blackpest

by mushroompone

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© HUSC

BLACKPEST

The music was almost real. Every falsely-conjured sound was adjacent to something very familiar and tangible; the stomp of a hoof on hardwood, the strike of a key on a harpsichord, maybe even a voice. It bounced and meandered, easy and light. A somehow foalish version of real music.

"Can you hear that?" I asked. I could feel myself shouting over the music track.

Rainbow cocked her head. "Uh… What?"

"Music!" I replied. "It sounds kind of, uh… I dunno…"

"Baroque?" Rarity guessed.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "It's called harsh noise, Rares, not 'broke'."

Rarity pinned her ears down against her head, but apparently deemed this not worth the argument.

"Is it chiptune?" Rainbow suggested. "Like computerized sounds?"

"Um…" I scratched my head. "Maybe?"

Rainbow clucked her tongue. "Have you ever actually played a video game before, Twi?" she asked. Her annoyance was evident.

I considered the question carefully. "I played video trivia once with Spike!"

"Ooh! I quite like those," Rarity said with an innocent smile.

Rainbow smacked her forehead with one hoof. "If I was a unicorn, I would take this over so fuckin' fast."

I sighed wearily and turned my attention back to the game.

To my surprise, the game title was still hovering in front of me. In the past, even a single syllable had been enough to trigger the game's start sequence.

And yet it sat still. As if it were waiting for me.

"Huh," I said.

"What is it, Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"Well…" I walked towards the title, peering around it to look for differences. "Usually the game starts when I talk. But it's not doing anything now."

"That's odd," Rarity said. She then turned to address Rainbow. "Is that odd?"

Rainbow scoffed. "How should I know? It's not like I've played any magic video games lately." She cupped her hooves around her mouth and shouted: "Hey, Twilight!"

I winced. "I can hear you just fine! You don't have to shout!"

"Oh." Rainbow looked somewhat disappointed by that. "What do you always say?"

I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. "Uh… I dunno, what do I always say?"

"To start the game, dope!" Rainbow corrected.

I blushed. "Um… begin?"

"Hello!"

I yelled and stumbled forward a few steps at Hunter's sudden, processed greeting.

Rarity shot up from her chair. "Twilight!"

“My name is Hunter Moon," Hunter continued.

I managed to get my bearings again, and turned to face Hunter. "I-it's okay! He just scared me, is all."

"I'm an exterminator with the Blackpest Corporation!" Hunter reminded me helpfully, as if I'd have forgotten. "Welcome to the team."

"Who, darling?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow, however, was already out of her chair and wandering about the room. "Is he invisible or something?" She held one hoof out in front of her, waving wildly at the air.

“We've been getting reports of a pest control problem in your area," Hunter continued. His words were not interrupted, despite the sudden and violent presence of Rainbow's hoof in his chest cavity. "Are you up to the task, new recruit?"

I held my breath, waiting for the difference.

But all was just the same.

Well… all but the entrance.

Part of me--the outer part--wanted to believe it was a fluke. But the inner me knew better.

It was almost as if the game had learned. Learned about me.

"What's happening?" Rainbow asked. Her body was partially phased into Hunter's, which made for a confusing visual.

"Um…"

How to explain?

How to narrate this experience?

"There's a stallion," I said. "His name is Hunter Moon."

Rarity chuckled lightly. "How funny. I do believe I know a Hunter Moon."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. The small motion of her head caused most of her face to disappear into Hunter's neck. "Yeah, and I bet you know a Daring Do, too."

"He's standing-- well, Rainbow's kind of standing inside him," I continued, blowing past the distracted bickering.

Rainbow made a cry of disgust and leapt backwards. "Hey, warn a girl next time!"

Rarity chuckled, a hoof placed demurely over her mouth.

"And he says 'hello'."

I paused, trying to remember his next line.

"That's it?" Rainbow said. "Hello?"

I sighed. "He's an exterminator with the Blackpest corporation," I explained.

"Oh! Is that a real company?" Rarity asked.

"Of course not!" Rainbow complained. "It's a game, Rares! None of it's real!"

Rarity spluttered nonsensically for a moment. "There are plenty of games with real things in them!"

Rainbow sat down hard on the floor and folded her forelegs over her chest. "Oh, yeah? Like what?"

"Like, erm…" Rarity froze. She reached up and tapped her chin with one hoof. "Well, like… um…"

I cleared my throat, loud and sharp.

Rarity folded her ears down against her head. "Oh. Terribly sorry, Twilight. It's just very exciting!"

"She hasn't even gotten to the exciting part yet!" Rainbow pulled at her lower eyelids with both hooves. "Ugh! I swear, you ponies don't know how to have fun!"

"Go on, Twilight," Rarity encouraged. She threw in a little wink.

I took a steadying breath. "He says that there have been reports of pest control problems in the area. Apparently I'm a new recruit, and he wants to know if I'll help."

Rainbow's eyebrows furrowed. "With… pest control?" She looked at Rarity. "Like, cockroaches and shit?"

"Ew!" Rarity exclaimed. "What a disgusting concept for a game!"

"I…" I looked up at Hunter. He loomed so much larger than Rainbow and Rarity, even larger than Big Mac. He reminded me of the terrifyingly enormous royal guards Shining Armor used to work with. "I have no idea. He just asks if I'm 'up to the task', and waits for me to answer."

"How long does he wait?" Rarity asked.

I tore my eyes away from Hunter, and looked back over my shoulder at Rarity. "I think forever. The longest I've gone is… maybe two hours."

Rainbow whistled. "Damn. Must be a patient guy, huh?"

I looked up at him again. "Must be…"

"Didn't quite catch that, sport!" Hunter said. "Are you up to the task?"

"Tall, too," Rainbow commented. She took flight and hovered right near Hunters head, her wing clipping into the back of his skull with each stroke. "Up here, right? I think that's a good few inches on Macintosh"

I blinked. "How did you know?"

Rainbow landed quietly beside Hunter. "That's where you're looking, dummy."

I chuckled. "Right. Duh."

"What precisely does he ask you?" Rarity trotted over to my side. "Forgive me, I just want to know if we're missing something."

If we're missing something.

I smiled sidelong at her. "No, no-- that's a good question," I said. "He says hello, and then--"

Rainbow jumped into the air again, hovering at Hunter's height. "Hello!" she repeated, her voice booming.

Rarity snickered. "What are you doing?"

"What?" Rainbow smirked. "I'm being Hunter! For… y'know, learning and junk. What's he say next?"

"Um… well, he introduces himself," I said. "And he welcomes you to the company."

Rainbow put her hooves on her hips. "I'm Hunter Moon, and I kill roaches for a living! Welcome to Blackpest, inc.!"

Rarity laughed a little more.

"He says there's been reports of pest control problems in the area."

"Ponyville's got bugs!" Rainbow said, voice still deep and booming. "Loads of 'em!"

I let a chuckle escape me as well. "Then he says 'are you up to the task?' And I think I'm supposed to respond."

Rainbow pointed forcefully at Rarity, reminiscent of a political poster I could nearly put my hoof on. "Are you up to the task?"

It was sort of eerie to hear it in a different intonation. Hunter had never placed an emphasis on the 'you'.

"So?" Rainbow landed again, and came trotting over to join me and Rarity. "Say yes!"

I looked down at the floor, suddenly flushed. "Well…"

"Come on!" Rainbow stomped one hoof. "What else are you gonna do? Say no?"

"I usually just turn it off," I admitted.

I couldn't hear the cicadas anymore. I don't know if that's because the game had edited their sound away, or simply because the jazzy music was too loud to notice such a dull haze in the background.

I would be lying if I said I didn't want to accept Hunter's offer.

Practically every time I turned this game on, I had to fight the temptation to say yes.

"Twilight." Rarity put a hoof on my shoulder. It felt sort of funny and far away. "What's the very worst that could happen?"

I scoffed. "Uh, let's see: the game sucks me in and I get trapped inside it forever? Or-- or it leaks into me and makes me its puppet and I destroy the whole town? Is that bad enough?"

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "Yikes, Twi."

"And the best case?" Rarity asked.

That stopped me. "Um… the best?"

I hadn't considered that something good might happen.

Though I guess that shouldn't be surprising.

"I'll field this one," Rainbow said, heroically stepping in. "Best case, the game's, like, good magic, and Twilight gets some gnarly powers or forbidden knowledge or something."

"Right," Rarity agreed. "And--"

"Oh, and she totally grows wings and becomes an alicorn!" Rainbow suggested, almost excitedly, as if she were planning to enact this outcome whether or not the game granted it.

Rarity glared at Rainbow.

Rainbow shrugged. "You asked."

Rarity looked back at me. "Now, you'll agree that both things sound ridiculous," she said, with a little chuckle. "Right?"

I made a small sound of discomfort.

"Right?" Rarity prompted.

"Right…"

"Now what's the most likely outcome?" Rarity asked. "Something closer to the middle."

Rainbow raised her hoof.

Rarity sighed in exasperation. "Yes, Rainbow?"

"It's a fun game and we all have a great time playing it?" she suggested.

Rarity smiled at me. "That sounds more likely than you suddenly growing a pair of wings, doesn't it?"

"Mm… I guess," I said.

"It might not be all that exciting," Rarity said. "In fact, it might even be a little dangerous. But the odds of this game doing something truly evil are astronomically low. Wouldn't you say?"

The odds of this game doing anything at all were a mystery to me. My heart rate was already through the roof just thinking about saying yes. Should something bad actually happen…

I didn't say anything.

"It's your choice," Rarity said, stroking my shoulder gently. "But I promise you you're safe."

"Yeah," Rainbow agreed. "Pinkie promise."

She mimed a cross over her heart, then covered her eye with her hoof. Rarity duplicated the gestures.

I smiled weakly.

There was a palpable feeling when I was with my friends. I guess you'd call it 'the magic of friendship', wouldn't you? Whatever it was, it was warm. It comforted me. It made me feel as brave as Rainbow, as driven as Rarity, and as curious as I'd ever been.

I turned my gaze back up to Hunter

Dark magic has a feeling, too.

It's a bit like deja vu. Not in that it feels the same; in fact, quite the opposite. Whereas deja vu is a sudden and unexplainable familiarity, dark magic is a slow and creeping foreign feeling. It's like an odd scent in your foalhood home, or a minute difference in your reflection.

It is a feeling of wrongness. A feeling that the expected is not, in fact, what you expected. The feeling that something is hidden just out of sight, waiting to pounce.

I had felt this. Of course I had.

And yet I hadn't felt dark magic.

I was certain.

There was no reason to be so certain, but I was.

Not every familiar feeling triggers deja vu. Not every foreign thing was dark magic. That's what I told myself, at least.

The symptoms were all there, but the prognosis was wrong. It could be wrong. Of course it could.

I closed my eyes.

"Yes," I told Hunter. "I'm up to the task."

Rarity and Rainbow's eyes widened, and they looked frantically around the room, perhaps hoping that they would somehow see what I saw.

"Excellent!" Hunter boomed, jolly and warm. "What is your name, new recruit?”

I cleared my throat.

Should I even give my real name?

What other name would I give?

“Twilight Sparkle," I said, being sure to enunciate.

“Welcome, Twilight Sparkle!” His voice was always the same. It hit the very same beats, almost like verse. “It's time for you to learn about Pests!"

“He’s going to teach me about pests,” I told the girls.

Rainbow and Rarity huddled closer together, looking on with great interest, despite the empty room before them.

Hunter’s form flickered. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it sort of thing, but there nonetheless. I could have sworn his color dulled, but I’m sure it was only my imagination. There you go again, Twilight: looking for differences. Searching for reasons to be fearful.

“A Pest is a type of parasite that enters through a pony’s ear or nose,” Hunter explained. “They look a little bit like this:”

Without a sound, the image of a small worm appeared in the air before me. It was completely motionless, like the image in a textbook, and yet spun slowly about its center.

It was fat. A big, fat worm-- fatter than a caterpillar. Closer to being a pillbug than anything, I thought. One end (its front, I suppose) had a sort of snub-nose, like a leech. The other came to a dull point. The whole thing was a disgusting green-black color.

Blackpest.

Black Pest.

Of course.

“Ugh,” I muttered. “It’s a… a big worm. And it crawls into ponies’ ears.”

“Ew!” Rarity echoed my disgust.

Rainbow’s eyes lit up like a deranged little colt’s. “How big?”

“Too big,” I said.

And it was. The thought of this thing forcing itself into your ear canal… you’d feel it. It would have to squeeze and writhe.

The image vanished.

“Once inside a Host, a Pest will attach itself to the brain to feed off magical impulses,” Hunter explained. His cheeriness was not diminished. It made me feel sick to my stomach. “This can cause the Host to feel lethargic, to have trouble working their magic, and to have significant behavioral changes.”

This was a weird concept for a video game.

“What’s happening?” Rainbow whispered.

Rarity shushed her.

“You can’t see Pests from the outside,” Hunter informed me. “You will have to use your magic to reveal them, Twilight Sparkle.”

My name sounded so stilted coming from his digital lips.

“You can practice on me!” he announced.

I waited for more instructions, but none came.

Hunter Moon had returned to his original, statuesque state.

I turned to look at Rarity and Rainbow.

“Well?” Rarity prompted.

“Um…” My gaze flicked back up to Hunter, but nothing had changed. “Apparently the pests are neurological parasites. I’m supposed to use my magic to find them, and Hunter wants me to practice on him.”

“Wait…” Rainbow shook her head clear. “You mean, like… they eat your brain?”

Rarity gasped softly and put one hoof over her mouth. “Oh, that’s horrible!”

I shook my head. “No, no… he said they feed on magic.”

“But they…” Rarity made a low sound of revulsion. “They touch your brain?”

I nodded.

Rarity shrieked incoherently.

“Rares, it’s just a game!” Rainbow complained. “There’s no such thing as magic brain parasites!”

Rarity snuck a glance at me.

Rainbow gave me a sharp and pointed look, then nodded towards her distressed friend.

“Er… Rainbow’s right,” I lied. “No such thing.”

Rarity made a small disgusted whimper, but trained her eyes back on me.

“So…” Rainbow kicked at the floor with one hoof. “Can you find it, or whatever?”

I looked back up at Hunter. “I-I don’t know how. He didn’t tell me.”

“Well, figure it out, egghead!” Rainbow ordered, waving one hoof wildly. “Start blastin’ him or something!”

“That’s not how magic works!”

Rainbow scoffed. “Sure seems like that’s how it works.”

“It isn’t,” Rarity insisted, giving Rainbow a little shove. “Trust the unicorns, you brute.”

“Ugh.” Rainbow hung her head, looking not unlike a vulture. “Why do I get the feeling you two are gonna gang up on me this whole time?"

Rarity flipped her mane, and the plastic curlers clattered about like cheap windchimes. She said nothing, but the action spoke volumes.

Rainbow nickered softly and angrily to herself. She folded her forelegs over her chest with the vigor of a petulant foal.

I scratched my head with one hoof.

There had to be something here I was missing, right? Some sort of clue as to what I was meant to do?

After all, I hadn't exactly studied up on parasite-removal spells.

Should I have?

"You can practice on me!" Hunter repeated, evidently bothered by my lack of attempts.

Come on, Twilight.

It's magic.

You're great at magic.

This game is for foals, right? If they can do it, so can you.

I steadied myself, widening my stance and lowering my head to aim my horn directly at Hunter's face. It felt odd, I'll admit: preparing to perform some serious spell work in my friend's kitchen. At the break of dawn, no less.

My horn sparked, and a magical tendril curled out like steam.

The simplest solution was to reach in there and just… take it out. Right?

I reached for Hunter. Rarity and Rainbow were utterly riveted, watching in a sort of awed silence.

The tendril brushed Hunter's cheek. And I felt it.

I shouldn't have been surprised, but I squeaked and retreated.

Rarity gasped.

"Twi?!" Rainbow's front hoof hit the ground with offensive power.

"It's okay!" I said, waving away their worries. "It's… I can feel him."

"Hunter?" Rarity sat forward. "That's an odd feature, don't you think?"

I could almost feel Rainbow's mind grinding away at a crude joke, but she seemed to bite it back.

"It's alright. I just wasn't expecting it," I said. "That's all."

I reached out again.

It wasn't like touching a real pony. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It was more like touching one of those amusement park statues-- the kind caught between metal and plastic, with sun-faded colors and an odd kind of tackiness.

My magic did not glide over it. It sort of hitched. I had to fight, and fighting too hard made it dip beneath the surface of the model. Defying the game’s reality was uncomfortable. I don’t really know how else to describe it; it was like straining against gravity, or trying to fight a strong current.

His ear, of course, didn't feel like a real pony's ear. It was a dry, synthetic tunnel right into his skull.

I pushed further. The walls of the ear canal pressed down against my magic.

His skull was a cavernous void, if an oddly geometric one. No pest to be found. No mind to be found, either.

I withdrew my magic, and let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "It's not in there," I said.

Rainbow cocked her head. "Maybe it’s hiding?”

“There’s no place for it to hide!” I exclaimed.

“Well, maybe it’s magic hiding!” Rainbow suggested, as if this were the most obvious conclusion anypony could have drawn. “Root around in there, c’mon!”

Rarity scoffed and rolled her eyes, but did not comment.

As much as I wanted to deny Rainbow’s bizarre suggestion, it did sound a bit like what Hunter had said. He hadn’t asked me to use my magic to remove the pest, after all-- only to reveal it.

My magic tinkled gently in the resounding silence. I thought of the way it intertwined with the cartridge, reaching into the electronic bits and bobs to reveal the game itself.

Maybe if I…

A new, much larger tendril twirled off the end of my horn, and I moved in towards Hunter’s face. I split this tendril into many smaller ones and reached out to grab at his head like a hungry octopus. One in each ear, one against each eye, one slithering up each nostril…

As my magic encased Hunter’s head, Rainbow and Rarity got their first look at the stallion.

“Whoa…” Rainbow commented.

Rarity merely put a hoof over her mouth.

I pushed further, deeper. My magic worked its way into every crevice of Hunter’s digital face and mind. As difficult as it was, he seemed unbothered. I could only imagine the immense pressure this sort of invasive magic would have caused a real pony to experience.

Yet Hunter only smiled brightly as I forced my magic through his eyes.

Just like the game, Twilight.

Connect.

Feel.

And, like a flicked switch, I was Hunter.

Not physically. I could still see him standing in front of me. But, at the same time, I could see myslef standing in him. The images phased into one another like a double-exposed photo.

In Hunter’s eyes, I looked so much like him.

There was only a brief moment without pain. Then, like an explosion in my head, I felt it:

The Pest.

I shrieked aloud, and Rarity grabbed me around the barrel instinctively.

It was there. Really, truly there-- some enormous thing curled up in my skull, leeching off the magical impulses I sent out. It felt quite like a hunk of plastic had instantly replaced an entire lobe of my brain.

I ripped my magic out of Hunter’s head. My knees shook, and I fell to the floor.

In only seconds, though, the ppain was merely a memory.

“Twilight?” Rarity shook me gently. “Darling, say something!”

“Holy shit! What was that?” Rainbow asked. Her voice cracked in panic.

I put a hoof to my head and moaned lightly. The pain may have been gone, but there was an odd feeling left behind. It was something like after you get an injection, and the shadow of the needle is still imbedded in you.

The shadow of the Pest was still in me.

“Well done, Twilight Sparkle!”

I looked up at Hunter. His own face was, of course, unchanged.

Rainbow and Rarity looked up, too.

“Every Pest is different,” Hunter said. “You won’t be able to find all of them with the same technique.”

Well, thank the sisters for that.

Rarity’s leg tightened around me. Rainbow reached over to place a hoof on my shoulder, too.

“Once a Pest is revealed, it will exit the Host.”

On cue, the Pest’s little snub nose peeked out of Hunter’s ear. With great effort, it managed to squirm out and landed on the floor. I think I was somehow more disgusted by the silence of its impact than any sound the game could have dreamt up.

“Be sure to exterminate it before it can find another!” Hunter advised.

“Um…” I pushed myself up a bit, watching in a frightened silence as the Pest worked to turn itself over.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked urgently.

The Pest writhed against Rarity’s kitchen floor.

“It worked,” I said. “It’s out. Now I have to--”

The Pest was righted.

It took off like a shot.

I screamed and shot onto my hooves, desperately trying to keep an eye on the little bugger.

Rarity and Rainbow scrambled, too, though their terror seemed all the more frantic in its uncertainty.

The Pest wove between my hooves with deft precision and utterly unholy speed. I don’t think I’d ever seen a mammal that could move so fast, let alone a worm.

I did my best to avoid it. To the girls, I probably looked like I was dancing on hot coals.

Then, one misstep, and my hoof came down on it.

It felt like stepping on a rotted piece of fruit.

I fought back a gag.

“Did you get it?” Rainbow asked.

I groaned. “Yes.”

Rarity all but bit down on her own hoof.

The Pest flickered away, as did the warm and mushy feeling on its innards on my hoof.

“Excellent work, Twilight Sparkle!” Hunter said. “I do believe it’s time for you to start the real work!”

I gulped forcefully.

“We've been getting reports of a pest control problem in your area,” he reminded me. “You must locate and exterminate three Pests. Good luck!”

Just like that, Hunter was gone.

“Twilight?” Rarity called to me softly. “Are you alright?”

Rainbow was looking at me, as well, although she didn’t seem to know what to say.

I took a deep breath. “I’m okay,” I said. “It was just… I’m okay.”

“Are you hurt?” Rarity asked.

“Mm… no,” I told her.

And that, technically, was the truth.

I wasn’t hurt.

I had been hurt, but I wasn’t anymore.

It was just a haunted house, wasn’t it? A spooky little game that might scare me, but couldn’t hurt me, Not for real. Not forever.

Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness. You scared me.”

I chuckled. “I sacred me, too.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Rainbow asked. In all honesty, she looked more shaken up than Rarity. “What even happened?”

I flashed her a weak smile. “I’m alright,” I said. “And I think we just got to the exciting part.”

Comments

[Thought Prism]

10464937
Again, seems I was close. I can see why this game would be a problem, being a means of encouraging unicorns to start mind-raping their innocent neighbors.

[Eversong]

This going to be good

[Matthais Unidostres]

Twilight....
You really ARE an idiot...

[SIGAWESOME]

10497898

I can see why this game would be a problem, being a means of encouraging unicorns to start mind-raping their innocent neighbors.

This is going to end with Twilight taking an icepick to her ear canal isn't it?

[Dr Freaky]

This seems amazing

[Maxpony2004]

When will the next chapter be up?

[Moosetasm]

I’ll go ahead and say that this story is straight-out riveting. Shame it’s on hiatus, it feels like a horror gold mine.