Even in Equestria there are some things too strange and dangerous to be allowed to wander free. That's where they come in. They Secure, They Contain, They Protect.
Even in Equestria there are some things too strange and dangerous to be allowed to wander free.
That's where they come in. They Secure, They Contain, They Protect.
It's what their Cutie Marks are telling them to do after all.
“Are you sure about this Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle asked nervously as the Cutie Mark Crusaders peered over the edge the treetop balcony, their zip line ropes the only thing saving them from a deadly fall were they to slip. “I’ve never even heard of a pony zip lining before.”
“Neither have I but Spike told me it was awesome!” Scootaloo responded confidently. Unlike Applebloom and Sweetie Belle she looked out at the great expanse that the zip line would take them over with a smile.
“Has he ever done it?” Applebloom asked. Given that he was Twilight’s assistant and was always complaining about the work load it didn’t seem like he’d have time for it. And it didn’t strike her as something the bookish Twilight would be interested in.
“Didn’t get far enough into the conversation to ask!” Scootaloo answered, giving Sweetie Belle and Applebloom enough time to exchange a worried glance before she leapt off the balcony pulling them with her. They sped along the zip line quickly, the trees nothing more than a blur as they soared past, until they reached the middle of the line where they slowed and stopped, the line sinking under their combined weight. Before any of them could formulate a response to their situation the smell of smoke drifted down to them and they all looked up in time to watch their safety hooks burning away the zip line with the friction heat their speed had generated.
With a loud snap the line broke and sent the three fillies screaming and careening towards the ground, or rather into the tree directly below them. Luckily for them the branches and thick leaves slowed their descent enough to turn a deadly or handicapping fall into one of mere aches and pains when they landed in a pile.
“See anythin’?” Applebloom asked, not feeling anything different other than pain and the familiar sensation of tree sap on fur which appeared whenever they tried getting Cutie Marks involving or near trees. Even when they just sketched some back when they were trying to get their Sketching Cutie Marks.
“Tree sap and pine needles, but no Cutie Mark.” Scootaloo announced checking her flank, confirming another failed attempt.
“Plan B?” Sweetie Belle asked hopefully.
“Yeah! You know where we can find a cannon at this hour?” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle’s expressions were all Scootaloo needed to know where they stood on that idea. “It’s no use!” Scootaloo cried as she stormed away and threw her helmet off. “No matter what we do we always end up without our Cutie Marks. And, surprisingly often, covered in tree sap.” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle took off their helmets while Scootaloo complained. Sweetie Belle set hers aside while she worked on getting herself out of the zip line harness while Applebloom was content to just toss away hers towards the nearest bush. When it rolled to it however it didn’t crash into the leaves and embed itself in the branches but instead struck something, making a low thunk noise, and rolled back to her.
“Maybe we should try something less dangerous?” Sweetie Belle suggested, the other two thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders not noticing the noise or Applebloom wandering to the bush. “Like pillow testing or flower sniffing?” Applebloom peeked through the leaves and saw the handle and corner of what she assumed to be a small chest poking out of the ground.
“Uhh no way!” Scootaloo disagreed. “If I’m going to get my Cutie Mark it’s not going to be anything that namby-pamby! It’s going to be something exciting!”
“Hey girls look at this!” Applebloom called before she poked her head into the bush and bit down on the chests’ handle, the dirt around it giving way easily enough. And just as she had suspected it was a small chest, the wood and metal chipped and cracking, so she was able to lift it out of and off the ground, its contents rolling around inside.
“What’d you find?” Sweetie Belle asked as she and Scootaloo peered over Appleblooms’ shoulder.
“I think maybe it’s treasure!” Applebloom announced, fiddling with the old lock which despite its age was remaining firm.
“Didn’t we already try to get our Treasure Hunting Cutie Marks?” Scootaloo reminded. “All we found were some small rocks, bits of wood, and that really big rock that rolled through Carrot Tops’ fence.”
“Yeah but this time we actually found somethin’ so now we’ll know for sure!” Applebloom reasoned. “Besides even if it isn’t treasure it still might have somethin’ cool inside!”
“What if it belongs to somepony?” Sweetie Belle asked, stepping around Applebloom to look for any identifying marks.
“If anypony wanted to keep it they wouldn’t have left out here.” Scootaloo said. “Or they could’ve been hiding it because it’s stolen treasure!” She deduced excitedly.
“Or they could have just lost it while they were out here like we are.” Sweetie Belle countered.
“So it’s decided then!” Applebloom said, standing up and leaving the chest alone. “We open it up and see what’s inside. If it’s treasure we get our Cutie Mark in Treasure Huntin’ and if it belongs to somepony or was stolen we get our Cutie Mark in Investigation by trackin’ down the rightful owner!” The three fillies’ faces broke out into smiles at the prospect of working for two Cutie Marks at once. That was double the usual chances of success!
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER TREASURE HUNTERS SLASH INVESTIGATORS! YAY!” They cheered and hoof bumped, only for the tree sap on their hoofs to get stuck together.
“…Maybe we should wash up first.” Sweetie Belle suggested.
The trip back to Ponyville was uneventful, something that was amazing in of itself considering they were traveling by Scootaloos’ scooter, with the chest firmly kept in the back of the wagon until a trio of rabbits carrying apples darted across the road. Scootaloo quickly flapped her wings the opposite direction and brought the scooter to a screeching halt a few inches away from the rabbits who looked completely unfazed at the sudden possibility of being road kill. “Get back here you thievin’ varmints!” The echo of Applejacks’ angered voice sent them running though.
“Thievin’ what now?” Applebloom asked aloud only for her sister to come bounding out of the foliage after the rabbits, crashing right into the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Applebloom?” Applejack asked when the dust had settled, perplexed at how she could have randomly crashed into her sister and her friends. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had something else on their mind though.
“Oh hey sis you knocked open the chest for us!” Applebloom said excitedly as she and her friends got up and wandered over to the broken open and over turned chest.
“Ah’ did what now?” Applejack asked confused as The Cutie Mark Crusaders tipped the chest right side up and peering inside to discover… five plain white dice and a small green plastic cup.
“DICE?!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Who would bother hiding this away?!”
“Maybe it’s a treasured childhood toy?” Sweetie Belle suggested, carefully picking up the cup to look for any marks. There were no childish writings of names or initials on the outside or even a manufactures mark.
“Y’all found this while you were out crusadin’?” Applejack asked looking at their object of disappointment. “Judgin’ by how old that chest is it must have been out there a while. Dice and cup look good thou-” She was interrupting by the boastful raspberry of the thieving rabbits she had been chasing from earlier. “There they are! Get back here, ya thievin' varmints!” She yelled as she gave chase, leaving the three fillies with their treasure.
“Well now what do we do?” Scootaloo asked, looking down at the dice in the chest. “This was a bust.”
“…Go back to the clubhouse and think up some more ideas?” Applebloom suggested as they gathered the chest and its contents back into wagon. With a collective sigh they all agreed and loaded themselves into the wagon and sped off towards Sweet Apple Acres, passing through the gates and waving at Big McIntosh as they did.
“I still say that Pillow Testing and Flower Sniffing are perfectly fine activities to test.” Sweetie Belle argued as they came to a stop at the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse.
“And I say that we can totally find a cannon!” Scootaloo fired back as they unloaded the chest from the wagon and dragged it up the steps. “Pinkie Pie’s got that one that shoots confetti and all that other stuff. She probably knows where we can find one capable of shooting ponies!”
“Maybe we should move away from those three and try thinking about something else.” Applebloom suggested nudging open the door and dragging the chest to a corner.
“Alright.” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle agreed as Applebloom lifted the lid and gathered the dice up into the cup and moved to place it on the central table where Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had settled. Unfortunately one of the legs of the table was on the short side, specifically the side that Sweetie Belle was sitting at, and a moment after Applebloom set the cup down Sweetie Belle put her weight down on it to grab a piece of paper and some crayons, knocking the cup over and sending the dice tumbling out.
The roll of the five dice made a seven, three 1’s and two 2’s, in the direction of Sweetie Belle.
And in the next moment Sweetie Belle was lifted a foot in the air by an unseen force and hurled against the nearest wall.
“SWEETIE BELLE!” Scootaloo and Applebloom cried out as they rushed to their friend as she clutched her head and groaned.
“Wh-What happened?” She asked as she got up on shaky legs. “I feel worse then falling out of that tree.”
“I don’t know! I just sat down at the table with you and the dice cup fell over and then-” Applebloom rambled an explanation before a scared sound and poke from Scootaloo got her to turn around to look back at the table, the three fillies eyes transfixed on what they saw.
The dice were rolling side over side back into the cup, their momentum allowing them to do little jumps as high as an inch before they came back down to the table top. As soon as all the dice were back inside and against the bottom of the cup they began to roll as one along the sides, moving the cup back and forth until it got fast enough to tip itself right back up. It wobbled for a moment then stilled, ready for its contents to be rolled and played with again.
In response The Cutie Mark Crusaders slowly backed towards the door to outside the clubhouse, never taking their eyes off of the cup of dice until they were safely outside and down the steps and it could no longer be seen. Then they turned around and ran away as fast as their young legs could take them.
“So that’s it?” Twilight asked as she leaned into the doorway of the clubhouse, eyeing the green cup at the center table. The Cutie Mark Crusaders poked their heads around the doorway and caught sight of the cup and nodded in confirmation, careful to not get too far into their clubhouse.
“What that thing?” Spike said from his seated position on Twilights’ back carrying a quill and parchment for “observational notes”. “The way you guys described it I thought it had skulls and flames on it or something.”
“And that’s the chest you found it in?” Twilight continued, ignoring her assistant’s commentary, to look at the broken open container in the corner. This time it was Applejack, standing by the window on another side of the clubhouse to peer inside, who answered.
“Yeah, that’s the rotten old thing.” She said, her stetson hat being pushed up against the glass as she switched her narrowed glance between the offending objects. “Ah’ wondered why the contents were so fine while it was so worn. Guess now we know why.”
“Alright then. Ready Spike?” Twilight turned her head to address her number one assistant and he nodded, holding up the parchment ready to begin dictating. As the Element of Magic walked into the clubhouse and stood at the table, eyeing the cup of dice as her horn began to glow and the cup was enveloped in a similar magenta glow as it was levitated in the air.
“Y’all girls are very lucky ya know?” Applejack said as she rounded the corner to rejoin them. The walkway around wasn’t nearly wide enough to hold multiple grown ponies in one place which was why Big McIntosh was left to stand at the bottom of the steps with Granny Smith. “If it does exactly what ya say then I’d hate to think what’d happen to y’all if ya rolled a higher number or, Celestia forbid, a perfect thirty.” None of the Crusaders had thought of that during their panicked explanations to Big McIntosh then to Applejack and finally to Twilight but their insides went cold at what could have happened. A seven got you picked up and hurled against a wall. What could a ten, fifteen, twenty-five or, Celestia forbid, a thirty do?
These thoughts filled the young fillies’ minds as Twilight did her experiments, casting spell after spell onto the cup, chest, and individual dice using magical and scientific jargon that went right over everyone’s assembled heads except for perhaps Spike. It wasn’t until Twilight did the unthinkable that their minds and hearts nearly stopped. She went back to the table, cast a spell that enveloped the entire room, and then picked up the cup and rolled the dice across the table towards the empty space across from her.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders waited with baited breath for something to happen, for the floor to implode or whatever malevolent force that possessed the dice to attack Twilight in anger at being denied a target. But when that didn’t happen they waited for the dice to return to the cup, to start rolling side over side and jumping through the air like they had seen it do.
The dice and cup remained motionless for a full minute before Twilight canceled the spell, gathered up the dice, put them back into cup, and set it down onto the table.
“Well?” Applejack asked as Twilight exited the clubhouse.
“I’ve run every enchantment and residual magic searching spell I know and none of them say that it’s anything more than a set of dice in a plastic cup from an old chest.” Twilight concluded.
“But that’s impossible!” Applebloom exclaimed. “We saw Sweetie Belle get picked up and thrown against the wall when it accidently fell over!”
“Yeah it hurt worse than when we fell out of that tree earlier!” Sweetie Belle added which made Applejacks’ eyes narrow on them and The Cutie Mark Crusaders instantly knew that they had screwed up.
“And when did y’all fall out of a tree today?” She asked and they all lowered their gazes and mumbled their response. “Ah’m sorry what was that?”
“When we were out crusadin’.” Applebloom admitted.
“And what were y’all crusadin’ for?” Applejack pressed and the fillies squirmed under the scrutiny.
“…Zip lining.” Scootaloo answered given that it had been her idea. Spike also suddenly became very interested in the notes that he had written during Twilights’ extermination.
“And who did y’all have with ya to show ya how to do it safely?” Applejack asked and their silence was all the confirmation she needed. “Alright come on, we’re goin’ to the hospital.” She decided and continued before Crusaders could speak up. “Because either you’re makin’ up stories to cover for Sweetie Belle getting’ hurt or y’all suffered pretty hard knocks to the head.”
“We ain’t lyin’ and we were wearin’ helmets!” Applebloom objected.
“Helmets aren’t fool proof against concussions or any other serious injuries girls.” Twilight chimed in. “It’s important to get you all checked out either way.” No amount of reasoning or debate could get the adults to listen to the Crusaders as they were carted off to the hospital for a late checkup and their respective families were informed. By the time that the doctors and nurses had finished and concluded that the three young fillies were fine, if some surprisingly minor bruising given the height they had fallen, it was already late at night and they had to be in bed for school the next day.
When the school day was over and the young fillies went back to their clubhouse the cup of dice was right where Twilight had left it.
“We didn’t imagine what this thing did.” Scootaloo said as they stood around the table having moved the cup to the center.
“And we certainly didn’t make it up.” Applebloom spat, still angered at her family’s belief that she had lied to get out of trouble.
“But Twilight said it wasn’t enchanted or even magical.” Sweetie Belle reminded standing the farthest back from the object that had harmed her. “How could it do anything if it isn’t even magic?” Given that she had felt its effects firsthand she wasn’t putting a lot of effort into this argument, instead keeping her eyes on the cup to make sure it didn’t move.
“What kind of magic could Twilight not know about?” Scootaloo brought up. “Her special talent is Magic and she’s The Element of Magic for Pete’s sake!”
“Well I guess Evil Dice Cup magic isn’t one of them!” Sweetie Belle retorted angrily and a moment of silence descended upon them.
“…What do we do with it?” Applebloom asked looking across the table at her two best friends.
“I say we destroy it.” Scootaloo voted. “Just take a hammer to the dice and cut up the cup and scatter the itty bitty pieces.”
“If it can even be broken!” Sweetie Belle interjected. “It was in that chest for who knows how long and it’s perfectly fine! Besides what if it just makes it mad?” Somehow the idea of the evil dice and cup being capable of anger didn’t seem too farfetched to them, given that it was capable of movement and harming others.
“So what do ya suggest we do?” Applebloom asked curious.
“Well what if we just lock it in another chest? Seemed to work fine the first time.” She answered. “But we can’t just leave it in the forest or somepony may stumble upon it like we did. So… we keep it here.” Applebloom and Scootaloos’ reaction was immediate.
“WHAT?! Are you serious?!” They demanded to know. “After what it did to you?” Scootaloo pressed. “What if we’re playing and it rolls around in its chest and one of us gets beheaded! Or killed! Or worse!”
“Wouldn’t the beheadin’ kill us too?” Applebloom asked perplexed. “And what could be worse than getting’ killed?”
“A seven gets you thrown across the room.” Scootaloo reminded. “I don’t want to find out what the other twenty-three numbers above that do.”
“Still it’s like Applejack said, we got lucky.” Sweetie Belle continued. “What if somepony else finds it and they aren’t? We know what it does and sort of how. It only seems to work if you roll the dice towards somepony.” She explained as she inched a little closer to the table. “It did nothing when the chest got opened when Applejack crashed into us or when Twilight rolled it by herself. Maybe it’s got to be able to see who it’s being rolled at?”
“It’s five dice in a cup! How can it see anythin’?” Applebloom argued. Again given that this same cup of dice had flung Sweetie Belle against the wall and then rolled themselves back inside this rung a little hollow.
“How bout we put them into two separate chests?” Sweetie Belle proposed. “If we’re careful we can put the dice in one and the cup in the other, that way if one is found they won’t be able to hurt anypony!”
“Then why didn’t the pony that originally locked it away do that?” Applebloom asked. Sweetie Belle was quiet for a moment before responding.
“Maybe they can’t be separated.” She wondered. “Maybe they won’t budge if too far apart or will magically teleport to each other or fly out your hoof and just roll back. Let’s see what happens if we try taking one dice out and walking away!”
“Whoa whoa!” Scootaloo interjected. “We we’re talking about how to deal with this thing and now you want to mess with it?” The sheer insanity of the concept spoke for itself to her. “If we can’t break it then I vote we just put it in a new box and then dig a deep hole to dump it in!”
“But somepony would find it eventually!” Applebloom reasoned.
“Then we put a note inside explaining what it is and why not to touch it.” Scootaloo responded.
“Yeah like anypony is going to believe an old note telling them that it’s an evil set of dice in a cup.” Sweetie Belle argued.
“How bout we just put it in a new chest and a note in with it then leave it here until what we decide to do. It stays hidden where somepony isn’t likely to find it and we can keep a close eye it, the note will be our backup plan.” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were quiet for a moment before they agreed, “if only temporarily”. No one liked the idea of it just being in the clubhouse.
After some debate over who had the best mouth writing it was elected that Sweetie Belle write the note which read.
WARNING! If you are reading this then DO NOT touch the dice or the cup contained in this chest! If you have then carefully place them back inside and relock the chest. If you have found this chest in a worn or broken condition then please place take the dice and the cup into a new one, lock it, and then hide it away. DO NOT ROLL THE DICE AT ANOTHER PONY! We don’t know how or why but when rolled at somepony whatever number is rolled will hurt them in some way. We don’t know how bad it gets but you must trust us, keep this locked away. For the protection of everypony.
“How’s this?” Sweetie Belle asked as she read it aloud to Applebloom and Scootaloo as they carefully lowered the cup into a small dumped out toy chest. “I really like the last part. Makes it really dramatic and means we mean business.”
“Yeah it’s great can we lock this thing up now?” Scootaloo asked anxiously after having to touch the dangerous object with nothing more than shaky hooves that could have slipped and killed Applebloom and vice versa. Sweetie Belle walked over and lowered the note inside the chest right next to the cup and Applebloom lowered the lid and put the antiquated key into the lock and sealed away the threat for now. With a quick cleanup of the toys and carefully pushing the new container into its previous position everything looked back to normal.
“Well that’s that.” Applebloom said and a faint sound danced around her ears and a quick flash of light appeared behind her before quickly vanishing. “Wha!” She cried, turning to face some new danger only to find something that stopped her heart in a whole different way.
On all three of The Cutie Mark Crusaders flanks was a symbol, two black circles, one inside the other, and three arrows going through, pointing inwards.
They were silent all of a second.
“WE FINALLY GOT OUR CUTIE MARKS!” They cried together and hugged each other, laughing merrily with no apparent memory of the dangerous object they had just contained.
“Wait,” Applebloom said stepping away from her friends to inspect the strange symbol on her flank, “what does this mean?”
“So let me get this straight.” Applejack said eyeing the three fillies standing on the porch in front of her, flicking between their faces and their strange new and matching Cutie Marks. “Y’all were hangin’ around your clubhouse and talkin’ amongst yourselves about how great your friendship is and how wrong it was to try and find your Cutie Marks by doing potentially dangerous activities. And then when y’all decided to just let your Cutie Marks come naturally and had yourselves a big hug they appeared?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.
“That is exactly what happened yes.” Apple Bloom nervously confirmed to the nods of her fellow Crusaders.
“So y’alls special talent is… what exactly?” Applejack asked.
“Uhhhh,” they droned together, “…our strong friendship?” They answered with big smiles to Applejacks confused expression. “The three arrows are us and the circles join us together!” Sweetie Belle tried explaining, using their limited knowledge of the metaphorical qualities of Cutie Marks. They began to sweat bullets, silently praying that the thrown together story they had come up with would hold up under scrutiny.
“That sounds familiar.” Big Mac said and pointed to Applejacks own Cutie Mark when she turned her confusion to him.
“Yep.” Granny Smith agreed from her rocking chair not particularly bothered by the perplexity of her granddaughter and her friends all having the same strange Cutie Mark. “Ya didn’t get yours until after you came back from hognobbing with your Aunt and Uncle Orange in Manehattan and realized you belong here with your family after all. Then poof! Ya got three apples right on your tuckus.”
“Really?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Ah never told ya that story?” Applejack asked, scratching her head. “Well when ah was about- wait no.” She started then stopped herself. “Ya don’t think it’s mighty weird that they all have the same Cutie Mark?”
“Shoot that ain’t so strange.” Granny Smith answered again with a smile. “Ya got that stallion and dentist mare in town with the same hourglass Cutie Mark for starters. Back in my day there was these four stallions who all had the same firefighting Cutie Mark they all earned at the same time, made up the entire Fire Department.” A sly smirk came to her face that immediately set Applejack and Big Mac on edge but was lost on the three young fillies. “Ah used to be sweet on one of them and when we was gettin’ serious he talked me into a-” A hoof suddenly shut her mouth.
“Nope.” Big Mac said, shaking his head to clear any horrible images that may have taken seed.
“Well ah guess that’s that.” Applejack quickly decided before moving to hug her little sister. “We are so proud of you sugarcube.” Apple Bloom nervously returned the hug, sharing quick glances with her friends. They knew that lying to their families about their Cutie Marks would be difficult but until they knew just what was going on and could prove it without a shadow of a doubt, or rather without magic, they’d have to go with it. “But just so we’re clear, ah ain’t gonna be hearin’ about any accident involving bows and arrows am I?”
“What?! No!” They answered shocked.
“Oh good.” Applejack said relieved. “Cause after the zip-line thing and the arrows pointing into a target on your flanks I was worried y’all were doin’ something dangerous again.” She explained as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or rather the Former Cutie Mark Crusaders now, began to form voices of protest at the implication that they couldn’t handle themselves or be trusted to. But after some minutes of back and forth it was decided to let the subject drop for now.
After all they still had Sweetie Belle and Scootaloos family to inform and tell Pinkie Pie of the three Cute-ceañera’s she would insist on planning. As they walked off the farm to spread the good news the three young fillies cast one last glance at their club house and then to each other.
“So,” Scootaloo whispered, “when are we gonna, you know, deal with it?”
“Let’s, let’s just enjoy this for a while.” Apple Bloom suggested. “After everything has settled down again we’ll deal with it.” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in acceptance, they had been trying for so long to get their Cutie Marks after all. It would be nice to just sit back and relax in the knowledge that they had found their place in the world.
They just had to figure out exactly what it was.
The next week and a half passed in more or less a blur. There was time spent in celebration with family and friends, deflecting questions about the exact nature of their Cutie Marks, listening to every other pony’s own Cutie Mark story (which led to some weird connectivity between their sisters and their friends but that was an entirely different and “sappy” matter), preparing for their Cute-ceañera’s, having their Cute-ceañera’s, and of course dealing with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who had easily switched their bullying from them being “Blank Flanks” to them having useless talents and ugly Cutie Marks. All in all things more or less stayed the same, they went to school, did chores, and played together in their free time.
Granted they hadn’t even been near their own club house for that week and a half but it wasn’t like they needed to go in there. Apple Bloom had the key to the chest holding the cup of dice so unless somepony decided to steal a young filly’s toy chest out of her tree house there was no way it was going to hurt anypony. Still, the topic of the dice or the club house had noticeably never come up in the past week.
And it probably would have gone on longer if they hadn’t encountered the clown.
The Former Cutie Mark Crusaders, they really needed to come up with a new name for their group, milled around with the rest of Ponyville as they waited for the start of The Centennial Meteor Shower, their eyes flicking up to see if any stars had started to fall from the sky. It was a pleasant night of hanging out with friends and family under the beautiful night sky and for the three young fillies tonight had the added benefit of that they got stay up way past their usual bed time. They had promised their families that they wouldn’t stray too far and would stay together as they wandered around, saying hello to the familiar faces of Ponyville.
Ponies were setting up their picnics under the night sky, generally just conversing with each other and occasionally somepony would be playing music like Lyra. But then there was the clown.
“Well hey kids!” The clown said when they walked over to him, joining the crowd of colts and fillies laughing at his juggling of two green balls, a picnic basket, three apples, and a phonograph. “I’m Bit Savvy, The Dancing Clown! Although dancing right now would be a bit troublesome.” The light orange stallion admitted. When the picnic basket fell into his left fore hoof instead of throwing it back into the air he used it catch the falling apples, his right fore hoof catching one of the green balls while the other landed on and balanced itself on his nose. It would have been rather impressive if the phonograph didn’t crash on top of his head a moment later.
The children giggled as his multicolored and puffy mane maintained its shape of surrounding the phonograph even after he took it off his head. He had the traditional white face paint of clowns, with a small blue triangle above and below each eye, bright red lips, and a classic red round rubber nose. But despite his name his clothes didn’t look like they’d belong to somepony who was wise with their money, it being a colorful patchwork of cloth that looked like a clean and far more colorful version of what a hobo would wear but it didn’t cover up his clown horn Cutie Mark.
“Boy kids,” Bit Savvy panted, suddenly very tired, “you’d never expect it but juggling takes a lot out of you. I need a drink.” He picked up a spritz bottle that had been lying on the ground and held it up to his face, opening his mouth wide. The kids snickered as they anticipated what was about to happen, his hoof pressing down on the lever slightly and a torrent of water shooting out of the nozzle, completely drenching him.
“There you girls are!” A familiar and peppy voice said behind them. They turned to find Pinkie Pie bouncing up to them. “Oh hey Juggles!” She said to Bit Savvy.
“Hey Pinkie, but its Bit Savvy right now.” He smiled to her, the water doing nothing to ruin his face paint.
“Bit Savvy? I thought your performance name was-” Pinkie asked confused.
“Not anymore.” He cut her off still smiling and cheerful.
“Well as long as you informed The Equestrian Clown Association it should be fine.” Pinkie said happily. “They take image and name copyright very seriously.” She nodded sagely. “But come on girls the shows about to start! Twilight and Spike just showed up and they brought punch and cookies!” At the news all the colts and fillies wandered off back to their own families, Bit Savvy waving goodbye to all the kids, his wet colorful hair dripping down his dry painted face and onto his dry clothes.
The Former Cutie Mark Crusaders all stopped mid step and looked back at Bit Savvy. His face paint was perfect but it could have easily been water resistant, his clothes however were clearly dry and they had seen the water he had sprayed on his face drench the front of his hobo suit. For that matter the big red nose that he had covering his own was dry too and was even shining a little in the moonlight. They all glanced at each other before a call from Pinkie Pie sent them back on their way.
It was probably nothing.
“So,” Scootaloo started as they stared at the toy chest that held the cup of dice, “maybe we’re just really really good at locking chests?”
“We’ve locked plenty of things before,” Sweetie Belle argued, “maybe it was adding the note?” She pondered, tabbing a hoof to her chin. “I’ve never added a warning to anything before and our Cutie Marks do kinda look like a warning symbol.” They all looked to the symbol on their flank, pondering what two circles and threes arrows pointing inward would be a warning against.
“Maybe it’s a bit of both.” Apple Bloom said. “Or… it’s what we locked away.”
“What our special talent is locking away evil sets of dice?” Scootaloo asked.
“Maybe it’s just, y’know, weird stuff.” Apple Bloom responded.
“Or,” Sweetie Belle interjected, “it could just be dangerous stuff in general. What we did could apply to anything that needs to be kept away.”
“How is that any different?” Scootaloo asked.
“…We get to deal with stuff that makes sense?” Sweetie Belle answered hopefully.
“…Ah can’t think of anythin’ else we did.” Apple Bloom confessed after a moment of silent contemplation.
“Me neither.” Scootaloo agreed.
“Oh! You gave a sort of dramatic “Well that’s that” when we finished putting everything away!” Sweetie Belle said to Apple Bloom. “Maybe our Cutie Marks are for dramatic final sentences?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo just stared at her and she looked down. “It’s just a possibility.”
“So our special talent is at least containin’ dangerous stuff,” Apple Bloom decided, “or maybe it’s lockin’ stuff that don’t make any sense. So what do we do now?”
“We’ve had it,” Scootaloo gestured to the toy chest, “for like two weeks now. We were only supposed keep it here until we decided what to do with it.”
“Well keeping it locked up here seems to be working fine.” Sweetie Belle reasoned. “Let’s just keep doing that.”
“Whoa whoa!” Scootaloo stopped. “We kept it because we couldn’t decide on destroying it or putting it down a deep hole.” She reminded. “I still say we just chop the cup up and break the dice.”
“And like I said two weeks ago that could just make it mad!” Sweetie Belle argued. “We don’t know what exactly it can do, if we ran some tests or something-”
“And if we mess with it we could make it do something else that hurts or kills us!” Scootaloo countered.
Apple Bloom sighed as her friends started going back and forth on why the others’ choice of action was more dangerous than their own. She trotted to the only window of the clubhouse and gazed out at Sweet Apple Arce’s orchards. Big Mac and Applejack would be in the south fields right about now, Granny Smith would either be napping or doing something inside, and Winona was off barking at something…
“What do you think Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle asked at the same time. Apple Bloom thought about how suddenly things had gone wrong when the cup of dice had accidently fallen over, seeing Sweetie Belle so effortlessly and suddenly pulled into the air and flung against the wall.
“I just want that thing,” Apple Bloom started watching Winona suddenly bolt out of some bushes and bark at the direction she came from, “to not be able to,” it was hard to confirm from this distance but those bushes were rustling something fierce, “hurt anypony aga- BY CELESTIA!” She cried as the target of Winona’s ire walked out of the bushes.
Perhaps walked was a bad term, as it was closer to a stagger, but it was clear that it was a pony whose name escaped her until she saw the colorful patchwork hobo suit he was wearing. Apple Bloom raced out of the club house as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle rushed to the window to see what was wrong, bolting after Apple Bloom as soon as they saw the staggering shape of Bit Savvy as he stumbled to the ground, Winona growling mere inches from his face.
“hey, kids…” his hoarse voice said as they approached him. They stopped about three feet from him, the smell of feces, urine, and rot too strong for them to bare getting further, as he tried to get upon on his feeble legs with his ankles bruised, bleeding, and dripping with the pus of infection. His coat, mane, and tail were dirty, filled with leaves, twigs, and matted in dirt and mud. “it’s me… Bit Savvy The Dancing Clown!” He announced his eyes wide, red, and sunken as his tongue, horribly oversized inside his mouth, formulated the words.
His patchwork hobo suit, face paint, and red rubber nose all looked clean and new. As if he had just put them all on before emerging from the bush.
“Scootaloo get on your scooter and head to the south fields and get Applejack and Big Mac!” Apple Bloom ordered and the young pegasus filly nodded and bolted back to the clubhouse. “Sweetie Belle I’m going to go get Granny Smith, stay here with him and calm down Winona!” Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure if that was an actual order or Apple Bloom just yelling at her sister’s dog who had begun barking right into the clowns face but Apple Bloom took off a moment later, leaving her to hold Winona back by her collar as Scootaloo zoomed off into the orchards.
“Do you, do you need some water?” She asked and immediately mentally kicked herself, looking at his cracking lips and oversized tongue. How long had he been like this? A distant shouting could be heard from inside Apple Blooms house, it seemed her grandmother had been napping and needed rousing.
“i could… go… for a… drink.” He wheezed as he leaned to his side and a spritz bottle fell out of one of his pockets. He strained to get it in front of his face and opened his mouth wide while he propped it against the ground and pressed down, a torrent of water dousing his face. Sweetie Belle took a step back at the gag as the water ran down his face, his face paint completely unaffected, and he spit out the water that had landed in his mouth instead of swallowing it. She cast a glance at Apple Blooms house and towards the orchard fields, looking for her friends and when she turned back his suit and face were dry while his mane and the ground around him remained soaked.
Blinking she confirmed that yes his clothes were suddenly dry again, just as they thought they had seen the night of the meteor shower. Her heart pounding at the possibility that she was alone with… something weird like the dice again Sweetie Belle stepped forward carefully, Winona held firmly in place. “Sir? Are you OK?” She asked rather redundantly given his condition but it was his response that she wanted.
“i’m… always fine… when i’m… entertaining… children.” He wheezed and smiled, his cracked red lips, the fresh face paint covering the cracks very well, revealing teeth jutting out of pale dried out gums.
“How long have you been doing, I mean how long have you been performing as Bit Savvy?” She asked, remembering Pinkies comments half way through. Pinkie had noticed some irregularities but had brushed them off, maybe with the right questions Sweetie Belle could figure this out.
“i’ve been… performing… for… three… days now.” He answered. “ever since… i got my… new nose… in.” Sweetie Belle leaned in, the stench of him making her head spin, and looked at the round red rubber nose over his real one, the slight shine on it in the sun. With a quick slap of her hoof, Bit Savvy being far too weak to move out of the way, she knocked the nose right off his face and sent it sailing away into some bushes. The effects were immediate.
Bit Savvy, or rather Juggles now, gasped and started breathing hard as he wrapped his lips around the nozzle of his spritz bottle and pushed down on the handle, flooding his mouth with water. Sweetie Belle backed away, Winona no longer growling or barking but whimpering against her, as he tried to drink as much as he possibly could. She watched as his patchwork suit dragged against the ground and came up dirty and stayed that way, his face paint not drying as quickly but no longer looking freshly applied.
“What in tarnation is going on here?!” Granny Smith demanded as she slowly walked over to them, Apple Bloom anxiously trying to hurry her up. A yell and a stampede announced the arrival of Applejack and Big Mac as Scootaloo skidded to a stop on her scooter. The adults quickly moved the children to the side as they worked on getting the clown off the ground and onto a wagon to take him to the hospital.
“Geez look at him.” Scootaloo said looking at the stallions’ ruined form. “What has he been doing?”
“Ah don’t know bu-” Apple Bloom started until she noticed Sweetie Belle edging away from them. “Sweetie Belle? What’s wrong?” With a quick glance at the adults Sweetie Belle dove into the push and motioned her friends to follow her. Once they were far enough in she gather up the red rubber nose carefully from its resting place under some low branches. She held it up for her friends to see and took a breath before speaking.
Salty Sea grunted as he and Rocky Bottom pulled in a net of fish out of the sea, doing their best to keep the wriggling mass under control long enough to open the ships hold and dump them inside. Fish and other meat products weren’t very popular in Equestria except for the few Griffon and the more adventurous citizens but they had to get it from somewhere and unlike other meat products fishing didn’t get the same scrutiny from the bleeding heart ponies that cared for animals across Equestria. Probably had to do with the fact that fish weren’t as… expressive as most animals.
Idly kicking in the stray fish into the hold Salty Sea and Rocky Bottom threw the net back out to catch another load. “Been some good catches recently.” Rocky Bottom said trying to start a conversation.
“Mm hmm.” Salty Sea responded scratching at his beard.
“Sea Farer said that a storm is going to be coming down from up North in about a week.” Rocky tried again, looking out at the relatively calm sea and bright blue sky. Out this far the Pegasus’s couldn’t control the weather so they were at the mercy of the sea.
“Hmm.” Salty judged, looking up at the sky.
“I’m ah; I’m going to go check in with Sea Farer. See how we’re doing.” Rocky gave up, moving away from the port side of the ship and walking away, up the stairs to the navigators’ room and saying hello to the Captain. It wasn’t that big of a boat, he could have just yelled up at her to get her attention. Salty for his part continued to look out at the shifting water and the boundless horizon. To the West laid Equestria, to the East the mountain cities of the Griffons and beyond that the vast island chain of the Minotaur’s, and to the South the scorched equator of Dragons.
In the idyllic world he, as a sailor, would have visited all of these places. Stopping at far and exotic ports bring stories at the sights and customs he’d witnessed. But he was a fisherman, just as his father had been and his grandmother and so on down the line until who knew when. A lot of ponies in Sea Stable came from families like that, living their lives on the coast between Balitmare and Fillydelphia and being one of the few towns to not be consistently swarmed with tourists. ‘Burns Mayor Fredrick’s tail feathers it does.’ Salty thought of their perpetually unhappy mayor who continually tried to get Sea Stable on the map. ‘Got to remember to save him the biggest fish we catch. Should be a good enough thank you present for-’
A breeze flew past his ears and they twitched and for a brief moment he thought he heard a tune, stopping his thoughts dead in his tracks for a moment. He looked around and listened, was Sea Farer playing more of her records? Those were usually louder and about activities no good honest Sea Stable mare would involve herself in. Shrugging after a moment he mumbled to himself and looked down at the water, trying to see if anything was close enough to the surface to spy on.
“Mmm mmm, la da da da.” A soft voice whispered into his ear and Salty Sea nearly jumped. He swung around to see if Sea Farer had snuck up on him and found no pony there. He looked back at the sea and found it calm as can be. “Da da.” The voice continued and Salty Sea suddenly began coughing, leaning against the ships’ railing. “La la la, da.” His vision began to swim as he tried to move away from the railing.
Instead, as if some other worldly force had overcome him, he tumbled off the side and into the water. Sea Farer and Rocky Bottom wouldn’t notice he was gone until three minutes later.
“Wait, what are ya sayin’ this thing does?” Apple Bloom asked as they peered down at the red rubber clown nose on the center table in their tree house. The commotion with Juggles had calmed down an hour ago, with Big Mac and Applejack still gone after taking the near dead clown to the hospital and Granny Smith going back to napping after telling the Former Cutie Mark Crusaders that they should probably all head home/bed. Sweetie Belle’s potential discovery overruled that order.
“I think it was what was making Juggles act crazy and keeping his costume clean.” Sweetie Belle explained.
“Are you sure he didn’t just, you know? Snap?” Scootaloo asked skeptically.
“Then why didn’t his costume or face paint get dirty at all?” Sweetie Belle countered. “He’s been wandering around for three days but his clothes were fine! And as soon as I knocked the nose off him he started actually drinking water and his clothes got dirty!”
“Alright the clothes thing is weird but he still could have just been nuts.” Scootaloo responded. “Maybe the nose held together whatever uh, mental image thing he had for himself and brought him back to reality.”
“In that case the clothes would still be worth investigatin’. Maybe they only work together?” Apple Bloom input. “But how are we supposed to get to them now?”
“No, it’s the nose!” Sweetie Belle argued. “He said that he’d been entertaining children for three days after he got his new nose in.” She reminded them the story he had related to her. “He didn’t say anything about his costume or makeup.”
“Alright alright it’s the nose.” Scootaloo conceded and Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. “But what do we do with it?”
“What do you mean?” Sweetie Belle asked. “We go back to arguing about what to do with the dice and now this nose.” She answered, nudging the nose with her hoof which caused Scootaloo to flinch.
“But this belongs to somepony.” Apple Bloom cut in. “It ain’t like the dice where we found it in the woods, this is Juggle’s property. Us taking it alone was stealing!”
“Property that drove him to ignore all of his needs to the point of death!” Scootaloo argued.
“Yeah we saved him by taking it.” Sweetie Belle agreed. “And if our Cutie Marks are about locking up weird and dangerous stuff then we have a right to take it away.”
“What’d mean we have a right?!” Apple Bloom asked shocked. “We can’t just go around takin’ things we think are weird and lockin’ them away if they belong to somepony! What if they’re important to them?”
“This nose mind controlled Juggles!” Scootaloo countered. “We can’t trust that ponies are always in their right minds around or about them. That’s why we have to destroy/study them!” She and Sweetie Belle said at the same time, giving two different answers. “Not this again, Sweetie Belle how can you support messing with them?! Those dice attacked you!”
“Which means it could defend itself!” She argued, starting the old back and forth as Apple Bloom threw her hooves into the air and slammed her head to the table. “If we find out exactly what they can do we can figure out how to lock them away even more safely than they are now.”
“And if we get destroy them we’d know that they can’t, you know what? No.” Scootaloo stopped. “I say we put this to a vote right now. Destroy vs. Testing.” She proposed. “I vote destroy.”
“What about just leavin’ them as is?” Apple Bloom counter proposed. “The dice can’t get out of its chest and I don’t see how the nose would be able to.”
“Because we don’t know what they can do.” Sweetie Belle explained. “Which is why we should test to find out.” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked to Apple Bloom to cast the deciding vote. She mused the thought over in her mind before she stumbled upon something that should have struck them long ago.
“Sweetie Belle what makes ya think we’re going to find out anythin’ that Twilight didn’t?” Apple Bloom asked her friend.
“Well I’m not saying we do anything that requires equipment or all that stuff just, you know, basic stuff.” She answered glancing away at being pressed for details. It wasn’t like they even knew how to use all that scientific stuff anyway. “Like whether the dice and the cup can be separated, if a smaller number of dice have the same effect, or if we can add more dice.”
“You want to do what?!” Scootaloo asked shocked. “What if that makes it stronger?!”
“Well we wouldn’t know if we don’t try it at least!” Sweetie Belle reasoned. “And it’s not like it really affects how dangerous it is, it can’t do anything in its chest. If someone else finds it and takes it for whatever reason we need to know what they could potentially do with it.”
“Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said turning to her other friend, “what do ya think we should do if we find one of these things that’s not dangerous?”
“What?” She asked perplexed.
“We’ve found two of these things now. Who knows how many more there are out there or that they’re all going to be dangerous?” Apple Bloom proposed.
“Umm,” she glanced away just as Sweetie Belle had done, “I, I guess that’d be fine. I’d don’t know why we would bother locking it up then, if it’s just weird we should let somepony else figure out why.”
“Exactly!” Apple Bloom shouted. “We decided that our Cutie Mark means that we catch and lock up weird and/or dangerous things! Never said we had to decide what to do with them.” She reasoned. “When a cop catches a bad guy they don’t decide how they’re punished. That’s for a judge to do.” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded in understanding. “So we just hand them off to whoever handles stuff like this!”
“But how can we find them? If these things have always been around then whoever handles them has been keeping them secret.” Sweetie Belle brought up.
“Let’s just show them to Twilight, she can ask Princess Celestia who is bound to know!” Apple Bloom reasoned.
“Uh, we already tried that remember?” Scootaloo reminded. “We had to go to the hospital because they thought we knocked our heads to hard.”
“Which is why we test with them until we can prove without a shadow of a doubt that we are not liars or crazy and that these things are weird!” Apple Bloom declared and stuck her hoof over the table. After a moment of silence Sweetie Belle did the same soon followed by Scootaloo. “Cutie Mark… Weird Thing… Catchers.” Apple Bloom struggled to come up with a proper name. “YAY!” She gave up and just cheered which her friends soon followed.
“OK.” Apple Bloom said as Scootaloo carefully set the cup of dice down onto the table, the much feared object having left its chest for the first time in three weeks. A growing lack of daylight had pushed them to begin testing of their collection of strange objects to the next day after school. “What do we do?” She asked turning to Sweetie Belle expecting the avid supporter of testing to know what to do.
“Uhhhh,” she droned, “we try to separate them?” She suggested, falling back on one of her previous idling’s.
“Alright let’s, let’s get them out of the cup.” Apple Bloom said and a whooshing went past her. She turned around to see Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle directly behind her and firmly against the wall.
“Try to roll them out in the exact opposite direction please.” Scootaloo requested. “It seemed to work well for Twilight.”
“Thanks for the support.” Apple Bloom condemned dryly.
“We’re just maintaining a safe distance for testing procedures.” Sweetie Belle answered reassuringly with a smile.
“Right.” Apple Bloom responded and reached out and knocked over the cup, the dice tumbling out. They all tensed until the dice came to a rest at an 18, expecting some terrible punishment to befall all of them. “So now what?” She asked as she nudged one onto her hoof and carefully balanced it there.
“Now you just walk off with it. See how far you can get.” Sweetie Belle explained. “Try to keep your eyes on it for as long as possible. If you think you’ve gone far enough then just come back.”
“Alright.” Apple Bloom said and trotted carefully on three legs out the door and down the club house walk way, beginning to make her way across the farm. Sweetie Belle moved to observe the remaining dice and cup while Scootaloo stayed by the window to watch Apple Bloom’s progress. She watched as Apple Bloom made it to the one of the outer barns before suddenly stopping and looking around wildly.
“WHAT’S WRONG!?” Scootaloo shouted and strained to hear her response.
“it’s gone!” A faint reply came back.
“WHAT?!” She shouted back.
“…it blinked out!” Apple Bloom explained after a moment of silence. Not that it “Blinking out” made a lot of sense.
“She said that it disappeared on her.” Scootaloo turned to inform Sweetie Belle only to find her friend staring into the cup which continued to lay on its side, her mouth hanging open. Moving around to see what she was looking at Scootaloo peered inside the cup and her jaw dropped as well.
While the four other dice were sitting outside a fifth was resting inside near the base.
“It, it just appeared.” Sweetie Belle explained. “I didn’t even blink and it didn’t even make a sound when it landed. It was just there.” She suddenly closed her mouth and grew thoughtful. “Why did it teleport? The first time we used it they rolled themselves back in…”
“…Well I guess we got our proof.” Scootaloo said. “That was pretty fast actu- what are you doing?” She asked as Sweetie Belle gathered up the dice back into the cup and moved to the toy and games corner, rummaging around the pile.
“Getting another dice and cup.” Sweetie Belle answered.
“Why?” Scootaloo asked.
“To test with.” Sweetie Belle answered carrying a single red colored die and small blue cup with her.
“Oh no we agreed to test until we had proof for Twilight that these things are weird. We got that.” Scootaloo denied going so far as to put a hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder to try and stop her.
“I just want to see if it’s the dice and the cup or just one or the other.” Sweetie Belle explained as she set the carefully took the cup with the dice and poured them into the smaller blue cup.
“What’s goin’ on? What happened?” Apple Bloom asked as she returned.
“The die teleported back into the cup. We’re trying it with a different cup, take this.” Sweetie Belle explained as she tipped the blue cup over enough for a single die to fall out, away from any of them naturally.
“Why?” Apple Bloom asked, not moving to pick up the single die.
“She’s lost her mind.” Scootaloo declared. “These things have driven her crazy.”
“I’m not crazy I’m just-” A cracking sound drew their attention away from each other and they looked down at the blue cup of dice.
Originally smaller both in height and width than the original green container it was now somehow stretching upward and outward of its own volition, the cracking sounds betraying the visually unhindered process. As it stretched splotches of green began to erupt along its body, spreading rapidly like a virus. Soon, after roughly 14 seconds, the process was complete and they had an identical green cup next to the original, the dice remaining in their new home.
“…Huh.” Sweetie Belle said after a moment. “Guess it is just the dice.”
“That’s it we’re stoppin’ this and goin’ to Twilight.” Apple Bloom decided and moved to gather up the dice which Sweetie Belle suddenly moved against her protectively.
“No we still have to see if you can add more dice!” She argued and Scootaloo snapped.
“And how are you going to test that Sweetie Belle!?” She yelled getting into her face. “You gonna roll them at us?!”
“What?! No!” Sweetie Belle answered horrified.
“Then how would ya find out Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Well… maybe it would have reacted in some way. Like they would have thrown the new dice out of the cup or something…” She trailed off looking down.
“Sweetie we got what we need, it’s not our job to figure out how these things work. If Twilight is right about them not being magic then I’d say it would be impossible anyway.” Scootaloo comforted. “Let’s just take the dice and the clown nose to Twilight, show them to her, and then answer whatever questions she or whoever handles these things asks and go on with our lives.”
“…I just wanted to know why it attacked me. Or why that nose pushed Juggles so far.” Sweetie Belle confessed softly. “I thought that maybe we could fix them somehow.”
“Ah don’t think they got a reason Sweetie.” Apple Bloom suggested plainly. “They just do what they do.”
“But how are we going to prove that the nose is weird?” Sweetie Belle asked looking up. “It apparently only works when you’re wearing it and that would mean we’d have to…” She trailed off.
“No.” Scootaloo denied firmly. “That thing messes with your head, we have no idea what it could really be capable of or whatever it does to you goes away completely when you take it off.” That was certainly true. Aside from some basic news they hadn’t heard any news about Juggle’s condition other than it had been a very close call. “So there’s no way any of us are going to put it on.”
“Actually yeah!” Apple Bloom yelled and her friends looked quizzically at her. “Let’s swear right now that we will never test or use these things on any pony or other livin’ thing.”
“Aye.” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo agreed, copying what voters always said when they approved something in the stories they’d read.
“Right,” Apple Bloom said nodding to the new cup of dice, “let’s get it, the nose, and another cup and load up the scooter. Twilight will just have to trust us on the nose.” She looked each of her friends in the eye. “Let’s go show Twilight.”
Rocky Bottom briefly set down the flashlight that he had been gripping with his mouth and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hoof. He opened them to find the dark ocean waters just as they were, lightening dancing on the horizon as a storm loomed threateningly having appeared seemingly from nowhere a few hours ago, and bit down on the flashlight again, going back to searching the dark water. He and Sea Farer had put a halt to their fishing as soon as they had noticed that Salty was gone and had been circling this same stretch of sea for the past day and a half searching for him. Predictably they had found nothing.
‘This is fucking ridiculous he wasn’t even wearing a life preserver.’ Rocky thought to himself. ‘We got to get back to Sea Stable before the storm hits and organize a proper search party. Get some unicorns to do some fancy life sensing magic in the water.’ A wave suddenly lifted the boat up and nearly threw Rocky into the air as it went back down. And if the string of curses from the bow was any indication it had struck Sea Farer pretty hard as well.
“What’s wrong kid? Thought you’d have your sea legs by now.” A scratchy and croaked voice said behind him and Rocky swung around and dropped his flashlight at what he found. Salty stood there, leaning against the railing and his coat soaked through and sickly looking after being in the sea water for so long. His lips cracking and eyes red as he struggled to breath out his words. “What? Never seen a water logged sailor before?”
“Sea, SEA FARER! HE’S BACK!” She yelled something back but Rocky didn’t listen as he continued to stare at Salty Sea, not even bothering to look at his captain as she stormed from the bow and found them.
“What in Tartarus happened!?” She demanded as she rushed to Salty’s side, lifting his head to look him in the eyes. "How did you fall of the boat!? How’d you get back on?!"
“…My Lady.” He answered with a smile and something drew Rocky’s attention to Salty’s throat.
“…What?” She asked confused not noticing what made Rocky Bottom begin to scream.
Salty Sea’s throat began to expand exponentially to accommodate whatever was moving around inside, his flesh rising and sinking in movement. Sea Farer managed to scream as Salty opened his mouth wider than any pony should have right to able to and a plethora of tentacles shot out, the slimy appendages worming their way into her mouth and holding her head in place. Rocky stood stock still in fear as Salty’s mouth opened wider, to the point it looked like he could swallow Sea Farer’s head whole.
It wasn’t until the tentacles started pulling her in that Rocky realized that was exactly what was happening.
Rocky turned and ran when her eyes screamed at him for help, or rather when a number of smaller tentacles wormed there way around her eye balls to get at what lay behind. He was halfway up the stairs when the sound of a splash reached his ears, Salty taking Sea Farer into the sea most likely but he didn’t stop to look. He stormed into the navigator’s room and slammed and locked the door behind him in a panic before he fumbled with the wheel and instruments trying to get the boat going back to land and away from whatever nightmare cursed these waters, tears in his eyes as he cried like a child afraid of whatever monster lurked in a shadowy corner ready to eat him.
SCP-001-A returning to SCP-001-B after being activated.
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001 is to be kept in a secured lockbox at Site 7 with SCP-001-A and SCP-001-B kept separate, transportation is to be done the same way to avoid accidental activation. If any instance of SCP-001-A is missing SCP-001-B may be transported out of the facility until a retrieval event occurs and the missing SCP-001-A instance is recovered. No other precautions are necessary at this time. (See Incident Report SCP-001-01)
Description: SCP-001 is the collective term for a set of five (5) game dice, SCP-001-A, and a green plastic cup, SCP-001-B, that holds the dice. When all five (5) instances of SCP-001-A are rolled out of SCP-001-B towards any sapient being within the visual range of 10 meters by another sapient being the total value of the roll will result in an immediate physical attack by an unseen and undetectable force.
Rolls towards multiple subjects, the dice being rolled out separately, those beyond the maximum range of 10 meters, or those standing 90 degrees to the side of the direction the dice were rolled result in no anomalous effects.
After the damage has been done all instances of SCP-001-A will animate and roll themselves back into SCP-001-B if they share a surface. If SCP-001-B is kept out of reach of SCP-001-A they will enter an idle state until SCP-001-B is placed onto the same surface at which point they will animate again.
Any number of SCP-001-A instances taken farther than 100 meters will result in the affected instances to “blink” out of existence and return to the base of SCP-001-B. Tracking spells have proven ineffective at pinpointing location during teleportation.
If at least three (3) instances of SCP-001-A are moved to a new cup or cup-like object the cup will undergo a physical transformation into SCP-001-B and will inherit all of the anomalous properties of the previous SCP-001-B. Previous instances of SCP-001-B display no anomalous properties and may be stored in the Site 7 break room or claimed by staff for personal use. Cup-like objects made of SCP-871 have proven immune to this effect.
Overview of Roll Results
5: Subject is slapped across the face 6: Subject is shoved against the nearest wall or furniture 7: Subject is lifted into the air and hurled against the nearest wall. Force is strong enough to cause light bruising 8: Subject is punched in the face. Force is strong enough to cause bruising 9: Subject described a deep clawing sensation across their face. No markings are present 10: Subject is lifted off the ground and slammed repeatedly against the ground for ten (10) seconds. Force is strong enough to cause heavy bruising 11: Subject is stabbed in the shoulder. A four (4) cm across and two (2) cm deep stab wound is present under their coat/fur/scales 12: One of Subject’s fore limbs is fractured 13: Subject is clawed deeply in the face. (See Addendum A-1) 14: Subject has several teeth pulled out. Subject’s lacking teeth have their tongue ripped out 15: One of Subjects’ limbs is broken at a ninety (90) degree angle 16: Thin strips of Subjects’ face are torn off. (See Addendum A-1) 17: Subjects’ chest and stomach are forced open 18: Subjects’ chest and stomach are forced open from the inside 19: Subjects’ jaw is ripped off and flung across the room 20: Subjects’ jaw is ripped off and shoved down their throat 21: Subjects’ skull is crushed as if in a vice 22: Subjects’ skin is quickly flayed form their body 23: Subject is decapitated. (See Addendum A-1) 24: Subjects’ skin is slowly flayed from their body 25: Subjects’ limbs and other appendages are ripped off one by one and flung around the room. Horns or horn like protrusions are typically broken off and used to stab Subject until death 26: Subject is vivisected and organs are methodically pulled out and piled over the course of an hour 27: [DATA EXPUNGED] 28: [DATA EXPUNGED] 29: Similar to Roll 28 but Subject was revealed to be still alive for thirty (30) minutes after his internal organs were [DATA EXPUNGED] 30: See Incident Report 001-01
Acquisition: *In accordance with The Founder’s wishes all objects acquired before The Foundation’s creation are to have their acquisition treated as Level 3 information by default.*
Incident Report 001-01: During a routine testing session Assistant Researcher Dr. [REDACTED] accidentally left the microphone on to the testing chamber and D-001-72 was able to overhear the overview of the test results and pointed out that they had missed one. He claimed that he had rolled a 30 on D-001-75 and that the minotaur had simply vanished. No evidence has been found of D-001-75 existence in Foundation records despite D-001-72 giving very descriptive accounts and shared stories working with him on SCP-068. Use of SCP-592 has determined that he is telling the truth.
Experimentation to see if SCP-001 has reality warping or memory altering capabilities are now being considered and further testing is to be with extensive background checks on D-Class to mitigate possible damage in their cessation of existence.
Addendum A-1: During Containment Breach 7-12 SCP-003 was moved into the secure storage room that contained SCP-001 for the duration of the time it took to secure SCP-039. Following this the attacks on Rolls 13, 16, and 23 are consistent with those of SCP-003. Questioning of SCP-003 into how he was able to infect SCP-001 is underway.
“Hooboy.” Apple Bloom breathed as they stopped in front of the Golden Oak Library, home to the resident Librarian, Personal Student of Princess Celestia, and Element of Magic Twilight Sparkle. They shifted nervously as they unloaded the chest containing the cup of dice and the clown nose out of their wagon and replaced it with their helmets, cautiously eyeing the glances they were getting from passing ponies. “You guys ready?”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo confirmed as she and Sweetie Belle lifted the chest off the ground and lugged it onto the front step.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Sweetie Belle agreed and with a nod Apple Bloom pushed the front door of the Library open and they stepped inside, dragging the chest with their unusual cargo in with them.
Twilight was standing with her back to them pulling books off the shelf with her magic, quickly flipping through the pages and muttering to herself before she carefully replaced them with others, failing to find whatever she was searching for. They glanced around and found themselves alone, Spike absent from the room but not necessarily out of the Library. Good, they didn’t want to have to come up with a reason to get anypony to leave.
“Hoo!” A noise came from their right and they looked over to see an owl peering at them from an empty book stand.
“Hmm?” Twilight hummed as she turned around and saw them. “Oh hello girls!” She welcomed warmly, carefully putting the books back. “I see you’ve met Owlowiscious.” She introduced as the owl flew from the book stand to land on her back.
“When did you get an owl?” Sweetie Belle asked as they closed the door behind them and Scootaloo noted where the lock was to be safe.
“Oh he flew in the night of the Centennial Meteor Shower after a report I was writing flew out the window.” Twilight explained as Applebloom wandered over to the nearest window and anxiously stood next to the cord that controlled the curtains. “It was rather chilly out so I asked him to stay and now he’s my late night assistant!” She announced happily as Applebloom fiddled with the curtain cord with her hoof and Scootaloo moved to do the same with another window, leaving Sweetie Belle to cover the door. “Spike was a little jealous but they worked out their problems.” Owlowiscious hoo’d in agreement and stretched his wings. “Didn’t Rarity or Applejack tell you any of this? I introduced him to the whole group.” Twilight wondered.
“We’ve uh, been kinda busy lately.” Applebloom dodged. “Where uh is Spike exactly?”
“Oh he’s at the post office dropping off an order for a regular supply of mice.” Twilight answered and got confused looks in return. “Owlowiscious has got to eat and I think it’d be better if he didn’t hunt around Ponyville. He might accidentally kill one of Fluttershy’s rodents.”
“And how long will he be gone?” Scootaloo asked, shifting in place.
“Oh he just left so it should only be a few minutes. Why?” Twilight asked eyeing their spread-out position and anxious movement. “Is something wrong?” The three fillies glanced at each other and all simultaneously drew the curtains over their respective window and locked the door. Before Twilight could voice a question at their actions Sweetie Belle opened the chest and carefully pulled out the cup of dice along with a smaller blue cup, leaving the clown nose inside. When she saw the familiar green cup Twilight sighed and walked over to them. “Girls I thought we had been over this. There’s nothing magical or dangerous about that cup or the dice!”
Without saying a word Sweetie Belle turned and rolled the dice out of the cup towards a book shelf after Applebloom and Scootaloo had safely gotten behind her. Then taking the dice in her hoof she dropped them into the blue cup and waited. “Girls I don’t know what you’re try-” Twilight was cut off as a cracking sound filled the air and she looked down at cup and her eyes went wide when she saw it begin to rise in height and expand in width. Her mouth dropped and Owlowiscious took flight to the rafters when the green splotches appeared all around its sides, spreading outward rapidly and consuming its blue color. Soon all that was left was an identical green cup to the first holding the five dice.
“Told ya we weren’t lyin’.” Applebloom said triumphantly as Twilight just continued to stare at the cup.
“I- I don’t know what to say.” Twilight finally got out as she called forth her magic to levitate the two identical cups in front of her. “When I ran the tests there was no evidence of magical alteration of any kind!” The magic holding the cup with the dice flashed and then settled back to the standard magenta color of Twilights magic and she frowned. “And there’s still nothing!” She whispered as she started to pace around the library.
“Uh Twilight?” Scootaloo asked as the lavender unicorn began to mutter to herself and started pulling books off the shelves and scouring their content. “We sorta got another one.” That snapped her out of whatever trance she had been under.
“What?!” She yelled as she nearly bowled over them, the girls backing up instinctually as she brought the cup of dice close to them. “Where did you find it? What does it do?!”
“Are you okay Twilight?” Sweetie Belle asked cautiously as they pushed the chest away a little.
“Yeah you’re freaking out more than Sweetie Belle did.” Scootaloo threw in and got a glare from the unicorn filly in return.
“You just don’t get what this means!” Twilight said. “This defies the laws of magic! There is seemingly no magical force causing these actions to take place or any sign that anything magical has happened at all!” She explained in a quick voice. “Even the Everfree Forest has the barest minimum of magic to allow for an explanation of how it can exist, even if we’ve found no guiding force that makes the animals take care of themselves or the weather to form.” She held up the cup of dice. “Magic can physically alter any object but only if a continuous supply is given to maintain it. Otherwise it will simply revert to its original form but,” she stopped and brought the cup closer to herself, “there is no supply of magic to maintain this. It should be a smaller blue cup again. It has been permanently and physically changed forever!” The three fillies all shared a look at Twilights behavior. They had expected some confusion, a few questions, and then writing Princess Celestia. It was disturbing to see Twilights entire faith in the natural order and laws of magic be shaken up so badly by a small demonstration of a minor effect.
“And the other stuff you said it does!” Twilight continued seemingly reading their minds. “What does it use to attack ponies and how does it know what to do on what rolls? What guides the dice back into the cup after it does that? How does it even know what was rolled?!” Twilight went back to pacing around, swinging the cup wildly enough to set the girls on edge.
“The dice also teleport back into the cup if taken far enough away.” Sweetie Belle added. “No big flash of magic or anything they just blink in and out of existence.”
“What?!” Twilight stopped and swung her head back at them.
“Now why did ya tell her that?!” Applebloom chastised. “Now look at her.” She gestured to Twilight as she began muttering to herself again and magically calling forth a multitude of books that began to spin around her as she searched for answers.
“I thought I was being helpful! We came to tell her about these things so why shouldn’t I have told her about the teleporting?” Sweetie Belle defended as Twilight opened a closet door and pulled a wheeled chalkboard out, quickly making rough diagrams about the cup and dice. Applebloom sighed and motioned for them to follow her as they approached Twilight.
“Uh Twilight?” She said trying to get the frantic unicorns’ attention. “Ya remember when ya heard about Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense and ya realized that sometimes ya don’t have to understand somethin’ to believe that it’s true?”
“Is that what happened?” Scootaloo whispered to Sweetie Belle. “Whenever they talk about that I only listen to the part about the hydra.” Sweetie merely shushed her as Twilight turned to face them.
“That… that is true.” Twilight consented and the multitude of spinning objects around her slowed. “But I accepted it because I gave up and couldn’t handle the stress of the impossibility in front of me.” She said and the objects spun up again. “I can’t do that again, I need to find out how and why this works. I need to find the logic in it.” She turned around and smiled at them and held her head high. “I need to test!”
“…See?” Sweetie Belle said to her friends. “Told you testing was the right idea.”
“Oh shut up.” Scootaloo denied her friend any kind of victory given that Twilight was more than a little unhinged right now. “Twilight we came here so you could send a letter to Princess Celestia asking who we could pass these things off to.” Scootaloo stepped forward and finally gave the reason they were there.
“I don’t think anypony handles these sort of things girls.” Twilight answered. “But I’d be happy to take them off your hooves so I can study them myself.” She offered eagerly and they all backed away a little to their chest which still held the clown nose.
“No no that’s okay.” Applebloom rejected for them as they all put on nervous smiles. “We’ll just uh let Princess Celestia decide, ah mean these are very important discoveries right?”
“You’re right!” Twilight gasped and the three fillies all breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ll send a letter to her as soon as Spike gets back. Now what was this other discovery you made?” Twilight asked moving over to the chest and the girls all tensed up at letting her near their other object in her current condition.
Luckily they were saved when a knock came to the library door.
“Oh please be Spike.” Scootaloo whispered as Twilight set aside all of her books and the cup of dice which Sweetie Belle quickly retrieved and put back into the chest, closing the lid for good measure. It was not Spike.
“This is your singing telegram I hope it finds you well!” Pinkie Pie sang as she danced in front of the library wearing a party hat and a red clown nose. The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers opened the chest to make sure that their clown nose was still inside which thankfully it was. “You're invited to a party 'cause we think you're really swell!” Twilight and the three young fillies watched in silence as Pinkie went through a whole routine with her pet alligator Gummy. “It won't be the same without you so we hope that you say yes! So, please, oh please R.S.V.P and come, and be our guest!” She finished with a burst of confetti coming from somewhere.
“You’re… throwing a birthday party for Gummy?” Twilight asked speculatively eyeing the tiny reptile at her hooves as he chewed on a piece of confetti.
“Uh-Duh! Didn’t you listen to my song?” Pinkie Pie asked as she poked her head into the library. “So will you come? It’d mean the world to Gummy!” She assured holding up the blankly staring alligator.
“Of course I’ll come Pinkie Pie.” Twilight agreed and began to close the door. “Now I’m sure you need to go invite everypony else so I won’t keep you.” They all sighed in relief when the door closed and they were alone with their dangerous and mysterious objects.
“Oh I’ve got a few minutes!” Pinkie said popping out their chest with Gummy cradled in her mane and nearly giving everypony a heart attack. Wondering how she had gotten inside the chest took a back seat as girls saw what Pinkie was holding. “What are you guys doing?” On her left hoof was the clown nose and on her right was the cup of dice. “Nothing!” Twilight shouted and everypony winced. “Um, nothing.” She lowered her voice considerably. “So you can just go and please put those down.”
“Yes please.” The girls all said together as they inched towards her, ready to leap and take them from her if necessary.
“Are you okay Twilight?” Pinkie asked climbing out of the chest and thankfully setting the cup of dice down which the girls quickly gathered up. “You seem kinda nervous.” Twilight recoiled from the clown nose sending a silent question to the girls that they answered with a nod of their heads. She didn’t know what the clown nose did but if it was anything like the cup she didn’t want to see it. “You gotta learn how to relax!”
Time slowed for The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers as Pinkie’s fore leg shot out and slipped the clown nose onto Twilights’ as they screamed for her to stop. Two things happened in the next instant. First was that Twilights’ body went slack for a brief moment and her eyes dilated. The second was that Gummy and Owlowiscious promptly lost their shit.
The baby alligator stood atop Pinkies’ mane and made the most threatening sounds it could muster as Owlowiscious flew down from the rafters screeching and started clawing the air in front of her. “Ahh! What’s going on?!” Pinkie cried as Owlowiscious backed up into her. The girls didn’t bother to answer her as they rushed over to and rip the nose off of Twilight, jumping up and flailing their fore legs to try and knock it off. They got in a good couple of tries before Twilights magic enveloped them and they were thrown into the air, screaming when the magic left them and they started to fall only for Twilight to catch them with her hoofs and throw them back into the air to juggle them.
“Pinkie!” Sweetie Belle yelled flailing in the air. “Knock the nose off!”
“Or at least give her something else to juggle!” Scootaloo added.
“What’s going on?!” Pinkie asked, looking at Twilights’ please smile as she juggled. “Where did you learn to juggle Twilight?!” She asked not quite getting the main point the girls were trying to get across as Twilight just shrugged.
“No idea Pinkie.” Twilight smiled. “But please call me Bit Savvy right for now.” That got through to Pinkie.
“Bit Savvy? That’s Juggles performance name!” Pinkie said. “Twilight if The Equestrian Clown Association finds out that you’re using Juggles name while he’s in the hospital you’re going to get into big trouble!”
“Pinkie for the love of Celestia just knock the nose off!” Applebloom ordered and Pinkie Pie finally walked forward and pushed the screeching Owlowiscious out of the way and smacked the nose off of Twilight. The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers all cried as Twilight suddenly stopped juggling and they fell to the ground in a heap.
“Oh I’m sorry girls!” Twilight apologized and helped them up. “I’m not very good at the finishing act I see.” She said as the girls scampered to their feet, Scootaloo rushing off and getting the clown nose.
“What?” Sweetie Belle asked dumbfounded. “Don’t you realize what you just did?”
“Yeah I juggled you girls.” Twilight said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I’m sorry if I caused any kind of discomfort but I felt it’d be entertaining for you if you were in on the act.”
“…What?!” Applebloom asked after a moment of silence. “I… I can’t take this anymore. Twilight can you just write the letter to Princess Celestia?” She asked wearily and slumped to the ground as Gummy and Owlowiscious settled down.
“Sure, although I’m glad that only one of your objects is actually weird.” Twilight said as she levitated a quill and parchment over to her writing stand. The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers couldn’t even find in themselves to be surprised at Twilight denying that the clown nose had affected her.
“We messed up.” Sweetie Belle whispered. “We messed up bad. Look at her.” She said pointing at Twilight as she happily hummed, completely different than how’d she’d been a mere minute and a half ago and Pinkie just standing there confused out of her mind.
“I don’t get it.” Pinkie confessed. “What just happened?”
“You don’t want to know.” Scootaloo said and fell back onto the ground and sighed. “So all we did this trip was drive Twilight insane right?”
“…It could be reversible.” Sweetie Belle ventured with a sliver of hope that nopony shared. "Oh by Celestia we screwed up Twilight." She started to cry at being responsible for possibly losing one of their friends forever.
“Hey Twilight I’m back!” Spike announced as he walked in. “Why are the shades drawn? And what you guys doing here?” He asked as he looked around the library at the assembled ponies and animals.
“I don’t know.” Pinkie said as she walked out. “I’m, I’m going to go give out the rest of the invitations for Gummy’s party.” And with that the hyperactive pink pony of Ponyville left scratching her head.
“What happened while I was gone?” Spike asked aloud moving to look at the letter was writing. “Did you learn a Friendship Lesson or something?”
“No but this can go to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said sealing the letter and handing it to him.
“Um, okay.” He said and moved to the nearest window, opened it, and blew out his magical fire letting it consume the letter. “So what was the letter about?”
“Oh it turns out that the cup that hurts ponies the girls found actually does work by breaking nearly every rule of magic.” Twilight answered happily as she gestured to the exhausted fillies who weakly waved to Spike.
“…What?” Spike said before he leaned over and puked out a stream of fire and a response from Princess Celestia. “Uh, that was fast. What does it say?” He asked as Twilight unrolled it and the girls got up and tried to read over Twilights’ shoulder.
We’ll be right there
“What does that mean?” Applebloom asked before there was a flash of light outside the library that even the curtains could smother and the ground shook. Everypony in the Golden Oak Library turned to the door as it swung open and Princess Celestia and Luna walked in, followed by a pair of Royal Guards. Everypony stilled and shrunk under their gaze as they scanned the library.
“Where are they?” Princess Luna said, making her first appearance in public since she was stripped of Nightmare Moon’s influence. The girls nervously pointed at the chest in the center of the room and the Royal Guards immediately secured it, carrying it outside with them.
“Now then.” Princess Celestia said as she gazed down and examined at The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers who huddled together and shivered a little at how cold her normally warm look was. “How exactly did you get those Cutie Marks?”
“Well?” Princess Celestia asked as the three young fillies remained silent and huddled together, doing their best to not meet their princesses’ cold gazes that stared right through them. The girls all looked to each other than around the library before they started speaking. Twilight was still smiling to herself, seemingly content with the situation as Spike just threw glances between Twilight and Princess Celestia as if expecting some greater reaction from Twilight.
“Do… do ya know what it means?” Applebloom asked, nervously stepping forward and speaking for her friends.
“Yes.” Princess Luna answered simply. “How did you get them?” She repeated her sister’s question sternly as they shook at the voice of the former Nightmare Moon. Looking at her right now they couldn’t be sure Twilight and the others and completely cleansed her.
“We… we we’re out crusadin’ for our Cutie Marks one day and we found the dice in a box!” Applebloom babbled. “We took it back to our clubhouse and ah accidentally tipped it over and made it hurt Sweetie Belle and then we ran to get Twilight and she ran same tests but said that there was nothing magical about them and then they took us to the hospital when they found out we fell out of a tree!” She stopped to take a breath. “We argued on what to do with it and decided to just lock it inside a chest until we could figure out what to do and when we did our Cutie Marks appeared!”
“Anything else?” Princess Celestia pushed, still cold and distant.
“We also put a note warning anypony against taking it if they found it.” Sweetie Belle added and a look flickered between Princess Celestia and Luna.
“Did you say how dangerous it was? Or give instructions on how it should be contai-?” Princess Luna asked turning her attention to Sweetie Belle.
“Did you give it a number?” Princess Celestia asked suddenly cutting off her sister. The tone of the question made it clear that something hinged on their answer and they were afraid of what they suspected. But surely the Princesses wouldn’t go that far with an unsatisfactory answer right?
“No!” Sweetie Belle answered quickly. “We just said that it’s dangerous and that you shouldn’t mess with it!” There were a few moments of silence as the Princesses simply gazed at them, deliberating on what to do silently. Or telepathically but that could just be the panicked imagination of children. Finally Princess Celestia stepped forward and motioned them towards her and with trembling steps they went to her, leaving a confused Spike and still happy Twilight behind.
“Girls what you found were… anomalies.” She revealed to them gently. “Despite the laws of nature, magic, or science they exist, sometimes with no evidence of how they came into being.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “They’ve been around for as long as we can remember.”
“So, there are just these weird things out there?” Scootaloo asked with a small voice. “Popping up out of nowhere every now and then?”
“Not just anomalous objects.” Luna corrected. “Strange phenomena, entities, and places. Ponies and other races with unbelievable abilities. Impossible creatures and monsters. Unknowable machinery or magic’s. Gateways to alternate dimensions.” She paused for a moment as the Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers tried to wrap their heads around what they just heard, minds filling with strange and terrifying possibilities. “And occasionally aliens too. I swear you change it so the solar system orbits your planet and suddenly you’re the most interesting thing in the universe.”
“But, but what does this have to do with our Cutie Mark’s?” Applebloom brought up, hoping to finally have the answer to their question. Although from what she had heard so far their special talent and future didn’t sound… normal.
“…How well do you know the story of how Equestria was founded?” Princess Celestia asked the young children. “Specifically about The Windigo’s?”
“They caused the blizzard that nearly destroyed the three tribe’s right? Because they hated each other and fed The Windigo’s power.” Sweetie Belle answered, doing her best to remember the story from the Hearts Warming Eve pageant that was put on every year.
“When we first came upon you ponies we were perplexed at how your world could be dying in an unending blizzard.” Princess Luna spoke drawing the girl’s and Spikes’ attention, Twilight still carefree as could be. “The Windigo’s are simple spirits, feeding off of the lack of friendship and easy to counteract with simple negotiation. But then we discovered why. The knowledge of them and The Magic of Friendship had been kept from you.”
“We were going from town to town, or what was left of them, seeking out those ponies that survived and could be helped. We taught them The Magic of Friendship and helped end the blizzard, through this they gained knowledge of their innate magic’s and developed their own cutie marks just as we had.” Celestia continued. “We don’t know how long they observed us before they made their move but,” she pointed to their flanks where their black cutie marks rested, “they bore that symbol.”
“Who were they?” Scootaloo asked as she glanced at her cutie mark, a sinking feeling in her gut.
“The Foundation.” Princess Luna answered letting the simple title hang in the air. “A group dedicated to capturing, studying, and protecting anomalies. And what they thought were anomalies that could have been easily explained if they took the time to listen to us about The Magic of Friendship. To see what the ponies we had saved from The Windigo’s saw.”
“They studied them?” Sweetie Belle asked stepping forward as Applebloom and Scootaloo shot each other a worried look. “Did they ever figure out how some of them worked?”
“…They had an Explained category we believe.” Princess Luna said as she and her sister now examined Sweetie Belle very closely. “But from what we gathered it was mostly used to cover for their screw ups.”
“What happened to them?” Sweetie Belle asked oblivious to the curious gazes the princesses were giving her as Applebloom and Scootaloo nervously shook in place.
“We destroyed them.” Princess Celestia announced simply. “It wasn’t easy either, but the Windigo’s Blizzard was hard on them and they couldn’t communicate with each other.” Her features darkened as she remembered something that they guessed deeply troubled her. “They were desperate enough to unleash some of their caged anomalies on us when…” She trailed off and shook her head clean of the memory. “It doesn’t matter, what matters is that we make sure you girls won’t fall into the same failings as The Foundation.”
“What, what do ya mean?” Applebloom said as she and Scootaloo nervously crept forward to stand next to Sweetie Belle. “Why’d you destroy them?” They must have done something terrible for the Princesses to bring down such a harsh punishment, one that Modern Equestria didn’t really have anymore. A dark terrible thought suddenly crossed across her mind as she wondered what would happen to them if they “failed” like The Foundation. Surely the Princesses wouldn’t… have them killed?
“We found their goals and methods… unacceptable.” Princess Luna explained with a scowl. “They conducted live tests with the anomalies on helpless ponies, griffons, minotaur’s, and even dragons! The horrors we found in their labs were unbelievable, all in the name of understanding that which by definition is impossible to understand! We could not allow it to continue.” The Princess of the Night stood to her full height and looked down at them so they fully understood her. “There is only one way to handle anomalies. They must be destroyed, no exceptions.”
“…Told you.” Scootaloo said after a moment of silence as Sweetie Belle just sputtered.
“D-destroy?! B-bu-t!” She tried to force out only for Applebloom to kick her and silence her.
“Girls when… if you find any more anomalies do not attempt to capture or approach them. Send us a message through Spike and we’ll teleport a team to handle it okay?” Princess Celestia asked suddenly turning back to the warm and nurturing monarch that the nation knew and loved. Still nervous and confused at all the information that had been dumped on them The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers simply nodded as one and the Princess of the Sun smiled and turned to her faithful student. “Now Twilight I’m sure you’re full of questions but I thank you for holding back while I explained everything to the girls.”
“Nope I’m fine.” Twilight assured with a simple wave that made Spike’s mouth drop, or perhaps it had dropped long ago and they had simply not noticed, and Princess Celestia snap to attention.
“You’re… fine? You’ve got no questions?” Twilight simply nodded in confirmation as Celestia raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Oh yeah…” Scootaloo started to say. “Um, when Pinkie Pie was here she kinda… um,” She started to close up as the Princesses gaze turned hard and questioning, “sheputthenoseonTwilightandshethoughtshewasBitSavvyTheDancingClownforawhile!” The Princesses eyes widened and they snapped a glance at each other before Celestia smiled and turned back to Twilight.
“Twilight would you come over here please?” The Princess asked and Twilight happily trotted over smiling up at her teacher and idol with smile that belonged on a child. “Thank you.” Celestia said as her horn glowed and Twilight seized up for a moment before her eyes closed and she collapsed to the ground in a heap.
“Twilight!” Spike cried out as he ran to his friend/boss/whatever. “What’d you do to her?!” He demanded of the alicorn as he held Twilight’s head up and tried to wake her.
“A simple memory erasure spell. Hopefully the anomalous effects on her will be wiped away along with her memory of today.” Princess Celestia answered soothingly to the panicking dragon. “But just to be sure we’ll be taking Twilight back with us and giving her a full checkup. Can you stay here and manage the library until we send her home?” The Princess kneeled down to the young dragon to comfort him.
“Um yeah sure I guess.” He answered as he carefully stepped away from Twilight and let Celestia levitate her into the air.
“Did Pinkie Pie say where she was going?” Princess Luna asked the girls. “We will need to speak with her about what she saw and wipe her memory if need be.” She answered frankly at the notion of more memory wipes.
“She said she was going to go invite the others to a party for Gummy. Her pet alligator.” Sweetie Belle answered and clarified when Luna gave a raised eyebrow at the name.
“Very well, I’ll have the guards head her off and make sure she didn’t mention Twilight’s oddity to anypony else.” Luna said to her sister as she turned as made for the library’s exit.
“Do you understand girls?” Princess Celestia asked them as they snapped back to her, worried about what effect all this memory wiping would have on their friends. “Do not attempt to capture or contain anymore anomalies no matter how benign they seem. They’re very existence is a threat to the world and they must be handled by us. I know it will be difficult to ignore your special talents for so long but wait until you’re older and we can give you the proper training.”
“So, our Cutie Marks are about catching anomalies?” Applebloom asked for clarification, the answer of what their Cutie Marks meant finally being presented to them.
“Oh yes, I never answered that question did I?” Celestia smiled as Luna left the library, daylight briefly illuminating the room. “Although we have never seen Cutie Marks like yours before I would say that yes, your special talents seem to be around securing and containing anomalies.” She stepped toward them, making sure to levitate Twilight out of the way and kneeling down to their level. “You’re going to be fine girls, just remember what we told you. Your path may be strange and dark but we will guide you down it.” With those comforting words The Cutie Mark Anomaly Catchers relaxed and smiled for the first time since they had entered the library only a dozen minutes earlier.
With a final goodbye Princess Celestia left carrying Twilight in her magical grip as the girls and Spike were left to sit silently in the dark library. Soon there was a boom and flash of light of the Princesses departing; news already spreading around Ponyville of their sudden arrival and departure with an unconscious Twilight, leaving behind a pair of guards that the rumor mill told spent the rest of the day chasing Pinkie Pie down.
“Crud!” Scootaloo suddenly cried startling the others. “We forgot to tell them about Juggles!”
Celestia watched as the doctors took Twilight away, a heavy feeling of dread in her gut praying that whatever that clown nose had done to her was reversible or at least treatable. Luna turned to look at her as the parade of anomalous medical specialists left the room leaving them with just the “special” guards who were vaguely aware of the anomalous happenings that sometimes needed their attention. Like the chest that had come back with the Princesses which they delicately carried with them afraid of what could be inside.
“I want a team sent down to Ponyville to watch them.” Luna said simply.
“Don’t be rash Luna.” Celestia countered as she turned to face her sister. “They’re just three fillies.”
“Three fillies with Cutie Marks exactly like The Foundation’s symbol! That by itself is anomalous but their special talents are capturing anomalies! No pony before has ever had any talents specifying in anomalous matters.” Luna shot back angrily at the risk her sister was taking underestimating a possible anomaly. “They made a document explaining what those dice do and how to contain them. That’s exactly what The Foundation did for their anomalies!”
“It’s hardly the same thing Luna.” Celestia responded calmly. “The Foundation never filled out their documents with crayon for one.”
“Stop taking this so lightly!” Luna shouted. “They found two anomalous objects in just as many weeks! You said that the guards only find one every three months! That’s not normal and don’t you dare say that they got lucky!” She cut off her sister before she began. “They could be unknowingly luring them in or even creating them for all we know!”
“Luna calm down.” Celestia soothed as she put a hoof on her sisters shoulder.
“Don’t tell me to calm down this is serious!” Luna responded by swatting her sisters hoof away. “You weren’t on the moon; you didn’t see the facility The Foundation had there. They were more resourceful and crafty than we ever gave them credit for. We can’t allow them to come back just because their new founders are three little fillies right now.”
“We have no way of knowing if their Cutie Marks have any relation on their feelings for anomalous objects.” Celestia argued calmly. “And until we have proof of increased anomalous activity in Ponyville from either their or our sightings I won’t consider them anomaly generators. These aren’t the days of The Inquisition Luna; we can’t go accusing or killing ponies for supposed anomalous abilities until we have proof.” Luna narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to retort but instead just grunted and stomped away.
Celestia sighed as her sister stormed away angrily and brought a hoof to rub away her growing headache. “Send those items down to the mages for testing and destruction.” She ordered to the guards holding the chest. They saluted with their free legs and marched away soon leaving Celestia alone. “Please be nothing.” She whispered to herself as her mind drifted back thousands of years when she had last seen the symbol of The Foundation. When she had known them as those masters of horror that had managed things that still filled her nightmares millennium later with neat little boxes or elaborate rituals. When she had arrived at a world that had known her and Luna as both Savior and Conqueror.
When they had known her simply as SCP-1873-A.
“Holy shit.” South Wind muttered to herself as the small speck she had spotted in the distance grew into a familiar boat as she flew closer. The ship rocked gently in the waves more or less intact after days at sea and weathering a storm but as she descended South Wind saw no crew. “Sea Farer! Rocky Bottom! You guys here?!” She yelled as she descended to the deck of the ship her wings aching as she tucked them to her sides. The ship remained quite as she walked along, holding her nose as she peeked into the hold and caught a whiff of all the dead fish inside.
‘Well there goes that catch. But where the hell are they?’ It wasn’t like the entire crew could have fallen overboard could they? ‘If they had that’d be a fucking stupid way to die.’ She thought as she made her way up to the navigator’s room and peeking around the drawn curtain on the window. A leg poked out the corner of her vision connected to what looked like a stallions body lying on the floor.
“Rocky!” She yelled as she banged on the door trying to get his attention. With no answer she backed up and smashed her body against the door again and again until it gave way and she crashed into the room. Any hopes of Rocky just being hung over or merely dying of thirst or hunger when she got a better look at him and saw the plastic bag that had been tied over his face. With a cry of terror South Wind nearly stumbled back outside trying to get on her feet and away from the dead body.
“Oh shit. Oh shit.” She muttered to herself as she looked at him taking deep calming breaths. Carefully tiptoeing over to him, this could be a crime scene for all she knew, she saw the fuel gauge resting at empty and a folded letter by his side. Curiosity getting the best of her she edged her hoof to it, careful to not disturb Rocky, and slid it to her. She opened it and looked down to read the jagged mouth writing.
I’m sorry. I had nothing sharp. I couldn’t break the glass. She sings so beautifully. Don’t listen.
Tree Hugger squinted as she entered the large chamber deep within the bowels of Canterlot Castle, the furious and crackling purple glow in the center of the room nearly bringing tears to her eyes. The light was so intense that she could barely make out the mages casting the spell spread out around the room, their shapes just brief shadows in the glow. She scooted along the edge of the circular chamber feeling along the wall until her hoof found a door and she pushed it open quickly darting into the dark side room. “What’s got them going full force?” She asked as she rubbed her eyes clear.
“We got two items today.” Key Lock answered not looking up from his tome. The hidden underbelly of Canterlot Castle was one of the few places that non anomalous works containing any information on anomalous items, beings, or events could be found in Equestria. With most of it being concentrated in this small room barely the size of an office, the books piled high and a few paintings depicting odd creatures and ponies propped against the wall. “That thing out there is tough; it was barely scorched when they threw it into a fire.” Tree Hugger leaned over his shoulder to look at what he was reading.
“King Charlatan’s Game?” She read as she looked over the old pictures and text showing a regal looking being, she had no idea what but it looked like some kind of bird judging by the beak, standing over another of his kind as it clutched its bleeding face. In between them was a table with what looked like a green cup in the middle which Key Lock pointed at.
“That,” he said as he tapped the page, “is exactly what we got out there. I don’t know how it was made out of plastic all the way back then but this is what King Charlatan used to punish subjects for crimes. No justice system, he just rolled the dice at you regardless of the crime.”
“How old is it?” Tree Hugger asked as she pulled a chair out and sat next to him at the overcrowded table, careful to not disturb the piles of books. “And what in Tartarus is that thing?” She pointed to “King Charlatan” she guessed.
“I believe they were Penguins.” Key Lock answered as he leaned back in his seat. “This is an account of Far Shores expedition to the South Pole and his time spent in King Charlatan’s court. He saw a bunch of weird things that would be considered anomalous if the entire Penguin civilization hadn’t disappeared by the time he made a second trip back a few years later. Princess Celestia declared the disappearance an anomalous event and this remains the only evidence of their existence.” He closed the tome and pushed it away. “I nearly shit myself when I saw that cup out there; rushed in here to make sure I was right. That thing out there has got to be four centuries old but it still looks good as new.”
“Not for much longer.” Tree Hugger said as she looked at the door where purple light danced through its frame. “So what was the other thing they brought in?”
“No idea.” Key Lock admitted. “It’s on hold till they figure out if its victim has been cured of its affects.” He leaned forward to whisper to her and she leaned in to meet him. “It did something to Twilight Sparkle; the Princesses brought these things back themselves from Ponyville. And they were pissed when they got back.” He gossiped. “Princess Luna stormed off after arguing with Celestia about something.”
“Twilight Sparkle? Shit.” Tree Hugger muttered. “No wonder Princess Celestia is peeved.”
“It’s not just that, Stone Guard and Stead Fast came back with some other pony and they said that it wasn’t Twilight Sparkle that the Princesses were talking with but three fillies with strange matching Cutie Marks. They were the ones who found the anomalies.” He revealed and Tree Hugger’s eye brows shot up.
“That’s… odd.” She said and with the work they did she meant it. “But two anomalies in one place found by the same little girls? That’s a hell of a coincidence.”
“Rumor mill says that it may not be such a coincidence the way the Princesses are acting.” Key Lock offered but leaned away and sank into his seat. “But how was your assignment?”
“I hate kids.” Tree Hugger answered as she sank into her own seat, the topic of what could be worrying the Princesses, which in itself was distressing given how much experience they had with anomalies, suddenly off the table. “I spent all week wandering around the Manehattan train stations looking for this randomly appearing graffiti monster only to read in the newspaper yesterday that some colt found a way to magically mix spray paints to appear and disappear at his magic signature. He was using it scare the crap out of ponies as a prank.”
“How dare him!” Key Lock said sarcastically with a smile. “Did you scare him straight with stories of other anomalous mishaps?”
“The only anomalies I’ve ever found was that key that locked whatever it was put in,” room or box even if there was no locking mechanism in place, “and that living tractor. Not really anything that could be mistaken for pranks.” She argued as the purple light from the main chamber died. “Well looks like they’re done or they got tired.” She said as they got up out of their seats and made for the door. “So you have dinner yet? I was thinking of going down t-”
The question died on her lips as she pushed open the door and was greeted with the sight of all of the mages collapsed around the room their bodies unmoving and a solitary brown feathered griffon standing in the center of the chamber, it’s back to them. “Freeze!” Tree Hugger commanded as she bolted into the chamber, Key Lock following behind. She stopped a few feet behind the griffon, which by her estimation of the body type was male, and gave him another command. “Turn around! Slowly!”
The griffon did as commanded and they were treated to a slow reveal of his masked face hiding everything above his beak which remained free to allow him to speak. The mask looked like it was made of iron and seemed more like it belonged as the face plate of a full suit of armor instead as a lone face covering. There was a raised plate over the thin eye slots that Tree Hugger supposed was meant to be lowered so as to shield but blind the eyes and a complete lack of leather straps holding it to his head, the mask seemingly affixed to his face. It didn’t take experience working with anomalies to know that something was seriously wrong with this griffon but it did leave Tree Hugger and Key Lock aware of what terrible things could be awaiting them if they let their guard down.
“Evening.” He spoke clearly with an accent hinting at high society. “I apologize at intruding at this late hour but I could not allow this barbarism to continue.” He explained as he raised up one of his fore claws to reveal that he was holding a green plastic cup, the same that King Charlatan had used to punish criminals so many centuries ago if Key Lock was correct.
“Drop it!” Tree Hugger ordered as she tensed up and Key Lock shifted behind her.
“I shall not.” The griffon refused. “Your organization and Princesses have scourged the supernatural world long enough. We will not stand by any longer.” He stated as Tree Hugger’s mind raced at what nutjob group could possibly have knowledge of anomalous items let alone have sympathy for them. Suddenly Key Lock sprang for the door either out of cowardice or an attempt to summon more guards but it doesn’t matter with what happened next. With a flick of his wrist the griffon threw the dice out at Key Lock as Tree Hugger sprang toward him with a hoof raised to stop him. The griffon was too quick and dodged around her strike and dealt his own punch to her face, sending her spiraling to the ground where he quickly pinned her as the dice struck and rolled along the ground towards Key Lock.
Tree Hugger stopped her struggling as Key Lock cried out and she swung her head around to watch as her friend was murdered by some unseen force. Key Lock stumbled against the wall as his mouth was pried open and he flailed his hooves out in front of him to stop whatever was happening to him. Soon there was a cracking sound as his jaw was dislocated from his head, Key Lock making weak cries for help, and soon with a final tug his jaw was ripped from his head and flung across the room. Key Lock now freed of the force brought his hooves to his face and tried to stop the bleeding as his tongue dangled out into the fresh air.
All of Tree Hugger’s strength left her as Key Lock collapsed to the ground making weak pained gurgling sounds and the dice calmly rolled themselves back into the green cup. “Tell the Princesses we know what they have done.” The griffon holding her whispered as she glanced up at his iron masked face. “The magic is coming back. And we will protect it.” As the final dice rolled itself back into the cup he leaped off of her back and gathered up the cup and took to the air. Jumping to her feet Tree Hugger watched as the griffon closed the eye plate and clutched the green cup to his body as he soared to the ceiling. She watched as his body thinned and compressed as he neared the wall until he seamlessly slipped through the cracks of the chambers ceiling and left her alone with his warning.
Carrot Top hummed as she worked in her garden, her days work tending to her carrots behind her she enjoyed the calming presence of the flowers and vegetables. She smiled as she leaned down and sniffed one of the blooming flowers and enjoyed the peace of the evening, her burdens temporarily forgotten. Her carrots were selling well, the next crop was coming along nicely, and despite all the hubbub of Twilight being spirited away by The Princesses and Pinkie being chased down and hauled off by the guard’s yesterday things remained peaceful in Ponyville. And tonight she was set to have dinner with her friends at Ditzy’s hou-
“Ow!” Carrot Top cried out as a sharp pain stung the back of her neck and she slapped a hoof to stop it. “Aw, what the heck?” She complained when she pulled her hoof away to find a crushed butterfly with beautiful golden wings twitching in its death throes. She made a confused sound at her discovery and scrapped the corpse against the ground before she went back to trying to find anything that could have actually stung her like a mosquito, bee, or wasp. Despite how much she pawed at the back of her neck she found nothing and was left to look at the dead butterfly with the beautiful golden wings. With a shake of her head she threw the thought of it being the culprit away as preposterous and went back to enjoying her evening, the pain in her neck already receding.
It would be years and many, many wondrous and horrifying adventures before any of the girls realized that for all the weird things they’d seen they all managed to return to a normal day to day existence fairly well.
After sending a quick follow up letter to The Princesses explaining the situation with Juggles and receiving a quick confirmation in return the girls had said their goodbyes to Spike, leaving the young dragon alone with the thought of what strange aliment could have befallen his caretaker to occupy him, and had all gone home for the day. And after a night of restless sleep they awoke and went to school and despite thoughts plagued by possible oddities they could encounter around any corner it was an average day. There was no fun filled afternoon of playing afterward as they had elected to just silently mill around their homes to the concern of their families, refusing to elaborate on what bothered them.
Then after another night of restless sleep they were greeted with the news of Twilight and Pinkie’s return seemingly good as new with no ill effects. Except for the complete memory manipulation that made them believe that they had been summoned to Canterlot for a matter that immediately required their expertise and needed a full briefing by The Princesses themselves of course. While their sisters grilled them for details that were “super-duper extra secret” and been enforced by a Pinkie Promise the Cutie Mark Anomaly… Spotters? Whatever they were now they had been more concerned with the effectiveness of the memory rewrite of their friends, watching closely for any slip up or mention of a green cup of dice, a clown nose, or most horrifying of all Twilight calling herself Bit Savvy. But their concern quickly turned to relief as it became that clear that whatever The Princesses had done to them it had worked, Twilight was back to their and Spike’s great relief.
With this good news their second day was far more pleasant and they spent the afternoon playing again, no care given to what lurked in shadows or what peered across at them from the stars. Their sleep that night was troubled but not restless and on the third day in class Cherilee noticed their sunnier demeanor and decided that the talk to find out if anything was wrong she had planned for today was unnecessary. After that came the weekend and a free and fun filled fourth day the likes of which they hadn’t enjoyed since before they found the cup of dice. And aside from Pinkie Pie having a slight breakdown on her birthday for a reason that nopony bothered to explain to them, saying that they were still too young to be bothered by adult problems, Ponyville as a whole was calm and peaceful again.
Then came the fifth day.
“Oh shoot.” Granny Smith cursed softly as she rummaged around the kitchen cupboard.
“What’s wrong Granny?” Applebloom asked as she tried to peer around her grandmother to see what she was looking for.
“We’re out of sugar.” The old mare revealed as she pulled out a depleted bag of sugar. “Well not out, just not enough.” She corrected as she weighed and opened up the bag to show her youngest granddaughter the pathetic amount inside.
“Aw really?” Sweetie Belle complained from the table where she and Scootaloo waited with all the other ingredients and bowls waiting.
“Yes really.” Granny Smith said as she went to the table with the depleted bag of sugar. “So if y’all want to be helpin’ me bake a pie we’re gonna have to go down to the market.” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hopped out of their seats while Applebloom sucked in a breath. “What?” Granny asked her granddaughter as she pawed at the floor.
“Well Granny it’s just that it’s kinda late in the afternoon and the stores will be closin’ soon and… you ain’t exactly the fastest pony.” Applebloom said as she shot her gaze to the ground.
“And just what are ya tryin’ to say Applebloom?” Granny Smith asked as she leaned down to hear better.
“I think she’s trying to say you’re old.” Scootaloo interjected and earned a smack and glare from Applebloom.
“Well shoot I already knew that.” The old mare assured. “And even though you three got your Cutie Marks now you’re still too young to be goin’ ta the market by yourselves. Guess they’ll be no pie for dinner tonight.” The girls all aww’d in disappointment as Granny Smith smiled. “Oh don’t be down there’ll be plenty of other good eats. Now get on back to your little sleepover in the clubhouse, I’ll send Applejack or Big Mac a hollerin’ when it’s time to eat.” She patted Applebloom’s head and shushed them out the kitchen but not before Sweetie Belle cast her glance out the window and saw the distant farm across the field.
“Hey what about Miss Carrot Top! She could have some sugar!” She proposed and Granny Smith stopped in her tracks and brought a hoof to her chin in thought.
“No way she’s probably still sore about that time we accidentally destroyed her fence with that boulder.” Applebloom shot down bringing up their attempt as Cutie Mark Treasure Hunters.
“Oh she’s been over that ever since Big Mac dragged you all down there to apologize.” Granny Smith waved away. “Course it helped that Big Mac was there. You probably could have burned her house down and she’d be fine with it if it meant he gave her the time of day.” She smiled knowingly while the girls all just exchanged looks. Now that they thought about when they went to apologize Carrot Top hadn’t been paying that much attention to them…
“Well we can get to Carrot Top’s house in no time with my scooter and our wagon!” Scootaloo volunteered and Granny Smith pondered for a moment, looking out the window towards Carrot Top’s house and at the setting sun.
“Alright,” she decided, “but no dawdlin’ and y’all be on your best behavior. Rumor goin’ around town is that Carrot Top ain’t been feelin’ so good these past couple days.” And with that Granny Smith shooed them out of the kitchen and they ran to grab a saddle bag to carry the sugar in and find their helmets. Soon they were out the door, giving a passing greeting to Applejack as she pulled a wagon full of empty barrels past, and speeding on their way to Carrot Top’s.
“Do you think she’s home?” Sweetie Belle asked as they threw off their helmets into the wagon and walked up the front steps onto the porch. They gazed at the open windows that revealed the dark interior of the carrot farmer’s home; it seemed that Carrot Top hadn’t gotten around to lightening any lanterns or her fire place yet, and the slightly ajar front door that greeted them.
“Hello?! Miss Carrot Top?! It’s me Applebloom!” Applebloom called as she knocked on the door even though it was already open for courtesy’s sake. There was a faint thud from inside and a quick set of steps as somepony stormed down from the second floor and the girls cried out as the door swung open and Ditzy Doo nearly crashed into them, her normally misaligned eyes wide and focused as she took in panicked breaths.
“Oh girls thank goodness you’re here!” Ditzy cried as she walked right past them and started to flap her wings. “I’ve got to go to the hospital to get help. Just stay here with Carrot Top and… shit!” She cursed as she took to the skies and soared away leaving the girls standing there. They stood watching her leave for a moment before they turned back to the open door and crept up to it.
“Miss Carrot Top?!” Applebloom called as they stepped through the door and into the living room. “Are you okay?!” She asked as they walked into the small kitchen and stopped at the base of the stairs, noticing the old half eaten meal on the table. When no reply came Sweetie Belle stepped forward and climbed the first step only to be stopped by Scootaloo.
“Don’t go.” Scootaloo warned staring up at the top of the stairs. “Something’s not right.”
“Of course something’s not right Miss Carrot Top is sick and she could need our help!” Sweetie Belle countered as she took another few steps up as Applebloom followed.
“Not that I just got this feeling…” Scootaloo weakly argued as her friends continued up the stairs and she was forced to follow. They managed to make it two thirds of the way up before they noticed the smell, an odor of piss, shit, and rot that they hadn’t encountered since Juggles stumbled onto Sweet Apple Acres over a week ago. There wasn’t much light in the upstairs hallway but they could see the setting sunlight spilling out from under some of the doors particularly the one that had been left open a crack. Fighting the stench the girls walked to the door and reeled back as Sweetie Belle pushed it open slightly, the smell nearly knocking them over as a fresh wave of sickness descended.
“…hello?” A weak and croaking voice called as they pushed the door open all the way and found a bedroom. “ditzy? are you back?” Taking trembling steps forward the girls walked into the room and stood up on their hind legs so they could prop themselves up and see over the bed. And what they saw snuggled under the covers nearly sent them screaming.
Nearly all of Carrot Top’s hair had fallen out both from her mane and coat, the drying clumps of colored hair on the sides of her head doing nothing to hide her pale skin which sagged over her bones, as if she had no muscle left. Her eyes had sunken into deep pits in her skull as her mouth opened and closed to try and form words, her tongue huge and mangled in her mouth. “girls?” She spoke surprised as she turned and looked at them the girls instinctually reeling back at the skull like quality her face now had. “…where’s …ditzy?”
“She, she went to the hospital Miss Carrot Top.” Applebloom stuttered out a reply. “Don’t worry, she’s gonna be back with help real soon.”
“Oh by Celestia I’m gonna throw up!” Sweetie Belle cried after she turned her head to look away from the state Carrot Top was in to the foot of the bed but was met with a variety of stains. Realizing that the smell had come from Carrot Top being unable to move and having to shit and piss in her own bed for who knows how long Sweetie Belle threw herself away from the bed and bolted out the room in search of a bathroom. Scootaloo and Applebloom had stronger stomachs and endured as Scootaloo dared to lift the covers and see what the rest of Carrot Top looked like.
“…girls? …where’s ……ditzy?” Carrot Top asked again as Scootaloo lifted the blanket and she could hear Applebloom reply distantly as all her blood went cold at what she found past all the piles of lost hair and dried shit. The rest of Carrot Tops body had experienced the same conditions her head, loss of hair and muscles as the skin sagged around her bones, but that wasn’t what stopped Scootaloo and nearly made her soil herself.
Resting in the area that had once been Carrot Top’s stomach now torn open and dried the organs long gone rested some kind of pale grey grub the size of a cat. Half formed and squishy legs dug into her body as it ate its way into her rib cage with a mouth like a lamprey, blood smeared across its face and three small pitch black eyes on both sides of its head and what looked like growing insect wings on its back. In the darkness under the covers they still shined a beautiful golden color.
“We got to go.” Scootaloo said as she lowered the blanket with a shaking body but a firm voice. “We gotta find Spike.”
“Spike? Why do we…” The question died on Applebloom’s lips when she saw Scootaloo’s face and instantly remembered that The Princesses had told them to use Spike to contact them when they found any anomalies. With a trembling hoof Applebloom made to lift the covers herself but was stopped by Scootaloo who just shook her head and pulled her out of the room, making sure to shut the door behind them. “Sweetie Belle!” Applebloom yelled out unsure which door led to the bathroom.
“What?!” Came a weak reply as a door down the hall opened and the filly walked back out.
“We’re leavin’, come on!” Applebloom ordered as she waved Sweetie Belle over, her eyes flicking to the bedroom door.
“But what about Miss Carrot Top?” Sweetie Belle asked joining her friends, her legs still shaky from vomiting up her lunch.
“We can’t help her.” Scootaloo whispered looking at the ground. “We got to find Spike so The Princesses can send somepony to deal with her and… whatever that thing in the bed is.” Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened as she realized just what they were dealing with and nodded in confirmation. The girls quickly ran down the stairs back into the kitchen before they were stopped by a thud above them. They all stopped and looked back up the stairs with baited breath before a sudden thud slammed into the bedroom door.
“What exactly did you see?” Applebloom asked as they continued to back away from the stairs when another thud struck the door.
“A uh, grub. About the size of a cat with wings.” Scootaloo explained as a third thud struck the door. “But it shouldn’t be able to get out, right? It’s too small to break a door down.” And with a moment of silence they waited for another thud or worse of all the door breaking down and the grub suddenly some giant insect monstrosity. But instead they were gifted with silence, the monster seemingly have given up or gotten tired. “…Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait!” Sweetie Belle yelled as they ran to the front door. “What about Miss Ditzy? She’s supposed to be coming back with ponies from the hospital! That thing could attack them.” The girls stopped in their tracks at the reminder and began pacing around the kitchen.
“We could distract them.” Applebloom suggested. “Or lie to them and say that Carrot Top died so that they won’t have a reason to go into the bedroom.”
“No they’ll still have to go in to take her body out if that grub doesn’t hear them and starting knocking against the door first.” Scootaloo shot down as her eyes drifted to the living room and the fireplace. “What if we burn the house down?”
“What?!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle cried out in shock.
“It kills the grub and hides what happened to Carrot Top so that The Princesses don’t have to do a lot of memory wipes.” Scootaloo explained calmly. “It’ll just be a sad accident that we couldn’t stop.”
“Carrot Top ain’t dead yet!” Applebloom shouted back horrified. “That’s murder!”
“She won’t be alive much longer no matter wha-” Scootaloo fired back only for a crash of breaking glass to interrupt her. The girls shot back into the kitchen to look out the back door through the screen as the grub twitched on the ground amongst the broken glass of the window it had leapt out of. It stood on shaky legs and twitchy wings and started to wander off the farm, towards a line of trees that bordered Carrot Top’s property with wild forest. “See! This is good! It’ll go to the forest and The Princesses will just send somepony to hunt it down there!” Scootaloo said happily as the grub suddenly stopped and looked up as if sniffing the air. It then turned around and looked right at them crowded in the doorway in plain view.
“Or it’ll hear us talking and come to eat us.” Sweetie Belle managed to say in a remarkably calm voice as the grub started walking back towards them. Applebloom slammed the door shut and the girls quickly retreated back into the living room, ready to bolt out to their scooter and wagon at the first opportunity. “What if we just take off? It isn’t fast enough to keep up with us and will probably wander off when it loses sight of us.” Sweetie Belle suggested.
“Which could end with it wandering closer to Ponyville!” Applebloom argued as the grub clearly having learned its lesson had completely bypassed the kitchen door and had instead scaled the wall to reach the window over the kitchen sink. It then began smashing its head against the glass in an attempt to break it. It wasn’t having much luck at the moment however.
“Either we stay and it hurts us or Ditzy and the ponies she brings or we run and it wanders off and possibly hurts some other pony!” Scootaloo shouted. “So unless you got somewhere we can trap it or know how we can kill it chances are it’s gonna hurt somepony!” She challenged as it once again brought its head against the glass, this time cracking it.
“…A shed! My family’s got an old shed in the west fields; it’s got no windows, a metal door, and a concrete floor so it can’t dig out! And we hardly ever use it so it’s perfect!” Applebloom proposed. “All we got to do is lure it there!”
“The Princesses told us to just report finding anomalies not try and catch them anymore remember?” Sweetie Belle reminded as the grub slammed its face in again and the glass cracked more. “Are we really gonna disobey them after only five days?”
“Yes!” Applebloom decided for them. “Come on, we got to hurry before Ditzy gets back.” And with that the girls back out the door and hopped on the scooter and wagon, not bothering to put on their helmets, briefly zipping past around the house to get the grubs’ attention and then across the carrot fields, going much slower to allow the monster to chase after them. And not two minutes after they left Ditzy returned with a full team of paramedics only to find Carrot Top dead in her bed, her stomach torn open and chest cavity dug into by some wild animal. And as Ditzy wailed for her dead friend and was carried away the emergency workers looked at the dead mare and decided that they never wanted to encounter the fierce beast that could have done such a thing.
“He’s diligent I’ll give him that.” Applebloom said as she watched the grub chase after them. The trip to the shed was taking longer than they had expected as they had to find smooth paths for Scootaloo to take and keep the monsters attention. This lead to their initial fear fading somewhat as it followed them around like a disgusting evil puppy, huffing and puffing to keep up. “What do you think the wings are for? He sure ain’t usin’ them for flyin’.”
“…Finding a Special Somegrub?” Sweetie Belle pondered as the wagon went over a bump. “Fluttershy says that some birds have colorful wings to attract each other.”
“Grubs don’t have babies, grubs are babies.” Scootaloo reminded. “It’s gonna grow up to something worse.” A shiver went through the girls at the thought of it growing into something far worse which left the question of how it managed to get to Carrot Top. Had it gotten separated from its mother and wandered into her home and just decided to kill her? But Scootaloo had found it resting inside of what had been her stomach and the tearing had looked like it had come out not in…
“Well there it is.” Applebloom pointed to a decaying structure in the distance. “Alright so all we got to do is lure him in and slam the door shut on him.”
“But how are we gonna get him in to begin with?” Sweetie Belle asked not liking the answer she suspected.
“…Somepony’s gonna have to be bait while the others wait outside and hide. They’ll have to rush past it so the others can shut the door quick.” Applebloom said confirming Sweetie Belle’s fears.
“I’ll do it.” Scootaloo volunteered immediately. “I’m the fastest and I may not be able to fly but my wings can get me in the air for a few seconds so I can just hop over it.” She explained not leaving any room for debate.
“Are you sure Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle asked to be sure. “It’s gonna be dangerous.”
“I know but we got to lock this thing up and it’s going to be dark soon, I don’t want to be out here with it at night.” She said pointing to the setting sun and the sliver that remained above the mountains. “I’ll yell when it’s far enough in the room okay?” They nodded and stayed silent the rest of the way.
When they reached the shed Sweetie Belle and Applebloom bolted out of the wagon to hide around the back as Scootaloo ran to the door to open it. Turning around she backed into the dark shed and watched as the grub slowed and began to stalk after her a few feet from the door. “Come on, come on.” Scootaloo whispered as the grub breathed deeply exhausted from the chase, the sharp teeth in its round mouth gleaming. Soon she was against the back wall and the grub was in the doorway wings twitching. “That’s right.” She whispered as it inched forward into the shed. “NOW!” Scootaloo shouted and the grubs wings shot open as she darted forward, their golden color shining brightly in the darkness.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle darted out from behind the shed and expected to find Scootaloo diving through the door when they got there but instead found nothing. Fearing the worst they peered into the shed to find her standing stock still against the wall as the grubs wings glowed beautifully. “S-Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked nervously as her friend fell to her haunches, tilted her head towards the ceiling, and opened her mouth as a swarm of beautiful butterflies spewed forth.
The girls currently not vomiting insects cried out as the swarm flew out of the shed and into the evening sky. They spied butterflies of every color in the swarm, mainly reds and blues, but through the mass they could see a few with golden wings and although they were young and inexperienced in the matters of the anomalous world they could put two and two together. Scootaloo had been wrong after all, grubs do make babies.
“We’ve got to stop it!” Sweetie Belle shouted as they pushed their way into the shed. She darted to the grub and tried hitting it with as much force as she could muster which resulted in the grub shrugging her off, not even bothering to attack her and mess up what it was doing to Scootaloo. Applebloom looked around the shed in a panic before her eyes settled on a stack of boxes containing who knew what but that didn’t matter, she knew they were heavy.
“Sweetie Belle over here!” She shouted and her friend quickly dashed around the grub over to her. “Help me up.” She pointed to the top of the stack where a smaller box rested. Getting what she was planning Sweetie Belle heaved her up until Applebloom got a grip and hauled herself up. Bracing her back against the wall she planted her hind legs on the box and pushed with all her might, inching it forward as Sweetie Belle urged her on in a panic and Scootaloo continued to vomit butterflies.
Soon it tipped over the edge and the grub managed to look up at the box before it fell and crushed its head in an explosion of green blood that splattered across the shed floor. Sweetie Belle ran to Scootaloo as she coughed and wheezed the last butterflies from her throat and helped her friend up to her feet crying tears of joy. Applebloom merely collapsed on the stack of boxes in exhaustion and watched the grubs body twitch in its death throes. But all to soon her gaze turned to look out the door at the sky that the swarm of butterflies had escaped into and the numerous golden brethren they hid. She shivered at the thought of ponies seeing the swarm and investigating, falling to prey as Carrot Top may gave.
So with a groan she hopped off the stack of crates and walked to her friends. “You okay?” She asked Scootaloo who merely wheezed and nodded yes. “Good but we still got to get to Spike. We’re not done yet.” And with that she help Sweetie Belle get Scootaloo up and they left the shed and the grubs’ body behind.
“Last week we were attacked,” Princess Celestia reminded to the gathered higher ups of the Royal Guard’s Anomalous Division, who numbered just over a couple dozen, “by an agent of unknown origin. He was a Griffon of average build and coloring who spoke with an accent common among the nobility of the southern mountain range of the Griffon Kingdom wearing an iron mask to hide his face.” The Princess continued to recap as the gathered Royal Guard’s began to wonder what the point of this assembly was. They were in the throne room too, normally The Princess would hold these meetings down in the catacombs and chambers the Anomalous Division called home so as to not harm any uninformed minds who could overhear. “He entered and exited through anomalous means, disabled Magi Neutralization Team Bravo, and killed one of our historians with a stolen anomalous object before leaving with a warning.”
“Your failure in guarding the catacombs has been discussed at length.” Princess Luna interrupted when all the Guard’s shared a look. “So don’t worry, we’ve decided,” the Princess of the Night cast a meaningful look to her sister, “to overlook your ineptitude this one time. We shall not do so again.” She warned as the Guard’s bristled at her insult.
“That’s enough Luna.” Princess Celestia stopped, not even bothering to turn her head and look at her sister. “We have contacted the Griffonian Society for Anomalous Extermination and they have agreed to keep an eye out for him in case he tries to escape back to the Griffon Kingdom. But we are here to discuss our decision regarding his warning.” The assembled Guard’s snapped back to attention, the meaning of the mysterious warning had been a hot topic for the last half week. “He references our destruction of anomalies and that “the magic is returning, and we will protect it”. We want a careful monitoring for a possible increase in anomalous activity and about the “we” he referred to…” The Guard’s all leaned forward as Princess Celestia took a rather dramatic pause. “As of this moment any citizens of Equestria found harboring, protecting, or attempting to transport anomalies, or undermine the Royal Guard’s Anomalous Division in the pursuit of their duties in any way, of their own free will, while knowing the policies regarding anomalies are hereby branded traitors!” She declared in her court, her word making it law even if there was no official witnesses there to record it. But it wasn’t like that anything remotely involving anomalies was going to be public knowledge anytime soon so it was fine with the Guard’s. “Field agents are to make every attempt to capture these traitors for interrogation.”
“And if it becomes clear that it is impossible to do so…” Princess Luna continued. “Then the Anomalous Division’s mandate to preserve and defend the lives of all Equestrian citizens is to be temporarily rescinded.” The breath of The Guard’s all collectively hitched as the significance of the rescindence sunk in, they were being given permission to hunt and destroy nonanomalous life. The last time such a thing had occurred had been during their days as The Inquisition, before The Princesses made some “restructuring” and they became The Royal Guard’s Anomalous Division. Nopony among them knew when the “restructuring” occurred, their records only went back so far and the jump between the two was rather sudden. One week they were The Inquisition and the next they were the Anomalous Division with no apparent problems. The general consensus among The Guard’s was that more than a week had passed between those records, that happened sometimes either through anomalous means or a lot of work on their end.
“Regardless of whether this griffon acted alone and is attempting to throw us off his trail or he is working with others who share his knowledge and views our decision is final.” Princess Celestia continued. “We are at war my little ponies, and not just against anomalies anymore. You are this nations’ defense against the unexplained and terrible and you will remain firm in what may come.” The way that Princess Celestia spoke those last few words told the assembled Guard’s that that was an order, not encouragement.
“Huh, they really did it.” Tree Hugger said as she gazed down at the crushed body of the small grub like monster, its body stiff and green blood dried on the concrete floor of the shed. She idly prodded the golden insect wings on its back, the color long faded as they broke apart at the movement. “I got to admit I didn’t give that rumor about three anomaly catching fillies a lot of thought. But here they are doing our job.”
“Afraid you’re going to get sacked Tree Hugger?” Stone Axe asked as he pushed the crate off of the grub, its red brains and grey skin peeling away with it to reveal teeth and smashed skull fragments stuck in green congealed blood. Smelled like rotten wood and contents of the box sounded busted too.
“Hell three anomalies in just as many weeks? We find one, what, every three months?” She responded as she snapped open a large black trash bag, the most advanced equipment used to cart away dead anomalies without raising suspicion available to them. “They’re blowing us out of the water, going to put us all out of the job.”
“Yeah.” Stone Axe said as he gripped the handle of the shovel with his mouth and scrapped it against the floor, scooping up most of the corpse in one movement. “Rather strange that.”
“You got something you want to talk about?” Tree Hugger asked suspiciously as she went about chiseling the congealed blood and brain off the floor.
“Just sayin’ that it’s a rather odd special talent to have, I’ve never met anypony who naturally deals with anomalies.” He started indicating to their Cutie Mark’s, hers a strong oak tree and his a polearm axe. “Rumor goin’ around is that it ain’t natural and may have something to do with all of the anomalous activity around here. And that griffon guy that broke into the catacombs.”
Tree Hugger’s eyes shot up to glare at him as he leaned on the shovel, completely unaffected by her hateful eyes. “I gave my report on what happened, I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“Oh no you misunderstand me I wasn’t talking about that.” He assured. “But three fillies get Cutie Mark’s handling anomalies, find more in one place in less than a third of the time it takes us to normally find one, and a griffon with anomalous abilities or tools says “the magic is coming back”? It seems a little… farfetched for this all to be a bunch of coincidences.”
“And what’s your point?” Tree Hugger asked as she finished getting the large hardened chunks of brain and blood off of the floor and went about picking up the scattered teeth and bone fragments.
“Why are we not watching these girls exactly?” He said finally getting to the chase. “They’re either causin’ or a part of this little surge of anomalous activity. But Princess Celestia expressly told us to clean up, search for similar cases, have the doc check up on the girls, herd up all the butterflies and deal with them, and then just leave?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. “Granted the other teams are going to search the forests for whatever spawned this thing,” he indicated to the garbage bag and what remained on the floor, “but why don’t The Princesses want a closer eye on them? They’re basically anomalies for Celestia’s sake!”
“Maybe because instead of working you’re standing around coming up with conspiracy theories?” Tree Hugger shot back as she stood up, the floor now clear of any solid evidence and just a green stain left. “Scrub the floor clean.” She ordered as she tied and then hefted the garbage bag onto her back, pointing to the bucket of water, cleaning solution, and brush waiting for him. “I want these farming hicks surprised the floor is so clean despite that box falling over.”
“…Conspiracy theories?” Stone Axe said to himself as Tree Hugger left the shed to dump the corpse into their cart. “…Huh.” He wondered as he retrieved the bucket of water from the corner and got down to scrub the floor.
“Can you describe for me what you felt while under the influence of the anomaly?” Doctor Heart asked Scootaloo as he used a tongue depressor and a small flashlight in his magical grip to gaze down her throat, the inside a raw and broken red. “Specifically what it felt like to have butterfly cocoons spontaneously emerge out of the lining of your throat and then hatch.”
“Stung.” Scootaloo rasped her voice weak and pained. “But it was… far away. Like an old bruise that only hurts when you touch it.” She tried to explain to the doctor as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom sat behind him on one of the hospital beds in the examination rooms that he had commandeered nervously fidgeting.
“Huh, perhaps an anesthetic effect so as to not cause the host to struggle?” He wondered to himself. “You said in your letter to The Princess that she looked at the creature’s wings and then leaned her head back correct?” He asked turning around to address Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.
“Um, yeah.” Applebloom answered. “She just started throwing up butterflies, all different colors but I’m really worried about the gold ones. The grub had-”
“Yes, yes we all read your letter before being sent down here and we’re keeping an eye out for golden butterflies.” Doctor Heart cut off with a wave of a hoof before turning back to Scootaloo. “Now did you hear any voices or experience thoughts that seemed unexpected given the situation?”
“Um, no?” Scootaloo cautiously answered.
“Do you feel as though you are aware of information that you did not know before that there’s no logical way for you to have gained?” The Doctor asked as he set aside his tools.
“What does that mean?” Sweetie Belle questioned for her friends.
“Some anomalies can transfer information, like an understanding on how to fix a train engine or cook a delicious meal made of pony flesh.” The Doctor explained as the girls paled at his second example. “Something that they wouldn’t have known before, the knowledge itself doesn’t have to be anomalous, like how to make a soup that gets rid of brain tumors, but the delivery has to be.” He smiled at a memory. “That was a delicious soup though. So anything you shouldn’t know?” He resumed turning back to Scootaloo.
“No.” She answered simply wanting to be away from this disturbing doctor to nurse her wounded throat back to health.
“Alright then hop off.” He ordered and Scootaloo did so and joined Sweetie Belle and Applebloom as they moved to wait at the door. “Keep up with the treatments that Doctor Horse prescribed for your throat, stick to the story about a wolf attacking and eating, uh, Carrot Top,” he struggled to remember the name of their dead neighbor, “and if you or you notice anypony else start to experience any strange symptoms like your hair falling out, being unable to move, and your muscles deteriorating please don’t hesitate to contact us. Or more realistically have someone else contact us, that dragon you use should be sufficient.”
“Uh,” Applebloom droned as Scootaloo began to shake, “what was that part about strange stuff happenin’ to her?”
“Well if the golden butterflies are the carriers and implanters of the eggs that create the grubs like you suspect,” he gestured to Applebloom who went a little pale at her little theory she had made at the shed being used, “then the sheer number of them that were in her throat leaves the possibility that one could have implanted an egg in her either on purpose or accidentally.” Scootaloo began to take shuddering breathes and shake harder. “Probably didn’t happen though, given that we don’t know this anomalies life cycle it’s possible that the grub was still an immature state and the butterflies could be infertile for all we know.” Doctor Heart quickly assured when he noticed the terrified looks of the three little fillies in front of him. “Just… go play or something. Enjoy the day, it’s beautiful outside.” He said as he scooted them out of the room and closed the door behind them.
It was indeed a beautiful day outside but the death of Carrot Top and all the mourning ponies walking around kind of ruined it.
Luckily this meant that The Cutie Mark Something Anomaly Something Whatever, still working on that new name, could be as scared for their lives as they wished. Everypony would just suspect that the terrible encounter with a rabid wolf that had killed and gutted Carrot Top in front of them had left them terrified and potentially scarred for life. Which is why they could not get their sister’s and/or idols’ to leave them alone for more than two seconds.
“How’d it go in there champ?” Rainbow Dash asked Scootaloo settling down onto the ground next to her. “Everything, uh, everything go alright?” Rainbow Dash struggled with the proper comforting words without being too intrusive.
“Fine.” Scootaloo answered hoarsely not taking her eyes off the ground. Rainbow Dash glanced to Applejack and Rarity as they tended to their sisters’ silently asking for help.
“How would you girls like to go to the park?” Rarity asked putting on her dazzling smile that contrasted the black shawl she was wearing to signify her mourning. A lot of ponies wear wearing something black today and probably for the rest of the week.
“Yeah,” Applejack agreed as she took her hat off and put it on Applebloom’s head, “y’all can run around in the sun, play in the sandbox, swing, and jump in the mud puddles like you always do!”
“Okay.” They all agreed and started to walk towards the public park, their sister’s/idol following behind.
The park was sparsely populated today so they had most of the equipment to themselves. Rarity and Applejack sat on a nearby bench with Rainbow Dash hovering close by to watch them play, talking amongst themselves but never really taking their eyes off the girls. They made a show of trying to have a game of tag and hide and seek before settling on just swinging on the swing set, trying to get higher and higher or even get enough momentum to swing all the way around. With the blue sky in front of them and air rushing by them they managed to lose themselves in the rhythmic back and forth of the swinging.
So when Sweetie Belle swung up into the air and found a golden butterfly flying not an inch from her nose she naturally lost her shit.
“AAHHH!” She screamed as she flailed her legs in an attempt to back pedal in her seat only to dislodge herself and fall straight to the ground from a good six feet in the air. There was a blur of cyan blue and more rushing air as Sweetie Belle suddenly found herself no longer falling but being gently set down on the ground.
“Whoa calm down there Sweetie Belle.” Rainbow Dash said as Rarity and Applejack rushed over and her friends settled down in their swings. Applebloom and Scootaloo didn’t pay attention as Rarity began doting and worrying over Sweetie Belle and instead kept their eyes locked on the golden butterfly as it gently flew away.
“Oh this isn’t working; we should take them all home.” Rarity gave up. “Perhaps what they need is some alone time to come to grips with what happened on their own.” The girls all locked eyes, nodded, and then began to edge away from the older ponies.
“No!” Applejack sternly refused. “Ya leave’em alone and they’re gonna get all kind of crazy ideas like it was they’re fault or somethin’. They need love and attention.” Keeping their eyes on the butterfly the girls slipped away as their sister’s/idol not even noticing them go, they had gotten used to them being quiet after Carrot Top’s death after all. By the time Rainbow Dash tore her attention away from Rarity and Applejack’s arguing and noticed that they were gone they had already disappeared across Ponyville chasing the butterfly.
“So what are we gonna do when we catch it?” Sweetie Belle asked as they kept a brisk pace with it. Sure was fast little bug of pure evil.
“Smash it.” Scootaloo answered immediately. “With a rock so it can’t lay an egg in us.”
“That was a guess ah made!” Applebloom argued. “We don’t know if that’s how it works.”
“Doesn’t matter, still smashing.” Scootaloo continued as they followed the butterfly going off the road and away from Ponyville to one of the forests that surrounded it. The trees made it a little difficult to keep track of it but they stayed on it and soon enough another butterfly, this one green, joined it in its flight. And then another. And another and another. Soon the air was positively filled with butterflies of all colors flying the same direction, the girls now somewhat unsure of their smashing option.
“Oh the way four whores of Baltimare, drinking the blood red wine, and all the conversation was,” a distant recorded voice sang like it was coming from a record player, “yours is smaller than mine!” The girls broke through the tree line and came to a field with a most peculiar sight, the butterflies flying in a giant circle above a sitting unicorn stallion, his horn aglow with some kind of magic. Off to the side a pegasus mare lay next to the record player and some strange contraption, watching the butterflies and nodding her head to the music.
“Umm,” Sweetie Belle said unsure, “hello?” The stallion’s and the mare’s heads snapped to them and for a moment looked like they were about to rise until it seemed they recognized them and eased.
“Well look who it is!” The mare motioned them over to her. “So you’re the little fillies who are going to put us all out of work! You come to watch the show?” She asked with a very wide smile. “Nice hat kid.” She complemented pointing to Applejack’s hat still on Applebloom’s head.
“What show?” Scootaloo asked and the mare stood, revealing her Cutie Mark to be a single flame.
“Onsite neutralization.” She said gesturing to the contraption next to her. “Dusty Tome over there gathers all the butterflies in the area and I take care of them. Should be almost done.”
“All the butterflies?” Applebloom asked confused. “But what about the ones that didn’t come from Scootaloo?”
“Oh yeah it’ll be a shame but we’ll set up a nice drive and program to repopulate the area after this “sudden migration/extinction”.” She said with air quotes. “It’ll give the wildlife conservation groups something to work on for the next few years but it should be fine.”
“Can’t you tell the difference between the normal and weird ones with magic or something?!” Sweetie Belle cried panicked at the thought of the sudden extinction of all butterflies in the Ponyville area.
“Dusty tried. Either magic can’t tell the difference or none of them are anomalous, we can take some back to study them but we can’t take the chance of them spreading outside of our control while we have the chance.” The pegasus mare explained. “Like I said don’t worry,” she tried to sooth as she leaned down and slung the strange device over her shoulder as the streams of butterflies lessened above them, “this kind of thing happens all the time. You done over there Dusty?” She asked her companion as the streams of butterflies stopped completely. He turned and nodded to her and backed away, keeping the butterflies dancing to his magical tune completely drowned out by the obscene song still playing. “Alright then, back up kids.”
Taking a few dozen cautious steps away the girls watched as the mare flew up to the cloud of butterflies, pointed the contraption at it, flicked some switch that caused a little puff of flame to appear at the front, and then turned some nozzle. Fire spewed out of the contraption and ignited the swarm of butterflies, the heat melting wings and popping bodies. Ashes fell to the ground as the pegasus mare laughed while she worked, sweeping the flame side to side and up and down to catch stragglers while Dusty Tome merely sat there keeping his magical grip on the butterflies both normal and anomalous. The girls merely sat in silence as the threat that had been on their minds since yesterday when they had watched the swarm disappear into the evening literally went up in smoke to the mad laughter of a person who had chosen this life.
And far away an agitated beast lumbered up to a tree and placed a single leg against it to crane its massive body up towards the branches. The trunk groaned at the weight while the beast huffed and puffed as if out of breath, its tongue darting out of a lamprey like mouth as its giant golden wings twitched and six black eyes darted around the clearing it was in. Something was harming the little ones its bones screamed, tiny screams that sent pin pricks across its skull. Stop the screams it decided, save little ones. It took in the deep mountain air and tried to smell where the little ones were, their scent fleeting so quickly in smoke. But before the last one burned it had a direction and that was good enough.
For now instead of screams there was silence. Total deafening silence that was a million times worse than the screams. Silence unheard of since it woke from its slumber and found the others gone. But that was fine; it could make more little ones who would go on to make more others. The silence would be gone soon enough as it backed away from the tree and went on its way, its eyes briefly glimpsing Ponyville through the trees.
“Who the hell names their kid Rocky Bottom?” Swift Cut asked as she read the information on the dead body in front of her. “You’re just asking to have him bullied and be a virgin forever.”
“He’s from some little fishing village down south a little ways. Sea Stable or something.” Deep Incision informed as she brought the tools over to the table. “And I doubt he had trouble losing his virginity, little country village like that? He probably just had to go to his cousin next door with a pint of cider and she’d be all for it!” They shared a laugh as they went about setting all their tools in place. “Suicide at sea though, by suffocation no less, wonder why you poor bastard.”
“He probably got his shipmates killed doing something stupid and couldn’t live himself or he killed them and himself because he was crazy.” Swift Cut quickly judged. “But what’s it matter? We just got to cut him up.” The autopsy of Rocky Bottom preceded normally, the coroners noting the lines around his neck and the state of his face that hinted at his own suffocation. They found his organs in good order, his lungs showing the typical signs of suffocation, but stopped when it came time to check the contents of his stomach.
“The hell?” Deep Incision asked as she prodded his protruding stomach with her magic. “Did he swallow a can?” Getting nothing more than a shrug from Swift Cut she cut open Rocky Bottom’s stomach and pulled the folds apart as she magically gripped what was inside and pulled it out.
“…What the fuck is that?” Swift Cut asked as her eyes went wide at was floating in the air before.
“This, this is a shark egg.” Deep Incision declared the embryo of the sea creature clearly visible in the egg its shell undamaged by the stomach acids. “Go, go get somepony!”
“Who?!” Swift Cut asked perplexed.
“I don’t know! Somepony!” Deep Incision ordered and Swift Cut bolted out of the morgue. “What the hell is going on down there?”
Object Class: EuclidSafe Euclid (See Incident Report 002-01)
[
A new instance of SCP-002-A following Incident 002-01
Special Containment Procedures: All fertile specimens of SCP-002-A are to be kept inside of a standard insect containment unit in their respective Site’s Animal Wings; nonanomalous specimens may be terminated or released into the wild as the Site Director wishes. A set population of 300 SCP-002-B specimens are to be kept in large Bio Habitat containment cells across Sites 4, 9, 14, 34, 56, and 83 (See Incident Report 002-01). All personnel are to wear specialized protective eye wear at all times when interacting with them.
Mobile Task Force Alpha-8 (“Butterfly Catchers”) personnel undercover in national wildlife organizations around the world are to monitor butterfly population spikes and look for possible correlating missing persons or strange incidents in hospitals in the area for sign of wild specimens. As SCP-002 is a self-monitoring species these specimens are to be terminated upon discovery and The Foundation’s own specimens are to be allowed to reproduce and their numbers increased using D-Class personnel to pacify them.
Description: SCP-002 is the collective term for an unknown species of insect that in its transiting life stages is identical to the common butterfly, dubbed SCP-002-A, with the exception of remarkably bright golden wings (See Incident Report 002-01). SCP-002-A’s behavior is typical of the common butterfly until about a week after their creation at which point they will seek out a pony, zebra, or griffon to inject a single egg into, after which it will die within the hour. SCP-002-A will never attempt to inject its egg into a minotaur, dragon, or buffalo and artificial implantation on D-Class personnel of these species has not yielded any results.
SCP-002-B is a large quadruped creature that’s body resembles a common grub with three black eyes on either side of its head and a circular lamprey like mouth. SCP-002-B’s primary anomalous ability comes from the giant golden (See Incident Report 002-01) insect like wings on its back. SCP-002-B is incapable of flight and instead uses the wings as a means of reproduction and defense. Having cornered a subject, always a pony, zebra, or griffon as SCP-002-B will ignore, flee, or just attack any other species, it will raise its wings in the subject’s line of sight. Growths quickly appear within or on the subject’s body, bursting within seconds and producing an instance of SCP-002-A or a nonanomalous butterfly. Left uninterrupted this process can quickly strip a subject down to the bone and produce tens of thousands of butterflies in minutes.
SCP-002-B is the primary life stage of the species, gestating inside of its host for a period of 3 – 4 weeks during which the host will begin to suffer from aches, listlessness, an increased appetite, hair or feather loss, severe muscle atrophy, and death. SCP-002-B will break out of its host, typically 20 – 23 cm in height and 46 cm in body and wing length, and immediately begin consuming as much as the corpse as possible for nourishment. At this state SCP-002-B is capable of reproducing through the use of its wings but will be substantially less powerful and all instances of SCP-002-A will be infertile and therefore nonanomalous. Surgery has also proven capable of removing the egg and fetus from the host safely and ceasing the above symptoms. Once the young SCP-002-B has consumed enough it will attempt to find a safe and secluded area in which to cocoon itself, a process that takes a few days, and metamorphosis into its mature state that takes between 4 – 6 weeks. The mature SCP-002-B will measure on average 198 cm in body and wing length and 102 cm in height. The average lifespan of instances of SCP-002-B is 15 years.
Mature instances of SCP-002-B have another anomalous ability to seemingly be aware of the regional and possibly global population of their species. When their numbers fall under an acceptable margin they enter an agitated state where they will begin purposefully seeking out subjects to create instances of SCP-002-A with. When SCP-002 numbers are kept at an acceptable level mature instances of SCP-002-B are much more docile and may be approached safely except during feeding, although protective eye wear and clothing is still advised.
Acquisition: *In accordance with The Founder’s wishes all objects acquired before The Foundation’s creation are to have their acquisition treated as Level 3 information by default.*
Addendum A-1: Following the development of specialized eye wear that can mitigate the anomalous effects of SCP-002-B and the lack of any reported wild specimens for 5 years SCP-002 is declared completely contained and its Object Class is lowered from Euclid to Safe.
Incident Report 002-01: Following the discovery of wild specimens that do not have the distinct golden wings following the 287th Annual Butterfly Migration and the mass outbreak of SCP-002-B’s that followed there was a sudden disappearance of 42 Foundation held SCP-002-B specimens and 3 Senior Personnel from Sites 14 and 56. Despite there being no tampering to the surveillance equipment and no logged records of access to SCP-002-B chambers the missing specimens simply vanished in the time as soon as the camera rotated across the room. Missing Senior Personnel were noted to be acting much calmer than usual and at peace when near the specimens the week before the disappearance. The only evidence was a note and a photo left on the disappeared Senior Researcher Dr. Scarab Shell’s desk. SCP-002 status reinstated at Euclid.
Note: “You know nothing of these creatures and the beauty they can give to the world. I have felt the flutter of their minds as I gazed into their eyes. They simply seek to fill the world with their children, to fill the skies with a sea of beating colors. But they could not; all the colors except gold had been lost to them long ago until we could help them.” – Father Repentant Scarab Shell (Use of SCP-845 shows that no such desires exist in specimens of SCP-002-B, they merely wish to eat, sleep, or reproduce and only when their number drop below acceptable levels. Scarab Shell’s note is therefore attributed to mental illness instead of any anomalous effects.)
Note: “Fucking crazy butterfly worshiping hippies. Try to catch some of the new ones, see if we can't have one in every color of the rainbow.” – Founder Scootaloo
It was almost depressing how beautiful the day of Carrot Top’s funeral was. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as apparently nopony had told the Ponyville Weather Department that a cloudy sky was more appropriate for the solemn occasion and there were plenty of chirping and singing birds that Fluttershy had not been able to corral in time. Thankfully there were no butterflies which soothed The Cutie Mark Mourners and Spike, who was aware of their significance and threat via having to write the letter explaining Carrot Top’s death to Princess Celestia, immensely.
“Carrot Top was a good mare.” Mr. Waddles repeated solemnly as the funeral attendants milled about the entrance of the graveyard, Carrot Top’s coffin already in the process of being buried. “It’s always terrible when somepony is taken by… cruel circumstance.” He said trying to come up with a way to explain death by disease and rabid wolf attack.
“I just don’t know how it could have happened…” Fluttershy whispered to herself and everypony present tried to suppress their wincing at the shake of her voice. As the pony more or less in charge of animal control in and around Ponyville the presence of a rabid wolf, one that had yet to be caught even, cast a… unappreciative eye on Fluttershy. Nopony had gone as far as to blame her but suspicions how well she was performing her duties were certainly prevalent and growing.
“Aw dang.” Applebloom whispered to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo as they stood away from the adults, doing their best to act more bored than afraid for their own mortality. “We shouldn’t have let them say it was a wolf, we didn’t think about Fluttershy.”
“We didn’t get a say in it remember?” Scootaloo reminded, her voice now completely recovered from her encounter with the grub. “We ran to the Library, distracted Twilight, and sent the letter through Spike. By the time those Anomalous Division ponies arrived we were getting bounced around by everypony and they had a story prepared for us.”
“And what else could we have said?” Sweetie Belle reasoned, pawing at the dirt. “That grub ate its way out of her, can’t really explain that any other way.”
“Ah know that!” Applebloom angrily retorted. “But… maybe it would have been easier if they just, y’know, erased the memories of everypony who saw the body or heard about it. Just say she died of disease, save everypony else the worry about a rabid wolf on the loose. Ah heard Big Mac and Applejack talkin’ about joinin’ a huntin’ party for it last night!”
“By the time they got here half of Ponyville knew.” Sweetie Belle reminded. “Ponies were waking each other up and wandering the streets to tell everyone. And unless they can wipe everypony in town’s min-” She stopped in mid-sentence as Ditzy approached, having been one of the last to leave Carrot Top’s gravesite along with her relatives, completely ignoring the adults and heading straight for the three young fillies.
“Hello girls.” She said with a strained voice as everypony gather tried to watch unnoticed. “We haven’t gotten a chance to talk have we?” Her eyes were red and puffy from crying every day since Carrot Top’s death but they were straight and focused intently on them.
“No Miss Ditzy.” Applebloom answered for them.
“Well I wanted to say thank you for being there for Carrot Top before she… Just thank you.” She managed to say, her voice wavering a tiny bit. “And that I’m deeply sorry for asking you to be there for her when that… monster!” She spat out angrily, Fluttershy wincing slightly at the anger directed at an animal. “When that monster… murdered and ate her!” Ditzy cried before kneeling down to their level, the girls backing away a step. “When we find it, we’ll need you to identify it okay?” She whispered to them. “We have to be sure it’s the one that got her.”
“Yeah, sure thing Miss Ditzy.” Scootaloo answered with a shaky smile, her wings flapping nervously. This seemed to satisfy the mourning mare and she wandered away with a quiet thank you, the other adults suddenly very interested in their previously dropped conversations as she walked past. “…We should have burned down Carrot Top’s house.” Scootaloo whispered once Ditzy was a sufficient distance away.
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle agreed before Apple Bloom could voice her shock, “in retrospect it makes the most sense. Would have explained Carrot Top’s death, hid the evidence, and killed the grub before it could try to reproduce. There’d still be butterflies at least.” She said quietly looking up at the clear sky. “How long do you think until they start to notice?”
“They already have.” Scootaloo answered. “Rainbow Dash was showing me some tricks yesterday, trying to cheer me up I guess.” She explained with a frown, the idea of watching Rainbow Dash perform or hanging out with her no longer as grand as she remembered. “And she mentioned that Fluttershy and Twilight were talking about it. She said that they were doing some “nerd things with books and charts” and planning their own trips around the forests surrounding Ponyville.”
“Shoot.” Sweetie Belle cursed. “Do you think they’ll still go to the Grand Galloping Gala? I heard Rarity talk about it with Pinkie Pie and she’s thinking of not going because she doesn’t want to leave me alone.” She leaned in and whispered so low that her friends had a hard time hearing her. “Do you think they’ll remember me freaking out at that butterfly you vomited up? If they start making connections…” She trailed off, sending a worried glance to the gathered Elements of Harmony.
“Are you guys serious?” Apple Bloom suddenly asked glaring at the both of them. “We’re at Carrot Top’s funeral and all ya can talk about is how we should have handled things after she died? How it affects us and everypony else? How about we talk about how we should have saved her?! How about we talk about how we screwed up!” She cried and nearly drew attention to them as eyes flicked their direction, but few panicked moments later they found themselves completely ignored again.
“What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked quietly sharing a concerned glance with Sweetie Belle as they stepped forward to drop their voices lower. “I know you didn’t see her but let me tell you Apple Bloom, there was no saving Carrot Top. Her stomach was gone and the grub was eating its way up her chest.” She explained, shuddering at the memory of lifting the filth covered bedsheets to see the pale grub nestled in a crater of blood and flesh. “I don’t know how she was alive when we found her.”
“No ah mean before that!” Apple Bloom retorted. “Why didn’t we notice anything was wrong with her?” They stared at her questioningly, trying to figure out she could possibly mean. “Back at her house ya said that something didn’t feel right.” She said looking at Scootaloo. “Ya said “Don’t go, something’s not right”, how did you know?”
“It was just a guess alright? We show up and Miss Ditzy bolts out in a panic and Carrot Top doesn’t answer when we call for her? It’s not hard to get spooked by that.” Scootaloo answered but shifted her gaze away from Apple Bloom as she spoke. “We’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff lately and… I don’t know maybe I’m starting to get paranoid.”
“I know what you mean.” Sweetie Belle confided. “I mean Princess Luna listed off some much stuff I would have never thought of… you think we’ll ever meet aliens?” She asked suddenly, her curiosity getting the better of her. “We’ve already seen two anomalous objects and a monster, they can’t be far off. That or a pony with superpowers.”
“Ah’m being serious.” Apple Bloom whispered harshly. “We all noticed somethin’ weird with Bit Sav-, ah mean Juggles remember?” She started. “The night of the meteor shower we all noticed that his clothes dried when Pinkie Pie came to get us. Because we ignored that he ended up wanderin’ around for days tryin’ to entertain ponies until he nearly died!” She explained, as if they had any idea just what was going on at the time they first met Juggles. It was the clown nose that clued them in that the cup of dice wasn’t a singular oddity after all and that maybe something bigger was going on. “After we went to Twilight and The Princesses explained everything why didn’t we notice anything weird going on with Carrot Top? She had been locked up in her house for days after suddenly getting’ sick! That doesn’t happen very often!” She cried as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a look.
“Apple Bloom, when did we ever talk to Carrot Top outside of the time we broke her fence?” Sweetie Belle explained. “When we were out crusading for our Cutie Mark’s or just playing did we ever even see her around town? She ran her farm by herself and only had a few friends.” She gestured to the gathered mourners who were starting to disperse, the first leaving being neighbors and acquaintances who attended out of respect and expectance more than loss or grief. Even that made up half the crowd though.
“And I don’t know if you remember this Apple Bloom but we were kinda ordered to not try and capture or even approach any anomalies we found by the Princesses.” Scootaloo reminded. “We only disobeyed that because the grub was probably going to wander into Ponyville and turn somepony into a bunch of butterflies.”
“It also only applies to things that we can confirm to be anomalies, unless we check out every weird thing that happens in Ponyville and keep taps on everypony there’s no way we-” Sweetie Belle continued only to be cut off.
“Well why don’t we check out everythin’?!” Apple Bloom countered. “What else have we got to do?! We can’t crusade for our Cutie Marks anymore after all!” She argued furiously. “All we’ve been doin’ is avoidin’ talkin’ about this stuff and playing around like a bunch of babies!”
“Apple Bloom… we couldn’t have saved Carrot Top.” Scootaloo said softly as Apple Bloom reeled back suddenly. “You didn’t see her, there was… was nothing left of her below the ribs. I don’t know how she was alive when we found her.” Scootaloo shuddered, being the only one of them to see the grub actually eat its host before it escaped the house. “I’m sorry but, there was nothing we could have done. But it’s dead now, it and all of its babies that it made me vomit up that would have done to who knows how many other ponies.”
“It’s dead because of us… because of you mostly.” Sweetie Belle continued, stepping forward to place a comforting foreleg around Apple Bloom. “You leapt up on top of that stack of crates and dropped one right on its head without a second thought!”
“Ah… Carrot Top was my neighbor.” Apple Bloom said looking down at the ground. “Everything that was happenin’ to her was only a few hundred yards at least, how’d… how’d ah not know?” She sniffed and looked up at her friends. “How are we supposed to find these anomalies before they hurt anypony if we can’t tell what they are at first glance or… ah don’t know… feel them magically?” She glanced over at the cemetery as they’re sisters and friends parted ways, Applejack and Rarity wandering over at last. “How many more ponies are going to end up like Carrot Top because we weren’t lookin’ in the right places? Or at all?”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were unable to answer her before they were all collected by their families, quickly putting on the bored if still content smiles that they’d all learned to wear around family to stop them from asking if anything was wrong. They were wearing it a lot lately and would continue to until they had no more family left to pretend in front of.
Luna touched down on the moon with a careful gentleness, the dirt barely disturbed and hardly any dust kicked up when her hooves struck the surface. Her wings twitching she started walking to a nearby large crater, using her extensive knowledge of the moon’s surface to know where she was. While it would have been faster to fly to her destination or just land right on top of it she knew that the moon wasn’t as lifeless as everybody on Earth thought, she had even bothered to fill in dear Celestia on what was up here deciding to stick with the SCP Foundation facility to help her argument about those three little ponies.
Still though, Luna wasn’t as sharp or quick as Nightmare Moon so the horizons of nearby craters shifted and sunk into the surface as she scaled the ridge of the crater. Reaching the top she gazed down into it at the pathetic remains of the SCP Foundation Moon Facility, four broken open husks no bigger than an average home connected to a single solid center the size of a large town hall by long deflated tunnels.
Sliding down the rest of the way, apparently not caring if she kicked up a dust cloud anymore, Luna calmly made her way to the center building. Hopping into the open airlock, the stairs long ago collapsed and doors flung away, she wandered the pitch black halls expertly knowing them as well as the moon’s surface until she came to the room she needed. Flicking the light switch with some magic the emergency generators kicked on (Still running after nearly 4 millennium! SCP Foundation built nothing to fail if they can help it.) and she stepped over the slowly collapsing skeleton of a griffon, a strange metal device in its claw and a small perfectly round hole in its skull.
Her magic working rhythmically she pressed a variety of buttons on the machinery on the desk in front of her, the ancient computer slowly booting up to display the SCP Foundation symbol on the monitor which made her grit her teeth.
“Paasss… Passs… Password… word… Plea… Please.” A tinny voice asked from the speakers and Luna leaned forward and spoke slowly in return.
“78. October Day. Made in the United Cities of Unicorns.” The computer whirled and whined quietly before it made a confirmation ding and a profile popped up of a smiling young male griffon in a scientist lab coat and glass named Gregory Philips, the SCP Foundation symbol on the right breast pocket. “Are you going to come out or keep watching me?” Luna asked as the computer loaded Greg’s settings and files. “I can feel your eyes on my flank.” In my defense it is a rather pleasing sight, even after all these years.
Hi.
How you doin’?
Name’s Edge.
It’s short for Signal from the Edge of Space.
I like it. Better than Signal or SCP – 1887.
I see you.
“I was just wondering about the change in style.” I say as I separate from the shadows outside the room, careful to duck and maneuver my large horns into the room carefully. “I like the gentler color scheme but the height difference made the sex awkward before,” I say as I walk over, my cloven feet thundering as I step to place a seven fingered hand (Yes I got hands, no claws for me.) on her rump, “but we can manage.”
“Hmmph,” Luna snorts and bucks my hand off softly, “you’re just lucky that my sister hasn’t somehow found a way to destroy radio based anomalies yet. Otherwise you’d be gone before those mouths could whisper those lies you love so much.” The circled array of mouths on my chest all grinned as one and I leaned down to whisper in her ear.
“But I never lied to you babe, I’ve never lied to anybody really. They just weren’t strong enough to handle the truth. To handle my message.” I start to massage the base of her left wing and she doesn’t stop me. “That’s why they cut me out of the radio waves, put me into this thing after they ripped its brains out and put the metal to keep me in. Do they even have radio down there again?” I ask suddenly curious, her return memories didn’t offer much variety.
“Nothing about you is remotely difficult to handle.” She retorts and I make a fake hurt noise. “But no, things are pretty much the same. Trains are back though.” The computer flashed and finished loading, presenting the desktop. Shrugging of my hands Luna carefully brought the mouse and microphone forward. “COMPUTER: Connect to Central Database.” She ordered and a window popped up, showing a satellite floating above Earth and beaming blue arcs down to it, the continents on the image much different than what was outside.
“What are you hoping to find?” I ask as I step back, content to now stand aside and see if the seed I planted would bear fruit. “So scared of three little fillies?” Her head whips around to glare at me so quickly I’m afraid it’ll fly off.
“I wouldn’t expect a monster to understand what it was like to be kept contained unjustly, to see all your efforts to make a primitive world better nearly dashed by an ignorant, arrogant, and mad force of terrible power, to be told that you’re the same as everything else they’d ever found and needed to be studied and poked and prodded the rest of your life!” She snarled getting up to my face and I smiled. She only got this angry when she was going hunting those giant moon beetlemen or when we were about to have sex.
I hope it was the sex.
“I showed up around the same time as you and Celestia babe.” I respond. “I saw a big ol’ blue ball emitting so many radio messages that was getting’ snowier by the month and I thought “Shit! There’s a party happenin’ down there I got to get in on!” and started hopping from radio transmitter to transmitter. My message helped a lot of struggling communities find their way during such tough times.” I smiled at the memory.
“They butchered their children and ate the souls of desperate travelers!” Luna roared, her horn lighting up threateningly.
“Like I said, only you could handle my words.” I chuckled but soon my smile disappeared.
Goodbyes are so hard.
I just met you and you’re already being pulled away.
Well I’ll cut to the chase and give you something to remember.
I hope you like it; I’m sacrificing my admittedly slim chances of getting laid for you.
“Anyway,” I say as I stand up tall my horns nearly scrapping the roof, “but I got to go Luna. Met some new friends who hooked me up,” her anger vanished as her eyes went wide, “don’t worry, you’ll meet them soon.” With a wave of my hand I depart and the body collapses into a heap, its strings cut. Luna probably stands there shocked and confused or perhaps terrified of what my cryptic message means.
But I don’t know for certain.
‘Cause I’m gone baby.
And I got me some new friends who appreciate the tale I’m spinnin’.
After what had happened with Carrot Top to say that Apple Bloom was getting the easy chores would be a gross overestimation of her responsibilities on Sweet Apple Acres. Before her mornings and afternoons were filled with a few hour long tasks she now got at best one task maybe lasting ten to fifteen minutes or was so easy that she could sleep while doing it. Like right now for instance.
The sheep of Sweet Apple Acres were generally a well behaved lot, kept content with plentiful grazing and sturdy roofs over their heads like most simple people, those that existed between true intelligence like pony or griffon and animals like rabbits. So that made sheepherding rather easy unless something startled them and a panic got ahold of the lot of them, which left Apple Bloom to just relax under an apple tree and stare up at the sky while Winona lay next to her content as could be.
“You’re pretty lucky Winona, you know?” She asked the dog who perked up at her name being said. “You never have to worry about whether or not what you’re doing is what you were made to do. You just know. Ah never told Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo but ah always hoped my Cutie Mark would be in somthin’, ah don’t know, apple related. Or somethin’ that involved workin’ with my hooves like construction. Ah really liked fixin’ up the club house.” She petted Winona as she quietly admitted this next part. “Ah always tried to steer our Crusadin’ in those directions even though it was probably a waste for Sweetie or Scoots. Ah wish… ah wish… ah don’t like this Cutie Mark.” She said looking down at her flank, the bold dark circles and three inward facing arrows staring back up at her. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are right, it is an ugly thing. Ah’d take a mop and bucket over this.” There was a sudden choked sob as Winona whined and Apple Bloom realized it had come from her. Forcing a few tough sniffs Apple Bloom went back to watching the sheep, their white fluffy bodies undisturbed except for one of them who was trying to scale the fence and escape the pen.
Watching as the sheep struggled to scale the moderately sized fence Apple Bloom wondered just what the sheep’s problem was, if it was something like a snake then they’d all be freaking out and stampeding. A pit opening in her gut she got up and began slowly walking over to the sheep, praying that she was just being paranoid.
“Okay almost got it! Just need to hook the left hind leg around-!” The sheep muttered in a deep voice, which signified that it was a he, as he was now stuck halfway somehow.
“Can ah help you?” Apple Bloom asked and he cried out in shock, falling back into the pen.
“Ow,” he muttered as he stood up and grumbled the other sheep’s wandering away muttering about the weirdo, “oh about time!” He exclaimed when he saw her. “Listen, you’re not going to believe me but I am not a sheep.” He said as he walked over to her and smiled hopefully. “I know I look like one but I’m not!”
“Oh?” Apple Bloom asked taking a step back her fears now more or less confirmed. Where were all these things coming from? “And what are you really?”
“Oh well first I was a pony which I was ever since I was born until about two weeks ago when I became a cow for a few days,” he started with a wave of a fore hoof, “then I was a coyote for a day, a snake for a couple hours, some bug pony thing for another couple days, a pony again for a day, and finally a sheep that got accidentally shipped here yesterday.”
“Yeah, we were supposed to be getting a couple new sheep weren’t we?” Apple Bloom wondered to herself, Applejack and Big Mac had probably taken care of it without bothering her. “So, how do ya change?” She asked examining him closely.
“I just got to be left alone with a type of creature for like two minutes and then I sort of, I don’t know, shift. Doesn’t hurt or anything, just very sudden.” He explained casually. “I got to say you’re rather open to all of this, everypony else I tried talking to just told me to shut up or kicked me along.”
“Ah’ve… got experience with this stuff.” She answered truthfully taking another step away. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were probably at home and those Anomalous Division ponies were probably still in town somewhere. She could probably just find one of them and let them take care of it.
Taking care of it being murdering him of course, destruction of all anomalies being quite clearly stated by the Princesses.
That realization hit Apple Bloom like a ton of bricks and nearly knocked all the air out of her, she almost didn’t hear the sheep speak to her.
“Wow really?! That’s awesome!” He exclaimed happily a grin spreading across his face. “Is that what that Cutie Mark means? I was wondering why it looked a little odd. So how do you fix this cause I haven’t been to work in two weeks and my boss is going to be pissed.”
“Ah…,” she stammered as she imagined the sheep in the middle of a field and that pegasus mare burning him alive as she’d done with the butterflies, “ah got to… to,” she pictured him dumped somewhere in an unmarked grave, “um… go meet with my friends!” She cried as she pictured him let go and wandering into the Everfree Forest and coming out as something terrible and intelligent and wreaking havoc and pain that his smile and friendly personality could be hiding.
Dashing away and ignoring the cries of the sheep for her to come back Apple Bloom didn’t notice the shadow staring down at her from the club house. “A rather simple base of operations.” The Professor remarked to himself looking around the children’s play area through the eye slits in his iron mask. “But they are growing and will learn, hopefully soon because I won’t be able to fix their mistakes forever. Oh no no no.” He tusked opening his satchel and pulling out two objects which he then carefully placed on the table in the center of the room.
The first was a sealed letter addressed “To the New Foundation”.
The second was a green plastic cup, five dice resting inside.
“Hopefully they’ll take better care of their treasures,” The Professor continued to say to nobody, “and find some better friends than a mob of… book burners!” He angrily snarled as he slammed the eye slits of his iron mask closed before spreading his wings and jumping up, his body thinning until he slipped through a crack in the wooden ceiling.
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