• Published 31st Jan 2017
  • 1,509 Views, 28 Comments

Fog - Door Belle



A storm strikes Ponyville. Scootaloo makes it to shelter, but as days pass, it becomes clear that something terrible has happened.

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Thunder

"Box of soup cans?" Pinkie dragged a box off one of the shelves and opened it. "Nope, box of banners for other parties. Not food." She glanced over at the badly burned but recently-knighted Sir Boxington, and dropped into a conspiratorial tone.

"Or are they?" She buried her head in the box, filling the room with messy eating noises and drawing the eyes of everypony who, unlike the youngest foals, was still awake. Then she pulled her head back up, spitting out the corner of a banner decorated with a miniature Hearth’s Warming tree. "Nope, they're not," she pronounced. "Where'd I put the box of soup cans?"

“Pinkie, we ate all the soup already.” Scootaloo sighed. All hope that the pink mare was just putting on extra weirdness for the party had faded over that week. From Pinkie’s flat-maned style and pep-less voice to her conversing with Sir Boxington, this was the new normal.

“We also ate everything else,” Diamond Tiara added. “Including one of the boxes, which was awful. We have to go outside. How bad can it be after a few days?”

“That’s the worst possible question,” said Scootaloo. Her grumbling belly reminded her what was important. “But Pinkie, there’s no food and almost no water left. We can’t just not eat or drink tomorrow.”

Pinkie sighed, hanging her head over the edge of the banner box.

“Okay. Sir Boxington and I will go out first thing and find something, Pinkie promise.” The pink mare trudged over to the empty box she’d made a bed of and curled up inside it. “Please, go to bed.”

The two fillies retreated to the corner they had staked out and into their box-bed, which was made slightly less uncomfortable by a layer of party streamers.

“Seriously,” Scootaloo whispered, “don’t ask questions like that. Don’t you know better than to tempt Fate?”

“Whatever,” Diamond Tiara hissed back. “The first thing I’m going to do when we leave is take a bath for days. This place smells awful.”

Scootaloo wrinkled her muzzle. She had been trying to ignore the odor of unwashed ponies that permeated the cellar. “Good thing we’ve got you to remind us of the important things, Diamond.”



A long, high shriek of horror catapulted Scootaloo out of sleep and nearly to the ceiling. Her wings buzzed uselessly as she dropped back to the floor, looking about wildly and understanding nothing. The world was quick to shift into coherent form, however, and the first thing that made sense was the sight of Diamond Tiara. The other filly kept screaming at the floor in front of her, her eyes wide and her pupils shrunken dots.

“Diamond?” Scootaloo trotted over for a better look—

—and quickly turned away, swallowing back her sudden nausea. “Oh Celestia,” she whimpered, as soon as she was certain she could open her mouth without vomiting. She looked up to find all the younger fillies and colts staring at her and at Diamond, who had finally stopped screaming. She shuddered. Where was Pinkie Pie?

“Go… over there,” she said, gesturing to the furthest corner. “All of you. Right now. Play, uh, checkers or something.” To Scootaloo’s relief, the others got the message, giving her space to deal with Diamond. She sat down next to her friend and gave her a nudge to the shoulder, avoiding looking down at the mess in front of them. She still gagged on the smell of it for a moment before she could talk.

“Come on, Diamond.” No response. The filly was like a statue. “C’mon, what happened?” More silence, broken only by Rumble’s brother’s crying and the muttering of some of the others. “Seriously! Snap out of it!” Scootaloo gave Diamond a shove. That finally did something, at least. It made the stricken filly burst into tears.

The pegasus looked away. What was she supposed to do now? This was too weird. Diamond Tiara never cried. She yelled or stomped or threatened, not this.

Well… what would Rainbow Dash do?

Scootaloo instinctively stretched out her right wing to wrap it around her friend’s back. Her wing was too small, of course; that wouldn’t work. She replaced it with her right foreleg.

“Don’t—Don’t look at that,” she said. “Look at something else, Diamond. Uh, look at me. Come on, look at me.”

It took a moment, but Diamond Tiara finally raised her head and turned it towards Scootaloo, who caught a glimpse of tears still running down her muzzle. Then they were gone again as Diamond clung to the orange filly, burying her face in her breast to muffle her sobs until they petered out.

After a minute of silence, Diamond tore herself away, turned around, and glared at the floor. “That didn’t happen,” she said. “Understand?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Scootaloo nodded. Typical Diamond Tiara. “I, uh, I guess let’s clean this up?”

“Fine. We… we can bury what’s left out past the latrine, then.”



“I’m back,” Pinkie said, her voice strained. Her coat had taken on a rainbow sheen over its vivid pink in the dim light, and she struggled to keep Sir Boxington balanced on her head while her hooves were occupied with climbing down the ladder. “I found—Oh, yuck!” Burial and the passing of a few hours had made the smell more bearable, but no less present. She gagged, and muttering an “Owie!” under her breath for every rung, she hastened to the floor and deposited her box-friend with a thunk.

Once firmly on the floor, Pinkie sniffed, gagged again, and glanced over the remaining foals, muttering names under her breath. As she did her whole frame sagged, and her eyes turned weary. Finally, she turned to Scootaloo.

“How?” Pinkie asked.

Scootaloo looked over to Diamond Tiara, who shook her head. “Pound Cake tried to fly,” the orange filly said. Pinkie Pie rubbed her eyes and let out a sigh that turned into a coughing fit.

“Where is he?” the mare asked, once she had recovered.

“We buried him at the end of the tunnel.”

“I…” Pinkie’s voice hitched, and she hung her head. When she spoke again, it was toneless. “I’m glad I have you two. Sir Boxington is breaking his flaps trying to carry everything.”


There was food and water again, however limited, but only some of the younger fillies and colts could eat. Instead of joining them Scootaloo lay next to Diamond Tiara, apart from the others, and listened when Pinkie joined them and spoke.

“It’s not good outside,” said Pinkie. There was a slight tremor in her tone, but she kept her voice low so the fillies had to strain to hear her over the other children’s talking and eating. “It… It might take a while for other ponies to come. We have to eat and drink less. No fun, I know—”

“Urgh,” Diamond said. “Like I’ll ever be able to eat again, anyway.” Scootaloo stuck her tongue out and released a bleh in agreement.

“I know, right?” said Pinkie. She made a face of her own, but neither filly smiled. “I’m going to need you two to help with a game I’m setting up. It’s called, um…” Pinkie sighed, her ears drooping. “It’s called ‘Help Take Care of the Foals While Pinkie Finds Food,’ ” she finished lamely.

“Boring,” Diamond Tiara said, getting up on her hooves and yawning emphatically. “Whatever. I’m going to what passes for bed, I guess. Come on, Scoots.”

“I…” Scootaloo turned her head to follow Diamond, then shuffled uncomfortably off the floor. Why did friends have to make things so difficult sometimes? “I’m sorry, Pinkie.”

As the fillies walked back to the other end of the room in the dimming candlelight, Pinkie sighed. “Hoo boy...”


“Seriously, Diamond?” Scootaloo asked as she settled into her hard bed of cardboard and streamers. “What the hay was that about? This was our chance!”

“Our chance to what, get cutie marks in diaper changing?” Diamond rolled her eyes and shifted her legs, trying to get comfortable. “Please. Even if we didn’t both have our cutie marks already, don’t tell me you actually want that.”

“That’s not it at all! Diamond, I’m fifteen,” Scootaloo said. “You’re almost fourteen. We’re as good as grown up now and I don’t know about you, but I wanted to prove it to somepony other than Pappy.”

“Seriously? The only thing I’m looking forward to is running all of Daddy’s stores, and he’s told me a dozen times he’s not old enough to retire yet.” Diamond shook her head. “Besides, grown-ups are boring. You don’t want to be boring, do you, Scoots?”

“Well—”

“I didn’t think so. Just look at Pinkie,” said Diamond. “She finally grew up and now she’s boring. And weird.

“I guess…” Scootaloo knew she didn’t sound convinced. Now that she thought of it, though, her friend was right in a way. Pinkie ranged from boring most of the time to outright scary when she reminded everypony not to use magic. This wasn’t the fun Pinkie who had arranged every one of the birthday parties she could remember.

But Pinkie’s voice had trembled. For that one moment, it had almost broken. No matter how weird she had become, and no matter how un-Pinkie she behaved, she was still a pony, and there were some things that showed no matter who you were.

“Pinkie’s scared.” Scootaloo gave her friend a hard look and squirmed atop her streamer-bedding in an attempt to settle the chill in her belly. “She and her friends have saved Equestria more times than we’ve had birthdays, and she’s scared of this.

Diamond’s facade fell. She took a long, shuddering breath. “I know. That’s what has you scared too, isn’t it?”

“I’m not scared!” Scootaloo hissed.

“You’re not fooling anypony.” Diamond laid her head down and sighed. “Look, you can play tough like your stupid idol—”

“Rainbow Dash is not stupid!” Scootaloo sat up sharply, disturbing the layer of streamers. Her wings flared in anger.

“—or you can play smart,” Diamond continued over the interruption. “Scootaloo, we can’t let anypony know. The last thing we need is for everypony to get scared.”

“Pound Cake is dead, Diamond Tiara. I think it’s a little late for that.”

Comments ( 14 )

Scootaloo wrinkled her muzzle. She had been trying to ignore the odor of unwashed ponies that permeated the cellar. “Good thing we’ve got you to remind us of the important things, Diamond.”

A long, high shriek of horror catapulted Scootaloo out of sleep and nearly to the ceiling. Her wings buzzed uselessly as she dropped back to the floor, looking about wildly and understanding nothing.

I think you missed a line break in between the two paragraphs? It's quite decent otherwise.

8103957

Extra white space. Does it not show up on the mobile client or something?

8103961

Extra white space.

Ah, that explains it. Sorry.

8070624

Oh, and you get a cookie.

8104153 "The cookie contains sodium benzoate."
"..."
"That's bad."
:rainbowlaugh:

8104227

Edit: I'm finally comfortable giving this a three star for now. I would be shocked if anything happened to make me downgrade that rating. I anticipate a 4 is quite likely and 5 is possible depending how well you do in the coming chapters.

Damn boy, you grade hard.

Good job. Deft thing using DT being first to get radiation thaumaturgy sickness.

wat
What's this, now? Am I missing something?

8120586

Thank you! It's a pretty fun dynamic to write, honestly.

8120759

I like the speculation. I refuse to confirm or deny its correctness. I will say you got a cookie for predicting a heavy third chapter; guessing that Diamond Tiara is going to die is a little too morbid a thing to award a cookie for.

8120759 Oh, I see now. I completely misinterpreted the genre as supernatural horror, where whenever someone uses their magic they die. :applejackconfused:

8121211

Hmm...

No, "apaulstle" is a silly word. I shan't.

8121211 Oh, i haven't read any of the universe stories. That would probably explain a lot.

Why do I have such a bad habit of digging up stories I enjoy that have long since kicked the bucket? Regardless, for as much of it as there was, I really enjoyed this. The grammar is excellent, the mystery and lingering sense of dread were done up just right (it certainly kept me hooked), and the story incorporates a few concepts and ideas I can honestly say I haven't seen anywhere else. For what it's worth, thanks for sharing this piece.

I have yet to find another horror story that lured me in so well and ramped it up with every chapter while only giving snippets of information from a heavily filtered source in the story. And its cancelled.:fluttershbad:

Jesus, this is dark as shit. But goddamnit, there's no continuation to this!

I might pick this up if my schedule allows it.

10706657
If the author doesn’t have an issue with it, please do

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