothing's gonna stop me." "I thought we already established that the creatures name is Bob." Cheese said flatly. "All alone." A voice from behind the two spoke as Nightwing and Cheese spun around. "Forgotten and cold. Sleeping far away." "Always watching. Forever ever silent. Never we will go away." The voice came from another location again as Nightwing and Cheese turned towards the sound. "Say goodbye. To the light. That you all use to see." The voice echoed all around as Nightwing stumbled around, trying to find the source of the voice "Let go." Nightwing and Cheese froze up, the hairs on their backs stood up like a porcupine's quills once the two saw the shadow coming directly from behind him. "To the light." Nightwing and Cheese began to slowly turn around. "And become apart of me." Nightwing and Cheese fully turned around to see the creature looming over him. Back in the Everfree Forest near the statue of nightmare moon, Nightwing, Cheese sandwich, Dinkie, Rumble, First base, Pipsqueak, and Button mash were all asleep near the statue. "Mhhhmmmh." Nightwing moaned as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. The others began to wake up as well. Yawning and stretching as they all woke up. "Hey...did we sleep through Nightmare night?" Pipaqueak asked. "I...think we did cause I don't remember anything from last night." Dinkie said. "Do you guys remember anything?" The foals shook their heads. "Hey, when did you get here mr. Nightwing?" Base asked. "I'm not sure...it's all kinda fuzzy. I remember coming here and meeting you guys but after that...nothing." Nightwing answered. "I don't remember anything either." Cheese shrugged. "Wait, don't you foals need to get to school soon?" "Oh shoot!" Button shouted. "Mr. Nightwing's right, we need to get to school quickly. Come on guys." With that the group of foals ran out of the forest. Nightwing and Cheese walked out of the forest as well. "So I guess your gonna need someplace to stay since your house is destroyed now huh?" Cheese asked as Nightwing and Cheese walked side by side along the dirt road. Nightwing stared at Cheese sandwich. "How did you-" "Fourth wall breaker, fool." Cheese smiled. Nightwing shook his head and chuckled. "You really are insane aren't you?" "There is no such thing as sane or insane, only those who be themselves. Those who accept this are the ones who are truly sane." Cheese said in a wise old man voice. "Whatever Cheese, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to decline you offer. Teach has already given me a room in Canterlot." "Suit yourself." Cheese shrugged. "But remember, my doors are always open for you my friend." "I'll sleep on it." Cheese and Nightwing had gone their separate ways, Nightwing teleported to Canterlot where Cheese headed back to his mansion where his butler greeted him. Cheese entered his room which had a king size bed, a dresser, a large cabinet, a closet, a door that led to his bathroom, and a nightstand that sat next to his bed where a picture of him and his best friend Pinkie pie had taken a picture of them with goofy faces. The picture made Cheese smile as he picked it up. "Are you alright Cheese?" A female voice asked inside Cheese's head. "I'm fine I just wish...just wish I could tell someone." Cheese answered out-loud to the voice. "You know that isn't wise. Trust me, I too wished for help and guidance but I was used for a weapon in my times for help." "Yeah I know, I have your memories after all." "You must have patience Cheese. All will be clear in time." The voice said as Cheese pulled a radiating brown oval gem from his mane. "I promise."