Cauldrons in the Everfree

by CoverArt

Act One

The Everfree forest is an ancient and magical place. From the natives of Equestria to the colonists who traveled from far away lands, all of them could feel the energy from the enchanting and mysterious forest. Most could feel that it wasn’t a friendly essence though. Native tribes stayed away from it, and many of the colonists who entered never came out. That isn’t to say everyone saw this forest as evil, however. Some welcomed it, and started to delve into the dark arts. Though many attempts to silence these individuals occurred, it never wiped them out, and the Everfree continued throughout the ages to be used by these people. Including tonight.

Deep in the forest a small group of hooded girls finishes lighting their circle of candles. It was the middle of the night, so these candles, along with a fire heating up a cauldron of liquid, were the only sources of light for these girls. They move around the cauldron to start their ritual. Two of them had bags of ingredients necessary for this and the last held up a leather book. She opened the yellowed pages carefully, the book looking decades if not centuries old. Finding the correct page she raised a hand over the pot and looked to the others before beginning.

“Spirits from beyond our time, hear our wretched, spiteful rhyme. Wronged we've been by wicked means. Rapid vengeance takes our dreams. Off'rings take and thus depart,
bring about her beast of heart,"

One of the girls projects her voice into the darkness as another deftly brings out a lock of hair from their bag. Barely pausing to recognize the red and yellow divisions in her ingredient, she quickly casts it into the cauldron. A thin trail of smoke wafts from the water, and it turns red. The spell has begun. She takes a deep, shuddering breath as a thick atmosphere descends upon the clearing. Looking up, she speaks again.

"Bring to life our single wish. On Sunset Shimmer be't unleashed, Through the power of your gaze. Teach the error of her ways."

Her accomplices are stirring the cauldron together now. Slowly. Deliberately. The liquid bubbles hungrily.

"With the life we freely give, take our will, to once more live."

She extends a hand and deposits a small, twisted bat's carcass into the liquid before stepping back to resume her chant.

"A target too, we must impart. Our anger, traced back to the start."

No longer stirring, one of the other girls quickly adds an ant, still squirming in its innocence, and resumes stirring with trembling arms.

"Complete your task, die once more free."

A shape reaches from the cauldron. Burning, keening. It falls back in as it starts to burn.

"Unbound for all eternity."

With a deep scraping noise, the girls peer into the cauldron. The liquid is no more, and their ladles scuff the sides. They fall back as one when a larger, angry red bat bursts from the dark recess of the pot. As they watch it fly towards the city, they laugh.

---

For Sunset Shimmer, it was late night. Last minute harvest emergencies left her apple farmer friend having to cancel the sleepover their group had planned. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, however, the sleepover was already happening and the group of friends had to, unfortunately, part ways and head to their own respective homes. Despite many pleas for Sunset to join a friend in driving home with them, Sunset instead decided to walk home herself, she reasoned it wasn’t that far. She regrets that now.

While the streetlamps cast light upon the road, it was still spotty and didn’t help the lonely girl that much. The heavy fog wasn't helping her either, rolling in as the hot weather of the day met the cool air of the night. It left her field of view down to a few yards in the light and mere feet in the dark. Perhaps it was the sense of loneliness, or the lack of vision, but the red haired girl couldn’t shake the feeling someone or something was watching her.

A sharp screech causes the anxious girl to let out the breath she was holding. It took her far longer than she cared to admit, to realize that the sound came, not from a monstrous figure from the mist, but simply of a bat flying somewhere overhead. Taking a few moments to steady her panicked breaths, Sunset continued her journey home, albeit with a quickened pace, failing to realize that no other sound besides the squeaking of the bat and the hum of the lampposts overhead accompanied her. She simply didn’t seem to care for anything going on overhead, instead keeping her eyes on her surroundings.

Minutes go by with seemingly no changes to anything around the lone traveler. Yes, she crosses streets and continues to move from one light source to another, but in the cloudy environment, everything looks similar. One street is interchangeable with the next. The only reason Sunset knows she was about halfway home was due to muscle memory. She’s walked back home several times in the past, she knows the route by heart, even if her eyes can’t see it. She still doesn’t understand her own thinking, however. Her friend’s had offered her a ride home, yet she didn’t take them up on the offer, even though she knew this fog was rolling in. Whatever the reason, she is stuck with her flawed decision, it is nearly two hours into the new day and her friends were probably lost to the land of dreams by now. Sunset reasons that nobody should be driving in this fog anyway, so she is stuck to journey alone… with these damn bats.

Sunset pauses. Her tired mind, entranced by the monotony of the foggy land slowly starts to put things together. She hasn’t been hearing the squeaking of multiple bats. She would have heard them overlap at some points she’s sure. There was only one bat, and it was following her movements for whatever reason. Not only that, but no other creature in the area seemed to be present. There was no chirping of crickets, no hoots of owls, and Sunset hasn’t even been getting bitten by insects at all. Animals only disappear from an area when…

The girl gives a sharp intake of air, her eyes becoming pinpricks. No time to think, only time for instincts to kick in. It isn’t a hard choice for Sunset to make, she has no clue what kind of animal flies above her head, watching her every move, she has no way of combating it. She puts one foot in front of the other and flees. She is only a couple blocks from her salvation, she could make it if she was fast enough. She tries to avoid the nagging question in the back of her head. What if the creature is faster?

Evidently, the beast was willing to answer the unasked question. With a loud screech, it dives upon the running teen, passing by her right side, dangerously close. Sunset, going on base instincts jerks her body to the left to get out of range of the living projectile, resulting in her scraping her shoulder against a chain link fence. Sunset cursed under her breath as this caused her to slow down. Whatever this thing chasing her was, it looked like a bat, though far larger than any bat Sunset had ever seen. Another screech steals her attention away from her thoughts. She looks over her shoulder just in time to see the winged creature dive by her left side. Once again, the girl jerks her body, this time to her right. Her eyes track the bat as it flew past her, right in time for her brain to realize that there was a vehicle right in front of her.

With a cry, Sunset brought her left arm up as she slams into the hood of the car, before rolling off it to crash into the ground besides it. She gives a pained groan, moving her right hand to her left elbow, hissing in agony at the mere touch of the joint. Looking up, the car is still in the same position it was in before, and there was no lights on. Sunset mentally smacks herself, the car was parked and she foolishly ran into it. The girl’s eyes widen again in recognition of the car’s owner. It’s her car! She’s home! She uses her right hand to rise to her feet once more, grunting by the movements, the force of her crash obviously hurt something in her elbow. The girl runs towards the front door to her townhouse, hearing the screeching of the bat as it realizes it’s prey is still fleeing.

Stumbling up the few stairs to her porch, Sunset can’t help but feel her mood rising. She made it home, she just has to wait for whatever this thing is to go away. The screeching right behind her tells her, however, that she isn’t out of danger yet. She fumbles with her keys trying to get the front door open. It’s too late however, turning her head, Sunset lets out a scream of terror as the beast dives at her, enveloping her in darkness.

Author's Note:

For the approval of the Midnight Society. I present:

Cauldrons in the Everfree.

Huge thanks to Nonchalant for helping with the spell rhyming and wording.

Updates will occur once a week. Unless I feel nice, perhaps for a certain holiday.