Gestalt

by The Writer's Group

Sechste

Candlelight was given only the fifth chapter and was asked to write this sixth chapter.

---

Ponyville was empty of its usual cheerful life by now, since most of its denizens had volunteered in the search, and the rest stayed at home, closing all doors and windows, daring not to even look outside. The search parties followed the plan and swept through the town and its close surroundings. Yet as they roamed the empty streets and fields, they already knew they weren't going to find anything, for it was obvious where the missing beauty and the beast resides. Which is exactly where our two mares were headed, galloping through town as fast as they could.

"But, who are you, anyways? And why isn't the mayor coming?" Twilight questioned the pink-suited mare running next to her.

"I used to be called the Pink Avenger, back when... well, long ago. And I told you, the mayor is--"

"And where did you encounter such a thing before?"

"Uhh, somepony began to mix their gardening habits with unicorn magic, and the results went haywi--"

"How are we going to fight it? And what if none of the search parties find it or Fluttershy? Do you think she's still alive? What happens if--"

"Twilight, please! I can't even hear my own thoughts beside you!" the mare lashed out, even though she much preferred not to actually hear them.

Silence filled the verbal vacuum, calling memories to flood the mind of the mare in pink. She couldn't suppress them forever, drink or no drink. The same concern worn by faces, the same unnerving questions asked, the same answer given, the same result bound to happen: the victim is never found. Ten years of distance and the same menace reoccurs: she couldn't let it end the same way. But what if she really was right, and the beast took over the victim, not just merely consuming them? What else is there to do than to end it? Now she remembered why she turned to politics instead of keeping up this double life: leading the town as mayor held much fewer moral burdens than being its caped champion.

She snapped out of her heavy thoughts as they came near the edge of the Everfree forest, for the wind had carried a rather unlikely sound to her ears: the sound of an argument raging. Age had caught up with her sight, because until they came closer, all she could make out is an elder pony arguing with a stetson hat.

"Ah told'ya granny, and the mayor had told'ya too, ya can't come with us or ya mi' get hurt!" Applejack almost shouted by now.

"Dont'ya raise yer voice like that when ya talkin' to yer elder, young lady! Why in my time Ah--"

"Oh, Twilight, thank goodness yer here! Ya gotta take granny-- uhh, who's tha friend o' yers?"

"Hay, Ah recognise that fancy getup anywhere! Yer tha Pink Flamingo! No, wait... tha Pink Cupcake! Or... aww, shucks, I forgot again." said Granny Smith disappointed.

"Twilight, can you escort Mrs Smith back to the Orchard?" asked the mislabeled mare.

"I'm on it. Come along now, Granny Smith."

"... Or was it tha Pink Panther? Naah, sounds more like a fancy jewel than a 'ero..." the elder mare wondered on as she was gently led away from the group.

"Thank'ye miss, we've been at it for a mighty long time now. All tha others 'ave already split up into groups, so we gotta hurry if we wanna catch up with tha one Ah'm supposed to lead."

"Great, so we're on our own until we bump into a combat group - or the beast."

"Or Fluttershy." Applejack suggested, to which the masked mayor didn't give an answer.

They swiftly entered the eerie woods as the sun descended behind them. Inside the forest was dark as it is, and now even the last glimpse of Celestia's caring presence had gone away, making way for her sister to guard the sky. Princess Luna had the burden to contain the things that consumed the dreams of sleeping fillies, the stuff of nightmares, to keep them still and forbidding them to walk the land. She silences most of the world to let them slumber, and envelops them in the impenetrable night, so they wouldn't be seen by the innocent living in the light.

Yet even Luna couldn't do a thing against the bold and the foolhardy willingly seeking out their fears and their doom, those that meet slender trees growing upside down and gaze into the empty darkness far too long. The one our ponies seek is quite unlike the rest of the host of forgotten beasts, this one isn't ancient nor too complex, yet it resembles all three of plant, beast, and pony, all at once. But now it's time to resume to our two mares, lost in the woods in the unforgiving night.

"Ah can't see a thing in this dark. How long 'ave we been goin'?" asked Applejack, concern seeded in her voice.

"Not long enough."

"Uhm, Ah don't think it's a good idea to-- hay, where've ya gone to?" from concern grows anxiety.

"I'm right besides you."

"No yer not, yer-- oww! Huh, a spike. Or a thorn. What kin' of plant has thorns like this?" from anxiety

"..."

"Pink Avenger??" grows fear.

"..."

"..." from fear

"..."

"What are ye?"

Grows nightmare.

Minutes later, The mayor heard hasty hoofsteps coming towards her. She hid behind a tree and patiently waited for the moment, wait for it, wait for it, jump. She wrestled her target down and held a hoof-mounted blade against its throat. After some pleading and moaning, she recognised that it was Applejack.

"What happened, what were you running from? And why are you covered with cuts and thorns?"

"It got me! The thing, it-- Behind ye!"

Slash, slash, shriek, away it crawls.

"We need to pursue it before-- AJ?" the mayor turned behind, seeing Applejack knocked out cold from the blood loss.

"Oh, no, not again! Give me an election or donkey immigration policy to work on, but not this!"

She knew all too well if she doesn't get help for her friend very soon, Applejack will pass away. But if she doesn't find her prey soon, it will flee again, condemning her to an eternal cat-and-mouse game in the dark. Or worse, it will turn the forest against her, and the denizens within. For she knew what it was, a plant with a basic id to steer and drive it, in the body of a pony who by now, for all intents and purposes, counted as dead.

"Fluttershy! Come here this instant!" with infernal anger boomed the voice of the Pink Avenger.

Nothing.

"Fluttershy!!!"

The forest froze in fear. As if expelling from itself an outcast creature, it produced the summoned beast in front of her. It struggled and trashed around, but it couldn't break free of the strong tree-roots that kept it entangled.

The basic shape of a pony of brown color, with a throng of thorny vines for a mane, and a rose for a head. And its jaws, decorated with huge thorns as if fangs, capable of shredding any animal or pony to pieces. She knows this, for such an act was witnessed by her before. It looked just like she remembered.

The Pink Avenger grabbed it by the throat, disregarding the vicious thorns, slammed it to the ground with all her might, and began her deadly monologue.

"With every word I cut you off, off this night, off this life. *slice*

Let every vine be decoupled, all the wrong that you uphold. *slash*

I know you now, you let the weak let out the shriek, *stab*

Erase their mind, embellish them with brownish hide, *cut*

Crowning them with raging thorns, denying them their mortal forms, *jab*

Hiding gentle, soothing matter,

In green blood flowing I now scatter,

Your healing blood I now draw out,

To mend the wrong and clear the doubt,

To make the town I love remember:

I am again, the Pink Avenger!" *slash*

"Wh-What happened? What's that thing doin' there?!" asked Applejack, able to lift only her head off the ground.

"Calm down, dear, you've lost a lot of blood, I--"

"Is it dead?" Applejack pointed to the severed head and the minced remains of the beast.

"Yes, it is dead."

"Great, now the only thing left is ta find Fluttershy." Applejack said with a relief, letting her head back on the ground.

An uncomfortable silence fell.

"Wait, yer not tellin' somethin'. Out with it."

The answer came not from the Pink Avenger, but from the surrounding forest: it gradually became louder and more alive, one roar at a time. Shrieks of ponies all across the forest were heard, along with the fleeing sound that shook the earth, a stampede of primal fear. Soon, the darkness around them was lessened by the lights of millions of big and small pairs of eyes of all kinds, everywhere.

"What in tarnation is happening?!"

"There was a price for saving you from your wounds, and for slaying our foe. I called out the forest, I called out the name of the beast, and I declared guardianship of the surrounding region, the town. Even though I knew what that entails."

"An' what does it entail?"

"The forest is awakening, as all the things hidden within it."

"But, it's still night! That means everything in the night is awakening! What are we gonna do?"

"I think our best bet is to find the others and visit Princess Luna, but if even she can't do anything about this, then--"

"Then we're done for! All of Ponyville is done for!"

"No. All of Equestria is done for."

Comments

[Squirrelloid]

And we finally stepped off the deepend, not that last chapter wasn't well on its way there. I'm impressed the first four chapters stayed so unified, honestly. But now its mangled beyond recognition