• Published 1st Jul 2012
  • 7,903 Views, 255 Comments

The Stars Will Aid Their Escape - Drhoz



The Great and Powerful Trixie meets a certain Messenger. MLP / Cthulhu Mythos crossover

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The Ponyville Horror

Dash stuck her head up over the edge of the wall. The tree-thing was still busily destroying the town hall, and didn't seem to notice her, or the small herd of other ponies hiding in the garden. But then, it didn't have any eyes. Applejack yanked her back into cover anyway.

"Can't Twilight put it to sleep or something?"

"Now why in tarnation are you asking me?"

"You're the one that sings lullabies to apple trees!"

"I don't know if you noticed, hon, but that ain't no apple tree!”

Another pony pushed through the press behind them. “A.J.? Dash? What’s going on? We came as soon as could, Rarity said something abou- EEEEIIYAAAA!!!! What is THAT?!

“We ain’t got no idea, sugercube, we was kinda hoping you could tell us.”

“Where’s Fluttershy? She knows more about animals than I do. If it is an animal.”

“Over there.” Dash pointed a hoof back into the crowd, where three ponies were trying to wake up the yellow pegasus. “Took one look at it and passed out.”

The three mares ducked further behind the wall - the thing had paused in its orgy of destruction, plucking the structural timbers out of the building and breaking them to fragments with its black and rubbery limbs. Rainbow winced - they'd been the hardest part of the last rebuilding effort, and the thing had snapped them like twigs.

Applejack was the next to speak, after a considerable pause. “I ain’t blaming her none, R.D. I was thinking Big Mac and me might be able to rope it up and drag it outta town, but he ain’t shown up yet. Where is that dang stallion when ya need him? Besides, that’s one big critter, anyhow. Looks like this one’s up to you, Twi.”

"I.... I've never read about anything like it... maybe it has a chapter in 'The Equestrian Field Guide To Carnivorous Monsters'? Do you know what it eats? "

"Nope, and I ain't getting close enough to find out, neither."

Spike peered out from behind Twilight. "Where did it come from, anyway? Out of the Everfree?"

"Ha!” snorted Dash, bitterly “You bet - after Trixie called them out."

"What?!" shouted Twilight "What was she thinking? And how'd she do it? I don't know of any monster-summoning spells, nopony would be silly enough to make one."

"Keep it down Twi, it might hear you. And don't ask me, either, you're the expert on that kinda thing. Question is, what are we gonna do about them?"

Twilight and her assistant were appalled. "Them? There's more than one!?"

"Sure! This one and the other dozen that were back stomping Trixie's stage. At least, I hope they're still back there. This one came into town about two minutes after we did. At least nopony fainted in the street this time - they moved almost as fast as I do! Well, nopony but Fluttershy."

"Has it hurt anypony? And where's Trixie?" asked the unicorn. "If she knows how to make them to show up, maybe she knows how to make them go away?"

Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged a glance. “Twi... dunno how to put this... but I don’t think she got moving quick as we did.”

Twilight looked sick to the stomach.

"But they ain’t got nopony else. Leastways, not yet. Chewed up a few buildings with those arm things, out by the school, though. I'm pretty sure we got everypony out in time. Hightailed it over here to tell folk to shift their flanks, the moment we saw it coming. They did too – ran around like frightened chickens then stood back aways and watched, like they usually do."

The thing finished its obliteration of the town hall. Twilight felt a pang of sorrow at the debris, especially the wonderful banners Rarity had designed for the eclipse banquet. Even if she was going to be at the main festivities in Canterlot, Twilight had wanted the residents of Ponyville to enjoy the best possible day, and it hurt more than she had imagined possible to see the symbols of Celestia and Luna trampled and stained under the thing's oozing hooves.

"Right. Spike! Go back to the library, and send a letter to the Princess - ask her to send as many of the unicorn guards here as she can send, any pegasi too, and tell her that there at least a dozen of these giant walking tree things to deal with, and they might already have hurt a pony. I'll need the royal library to check for anything on summoning antisocial vegetation, too. And things that sort of look like trees. Or if there’s such a thing as cephalopods with hooves. Then I need you and Rarity to pull out every book on monsters and spellcraft I have."

"On it, Twilight!"

"What are you going to do?" asked Rainbow. "I think that tree-thing is deciding what to eat next."

"I'm going to try and contain this one with a force bubble. It should work, but I'll have to be really close, and I won't be able to maintain more than one bubble at a time. If it does work, I should be able to carry it somewhere where it can't climb out in a hurry. Ghastly Gorge, maybe. Where's Pinkie?"

"Right here, Twilight!" As usual, she seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Do you want me to make it laugh?"

"Eek! How do you keep doing that? Anyway ... I'm sorry, Pinkie, but it doesn't look like it has much of a sense of humour. I want you three to keep it distracted, especially if it looks like it is going to hurt somepony. Any other pegasi need to go out to the farms and every other building outside town, and warn everypony to stay inside or down in their cellars. Take lanterns if you can find them. Everypony else? I need you all to move back to the edge of town. I don't want anypony hurt if this doesn't work. But come and tell us straight away if you see any more of the things coming."

The crowd nodded, still frightened, but relieved that somepony was taking charge. They even stopped moaning “The horror! The horror!”

Twilight set her hooves, and nodded in determination.

"Let's go!"

One pony had stayed behind - Fluttershy, who had finally come around but was still trembling at the sight and sound and stench of the entity.

"What... what about me Twilight? I can ask it if it could please go away by itself..."

Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked dubious. Pinkie on the other hand, looked enthusiastic. "Go on, Twi! Her special talent worked on that manticore, and the dragon, and Cerberus, AND that Vermicious Knid last Tuesday, even if the only word it knew was 'Scram!'"

"Well... it can't hurt I suppose..."

"I'm more worried it might hurt you, Flutters! At least the other things sort of had an excuse for being so cranky. This thing came out of the forest and started trashing things for no reason at all! "

"I know, Rainbow, but I ought to try. I mean, wouldn't we all feel awful it we hurt it, and it was just lost?"

The creature had fallen silent, the vertical mouths in its trunk opening and closing, its tentacles toying with the shattered remains of the building, and the decorations so painstakingly prepared. It was as though it was listening. Or waiting for something.

"Well, okay. But if it makes one funny move I'll buck it right in the face! If it had one."

Fluttershy crept out into the square. The creature's flesh quivered, clenched and unclenched. She still couldn't tell if it was a plant, an animal, or something else. Her friends watched closely, ready to snatch her to safety at the first sign of trouble.

"Um... hello?" Fluttershy could tell that there was something there, some channel of communication, but it seemed different, disturbingly different, to the level of empathy she had with the animals in her care. "I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but would you mind going back to the forest? I'm afraid you're scaring the other ponies, but I'm sure they'd be happy for... you.... and... your ... friends... to... visit?"

She could feel the thing looking at her, despite the lack of eyes, could feel the attention it gave her. But it wasn't hunger driving it, or greed, or confusion. There was purpose, implacable and unspeakable ... it reared, and brought up four of its larger limbs to crush the pegasus into the ground.

"FLUTTERSHY!" screamed Twilight. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already moving - the farmer turning to kick flowerpots across the square and into the thing's 'face', Dash a cyan blur as she snatched her friend out danger, and deposited her back with Twilight and Pinkie.

Pinkie looked shocked. "You're right, Twilight - I don't think it was joking."

"Dash! Look out!" yelled the unicorn, as the thing howled and hooted and croaked, lurching up as its limbs lengthened and gained bulk, flesh flowing into extra muscle. It lashed out at the pegasus with one tentacles, and at Applejack with the other. Both avoided the swipe, with difficulty.

Dash dived under the blow, circled up and around the thing, and shouted to attract its attention away from Twilight and Fluttershy.

"Hey! Stinky! Up here!"

It twisted, somehow, all the way around, its maws drooling and bubbling, and reached up for her. The branches of its limbs were long, but thankfully not long enough. Behind it, Twilight was pushing the traumatised Fluttershy back into an alley. "Stay here! It's too dangerous!"

Pinkie had somehow reached the upper balcony of a building two doors down, and was waving at the thing. "Yoohoo! Mister Monster! I've got a present for you!" It howled, deep and wet and blood-curdling, and trampled Roseluck's awarding-winning garden flat with the earth as it lurched towards her.

"Party Cannon!"

The detonation of Pinkie's impossible party tool was almost deafening at such short range. Unfortunately, it was also almost totally ineffective. At least the now confetti-spattered monster was fully preoccupied with demolishing the house in its search for the pink earth pony. Twilight felt momentary guilt, but at least it was damaging property, not ponies. She tiphoofed forward, trying to swallow her terror and concentrate on the barrier spell she needed, and still keep an eye on the evil bulk of the thing as it loomed above her. This would be so much easier if I could cast a basic negative curvature on the layers, she thought. But that would put her inside the shell with the beast. Out of the corner of one eye, she could see Applejack roping one of its tentacles to a fencepost, delaying it just long enough for Dash to move a small thundercloud to within striking distance, and Pinkie to skip merrily between its legs and tangle them up in bunting.

Twilight gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and formulated the spell. This was much harder than a barrier to keep out three fillies. Much harder than enclosing even multiple inert masses. Almost as exhausting as the spell her brother used to protect the city of Canterlot, but there, at least, he could be inside the sphere, and it would maintain itself without his constant attention on the mathematics.

Her horn started to glow, brighter and brighter, throwing off brilliant sparks as she got into her element, tapped her potential and pictured the spell in her mind. The thing had noticed her now, she could hear it turning, felt the slime dripping on her coat and cringed, as her friends redoubled their efforts.

She cast the spell.

The sudden silence was what struck her first - the pink shell of magical force was rigid enough to mute the creature's outraged howls. It still pushed and drooled against the barrier, flabby mouths sucking obscenely against the inside of the barrier, hooves slipping as they tried to trample her into red ruin. She gritted her teeth - this was proving even more difficult than the Ursa, or the fragments of the dam. The former had been sedated and mostly insubstantial - the latter heavy, but inert.

"Stand... back... Everypony!"

She felt out for the mass of the thing, felt the bulk of it in her mind, recoiled at first from the sickeningly unnatural feel of it, even through telekinesis, but gripped it and started to push. Feedback pushed her hooves deep into the loam, but the bubble and its horrific contents pulled free of the ground, and she gasped, sweating, and leveled it out roughly two stories up.

A.J. paused to recover her hat. "Nice work, Twilight. Think you can get it over to the gorge?"

Twilight nodded, too conscious of the effort she was maintaining, to risk speaking aloud. She levitated the bubble directly towards the gorge, staggering after it, like some awful re-imagining of a foal chasing a balloon. Pinkie tilted her head and regarded it, biting her tongue.

"You know, I think that meanie monster doesn't even deserve a party. But you do, Twilight!"

"Hey! We did stuff too, Pinkie!" objected the pegasus.

"I know that Dashie - I'm giving Twili moral support."

"Please... everypony be quiet.... have... to... concentrate!”

“Oh... sorry... we oughta go see how Flutters is doing. She looked a bit upset.” Pinkie and Rainbow left.

Twilight had managed to move the captured creature almost two blocks before the next distraction.

“Twilight! Twilight Sparkle!” A panicked pony was running down the length of Stirrup Street, and more were close behind.

“Hold your horses, Junebug!” said Applejack, as she cut in front and slowed he stampede to a halt. “Can’t you see she’s concentrating? What’s wrong, anyhow?”

“You said to come tell you if we saw more of the things – and we have! There’s a dozen and they’re coming into town right now!

Twilight fumbled her hold on the bubble. It landed on the Quill and Sofa store, completely crushing the roof and most of the contents. Fortunately for everypony, the bubble itself flickered but did not go out, even as the tree-thing redoubled its efforts to break free.

Applejack regarded the wreckage sadly. “Well, no use crying over spilt milk. But I reckon Davenport is going to be mighty peeved. So, all you ponies get out of the way in time?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say! There’s a pony with them!”