Friendship is Lovecraft: Night Walk With Me

by Ponygon

Chapter 2

It was, apparently, Ponyville tradition to stay up all night—or to be more precise, all twilight—on the eve of the summer solstice. Twilight was used to all night studying sessions anyway, so a twilight without sleep was nothing new.

Unfortunately, no opportunity arose for her to express that amusing witticism; the pony in front of her wouldn’t let her get a word in edgewise.

“Did you know, Ponyville was one of the earliest dominions to be founded by a common family?” continued the Mayor, a blue-coated unicorn with a golden mane. He held a glass Carlsbad in his golden telekinetic grasp, which he used more for gesturing rather than its ability to hold a drink.

Twilight had long since drained her glass Carlsbad dry. The spout still clenched between her teeth offered no more liquid. She wondered whether she could excuse herself to get another drink, and lose the Mayor in the process.

“Hey, Twi-Twi!”

Her Carlsbad failed to break when it struck the floor. Maybe it wasn’t made out of glass, after all.

“W-where on earth did you come from?” exclaimed Twilight in utter shock.

“Well, my parents worked a coal mine in Ponysylvania…” began Pinkie Pie.

Twilight shook her head. “No, no, no!” she protested. She’d only just managed to escape one boring monologue; she was not going to get ensnared in another. “I meant,” she began, only to trail off. “You know what? Never mind. You just surprised me, that’s all.”

The pink earth pony giggled, as if Twilight had made a mildly amusing joke. “Speaking of surprises, it’s piñata time,” said Pinkie breathlessly. “As the guest of honour, you get first buck.”

Didn’t she mean…? No, Twilight chided herself for forgetting where she was. This was Ponyville, a town founded by earth ponies. They couldn’t levitate bats, so it was only natural for ponies to buck a piñata rather than swing a bat at one.

“Besides, I’m sure you’d want any excuse to get away from Mayor McBoringPants,” added Pinkie.

“Hey, I’m still here!”

“But…” began Twilight.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” exclaimed Pinkie, as she nudged Twilight away.

Well, at least the Mayor could no longer talk her ears off, so that was a plus. She’d give it a go. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

#

“My Pinkie Sense must be acting up, 'cause I really did not see that coming,” said Pinkie, as she surveyed the carnage: the floor was strewn with displaced snacks, punch and it glittered with shattered glass. “Strange. Guess I bought a defective piñata.”

“I-I'm sorry,” apologised Twilight. “I didn't mean to.”

Despite kicking the piñata, she had failed to break it. She’d succeeded in snapping the rope though. “I didn't think it would do that,” she protested. “I-Is she all right? She’s not unconscious is she? I should go get a doctor.”

“No, don’t be silly, Twi-Twi, you’re a guest!” protested Pinkie, as she brought out a mop from seemingly nowhere and began to mop up.

“Certainly, it won’t do for such an important guest from Canterlot to go traipsing around Ponyville at this time of the night,” agreed Rarity.

“Twilight,” interjected Pinkie.

“Yes?”

“No, I meant there’s no night tonight,” said Pinkie as a grin spread across her muzzle like an oil slick. “It’s just you.”

Twilight would have laughed at that joke, but she was more irritated that some pony else had beat her to the punch. “Yeah, funny,” she said dryly.

“Don’t you worry none about Rainbow Dash, sugarcube,” said Applejack as she brushed the Pegasus mare’s mane aside. “She’s been through worse than that.” She whistled. “Sweet Epona, that’s gonna be one heck of a shiner right there!”

Suddenly, Pinkie shuddered. “Uh, excuse me,” she said, before darting away. She reappeared moments later to replace the record on the phonograph with another, before she carefully orientated the phonograph’s horn.

The new record played something. Twilight was vaguely aware it was music, possibly a polka, but every time she tried to listen to its melody, she found herself getting distracted by the melody itself, as if every bar of music was a new tune coming from a completely new direction.

“What in tarnation did you do that for?” snapped Applejack angrily, as Pinkie returned.

“Do what?”

“The…” began Applejack, only to sigh angrily. She dragged Pinkie to the side, before continuing in a hushed tone.

A groan from nearby alerted the assembled ponies that Rainbow Dash was coming to. Twilight sighed in relief.

“G-get off me!” spluttered Dash all of a sudden, before she bucked violently. “Ge…” she began, only to cut herself short suddenly. “Uh, w-what’s…?” She laughed nervously.

“You alright there, Dashie?” asked Pinkie curiously.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine?” responded the Pegasus pony. “Urgh, what’s that racket?”

“I must agree with Rainbow Dash here,” said Rarity haughtily. “This record you’ve got is absolutely dreadful. Would you mind taking it off, please?”

“Wait, what?” cried Twilight.

All ponies turned to face the unicorn from Canterlot.

Twilight looked up and turned to face the ponies of the Jubilee Committee. If looks could kill, there wouldn’t have been any pony left alive.

“Uh oh,” said Pinkie suddenly, the hairs of her tail standing on end.

“Spike here’s been telling me something interesting about what’s going on here,” said Twilight, as she moved away from the small purple dragon. She smiled; it was not a happy smile. “You know what he said to me?”

Pinkie cried out. “Okay, I admit it!” she yelled. “I put the hot sauce in your first cup of punch!”

“Pinkie, how could you?”

“No, not that!” yelled Twilight with a stomp of her hoof. “Remember how I asked how safe Ponyville was? You all said it was safe as safe could be. Well, care to explain to me why you all left out the recent spate of unicorn kidnappings?”

“Ms Sparkle, I assure you that your dragon is quite mistaken,” protested the Mayor, as he quickly trotted up to Twilight. “Ponyville is a peaceful place, the most egalitarian of all the Pony Dominions.”

“And why would Fluttershy lie about something like that?” protested Spike.

All eyes turned towards the Pegasus mare.

Fluttershy shrank under the gaze. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “It’s just I got to talking to Spike and… well… I was worried some pony would try and kidnap him.”

“Hey, where’d you think you’re going?” called out Rainbow Dash, before she flew past Twilight in polychromatic flash and landed in the doorway, wings spread out.

Twilight glared daggers at the Pegasus mare. “I’m going to warn Her Majesty about this and you can’t stop me,” she said sternly. “It’s my duty as a subject of the Crown, and it should have been your duty too.”

“Well, I…” began Rainbow Dash, her ears and wings lowering as she struggled to find a response.

“Rainbow Dash, don’t let her out of this building,” ordered the Mayor.

“Wait, we’re the kidnappers now?” exclaimed Pinkie suddenly.

“No, of course not!” protested the Mayor.

“But it sure looks like we are,” pointed out Pinkie. “We’re holding some pony against her will. Isn’t that kidnapping?”

“Pinkie, we’re not kidnappers!”

Suddenly, a bright flash of light blinded all of them. It was there, then gone in a flash. Those ponies who’d been looking at the source staggered blindly for a while and bumped into anything and everything. The luckier ponies merely blinked the spots out of their eyes, before they looked around them with bewildered expressions.

“Hey, where’d she go?”

#

Twilight quickly trotted away from the bakery, through the crowded Ponyville streets. Here, she could hopefully blend in with the crowd and make her way to Ponyville Town Hall. There was no precise way of knowing where Her Majesty would be, but Twilight reasoned that the Town Hall was as good as any place to find her.

She regretted leaving Spike behind, but her magic just wasn’t powerful enough to teleport herself and a small baby dragon. “He can look after himself,” she murmured to herself. “I’m sure of it.” Besides, she was sure Her Majesty would lend her a few Royal Guards to storm the bakery and save him if need be.

Twilight sighed despondently. Why did the universe feel like it had to do this? Between the wave of nightmares plaguing ponies across Equestria and now the kidnappings, it felt as if the universe was intent on drowning her in problems.

Perhaps, this was a test set by Her Majesty. Twilight smiled. Well, if it was, she’d pass it. She wasn’t going to let the Queen down, not when Her Majesty had done so much for her.

Suddenly, Twilight noticed how deserted the streets were. Had she taken a wrong turn? This didn’t look like some seedy back alley and besides, she didn’t think a country village like Ponyville would have any of those. Then again, Ponvyille was more of a town than a village.

Twilight startled violently; she barely managed to stifle a scream. Ponyville had to stop scaring her like that. “Sweet Epona, where’d you come from?” she exclaimed.

A Pegasus pony was standing in front of her. His coat was dark grey and his wings were leathery like that of a bat. Wasn’t it a bit early for Nightmare Night?

There was no point in telling him that.

“If you excuse me, I…” she began.

With surprising speed, the Pegasus pony leapt at Twilight and knocked her to the ground. Before Twilight could use her magic, a wet cloth pressed against her muzzle. She tried desperately to break free, but she couldn’t draw enough cosmic mana from her surroundings and all physical struggle only made her inhale the fumes more deeply.

Vaguely, Twilight remembered that she’d made the chemical once in her chemistry class. It hadn’t been deliberate, but… No, she couldn’t think about that. She had to break free from the Nightmare Night reject. She had to fight her eyelids, as they slowly drooped close. She had to fight gravity as it pulled her gently down to the ground.

She had to fight the darkness of sleep, but by then it was too late.

#

They found her pinned down to the ground by several heavy set stallions.

“Oh my!” exclaimed Fluttershy. “Is that…? I hope they were gentle with her.”

Applejack sighed heavily. She walked up cautiously to the Royal Guards, to the stallion wearing the brown police uniform. “Cousin… I mean, Constable Crabtree,” she said to the red earth pony. “Let me guess, Rainbow Dash tried to fly past the Royal Guard?” She glanced down at Rainbow Dash and noticed that each wing was pinned down by a hoof.

“This is bullshit!” swore Rainbow Dash angrily. “I’m telling you, the Mayor sent me!”

“And we keep telling you, that’s irrelevant,” responded one of the Royal Guards.

“Officers, I assure you, Rainbow Dash is no threat to her Majesty,” said Constable Crabtree in his most placating tone of voice. “Trust me on this. I’ve been Ponyville’s Constable for three years now and she hasn’t been any trouble.”

Well, except for that one time she did a Sonic Rainboom that shattered every window in Ponvyille, but Applejack didn’t think mentioning that would help. “She’s certainly never been arrested before in her entire life,” she said instead.

“Just let me go, already!” shouted Rainbow Dash angrily. “Where’s the Mayor? He’ll vouch for me.”

The silence that followed made Applejack turn around. “Now where in tarnation did he get to?” she exclaimed angrily. “Rarity, I thought he was following you.” She watched as both Rarity and Spike turned round.

Applejack stomped a hoof down angrily on the ground. She’d always suspected this year’s Solstice Jubilee would be stressful, but she hadn’t imagined it would ever be this bad. It was worse than last year’s Running of the Leaves.

“Sergeant Notepage!” exclaimed Spike suddenly.

“Oh, hi Spike!” greeted one of the guards with a big grin on his face. “What brings you here?”

“Did Twilight run past by any chance?” asked Spike.

The guard, almost indistinguishable from the others—she had no idea how Spike recognised him—shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Spike,” he responded. “Haven’t seen her since she left for Ponyville this morning.”

“Oh no, oh no!” cried Spike, his claws to his mouth. “She’s been kidnapped, hasn’t she?” His voice wavered, his eyes quivering as if his muscles were on the verge of failing to hold back tears.

“What? No, of course not!” protested Rarity with a nervous laugh.

“Yeah, I’m sure Twilight’s fine,” said Pinkie dismissively. “She’s the main character; nothing can harm her.”

“Wait, what?”

“I said she’s got the main characteristics of a survivor,” repeated Pinkie without any hesitation. “Any kidnappers come her way, I’m sure she’d fight right back.”

Spike was sure that wasn’t what Pinkie had said, but he couldn’t really argue, especially not with the great big grin on her face. He sniffed. “You think so?” he asked her.

“I know so!”

Applejack wasn’t sure how Pinkie could know; she’d barely met the unicorn. She sighed. “I’m sure she can’t have gotten far,” she said. “If we split up, we’ll find her soon, I’m sure of it.”

#

Twilight wasn’t sure how she got here. All she knew was that she was seated on a low black Ottoman, or couch as ponies usually called them, in a room with velvet curtains on every wall. The floor, she couldn’t help but notice was an iron grille, the bars set close enough that she could safely walk over it without fear of her hoof getting caught.

Seated on another couch near her—a large statue of Discord behind him—was a small foal. No, not a foal, Twilight realised, but a foal-sized stallion with a horn and wings and a greying mane.

The red stallion smiled at her. He’d been smiling at her for an uncomfortable amount of time. Glaciers had probably formed, scoured the earth and melted in the time he’d been smiling at her.

“Do you know who I am?” asked the stallion curiously.

Twilight wanted to ask the stallion where they were, but found herself unable to form any words. She tried desperately, but it was as if her muzzle was sewn shut. Instead, she found herself shaking her head against her will.

“I am the alicorn,” responded the red stallion, as he folded his wings around his body. “Where I’m from, my hooves are so far away from me and there’s always frost in the air.”

A shudder ran through Twilight’s body.

“That dress you like is going to come back in style,” continued the alicorn. “The first time you see it, it won’t be the real thing. Only the second time, but both times, it’ll still be real sharp.” His laughter sounded like the whistling wind.

What was the alicorn talking about? Twilight wanted to shout at him, ask him to make some Epona-damned sense, but she couldn’t. It was as if she were experiencing this through some pony else’s eyes and ears.

“Know this: the angel and the devil are one and the same,” continued the alicorn. “When you know these things to be true, we shall meet again.”

Then a mare began speaking and she said:

“Now a shadow across moons long past,

She waits for the stars to set her free

From between two worlds with these four words:

‘Night Walk with Me’.”

#

Twilight woke with a startle.

“…more protection,” finished a voice. “I mean, even just the one guard.”

A laugh followed afterwards. “Hey, she put up enough of a struggle by herself,” said the second voice. “Just be thankful it was so easy.”

She tasted iron and her mouth felt furry, as if she’d tried to eat a squirrel. What had happened to her? If only those jerks with the jackhammer would stop trying to drill a hole through her head, she’d be able to focus.

“Yeah, too easy,” said the first voice.

“Ah, stop worrying,” said the second. “You think any pony would have noticed? Besides, we’re going by air. No tracks.” There was a laugh. “And no pony’s fool enough to follow us through or over the Everfree.”

Twilight tried to focus her vision. If she could just get the room to stay still, she might be able to see where she was.

Four wooden walls and no window. The wall in front of her was very narrow; a door took up the vast majority of its surface. The swaying was an inherent property of the room.

Slowly, as ions flowed through the channels in her neurons, Twilight realised she was in a carriage. Whatever had happened, some pony had put her in a carriage and… She felt something on her muzzle and around her legs.

She tried to get up. Her legs wouldn’t let her. Twilight down or sideways, wherever her legs were. She was having difficulties trying to figure out where her limbs were.

Panic slowly crystallised the thoughts in her mind.

Some pony had tied her legs together and also her muzzle. She’d been kidnapped. Who could have done such a thing and why?

“I wish we could do the ceremony back in Ponyville,” whined the first voice. “The forest creeps me out.”

“Hey, if the Hierophant says we have to do it in those ruins, then we have to do it there,” said the second voice.

The two ponies. Where were they? Twilight swivelled her ears round in an attempt to lock in on the voices. Were they…? That was right, she’d met some weird Pegasus stallion in an alley; he’d been dressed up for Nightmare Night. Twilight remembered the harsh smell of chloroform against her muzzle, then darkness.

Wait a minute, did that pony say what she thought he’d said? No, she must have misheard. Her Majesty was the Hierophant. To be specific, Her Majesty was titled: Celestia the Great, by the Grace of Epona, Queen of the United Kingdom of Equestria, Southern Crystal March and the Pony Dominions, Hierophant, Defender of the Faith. Twilight had been dragged to so many formal events, the Queen’s full title had been burned into her memory and she was sure there was definitely a Hierophant in that title.

“For the love of Luna, would you two just shut up!” snapped a disturbingly familiar voice. “The Hierophant’s magic can only work so much in protecting us. If you continue jabbering away like that, the creatures down there will notice us.”

There was no mistaking that voice. Twilight would recognise it anywhere. She had, after all, been listening to it for what had felt like an eternity back at Sugarcube Corner.

It was the Mayor of Ponyville and he was in league with the kidnappers.

Comments

[VikingOtaku6]

Well, that's certainly some disturbing (from her perspective) news...