That Which Lurks in the Gloomwood

by Orkus

Down to Baltimare

As the shadowy and ghostlike, ever-shifting shapes of low-reaching mist began to dissipate around the morning floor of the Gloomwood Forest, a tree was soon among the shapes revealed. It was a haggard old oak, entrapped within an enormous, thick, silky web that stretched around its aged frame and several of the surrounding trees, eventually leading to a burrow. The web-laced burrow was in the form of a large, dark hole that went through the base of the tree, and led to a deep chamber under the ground.

With a few dozen, solid, thumping footsteps signalling its approach, an immense, chitinous shape exited the abode, in the monstrous form of a rather loathsome arachnid that held a light brown coloring to its body. It was the creator of the webs; a great spider, and one of many thousands of the sentient species that lived in the Gloomwood. He was an average-sized male that went by the name of Fiddleback.

Like a normal spider, he had eight, long, spindly legs, each connected to a cephalothorax, which in turn was connected to a large, fat-looking abdomen littered in small, fine hairs. Unlike a spider, his mouthparts were slightly different, though no less grim. Instead of a pair of simple, hollow, venom-injecting devices for a maw, he had four sharp-tipped mandibles that helped to partially conceal a nasty, toothy mouth, littered with sharp fangs of varying sizes and a differing purpose on its jaws. He still delivered poison, that much was true, but through another, much more sinister mean...

Though he looked and acted no different than any other male great spider one would (unfortunately) encounter, Fiddleback was an abnormally ancient thing, especially among his kin; his time having begun long before ponies even first laid hoof in Equestria, and most likely long after they would pass as well. How a creature such as he, bearing a body bloated and swollen from the blood greedily consumed in past meals, had survived for so long was a mystery that was bound to go unsolved for all time, though a few drops of pragmatism and cunning was a likely consideration to toss into the fold.

He finished exiting his web-laden hollow, and took a peek at his mostly empty surroundings with the eight, pitch-black eyes that were connected to the front of his head. The birds that previously were singing joyfully in the twisty trees above were driven to silence by his mere presence, and this usual occurrence never ceased to amuse the wretched thing. In truth, he much preferred the sounds of quiet and stillness over noise, hence one reason for his reclusive nature.

Venturing forth across the mostly muddy terrain of dry grass, he began to walk a short ways, pulling along a thick chord of silk attached to his spinnerets. Dragging at the end of it was a web-covered chest made of rotting, aged, and very worn wood of a dull color.

The time of the monthly swap-meat was drawing near at a frightening pace. Due to this, he was off to the town of Baltimare; a comfy seaside hamlet that lied next to the Gloomwood, as well as the Horseshoe Bay and Celestial Sea. It was a lazy, but big town of a wide girth that reeked of salt water and was populated entirely by ponies. He visited the place many days each month, and today was just another of those days.

Of course, he wasn't going to go as he was. That would be madness!

No... no, he had a different method of interweaving with pony society. Turning about, he looked to his precious chest and touched it with the feeler palp extremities next to his face. Finding the right spot, he flipped the lid of it open with a rusty squeak on damaged hinges, and reached in with a leg to pull out a large, compacted, pony-shaped figure of expertly-crafted wood.

Turning it about revealed the device's back, and gently tugging at a section of the back in opposing directions revealed a hollowed-out inside. This object was nothing more than a suit to be worn.

It took a few minutes to suck his vast abdomen in enough to properly fit inside the dummy, but soon slid into its comparably dwarfish form with ease. Contorting his legs next, he brought all four pairs of them in with him, and stuck them in placed of the dummy's appendages. Before sealing the back up with some more movement, he peeked a pair of his eyes through the empty eyeholes that were above the snout of the fake being's face.

With a few stolen coats, a big, wide-brimmed, brown hat, and a few dozen other oddities and features used to camouflage himself that he took out of the chest, he now bore the appearance of a normal, if not mildly conspicuous pony who was wreathed in apparel. Upon adjusting to the last bouts of movement he had to adopt, he reached into the chest a last time with a wooden, claw-controlled faux-hoof and pulled out the final piece.

A wooden violin, and its bow. They had a normal appearance, but their making was not of a pony's design. He had crafted this instrument himself from the very bark of the tree he now made his home in, many hundreds of years ago. Their strings were made of pure spider silk, and played beautiful music when applied properly. He had become a master at it over the years, unparalleled to the few he ever met that played the same device.

But that was enough reminiscing on the past. He began to hobble away from his home in a semi-awkward gait, off to acquire some goods in the town. And by "goods," he meant a few barrels of a single item he needed for the upcoming event. A single type of liquid that he found other spiders, himself included, could barely resist the tantalizing temptation to drink.

Lemonade.

Comments

[Skye Mist]

Hmm, interesting you say lemonade bc I was thinking of lemonade when I started to read this!
I was like, Ugh, it's too hot like this. Can't I have some lemonade or something?
And then, it reached that last line!

[Mix-up]

Interesting I'm looking forward to see more soon.

[TheGuyWithTheFace]

A bit overboard on the descriptions some times but you definatly got me interested, looking forward to more

[Cross Lament]

Oh god, a giant spider in a pony suit. I'll never go near ponies again!

ci.memecdn.com/821/9190821.gif

[Guner]

7019744 HAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahaha.......