Unnoticed Threats

by smirker

The Cult

Doctor Whooves sat in his office and was ready for the patient coming in, who came in shortly afterwards, it was a male adult unicorn, he had a light red coat, messy bright yellow mane and tail, purple eyes, and his cutie mark was a map, he sat across from Doctor Whooves,

"State your name and occupation." Doctor Whooves said,

"Jones, explorer." the patient replied,

"Let's get started, what seems to be the problem?" Doctor Whooves asked,

"I'm still having bad dreams about my first journey, I remember it like it was yesterday, even though it was fifteen years ago." Jones replied,

"Please, start." Doctor Whooves said,

"When I was five years old, I discovered my special talent was exploring, I was excited and ready to go on my first journey, but it turned into a real life nightmare." Jones replied, and he begins to recall the events.

---

Jones was walking through a forest while excited, he was looking at the trees and animals in awe, they were all beautiful to him, he could not use magic yet, so he just walked around and admired the beauty around him, he saw butterflies flying in front of him and he watched them, he was at a brown bridge and walked across it slowly, he crossed it after a while.

Jones walked around and was careful not to wander too far from home, his parents have already packed his supplies in his saddlebags, which was food, water, and other tools to explore, he walks around and was getting a little tired, so he decided to walk on the trail he was on right now, he looks and sees a brown wooden sign in front of him, it said there was a nearby town to the west, Jones becomes happy and decides to go, hoping he can meet and make new friends.

Jones walks on the trail and was admiring everything he saw, he was smiling as he looked around, but stopped when he saw a message carved into a tree,

"Turn around." the message read, Jones was confused, but he decided to keep going to see what was there, he soon saw another message carved into a tree,

"Do not enter this town." the message read,

"Okay, this is getting a bit creepy." Jones said to himself, and he kept walking, not knowing what to do since he was only five years old, and he was curious, he went and saw another message in a tree,

"They will get you." the message read,

"Who's they?" Jones asked, and kept going, he saw another message, but it was incomplete,

"You will lose yo..." the message read, Jones was curious and went to it, he saw hoofprints on the ground, and it was only around the tree, Jones keeps walking on the trail and sees the town, he becomes excited and runs to it.

Jones arrives into the town but it was empty, it was a ghost town, Jones was confused,

"Hello, anypony here?" Jones asked, there was no answer, Jones was a bit unnerved, so he walks around a bit.

Jones checks out the town and sees nopony, he was wondering what happened, he takes out binoculars from his saddlebag and tries to look at where he came from, he can see his hometown from where he was at, much to his relief, he puts the binoculars away and walks around the town, he saw nopony again, he was getting nervous, but he decided to explore a bit, he saw a house that was missing its door, he goes into it and saw it was empty, he was a bit confused.

Jones hears a whistle behind him and he looks, he saw a pony, the pony was wearing a black cloak and was hooded, and had red eyes, Jones becomes excited but the pony runs to the right,

"Hey! Wait up!" Jones said as he chased the pony, he could not keep up because he was only a colt, and the pony he was chasing was an adult, and he was still too young to use magic with his horn, he keeps chasing the pony and was being lured into another open house, the pony goes into it and Jones soon entered, but he is grabbed by his hooves and pulled upwards,

"Hey! Let go!" Jones said as he struggled to break out of their grips, he looks and sees his four restrainers were wearing the same black cloak and hood, their faces could not be seen, neither could their snouts or muzzles, the pony he was chasing walks over to him,

"Relax, what we're going to do is not going to hurt, so stop resisting, you'll be fine, we promise you." the cloaked pony said, he had a deep male voice, and he leads them while the other four hold and carry Jones.

The ponies arrive into the woods after walking west, Jones looks and sees six more members with black cloaks, Jones was very scared and tried to fight back, but the pony in front of them hits him on the side of his neck with his front left hoof and knocks him out.

Jones wakes up and sees it was pitch black with red candles around him, he looks around and sees the eleven cloaked ponies again,

"He has awoken." a female member said,

"Continue with the ritual." a male member replied, Jones was shocked,

"Wait? What's going on?" Jones asked,

"Do not worry, young one, this will be quick and painless." a male member replied, and one starts to walk to him, the pony grabs his horn with their front hooves,

"In the name of this cult, as I sever this horn, I ask that it be powerful with magic so that it may be used to summon four horseponies." the pony said, Jones was horrified when he saw they were going to rip his horn off, he realized that the unfinished message he saw earlier was going to say that he was going to lose his horn, the pony carving it must have got caught by them.

Jones kicks the male pony in his stomach with his hind legs and he loses his grip, Jones runs out of the area,

"After him!" a male member of the cult said, and the eleven ponies chase him.

Jones runs upstairs and sees light up ahead, he goes to it and sees he was in the middle of the woods, he looks around and was gagging and almost vomiting at the sight, there was a wooden structure of four horses in front of him, and the trees around it all had a severed unicorn horn nailed to it, he looks around and does not see the other unicorns around, he then sees the eleven cult members in front of him,

"There is no need to be afraid, we were just going to take your horn and let you go." a male member of the cult said,

"Where are the other unicorns?" Jones asked,

"We let them go, but you won't be able to talk about us." a female cult member replied,

"I'm telling my town there's a cul..." Jones said, his voice just suddenly disappeared,

"See, we used our horns to cast a spell on you so that you cannot speak about us, we must remain secret, and even if you could speak, nopony would believe you." a male cult member said,

"What are these horseponies?" Jones asked,

"That's none of your concern, we just need your horn, it's the right color used for summoning one of them." a female cult member replied, Jones looks and sees there were red unicorn horns on some of the trees, the other colors of the remaining unicorn horns were white, black, and pale, Jones was very nervous,

"Enough talk, get that horn." a male member of the cult said and they go after Jones.

Jones runs around the woods and was lost, he looks behind himself and sees the eleven members of the cult were nowhere to be seen, he keeps running and did not look to his sides, one of the members of the cult tackles him from his right and knocks him down, the cult member grabs his horn and tries to rip it off, Jones grabs the cult member's hooves and tries to get them off of his horn, he moves his head around and rolls to his left and the cult member grunts, it was a female, her hood came off as well, her coat was a very light aquamarine, and her mane was long and white, her eyes were green, Jones sees she was a unicorn, she lost her grip and Jones quickly ran to the town.

Jones keeps running north and sees four members of the cult standing nearby, they were in the trees, they use their unicorn magic and Jones sees auras under their hoods, the ground breaks open and Jones almost falls, he opens his saddlebag and tries to take out his binoculars, but the members of the cult zap his saddlebag and destroy it and its items, much to Jones' shock, he gets out of the pit since it was very small and easy to go over, the four members of the cult use telekinesis and they drop a net on him, he grunts and tries to break free, he hears running and sees the female cult member from earlier coming over, she arrives and was behind him,

"Relax, we're not going to hurt you, we just need your horn." the aquamarine pony said,

"Who are you?" Jones asked,

"Fine, since you already saw my face, I'm Ophelia." the aquamarine pony said,

"And you four?" Jones asked,

"We're the other female members of the cult." the hooded figure to the far-left replied,

"Why are you guys doing this?" Jones asked,

"To summon the four horseponies, we need unicorn horns, they have to be white, red, black, and pale, we need twenty five of each color." the center-right cult member said,

"Too bad, you can't have mine!" Jones replied, and he tried to break out of the net, he could not, he sees the bottom was not secured, so he goes under the net and tries to run, but the four hooded cult members grab him, so does Ophelia, Jones struggles and gets them off after some time, he looks back and sees the other four female members of the cult had their hoods come off, one had an orange coat, a long bright red mane and tail, and yellow eyes, she was a unicorn; the second one had a pink coat, long light pink mane, and blue eyes, she was also a unicorn; the third one had a green coat, long dark red mane, and pink eyes, she was also a unicorn; the fourth member had a dark purple coat, long light purple mane, and very bright purple eyes, she was also a unicorn, she also had three claw marks on her right eye that formed a light purple scar, this scared Jones.

Jones looks and sees the five mares had a necklace on their necks, he sees a dark yellow rock with black stains and four symbols carved on it, the upper-left symbol was a bow, the lower-left symbol was a sword, the upper-right symbol were balance scales, and the lower-right symbol was a scythe, this caught Jones' attention,

"Who are you four?" Jones asked,

"Should we answer him?" the orange unicorn asked, Jones recognized her voice,

"Go on, he's only a kid, he'll likely forget when he's older." the purple unicorn replied,

"Very well, I'm Supernova." the orange unicorn said,

"I'm Cotton Candy." the pink unicorn said,

"I'm Watermelon." the green unicorn said,

"I'm Violet." the purple unicorn said, Jones was very confused, they all had normal sounding names, Ophelia tackles him from behind and the other four females use magic on Jones' horn in hopes of ripping off his unicorn horn and taking it, Jones crawls out from under Ophelia and she then uses magic on Jones' horn in hopes of taking it. Jones looks and sees the colors of their auras, Ophelia's was sky blue, Supernova's was red-orange, Cotton Candy's was dark pink, Watermelon's was pink, and Violet's was dark purple, Jones runs away as fast as he can and the five females chase him, Jones pants and keeps running but the five females stop and were tired,

"He's getting away." Jones overheard Supernova say,

"It's alright, let him go, the male members are waiting for him up ahead." Violet replied, Jones was able to deduce that the other six members of the cult were males, but he kept running north in hopes of reaching the abandoned town.

Jones keeps running north and the five female unicorns were out of sight, he stops running when he sees several blurs in front of him, he realized that it was a male member of the cult because of the afterimage he left behind, he hears running around him, he sees the six male members running around him in a counterclockwise formation. Jones watches them and looks for an opening, but does not see one. Six auras appear on Jones and holds him up, he was screaming as he was lifted up, the colors of the unicorn magic auras were red, blue, brown, gray, white, and black,

"Give up, there's no escape." the unicorn with the black aura said,

"Can I know who you guys are? Since the females already revealed themselves to me." Jones said,

"Name's Fireball." the male unicorn with the red aura said,

"I'm Freeze." the male unicorn with the blue aura said,

"My name is Rosencrantz." the male unicorn with the brown aura said,

"I'm Guildenstern." the male unicorn with the gray aura said,

"I am Fortinbras." the male unicorn with the white aura said,

"My name is Claudius." the male unicorn with the black aura said, Jones realized that he was the one that he followed earlier,

"Please, let me go, I won't come back here." Jones said with tears in his eyes,

"No can do, we need your horn, then you can leave." Claudius replied, and they proceed to use telekinesis on his horn, Jones screams in agony at feeling it torn, the six members of the cult were caught off guard and stumble a bit, they realize that the spell they casted on him so he does not feel any pain must have worn off, Jones falls and he runs north,

"He's going to the town." Guildenstern said,

"Your orders, leader?" Fortinbras asked,

"Let him go, we'll be waiting for him there." Claudius replied, and Jones keeps running north.

Jones arrives at where he saw the eleven cult members the first time, he sees the abandoned town up ahead, he becomes happy and runs to it, he was about to leave the town and go down the path he came from, but a black force field appears around the entire town, Jones looks on in shock, he tries to run through the force field but could not,

"Give up, you can't go through." Jones heard Violet say, he turns around and sees the eleven cult members standing behind him, from left to the right was a hooded pony, Ophelia, another hooded pony, Watermelon, a hooded pony, Violet, a hooded pony, Supernova, another hooded pony, Cotton Candy, and a hooded pony,

"Give us your horn, and you can leave in peace, this is your last chance." Fireball said,

"No! I'm keeping my horn!" Jones said angrily,

"We didn't want to do this, but you leave us no choice." Supernova replied, and her horn glows orange, she shoots out orange fire and Jones ran to dodge it, Fireball shoots fire out of his horn while Freeze shoots ice out of his horn, they mix their zaps together and Jones runs to dodge it, he goes behind a home, Watermelon appears in front of him and shoots a pink beam out of her horn and Jones ducked to dodge it, it hit the force field and burned it a bit, Jones runs under Watermelon and Cotton Candy was waiting for him, she shoots a dark pink beam at him and he runs to his left to dodge it, the beam burned the ground.

Jones keeps running and sees objects floating in front of him with white and brown auras around them, he looks and sees Rosencrantz and Guildenstern floating in the air, they try to block Jones' path but he runs past them, Ophelia appears in front of him and shoots a sky blue beam at the ground in front of Jones, it gets destroyed and he stops at the holes, seeing it was very deep and big enough for him to fall in, he prepares himself and tries to jump over the hole, but a dark purple aura appears on him and he sees Violet holding him up with her magic, she puts him into the hole Ophelia created and he screams while he falls.

Jones falls and sees it was not deep, he grunts when he landed at the bottom, he punches his hooves into the dirt and climbs back out, he sees the eleven cult members waiting for him at the top, Fortinbras uses his horn's magic to grab Jones' horn and tries to rip it off, he screams in pain and it startles the cult members, it also causes Claudius to dispel the force field by mistake, Jones quickly ran to the exit of the town but stops when he sees the sky turn black, he turns around and sees Claudius floating in the sky, his eyes were slanted and glowing red,

"Give us the horn." Claudius said in a deep, demonic voice, this scared Jones, he noticed that Claudius may not even be a pony, but rather, a creature disguised as a pony, he floats down in front of Jones, blocking the exit, Jones steps back in fear while the other ten members stood behind him, Jones watches Claudius and his horn glows black, he shoots out a black beam and it goes onto Jones' horn, he screams in shock, Violet then zaps him with a spell to make him feel no pain, the end of Claudius' beam turns into two hands and they grab Jones' horn and try to rip it off, Jones moves around and tries to move around to get the spell off, Jones runs under Claudius and leaves the town while the eleven cult members watch him.

Jones runs around and was trying to get the hands off of his horn that were trying to rip it off, he runs into trees and rocks in an attempt to make the hands lose their grips, he keeps running into things and was grabbing the hands with his front hooves, they would not lose their grip, he hears a small crack and realizes the hands were ripping off his horn,

"Okay! I give up! I'll give you my horn! Just get these things off of it." Jones said sadly, Claudius appeared in front of him by taking the form of a shadow,

"Good, you've come to your senses, hold still now." Claudius replied, and he makes the hands disappear, the other ten cult members appear around him, Ophelia, Supernova, Cotton Candy, Watermelon, and Violet still had their hoods off,

"Why can't some of you use your own horns for summoning the horseponies?" Jones asked,

"We're needed to cast the spell to summon them, the hundred horns is required to make our magic strong enough." Violet replied,

"Oh." Jones said,

"Do not worry now, this won't hurt, and it'll be quick." Freeze said, and they all get ready to use their telekinesis to sever his horn, but Jones ducks under the zapping spells and runs under Claudius, he sprints to his hometown,

"He got away." Ophelia said,

"Do not despair, there's a lot more horns we can use." Claudius replied,

"But he's escaped, we're going to be exposed." Guildenstern said,

"Do not worry, we already put the spell on him where he cannot speak about us, and he's only a colt, he'll forget about us as he gets older." Claudius replied, and they watch Jones run back to his hometown.

Jones runs back to his hometown and sees everypony was alright, he goes to his home and tries to tell his parents what he encountered, but the spell put on him makes him unable to speak about what he encountered, which confused his parents, but they decided from now on, they would travel with him since he lost his supplies and looked a bit hurt, and Jones kept traveling and went to much better places.

---

Jones was sitting across from Doctor Whooves who was just sitting there a bit shocked,

"There is something I don't understand." Doctor Whooves said,

"What would that be?" Jones asked,

"How are you able to speak about it now if you said that they put a spell on you to make you mute if you tried to?" Doctor Whooves asked,

"I spent my adult years trying to create a spell that will destroy the spell they put on me, I made one a few years ago and used it on myself, and it worked." Jones replied, Doctor Whooves smiled,

"Did you find any other pony who met this cult?" Doctor Whooves asked,

"Yes, I found several during my travels, they were all either white, red, black, or pale, and their horns were broken, I asked them how did they lose their horns, and they said they have no memory on how, so I think the cult put some kind of spell on them to make them forget about the events. One thing that has caught me when speaking with one is they prefer to sever the horns when the victim is asleep, I just woke up by chance." Jones replied, Doctor Whooves was a bit uneasy by this information,

"There's more, I've also seen the cult members walking around in various places of Equestria, acting like normal citizens, nopony suspects a thing." Jones said, Doctor Whooves was shocked by this,

"There's another reason why I came here, Doctor." Jones said, and he reaches into his saddlebag and takes out the necklace the cult members wore, this startled Doctor Whooves,

"This came into my mail yesterday morning, I'm getting the feeling that they have found me, please Doctor, if you can, use one of your devices to send me elsewhere, and let me go into hiding." Jones said,

"I'm not too sure about this, give it time, if they are coming after you, then I'll see what I can do." Doctor Whooves replied,

"Thank you, Doctor, and I'll try to stay safe." Jones said,

"Alright, that is all the time I have today, till next time." Doctor Whooves replied, and Jones left the room.

Jones was outside and stops when he sees Twilight Sparkle in front of him, he quickly gets defensive,

"Wait! I just want to talk! Please." Twilight Sparkle said, and Jones puts his guard down,

"I couldn't help but listen to your story, please, come with me." Twilight Sparkle said, and they go to her castle, she shows him the cutie map,

"Where is this abandoned town located?" Twilight Sparkle asked, Jones looks at the map,

"Around here." Jones replied, touching the map with his front right hoof, Twilight Sparkle sees it was in a part of Equestria that she and her friends have never been to before,

"Okay, I'm sorry we didn't learn about this sooner, I'm going to gather the others and investigate this place." Twilight Sparkle said,

"Be careful." Jones replied,

"You too." Twilight Sparkle said, and Jones left.

Jones hears running and sees Rainbow Dash flying to the castle, while Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack ran into it, Jones just ignored them,

"Okay, everypony, as you all know, Doctor Whooves has become a therapist recently, and is listening to others, I contacted you all here because I think one of his patients encountered a threat that we have missed." Twilight Sparkle said,

"Uh? Can I sit this one out?" Fluttershy asked,

"No way! We need to be together to take down threats!" Rainbow Dash replied,

"It's more fun if we all go together too." Pinkie Pie said,

"So, what exactly is the threat, Twilight?" Applejack asked,

"According to one of Doctor Whooves' patients, there's an abandoned village here, and a cult of eleven members that have been taking unicorn horns of the colors white, red, black, and pale, they need twenty five horns of each color and are trying to use them to summon someponies called the four horseponies, and those who are victim to them have spells cast on them so that they cannot speak about them, and those who lose their horns have their memories erased, Doctor Whooves' patient managed to create a spell to dispel the silencing one, and has brought them to light." Twilight Sparkle replied,

"Unicorn horns? I'm sorry, but I wish to keep mine, thank you very much." Rarity said,

"That's not all, according to Doctor Whooves' patient, the leader is a creature that is disguised as a pony, almost like a shadow pony." Twilight Pony replied,

"What are the identities of these cult members?" Applejack asked,

"The cult consists of six stallions and five mares, the mares are Ophelia, Supernova, Cotton Candy, Watermelon, and Violet, while the stallions are Fireball, Freeze, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Fortinbras, and their leader, Claudius, but Doctor Whooves' patient only saw what the five mares look like, he has no clue on what the stallions look like." Twilight Sparkle replied,

"I'm not too sure about this, this village is in a part of Equestria we've never been to." Rainbow Dash said,

"That is why I called you all here, I think this is worth investigating, and if the story's true, we have to stop them, let's go." Twilight Sparkle replied, and Jones sees the six heading to where the abandoned village was at, he ignores them and leaves Ponyville to go into hiding.

Comments

[Joe Toon]

Cool concept and all, but the latter half's execution is somewhat lacking.