1 - First Contact
"W-what happened next?"
Scootaloo smirked at the horror in Sweetie Belle's voice as she coyly held the flashlight under her chin. "Then the monster emerged from its cocoon!"
Crack!
The clubhouse rattled from an unknown force as the trio cried out in surprise. Sweetie Belle had jumped a full foot into the air before landing back down, whimpering under the blanket she'd wrapped around herself.
“What the hay was that?” Apple Bloom asked, glancing out the clubhouse window. “Sounds like somethin’ landed nearby.”
“Lemme see!” Scootaloo shoved Apple Bloom out of the way, nearly smacking her head against the window with how fast she moved. “Where did it land?!”
“Who cares?” Sweetie Belle whimpered. “Girls, I just want to go back to bed. I don’t want to spend half the night in the Everfree Forest.”
“It landed in the Everfree?!”
“It doesn’t matter! Let’s just go back to bed, please?”
Apple Bloom frowned. She trotted over to Sweetie Belle and placed a comforting hoof on one shoulder. “Sweetie, we don’t have to go that far. Applejack always tells me that the edges of the Everfree Forest are pretty safe—”
“—your sister wouldn’t want you going anywhere near the Everfree in the first place.”
Apple Bloom blushed. “My point is, we’re not gonna be in any danger. We might even get our cutie marks for adventuring!”
“Yeah Sweetie Belle, don’t be such a wuss,” Scootaloo chirped, her wings buzzing with excitement. “Besides, we’ve never done anything that dangerous.”
“Speak for yourself,” Sweetie Belle mumbled under her breath.
Scootaloo ignored her remark, snatching Sweetie’s hoof and dragging her toward the door. “C’mon, we’ll be fast! We can be in and out of that forest in ten seconds flat!”
Sweetie Belle huffed. “You’re not Rainbow Dash.”
She ignored that remark too.
The door was unceremoniously flung open as the trio bolted out the clubhouse; their eyes glowed in the dark, almost cartoonishly so. Scootaloo was still gripping down hard on Sweetie’s hoof, dragging her along as the three of them soon met the edge of the forest.
Sweetie Belle gulped. “Are you sure we have to go investigate it? Maybe we could wait until tomorrow? You know, when it’s actually bright out?”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “If we wait until tomorrow mornin’, it might be gone.”
The Everfree Forest was an ominous sight, but at night, it was a different kind of beast altogether. The wind scraped against the dense foliage, making the forest look alive—and in a sense—it was. The girls stared at the seemingly endless maze of trees, temporarily forgetting what they were supposed to be doing.
They took three steps forward, then promptly stopped.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all…
Scootaloo puffed out her chest. “C’mon girls, we’ll be fine. Nothing bad has ever happened to us before!”
Sweetie Belle gave her a sharp glare. “Then why don’t you lead way?”
“I—er, well…”
“What are you, chicken?”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, ignoring their bickering as she continued walking toward the forest. “Both of y’all keep quiet an’ stick close. Remember, if either of ya gets lost, it's just a straight line walkin’ back to the clubhouse.”
They didn’t argue, opting to stay within hoof’s reach from one another as their hooves crunched down on the underbrush of the forest. Despite Apple Bloom’s confident-sounding voice, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but occasionally look up as they made their way deeper into the forest.
It only took a few minutes of walking for Sweetie to wonder if her mind was playing tricks on her. If she focused hard enough, she could barely hear the sound of something hissing above them, but it didn’t sound like a snake or really anything she’d ever heard before. The nervous glances she got from her friends told her that she wasn’t the only one who noticed, but she dared not ask them.
Because if she asked them, then it might be real.
Scootaloo suddenly paused mid-stride to sniff the air. “Hey girls, do you smell that?”
“Is that smoke? That’s gotta be the source of the noise then. What coulda crashed all the way out in the Everfree to cause this much smoke?” Apple Bloom replied incredulously.
“It’s obviously a meteorite,” Sweetie Belle grumbled. “I just don’t get why it had to land in the most dangerous place in all of Equestria.”
“We must be getting close then!” Scootaloo momentarily forgot her fear and galloped deeper into the forest.
“Hey! Don’t get ahead of us!” Apple Bloom cried, speeding up in an attempt to catch up to her.
Sweetie Belle let out a frustrated sigh. Before she could follow Apple Bloom’s trail, that familiar hissing sound filled her ears.
It was coming from right behind her.
Sweetie whipped her head around, turning to face the source of the noise and jumping back slightly, ready to face whatever horror was about to come her way.
…But there was nothing there, only the sound of the wind, and her heartbeat hammering in her ears.
Sweetie Belle could hear Apple Bloom up ahead now, calling out Scootaloo’s name. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring her shortness of breath and the obvious trembling in her hooves.
Sweetie Belle yelped as she slammed into a yellow blur ahead of her. It was Apple Bloom, who stumbled slightly from the impact. “Oh, thank Celestia yer here, Sweetie! I can’t find Scootaloo anywhere!”
“But she was right in front of us. How could you have lost her just like that?”
“I-I dunno. One second she was there an’ the next she was just… gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”
Apple Bloom stared ahead, though it was difficult to see much of anything in the dark. “She couldn’t have gone too far, she must already be at the crash site. We’ll grab her an’ get outta here. You were right, we shoulda just stayed in bed.”
“Is it too late say I told you so?”
“Oh shut up,” Apple Bloom replied, giving Sweetie a light shove. “The sooner we leave, the better. I’m guessin’ it’s right past this clearing up ahead.”
She pulled away the vines that blocked their path, carefully ducking under them to avoid the thorns. The smoke was denser now, and Sweetie Belle swore she could still hear a hissing noise nearby. It was growing louder.
“Hold up, Sweetie. There’s a bit of a drop ahead of us.”
“What do you mea—ah!” Sweetie Belle tumbled down a sharp depression in the earth. It was the site of the crater, but Sweetie Belle wouldn’t know that until she cleaned away the grime and soot from her eyes.
“Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom carefully scrambled down the crater's edge to Sweetie’s side.
“Pfeh! Oh great, Rarity is going to be so mad at me,” Sweetie Belle groaned as she spit out the dirt that had filled her mouth on the way down. “How am I ever gonna get this stuff out of my mane?”
“I don’t think yer mane is the problem right now,” Apple Bloom said. “We still have no idea where Scoots is. I can’t think of anywhere else she’d be other than this…”
“—crater.”
“Yeah, crater,” she finished with a sheepish expression.
“If Scoots fell down this crater like I did, she would definitely have some brain damage,” Sweetie said with a smirk.
Apple Bloom found herself struggling not to smile. “What’s there to damage?”
There was a long pause before the two of them erupted into a fit of giggling. Apple Bloom offered a hoof to Sweetie Belle as they slowly pressed on into the heart of the crash site.
Moments later, Apple Bloom did a double take, nearly tripping over her own tail as they stumbled upon something only describable as otherworldly. “What is that?”
Sweetie Belle looked as green as the object in front of them. “I don’t know, but it’s slimy, it’s gross, and I don’t want to be anywhere near it.”
“Wait a sec, do you see that?” Apple Bloom squinted at the odd, oval-shaped object. It reminded her of an egg, but that couldn’t have been right. How could anything be alive down here?
Sweetie Belle took a few tentative steps forward, concentrating on it through the haze of smoke. “Is it… moving?”
“Boo!”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle screamed in unison as a figure emerged from the smoke. It was Scootaloo, who donned a shit-eating grin as she hopped over the egg to face them.
“Who’s the chicken now? Haha, I got you good!”
Apple Bloom’s face immediately shifted from terrified to annoyed. “Are ya kiddin’ me? Scootaloo, we were worried sick about you, an’ ya decide to pull some stupid prank?”
Scootaloo raised her hooves in mock defense. “What? I thought it was pretty good.”
“If you’re trying to kill us, maybe,” Sweetie Belle huffed, flicking her tail at Scootaloo’s face as she turned away from them. “I’m going home and taking a shower. I’ll see you gals tomorrow.”
Scootaloo slumped her shoulders. “Oh come on, Sweetie! It was only a joke—”
Screeeeech!
All of them froze in place, not daring to make a sound as ice flooded their veins. It was close, whatever it was. Sweetie Belle knew it had to be the thing that had been following them; she didn’t want to believe it, but she didn’t have a choice anymore, it was coming for them.
“Scootaloo? P-please tell me this is another one of your pranks?” Apple Bloom whimpered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Scootaloo didn’t respond. Sweetie Belle didn’t try turning around to see if she was even still there.
“Scootaloo?”
…
“S-Scootaloo?”
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Hell yeah! New story from one of the best dark writers on the site!
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Going back to my roots a little bit.
Wow. 😃
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Pulling a Chelsea Grin, huh? I can get behind that!
(Chelsea Grin was one of my fave death metal/deathcore bands from back in the day. They went softer for a little bit and tried some new things before going heavier than ever on their last album.)
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I doubt I’m the first.
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Chelsea Grin has been hit and miss for me, but when they're good though, they're really good. I'm more a fan of Born of Osiris, Within the Ruins, and Polyphia. Also After the Burial recently.
Don't have too much to say just yet, but we're only getting started here.
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Okay, we need to talk at length sometime.
I'll be seeing After the Burial live for the fifth time this year on the Rareform Anniversary tour because they're just that amazing. I was also priveleged to see Born of Osiris live a couple times, including a couple months ago. I will never not go apeshit when they play Abstract Art and/or Bow Down live.
Sorry, Jack! Didn't mean to cloud up your comments section!
Aaaand I'm officially going to say that this is a pretty good chapter...
Wait... (reads it again with the lights off)
This is amazing!
As a fan of My Little Pony, the first two Alien movies and H.P Lovecraft, all I can say for now is A) I hope the Crusaders survive and B) FOR THE LOVE OF GOD KEEP WRITING!!
So yeah, this kind of caught my eye, can you tell?
Continue with all due haste, my man!
In other words: MOAR!
Aliens? Check.
Ponies? Check.
Sci-Fi Horror Tropes out the wazoo? Checkeroony!
You now officially have my attention.
Chickenloo meme? Oh now you're just spoiling me!
good shit #lit
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I hope we don't disappoint!
That's an interesting story for an alien story.
Nice old Movie title.
Hmm, interesting start. Can't wait to see best xenobughorsething.
So when are you gonna make the next chapter?
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Whenever my co-writer and I get around to it.
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Okay then
All right. Now I wait for the rest.