A Device for Divine

by stanku

Chapter II

The scream of the alarm clock was abruptly cut short by the purple halo that surrounded it. Twilight opened her eyes to the darkness, stretching her limbs and yawning. She stumbled a bit in the gloom before she lit her horn, after which she finally managed to get out. A faint snoring emitting from Spike’s room made her mind her steps on the way to the downstairs. After a small and silent breakfast, she grabbed the saddlebag by the door, which she closed carefully behind her, just as the library clock struck seven in the morning.

Apart from a few elderly ponies and merchants, the Ponyville streets echoed their emptiness while Twilight made her way towards the train station, humming a happy tune as she went. With any luck, we’ll be back before the day’s out, she thought as the familiar building entered her vision. And if I get to write my report on the way back, Princess Celestia can read it tomorrow morning. Now that’s efficiency. Her thoughts were interrupted as she turned a corner and rose to the station platform; slumping on a bench, there rested a familiar figure.

“Fluttershy?” she asked, stepping closer.

The yellow pegasus tensed instantly, and almost fell off the bench. “For the good, for the greater good!” she cried.

Twilight almost jumped in the air herself. “Whoah, calm down!”

“What, where am I?” Fluttershy’s head sprung to meet Twilight’s confused face.

“...in the train station?”

Fluttershy’s eyes stayed blank for another second, and then they widened an inch. “Oh. Right. In the train…station.”

“Uhm, you okay, ‘shy?”

“Aa, I’m fine, no, I’m better! No need to worry, I just, uhm...had some trouble sleeping again so I, uhm, came here a bit early.”

“A bit early? Looks like you spend half the night on that bench!” Twilight pointed at the marks the planks had left on Fluttershy’s thighs and back.

She looked at herself, then at Twilight, and smiled awkwardly. “Aa, ehm…I guess I got a bit nervous yesterday…Sorry.”

“Oh, Fluttershy…you don’t need to apologize – I was just worried about you.” Twilight put her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Jeez, you’re tense! Seriously, your shoulders feel like bricks!”

Fluttershy kept on smiling like there was no tomorrow. “Ha ha ha, I suppose the bench was a bit hard to sleep against…”

Twilight studied her friend with furrowed brows. “I think you should skip this one, Fluttershy. I’m sure Princess Celestia will understand if I explain the situation to her.”

The smile died on Fluttershy's lips like a butterfly freezes in a blizzard. “No. Not that.” She blinked at Twilight’s reaction, then smiled again. “Uhm, I just meant that I’d hate to disappoint the Princess, I really would. Really, I’m fine, of course I am. Rainbow Dash always says that a bit of excitement is what makes life worth living, right?”

“Sure, but I think you’re stretching the definition of “bit” again; you shouldn’t push yourself too much, you know.”

“I…I know, Twilight…But, but, I also need to learn to control myself better, yes.” Fluttershy averted Twilight’s eyes as she spoke. “I think this journey would do good for me.”

“Well, if that’s your decision, then I’m supporting it from the bottom of my heart.”

The pegasus suddenly wrapped her hooves and wings around the lavender unicorn. “You’re the best friend, Twilight…”

A surprised laughter escaped from the unicorn. “Whoah there, don’t tip me over!”

“Eep, I’m sorry!”

“It’s fine, Fluttershy. Anyway, I think we can buy the tickets now. Want to come along?”

“Yes, I’ve had enough of this bench already…” Both ponies laughed at that. In half an hour they were both sitting in their seats, watching Ponyville disappearing behind their window.

“Ugh, I had hoped that we could get straight to the village by train,” said Twilight as she leaned against the window. “How come they don’t have the railway there yet?”

“I guess they don’t need to travel much?” answered the pegasus with a faraway look in her eyes.

“To each their own. Anyway, did you bring anything special along?”

Fluttershy looked at her saddlebag that lay on the seat next to her. “Oh, nothing much, just blankets, some food…”

“Sounds good. I would’ve brought a map along, too, but Spike couldn’t find any that could’ve even remotely been considered of use there.”

Fluttershy’s figure tensed a bit more, and the distant look of her eyes disappeared. “Uhm, so, you don’t have a map of the Forest of Shallows?”

Twilight shook her head. “Unfortunately no, but don't worry – I’m sure the locals have plenty of them to share.” Twilight frowned her eyebrows and tilted her head a bit. “By the way, how did you know the name of the forest? Did I mention it yesterday?”

“I-I suppose so…How else could I have known that?”

“Right, of course… Jeez, I’m slow today. Must be the early wake up.” Twilight rubbed her eyes with a hoof. “What else did I tell you about Damp Town or about the Shallows?”

“Not much else, I think. Uhm, did you find anything about them?”

Twilight shrugged. “There wasn’t much to find, really. I didn’t have time to search the whole library, but some of the history books had a few references to the place. It’s just some village everypony has forgotten about.”

“Oh…Sounds sad…”

“I’m sure the locals would disagree with that – they do have some fanciful stories to keep them company, at least.”

“Stories?”

“Like I said, there wasn’t much to learn about Damp Town in the history books, but there was this one story that caught my attention. Well, more like it caught Spike’s interest – you know how he loves scary stories.”

“Sc-scary stories?”

“Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have brought this up. I’d hate to bother you with this stuff right now.”

“No, you should tell me about it. It might be useful however wild it is, and we are supposed to be helpful when we get there, right?” The pegasus’s doe eyes looked pleadingly at Twilight.

“If you insist…It really is quite silly, though.” Twilight took a more comfortable position in the bench. “So, there is this story that the local ponies have supposedly told each other since the village was founded, about a century ago. At least a scholar named Hollow Bark judged the tale to be at least that old. Anyway, the story is about this creature called the Witch.”

Darkness swallowed the carriage. For a whole five seconds, the blackness reigned supreme inside, enrobing all the passengers into a veil of oblivion where the chaotic noises of the train echoed, creating a sense of absolute disorder. When the train finally emerged from the tunnel, Twilight found herself staring at an empty bench. Confused, she looked around, but there was no sign of the yellow pegasus among the other passengers. She was about to call her by name when a glimpse of something pink on her hind legs drew her attention. It turned out to be a curl of mane.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked from the mane. “What’re you doing under my bench?”

The mane quickly withdrew deeper under the seat, and soon Fluttershy came out of, the blush covering her like a veil. “Nothing, nothing,” she explained embarrassedly. “The timing was just too much for me…”

“The timing?”

“The Witch,” answered Fluttershy, returning to her own seat. “You said the word, and the wagon went pitch-black. What is a witch, anyway?”

“I wish I knew,” said Twilight, still looking oddly at her friend. “I did some studying and apparently they are some kind of an age-old myth. Wizards gone bad and that sort of thing. Good stuff for Nightmare Nights, if you ask me.”

“That does sound scary…”

“But it isn’t. It only proves that Damp Town is remote enough that they haven’t even updated their horror stories. The Witch of the Shallows, like they called her, apparently cursed the village or something a century ago and swore an eternal revenge for all its future inhabitants.”

“Oh my…”

“I know; such a cliché.”

The pegasus winced, and swallowed. “But…didn’t you say that the villagers had a wild imagination…?”

“Hmm, they certainly do, or at least the villagers of the past had. They had plenty of details about the Witch, you see – some of them were pretty carefully thought out, I have to admit.”

“Uhm, such as?”

Twilight sighed. “Look, do you really want to tease yourself with this stuff right now? I was hoping that we could talk a bit about our plans for finding those missing ponies.”

“But we have plenty of time, right? And you never know what information might prove useful later on – that’s what you said once.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I did, but the situation was quite different…Nah, you’re right, though; we do have plenty of time.”

Fluttershy leaned a bit closer. “So? What details you found out?”

Twilight chuckled at Fluttershy’s keen expression. “You really are in the mood for this! So weird… Fine then. Does the date ‘Third Day of the Fifth Turning’ say anything to you?”

“...No?”

“I’d be genuinely surprised if it did – it’s a very special date, but only for those who have some serious studies on astronomical studies to boast about. Honestly, I have no idea how the villagers came up with that special day.”

“What’s so special about it?”

Twilight smiled conspiratorially. “It’s the date when a certain constellation becomes visible, the only day (or night, really) of the year, when the stars align so that they form this particular picture on the sky. According to the story, it’s also the date when the Witch appeared for the first time in Damp Town. You want to know the name of the constellation?”

Fluttershy nodded slowly.

“It’s called ‘The Black Twig’. Ring any bells?”

Fluttershy shook her head.

“The words ‘twig’ and ‘witch’ share an etymological connection; they used to denote the same thing. So, ‘The Black Twig’ could as easily be translated as ‘The Black Witch’. Exciting, right?”

“Y-yes, very much so…”

“A neat detail indeed, but most likely a mere coincidence. But who knows? Maybe the pony who had come up with that tale had read some book or knew somepony who had or something. The best horror stories always have a speck of truth in them, after all.”

“Were there any more freaky details?”

“Come one, ‘shy! Haven’t you had enough already? I really want to talk about something else for a change.”

“Twilight, please…”

“Pfft, fine. There were all kinds of stuff decorating that age old curse formula. Dogs fighting, even killing, each other for no reason. Ponies disappearing into the forest – remember to breathe, will you? – at night. Strange runes appearing on walls and on trees. The list goes on, let me tell you…”

“D-dogs fighting each other? Even, even k–”

“Yes, although I wished I wouldn’t have to had told you about that. Kind of a cheap way to make a fable scary, using blood as the ink. I’m sure no animals were actually harmed.”

“I see…”

Twilight studied her friend who seemed to be thinking about something very carefully. She rarely chews her mane – usually only when she is under great stress – and now she has soaked more than one of her curls. “Is everything alright, ‘shy?”

The yellow-pink pegasus raised her eyes to meet Twilights, moving her head almost ponderously. The pink mane dropped from her mouth, the saliva glistening on it and gluing the strings of hair together.

“Twilight…” she began. At the moment the first syllable escaped her mouth, the train dove into another tunnel. The carriage was immediately enveloped by darkness even thicker than last time, and in the utter blackness that for a few seconds separated the two ponies from each other, Fluttershy heard a voice speaking to her. A voice softer than the void that surrounded them. The train emerged from the tunnel, and light filled the carriage again. Twilight was still looking at her friend as if nothing special had happened. Fluttershy’s mouth stayed open, as did her eyes, which looked at nothing.

At least she didn’t try diving under me again. “...Yes?” Twilight asked after a while.

Fluttershy blinked and closed her mouth. “I think we should talk about our plans now,” she said. Her voice was steadier than it had been for the whole morning.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, but the smile that followed washed the questions from her face. “Uhm, okay? Okay. A good idea.”

They resumed by talking about their plan of action, which is to say that Twilight did the talking and Fluttershy did the listening. But it wasn’t only the unicorn’s voice that she heard, but that of the soft darkness also.

It kept on repeating the same thing, over and over again.

“Greater. Good.”

***

Around two o’clock, the train finally arrived at Owl Moor. The sharp smell of tar creeped up Twilight’s nostrils right as she stepped onto the station platform, the heavy steam from the train enrobing her for an instant. As it faded, her first thought was that somehow, they had arrived back in Ponyville. I wonder if all the train stations in Equestria were designed by the same architect, she thought while looking at the very familiar looking building before her. Behind, she could hear Fluttershy sniffing her nose.

“What is that smell?” she asked, walking to her.

“It’s only tar. See; they are using it to cover the roof of the station.” Twilight pointed above them, where an earth pony stallion was working with a thick brush to spread black goo all over the roof.

“Why on earth would they do that?” continued the pegasus as they began to walk away from the platform with a few other passengers. “Can’t be for the smell…can it?” She gave Twilight a carefully joking smile.

Good to see that she is acting more casual now. “It’s to protect the buildings from damp and rain. The soil here is spotted with marshes and such, so despite the best efforts of the local pegasi to keep the weather in check, buildings often need a bit more extra attention in what comes to water.”

“Did you find that out yesterday?”

“No, but from one of those tourist brochures I found in the carriage,” answered Twilight. “I got kind of bored after you fell asleep. By the way, did you catch him?”

Fluttershy stopped abruptly. “W-what?”

The unicorn flashed her friend a mischievous smile. “Heh, I’m just messing with you, ‘Shy. From the way your legs twitched, I figured you were running…from somepony, I’d say.” Her smirk turned a tad more playful. “Come now, you can tell me…who was the lucky stallion you were after?”

Fluttershy blinked her eyes quickly, her mouth slightly open. “I…uhm…Did I say anything?” she asked shyly.

Twilight shrugged. “You mumbled something, I couldn’t make out what. It was one ofthose dreams, right?”

“One of those dreams,” repeated Fluttershy slowly while eyeing Twilight suspiciously. “I’d rather not talk about it, really…”

“Oh? Okay…” said Twilight, raising an eyebrow as the pegasus rose on her wings and flew a few feet ahead of her. Somepony’s being touchy about something…or about somepony. I bet it was Big Mac, I just bet it was… “Anyway, I’m hungry. Where do you want to eat?”

The pegasus, still floating a few feet off the ground, turned her head. “Shouldn’t we be hurrying to Damp Town already?” she asked matter-of-factly.

Twilight’s stomach chose the most ample time to grumble loudly. “I’d rather get there without a giant urge to stuff food in my mouth. Come on, you must be hungry, too; that lunch you brought wasn’t much to look at.” Twilight looked around herself in the middle of what seemed to be the town square. The delicious aroma of freshly baked bread drew her attention to the far left. “That seems like a perfectly acceptable place to start,” she said, pointing at the boutique there.

Fluttershy’s gaze followed her hoof seemingly indifferently. “Do you think they could wrap us something to take along?” she asked after a while. “We could eat while–”

“–while walking? No way, Fluttershy. The village will be there even after we eat, I’m sure.”

The look the pegasus gave Twilight resembled disturbingly much the one an adult could give to a foal that knew no better. The effect was strong enough to make Twilight flinch. “Uhm…of course, you do have a point there,” she said hesitantly. “We are on a errand of Princess Celestia herself, so…perhaps it’s better that we eat on the way.”

“We can rent a wagon,” suggested Fluttershy in a somewhat more serious tone that what the context would have required. “I’ll go ask about that. You get the food.”

“Sure…” said Twilight to Fluttershy’s back that was duly turned on her. She has been acting super strangely lately. By Celestia…is she trying to get this quickly over with so she can return to that mystery stallion? The thought made Twilight chuckle shortly as she walked towards the bakery. It must be Big Mac. Nopony else I know can make a mare sweat in her dreams.

***

The two friends managed indeed to rent a wagon for their purposes, and even two sturdy stallions to pull it while they focused on the vegetable pies and honeyed berry juice that Twilight had barely had time to acquire before Fluttershy had practically demanded that they leave towards Damp Town. I always thought that meeting a special somepony might do good to her, although such a radical change was something I didn't expect, thought Twilight while glancing at the pegasus next to her, her mouth full of smashed carrots and lettuce. She has hardly even touched her own pie.

“So, ya’re really on a royal business, you two?” asked one of the stallions suddenly, his neck strained to look at the two mares behind him.

“Yes we are,” admitted Twilight carefully. “How did you guess?”

“Wasn’t a matter of guessing, ma’am,” continued the other stallion, who shared much likeness with the first one; both seemed strong enough to be able to pull the wagon by themselves, and their manes were of the same grass green. “Yar friend there mentioned the fact.”

“You did?” asked the surprised Twilight from Fluttershy, who only turned her head shyly.

“The farmer whom I talked with wasn’t keen to oblige otherwise…” she mumbled.

“And for a reason,” said the first stallion, who apparently had good hearing. “Since the rains of last week, Damp Town’s been closed to all ‘cept them with wings, and there ain't much of those around here, let me tell you. All them roads always turn to mud when it rains that much.”

There’s a road here? wondered Twilight silently as another bump on the way sent a splash of muddy water flying around them. The two stallions were already half-covered in the dark-brown, liquid dirt. And so would we be, were it not for this ride. “So you haven’t heard about Damp Town for a week?” she asked from the stallions.

“Nada,” they say in unison. “The pegasuses been too bothered with the weather to carry mail,” continued the second stallion. “And the rest of us wouldn’t fancy drowning in mud.”

“So…how far can you take us, exactly?” asked Twilight anxiously.

“Depends,” they say again together, with the first one offering an elaborating explanation afterwards. “We’ll have to see where the road ends. Most like you have to walk or swim the last ten miles or so.”

Another bump in the road send the rest of Twilight’s pie overboard; with sadness she watched it sink into a muddy puddle in mere seconds. “All this talk about swimming and drowning…isn’t that exaggerating the situation a bit?”

“Nope,” the stallions say in chorus. “You think this might be bad, this little mud here?” continues the first one. “In Damp Town, this is the driest it gets. The village is an island. And the Forest? Well, it ain’t called ‘the Shallows’ for no reason, let me tell ya…there are sinkholes there that’ll swallow a pony up to their neck in one go.”

Perhaps we should have rented a boat, then… “Well, you’ll at least be fine, right, Fluttershy?”

“Hmm?” hummed the pegasus, turning a detached look at Twilight. “What? Oh, yes, I’ll be just fine. Just fine…” A peculiar smile tickled a corner of her mouth.

Twilight, in the lack of a better option, flashed smile of her own. I swear, after this I’m going to have a talk with the other girls. Something’s up with Fluttershy, and that something has the scent of a lesson around it.

After a few hours of rattling and bouncing travelling, the soil began to resemble more of a swamp than muddy road. With some difficulty, the stallions managed to pull the wagon for another mile and a half before one of the wheels sank deep into a quagmire, bringing their progress to a sudden halt. Twilight herself found it necessary to keep lifting her legs while standing still on the treacherous ground or risk sinking gradually into its folds. This is getting ridiculous, she thought while watching the two stallions trying to free the wagon. Do I have to gradually teleport myself all the way to Damp Town or what?

“Is that the Forest of Shallows?” asked Fluttershy who was flapping her wings a few feet off the ground next to Twilight. The unicorn, while following her gaze, heard the stallions answer affirmatively.

The sight wasn’t the most encouraging ones Twilight had seen in her life. “I can’t see any road…how are we going to find the village?”

“Follow them markings in the trees,” said one of the stallions between his grunts and heaves. “They’ll lead you there right enough.” With a sickening sucking sound, the wheel finally popped out of the hole. “It was nice to meet ya two,” he continued while turning to the mares. “Remember; if ya get stuck, don’t fight it back. That’ll only make it worse. Stay together and don’t wander off the Etched Road; it starts right there, from the edge of the forest.” He pondered for a while, and then looked at the other stallion. “Ya got anything to add, brother?”

The other brother pulled his ankle free from the mud, and shrugged. “Don’t let the Witch catch ya?”

Oh, great, here we go again, cursed Twilight in the back of her head as she heard Fluttershy meep above her. “Thank you for the advice, gentlecolts. It was a pleasure to meet you too, but like you know, duty calls. Good bye.” The unicorn smiled kindly, and began to walk towards the forest ahead, her hooves leaving clear imprints on the soft soil. Behind her, Fluttershy payed one last look at the two brothers, and then flew beside Twilight, never once glancing back.

“They had heard about the Witch, too…” whispered the pegasus after they had got safely out of earshot of the stallions.

“What a coincidence that two villages living so close to one another would know the same tale,” stated Twilight dryly. Already her underside was covered in dirt, and the extra effort she had to put on to lift her hooves off the ground was surprisingly taxing. It’s only a matter of time when I need to start using magic to make progress. I have a feeling that I’m going to be utterly spent whenever we reach the village.

“Should we maybe have told them what is going on in Damp Town?” continued the pegasus, her tone characteristically anxious again.

“What for? They’d only get worried for nothing. It’s not like they can do anything about the situation.” Twilight’s left front front leg suddenly sank up to the knee into the ground. “Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the missing ponies simply left,” she said grimly while fighting her limb back up. Not only had the sinkhole utterly stained her coat, but it had also blessed her with a leech of some sort. With disgust, she detached the black larva with her horn and send it spinning through the air. “Who would voluntarily live in a place like this, anyway?”

Fluttershy seemed to completely lack an answer for that. They remained silent all the way to the edge of the forest, where they stopped to search for the famous ‘Etched Road’. Soon enough they found a hanging between two massive trees that signified a start of sorts. “I didn’t know trees could do that,” she thought out aloud, studying the peculiar vegetation that spread before them.

The roots of the trees sprouted several feet above the ground, lifting their trunks way above the soil and thus creating a vertical rhizomatic network on the place where in a normal wood there would be other vegetation to cover the forest floor. Not in the Shallows, though; here the soil resembled more of a lake than ground. At places, the swamp turned to large puddles of water that crisscrossed among the rising rootstock. Most of the ponds had waterlilies and some kind of weeds growing in them, and the tree trunks were heavily covered with thick, brown-green moss.

“I had no idea that a place like this existed in Equestria,” said Twilight slowly, her eyes wide with amazement. “I mean, are we looking at a lake or a forest here?”

“I found the first mark,” called Fluttershy, who had already flown deeper among the trees. The lack of wonderment was most evident in her voice. “There isn’t much to put your hoof onto here, though. I think you need to start using magic.”

Well, she adapted quickly. “Hold on, I got a spell in mind.” The unicorn closed her eyes, frowning as her horn began glowing deep pink from the weight of the spell that was forming there. Nearby trees were illuminated as a fine trail of magic creeped from the horn and wrapped itself around her hooves, making them shine faintly with deep pink light, too. Without hesitation, she took a step forward towards one of the ponds, then another one. After five steps, she opened her eyes, and looked down. A satisfied smile spread on her lips as she saw the greenish waters rippling under her.

“Pretty neat, huh?” she said proudly while walking over to Fluttershy, who studied her friend with her head tilted.

“Uhm, that is very hoofy, but why didn’t you try that right away?” she asked

“Like all spells, this one takes energy to keep up and from the looks of it, I’m going to have to resort to this a lot in the near future,” explained the unicorn. “So, keeping that in mind…lead the way.”

Without a word, Fluttershy turned around and began flying onwards. Twilight galloped after her, the water surface breaking into round waves under the places where her hooves almost touched the ground.

***

Alone in the forest, Twilight swiped a trickle of sweat off her brow with a hoof while sitting on a small island of comparatively solid ground that stuck from the liquid forest floor. Feels that we have travelled for hours already…although it’s hard to tell without seeing the sun. The lavender unicorn looked above her once more, only to see the same roof of leaves blocking her view. For a forest that by my logic should’ve drowned a long time ago, the trees here are in quite a healthy condition. A rustle of leaves from behind made her turn quickly her neck. “Who’s there?” she blurted.

Fluttershy emerged from the greenery with a beat of her wings, and landed next to Twilight. “We are close; I could see a clearing with houses right there behind those trees.”

Twilight tried to get a glimpse of the aforementioned houses in the direction Fluttershy had referred to, yet failed to see nought but more trees. “They certainly picked the right place to hide a village…Seriously, what do they even eat around here? Moss?” Twilight spread herself on the cold, damp grass, sighing. “It’s so quiet, too. Beside the leeches, there’s hardly any animals around.”
“That is strange,” said Fluttershy quietly. “Should we go to the village now?”

“Not yet, I need a moment. This is the longest time I’ve levitated without a break.” She studied her own coat with annoyance. “The first thing I’m going to do in Damp Town is to have a hot bath. And some dinner wouldn’t be missed, either; it must be already afternoon, right?”

“Late afternoon, yes,” said Fluttershy, her eyes lost deep into the forest. “The sun was already beginning to set down.”

And you make it sound like the scariest thing in the world. “Okay, I’ve had enough of this,” said Twilight, standing up. “Let’s get there and hope that they don’t think I’m some swamp monster sent by the Witch to eat their young.” Her horn flickered as Twilight raised herself a few inches off the grass, her face strained by concentration. “You go ahead.”

In a few more minutes, they came to a large arched gate built of stone; on top of it it simply read in carved letters: Damp Town. Corroded by time and covered with moss, it was still the most relieving sight Twilight had seen for the whole day. Her joy was doubled when she noticed the paved, dry trail that began from the other side of the gate and stretched all the way to the village center. She ended her spell as they walked to the village.

It was close to what Twilight had expected: Old but well-kept cottages with tarred roofs and small windows. The buildings, all one-storeyed, edged the road to the centre where there stood a town hall of sorts. Painted bright red and its roof covered in vegetation, it looked more like a barn to Twilight, although the beautiful writing (giving the building its name) saved the whole somewhat. Truly, a rather ordinary village. Except that there was nopony there.

”W-what is this, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked after a while, quietly, as if trying not to disturb anything, especially not the balance in herself.

Twilight could answer nothing.Thoughts were running wild in her mind but none of them could connect; instead, they were bumping uselessly against the walls of her head that seemed to be closing in more and more with every passing second. ”We should...search the area,” she said, following the example of Fluttershy in what came to the level of her voice.

”S-search for...what, Twilight? What are we supposed to search for? T-there's nopony here.”

”We don't know that, Fluttershy. They might be hiding – they're upset remember? They might have heard us coming and thought we meant them harm.” Suddenly she felt a strong urge to shout, to break the spell of silence they had cast on themselves. Without thinking about it, she yelled at the empty centre, shouted ”Is anypony here, anypony at all”, succeeding in nothing else but scaring Fluttershy badly.

”Right...”, started Twilight after they had both calmed down. ”It seems that you're correct, unfortunately. That still leaves us no other choice but to search for...something, you understand? There must be something in here that explains this…this emptiness. There must be something that makes sense here.”

”Okay, Twilight,” said Fluttershy meekly. She thought of something and then added: ”But let's not split up, okay?”

On that, Twilight could not agree more.

They began searching for that precious something. The logical choice to begin, as Twilight called it, was the Town Hall, the screaming red building with a roof full of living things. The unicorn pushed open the door that gave in without the slightest resistance, almost giving the impression that it was glad to be opened.

“Hello?” she cried inside the dim space they entered. “We came to help you, don’t be afraid!” she continued, softly lighting up her horn. Darkness fled before the light, revealing a sizable room with some benches and a large counter on one side. On the other wall, there was a door over which there was a label: Library. Twilight walked over to the desk and rang the metallic bell that lay on the wooden surface. The melody echoed in the room for a moment, and then died away. This doesn’t make any sense. “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said aloud.

Fluttershy, who had so far lingered by the doorstep, walked in timidly. “Could they all be searching for the disappeared ponies?”

Somehow, I seriously doubt that. “That is a valid option. In any case, this place at least is empty. Let’s try the other buildings.”

They resumed by going through every house on the town’s main street, all two dozen of them. Most they found to be locked tightly, and the ones they managed to get in looked like they had just been abandoned. Kitchens were out of food, but otherwise the simple furniture lay untouched. After that, they extended their range, scouring every house in the village, a task that took them most of the afternoon. By the time they were finished the sun was already setting, although this wasn’t evident from the spectacle on the horizon, which was securely hidden by the tree lines, but by the fact that it was getting very, very dark.

Having returned back to the town square, the two ponies huddled close to each other amidst the rising shadows and cooling air. “They must be prolonging the searching to late evening,” said Twilight reassuringly.

As a response of sorts, Fluttershy pressed closer to her. “Are we going to sleep here?”

“There’s little choice in that; I don’t know about you, but a trip through those woods without any sunlight doesn’t sound like the most alluring idea to me right now.” The unicorn tried to get a glimpse of Fluttershy's eyes, which were shimmering under her thick, pink curls. “We could go into the library. I’m sure the locals wouldn’t mind.”

“Okay…” whispered the pegasus. “Can we go there right now?”

Twilight’s gaze travelled again at the locked buildings, at the strange trees that spread all over them, and at the Town Hall that stood in the middle of it all in it’s carmine sovereignty. Was it always carmine? Or is that just a trick of the withdrawing light? “Yes. I think we should do just that.”

They made sure to close the door properly behind them.

***

The library, or the sorry collection of half empty bookshelves plagued by mold, proved to lack any sort of benches that could even remotely be misthought as suitable for sleeping. Thus, the two ponies spread the blankets they had brought along on the hard stone and did their best to ignore the chill that crept along the floor. Twilight, while trying to find the least uncomfortable position to catch sleep in, sighed in frustration as the dirt and mud reminded her of their existence by causing intolerable itching. “Fluttershy…you don’t happen to have a brush?” she asked.

Next to her, Fluttershy turned a flank. “No…sorry.”

“Great. Just great.” The unicorn tried to rub her coat clean with a hoof, and even though the effort got the worst of the soil off her, it didn’t exactly make it shine. “So fortunate that the villager’s don’t get to see me like this,” she joked while studying her ragged form. Seeing Fluttershy’s expression made her immediately regret the attempt to lighten up the mood.

“What are we going to do, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked with a fragile voice.

The unicorn was silent for a moment. “We resume as planned. The point was to search for ponies, right?”

“But a whole village gone missing…don’t you think we should…” The pegasus bit her lip and aimlessly rolled her blanket around her front hoof, unable to bring the sentence to a closure.

“What, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy swallowed, the blanket now covering her whole hoof. “Nothing,” she managed. “Never mind.”

Twilight gave her a long look. “Whatever is going on in this town, I’m sure there is a logical explanation for it. Princess Celestia sent us here because she trusts us, because she believes in us. As long as we stick together, we can do anything.” She lifted her friends drooping chin with a hoof, smiling reassuringly. The unicorn flinched as she saw the tears welling in those bright teal eyes.

“Twilight…I…” began the pegasus, but a lump seemed to get stuck into her throat, making her stammer. “You’re right,” she finally said with a brave smile. “We have each other. We’ll always have each other.”

Without a word, Twilight wrapped her hooves around her friend. “I know, ‘Shy, I know. We'll be fine, I just know it.”

Soon after, they fell asleep. Despite Twilight’s fears, dreams avoided her that night, although the anticipated stiffness and dullness greeted her right as her consciousness emerged behind her eyelids. Bright light filled her vision the moment she opened them, forcing her to shut them again. On the second attempt she shaded her eyes with a hoof, and realized that the small library was bathing in light descending from the windows. How long did I sleep…is it midday already? She turned a side and saw that Fluttershy’s blanket was empty. Why didn’t she wake me? With a sleepy grunt and creaking joints, the unicorn stood up, swayed a moment, and headed outside.

It was indeed midday, and a beautiful one at that; the grey clouds of yesterday were mostly gone, revealing the sky in all its azure glory. A wide yawn escaped Twilight as she studied the village before her in fresh light. Silence dominated the scene sovereignly, silence strong enough to make one want to scream. “Fluttershy!” cried the unicorn, keeping her voice calm but sharp. The name disappeared into the thin air immediately. She tried again, louder this time. On the third attempt, her voice had turned a tad more shrill. The silence remained as monotonous as ever, though.

She galloped forwards, neck moving from side to side, eyes and ears vigilant. The nearby houses were in the exact same condition as yesterday, and so were the ones behind those, as were the ones on the edge of the village. All the same, all empty, most locked, others wide open. Each one lacking Fluttershy. It was not at one, easily distinguishable moment that the thought creeped to Twilight’s mind; more like it was realized in a way of a puzzle, piece by piece. At one point, like so often with puzzles, Twilight could make out the picture even when there still were bits missing.

Fluttershy was gone.

Comments

[GreyNoise]

Is English not your first language? I ask because you have sparse but fairly consistent verb tense and adjective problems in your story. Specifically, the adjective use in the title is suggestive of a non-English Germanic language. And actually now that I look, your groups say you're Finnish, so ignore that last bit.

I'd be happy to list out any problems I see, if you think it would be helpful.

Either way, the story's direction continues to be quite interesting (and mysterious!) and I look forward to seeing where you go with this.

[xTSGx]

Time for me to dawn my nitpick hat.

Ponies disappearing into the forest (remember to breath, will you?) at night.

I'd recommend using dashes (--) instead of parentheses. Parentheses make it seem like you, the author, are talking, whereas dashes allow us to realize Twilight's abruptly shifted topic in the middle of her sentence.

in it’s carmine sovereignty. Was it always carmine? Or is that just a trick of the withdrawing light?

I had to google "carmine" to figure out what the heck it was. Simply using "dark red" or, if you want to emphasis the "creepiness," "blood red" (even though that wouldn't be technically accurate) would do and not require readers to break from the story to figure out what it is.

Fanfics in which characters help a town only for everyone in that town to go missing are now 3-0 in not immediately reporting back that the town's gone missing. You can't exactly help if no one's there to receive the help.

I also gotta say that this is seeming kind of cliche. Creepy town where everyone's gone missing? Check. Isolated location that's difficult to bring in help? Check. Urban legend that's probably based on some truth? Check. Not bringing Spike along to enable quick communication because of some handwave reason? Check. All we're missing is the eldrich abomination at the heart of the spookiness to complete things.

Then there's the Tyrantlestia lurking on the horizon.

[stanku]

4084595
Your help would be very welcomed! Just say whether you want to make the corrections in gdocks or with PM or however you'd prefer.

[stanku]

4084922
Thanks for the tip about parenthesis; you were certainly right on ponting it out.

Truth be told, I don't regard this as my best story, either; it was the third ponyfic I ever wrote (also the third one I ever wrote In English), and the first version was practically unreadable. To my defense I have to say that while the plot has arguably remained somewhat faithful to the genre (of some horror category?), there is a twist coming that will (hopefully) salvage the whole from the abyss of ordinariness.

Also, your avatar creeps the hay out of me everytime I glance at it.