THE SLUG MAN OF MINERAL SPRINGS!
“Ah! The Mineral Springs Campgrounds!” said Cheerilee to the small fillies and colts of her class, “Are all of you ready for a fun week of eco-science and rock collecting?”
The class gave a unanimous groan in response.
“Oh don’t be like that,” chided the teacher, “Ecosystems are fascinating, as is the study of the various types that exist within Equestria!”
“What about the rock collecting?” asked a very bored Silver Spoon, “Why do we have to, like, waste our time and get dirty and stuff collecting a bunch of dumb rocks?”
Cheerilee smiled at the question and eagerly replied, “I am glad you asked that Silver Spoon! You see children, the environment around you is greatly dependent on the geological formations that exist within it. For instance, large mineral deposits at the bottom of these springs make...”
The words of the teacher trailed off on a tangent that none of the students were too keen on paying attention to. After a near full ten minutes of exposition about various rocks and minerals that made the local landscape both lush and verdant, Cheerilee finally led the small group of students to the campsite they would be spending the week at.
The Mineral Pond Campgrounds was situated deep in the heart of the White Tail Woods, and had a reputation for being particularly beautiful this time of year. The campground was usually abuzz with activity from other campers or the wildlife itself, but on the hike to the campsite, Cheerilee neither saw nor heard heads or tails of anypony.
Filing away the oddity to the back of her mind, the teacher lead her students to the campsite she had reserved weeks ago. “Here we are class,” she proudly announced, “Camp area fifty one, sites A, B, and C!”
The allotted camp area was an open field that was about as large as the inside of Ponyville’s town hall, and had a nice layer of soft grass that felt soft under the hooves of the ponies. The fillies and colts proceeded out into the space with varying amounts of enthusiasm to select spots for their tents.
Cheerilee herself chose a nice spot that was far enough away from her students to give them the feeling that she wasn’t watching, but close enough that she could hear any arguments that could, and probably would, occur.
By sundown, the campsite was bustling with fillies and colts who were more than ready to be fed something tasty. Their teacher had grown incredibly worried however. A camp ranger or some other official should have arrived to give the group of campers the run down of the campground’s rules, but they were hours beyond late. The worrisome thoughts of earlier resurfaced in Cheerilee’s mind. Night was falling, and as much as the teacher wanted to find out what was the matter, even the White Tail Woods could be dangerous in the dark.
“Children!” called Cheerilee, “Children gather around the camp fire if you would please.” The students did as they were instructed and regarded their teacher with a range of looks that spanned from earnest interest to complete boredom. “Okay kids, there have been some...changes to our initial plans for this week. Tomorrow morning, we’re all going to go find a ranger station and find out why no pony came to help us settle in. Hopefully we’ll find a ranger there and we can get on with our week of scientific discovery!”
Her students all exchanged confused glances before a small yellow and red filly with a bow in her mane raised a hoof.
“Yes Apple Bloom?”
“Is that it? Can we all go back ta’ what we were doin’?”
“For now,” replied the teacher with a comforting smile.
The ring of children instantly dispersed into various tents where the sounds of much chit-chatting could be heard. Cheerilee rolled her eyes and went to retrieve a map to the camp grounds from her tent. Once she had it on the ground and illuminated by the fire light, she located the nearest ranger station.
“By Celestia, it’s on the other side of the springs! It’ll take at least two hours to hike over those trails.” As Cheerilee pondered if she could keep her class under control that long, and how many potty breaks they may have to take along the way, he eye caught something on the map. “What have we here? It looks like there’s a deer trail that leads right to the station that’ll get us there in a quarter of the time!”
Rolling the map up and shoving it back into a bag in her tent, Cheerilee made herself comfortable near the fire and relaxed. The welcoming warmth of the fire seemed to wash away the discomforting thoughts from earlier. Sure there were barely any animals or ponies in one of the larger and more beautiful campgrounds of the area, and that the staff had failed to show up at all, but Cheerilee felt confident that it was all just one big mistake.
___
(0 0 0)
Meanwhile, in the tent of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were discussing their carefully laid plans for the evening.
Sweetie Belle held in front of her a notepad with several lines of scratched out words. “Okay so all who think a cutie mark about rocks and minerals is lame, say aye.”
“Aye!” responded the other two in unison.
Picking up a pencil with her magic, the small white unicorn scratched through another line on her notepad. “So that leaves us with: Cutie Mark Crusaders park rangers, Cutie Mark Crusaders flower pickers, Cutie Mark Crusaders night explorers, and Cutie Mark Crusaders spooky ghost fighters. Which one are we gonna do?”
“Well we can scratch of flower pickers,” Scootaloo said with a grimace, “I sounds so...sissy.”
“What about Lily, Rose, and Daisy? They’re flower pickers,” countered Apple Bloom.
The orange pegasus filly put a hoof over her face and responded dryly, “No, they grow flowers, it’s totally different than just frolicking through some field picking posies.”
“I wouldn’t mind a cutie mark like that,” Sweetie Belle said with a pleasant smile.
Apple Bloom’s face brightened as she had a marvelous idea, “How about CMC Night Explorers? It’s night, an’ were in a place that’s swell for explorin’!”
“I’m liking this idea,” said Scootaloo with growing excitement.
Sweetie Belle on the other hoof, looked mortified. “I’m not liking that idea. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s really dark out there, and we could get lost...” With a gulp and look of mounting fear, she added, “...or worse, we could get caught by Ms. Cheerilee and she would tell our families.”
“Aw, stop being such a scaredy pony Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo reassured with a confident tone, “All we gotta do is wait for Ms. Cheerilee to go to sleep , and then we go look around the campground a bit. Nothing to it!”
“I dunno Scoots,” replied Apple Bloom as she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, “If ah get in trouble, Applejack will have my hide when I get home, and that’ll be nothin’ to the lecture ah’d get from Big Macintosh.”
“Oh come on,” pleaded the pegasus, “what’s the worst that could happen?”
The other two fillies put their hooves to their chins and thought hard on that last question. After a few moments of pondering possible outcomes, they looked at each other and shrugged.
“Well, when you put it that way...” started the small unicorn.
The yellow earth filly turned to Scootaloo with a weak grin, “...Ah guess there isn’t any harm in lookin’ around for just a little bit.”
___
(0 0 0)
The three fillies had become horribly lost in no time at all. The foreboding darkness of the woods made it difficult to see where they were going half the time, while the other half was them moving through a thick patch of low hanging branches. The three of them marched on however, led by Scootaloo who was unwittingly leading down the same path that their teacher was planning to use in the morning.
“Can we go back now? My hooves hurt,” came a very pathetic sounding plea from Sweetie Belle, "and shouldn't there be other campsites?"
“Hold on,” said Scootaloo, “I’m pretty sure we’re close to something cool. I can feel it.”
Apple Bloom’s reply came with a yawn, “All ah can feel is the tree sap messin’ up my mane and how dog gone tired ah am. Besides, ah don’t think this is one of the paths Sweetie Belle. We would have seen some other campers by now if that were the case.”
“Will you two trust me? I know where we’re going.”
The other two simply exchanged looks as they followed the pegasus through a dense thicket of trees. On the other side were the springs the campground was named for. They were several large pools of water that shimmered in the moonlight. The paths that led between and around the ponds were obscured by the shadows the night made, leaving the fillies unable to see anything more than the moonlight reflecting off the still waters.
“Greeaat,” said Apple Bloom with obvious exhaustion, “The springs. Can we go back to the camp now?”
Scootaloo let out a depressed sigh and looked back at her companions dejected. “I suppose we should, seeing as how there’s nothing cool in these woods after all.”
As the three fillies turned to leave, a small glinting light caught Sweetie Belle’s eye. In a move that could be debated as foalish, the young unicorn trotted towards the strangely shining patch of foliage alone. As she grew closer to the dark mass of leaves and branches, she saw that whatever was hidden under all the greenery was metallic.
“Girls! I think I found something!”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom rushed over to their friend, the exhaustion that had been claiming them replaced with youthful enthusiasm. Once there, all three began to clear away the branches and vines that covered the strange metallic object. After a few minutes, the fillies inspected what they had uncovered with both confusion and awe.
They could only relate to it as some kind of massive metallic frisbee that was as long as Carousel Boutique was tall. That was only a guess however, as half of the strange disc was buried beneath the earth and much of what was above the ground was still obscured by the foliage. The three small ponies discovered a gash in the exterior of the odd whatever it was, and now stood looking into the deep darkness that lay within.
“What’s in there?” asked Scootaloo straining her eyes, I can’t see a thing.”
Apple Bloom took a cautious step towards the jagged opening, “Ah ain’t never seen anything like this...ya’ll think it’s a space ship or somethin’?”
“It sure looks like a space ship,” Sweetie Belle offered. Her ears perked up as she came to a realization and shouted, “Girls! Do you know what that means?”
“What?” asked the other two together.
“We could be Cutie Mark Crusaders: UFO FINDERS!”
They all beamed with excitement and hastily checked their flanks. Unfortunately, their rumps remained free of any markings. Just the usual mix of tree sap, pine needles, and disappointment.
“Aw horse apples...” they all said unanimously.
“Maybe it doesn’t count until we tell an adult?” suggested Sweetie Belle with a hopeful smile.
“Or maybee...” said Scootaloo, “We need to explore the inside too!”
“Yeah!” agreed Apple Bloom.
Being out voted, Sweetie Belle simply rolled her eyes as she followed her friends into the dark innards of the craft. The interior of the ship was very alien in design, and the walls frequently changed from smooth curves to sharp corners, which made the already slanted floor that much more awkward to walk on. Odd beeping machines seemed to be haphazardly placed around each room, but thankfully illuminated the dark passages.
The fillies walked around until they came across a room that seemed larger than it should have been. The walls were lined with fleshy sacks that seemed to be writhing with pony sized creatures contained inside of them.
“I wonder what’s in these things?” asked Sweetie Belle aloud.
Scootaloo answered with grimace, “I don’t think I really want to find out.”
Then, somewhere in the dark, came the sound of sloshing footsteps echoing throughout the blackness of the hallway. More accurately, the steps sounded like whatever was walking around had slimy suction cups on its feet.
“Okay, now we should probably go back,” said Apple Bloom.
“Agreed,” said the other two.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders charged out of the room and into one of the many strange hallways as the squishy sounding steps continued to get louder. They made their way back to the way they came in and burst out into the moonlight. They ran as fast as they could to some thick bushes and watched as the strangest creature they had ever seen.
The creature walked on two frog like legs with a stilted gait, and it had three skinny, almost tentacle like, arms. It’s head resembled that of a slug as did much of its skin, and was covered with mucus that glistened in the moon light. Its eye stalks swept back and forth scanning for any sign of the fillies.
“Oh my goodness,” said Sweetie Belle ducking deeper into the shrub, “that thing is so gross.”
“Well duh, it’s an alien! All aliens are gross,” whispered Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom looked at her two friends with a worried expression, “Do ya’ll think there were ponies in those pods, and that thing put them in there?”
The other three exchanged thoughtful looks before nodding. “Probably,” said Scootaloo, eyeing the alien abomination with grim fascination.
The Alien gave up on finding the young ponies and returned to the depths of its space ship, no doubt to do its alien...stuff. The Crusaders huddled together in the bush, trying to come to grips with their new situation.
Apple Bloom started off the discussion, “Okay girls, ah think we can take it.”
“Me too,” agreed the orange pegasus, “Rainbow Dash has been teaching me some sweet moves.”
“But what can we do against that...thing? It’s way bigger than us, and I don’t want it to touch me with those slimy tentacles!” argued Sweetie Belle.
The yellow earth filly put a hoof on her chin and thought hard. “Well, that alien looked like a slug right?”
“Yeah.”
“And one of these mineral springs has a lotta salt in it right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well Snails is always goin’ on about how salt is super toxic to slugs and snails, so if we knock that thing into the mineral lake, ah think it’ll be safe to say we could get Alien Killer Cutie Marks!”
“But how do we get it in the salt spring?” asked the small unicorn.
Apple Bloom looked about the woods and got an idea. “Ah bet that ah could make a spring board using a mix of these branches, rocks, and tree sap. Sweetie Belle, if you can lure it into a specific spot with a song or somethin’, Scootaloo could use the spring board to kick it in the face and knock it into the spring!”
They all agreed on the plan, and after Apple Bloom had set up her impromptu spring board, set it into motion. It worked just as the young earth pony had predicted. Sweetie Belle stood on the coast of the salt spring and lured the alien out of its ship with one of her awesome songs. Then, when it leaned down to grab her, she ran between its stilt-like frog legs and gave the signal to Scootaloo, who ran from her hiding space, bounced off the spring board, and drop kicked the slimy creature into the extremely salty water. There, the alien shrieked and cried as it dissolved into a murky stain on the surface of the water.
After checking for their Alien Killer Cutie Marks, and finding none, the disappointed fillies made their way back to camp to get some rest.
___
(0 0 0)
“And that’s the most interestin’ thing that happened during the camping trip,” Apple Bloom said as she reclined in her bed. “‘Course it turns out all the missin’ campers were in those pod thingies, but they were all rescued by Ms. Cheerilee later.”
Applejack and Big Mac eyed the young filly with odd looks, causing her to cock an eyebrow at them.
“What? Don’t ya’ll believe me?”
“Eeee...” started Big Mac as he rubbed a hoof on the back of his neck, “...Nope.”
The End.
(Yep, another fine fic by Anonsi, that mediocre writer you’ve never heard of.)