Thirty Minute Ponies

by Arcainum

Simply Adorable

Prompt #328: The secret life of a background pony.

Roseluck stepped out of the store and breathed deeply of the fresh Ponyville air. The sky was clear, the breeze was cool, and the town was bustling with life. She smiled and shifted her saddlebag’s weight before trotting in the direction of home.

“Hey there, Roseluck!”

“Roseluck! Are we still on for this weekend?”

“Darling, your dress will be ready on Wednesday!”

“Yo, Rose!”

The calls of friends, associates, and just plain chummy strangers followed her as she walked, and she threw a smile and a reply at any that reached her. The grass was springy beneath her feet, and the smells of nearby Sugarcube corner made her mouth water.

*Oops! No time for that now!*

She quickened her pace, but with no real urgency. Plans or no, it truly was a beautiful day in Ponyville, and she drank it in with every fibre of her being.

But…as she neared her home, she felt something. Something strange. At first the sun seemed to dim, imperceptibly, only the faintest blur in her vision giving even a hint. The breeze felt just a little colder, and a few strands of mane slipped into her face. She puffed them away, and the feeling was gone.

How odd.

Moments later she felt it again, stronger this time. Her fur ripple in the sudden wind and a chill ran down her spine. An impossible sense of other assaulted her, but before she could even register its presence, it was gone. She shivered.

Rounding a corner, eager to be back home and preparing for the day’s events, she walked smack into the face of a briskly trotting colt. Squeaking and falling to her rump, she rubbed her nose in pain as the pony she had stumbled into gathered himself. As his eyes uncrossed, they widened in recognition and…relief?

“Roseluck! Thank heavens I’ve found you!”

Roseluck blinked through the fuzz of pain to see her neighbour Hot Scoop, glasses askew and a nervous grimace twisting his features. “Oh! Hi, Scoop. What’s the-“

“Roseluck, there are noises coming from your house again, and I’m worried.”

Roseluck frowned. “Noises?”

Scoop’s nod was emphatic and hurried, hi speech clipped and almost frantic. “Noises. Like the last time, and the time before that. Your house, when you’re not there. Screams, terrible crashes…other sounds. I’m…I’m scared, Roseluck.”

“But…we checked. We investigated every room, even checked the cellar!”

“I know, but…It’s still happening. I think your house might be…” Scoop’s eyes shone with fear. “Haunted.”

Roseluck bit her lip, swallowing. “I… I’ll check again, Scoop. Alone. Maybe I can find a way.”

Scoop reached for her shoulder instinctively, as if to stop her. “Are you serious?! It could be dangerous! If you’d heard what I’d heard…”

“Don’t worry, Scoop. I’ll sort this out. Somehow.” She smiled to reassure him.

Scoop eyed her uncertainly, then stepped back slowly. “I…okay. But you have to promise me that if it gets too hot in there, you’ll get out as soon as possible.”

“I promise.”

“…Okay. Good luck.” Casting a worried glance at her one last time, Scoop turned and stalked off in the direction of his own house.

Roseluck released the breath she had been holding since giving her promise and sighed with relief, walking to her front door. This would the fourth time she would have to make this check, the fourth time she would have to keep her friends and neighbours safe by stepping up and taking charge. She steeled herself, put a hoof to the door…and pushed.

A roiling wave of pure, elemental evil washed over her. Where there should have been a hallway lay a yawning maw of seething void, an impossible gateway of screaming madness. Undulating tendrils of unfathomable existence suffused her every atom. Just as her mind was recovering from the violent invasion of Other, a speck of vile light sparked into being. Closer it came, closer, light becoming darkness becoming light becoming fire becoming evil becoming light becoming hatred becoming evil becoming evil becomingevilbecomingbecomingevilevilevilevilevilevil a voice emerges from the nothing that is all a voice that is not a voice but what is and what is not and all she hears is screaming but in the screaming there is meaning twisted meaning meaning of another mind another existence another time and space it speak it speaks it speaks YOUR EYES SHALL BE MY CHILDREN’S BIRTHING GROUND AND INFINITY THEIR GRAVE YOU ARE NOTHING IN THE UNIVERSE WE ARE ETERNAL WE ARE SPAWN OF TIME YOU ARE NOTHING YOU ARE FOOD YOU ARE LESS THAN FOOD YOU ARE LESS THAN THE MEREST MEASURABLE SPECK OF OUR EXISTENCE YOU ARE NOTHING YOU ARE NOTHING YOU ARE

“You stop that this instant.”

The light winked out and the gateway vanished, leaving a sullen, betentacled monstrosity sulking in her hallway, getting cosmic slime all over her walls and burning gaping holes in both reality’s tattered pretense of cohesion and the nice Burnt Hessian matte she had only just finished applying. As usual.

“Mr. Scoop says he’s been hearing noises again.”

Yss-Syssoth, Scything Queen Of A Million Screaming Young, endeavoured to look innocent, the sickly, shifting geometry of her features rending wailing echoes of tortured spacetime from the lovely vase the girls at work had bought her, but Roseluck was having none of it.

“Now don’t you come the sly infinite starbeast with me, missy. You’ve been making trouble again haven’t you, hmm?”

YOUR SOUL SHALL SCREAM A THOUSAND SONGS OF PAIN

“I thought so. That nice Mr. Scoop has been catching wind of it, and he’s all in a tizzy. So you behave, or I’ll have the newspaper out before you can say ‘bop on the nose!’” She waited, tapping her hoof as she raised an eyebrow at the pulsing form of Yss-Syssoth, Dread Matriarch Of Time’s Fated End.

MY SPAWN WEEP THE SEEDS OF YOUR CONSUMPTION IN THE CRAWLING WOMB OF STH’ETHOTH

Roseluck chuckled. “Oh, silly, there’s no need to be sheepish. I know you’re sorry.” Smiling warmly, Roseluck trotted through to the kitchen, stepping lightly around the writhing pool of Nihilim oozing from Yss-Syssoth, Ancient Broodmother Of The Quivering Death’s cavernous voidmaws.

“Now. What shall we have for dinner?”

Author's Note:

I could honestly write Roseluck and Yss-Syssoth all day.

"How was your day?"

THE MOUTHS OF YOUR KIND SHALL KNOW ONLY SCREAMS

Comments

[maximus25]

Today is April 23rd.

This chapter was posted on April 24th.

What wizardry is this?

Also, nice chapter.

[RTStephens]

This must make for some awkward house-warming parties.

[Firebirdbtops]

I am reminded of the teddy bear in yugioh abridged.