The Phantom Pony of Everfree

by LightningSword

The Escape

“Are you deaf?! Out! NOW!!”

The three fillies had been frozen in shock up until Nocturne’s fresh rage thundered in their ears. His hold against the Lamia he had pinned to the tree was weakening.

“Hey, twist my hoof!” the Pegasus quipped first before turning tail and running out of the clearing, her tiny wings buzzing behind her.

“Scootaloo, wait up!” the Earth filly shrieked as she followed suit.

The Unicorn ran with them, but stopped just before she reached the woods and turned around for a minute. Her face still showed awe, but there was a certain softness to them as well as she regarded her unlikely savior.

“Um, thank you,” she mumbled, her words almost drowned out by the Lamia’s struggling.

Nocturne answered her by whipping his hoof to the side, sending the Lamia flying and crashing into a bush, a motion similar to how he threw the rainbow-maned Pegasus mare three days before. The filly was speechless.

“Sweetie Belle, come on!!” the Earth filly shouted, having returned long enough to grab her friend by the tail and drag her away from the carnage that was about to unfold. In seconds, all three fillies were gone.

The Lamia stumbled out of the bushes just in time to see her would-be meal escape. She uttered a sound at Nocturne that was a spine-tingling melding of a hiss and a roar, and flew into him, knocking both of them out of the clearing and back into the darkness of the woods. The enraged cat-lizard recovered the soonest and slashed her claws at Nocturne before he could stand up. She raked into every inch of him she could reach, hissing and spitting and flinging blood off of her claws as she attacked. Finally, after a slash across Nocturne’s eye, she whipped around and slammed her tail into him, sending him hurtling into another dead tree, one that made a titanic sound that scared a horde of animals out of the nearby underbrush.

“I . . . won’t . . . tell you . . . again . . .” the Lamia panted, sucking in breath after shaking, livid breath. “Stay . . . out . . . of my way!!”

Splintered wood and bits of dried foliage stirred as Nocturne pulled himself to his hooves. He was covered in dirt and muck, and due to his many injuries, patches of his own blood. He too panted heavily, but he nevertheless planted his hooves into the ground and stared daggers at his opponent. His wings were fully spread, and his bright red eyes burned through the darkness of the woods.

“. . . I could do this all day . . . .”

---

Rarity led Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to the crossroads where she’d left Spike. At the same time, Spike was racing towards them, Applejack in hot pursuit. With the group unified, they quickly changed course and sprinted toward the Everfree Forest.

“Oooh, that creature will pay!” Rarity growled as she ran, ignoring a mud puddle that had soaked her pristine hooves. “That filthy cur will rue the day it hurt my baby sister!!”

“Get in line, Rarity!” Applejack retorted. “Whoever or whatever that thing is, it’s got a bad day comin’ to it for harmin’ an Apple!”

“And nopony messes with my pal Scoots on my watch!” Rainbow Dash added as she soared above the group.

“I wanna say something cool, too!” Pinkie Pie squealed. “Ooh, how ‘bout, ‘Nopony messes with my friends!’ Nah, too much like Dashie! Ooh! How about, ‘That monster’s in for a big surprise!’ No, not cool enough . . . OOH! How about—”

“Pinkie, focus!” Spike bellowed over her. His own rage and determination had not settled since he’d gone to collect Applejack, and it seemed as though it would not until this Lamia had paid the price for abducting his friends.

“Oops! Right, sorry Spike!” Pinkie replied. “But come on, everypony! We can’t lose hope! Let’s keep the faith that we’re not too late, and open up a can of whoop-flank on that mean old Lamia! Yeah! That was a good one!”

The prospect that they could be too late hadn’t even passed from mouth to ear. It wasn’t an option. They had to be there for their little loved ones. At this point, they were the only ones who could.

As far as they knew.

---

Pony and Lamia tumbled over one another through the forest in a chaotic knot of violence. A punch in the eye with a hoof was answered by a claw slash across the cheek. A kick was answered with a head butt. Groaning and snarling could be heard making a trail from one end of the woods to another, and dead and dying plants were far less lucky than escaping animals, and suffered a brutal steamrolling from the charging cloud of carnage.

Finally, feeling his back collide roughly with the grass, Nocturne pushed hard with his back legs, propelling the Lamia off of him and sending her colliding into another, much sturdier tree. She collapsed to the base in a heap, in front of a pile of leaves. A pile of leaves that, only after Nocturne saw the Lamia lay before it, looked distressingly familiar.

Oh no . . . I hope that’s not the pile I kept my—

Too late. In a blind fury, the Lamia let out a ferocious roar and tore through the leaves with her claws. Her tantrum sent bits of dried leaf and dirt flying around—along with what distinctly resembled yellow fluff and white cotton.

“Why do you insist on testing my every nerve!?!” she screamed. “You impeded me! You insulted me! You made me lose my lunch! And you continue to mock me by struggling for your life! I hope playing hero was worth it for you!”

Nocturne’s eyes bolted open as he saw bits of yellow and white litter the forest floor around his hooves. After a few seconds of gaping in horror, he turned his gaze to the Lamia and narrowed his eyes. A stare from two burning eyes never looked colder.

“That's your second mistake,” he spoke softly—dangerously softly, “thinking that rescuing those little intruders was my reason for caving in your skull.”

“Oh, really?” the Lamia spat, eying him with her own vicious red eyes. “Then pray tell, what was my first mistake?”

Nocturne took a step forward; his eyes were now so bright, they gave off tangible heat.

“The real reason.”

And as fast as the Lamia had been moments before, Nocturne charged, plowing himself into the Lamia and slamming his hooves into every bit of snake skin and cat fur he could touch.

And you’ll never know the new reason you just gave me, you monster! Nocturne raged in his mind as a brief image of Fluttershy was illuminated inside it.

---

After what seemed like hours of running between trees, bushes and shadows, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally heard a voice break the silence amongst the three of them.

“Shouldn’t we help him?”

Sweetie Belle hardly realized herself that she had even spoken. In a second, she, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom screeched to a full stop.

“He’s still back there,” Sweetie Belle proceeded tonelessly. “Shouldn’t we . . . do something . . . ?”

Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle as if she'd just gained a horrific, disturbing image as her cutie mark, and Apple Bloom answered audibly, “Beg pardon?”

“Well, he . . . he saved us,” Sweetie Belle replied. “I don't even think he meant to, but he did. Shouldn't we do something to help him? He can't take that thing on alone.”

“Look, he said for us to go, and we're going!” Scootaloo yelled. “We're lucky he didn't come after us for coming here in the first place!”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom spoke up with a nod, “I mean, what do you think he'd do to us if he wasn't preoccupied with that Lamia?”

Sweetie Belle seemed to consider this for a moment, then relented with a nod of her own.

“So, we need to focus on gettin’ outta here, right?” Apple Bloom asked, searching for agreement more than an actual answer.

“Yeah . . . we just gotta . . . get out . . . umm . . . girls?” Sweetie Belle asked, her voice trembling as she glanced around. “Where . . . where are we?”

There was a pause in which only the sounds of scurrying animals, nearby and in the distance, could be heard. The disturbing lack of response sent shivers through all three fillies.

“W-well . . .” Scootaloo muttered, deepening her voice to offset the tremble in her own tone, “i-it’s obvious that . . . w-well, we just . . . we-we went down that way, so . . . s-so we just . . . well, we . . . .”

She seemed to realize quickly that her well had run dry.

“Girls . . .” Apple Bloom mumbled, her lifeless monotone perfectly expressing their plight, “. . . I . . . I’m pretty sure we’re lost . . . .”

There was another, lengthier pause that was suddenly broken when all three foals jumped at the sound of movement in the trees beyond. The movement was accompanied by the chilling sound of a hissing roar.

Author's Note:

We're at the twentieth chapter! Thank you all so much for reading!

Comments

[EchoWing]

Well, finding Nocturne won't be hard, but the Crusaders?

[Grekoy]

Yes! The story continues and I am loving the fight scenes.

[The Villain in Glasses]

7336805

Yep, they're boned.

[Melonmaster]

I want the main six to see nocturne and the lamia fighting and nocturne to be the hero! I'm rootin' for him

[TheOneAJ]

How will this end, will the CMC survie, will noctume win, when will Fluttershy kiss him, why am I asking you all these questions?
Mermaidpony, where are you!?

[The Red Butcher]

What the hell does this have to do with the Accusation Collection?

[LightningSword]

7364963 Nocturne is accused frequently of being a monster, even though he's really not. The very chapter you commented on is a direct result of Nocturne being accused of something someone else did.

Is that not enough?

[The Red Butcher]

7366100 Not what I had in mind.

[LightningSword]

7366742 I can remove it if you want.