//------------------------------// // Up, Over and Onwards // Story: Over the Edge and Through the Wood // by JarOfHearts //------------------------------// Chapter 8 Up, Over and Onwards Edited by: Cosmic Afro Pre-readers: Neko-, Dusty the Royal Janitor, and The Gargoyle “Ok, over there we have that huge clearing with the tree, so the freaky tree hovel should be around there and beyond the treeline in that direction is the land of ponies sponsored by Crayola.” Troy wrapped up his mental map as he gazed out over the forest from the tower. His mp3 pounding the lyrics of one of his favorite songs, Run by Disturbed, into his ears. However, the song couldn’t drown out his concern. The one thing that had been at the edge of his mind before the chicken thing had attacked him was that purple pony thing. The one that chased him from the library. He wasn’t able to think about it at the time, after all he was consumed by his desire to escape. He knew nothing about the society the pony things had, and he had no desire to learn from the inside of a cell, or dungeon, or if the colorful equine equivalent of such existed. But that purple one, she was able to appear seemingly at will. Was it an some sort of cloaking device? Not likely. She was running in plain sight most of the time, and she had only done it a few times. Rather, it had looked like she was teleporting. That just leaves the question of how. How? The implications were dire. What was the range? If this thing could move from place to place nigh instantaneously then it wouldn’t matter how far he ran. If it found him it could follow him to the ends of the earth, or whatever this new world was called. At the thought of the creature suddenly appearing in his makeshift ‘home’, he turned on his heel, nearly expecting the purple pursuer to be standing right behind him. Nothing. Troy clutched his head as a brand new headache set in. He was getting paranoid. Maybe a walk can clear my head. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Um, I think this is a bad idea." "What was that Fluttershy?" "I said, I think this is a bad idea." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Come on, this is a great plan. We don't have to slowly trek through the forest‐" "‐Or run into any dangerous animals." "‐Or get our hooves dirty." "‐Or walk! Now we totally have enough time to plan the surprise party!" "Surprise party?" Fluttershy panted as she strained to push the cloud her friends were perched on. The four land‐bound ponies were resting atop a large cloud, courtesy of Rainbow Dash's weather connections and little cloud walking magic from Twilight. Fluttershy and Rainbow were pushing the fluffy platform towards the Everfree Forest, while Twilight was giving Rarity a crash course in magical cloud maintenance. While there was an abundance of magic to be found in the Everfree, it was wilder and more untamed. As a result the ordered, structured magic that surrounded the pony made clouds becomes wild itself upon entering the Everfree. The plan was that Twilight and Rarity were going to keep that from happening by using their own magic to help sustain the cloud’s integrity. "Are you girls ready? We're going to be passing over the border any minute." "Sure thing Rainbow, just keep us low until we get close to the castle then take us up, a low hanging cloud might not draw much attention in Ponyville, but it's a dead giveaway out in the forest." "Gotcha. Hey, do you know why the magic here is different? Isn't it usually the same, you know, everywhere?" "I have no idea. There have been multiple theories over the years for why the air above the forest has wilder magic than the rest of Equestria. It has stumped the entire scientific community. The fact that structured magic can ‘go wild’ is a phenomenon unique to the Everfree. There's nowhere else like this in the world." "...so you don't know." Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yes Dash, I don't know. I'm sorry I couldn't be more informative." "It's fine, I kinda zoned out there for a minute anyway." The librarian pony glared at her friend for moment before returning to her lecture, which was cut short when everyone started to sink into the cloud. “Wha‐” Rainbow’s cry was cut off by her head suddenly being enveloped by the dissipating cumulus. Twilight quickly lit her horn and cast her spell, causing the improvised observation platform to glow lavender. Slowly, everyone began to regain their footing as the cloud coalesced once more. “Twilight.” “Yes, Dash?” “Let’s not do that again.” “I was just thinking the same thing.” “Ah do hate to butt in,” Applejack interjected, “but Ah was under the impression that this here was a sneaky type o’ shindig. Ya’ll said that a low hangin’ cloud would be mighty suspicious. Ah hate ta point out that a glowin’ cloud is just as likely ta attract all kinds of unwanted attention.” Twilight only smiled and nodded, “I thought the same thing, that’s why I’m teaching Rarity the spell. The aura of her magic is blue and if we’re at a high enough altitude we should appear to be nothing more than a wispy cloud or a patch of sky.” The unicorn mare gazed over the edge of the cloudy platform. She spoke as she watched the forest canopy pass below her. “Worst case scenario, we get found out, and considering that this creature appears to be flightless, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” “OH!” Everyone jumped slightly at Twilight’s sudden exclamation. “What!? What is it?” Rainbow asked while scanning the immediate area, in case the mystery creature had somehow already managed to sneak up on them. “Dash, can we make a quick detour?” “What?! You brought us all to investigate some crazy‐dangerous unknown mystery monster and now you want to go sight seeing? Are you crazy?!” Dash shouted at the top of her lungs. Applejack leveled a glare at Rainbow. “Hush, what if that thing's out there?” Twilight nodded thoughtfully at AJ before continuing.“I want to see where it fought those Timberwolves again.” Suddenly all eyes were on her, everyone knew something was up. “And why would we return to such a dreadful place exactly?” Rarity inquired. “Because we need to confirm the story the girls gave us,” Twilight answered, her logic getting a few hesitant nods. “Plus if we can figure out how events unfolded then we might get a better understanding of this creature, how it thinks and reacts. That could be invaluable if this thing ever needs to be confronted. Of course, only Rainbow Dash and myself will investigate.” “Why just us?” “Because Fluttershy can’t handle that place, we know that firsthoof.” She said whilst pointing at the aforementioned pony, who was already beginning to hyperventilate. “We need Pinkie here to keep Fluttershy calm.” The pink party pony quickly scooted up to her friend and kindly gave her a brown paper bag to breathe into. After poofing the bag out a few times the quiet pony slowly began to calm down. “Rarity has to stay here to maintain the cloud, otherwise we lose our ticket to get out of here hassle-free, while Applejack keeps an eye out for anything that might be headed our way.” Rainbow Dash could only flutter in place. Trying, and failing, to come up with a single flaw in her friend’s logic. “Can we get going, or did you space out again?” “Yeah yeah don’t get a knot in your tail, we’re going,” Dash muttered as she steered the the cushy platform towards what she guessed was the desired clearing. Soon they were over the lake of green that was only interrupted by a single tree and several motionless brown figures. Yeah, definitely the place. She maneuvered the cloud over the clearing with ease. “So how exactly are you getting‐” With a sudden flash of magic Twilight was on the ground, looking up expectantly at her airborne friend. “...down. Ok, shoulda seen that coming.” In seconds, Dash was down and beside the intrepid investigator, who was currently squinting at one of the bodies. “Eeagh, let’s do whatever it is we’re doing and get going. We got some prime spying to do!” “Dash, look around for a minute. What do you see?” The rainbow-colored mare took a moment to observe the carnage around her. “I see dead things. Isn’t that why we’re here?” “Yes, but doesn’t it look different? Last time it looked like the aftermath of a fight, now something's different.” “Looks the same to me.” “Yeah but look at this.” She motioned to one of the wolves that was laying on its back. “Something opened it’s‐” Twilight fought for a moment to keep from losing her lunch. “‐chest and carved it out.” Rainbow Dash had always believed she was tougher than most ponies, and that meant a stronger stomach as well. Today was the day she put it to the test, because looking at that thing was gruesome. To be honest, she was expecting Twilight to be in bushes regurgitating her lunch, but so far she had managed to keep it down. So far. “So, did something eat it?” Dash asked uneasily. “No, that’s the part that worries me.” The lavender mare pointed to a series of dried piles of plant matter. “It took it apart, piece by piece. No known creature does this, which means it was likely our mystery monster.” “Why? Why would anypony do this?” “I don’t know, maybe it was looking for something. Or it could have been examining the carcass, it’s not unheard of that some scientists will cut open dead animals to better understand how they work. Whatever the case, to open up the Timberwolf and dissect it shows a level of organization equal to that of a pony.” “Wait, there are PONIES that do this kind of thing!?” “It doesn’t happen often, and it’s always with animals that died of natural causes. I know how it sounds, but it’s for science. Some ponies actually have donated their bodies to science so we could have a better understanding of our own physiology. And because of those ponies we have had huge advances in medicine and emergency treatments.” Dash’s shook her head. “That’s so wrong.” “Look,” Twilight pointed at another Timberwolf. This one larger than its companions and with a few more notable differences. “That one’s head is missing, and it looks like its back was carved out this time.” “Where’d its head go?” “It was most likely taken. Either by the mystery creature or something else that had happened by at the time.” “Why?!” “I don’t know Dash, as a trophy maybe? I would need to know more details, grim as they might be.” Twilight replied as she rubbed her neckline with an idle hoof and gulped. “Are we done? This place is starting to creep me out.” “Sure, I think‐” Twilight froze for a moment and then trotted over towards a tree on the edge of the clearing. She pointed to a series of notches that had been carved into the bark. “Looks like our mystery creature left directions.” Dash floated on over, taking note of the arrow marked on the tree. “So what’s the arrow for?” “I would postulate for directions. The question is, directions for whom?” “You know, as fun as that sounds, let’s not find out.” “Agreed, can you check to see where the arrow actually points to?” “Sure, be back in a flash.” Giving a quick salute, Rainbow Dash darted above the thick green of the forest and after a moment’s searching, found their ultimate destination. The arrow pointed in the general direction of the castle. “So where does it go?” Twilight called from the ground. “Straight towards the castle,” Rainbow called back. “Hey Dash!” The cyan pegasus whirled around to the sound of Applejack’s voice. The farm pony was still sitting up on her fluffy perch. “What’s goin’ on?” the farm pony asked. “Uhh, things are getting kinda complicated.” “How’s that exactly?” “Uh, well...” “Were ya even payin’ attention down there?” “I totally was, but it was really confusing and really creepy. What do you want from me?” “What Ah want is to know what in the hay is going on!” The orange mare stomped the cloud for emphasis, though the effect was undermined by the soft ‘fwoof’‐ing sound that resulted from her efforts. “Why don’t you just ask Twilight silly?” Pinkie interjected, calling from beside Fluttershy. “Now how am Ah’ supposed t‐” Applejack’s question was interrupted by a sudden and brilliant flash followed by the appearance of a familiar unicorn. The cowpony turned turned to her pink companion with an bemused expression adorning her face. “Pinkie sense?” “Pinkie sense.” “One day Ah’d really like to know how ya do that.” The party pony smiled and slung a foreleg over Applejack's shoulder, beaming. “It’s easy AJ, all you have to do is remember everything that you’ve learned up to now is completely wrong and completely right at the same time, except when it’s left.” “What happens when it’s left?” “Then it’s not right!” Applejack, knowing what madness lay down the road to the world Pinkie Pie occupied, wisely decided to turn her attention to Twilight. “So Twi, what’s the word? Dash here has been less than informative.” “Long story short we found some concerning evidence. This creature is intelligent, curious, organized and very, very dangerous when it want’s to be.” “Wait, when did we figure that out?” Rainbow asked as she scratched her head. “Well think about it, the creature could have fled at anytime and left the girls in the tree. Naturally they probably wouldn’t have escaped nearly as unscathed as they did.” “So,” Rarity interjected. “You’re saying this creature saved them and could very well be friendly?” “Emphasis on could, we don’t know for what reason it confronted the wolves. If it was friendly why did it run away when we arrived?” “Well we aren’t going to get any answers waiting around here!” Dash remarked as she took up her position at the back of the cloud. “Agreed.” The lavender librarian nodded, and soon they were on their way towards the castle once more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Aaaaaand done! Now all I need is to braid the sinew and I’m finished.” Troy smiled at his carefully whittled yew bow. Stumbling across that Yew tree had been a miracle all by itself. After he had removed a few good-sized branches, he was ready to make his bow. In truth, he had botched the first of the three branches he had taken. The thing had snapped on his first ‘test bend’ and had shown signs of splintering where he had notched the ends for the bowstring. The results the second time around were vastly superior. He reinforced the grip and notches with dried vine ropes, making it easier to handle while simultaneously helping to prevent the wood from breaking. The final branch was currently resting in the tower, he was letting it dry for the next bow. The thing about making bows, if you used wet wood, or wood fresh from a tree, it would be much more springy. This would allow the bow to be used more than a regular one would before breaking, the only problem is that the springy‐ness also detracted from the force of the shot as well as the overall range. Still, baby steps, he was halfway done to making an effective mid‐to‐long range weapon. No more getting up close and personal with the local fauna. At least not if he could help it; the wood wolves were beyond this type of weapon, no telling if others were too. Troy checked his wounds, nothing had opened up since he had treated himself when had arrived at what was quickly becoming his ‘home away from home’. That chicken‐lizard thing had given him a run for his money. Speaking of which. His thoughts turned to the nutty looking critter, he had it resting upon the surprisingly well preserved desk upstairs. He had guessed that since the desk seemed to be both of very high quality material and craftsmanship that whatever treatment it had received when it was being made had allowed it to survive exposure to the elements for X amount of time. Seriously, that thing was probably the best piece of furniture you could buy at the time. I think that thing’s made out of mahogany. Returning to the creature, the only reason he hadn’t cut into the damn thing the second he had arrived was because he had become acutely aware of how unequipped he was for an in-depth look at this thing’s guts. When he had been walking back, he had realized he had no way to cleanly cut any of the bones as neither of his knives had serrations or saws. He could break the bones with a stone but not only was that a rather haphazard way of going about a dissection, it also raised the possibility that he would turn this things organs into unidentifiable mush. That prospect in particular was completely unacceptable. He also needed pins. After all, he had a playthrough of “Amnesia: Dark Descent” under his belt, so he sorta knew what a proper dissection looked like, and that required pins to keep the splayed skin and muscle taut so he could properly examine the creature’s fleshy bits. Of course he had nothing remotely like that. He was planning on performing the whole ‘operation’ on the desk up in the tower, it was at a good height and he really couldn’t see any other use for it at the moment. The young man wracked his mind for possible alternatives, he could use splinters of wood but he couldn’t imagine that they would be able to properly fasten the flesh to the desk. He had noted that there were golden points on the posts of the dilapidated bed frame, of course they looked rather wide at the base and were quite blunt, that and there was only four of them. He thought about every single item he had at his disposal and then remembered the table in the kitchen had some nails in it. While the heads were rusted the rest of the nail would likely be perfectly intact. Troy stood and made his way to the kitchen from the courtyard, taking a small detour to leave his bow resting against the the altar in the main hall. He found that breaking apart the rotten wood was much quicker than trying to pull the nails out, soon he had some lumber for the nights cooking fire and ten nails, all of them in good condition with only a few of them showing signs of corrosion anywhere but the head. Though Troy reflected that nailing them in wouldn’t be a problem, as he could use the back of his hatchet. Prying them out again would prove difficult and leaving a rancid piece of meat nailed in place to a area he had to frequent seemed a little extreme. Although, he could always throw the desk out of the tower from the hole that had previously been the balcony. As he started to make his way to the tower he took note of the pile of small vines that had been unused due to their short length. He had them coiled up near one of the walls resting on a chunk of the ceiling. Then a thought struck him, something perfect for his intentions. He couldn't nail down the corpse, rather he would space the nails along the sides of the desk. two on each of the sides and three on the front and back edges. Then he would use carved hooks and the string to stretch the flesh away from the body. It would take a while but it would allow the table to be reused for further studies instead of ruining it for just a single specimen. Troy smiled and went to collect his materials. He felt a certain excitement building in his chest. What would he learn? What would he see when he opened it up? Was it male? Female? Was its species in the process of evolving? Like the feathered reptiles of the late eras of the dinosaur age maybe? The young man was skipping every couple of steps, he was excited, happy even. The strange euphoria that settled on his person propelled him forward to prepare for his grisly work. Whistling merrily all the way. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “We’re here. Dash take us up.” Twilight whispered. With a quick and quiet ‘Aye Aye’ from Rainbow they were all stated to ascend. Twilight turned to her horned compatriot. “Rarity, how long do you think you can hold the spell?” “Well it’s not nearly as taxing as I had anticipated, but unfortunately I think I’ll only be able to manage an hour or two at the most.” “That’s fine, if the creature is inside the castle we can take turns, no point in hiding if it can’t see us in the first place.” “Agreed.” Soon, the group was floating at a comfortable height, where all of them were certain that they would be able to escape the strange creatures notice, and if it came down to it, its wrath as well. Once they were in position and Rainbow Dash was on the cloud rather than pushing it, Twilight turned to better address the assembled ponies at a low volume. “Remember, much about this creature is unknown, so we must be very quiet while observing it.” She gave a pointed look to Pinkie, of whom was frozen in place holding a pair of cymbals. She slowly put them back in her saddlebags with a sheepish smile. The group of mares made themselves comfortable and hunkered down with their binoculars. All of them scanning the castle area for signs of their elusive quarry. As they observed the area, Twilight was beginning to become quite giddy. A never before seen creature that was intelligent, a whole new species of sapient beings! When she spied the rope bridge spanning the chasm she whipped out her notebook and began to make a rough drawing. “Hey look,” Twilight pointed at the structure, still sketching all the while. “Isn’t that the strange bridge that the girls talked about.” Applejack turned her attention to the wood and vine construction, before tossing in her two bits. “Sure looks that way. Hey Twi, how do ya think that that thing gets across on that, doesn’t look safe, that’s for sure. Why’s it all up in the air like that?” “I’m not sure, there isn’t a lot of materials for use around here. Maybe it just used what was lying around and this was the result. Or maybe‐” Twilight’s lecture cut off as her vision drifted towards the end of the bridge. “Oh dear.” “What is it? Somethin’ wrong?” “Well, you remember that Dash and I went to investigate the clearing? Well one of the Timberwolves was missing its head.” Everypony present paled slightly, Fluttershy dangerously so. “Well, I think I just found where it went.” There, locked in Twilight’s gaze was the disembodied head of the Timberwolf Alpha in all its rotting glory. Only Applejack and Rainbow Dash were brave enough to follower her line of sight. AJ slowly lowered her binoculars and turned her attention to Twilight. “Twi, we need to talk.” “Applejack, we can’t jump to conclusions.” “This ain’t jumping to conclusions, that there is a head on a stick! And Ah don’t rightly think that anypony who owns one of those is going to be somepony you can talk sense to.” The orange mare stomped her hoof for emphasis, sending it right through the cloud. After she removed her appendage from the fluffy platform she continued. “Whatever is livin’ here is dangerous Twi, and it doesn’t have any problem with wandering into Ponyville. We can’t let this rattler roam, what if it comes for somepony next time?” Twilight nodded as she replied. “I understand Applejack, but this isn’t that simple. We don’t know if we can communicate with it or what it actually wants. You don’t think that I want answers? That I don’t want to know why it broke into my home?” The librarian took a step forward and placed a hoof on her chest. “This isn’t something we can ignore now, but while this creature has more than proven itself dangerous. It’s also important to note that it not only looked after the girls for a whole night when it had no reason to, but it also saved them at the risk of its own life. AJ, can you honestly say we can’t give this creature a chance, even after it saved Apple Bloom?” This gave the cowpony pause, she had been worried as to what would happen if this creature went on a rampage. After all, the Apple family property was just off the Everfree Forest, critters from the woods had given them enough trouble in the past. The last thing she needed was a new critter to harass her kin and threaten the safety of the farm. But it saved Apple Bloom. If the girls had been telling the truth, whatever this thing was not only gave them shelter from the storm, but kept them warm through the night. On top of that it faced down five of the most fearsome predators the forest had to offer. Didn’t that at least count for something? The farm mare gave a long sigh, “Ah, suppose yer right, Ah’m just a little on edge with this whole mess.” “I think it’s safe to say it’s not just you, we’re all on edge. This is might be our first contact with a completely unknown species. So how should we approach it?” Applejack trotted towards the edge of the cloud as she spoke. “Let’s not put the cart before the pony here now, before anything else Ah say we set eyes on this critter.” She raised her binoculars to her eyes. “So far we don’t even know what it looks like.” Dash nodded in agreement as she joined her friend in her spying, almost immediately she shouted. “THE‐rmph" A pair of pink hooves quickly wrapped around Rainbows muzzle, stifling the shout. One hoof detached from the prismatic pegasus's mouth to transfer to its owners own as Pinkie shushed somebody for the first time in recent memory. "Quiet, remember?" The pink mare whispered while gently reminding her friend. After the pegasus gave a quick nod Pinkie removed her remaining hoof. Keeping her voice low Rainbow pointed down at the castle. "Something inside is moving." The rest of the mares quickly followed her gaze through one of the castle’s broken windows, they could see that indeed something moving in the shadows thrown by the castles massive structure. “Ah can’t see it.” The orange farm pony quietly remarked as she scanned for any sign of life. However, it was Pinkie caught a glimpse of it first. “OOOH! I saw it! No. Wait. Yes! I think it’s going that way, no wait, that-a-way” The party pony threw her hoof dramatically towards the castle courtyard, very nearly clocking Twilight in the process. All the while keeping her volume in a range usually reserved for Fluttershy. “Ah see it, Ah think it’s headed out back!” Dash was already moving the cloud into position. “I’ll get us a better angle.” Soon they were overlooking the courtyard, spotting their quarry quite quickly. Soon all the mares were lined up on top of the cloud, silently observing the creature as it dipped some kind of cloth in the water. It was wearing an abundance of clothes, though strangely it wasn’t wearing anything on it’s upper torso at the moment as far as they could tell. The creature kept it’s back turned, though still giving a decent view to all of the observing ponies. “It really doesn’t have any fur, weird.” Dash was the first to comment. “Could it be sick or something?” Applejack asked as she examined the creature’s pinkish hide. “Maybe,” Twilight replied as the creature was vigorously scrubbing it’s cloth in the stream. “We don’t know anything about this species, I wonder why nopony’s seen one before.” “Why don’t we just ask?” Pinkie sprung up and began to gulp in a huge breath. “Because it can’t‐” The purple pony turned as she replied, and when she saw the the pink mare’s intentions she immediately made to intercept. “HEY‐ mnbffh” Unfortunately, it was too little too late. The creature whirled around at the sudden noise. Luckily, while it got the direction of the shout’s source correct it was, by design, greatly mistaken on the elevation. Though this was of little consequence to the four mares that were still watching the creature. All of whom felt like a large stone had spontaneously materialized in their stomachs. The creatures front was covered in streaks of blood, mostly on it’s face. It idly wiped away the crimson liquid with the fistful of damp fabric as it scanned the area. Rainbow gave Pinkie an annoyed look, "What the heck happened to 'quiet'?" "I thought I was helping, what do you do when you want to know something about somepony? You ask them, silly, it usually works." "But, it can't speak Equestrian!" "Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot about that." The assembled mares gave a collective sigh while Rainbow idly rustled Pinkies mane. "It's alright, you didn't give us away, so just be a little more careful, OK?" Twilight watched the exchange with a satisfied smile and single nod at the conclusion, it was good thing that they hadn't been spotted. And of course, Pinkie was just trying to help. “Um, Twilight dear,” Rarity whispered, drawing the her friends attention and merely offered her binoculars while motioning toward the creature. Twilight took a look through her friend's proffered spyglasses. She looked in the indicated direction and immediately wished she hadn’t. “Remind me to thank you for suggesting this cloud platform.” The fashionista muttered quietly. The librarian could only nod in response. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Moments ago... Geeze, blood really doesn’t wash out all that easy. Stupid artery, though I have to admit that little blood fountain thing it did was kinda cool there for a minute. Though I guess I shouldn't have been leaning on in the first place. Even if it does mean less leverage. Troy thought to himself as he scrubbed his unfortunate shirt, slowly rinsing out the chicken thing’s blood. Suddenly a loud bleat filled the air, startling the hopelessly lost hiker. He swung around and scanned for the source of the noise, but heard nothing more. He simply shrugged it off, maybe it was a bird or something. He cleaned the blood from his face and made his way back, after all he still had work to do. That thing had been able to blind him with no problem, but he had no idea how. The last thing he remembered was looking in its eyes before suddenly being wracked with pain. He had checked for spines or any other projectile but found nothing. Afterwards his eyes had been fine, he was currently guessing that it had sprayed his eyes with something. Like nature’s pepper spray. Whatever the case was, he needed to find the mechanism and its limitations. If he encountered another one of these things, he wanted to know what he had to watch out for. Troy continued to ponder the possibilities as he entered the gloomy shade that his abode cast. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Hey, I think it’s going inside.” Dash pointed at the creature as it made its way back into the cavernous castle ruins once again. “So, what do we do now?” “I vote we go home.” “Fluttershy, we can’t go home, we have an obligation to make sure that thing doesn’t hurt anypony. ” “So what do we do?” Rainbow Dash asked with more than a hint of impatience. “We go and confront it, see if we can get some kind of understanding.” “You seem to forget that it can’t talk.” “We’ll just have to improvise, Rarity we have to try.” “Hey, oh oh oh,” Pinkie Pie bounced as she lifted her hoof into the air. “I got an idea.” “What?” Twilight asked as she gave a curious glance to the pink pony. “We throw it a party!” Twilight Sparkle sighed before replying. “No Pinkie, we have got to do this right and I’m pretty sure that parties or cupcakes are not going to be much help.” “Okie dokie lokie.” The pink mare chirped. “Ok, so what’s the plan?” Dash asked with a grin, she was getting tired of waiting and snooping. It was time for action! “Bust down the door and tell it to buzz off?” “I don’t think so, if we can’t communicate we can’t tell it to do anything. Even if we could we don’t know if it would listen. Also, aggravating it will only make it far more dangerous than it already is. You do remember what happened with the dragon, don’t you?” Dash paled at the memory, the teeth, the scales, the claws, the smoke. The smoke was black as pitch and smelled of sulfur. But this creature didn’t have any of those. And yet, it was able to fend off five timberwolves by itself. The small thought came unbidden and was quickly shoved aside, but Dash couldn’t shake the feeling that something was out of place, like something about it didn’t belong. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but something about it just felt wrong, like something was missing. “So what are we going to do then? Walk up, knock on the door and see if we can mime ‘don’t terrorize ponies in the middle of the night’?” “There’s more to it than that, we can’t all approach it all at once.” The girls quickly huddled around the purple pony as she began to explain. “When it was surrounded by the Timberwolves it responded with lethal force.” The assembled ponies grimaced at the memory of the carnage left in the creatures wake. “If we show up all together it might assume we plan on harming it and thereby cause it to lash out or at best case scenario make it wary of us. If we are to have any chance at a peaceful resolution to this situation one of us needs to approach it alone with the rest standing by as backup. And I have to be the one to do it.” The others exchanged unsure glances. “You sure that’s a good idea sugarcube?” “Yes Applejack, I’m sure. Besides I don’t want be out of your sight so Rainbow will bring the cloud in low and keep watch through the window.” “Now wait just a minute, you just got done saying how dangerous this thing is and now you want to go meet it face to face?!” Rainbow Dash sputtered. “Twi darling, I know you’re upset about how it broke into your house last night but isn't this a little rash?” “Please stop.” All eyes were on Twilight. “I admit I was upset. In fact I still am a little angry, but I’m the only one who’s seen this thing up close. I have a duty to Equestria and I plan on fulfilling that duty.” “That doesn’t mean you have to go alone, sugarcube.” “I won’t be alone, you’ll be right there and don’t forget I’ve got my magic. If it tries anything I’ll be long gone before it can even touch me.” After a series of uncertain looks AJ sighed. “An’ they say Ah’m stubborn.” She conceded. “We’ll be watchin’ from here. Anything goes sideways you just give us a holler and we’ll be down in a jiffy.” Twilight nodded solemnly. “Alright, I’m going.” With a bright flash, she was on the ground. She craned her neck to try to spot the cloud her friends were currently perched on. Picking out the fast-moving cumulus wasn’t all that hard, no sooner than it was in position she could see Pinkie waving to her from her position on top of the fluffy white scouting outpost. Steeling herself, the purple mare made her way towards the castle. Slowly working the doors inward with her magic she noticed that aside from a smoldering fire pit there was no sign of the creature’s presence. “Ok, now,” Twilight mumbled to herself. “If I was a strangely clothed bipedal creature, where would I be?” She wondered idly as she slowly entered the castle ruins. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “What could possibly go wrong?” —Famous last words AN: Big thanks to Cosmic, The Gargoyle, Neko- and Dusty the Royal Janitor. You guys were a huge help and this story is that much better for it. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.