My Little Teelo: Winter's Silence

by Ardwolf

Fly Away Home

In which the expedition makes its way back to Canterlot bringing disaster in its wake.

---

“Problem?” Matt asked calmly, watching her with a smirk. “Slippery floor, maybe?”

“No!” Teagan said forcefully. “Crush just saw a humongous eldritch horror at the bottom of the pit!”

“Eldritch horror? What is that? I’ve never heard of it.” Twilight asked. Matt looked blank.

“You know! Dark secrets man was not meant to know? Horror from beyond time and space? A big nasty glob of flesh with way too many tentacles and more eyes than any sane person wants to think about?” Teagan asked in exasperation.

“I’m not up on my Lovecraft, Squirt.” Matt said, turning serious. “But tentacles are never a good sign no matter what kind of cartoon you’re in. How big is this thing?”

“It fills the bottom of the pit, Matt.” Teagan said forcefully. “It’s piled up on the side, for God’s sake! More than 500 feet across. Maybe a lot bigger than that. They tend to keep most of their bodies in another dimension and just poke part of themselves into ours. Usually just a tiny part.”

“Wait. So you’re saying this creature is 500 feet long and that’s just a tiny piece of it?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously. Teagan nodded her head vigorously.

“Matt, there’s more. That pit is too deep, our bombs didn’t make it. The sides are straight up and down and covered with solid ice. It’s like something melted a hole in the glacier. We need to get out of here before that thing breaks loose.”

“Hmm.” Matt said thoughtfully. “And we still don’t know where Tišina’s gotten off to either.”

“That thing probably ate her.” Teagan said. “Matt, we need to leave.”

Matt nodded sharply.

“Agreed. Percy, would you find the Alene and give him my compliments? Tell him we’ve got a big bad nasty nosing around and we need those chariots ASAP.”

“Yes, sir!” Percy saluted and trotted toward the tunnel down to the chariot cave.

“Ok, everybody else, I need you to pack as much as you can carry. Priorities are weapons, expensive yet easily moved equipment, and food, in that order. Pinkie, how many rounds do you have left for Berry Fudge Gumball?”

“Lessee, Three rounds the first night and Cerise used one, so 16 left.” Pinkie said brightly.

“That won’t even scratch our eldritch friend.” Matt mused. “But it could discourage Tišina or anything else no bigger than a dragon. Let’s keep it handy. Pull it out, Pinkie. We’ll use your saddlebags to carry as much stuff as we can.”

“Listen up, everyone! I want us ready to roll in 30 minutes. Anything you haven’t packed up by then stays here. The flight back should take three days, pack enough food for five.”

Matt glumly thought about the single clip of armor-piercing rounds he had left, along with three more AP rounds in the rifle, and another three clips of regular rounds that wouldn’t do anything to Tišina even assuming he managed to hit her in flight.

It’s a sad day when you find out your elephant gun has been demoted to a pea shooter. He thought to himself as he surveyed the organized chaos of expedition members frantically sorted through their stuff. He moved to help Dawn Spire, who seemed to be struggling with a bulky contraption.

Ten minutes later there was a short but potent earthquake that knocked the humans and several unprepared ponies off their feet.

ooOoo

Tišina stretched herself and eyed the rock above her. With contemptuous ease she stabbed a myriad of tentacles into the granite and leveraged her gelatinous bulk upward toward the distant surface. It had been a long time since she’d moved this way, but after a few minutes she was flowing easily up the sheer rock face.

ooOoo

The Alene smiled at the ramp that now led out of cave and onto the surface. The massive blanket of snow the blizzard deposited had been blown out in a cone shaped depression that reached the surface. Striding up the ramp of densely packed slow he soon reached the loose powder at the surface.

Reaching deep inside himself he found the pool of power that glowed red like magma. Bending it to his will he started chanting with a rich deep booming cadence that echoed across the glacier. When he released the spell the loose powder suddenly compacted in a straight path for a hundred yards ahead of him. It was as flat as a still pond but not icy, and just perfect for hooves to run across.

“It’s time to go.” He said, turning to the pegasus, who nodded and flew up to the east entrance, now ten feet above the snow. He disappeared inside.

ooOoo

“Chief! Chief!” Bluebell burst into Subtle Dancer’s office her face a mask of panic. “Cuddles is moving! It’s climbing out of the pit! At its current speed it should reach the top in less than twenty minutes!”

“What about the expedition?” He demanded. He stood up and got ready to teleport.

“The Alene seems to have cast some kind of spell that blew out the side of the ice jumble and made a ramp. The rest of them have been packing. They should be ready to go any time now. But I don’t know if they know about Cuddles. If it catches them before they leave…”

Subtle Dancer nodded grimly and teleported out.

Bluebell ran back to her station to keep an eye on the situation.

ooOoo

“Ok, science team goes first, get airborne and don’t wait for us. Head for home. Construction crew goes next. The Bearers, then trolls after them, and finally Dawn Spire and I bring up the rear. Sorry Dawn Spire, you’re with me in case I need some magical expertise in a hurry. Let’s move out!”

Matt watched as the first three chariots rolled down the snow runway and lifted into the sky. They turned and headed south.

The first construction crew chariot was moving down the runway when a hideous moaning sound rolled across the ice. Matt got a good view as a geyser of blood suddenly exploded from the pit, wailing and screaming with the voices of a thousand damned souls.

It was like Hell had come to party. The thing was two miles away and still clearly visible. Matt had never seen anything so hideous in his entire career, and he though he’d already plumbed the depths of depravity. Well, human depravity…

He watched the writhing horror as it continued to pour itself out of the pit.

Great, he thought, just what I need. New material for my nightmares. Oh well, the old ones were getting boring anyway.

The pegasi pulling the chariot balked at the sight, stopping short and trembling.

“Go! Get in the air! Move your rumps you flea-bitten mules!” Matt roared in his best parade ground bellow.

It may have been unforgivably rude but it did the job. The Royal Guards recovered and charged down the runway, four more chariots hot on their heels.

The Snøskred’s chariot went next, followed by Sun Hammer’s and then Teelo and Pinkie, the latter wearing Berry Fudge Gumball and finally the rest of the Mane 6, the Alene riding with Twilight.

“Time to go.” He said to Dawn Spire, who nodded and teleported them into the last chariot, pulled by Sergeant Stormwind and Percival. As the chariot thundered down the runway the thing from the pit started to charge toward them, flowing over the snow as if it were normal ground.

It was like being charged by a tsunami of blood, if that tsunami made a sound like a million tortured spirits.

There was a little over a mile between the monster and the chariot when the latter finally went airborne and turned to the south. Matt watched with narrowed eyes as the chariot slowly pulled away from the hideous mountain of flesh that had also turned south, showing no signs of giving up the chase.

“How long can you stay aloft?” He shouted to the two pegasi.

“No more than ten hours!” The sergeant called back. Matt looked back at the horror behind them and tried to calculate times and distances. He knew the chariots could cover about fifty miles in an hour, which meant 500 miles before they were forced to land. The pegasi would need at least eight hours of solid downtime and Matt was pretty sure they couldn’t do it for three days straight, not even with Mount Gruesome nipping at their heels the whole way.

Meanwhile the monster seemed to be doing a little under half their speed. Given that they were in a magical universe and Murphy held jurisdiction here, Matt was willing to bet that thing didn’t need to sleep.

Call it twenty miles per hour, which meant it would cover 200 miles in ten hours. Ten more hours of downtime to rest the pegasi, which was another 200 miles, meaning at best they’d be a hundred miles ahead of it, and if they could maintain that pace they’d be three hundred miles ahead by the time they got back.

Three hundred miles meant fifteen hours. Matt winced.

Less than a day to ready Canterlot to face a monster like that? It wouldn’t even be enough time to evacuate the city.

Matt didn’t know why he was so convinced the thing was after the capitol, maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was his belief this was a cartoon world that followed Murphy’s law, but he knew where that thing was going. And what it was going to do when it got there.

“Ok, Dawn Spire I need you to show me the direct line from here to Canterlot.” Matt said as the two of them got below the rim of the chariot and out of the wind of their passage.

“All right.” She said, unrolling a map with her horn’s magic. “This is where we are. In two hours we’ll cross the Northern Ley Line and two hours after that we’ll reach a point about fifty miles west of Pingwin. The good news is its pretty desolate country all the way to the eastern spur of the Central Ley Line, and then down to the Griffin Kingdoms. We’ll be passing the western edge of the Great Smoke, nobody lives there. The first big city is Pisa, but that will be well east of us.

“So if that thing follows us home you’re saying we’ve got about a thousand miles of ocean and tundra to figure out how to stop it before it hits any populated areas?”

“You want to fight that thing?” Dawn Spire gaped at him. “Are you insane, Lieutenant? What are we going to do, throw rocks at it?”

He grinned at her. “Give me a better solution, Miss Genius. I’m all ears.”

“Sweet Celestia!” She gasped. “You’re serious?”

“That thing gets to Equestria a lot of ponies are going to die.” He said, turning serious. “We can’t reach the capitol in time to give a warning. My best guess is it’ll be less than a day behind us.”

“Oh, is that what you’re worried about? The capitol already knows about it, Lieutenant.” Dawn Spire said, relaxing. “Subtle Dancer assured me they’d be keeping a scrying crystal on us at all times. They’ve seen our friend back there, and the Princess will be ready to deal with it.”

“Far be it for me to disillusion you, but that thing’s probably more dangerous than Tišina.” Matt said. “How do you think she’s going to deal with a mountain made of hungry tentacles?”

“The Princess is the most powerful mage in all of Equestria.” Dawn Spire said confidently. “She’ll deal with it. Trust me.”

“Hmm. Well, right now I’d say a nuke would be the best bet. Short of that, a whole damn fleet of B-52s with incendiary bombs.”

“I don’t know what those are. But remember we have the Elements of Harmony with us.”

“Yeah, Teelo told me about those. Some kind of rainbow that turns things to stone?” His voice was skeptical.

“It dealt with Discord.” She retorted.

“Several times. But he keeps coming back.” Matt noted drily. “I’m not much on the whole happy singing pony thing, Dawn Spire. Don’t get me wrong, you guys are nice and friendly and I love this place, I really do. But you can’t stop a hungry abomination with friendship and rainbows.”

“Is that what you really think Harmony is all about?” Dawn Spire shook her head in pity. “Harmony isn’t just a word, Lieutenant. It’s a magical force, one of the strongest magics known. It’s powered by the magic of friendship. The Bearers themselves are living, breathing embodiments of the six aspects of Harmony.”

“So you’re saying the whole singing and dancing thing is actually powerful magic?” Matt raised a skeptical eyebrow and pointed back at the red spot fading in the distance. “More powerful than that?”

“Yes, Lieutenant!” Dawn Spire said patiently. “Princess Celestia is the wellspring of life. Princess Luna is the mystery of existence. The Bearers are the embodiments of harmony. Life, in harmony with existence, it’s the most powerful energy there is. It’s what made the world. It’s what keeps life itself going. Friendship is power. Love is power. It can overcome anything, if you harness it properly. It’s the power behind magic itself. All of creation flows from it.”

“Hope you’re right, Dawn Spire. Because we’re going to need every scrap of power we can get to deal with that wicked beastie behind us.”

Matt stared back at the hateful red fuzzy patch steadily falling behind.

ooOoo

“I hope Dr. Whooves has my surprise present ready when we get back.” Pinkie Pie said to Teagan a couple of hours later. “I need it for my party plans.”

“Pinkie, this is hardly the time to be thinking about a party!” Teagan exclaimed in exasperation.

“Yes it is! You just listen to old Auntie Pinkie Pie, Teelo.” Pinkie winked. “It’s an extra-super-duper-special surprise present that has never ever been seen before in the whole world!”

“That’s nice, Pinkie.” Teagan said, staring back at the hint of red that was doggedly trailing them. “What is it?”

“I can’t tell you, Silly! If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise now would it? But you just wait!”

Teagan gently started banging her head on the side of the chariot.

ooOoo

“Assuming the worst case scenario,” Subtle Dancer said, standing before the assembled council, “the creature known as Cuddles will arrive at Canterlot in a little over three days. The expedition will beat it here by less than half a day.”

“This is a complete disaster!” Duke Shimmerling snarled, slamming his hoof down on the table. “That human may have dealt with Tišina but he is bringing an even bigger disaster down on our heads!”

“No one could have foreseen such a creature’s existence, Your Grace.” Subtle Dancer said evenly. “You yourself approved the attack, along with the rest of the council.”

The Duke ignored the jibe. “What is being done to protect the city?”

“Shining Armor stands ready to cast his shield spell, and Princess Cadence will boost his power as needed. The Royal Guard has been mobilized and the militia has been activated. The Horns are readying combat spells that have lain dormant since the founding of Equestria. Both of Their Highnesses will, of course, defend the city as well.”

“And where will the Elements of Harmony be deployed?” Baroness Splendid Light asked, carefully ignoring the Duke.

“On the northern plain a few miles from the city.” Subtle Dancer said. “Near the current location of Cloudsdale. Should the Elements fail to stop the creature the Bearers will have a clear line of retreat. Cloudsdale is safely out of the creature’s reach.”

“The Elements of Harmony cannot fail! What madness has taken you, Subtle Dancer?” The Duke asked angrily, nostrils flaring.

“Yog-Sothoth cannot walk the fields of Equestria either.” Evelyn cut in, her voice cool and calm. “Yet it does, Your Grace. We dismiss the impossible at our peril. Less than a week ago I would have said you were impossible.”

“You know about this creature?” The Duke asked incredulously.

“I believe so. If this creature is not Yog-Sothoth itself then it’s one of his spawn. And that too is ‘impossible’, Your Grace.”

“Tell us what you know, human!” The Duke demanded, leaning forward and glaring. She smiled at the angry pony and started to speak in a slow deep chant.

“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth’s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.”

The Duke’s eyes shrank in dread, and several of the council members openly trembled. Princess Celestia regarded Evelyn with a thoughtful look, although she said nothing.

“Of course, everything I know about Yog-Sothoth and the other Great Old Ones comes from playing a game.” Evelyn said, chuckling at the look on the Duke’s face.

“You dare?” The Duke stood, and pawed the floor. “You dare mock this council when a dire threat bears down on us all? You have no place here! Begone!”

“Your Grace,” Celestia spoke softly, but every eye turned to her. “I would remind you that Evelyn Lewis is here by my express invitation.” Her gaze was tranquil as she regarded the angry pony.

“I crave pardon, Your Highness. But we have no time for games.” The Duke said, suddenly looking penitent and defensive.

“Your Grace,” Subtle Dancer broke the uncomfortable silence. “Might I point out Investigator Lewis has an amazing grasp of magical theory—which she learned playing a game. Without her input we would never have been able to locate Tišina. At least some of the games humans play seem to have a deeper significance than mere entertainment. It would be unwise to disregard her advice in this matter.”

“My apologies, Investigator.” The Duke said somewhat stiffly. “In my zeal to assure the safety of Equestria I may have spoken more harshly than I should.”

“Apology accepted, Your Grace.” Evelyn said, face pleasantly neutral. “Everyone is under a great deal of stress so tempers are frayed. Now, shall I tell you what I know about the Great Old Ones?”

ooOoo

As the expedition landed on barren tundra some five hundred miles from the glacier, far behind them Tišina reached the ocean. Without pausing she plunged into the surf and disappeared under the waves. Her body immediately reshaped itself, thinning and elongating, the tentacles and eyes rearranging themselves around her entire body. The suddenly streamlined horror shot forward at three times the speed it had managed on land, spearing through massive schools of startled fish without warning.

Tentacles lashed out, slicing and swallowing. Tišina gorged herself on the death of thousands as she raced a hundred feet below the waves. She didn’t need the flesh she was harvesting. She drew her sustenance from the energies outside time and space, more like a plant than an animal. No, her carnage was purely to rid the world of the scourge of life that infected it. With each death a tiny bit of magic fled the world into the vastness that was the rest of Tišina’s real body which existed beyond the veil of the world. There it was consumed and rendered inert for all eternity.

This way was slower than her previous plan, but just as certain. It was time to bring purity back to the world.

Starting with a certain conceited horse who had dared don the mantel of godhood.

ooOoo

Rainbow Dash was stretching her wings after yesterday’s long boring chariot ride. She couldn’t leave or enter the chariot because the change in weight disrupted the magic the chariot used to stay aloft; such a massive change could have caused it to crash. As much as she wanted to fly she’d never risk Applejack and the pegasi pulling the chariot like that.

So she’d been stuck with Applejack all day. She’d tried napping but the cramped quarters of the chariot had kept her from getting any real rest, especially considering how often she changed position while she slept.

She’d woken an hour before they were due to leave and was taking advantage of the situation. Matt and Teagan had gotten up early to spar, so she felt perfectly justified in a nice refreshing flight.

She decided to cover her bets in case Matt got in her face about leaving camp and headed north in a cynical combination of ‘scouting’ flight and acrobatics practice. She was about five miles north of camp when her mane nearly stood on end.

A faint sound, like chalk screeching down a chalk board came from the north.

“No way!” She breathed in disbelief and immediately nose-dived to build up speed. The vapor cone formed rapidly and the pegasus stretched out, straining to perform the now familiar maneuver.

“Come on, come on,” she chanted to herself, feeling the strain build up. “Now!”

There was a boom and suddenly she accelerated sharply, a ring of rainbow light rapidly expanding behind her. She leveled off and shot north, leaving a rainbow stream of magic like a colorful contrail.

No one in the camp noticed the Sonic Rainboom. She was too far away for anyone to hear the boom, and no one was looking north to see the ring of light. As usual Rainbow Dash was acting on impulse and completely on her own.

She traveled another two minutes before spotting the ugly red pile of squirming tentacles. As far as she could tell it was travelling about the same speed it had when they’d first outrun it.

What the hay? How’d that catch up to us so fast? She wondered. That’s when she flashed past it and saw the aftermath of its passing.

“Whoa! That’s not good.” She muttered as she made sure she was well behind the red monstrosity before angling down to land in the trench the creature had left as it passed. She looked around and her eyes widened in shock. She trotted to the wall of the trench to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.

“Oh, not good, not good, not good! I gotta tell the others!” She sprang in the air and frantically clawed for altitude so she’d have room for another Sonic Rainboom. As she passed over the monster, climbing as fast as she could, every tentacle waved at her jauntily.

Swallowing the sudden acid taste at the back of her throat she nosed over and dove, her wings beating so fast the vapor cone formed in half the time.

“Oh please, oh please, oh please, Celestia…” She pleaded before she felt blessed relief as the surge of acceleration took hold. She leveled off and sprinted for camp.

ooOoo

Tišina chuckled as she saw the circular rainbow burst overhead.

You won’t escape me so easily once I’ve dealt with Her Arrogance, the Insufferable Princess of Pride, Tišina thought with a tiny part of her vast mind. Another part was already planning how to deal with the winged pests…

ooOoo

“Matt! Teelo!” Rainbow Dash landed hard next to the two as they sparred. “That thing is right behind us! No more than thirty miles back!” She said frantically.

“How did it catch up?” Teagan demanded. Matt was more practical. He started bellowing orders, waking the pegasi half an hour before they were due to get up. The expedition members scrambled in near panic.

Matt soon had the members organized, some preparing food even as the pegasi assumed their positions in the chariot harness, others breaking camp. Groups of ponies brought the pegasi food and ate with the winged ponies in frantic gulps.

Twenty minutes after Rainbow Dash’s panicked arrival in camp they were in the air, already hearing the faint whispers of the creature’s insane chorus as they fled toward the dubious safety of the capital.

Two hours into the flight a pegasus with massive wings dove from behind them and hovered above Matt’s chariot.

“Message for you, Lieutenant!” The mare called down. She lowered herself until her belly was only a couple of feet above Matt’s head. “The whole satchel is for you. Unbuckle it from my harness!”

The hefty canvas bag was quickly detached and the pegasus snapped her wings, rapidly climbing away from them. In less than a minute she was an invisible dot impossibly high above them, headed back to the capitol.

Matt opened the folded letter on top of the satchel’s contents and stared, bemused at the incomprehensible script. Shrugging he handed it to Dawn Spire.

“Sorry, I haven’t learned to read your writing.” He said. “Would you be so kind?”

“Of course, Lieutenant.” Dawn Spire scanned the letter quickly.

“It’s from Princess Celestia. ‘Dear Matthew, we are aware of the creature following you which we have named Cuddles.’ ”

Matt barked a short laugh and Dawn Spire stared at the letter and re-read the line silently.

“Cuddles? Seriously? I’ve heard of laughing in the face of danger, but that’s ridiculous!”

“No argument.” Matt said calmly. “Go on.”

“Oh, right. Anyway, she says ‘Evelyn Lewis tells us its real name is Yog-Sothoth, an Elder God from outside time and space, or perhaps it’s one of his spawn. Either way the creature is far too powerful for you to engage. Your top priority is to keep the members of the expedition safe and return to Canterlot as soon as possible. We have laid plans to deal with the creature and have included copies for you to review, along with as detailed an analysis of the creature as we have been able to compile by scrying. Bring my little ponies home safely Matthew. Signed, Her Highness Celestia, Princess of Equestria.”

“Well, seems like we have our orders, Dawn Spire. Let’s take a look at those plans, shall we?”

Comments

[Celestias Paladin]

Oh great... Lovecraftain monster... wait I know how to fight them... let me slip into another universe and get some god-killing mecha...God is in his heaven because he's afraid of our superior firepower

[themanesix]

Cuddles