• Published 4th Oct 2021
  • 3,834 Views, 254 Comments

CMC Watch Bedtime Stories - Lord Blundergosh



The Cutie Mark Crusaders react to the Bedtime Stories YouTube channel.

  • ...
9
 254
 3,834

Nighttime Stroll

Despite there being barely a cloud in the sky, the wind was coming out in full force. Though it wasn’t the storm that the town of Ponyville had to weather a couple days before. Still, these gusts were hard to miss, especially with how wildly the trees in their path swished all over the place with abandon. Had the breeze been any stronger, it would start stripping the trees of all their loosely hanging leaves like someone blowing all the pappus off a dandelion. While this weather may have been a bit unfriendly, it certainly wasn’t bad enough to scare the one pony outside from continuing her path down Ponyville’s streets.

The little filly was able to withstand the chilling breeze coming at her from behind thanks entirely to the coat she put on before leaving Carousel Boutique. Despite how much of a comforting cocoon of warmth this parka was, it didn’t entirely keep her from shivering. Even though she wanted to blame it completely on the back half of her body still being exposed, that wasn’t entirely true. The filly’s ears clamped down to her head to block out the howls of the wind; despite the lack of snowfall, if folklore proved correct then there might just be some Windigos close by. She didn’t have much longer to dwell on that possibility as she spotted a path to her right, which she immediately zipped down the direction of.

Scootaloo, the filly in focus, was out here trotting to her aunts’ temporary residence, a dingy little shack on the northwest side of town. Or, that’s what she was doing initially, until she took that sudden right turn. The path she shifted onto just happened to lead to her and her aunts’ actual house that they were forced to move out of in the meantime after that one fateful night. So, there was only one possible reason for her to make such a sudden change of course, despite having come out here specifically to check and see if her sweet little aunties were okay.

She wasn’t sure why she felt like she needed to stop by the house before she paid her aunts a surprise visit. It’s not like she could expect anything to change since she was last there. Even if she took a look from behind, all she’d see was a house with its upstairs going under repairs. Actually, now that she thought about it, it would be nice to check up on the progress the repairponies had made so far; they did promise she and her aunts would be able to start moving back by the end of the month, after all. Though, deep down she realized that wasn’t really the reason why.

For reasons she couldn’t explain, Scootaloo felt like she just needed to check up on her house. It wasn’t quite the same as her desire to see her aunts; that one she could somewhat rationalize. At first, it was out of concern over the possibility that the dingy little shack they’ve taken residence in, which couldn’t possibly be up to code, would collapse in the harsh storms. While she did find out that morning the place was perfectly fine, the question of whether her legal guardians were okay was still up in the air. So, why was she wasting her time stopping by their house first when there shouldn’t be anything there?

Each of these thoughts ate at the pegasus filly’s brain like they were maggots. She couldn’t help but feel more and more tense as she dwelled on the subject. The possibility her hasty conclusion that not only her aunts but her own house were under threat was entirely unfounded paranoia and some inexplicable, irrational compulsion was uncomfortable to put it mildly. Yet, the one explanation she had at their back of her mind for why they might actually be in danger was admittedly even scarier.

I really hope Rainbow, Princess Twilight and the rest of the Elements will listen to me if I have to tell them… it is here.”

It was silly, she knew, that she not even dare mention in her own mind the entity plaguing her dreams for the past few days.

Maybe I really am getting paranoid.”, she considered before immediately deciding to cut this train of thought short.

As she shambled through the dimly lit streets of her neighborhood, Scootaloo let out an involuntary yawn. How late was it again? Well, it really didn’t matter to her how late it was anyway, school night or not. She just didn’t have any patience left in her to wait when she needed so desperately to know if her family was okay. Just then, her ears just barely managed to pick up a most ominous sound; faintly, through all the howling winds, an unusual hiss interjected itself into the eerie emptiness of the street’s atmosphere.

Springing into attention, the filly’s eyes jerked every imaginable direction that was above and/or around her. She had to pull down her coat’s hood in order to open her peripheral vision and to make sure her hearing wasn’t obscured. Head held high, she scanned the area above her for anything standing on the roofs of the neighborhood’s houses or a silhouette passing over the stars in the sky. Her flicking ears could no longer detect hissing anywhere. While she wanted to assume this meant she imagined it, it was entirely possible that the wind was now doing a better job of hiding the shrill noise.

Just when she got the hood back on, something once again made Scootaloo jump. Another distant noise, yet it was much, much louder; it was a rumble followed by a crash, further accompanied by the sound of splitting wood and broken glass. To find the source, Scootaloo need only look ahead of her. Less than half a mile away, she could see a tall cloud of dust forming on her side of the street. She stood there in absolute shock, only to have her moment of frightened awe intruded by a dreadful realization.

Oh no…

The filly then got into full sprint, her anxiety propelling her forward like a rocket.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no!!!

At the speed she was going, Scootaloo was on track to breaking her personal record which was set when she had to run away from that Ursa Minor that stormed through Ponyville. It was amazing what fear and panic could make the body do. She was laser-focused on the crumbling house ahead; well, almost laser-focused. As she got closer and closer to the disaster she witnessed, the pegasus filly noticed something curious.

Where is everypony?

Indeed, despite how that collapsing house obviously should’ve been more than enough to rouse the entire neighborhood from its slumber. Yet, as she looked to both sides of the street, Scootaloo saw nopony stepping outside onto their doormats to see what the commotion was about. She didn’t even see lights turning on in the houses. As far as she could see, the town every bit as lifeless as it was when she came out here. There’s no way Ponyville became a ghost town before the sun even rose, especially without her noticing, what with her not getting any sleep tonight. So, why was there nopony around?

Amazingly, her mind became so preoccupied with these questions that she nearly passed her destination. Scootaloo noticed the demolished pile of rubble coming up on her right. The high winds were still picking much of the dust and debris left by the collapse. She chose to pump the brakes, kicking up her own cloud by planting her hooves to the ground and sliding to a halt. She spun around to face directly at the mountain of splintered wood, brick and shattered glass in front of her.

Her lungs were already desperately heaving as much air as they could get after all that galloping. The sight before her did nothing to ease her hyperventilation, bringing her to a state of hysteria that was just below a full blown panic attack. For the second time that night, the filly’s own realization and all the terror it brought enveloped her and smothered her, much like the gusts of wind blasting her from all directions. The pressure was becoming so unbearable that she didn’t feel like standing, though she did anyway. She knew couldn’t handle looking at it much longer, but she had no idea what to do other than stare with watering eyes at the scrap heap that was her home.

Scootaloo’s rapidly-beating heart felt like it leaped out her chest when the banshee-like moans of the wind were once again suddenly interrupted by a strange hiss, the exact same one from mere minutes ago. Except this time she could tell exactly which direction it was coming from, directly behind her. She did as her instincts told her and immediately spun around to face the source of the noise, though a part of her wished she didn’t. She should’ve just booked it as soon as she heard the spine-tingling sound, not even bothering to find out the identity of the stalker who’d just made themselves known. Turning around, what she saw made her back up more and more until until she bumped against her house’s front door, somehow in one piece unlike the rest of the building.

It stood on top of the roof of the house across the street. Its image for a moment looked like it had become the new icon printed upon the moon in place of where Nightmare Moon’s visage once was. It stood upright on two legs, it’s form silhouetted against the backdrop, towering over her. The only other features that could be spotted were the wings folded to its sides and its two round, red eyes glowing like the celestial body that it stood in front of. There was denying it, she was in the presence of the dreaded creature, the Mothman.

Out of nowhere, the wind calmed to an eerie quiet, though it wasn’t absolute silence. There was still a light breeze that could be both heard and felt blowing through the streets. Everything that was in the wind’s path was coming to life with motion, from the swishing leaves to the ringing wind chimes. Their sounds echoed across the neighborhood. The only things that stayed still besides lining both sides of the street were the two living figures standing on opposite sides, one looking down from its high point at the other, signifying perfectly the powerless of the latter in the face of the former.

The way its eyes seemed to look right through her made her throat go dry. She was too fixated on the creature to move and she was too petrified to scream or even let out a gulp. The heavy coat she wore to help her stay warm now only helped to accelerate the nervous sweats building up on her body. The sweat wasn’t only that wetted her face, tears that had initially began to form when she saw her house now poured freely down her cheeks. Her breathing only got even heavier.

For several long moments, neither moving a single muscle. It wasn’t clear which one would make the first move, but it wouldn’t be long before that answer was revealed. The creature on the roof suddenly spread its legs further apart, crouched low and spread its wings in preparation for take off. The second she saw movement by the Mothman, Scootaloo immediately began running. She ran back in the direction she came, wanting to get back to Rarity’s place for safety. Celestia be dammed, she wasn’t going to stop and knock on somepony else’s door just to be snatched up by the winged beast before whoever’s inside comes down to let her in. Even if they were closer.

It truly was horrible timing that she had tired herself severely after sprinting her way to her house. She hadn’t even gotten very far and she was already getting wheezy. Still, the sound of beating wings from behind her growing closer and closer did well to remind her that she had to keep the pace up or else. She got a lucky break when she spotted a path to her, one that she knew would take her to the town’s center and main street. After taking the right turn, she felt a chill course through her body as she heard the creature’s monstrous shriek, even though she was still sweating.

The more she kept running closer to the center of town, the more she realized how much of a problem her parka was becoming. The coat was so heavy and hot that it was slowing her down significantly. Despite her head start, she would not be able to make it back like this. So, she decided to take the opportunity to slow down a bit so that she may pull down her hood and take off her jacket.

Unfortunately, she still managed to underestimate how quickly this being could catch up with her. Almost halfway through unbuttoning her coat, Scootaloo felt yanked off the ground, slowly ascending upward into the air as she felt the ground disappear beneath her hooves. After letting out a much-needed wail of terror, she looked straight up to confirm that the Mothman was indeed lifting her by the hood of her coat, which she was now dangling from. The creature didn’t look down at her, only straight ahead at something she couldn’t pinpoint; probably at wherever it was planning to take her.

The poor little pegasus squirmed and writhed in a manner much like every prey animal has when in her situation. Her panicking mind managed to clear up enough to realize what she needed to do. In one single motion, she lifted both of her arms and allowed her slide out of her jacket. Unfortunately, that left her falling from around eleven feet in the air.

“AHHHH-OOF!”

She felt her hind legs land first and then was unfortunate to have the displeasure of getting the wind knocked out of her as the rest of her body came crashing down to earth. She both had to catch her breath and wait for the world around her to stop rocking before she could stand up. She fought through the splitting headache she was suffering to stand up, only to feel a different pain shoot up through her right hind leg. Scootaloo hissed, grunted, and let out a wave of whining before opting to take the weight off of that one leg for now. Suddenly, she then felt a little “present” delivered to her face, courtesy of the wind that was once again picking up speed.

She peeled the item off and looked down through teary eyes to see her coat cradled in her arms, now with claw marks plain and visible, even in the dark. However, her attention was soon ripped away from it when the monster’s cry once again echoed nearby. Following the direction of the screech, the filly turned towards her two o’ clock position. With her vision clearing fully, she she saw the Mothman thirty feet in the air, not only flying but gradually diving back towards her at blistering speeds. The little flightless pegasus then began twisting her head all about in a frantic search for any possible escape route. Her sights finally settled on what was the nearest building: Ponyville Town Hall.

This was her best option, or at least the best one she could think of right now. There was no way she was making it home in the state she was in. Plus, sometimes the caretaker for Town Hall forgot to lock the door, as she knew from experience. Though, that was still one big gamble to be taking. Too bad she didn’t have any time to consider that right now. She had about twenty feet to cover to reach her closest source of shelter.

At first, she tried to make a break for it at full speed only to be immediately reminded of her leg injury. Wincing, she lifted her right hind leg off the ground and began limping her way to the building. Each step she took took was accompanied by wheezes and sniffles, at this point more symptomatic of her sheer sense of terror and desperation than her exhaustion. Painstakingly, she hobbled forward on three legs. She kept her gaze straight at her destination, not once daring to look back at her assailant.

With gritted teeth, she got to the stairs and immediately began climbing them until she finally stood in front of the entrance to the town hall. She wasted no time and grabbed ahold of the door handle. In a miraculous turn of luck, the doorknob did give way when she turned it. She shoved her way through the twin door entrance before immediately turning around and slamming them shut. Scootalooo balanced on one hind leg while leaning against the doors with both fore legs.

The filly then placed her back against the entrance, sliding down against it into a seating position. She did this partially to block the creature from trying to force its way through, but mostly was just for the sake of getting some rest. She exhaled a humongous sigh of relief. After a solid minute of silently sitting there and letting all her tears and snot loose, the little pegasus quickly flicked her eyes and ears in every direction to get a sense of whether the beast was around.

When she didn’t find any sign the Mothman was trying to break in, Scootaloo took the opportunity to inspect herself for injuries. Her leg still hurt, unsurprisingly. It definitely wasn’t broken, more like it was sprained; she also couldn’t find any injuries anywhere else on her body besides a few little scrapes and bruises. Perhaps, she should probably count herself lucky in that sense. She was also as exhausted as ever, if the way the air felt like it burned when it traveled through her lungs was any indication. Not to mention the streams of sweat she felt pouring down her face.

“Jeez, I’m soaked!”, she muttered as she used the back of her foreleg to wipe her forehead. “You’d think the wind would’ve cooled me off at least a little-“

Scootaloo immediately lost her train of thought when she caught sight of her forearm. Her eyes grew to saucer size, she not only seized talking but also momentarily halted breathing as well. The bright orange fur on her arm was now stained red. After a brief moment of confusion, Scootaloo then realized what was going on. A quick glance up at her own forehead confirmed what she suspected; there was blood trickling from an open wound on her forehead.

Inexplicably, pain began emanating from that spot where there was initially none before. Scootaloo winced and cringed as she felt like her noggin was in the process of splitting open, forcing her to put a hoof to her head. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t feel this until now. Perhaps, she’d built up enough adrenaline numb herself to that pain and must’ve finally started wearing off. That would’ve been a perfectly acceptable explanation if it weren’t for one thing that didn’t add up. Why didn’t the pain in her leg injury become numb too? It was hurting since landing and at no point did it feel like the pain was going away anytime soon.

The filly then began panicking as she realized that she needed to get some bandages on this gash soon. She’d better get looking and see if town hall keeps a first aid kit. After all, it wasn’t like she could trot outside head back to Carousel Boutique right now. That monster could still be waiting for her to come out only to snatch her up right at the exit. With that, she got up on her hooves and start hobbling towards the darkness of town hall’s back room, the moonlight coming through the window providing much needed illumination.

She used the moment to appreciate the nice architecture and the cool decor of tapestries of the town hall’s circular center room. Of course, she normally didn’t think much of the town hall and it’s decorations. But, the same could’ve been said for her house. She hadn’t had time to process what had just happened to her humble abode. Just thinking about it now threatened to make her eyes grow leaky again. Too bad she didn’t have time to mourn right now if she didn’t want to lose too much blood or get an infection; adults told her that was something she should always prevent.

Just as she got to the center of the room, Scootaloo felt the careful balance in her three-legged gait disturbed. The ground below her had trembled briefly before immediately calming down. After catching herself, she began quietly panicking for what might as well have been the thousandth time that evening. Her mind couldn’t help but raise all the worst possible suggestions for what was going on. Not the least of which was that an earthquake was forming, which would swallow up the whole town.

The filly’s ears flicked to a most familiar sound from outside. Looking out a window to her right, she saw a dust cloud in place of where the neighborhood’s mattress store used to be. Just when she was about to vocally question what in Celestia’s name was happening, Scootaloo then saw the building next to it begin crumbling to the ground as well. Her mouth fell agape as she watched the house’s foundations give way, each wall cracking and then folding inward followed by the roof finally falling on top of the rubble. The way it collapsed did not any sort of causal factors. The rumbling underneath her seemed to be a product of the building’s collapse, not the other way around.

Except this time, the rumbling wasn’t calming down. In fact, it only seemed to intensify as Scootaloo witnessed all the buildings surrounding town hall start collapsing in on themselves as well. So violently did the ground shake that Scootaloo was her falling flat on her rear. Just when she was readying to immediately get up, her eyes caught sight of something that made her pause. At the very top of the window above the stage, the creature’s nightmarish face popped into view from the side.

Scootaloo, still seated on the ground, immediately began scooting backwards towards the door. With the ground still shaking from underneath her, she felt like she had enough time trying to regain her balance underneath these conditions. Especially when her most feared monster was still out get her. While she was indeed aware of the window separating her from the Mothman, she also sincerely doubted that it would hold itself together if the best decided to start crashing through it.

*CRASH

Almost to the door, Scootaloo had not taken her eyes off the Mothman since spotting it. That was, until her attention was ripped away by something that had crashed right next to her on the floor. Looking down to her left, she couldn’t tell what she was looking at. She wouldn’t figure out what it was until she looked up to see a big hole above her. As it turned out, Scootaloo had narrowly avoided getting crushed by a big piece of the ceiling.

She would’ve stared in befuddlement at the ceiling chunk even longer if she hadn’t just remembered that the monster was still supposed to stalking from outside the window. She immediately continued her journey, crawling on all her knees until she reached the entrance. Pulling herself up by the door’s handle, she turned around to look at the window one more time… only to find nothing there; without giving off a screech, a flap of its wings or remotely any sound at all, the Mothman had simply vanished.

The rumbling around her had suddenly grew tenfold, forcing Scootaloo to hang tightly onto to the doorknob to keep her from falling again. The filly had to shield her eyes from all the flakes falling down from the ceiling like hail. She felt the pit in her stomach somehow grow even than she thought was possible when she saw the support beams holding up the entire building begin splitting. If that weren’t enough of an indicator for her to get the buck out of there, she also cracks begin to form in the walls and ceiling.

Wasting no more time, she tried opening the door. Only to be baffled to e met with resistance. No matter how hard she tried to force it, the doorknob just wouldn’t turn. Somehow, the door she entered through minutes ago had locked itself on her. This was bad news to get as she noticed that the damage appearing all over the building’s interior wasn’t slowing down. In fact, the top looked it was ready to cave in at any second.

The little pegasus strained against the door. She tried ramming whole her body against the doors, elbow first as hard as she could. With that failing she decided to try pulling instead. She braced herself against the ground and began yanking the door. Allowing herself to forget about the pain on her hind leg, she put as much into there as she did into her arms; her groans of exertion rang in the room equally as loud as the crumbling. Scootaloo finally stopped pulling, her plan for escape devolving into frantically banging on the door with her hooves.

“LET ME OUT! LET ME OOOUUUT!!!”, she screamed to anypony who could be listening.

Unfortunately, even if her cries were to eventually be answered, it would be too late. Above her, Scootaloo heard the bone chilling groan of the ceiling support falling apart under the weight. It was then followed immediately by a snap. When she looked up, the last thing the filly saw was the roof descending down upon her, silencing her screams.


“AAAAAHHH!!!”

Since the lesson started, the entire classroom had been sitting in a dull stupor. So lost in outer space were the students’ minds that not a single word of the teacher’s lecture had been absorbed. They had no reason to absorb any of it when the school day was almost over anyway. The only thing that would snap them out of their trance would be the sound of the bell signaling that it’s time to go home. Or so they thought.

The students were caught completely off guard by the unnerving scream that erupted from the back of class. When they all turned around, they saw that Scootaloo’s body which had been laying face down on the desk for the entire period, had suddenly sprung to life. The filly immediately followed her scream up with a big string of gasping. Her glazed, thousand yard stare soon softened, the visions of the nightmare she had just awoken from beginning to dissipate.

Her eyesight cleared up to reveal the entire class staring back at her with varying flavors of shock and confusion. Scootaloo felt her cheeks heat up as she noticed the apprehensive looks everyone gave her, like she was some sort of unrecognizable crazy mare who just showed up in class today. The way some of them then began whispering to each other with their eyes still trained on her only made it feel even worse for the poor pegasus. Normally, the few looks of sincere and altruistic looks of concern she also saw, especially the ones by her two friends, would have been comforting if it weren’t somehow even more embarrassing.

To her right, Scootaloo heard a light cough coming from right next to her. Turning to the source revealed her math teacher looking down at her, mouth hung open slightly as she carefully considered her next words. The way the obviously concerned teacher had already been standing next to her and, now that Scootaloo noticed, had her hoof placed on the filly’s shoulder indicated that she was the one who awoke the pegasus from her slumber. While cutting your nightmare short was usually something to be thankful for, she couldn’t help but be angry with her given the situation that put her in now.

“Um… Is everything okay, Scootaloo?”, the teacher, Ms. Tally, asked.

The orange pegasus narrowed her eyes in scorn at the concerned adult.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”, she answered.

“You sure you don’t want to leave early and see the guidance counselor?”

“No thanks.”, she responded once again, while burying her face in her folded arms.

The teacher silently stared at her student for a solid few seconds before telling her, “Alright. Just feel free to let me know if you need anything.”

She then trotted back up to her desk and continued explaining the class’ assigned work. Of course, she also had to chastise a few students at first for continuing whisper amongst each other about Scootaloo’s freak out. At first, Scootaloo’s resentment only built up further for the rest of the class period. Why couldn’t Ms. Tally have just spared her the embarrassment and let the bell wake her up eventually, instead? Now she had to feel the scrutinizing of everypony else around her even as she shielded herself from them in her own arms. However, the bigger concerns on her mind soon began to eclipse what had just happened moments ago; so, Scootaloo decided to let go of her grudge for the time being.

More than anypony else, she could barely wait to get out of class. The second she heard the bell, faster than a flash, she gathered up her stuff and dashed out the door, not even bothering to listen to the teacher explain whatever tonight’s homework assignment would be. She had more important things to take care of at the moment. The filly cantered her way through the halls and out the front doors of Ponyville Middle School, her eyes never deviating in the slightest from the path ahead of her. It was by the time she started heading down the path to her aunties’ home that she finally started to hear the clopping of both her friends, who had been following her the entire time.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle weren’t sure what approach to take if they wanted to break the ice. There’s no way they could just say nothing about what just happened back at class. But what were they supposed to say about it? The only thing they both wanted to ask their friend right now was, “How did it feel getting temporarily possessed by a demon back there?

It went on like that for a little while, neither party saying a word as they trotted their way through town. Two of them weren’t even sure where they were heading; the destination obviously wasn’t Rarity’s boutique. The only sound that could be heard from any of them was the wet squeaks of their boots with each step they took. As it turned out, it would be the one leading the group up front who would break the silence.

“So, are you two also gonna ask me if I’m okay?”, flatly stated Scootaloo, who had gotten tired of waiting for the inevitable conversation to start.

Caught by surprise, Scootaloo’s two friends fumbled on how to respond for a second before Apple Bloom spoke up.

“Actually, we were gonna ask ya what just happened back there…”, she paused mid-sentence to catch up and turn to her pegasus friend who was now on her right. “But ah think we gotta a decent hunch.”

Rather than directly answering, Scootaloo audibly inhaled and exhaled through her nose as if trying to release the residual frustration built up from the memory of her mid-class freak out.

Sweetie Belle appeared to Scootaloo’s right side and asked her, “So, do you want to talk to us about what you saw in your dream?”

“No, but I’m sure you’re still gonna keep asking me about it.”, she curtly replied.

“Cause that’s what friends are for!”, groaned the unicorn who was now quickly getting fed up with her friend’s snippy attitude. “We know you’ve been having nightmares for the past three days now. If nothing else, why don’t you at least tell us about it just to see if it helps you at all?”

Apple Bloom decided to grab Scootaloo by the shoulder. She tried to make eye contact as she told her, “Y’all should know us long enough ta realize ya can share anythin’ with us.”

Scootaloo gently pulled her shoulder out of her friend’s light grip.

“And you should both know me long enough to realize I don’t need help with that.”

She then proudly turned her nose upward, followed by her mouth curling up in the same direction; for the first time that day, she had allowed her face to become a perfect replica mask of self-assurance.

“Your girl isn’t gonna totally fall apart just because of a few little nightmares.”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes at Scootaloo’s manifest bravado. She then thought about what her sister would say if she were here.

More like Rainbow Dash everyday.”, she’d comment.

For her part, Apple Bloom was looking past Scootaloo’s attempt to brush aside their concerns. She recognized that there was a deeper implication there besides Scootaloo supposedly not scaring the filly to death. The pegasus seemed to be worried about something else entirely, something much more pressing than bad dreams could ever be.

“Alright. If it ain’t the nightmares, then what is botherin’ ya?”, the farm filly asked.

Eyes still having been concentrated strictly forward for the entire conversation, Scootaloo’s response still hadn’t come after several seconds. Whether her friend was either hesitating or just ignoring her, Apple Bloom was losing her patience.

“Scootaloo!”, she cried out.

“Look, just keep following me for a little longer, alright?”, said the pegasus after finally turning to face her friend. “We’re almost there anyway.”

Before they could ask what she meant, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle finally started to recognize what neighborhood they were walking through. It became even more apparent what they were doing when they noticed a particular house they were now familiar. If you could even call it a house. Off in the distance stood Aunt Lofty and Holiday’s temporary rental home.

Author's Note:

I felt bad for not having posted in a while. Plus, this chapter was becoming more than twice as long as what it is now when I was writing it. So, I’ve decided to split up the original chapter into two.

Hope you all enjoy this. Remember to point out any major grammatical errors and offer any needed criticism. Expect the next chapter in a matter of days. See you until then!