The Mare Who Cried Monster.

by ChromeRegios

Chapter 3

Shadows danced across the wall as I made my way to the main room. The branches of the library tapped noisily against the pane of the window. The library was silent except for the creaking floorboards beneath my hooves. As I entered the main room, I could hear a steady tick-tick-tick of a wall clock.

The lights had all been turned off. I thought I felt something scamper across my hoof. Was it a mouse?

I stopped momentarily and glanced down. It was just a dust ball clinging to the base of a bookshelf.

'Woah, Rainbow Dash,' I scolded myself. 'It’s just Twilight’s Library. Nothing to get weird about. Don’t get your wild imagination take off and lead you into trouble.'

“Hey, what are you doing in here?” A voice spoke right behind me…

“Woah, geez!” I nearly jumped up to the ceiling and held up there. The lights turned on at the library as my eyes looked down and saw a Stallion looking up at me.

“Why are you inside here during night? I thought Twilight told me that no one should be in here when it’s already nine in the evening…” The stallion said, “Come down here… I can’t talk to you straight when you’re up there upside down, it’s kind of uneasy…” He said with his low deep voice.

“Oh, heh… sorry about that mister…” I said smugly and glided down to face him.

“It’s alright dear. Say, your Rainbow Dash, aren’t you?” the stallion asked me.

“Uhh, yeah. How did you know my name?” I asked him curiously.

“Oh, well, you’re Twilight’s friend, am I correct? She told me that you borrow books from her every now and then, so she told me all about you and your dream of becoming a member of the wonderbolts,” he said which was quite direct from what I was aiming for.

“That Twilight… really, can’t get my fame a secret. Yep! I’m Rainbow Dash. Pleased to meet you!” I said eagerly.

“I’m Mr. Warts,” he said, giving off some sort of a smile. I could have sworn I heard the large bump on his head rip, and… really? His name is Warts? I looked over him and examined the guy; He looks a lot like Big Mac but a little smaller in size and he was a unicorn just like Twilight, except he had a very white mustache on him. His voice is quite groggy like there’s something stuck in his throat when he talks. He also had this odd bump on his head which I thought was another head at first. What I’m really not understanding is that he doesn’t have any cutie mark on him.

I was about to ask, but I really had my mind set on getting a new book to read, and I was hoping for something even more scary. “Say, Mr. Warts,” I started. “Can I borrow book? I know it’s late to borrow one, but can I anyway?”

“Well aren’t you an active reader.” He chuckles and walks to get the log book. “Go and get your book. I’ll wait here until you do,” he says while he sits and looks over the pages of the log book. I wondered why is he was reading that first. To familiarize some of the names of the ponies here? Could be…

“Okay! I’ll do just that.” I said as I trotted over to the aisle of book shelves. I scanned some of the books until I found what I was looking for. “Daring Do and the Throne of Dracula.” I read the cover of the book and grinned. Guess I’ll read this to Fluttershy next.

As I was walking back to Mr. Warts, I noticed something about his face was not right, as if it was like, getting bloated. When I came into view, he quickly put down the book and stood up. “Did you get your book?”

“Uhh, yeah. Here it is.” I showed him the book and he stamped it.

“There you go. Now, are you interested in taking up another book?” He said with a grin on his face.

“Uhh, not at the moment. I’ll stick to this one for now. I’ll come back after I've finished this,” I said to him while I flapped my wings to get rid of some cobwebs that got stuck on them. “Well, I’ll be seeing you, Mr. Warts,” I said to him as I grabbed the book and flew out of the place. I’ll apologize to Fluttershy and Scootaloo tomorrow; right now I’m itching to read this new
book!

After a while, I finally got home, I quickly jumped into bed, turned on the lights and took out the book in my bag. “Now let the readings… begin!” I opened the book ready to read the first chapter, when all of a sudden, I stopped.

“Butterflies of the Sunset?!” I read the title slowly, until my thoughts caught up that I took another book by mistake. “WHAT THE BUCK!?” I shouted and screamed at the top of my lungs. I got the wrong book!

I spent the last thirty minutes pouting and going into a rage because of my stupidity! How can I get a darn book that only Fluttershy would like! I was blaming myself about the fact I took a book that was so boring for me! And I was really planning to stay up all night reading that!

'I’m not going to spend this night without anything to read,' I said to myself. I got up, took my bag and went back to the library with the intent of getting that book.

It was nearly eleven in the evening, and Mr. Warts was probably asleep by now. I landed in front of the library with the same feeling I got from earlier lingering in my mind. A gentle but insistent gnawing at my stomach. A tug at my chest that kept going on and on for a bit.

Something is definitely not right. Something bad is about to happen. Other ponies call it premonitions. It’s a good vocabulary word for that I was feeling right then. I squinted at the dark table and looked around. I found the book where Mr. Warts had stamping it for the approval. I quickly grabbed the book at the table, eager to get out of the dark, creepy looking place. I never thought that Twilight’s house looked like a haunted place after the lights went out.

I headed quickly back toward the entrance, sneaking out and about for some reason. Just then, a sound made me stop.

I held my breath and listened.

It was a cough.

Peering down the aisle, I could see Mr. Warts hovering over a desk just a few meters away from me. Well, actually, I could just see part of him – one arm, and some of his face when he leaned to the left.

I was still holding my breath. The clock tick-tick-ticked noisily from across the room. Behind his desk, Mr. Warts’ face moved in and out of the blue-purple shadows.

The book on my head was suddenly getting heavy. I lowered it slightly to the floor. Then my curiosity got the better at me, and I took a few steps toward the front.

Mr. Warts began humming to himself. I didn’t recognize the song.

The shadows grew deeper as I approached closer. Peering down the dark aisle, I saw him holding a large glass jar between his pudgy hooves. I was close enough to see that he had a pleasant smile on his face.

I kept to the shadows as I moved closer. I like spying on ponies; it’s kind of thrilling, even when they don’t do anything very interesting. Just knowing that you’re watching then and they don’t know they’re being watched is exciting.

Humming to himself, Mr. Warts held the jar in front of his chest and started to unscrew the top. “Some love, my timid friend,” he announced in his groggy, low pitched voice.

What did he just say? I didn’t hear it well because a fly buzzed near my ear and I was shooing it. I only saw the jar was filled with pink liquid, and a little critter on a cage. Suddenly, the room grew much darker as clouds blocked the moonlight making an eerie glow in the whole place. Gray shadows rolled over Mr. Warts and his enormous desk, as if blanketing him in darkness.

From my hidden perch among the shelves, I watched him prepare to give the critter some drink.

But wait… something was wrong. My premonition was coming true. Something weird was happening!

He put the jar down and instead then opened the cage of the critter. Mr. Warts’ face began to change. His head began to grow and started to expand, like a balloon from one of Pinkie Pie’s parties being inflated.

I uttered a silent gasp as I saw his tiny eyes poke out of his head. The eyes bulged bigger and bigger, until they were big as door knobs. His body became larger as if he was transforming into a werewolf or something. The light from the window grew even dimmer. The entire room was cast in heavy shadows as they swung and shifted. I couldn’t see well at all. It was like I was watching everything through a dark fog.

Mr. Warts continued to hum, even as his head bobbed and throbbed above his shoulders and his eyes bulged out as if on stems, poking straight up like insect antennae.

And then, just as I was watching closely, his mouth began twisting and grew bigger, his tongue slithered out as he held the critter. Mr. Warts sang even louder now, an eerie, frightening sound, more like a windigo howling than singing.

He held his hoof briefly over the jar. I could see the critter struggling over his hoof. I thought the jar with pink liquid was medicine that he was giving it to the critter, causing it to struggle because he doesn’t want it, or something like that.

But instead, he opened the jar and jammed the whole thing into his own mouth!

I shut my eyes and held my hoof over my mouth to keep myself from puking, or screaming. I held my breath, but my heart kept racing. The shadows lurched and jumped. The darkness seemed to float around me.

I opened my eyes. He was still jamming the jar in his mouth, drinking the whole thing. By the time he was finished, he drank the contents of the jar, and slithered this tongue out, licking his huge, bloated lips with a loud slurp. And then, the unthinkable happened. He then jammed the little critter into his mouth! The critter let out a soft squeak before it was pushed deeper into his throat.

I wanted to shout. I wanted to run and fly out of there. I realized that Mr. Warts was a real live monster!

Comments

[GIGA-XISBASS]

Huh reminds me of that one Goosebumps book and EP. Well Played.