The Tale of the Untold Story

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“Wh-what was that?” Rainbow Dash, star athlete, clattered her teeth as her shaky hands held on to their only source of light in the darkness of the cave. The wetsuit she had on wasn’t good enough against the cold.

“What was what?” Pinkie Pie turned around , raising an eyebrow. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“Me too,” Sunset Shimmer pulled off her scuba goggles and took in a deep breath.

“Yeah, Dash, are you alright?” Home Run walked over, trying to get his spare flashlight out of his safety harness holding the empty gas tanks to his back. “I didn’t hear anything either. Must’ve been your imagination.”

“I definitely did not imagine a low guttural growl like that,” she said, panning the light across the cavern. “Something’s out there.”

“C’mon, stop kiddin’ around,” Applejack held on to a shaking Fluttershy. “You’re scarin’ Fluttershy with your ghost stories.”

“This is no ghost story!” Rainbow yelled, her voice echoing across the cave system they were trapped in. “Just you wait. Something’s going to jump out and we’re going to be killed!”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Jetstream waved his hands maniacally to get everyone’s attention. The night suddenly grew quiet around the campfire, the only sounds being the crickets in the forest and the crackling of the fire in the middle of the group of students. “You can’t say that in a horror story! That’s just ridiculous! You can’t predict your own deaths like that!”

“She can do what she wants, Jets,” Lightning Rain said beside him, one hand pointed at the other baseballer’s face while his other hand was around Roseluck, who was quietly listening to the conversation. “It’s her story.”

“Yeah, don’t interrupt, Jetstream,” Rainbow pointed a finger at the brown haired boy. “I’m telling the story, so I decide what happens.”

“Alright, alright,” Jetstream surrendered. “You’re the boss, boss.”

“Alright,” Rainbow rubbed her hands together. “Where was I?”

The group wandered the caves, following the only path ahead. Most of their gas tanks were already out, so going back underwater wasn’t going to happen. Rainbow thought perhaps she should’ve read up more on the cave system before bringing everyone out here to explore. She felt bad that her friends were all trapped here with her now because they’d gone too far in, so she felt it was her duty to get them out. After all, she was a really awesome athlete. If anything, she was better than everyone here in terms of stamina and skill. In fact-

“Rainbow,” Applejack frowned. “You’re goin’ off track. This is supposed to be a horror story, not a show-off competition.”

“Show-off competition,” Pinkie held back her laughter. “Good one. Pfffft…”

“Okay, okay, I’ll tone down on my awesomeness. Please, less interruptions.”

The students continued to creep around, the single flashlight illuminating the steep path before them.

“Be careful where you step, everyone,” Rarity warned the others, carefully placing a foot on the next stable rock. “Falling into the water here may be fatal. There seems to be rocks down below too. You don’t want to hit your head at the bottom.”

“I got my light!” Home Run cheered as he finally pulled free the spare flashlight from his harness. Just then, his left foot slipped on the rocky ground. The boy seemed to dance in the air for a few seconds before plunging down into the dark waters below.

“Home Run!” the collective gasped at the same time, rushing to the edge, looking down.

“Hey, you killed me off? First?” Home Run complained, stomping a foot on the grass. “Really?”

“Sssh!” Rainbow hissed at him. “Stop interrupting my story, guys!”

The awesome Rainbow Dash was first to the scene, seeing as she was the one with the light, shining it down into the water.

“Home Run?” she yelled down, careful not to step over the edge herself. “You alright?”

She could hear him breathing heavily down below. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. I missed most of the rocks. Scraped my arm a little, but… I’m fine…”

“How’re w-we going to get him back up?” Fluttershy trembled, looking from friend to friend to see if anyone had any ideas.

“Our harnesses!” Lightning Rain suggested, quickly slipping his off his shoulders. “We can tie them together to form some kind of rope.”

“You’re brilliant, Rain!” Rose gave him a quick kiss to the cheek before taking hers off.

“Nice one, Dash!” Rose giggled and squeezed closer against Lightning Rain. “Nice of you to add that in there. I never thought you were the romantic type.”

“Sheesh,” Rainbow blew at her fringe. “It’s a story. You need all kinds of elements in a story, right?”

The students began to remove their gas tanks, tossing them into the water below, seeing as they didn’t need them any longer. In fact, Rainbow had no idea why they had lugged the empty tanks all the way. They should’ve ditched them at the start.

“Come on guys, it’s fr-fr-freezing in here…” Home Run rubbed his shoulders as he stayed afloat.

Once they made sure the harness rope was safe, Lightning crouched down and lowered it to the blue haired boy.

Rainbow watched as the harnesses got closer to the water, but something on the other side of the water caught her eye. Something white in the dark.

“Hmm?” The star athlete pointed the light away to the water, much to the annoyance of her friends.

“Hey, Dash, we need the light here,” Applejack reminded her.

“It’s fine,” Home Run said, turning his own light on. “Here, one of you take this.”

Once he was sure they were looking at him, Home Run tossed the flashlight up. It fumbled in Applejack’s hands for a second, but she finally held onto it firmly. “Got it. Thanks, Home Run.”

“Wait, guys,” Rainbow raised a hand to hush them. “I saw something. Kinda looked like a snake or something. Oh no. Home Run, I think it’s in there with you. Guys, c’mon. Pull him up!”

“What, snake? Where?” Home Run turned in the water a few times, trying to see if there was anything moving in there with him.

“Home Run, grab on!” Lightning shook the harness.

The blue haired baseball player wasted no more time in grabbing on to it. With their combined strength, the rest of the students began to pull, gradually lifting him out of the water. Rainbow Dash kept an eye on the surface, constantly on the alert for whatever it was that she had seen earlier. Could it have been making the growling sounds she heard before?

Home Run was half up the wall now, kicking up the rocks with his feet as the others pulled him. Just as he was about to take his last step, something long and white shot out of the water and wrapped around his waist.

“Homey!” Jetstream yelled and ran forward to grab one of his arms. “We got you, boy!”

“What is this?” Home Run panicked as he looked down at the slimy white shape around him.

Rainbow stared in shock as the thing began to win, pulling harder than her friends were. Joining in, she grabbed onto Home Run’s right foot, helping the others save her friend from whatever it was that was pulling him. By the looks of it, that thing was no snake. It was part of something much larger.

“Home Run, you’re slipping!” Lightning grunted against the strain he was putting in to save his friend.

Rainbow knew he was right. Home Run had just been in the water earlier, and his hands and feet were still coated in water, making it harder and harder to hold on as the creature down there fought to seize him.

Then horror struck as Home Run was pulled from their grasps back down to the water. He thrashed and yelled as much as he could, but soon, he was nothing more but bubbles popping on the water’s surface, disappearing down into the watery abyss-

“Woah, woah, woah!” Home Run raised a finger and an eyebrow. “So you still just killed me off first? Really? I mean, I know this is supposed to be a spooky campfire story and all, but really? Me? I had to be first?”

“Well, someone’s gotta be first, right?” Rainbow patted him on the back. “Don’t take it to heart, slugger. See it that you had the honour of dying first. Besides, you have a better idea?”

“Well, usually it’s the funny one that goes first, right?” Home Run suggested. “That’d be Pinkie.”

“But I don’t want to die first!” she pouted and made a sad face. “Come on, Home Run’s already dead. Let’s just stick with that! It’s not like it’s real life right, Homey? I’ll make a balloon for you!”

“I don’t want a balloon. I wanna still be alive in that story.”

“Well, too bad,” Rainbow stuck her tongue out. “I chose you to die first, and you did. Can I please go on with the story?”

“Okay, fine, fine, you win, captain,” Home Run sighed and leaned back against his log. “Let’s just see what else happens.”

“Thank you. Now where were we…

“Home Run!” Rainbow Dash yelled and got down on all fours to closely investigate the water. “No, no, no. Home Run!”

“He’s gone, Rainbow,” Rarity placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more we can do for him. We tried.”

“No, no… It’s all my fault,” the pro athlete sat down and covered her face in her hands. “If I didn’t want to come here, he’d still be alive.”

“Well, if we don’t get out of this cave, we’ll all be dead,” Jetstream pointed out, looking ahead as best as he could.

“Not helping, Jets,” Lightning narrowed his eyes at his friend.

“Totally is helping,” Jetstream crossed his arms. “I’m trying to get us out of here.”

“Enough argument, please,” Fluttershy stepped between both of them and gently pushed them apart. Home Run’s gone, b-but we still need to go. H-he’d want us to go…”

The quiet girl broke down into tears, effectively stopping any further argument. Rarity and Pinkie moved over to console her while the rest remained quiet and looked at the water again.

“Okay… Let’s go,” Rainbow sighed and pointed the light forward. The path only lead in one direction, so they didn’t have much of a choice as to which direction to go. “We’ll do something for Home Run when we get out of here.”

“Happy, Home Run?” she looked back at the baseball player, resting both arms against his log. “That we’ll forever remember you in our hearts?”

“Flattered,” the boy said as he rolled his eyes. “Do go on, though. The story’s pretty interesting at least.”

The group had trekked down the narrow path they were on, entering into a large new cavern, filled with stalagmites and stalactites, and something they didn’t expect on seeing.

“A-are those hu-human b-b-bones?” Fluttershy pointed a wobbly finger at the floor.

Rainbow crouched down and picked one up. Being top in class in biology and anatomy, she immediately recognized it was a human bone. A pretty recent one at that.

“Wait, top in class?” Applejack tried to hold back her laughter. “Ya ain’t top in class in any of that, Rainbow. Ah mean, bein’ athletic and all is one thing, but top in class? Pffff ha ha ha ha!”

“It’s my story, AJ,” the rainbow haired girl mentioned again. “I get to decide what I say.”

The amazing Rainbow Dash carefully led her friends through the large cavern, avoiding all the bones on the floor as she walked. She had kept the one she had picked up earlier, just in case she had to beat the daylight out of anymore of those snakey creatures that had taken Home Run.

About halfway in, she heard it again. The growling sound she had heard in the previous cavern. Applejack and Rarity bumped into her as she stopped, but she quickly held up her hand to tell them all to remain silent.

This time, the others didn’t complain, able to hear the sounds too. Whatever it was, it sounded extremely close, almost like it was-

“Up!” Jetstream warned as the kids dived for cover.

Rainbow did an amazing combat roll forward as a blob of white dropped down where Pinkie Pie was standing, landing on top of her.

“NOOOOOOO!” the pink haired girl pulled at her face. “Not me! Anyone but me! I’m too young to go! I still have plenty of parties to plan! Come on, please Dashie? Someone else?”

“Come on, Pinkie, it’s a story,” Rainbow felt like smashing her face against one of the logs. “You won’t die in real life. Just let me do as I please.”

“But… what if we do die in real life?” Pinkie leaned forward and placed her eye against Rainbow’s.

“Ow, hey!” Rainbow pushed her back to her seat. “No one is dying in real life. Look, Home Run’s still alive.”

“True,” the blue haired boy nodded and leaned further back.

“So let me go on, Pinkie,” Rainbow said as nicely as she could. “Please?”

“You drive a hard bargain, Dashie,” Pinkie placed a hand under her chin, but quickly bounced back with a wide grin across her face. “But okay! Go on! All yours, capitan!”

Rainbow looked up, shining her light into the creature’s face. It looked like some kind of mix between a squid and a bird, having a sharp beak atop its slimy white head, along with at least seven tentacles around the bottom half of its body, which was just a single white blob, which seemed to stretch and bounce depending on how the creature moved.

“Pinkie!” Fluttershy gasped and ran forward. She picked up one of the rocks on the floor and smashed it into the side of the creature’s head multiple times-

“Umm… Rainbow?” Fluttershy spoke up, interrupting the story. “Not to intrude or anything, but… I would never hurt something so violently. I mean, I love animals…”

Rainbow sighed heavily and slouched down. “Fluttershy. It’s a story. Besides, wouldn’t you have done anything to help save Pinkie?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Pinkie bounced on her log, almost causing Jetstream, Lightning and Rose to fall off. “Save me! Save me!”

“Oh, well… okay, it is your story after all, Rainbow, sorry to be a bother…” Fluttershy smiled innocently and waited for the athlete to continue.

“Thanks, Flutters.” Rainbow cleared her throat before continuing.

The blob brought its beak down and pecked at Pinkie’s head, jabbing hard enough to draw blood.

“Leave her alone!” Fluttershy began to sob as she continued to bash the creature’s head in.

The others soon came to her aid, with Jetstream and Lightning Rain grabbing rocks of their own to help, while Rainbow clubbed at its beak with the bone she picked up. After three more hits, Rainbow had broken the beak, kicking it away into-

“Rainbow, Ah’m pretty sure ya know, but bones like that ain’t strong enough to break a squid beak,” Applejack said as she tossed another piece of wood into the campfire.

“Fine, fine,” Rainbow waved a hand at her. “I’ll change it.”

Rainbow had found a large rusted sword on the ground, picking it up in both hands to-

“Wait, and ya can’t do that either.”

“Do what?” Rainbow wore a confused look.

“Ya can’t find random weapons on the ground.”

“Why not?”

“Ah… Ah don’t know, ya just can’t!”

“Fine…” Rainbow groaned internally. “I’ll change it again…”

Rainbow Dash picked up one of the other rocks on the floor that was totally not a weapon or anything that she wouldn’t be able to find in the cave and clubbed the creature’s beak, breaking it after three hits. The blob groaned and flapped what was left of its mouth, thrashing around with its tentacles. One wrapped around Jetstream, but the others missed everyone else, flailing wildling in the cavernous space. Rainbow ducked under one as it sprang towards her, diving under a second one before somersaulting over a third before jamming the rock she had into its mouth as hard as she could.

The creature gurgled and tried to dislodge it with its other tentacles, but soon, it went limp, shuddering twice before collapsing down into a puddle of slime.

“Pinkie, are you okay?” Fluttershy bent down to help.

The Pink haired girl had a massive wound on the back of her head, pouring blood down her face.

“I’m sorry…” she said weakly. “I should’ve… been… more careful.”

“We’ll get you help, Pinkie,” Rose walked over, her eyes darting around for anything that could help.

“Just go…” Pinkie said with even less strength. “Get out… of here… Don’t… die down here too…”

Then she closed her eyes and dropped her head to the ground.

“No…” Fluttershy mumbled before bursting into more tears, falling to her knees next to her lifeless friend.

“Well… I did make a deal, Rainbow,” Pinkie Pie popped a balloon of a dog she was making with a pin, startling most of the others. “I’m sorry for making you cry, Fluttershy. You want a bunny balloon?”

Fluttershy nodded and smiled. “You don’t have to apologize, Pinkie. I’m not crying in real life. Though, I would love to have a bunny balloon if it’s okay with you.”

“One bunny coming right up!” Pinkie yelled as she pulled out a red balloon.

“Please, guys,” Rainbow looked at all of them with narrowed eyes. “Don’t interrupt if you don’t have to.”

The remaining students had carried on, going through more caverns, still searching for a way out. Jestream had hurt his arm when the creature had grabbed him earlier, but otherwise he was fine, complaining all along the way about how long they had to walk and why they were even here in the first place.

“Hey!” Jetstream cut in. “I don’t complain! When in my life have I ever complained about anything? Come on, captain! That’s not me! I don’t do that!”

“You totally do, Jets,” Lightning pulled the boy back down. “Just shut it and enjoy the story. Continue, captain. Sorry for this moron’s interruption.”

“Hey, you listen-”

“Jetstream, please!” Rainbow yelled and stood up. “I don’t know how many times you guys have interrupted me, but it’s irritating. Please, stop. Let me finish first.”

“Fine, fine,” Jetstream sat back and folded his arms. “My apologies, cap. I shall do my best to remain quiet.”

“Right. Thanks.” Going by how things were looking, Rainbow didn’t expect long before her next interruption.

Soon, they came across a waterfall, with an old rickety bridge spanning from one side to the other.

“Cool,” Rainbow, the star of Canterlot High, walked closer and placed a hand on the rope, giving it a little shake. “Seems stable.”

Being the heroic girl she was, she volunteered to go first, stepping foot onto the bridge. At first, the wood seemed to shift under her weight, but pinning it down as her imagination, she began to take more steps, moving further and further along the bridge. Looking down, Rainbow could see the waterfall emptying itself down into a dark chasm way too dark for her to see the bottom, or even a little bit of the frothing waters from the waterfall.

“Don’t want to be falling down that anytime soon…” she muttered to herself.

Without any problems, she soon found she had made it to the other side, unharmed.

“Looks good!” she yelled back to her friends and beckoned them over. “We shouldn’t take any chances, though! Come over one by one!”

“Come on, Rose,” Lightning pushed the red haired girl forward. “You go first.”

“Al-alright…” she gulped, trying not to look down.

Slowly, inch by inch, Roseluck made her way across the old bridge, gripping as tightly as she could to the rope just in case something were to happen to the planks below her feet. Rainbow Dash seemed to hold her breath as Rose made her way over, willing her to hurry. There were possibly more creatures in the cave, and she didn’t want to see another one so soon.

Finally, the young florist had arrived on the other side, letting go of the rope to grab onto the hand Rainbow was offering her, almost making the pro athlete wish she hadn’t done so. Rose’s grip was like iron, almost tough enough to break the bones in her hand.

“It’s fine, Rose, you’ve made it,” Rainbow assured, motioning the girl behind her as she beckoned the next of her friends over. “Next one!”

Lightning Rain was next, then Applejack, Sunset Shimmer, Rarity and Fluttershy. When Fluttershy was about halfway, a growl sounded from the back half of the cavern, where Jetstream was still waiting by himself.

“Oh great…” the baseballer muttered and bent down to pick up the sharpest rock he could find, figuring stabbing the creature would be better than clubbing its slimy flesh. “Pick up the speed, Fluttershy, if you could.”

“I-I’ll try…” the pink haired girl whimpered, moving a little faster.

Rainbow Dash tried to look over past Jetstream, but she couldn’t see any signs of movement, nor did her flashlight beam reach that far. She and the rest of her friends were so busy looking to the other side, that they only managed to see it a second too late. Out from the stalactites up top, a blob of white fell, almost as quick as a comet, landing atop Fluttershy. The quiet girl’s scream pierced the cavern around the students, echoing down into the abyss below.

Rainbow Dash stopped her story, expecting to get interrupted. Just as she had predicted, Applejack cleared her throat before speaking.

“You’re gonna kill off Fluttershy? You can’t kill off Fluttershy! Just look at her.”

The pink haired girl in question was busy examining the rabbit balloon that Pinkie Pie had made for her, holding it close like it was one of her actual pets. “Yes? D-did someone say my name?”

“It’s fine, Fluttershy,” Sunset Shimmer waved a hand. “You can get back to playing with that balloon.”

“Fine, fine,” Rainbow blew hair out of her face. “I’ll change it a little.”

Sprouting wings at the top of its form, the blob let out a shrill screech before taking flight, lifting Fluttershy up into the air with its beak.

“Help!” the girl cried out to her friends.

Rainbow pushed past the others and ran down the bridge, going as fast as she could to help, but she had arrived too late. Fluttershy went sailing through the air with the creature, diving down to the abyss below.

“Fluttershy! No!” she looked down, but soon, she couldn’t even hear her friend’s screams anymore.

“Ya still killed her,” Applejack made a face.

“How would you know?” Rainbow put on a smug face and folded her arms. “I didn’t say she died. She might still be alive. I’ll leave it open. Some stories do that, right?”

“Well… I guess so, yeah,” Sunset shrugged and looked at Applejack. “She has a point, AJ. Maybe Fluttershy’s still alive. I mean, what creature would want to kill her?”

“Alright, alright, ya win this one, Rainbow Dash…” the cowgirl left it alone and waited for the athlete to go on.

Just then, the sound of tentacles slapping against rock could be heard from the other side as Rainbow turned to look at what was going on. By the sound of it, something bad was about to happen.

Jetstream thought the same thing and turned around. “Go! I’ll hold them back! Get back to the other side!”

“What?” the best athlete in the world was taken aback for a second. “No, Jets, we’re not leaving you! Come on! Get over here right now!”

“Sorry, boss. Not this time.” Jetstream gave her the biggest smile he could muster and turned his back to the rest of his friends. “Go! You’re wasting the time I’m buying you!”

Rainbow hesitated again, not wanting to lose another friend, but Jetstream was right about one thing. She didn’t have the time to run over there to grab him. Turning around, she began dashing back to the other side, going as fast as she-

“Hold it, hold it!” Jetstream waved through the imagination again. “Sorry, but why didn’t I just run across the bridge? I probably could’ve made it. I play baseball, remember captain? I can run. All we have to do is cut the bridge from the other side, right?”

“Just roll with it, Jets,” Rainbow grumbled. “People always do dumb stuff in horror movies and stuff. Uh, no offense. Besides, you’re gonna go down like a hero! I thought you’d like that.”

“Now that you put it that way…” Jetstream rubbed his moustache. “Very well, captain, I’ll take this dance. It’s only a story after all.”

“Though you might probably pull something like that in real life too,” Lightning whispered a little too loudly.

“Hey, you shut your face!” Jetstream reached for him, but was stopped by Applejack and Rarity.

“Guys, quiet!” Rainbow stopped them again. “Let’s go on with the story. If you keep interrupting me, we’re not going to get any sleep.”

Rainbow Dash arrived back at the other side just as the first blob had arrived at Jetstream’s position.

“Coooooooome get soooooome!” the boy yelled and swatted his rock at the first creature, bashing it to the side.

He bent over it and stabbed the sharp end of the rock down on it over and over until it stopped moving. His clothes and skin had been splattered with the creature’s white blood as he stood to face the oncoming creatures.

At least a dozen of them could be seen lumbering over on their tentacles, almost like someone had rung a dinner bell.

“Keep going!” Jetstream shouted back to his friends, who were still watching him from the other side.

“He’s right, guys,” Rainbow Dash began to motion her friends further into the cave. “If we stay here, we’re wasting his sacrifice. We need to go. Now.”

Hesitantly, the others began to move off one by one, with Rainbow going last to make sure they were all accounted for.

Once the first creature arrived, Jetstream clubbed it away like with the first one, but this time, he didn’t have the time to finish it off as a second creature latched onto his right thigh and bit hard into his flesh.

“Aagh!” he yelled as he continuously bashed the creature’s head with his rock.

Unfortunately, it didn’t let go in time as another one reared up and bit into his left arm, pulling him lower for another to jump on his head.

Jetstream flailed around as the one on his head bit through his skin, piercing his skull. With no alternative, Jetstream stumbled back, getting as close to the bridge as he could.

“If I’m going down, you’re all going with me!” he yelled at the top of his voice before he brought the sharp end of the rock down on one side of the ropes supporting the bridge.

He brought it back and forth, cutting into the rope, weakened after years of existence. The creatures continued their attack, biting into every bit of exposed flesh the boy had, tearing at his skin, pulling at his meat and muscle. As soon as the first rope split in two, Jetstream slogged through the blobs around his legs, starting on the second, trying to go as fast as he could before he could lose too much blood. If anything, he was going to make sure his friends could get as far as they could.

“End of the line, boys…” Jetstream spat out a gob of blood at the nearest creature before the second rope snapped.

The entire bridge seemed to vibrate like a violent earthquake for a second, before the entire thing plunged down, swinging over to the other side. Jetstream simply let go of the rope, letting himself and a group of the tentacled horrors fall, pulling along what he could. Some of them still continued to bite him, but soon, it was all going to be over as the darkness below opened up into raging rapids, slowly getting closer and closer.

“Jets…” Lightning Rain straightened his back and saluted with a serious expression. “You shall forever be etched into our memories.”

“Why thank you, LR, my boy,” the ponytailed boy plucked a long blade of grass from the ground and stuck it between his teeth. “How it pleases me that my friends shall remember my heroic deeds.”

“I wasn’t finished,” Lightning smirked. “You will be forever etched into our memories of being the silliest person ever to stay behind and protect us.”

“Hey, hey!” Jetstream spat the grass blade out and tried to get up, but Applejack held him down.

“Guys! Story. Please,” Rainbow had to say again, losing count of the amount of times she’d been interrupted already.

“Jetstream was a good man,” Lightning Rain shook his head. “Sure we argued, but he’s always there for any of us.”

“You’re right…” Rarity sighed, picking at her wetsuit, noticing a tear just above her shoulder. “We should keep moving. Perhaps we’ll find a way out around the corner.”

“Keep dreamin’ Rarity,” Applejack picked up a rock for safety measure. “But let’s go on anyway.”

“I’m hungry…” Rose groaned, rubbing her stomach. “What if we die of starvation in here? The horror…”

“We’ll get through this, Rose,” Lightning Rain gave her a squeeze. “We’ll make it.”

“Hey, guys! Check out what I found!” The star athlete, Rainbow Dash had returned from around the corner, carrying a rifle of some kind in her hands.

“Rainbow, Ah’ve told ya before,” Applejack interrupted the story, waving her hands. “Ya can’t pull weapons outta nowhere.”

“Come on, AJ, be flexible a little!” Rainbow complained, on the verge of pulling out her rainbow hair. “I gotta find a way to get us all out of here, don’t I? Who cares if it's realistic. Movies do this all the time!”

“Yeah, it’s getting pretty late…” Home Run rubbed at his forehead and yawned. “About time she began closing this story up.”

“See, even Home Run gets it!” Rainbow threw her hands forward.

“Wait, what is that supposed to mean?” Home Run raised an eyebrow.

Rarity waved him away and swiped her violet hair back. “Just get on with the story, Rainbow.”

“Thank you. Ahem.”

Superstar athlete Rainbow Dash led the group, holding the rifle in her hands, panning it across the cavern walls as she looked out for any signs of trouble.

Those white blobby monsters had taken too many of her friends already. She wasn’t going to let them take more.

“Everyone alright?” she asked the rest at the back. She counted Rarity, Applejack, Lightning Rain, Roseluck and Sunset Shimmer. “We’ll make it out.”

“I hope so,” Rarity fished up a sizeable rock of her own. “This place is terribly dreadful. I want to go home.”

“We will, Rarity,” Sunset patted her shoulder.

The group entered a long cavern, with water coming up to their ankles. All the way on the other side, past the stalagmites and stalactites, was light. Sun rays, shining through a huge cave opening.

“We’re almost there!” Rainbow Dash, CHS hero, pointed and rushed on. “Come on, let’s get outta here!”

Anxious to get out, the rest of the group ran after their glorious leader, which was Rainbow Danger Dash.

“Okay, okay, seriously, Rainbow, can ya stop with the overwhelming self praise?” Applejack frowned and rubbed her head. “Ah mean, it’s such a shameless self insert you’ve done here. Come on.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll stop,” Rainbow folded her arms and sighed. She was almost at the end anyway.

Suddenly, a horde of blob monsters emerged from the tunnel they had come from, spreading their wings from their slimy backs as they began to take flight to chase after Rainbow and the gang.

“They’re coming!” Rose yelled fearfully as she clung to Lightning Rain.

“Go, go, go!” Rainbow stopped in her tracks and lifted her rifle to her shoulders. “Keep going, I’ll do what I can to slow them down!”

“We’re not leaving you,” Sunset pulled on the athlete’s arm. “We stick together.”

“It’s fine,” she squirmed out of Sunset’s grasp. “I’m a runner. I’ll catch up. Just go!”

The fiery haired girl looked between her friends before nodding, running off with the rest as Rainbow took aim at the closest creature.

“Good night, monsters.”

She opened fire, killing each one with headshots as they swooped down towards her with their beaks and tentacles ready to grab at her.

Then one of the squid creatures managed to land on her shoulder, biting down with its jaws, drawing blood.

“Agh!” Rainbow yelled as she rolled back, smashing the creature against a stalactite, knocking it off, along with a chunk of her skin.

Then she had an idea. Aiming up, Rainbow began firing at the rocks above, slowly spreading cracks along the cavern roof.

“Wait, you can’t do that, can you?” Jetstream butted in. “Bullets can’t break a ceiling like that.”

“Jets. My story. Let me finish. Then we can all get to sleep.”

Then the ceiling started collapsing, raining debris down around Rainbow and the creatures, instantly crushing one as it lunged for her, its tentacles still searching for the st- athlete as she turned and hightailed away from the crumbling ruins.

“Come on, Rainbow!” her friends called to her from the cave exit. “Keep running!”

Rainbow Dash picked up her speed, moving as fast as she could. If she were running a race now, she’d definitely be coming in first place, except that her only competitors here were a bunch of squid monsters and falling debris, but her middle name wasn’t ‘Danger’ for nothing.

Just at the exit, a huge piece of debris fell, just above her. Determined to get out to be with her friends, Rainbow Dash dropped to a slide at the last second, the boulder just narrowly missing her by the hair, blocking off the cave exit completely as more rumbling was heard behind it, along with the shrieks of the strange cave creatures within.

Rainbow Dash coughed as the dust began to clear, standing up and waving the air in front of her face.

“Rainbow, you’re alright!” Sunset was the first to give her a hug, before the rest came over to do the same.

“Yeah, of course I am,” she raised a fist to the sky. “And so are the rest of you!”

“And we’re out of that terrible cave!” Roseluck hopped around in circles, glad to be back under the sun.

“Come on,” Applejack chuckled and rubbed at her dirt covered face. “Let’s go find a way down. It’s time to head on home...”

“The end,” Rainbow Dash leaned an arm on a knee and grinned, looking at her friends around the campfire.

“Cool,” Home Run nodded his head in approval. “Not bad, captain.”

"Yeah, I like the part where Fluttershy saved me!" Pinkie waved her hands around really fast. "She was so brave and brave! Did I say brave?"

"Oh, it's just a story, Pinkie," Fluttershy pushed a lock of pink hair behind an ear.

"It was exciting, I'd give you that, Dash," Roseluck gave the athlete a high five.

“Could’ve been better,” Applejack stood up and stretched her joints. “But its still somethin’ Rainbow. Good job. Just… lay off on the self praising and all that next time.”

“Well, I’ll try, but I make no promises,” the athlete shrugged and placed her arms on the log she was leaning against.

“Alright, then I think it’s time to get some shut eye,” Rarity started walking back towards the tent as she stretched her arms. “Goodnight, everyone.”

“And I declare this meeting officially over,” Jetstream smiled and reached behind a log, returning with a bucket of water.

“Jets, what do you think you’re doing?” Lightning looked down at the smiling boy’s face.

“What?” Jetstream raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t you seen those campfire shows? You got to end it like this…”

Then he tipped the bucket over and emptied all the water over the fire, putting it out.

“That’s how it’s done,” the ponytail boy spun the bucket and placed it behind his back.

“Great,” Home Run stood up and dusted his jeans. “Now how are we going to find our way back? We didn’t bring any flashlights.”

“Good question, home boy,” Jetstream searched for his shoulder, but found Lightning’s face instead, much to the taller boy’s annoyance. “Eh… A question saved for another time, perhaps.”

“What?”

The Tale of the Springy Floorboards

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There it was again. Sunset Shimmer knew this sound well.

The creaking, the cracking.

She heard it all the time when she was at home. The sound of her floorboards creaking under her footsteps. Yes, she knew that sound well.

Normally, hearing her springy floorboards creak wouldn’t really mean anything, but for the last few nights, there was a problem with the sound.

She wasn’t walking around. She was lying in bed. And she lived alone.

For a while, Sunset didn’t move. She simply lay there, listening and once again trying to determine whether she was imagining the sounds or not.

She didn’t think it was a thief. After the sun rose each day and her alarm clock woke her, Sunset checked her home, but everything would be as it is. A thief wouldn’t break in to steal nothing night after night.

So who was walking around her house and what did they want? Tonight, Sunset was going to find out.

“I-I-I guh-gotta pee…” Fluttershy sprang to her feet and dusted her skirt before skittering away from the campfire, disappearing past the tents.

“And I think I better go with her.” Rarity smiled and got up to follow. “You know, to look out for her.”

She too disappeared behind the tents.

Rainbow Dash watched them go with a unamused look written all over her face. “Come on, the story’s barely started. Anyone else need to go?”

“No, we’re fine, capt.” Home Run looked over at the campfire, which was burning brightly in the dark.

“Uh, Rainbow, before we continue…” Sunset Shimmer had a question. “Why me?”

“Because, you live alone, Sunset. The story works better if you don’t have a family.” Rainbow shrugged. “Uh, no offense.”

Sunset sighed and chuckled lightly. “None taken, Dash…”

“Right.” Rainbow picked up a stick and prodded the campfire. “So I can continue yeah? Ahem…”

Slipping out from under her sheets, Sunset grabbed her phone, in case she needed to illuminate something and also put on her fluffy home slippers, hoping it would mask the sound of her footsteps.

She crept down a small flight of steps that led up to her bed and moved for her closed room door. Only… It wasn’t closed. It was slightly ajar.

“Oh? Did I forget to shut it before I slept?” Sunset whispered and crept to the door.

Stopping behind it, Sunset placed her ear close to the space separating the door from the frame. There it was. She could still hear the creaking and it sounded like it was coming from downstairs.

“Who are you and what have you been doing in my house?” Sunset said to herself.

The only reason a burglar would break in is to steal stuff, but Sunset had found everything as it was every morning when she went to search her home. She also found no traces of forced entry, which really puzzled her. Whoever came into her home every night was a skillful one.

Opening her door slowly, Sunset crept over to the top of her staircase, peeping over the side to see if she could see anyone downstairs.

To her horror, she spotted the shadow of someone, cast against the wall, moving towards her staircase. Sunset quickly ducked back down against the wall, moving into a crouch, her heart beating in her chest.

There really was someone there. She hadn’t imagined it.

“Right?” Sunset asked herself. It hadn’t been a trick on her eyes, at least, she thought so.

Right now, she could even hear whoever it was downstairs, place their first foot on the staircase, the sound different from the usual creak. This one was more like a thump.

Had they heard her? She had made sure to open her door quietly, but perhaps it hadn’t been as quiet as she had hoped.

But that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was that someone was in her house and they were making their way up the stairs right this moment. Whoever this was, they had a lot to answer for, the most important being why they kept coming to her house every night, taking nothing.

“This is no thief,” Sunset muttered to herself inaudibly.

Then there was the second thump, then the third. Each one seemed to correspond with Sunset’s own heartbeat, loud in the girl’s ears as she waited for the perpetrator to appear around the staircase wall.

“You’re trained, Sunset. You can take them, whoever they are. Just remember what the star of Canterlot High School, Rainbow Dash, had taught you in your years under her wings-”

“Aw, not this again.” Applejack slapped a palm on her forehead. “Rainbow, enough with the self-praise, yeah? We’re here for a campfire story, not to hear about your skills.”

“And I didn’t learn combat from you,” Sunset chuckled.

“She’s right, you know?” Home Run pulled at a long blade of grass and then tossed it into the fire.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tone down on my abilities. Can we continue?” Rainbow waited for a second. “Right…”

Four more steps till her perpetrator would arrive at the top. Sunset had counted each one, her heartbeat so loud now she almost couldn’t hear the footsteps; she hoped whoever was in her house couldn’t hear it.

The plan was simple. She would identify who it was first, then deliver a swift kick to their face before subduing them with an arm lock.

In her head, it all looked easy, but Sunet knew things don’t always go as planned.

Swallowing hard, Sunset heard two more steps being taken. Two steps. Two steps were all that remained between her and her intruder.

Pushing to her feet, Sunset turned and waited, keeping her eyes on the corridor. One more thump echoed in her quiet house. And then, there was silence.

Sunset waited what seemed like an eternity, waiting for that last and final step to be taken, but the sound never came.

She waited behind the corner for what felt like hours, but still, no one showed up. She waited… and waited… and waited… and waited…

“Rainbow, come on. Just get on with it.” Even Home Run was losing patience.

“Yes! Get on with it!” Pinkie yelled into her cupped hands, the echo making her sound like a crowd. “He he… Sorry, Dashie. Keep going.”

“Okay, okay, sheesh.” Rainbow pulled at a lock of purple hair on her head. “You guys are supposed to be scared. This is a spooky campfire story.”

“Well, maybe we’ll actually be scared if ya properly tell the story?” Applejack suggested.

Wiping a frown off her face, Rainbow cleared her throat before continuing.

Sunset had given up on waiting. Whoever this person was, climbing her stairs, she decided she was just going to kick him down if he was indeed just standing there before the last step.

Rounding the corner, Sunset lifted a leg, but she was surprised to see no one standing there.

“Huh…?” she couldn’t help but mutter.

She had heard it. She had seen the shadow. Someone had indeed been coming up her stairs, but where did they go? They couldn’t just disappear.

Right?

Just then, a shadow descended on her, covering the light from the window.

Sunset froze. It was a tall and lanky shape, much taller than her and two arms slowly rose up, the palms opening to reveal long slender fingers, looking like they were about to grab her from behind.

The fiery haired girl turned around and screamed, but once again, there was no one there. Looking back, the shadow was gone again, leaving no trace that there had ever been anyone standing there.

Taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, Sunset looked around frantically, afraid that whoever was in her house, was still here.

“Girrrrlll…” she heard a whisper in her ear.

That was all it took to send her running back to her room, slamming her door shut behind her, her heart beating against her ribs too quickly.

Whoever was in her house, it wasn’t some thief or even some human. It was something more and it definitely wasn’t friendly.

Locking her door, Sunset ran up to her bed and went through her phone, looking through her list of contacts for one of her close friends.

Applejack’s name was the first on the list, so she dialed her up and put the phone to her ear, her eyes constantly looking at her bedroom door.

“Hi, you have reached Applejack’s phone and it’s currently unavailable. Ah’d be happy if ya left a message.” the automated voice said. “Please leave your message after the yeehaw. Yeeeehaw!”

“AJ, there’s something… something in my house! I don’t know… what to do!” Sunset tried to speak quickly through her ragged breathing. “Help! Please help! Send help!”

Sunset looked through her list of contacts again, next finding Home Run’s name, but as she was calling him, her doorknob began to rattle and she dropped her phone, her eyes going wide with fear.

This thing that was in her house, it had been creaking on the floorboards downstairs for so many nights now. Why was it only pursuing her now? Was it because she now knew of its existence? Or perhaps even because she had tried to fight it at the staircase?

Sunset didn’t know, but right now, she knew she had to get out of here. The door was definitely a no go, meaning she would have to get out through her large window.

Running for it, Sunset only had time to throw one window pane open before she realized there was silence. The doorknob was no longer rattling.

Turning around, Sunset’s mouth opened in silent horror as she noticed the door was wide open. Standing there, half shrouded in the darkness was a man, only, it wasn’t quite a man. It was dark, almost as dark as the shadows and its featureless face looked back at her, slightly tilted to one side and two huge red eyes bore holes into her heart, sending it into a frenzy.

Sunset was unable to move, so paralyzed by fear that she even began to wet herself.

“Oh, come on, Dash, really?” Sunset blushed and covered up her face in embarrassment as Home Run and Pinkie began to laugh hysterically.

“What?” Rainbow looked at her innocently. “People piss their pants when they’re afraid, right?”

“I mean… yeah, but…” Sunset ducked her head lower. “You didn’t… need to make me do it…”

“Aw, come on. I’m the one telling the story after all. And it’s not like you really pissed yourself. It’s just a story.”

“A mighty underwhelming story, that is.” Applejack dusted her hat.

“Well, that’s because you guys keep interrupting me!” Rainbow shot her a look. “So… Can I just continue? No more interruptions? I promise, it’ll get scarier. It’s meant to.”

“Sure, Dash, sure…”

Rainbow shook her head and cleared her throat.

As the strange creature began to approach her, its long fingers unfurling and reaching out towards her, Sunset broke out of her trance and skipped over her window ledge, climbing outside and swinging herself down to the next ledge, then another and another.

She had to get out of there. Nothing else mattered at the moment but escaping that horrible monster.

Sunset didn’t stop even when her feet touched the floor at the bottom of her climb down, instantly sprinting away from her house as fast as she could. The girl spent the rest of the night cowering behind a dumpster in a nearby alley way, her knees curled up to her chest and her entire body trembling.

Sunset stayed there until morning, not leaving until the sun began to cast rays down on her position.

She found the other Rainbooms crowded around her home when she returned, with the exception of Rainbow Dash the Magnificent Athlete. When she questioned her friends, she found out that the star athlete had entered the house on her own, in search of Sunset.

“No, she can’t go in!” Sunset grabbed Applejack’s shoulders, and squealed. “Not alone! We need to go in after her!”

“Woah, woah, slow your horses, Sunset.” Applejack readjusted her hat and gave the fiery haired girl a pat on her shoulder. “Mind tellin’ us what the problem is?”

“No time! Dash could be in trouble! There’s something in my house!” Sunset pointed at the open front door and looked into the darkness of her entrance. Her home had never looked so foreboding and terrifying. “W-We need to get her. She’s in there… with that thing!”

“What’s in there, darling?” Rarity’s face was full of concern, mostly for Sunset.

Sunset went about explaining everything that had happened the night before. It had been a terrifying experience. Whatever that thing was, it had seemed to have taken up residence in her home.

Just then, Rainbow emerged from the doorway, a look of excitement on her face-

“Wait, wait, why are ya excited, Dash?” Applejack waved through the imagery of the story. “Ain’t ya supposed to be afraid?”

“Come on, why would I be?” The athlete put a hand on her chest. “I’m Rainbow Dash, captain of every sports team here. I’m pretty awesome.”

“But there’s a scary monster in there.” Pinkie Pie pulled down on her face and stuck her tongue out.

“Yeah…” Sunset rubbed the back of her head. “There isn’t much to be excited about here.”

“Could you guys just wait? I’m getting there!” the rainbow haired girl complained. Again.

Following their awesome friend back inside, Sunset and the other girls walked down through the same hallway they would always walk through when they visited Sunset.

The fiery haired girl had never felt her home so unwelcoming, always ready to invite a friend over. It seemed as though the shadows were watching them now, looking for the right moment to strike.

“Perhaps I should’ve gotten myself a smaller house…”

Rainbow Dash led them to the kitchen, then to the left, where Sunset’s fridge stood against the wall. She pointed at it and grinned madly.

“Look! Did you know that was there?” she asked her friends.

“The… wall?” Sunset looked at where Dash was pointing.

“Look closer, Sunset.” Rainbow shoved her forward.

Sunset still couldn’t see anything odd about it, but when she raised a hand to touch her wall, she realized it felt different from the rest of her walls. Then running her hand down its length, she found a small latch, just against the edge of the wall, almost invisible to the eye, its colours blending with the wallpaper and the shadows.

“It’s… a door!” Sunset exclaimed, pulling at the latch. “How have I never seen this?”

“Uh, because you don’t have eyes like mine?” Rainbow pointed to her left eye and smirked. “Come on, let’s see what’s inside.”

The door swung silently open, gaping like a monster’s maw with nothing but blackness beyond.

“Sooooo…” Pinkie Pie said, peering down the hole. “Who wants to go down the dark scary tunnel in the wall first?”

Being the brave and strong athlete she was, Rainbow volunteered to go first, taking a flashlight with her, with Sunset next to go, wanting to know just what was living in her house, even if she had to face it again.

Pinkie bounced after them, pulling a lantern from her hair and lighting it. The rest of the group followed, some of them pulling out their phones to light the way.

“So you never knew this was here, Sunset?” Pinkie asked, squinting into the darkness beyond. “This’d make a great hiding place for a game of hide and seek!”

“I don’t want to hide down here,” Sunset said, trying to calm her nerves. There was a staircase leading further down into the gloom, where even the flashlight couldn’t fully penetrate.

“Me n-neither…” Fluttershy mumbled.

“This goes way down,” Rainbow called from the front, shining her light down the passage. It went down, far below the surface of the ground. It smells of damp, earth, and other unwholesome things.

“It’s like that one place in Dim Spirits…with the poison water.” Fluttershy whispered.

“Yeah, it is- wait. You’ve played Dim Spirits, Fluttershy?!”

“Hol’ up, hol’ up,” Applejack interrupted again, much to Rainbow’s annoyance. “Fluttershy doesn’t play that. Much too violent for her. Ain’t that right? And what’s this even gotta do with the story?”

“Hey, it’s not as violent as Wooden Cog. There’s barely any blood in Dim Spirits!”

Home Run coughed. “I know a certain windbag who would like to refute that, but he’s not here, so, carry on.”

“Well, I know Fluttershy likes to watch those gory Eastern cartoons, so why not Dim Spirits?” Rainbow Dash challenged. “Can I just get on with the story?”

“Yeah, yeah, just hurry it up a little, it’s gettin’ real late.”

“That’s cause you keep interrupting!” Rainbow cleared her throat. “Now, where was I…”

“Dim Spirits,” Home Run supplied.

“Right.”

The dim lighting on their way down the steps didn’t help much to lift their spirits. Sunset Shimmer didn’t know how far down it led, but it didn’t look very inviting. Once again, she was thinking why she was even here. Perhaps after finding the door, the right thing to do would have been to seal it up with cement. Or at least report it to the authorities. She licked her dry lips. Sunset thought about just how nice a tall, refreshing glass of Bepis would be. Sparkling with condensation, she could even imagine just how good it would taste going down, the bubbles tickling her throat as the wonderful drink-”

“Is this a ghost story, or an ad for Bepis?” Applejack deadpanned.

“What? I’m thirsty,” Rainbow countered. Sunset shook her head and passed the athlete a bottle of water. She drank down half of it in one gulp and sighed. “Ahh. Not as good as Bepis, but it’ll do. Thanks, Sunset.”

“I just don’t want to be out here until dawn because you wanted a drink,” Sunset said.

“Right, so just stop interrupting me.”

The girls eventually arrived at the bottom, where they could now see a light layer of glistening water just after the final step, their light sources dancing on it. Ahead of them was more darkness, but there were wooden beams above, holding the ceiling up, though they looked really worn with age.

Sunset wondered to herself just how old this place was.

“Now if only we had some plane fuel…” Rainbow Dash mused, looking up at the beams. “We could solve Sunset’s monster problem right here and now if we had some.”

Applejack was about to agree when there came a splashing sound in the far distance, like a heavy stone had been hurled into the water.

“Did anyone else hear that?” Rarity took one step back behind Fluttershy, who had become stiff as a beanpole.

“It sounded really far away. Like, really far away.” Sunset shone her phone light in an arc around them. There seemed to be two different passages, one leading left and one leading right. “Just how big is this place?”

“Come on, we need to see where this goes.” The fearless Rainbow Dash took one step into the water. Her foot only sunk down to the white lining of her boot, so it wasn’t too deep.

“L-Looks like some kind of mine…” Fluttershy trembled, not wanting to continue on. “I-I think I’ll wait here. Or ac-actually, I’ll wait upstairs.”

With that said, she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“And I’m not taking another step down here. It would ruin my boots!” Rarity fanned herself with a hand. “I shall be above with Fluttershy.”

“Anyone else feel like chickening out?” Rainbow asked, receiving only shaking heads. “Good. Then we go on and see where this monster of Sunset’s is from.”

Sunset followed behind their fearless leader, keeping her phone’s beam ahead of her feet, not wanting to accidentally trip over anything. Face first into this murky water likely wasn’t a good idea.

Above them, the beams creaked with age, occasionally seemingly shifting in their place and raining dust down on their heads. If it were to collapse behind them now… Sunset didn’t want to think about that.

The girls decided to go down the left path, trekking slowly in the darkness, their ears peeled for any signs of life.

And then ahead, there was another loud splash, making Sunset jump. If she didn’t have any second thoughts exploring the tunnels, she did now.

“Come on, it’s just a sound. No biggie. There’s five of us.” Rainbow Dash spun the flashlight in her hand. “If this monster does show up, we can take him.”

“Ya know, I’m pretty sure this ain’t how these stories go on.” Applejack scratched her forehead. “Are ya sure ya know how to tell it?”

“Yes, I do. Now will you. Please. Stop. Interrupting. Me?” Rainbow said through gritted teeth.

The girls pressed on, with Sunset following closely behind Rainbow, the star of this story. She illuminated parts of the walls, while Rainbow kept her light in front to see where they were going.

Webs covered much of what she could see and the walls were mostly of dirt and some kind of stone. By the looks of it, this place could very well be from the ancient times of cowboys. Perhaps it was an old mine and maybe after digging for so many years, the miners had uncovered something so horrible that the place was abandoned, never to see the light again.

Until now.

Rainbow’s flashlight illuminated a black shape just ahead of them. It was bent down, its long arms curled around itself, almost like it was an egg.

Sunset knew it was the same creature from the night before. There was no doubt about it. Seeing it again sent shivers down her spine and her legs began to shake, threatening to give way.

Turning to face them, the monster stood up, its red eyes glowing even in the flashlight’s piercing beam.

“Ruuuuun for iiiiiittt!” Pinkie Pie turned and disappeared back down the tunnel.

“No, don’t run!” Rainbow called after her, but it was too late.

With a growl, the monster charged past them, pushing them away with its long arms and running down the tunnel after the fleeing Pinkie.

“It senses your fear,” Rainbow explained to them. “You must not show it.”

“But I had been afraid.” Sunset looked on into the darkness. “I peed myself the night before remember? So why didn’t it attack me?”

“Because… Uh…”

“Because I said so, okay?” Rainbow reasoned. “I’m the storyteller, so whatever I say, happens, got it?”

“Yeah yeah, we got it. Just get it done, Dash.” Applejack tipped her hat lower, her interest in the story clearly lost.

“Yeah, and you didn’t need to mention me peeing myself again, did you?” Sunset blushed.

“Just let me finish. I’m almost done, okay?”

Not wanting to leave her friend alone in danger, Rainbow Dash the Magnificent Athlete ran, following the creature’s path as it chased after Pinkie Pie. Years of training on the field had given her the ability to run like a horse, helping her catch up to the pursuing creature.

Applejack was about to interrupt again, but then decided against it. She just resorted to shaking her head and folded her arms, waiting for her friend to finish the story up.

Spinning the flashlight in her hands, Rainbow threw it at the creature like a javelin, hitting it square in the back and knocking it down, creating a big splash in the water.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have a light on her anymore and she could no longer see the monster.

Raising her fists, the girl stepped back until her back was against the wall, her eyes darting around for any signs of movement in the darkness. “Where are you? Come on out.”

She heard the creature rise from the water somewhere to her right and she swung a fist, connecting it with something fleshy and wet. There was a groan from the dark, before a clawed hand tore across her shoulder, shredding her jacket and drawing blood.

“Ow!” The star athlete hopped away and checked on her wound. It wasn’t anything serious, so she get herself ready again.

She threw another two punches at the monster, anticipating where its chest would be, feeling her fist connect with its leathery hairless skin. She felt movement from the right and ducked just in time as she felt a hand swing over where she was standing. Just then, she heard running behind her, and then there was a grunt as Sunset Shimmer jumped over her, kicking at the monster’s shoulder, knocking it back.

The monster moaned some more and splashed back down into the water. It then leapt out at Rainbow Dash, but because she was such an excellent athlete and had catlike reflexes, she dodged it easily. However, Sunset Shimmer was much less well trained-

“I object to that,” Sunset remarked.

“Really? You have to interrupt me too now?” Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to slide a hand down her face. “Can I just finish the story? You all want to get to sleep, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, just… You know, I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I did pick up some skills that, well, you girls don’t have. So… yeah, Dash.”

“Whatever, it’s my story. Can I just tell it as I need to?”

“Fine.”

Picking up a pickaxe from nearby-

Applejack raised her hand and made a noise like she was about to say something, but then lowered her arm and sighed.

… Rainbow Dash swung it at the creature, embedding the sharp tip of the tool into its damp gelatinous flesh. She pulled the pickaxe out and swung it again, this time aiming higher. There was a damp squelch as the pickaxe struck home.

“Haha!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “What you got, you monster? You’re nothing next to the Rainbow Danger Dash!”

The creature responded with a roar, and lunged at Rainbow Dash. At the last second, Rainbow stepped back and delivered a powerful kick to the monster. The other girls were amazed at Rainbow’s courage and bravery. As one, they decided to buy her drinks at Sugarcube Corner.

“Wait, wait. Ah thought it was dark and you threw the flashlight-” Applejack stopped herself. “Ya know what, just keep goin’.”

As Rainbow Dash laid into the monster with her epic kung-fu moves, all the roaring and thrashing was starting to make the tunnel more and more unstable. Bits of stone and wood began to patten down, some of them making splashes in the water.

Rainbow Dash the prime athlete was too much for the monster, and it tried to escape.

“Oh no you don’t!” Rainbow yelled, trying to grab it, but its body was too slimy for anyone to get a proper grip.

The creature slid away into the water and further down the tunnel, and Rainbow made to chase, but a shower of masonry made her think twice. Then she took her pickaxe and swung it at the wooden supports of the tunnel.

With a crackle of wood, one of the supports broke in half and part of the ceiling dropped in, somewhere down the tunnel. Sunset, who still had her light, flicked it in the opposite direction and beckoned for her friends to run, but Rainbow the Awesome Dash had already went on ahead, her eyes adjusted to the complete darkness by now. There was an almost primal roar that sounded out down the tunnel behind them, but with the rest of the tunnels beginning to collapse, Rainbow guessed it wasn’t long before the creature would get what it deserved.

“Keep running!” she called back to her friends, still hearing their footsteps behind her. With the whole group running, but mostly Rainbow Dash running at speeds that would shame a professional sprinter, they soon saw steps leading up to the outline of the door in Sunset’s wall.

Leaping up three steps at a time, Rainbow was first to the door, throwing it open and waving for her friends to hurry up. Now with light coming from outside, the other girls could easily see where to go and they made it out as a cloud of dust began to waft up towards them, created from the crumbling underground tunnels. Rainbow was last to go, pushing Applejack forward just in time to shut the door, sealing the dust back in the tunnel behind them.

“We did it…” Sunset panted, leaning back against her refrigerator. “We actually made it out…”

“Of course we did.” Rainbow walked over and slapped her on the back. “It’s a good thing you got me to come help you sort out this mess, Sunset. Whatever that thing is, I’m sure it’s gone now.”

“Yeah, thanks, Dash. You’re the best.”

“Yay for Dashie saving the day!” Pinkie threw her up into the air.

And Rainbow Dash was trying very hard not to look proud.

“Ya mean like how you’re lookin’ proud right now, Dash?” Applejack snorted.

And indeed Rainbow Dash was wearing a rather self-satisfied look on her face as she drained the last of the water from her bottle. “Now, I just need to finish this, so… no interruptions, yeah?”

Sunset Shimmer soon found herself in her bed as night rolled in once more. She knew now that there was nothing left for her to worry about, with the tunnels beneath her house caved in, there wasn’t any way there was going to be an unexpected visitor in her home tonight. She had even shifted her refrigerator in front of the secret door just to be sure.

Pulling her bed sheets up to her chin, Sunset smiled as she snuggled deeply into her pillow, glad to have a good night’s rest again. Things had been pretty restless for her ever since that thing had begun walking around her home, but not anymore. Tonight, she was actually going to get a well-rested sleep and nothing was going to stop her.

Closing her eyes, Sunset was quick to drift off to sleep. But unknown to her, her house didn’t remain silent. Somewhere downstairs, there was a sound.

The creaking, the cracking.

It was the sound of her springy floorboards being stepped upon.

“The end, guys!” Rainbow Dash leapt to her feet and folded her arms smugly. “What did you think? Awesome, right?”

“Meh. It’ll do.” Applejack dusted off her skirt. “Next time, someone else’ll be tellin’ the story.”

“Good enough, captain.” Home Run tossed away another blade of grass and got up. “Gotta say, I did like the way it ended. I do wonder if Sunset’s going to get a good sleep in the end.”

“Yeah, me too!” Pinkie sprang up on her hands and walked around upside down. “Good story, Dashie, but time to sleep! Goodnight, everyone!”

And she was off towards the tents, moving surprisingly fast on her hands, though it was nothing to be surprised about.

“You know, I’m glad it wasn’t too scary. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep if it was.” Sunset picked up an old red bucket and walked to the fire. “Flashlights at the ready?”

Rainbow Dash fished out her flashlight from her jacket pocket. “Ready.”

As Sunset poured the bucket’s water over the campfire, their surroundings were plunged into complete blackness. Rainbow flicked on her light, but as she did so, a black face with pink hair, its mouth gaping wide open. A bad odour wafted around the strange figure, smelling almost of death.

With an ear piercing scream, the athlete took off to the tents, with everyone else scratching their heads as Home Run flicked his own light on. Everyone looked on as Fluttershy wiped off a handful of mud from her face, pulling it from her hair.

“Sorry, I fell on the way back.” Fluttershy stuck her tongue out. “And sorry I took so long. Stomachache.”

“It was disgusting, to say the least…” Rarity walked carefully over from behind her. “Absolutely dreadful, but it isn’t your fault, dear. You just slipped.”

“Well, she gave us a good laugh,” Applejack chuckled and looked over to the tents where Dash had run to. “So no problem, Fluttershy.”

“That’s some really stinky mud though.” Home Run pinched his nose and waved a hand in the air.

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy’s cheeks went red in the flashlight beam. “This isn’t mud…”

The Tale of the Man on the Mountain

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There existed an old tale on the mountains of Sanhill, tales of a giant man who roamed the cliffs in search of hikers brave enough to travel or camp in its domain. The last sighting of this elusive man was twenty years ago and people had lost interest in such a tale. In no time, almost everyone forgot about it, like they forgot about the Loch Horse Monster-

“Hang on, hang on.” Rainbow Dash waved her hands through the dream. “Forgot about the Loch Horse Monster? I still remember it, hoax or not, it’s still remembered, right? Come on, if you’re going to tell a story, at least get the facts right. And what’s a Sanhill Mountains? I may be bad at geography, but at least I know there’s no such place.”

Applejack frowned and blew up at her blonde fringe. “It’s a story, Dash. Ah don’t need to make it happen in a real place. And come on, gimme some creative li-bur-tay, how ‘bout that?”

“Just saying.” Rainbow lifted both hands in surrender. “I mean, you interrupt my stories all the time with questions, so here’s one.”

Applejack frowned and raised her hat higher. “At least Ah give valid questions.”

“Right…”

The campfire they sat around flickered and danced in the light wind, with all of the group huddled around it to warm themselves. Fluttershy had opted to sit out of the story again, this time retiring early to get some rest for their canoe trip the next day. Lightning Rain had gone off with Roseluck to go pick flowers in the forest, leaving only Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Home Run and Jetstream seated around the warmth of their campfire. The wood crackled under the fire and sent out a puff of cinders, blowing away into the air.

“Come on, get on with it!” Pinkie said in a Trottingham accent and pretended to stroke a moustache. “Let us hear the rest of the story.”

“Yeah, I wanna know what this mountain man is,” Home Run said. “Sounds like a good story.”

“Can’t be as good as the ones I tell.” Jetstream folded his arms and smirked smugly. “But fire away. Let’s see where this goes.”

Applejack nodded and cleared her throat. “Right. As Ah was sayin…”

Sunset Shimmer was one of the five students that decided to go camping up in the Sanhill Mountains. It was for a school hypothesis to see just what kind of plants were able to grow up there.

“Okay, okay, sorry AJ, but why is it always me?” Sunset interrupted. “Can’t it be someone else for a change?”

“And really? For a school hypothesis?” Rarity was the next to say something. “How about just for a time of leisure.”

Applejack sighed, and lowered her brows. “Fine. Ah’ll change it. But no more interruptions.”

Rarity was one of the five students that decided to go camping up in the Sanhill Mountains. The group of friends had decided to spend their holidays together in some place exotic, so what better place to go than one of the tallest mountains in the world?

Rarity had come here with Jestream, Velvet Breeze, Rainbow Dash, and of course her beloved boyfriend, Home Run.

“Uh, Applejack, you know…” Home Run rubbed the back of his neck. “You know I have a girlfriend right? And it’s not Rarity?”

“And thank goodness she’s not here to hear this story.” Sunset chuckled. “But come on, I’m still in the story?”

“Not as a lead role, yeah?” Applejack said and leaned back against a log. “And seriously, it’s just a story, okay? Ah’m the story master tonight, so Ah get to decide what happens, okay?”

“What a joke!” Rainbow guffawed. “Home Run and Rarity? Now that’s a weird couple.”

“Hey, Ah’m just bringin’ in somethin’ different, okay? May Ah continue?”

“Okay, okay, sure.” Rarity raised both hands. “I don’t mind having a boyfriend anyway. I wish I had one in real life.” She looked at Home Run. “Some people have all the luck. You’d think with my charms, I’d have one already.”

“Hey, don’t look at me. I’m not the one-”

“Alright, may Ah continue?” Applejack waited for her friends to stop before continuing.

It was a chilly afternoon as they hiked up the rocky cliffs of Sanhill. The pathways were made of small rocks, while boulders and tall trees flanked their sides. A small stream flowed down from somewhere higher up the mountain, adding a soft and soothing ambient sound to their otherwise gravel-crunching journey up.

“It’s so high…” Rarity complained, wiping sweat from her forehead as she struggled to keep up. “How much longer.”

Home Run fell back to where she was and took her pack for her. “You’re the one who wanted to come here, remember?”

“Well, it is a nice place. It’s just high. But thanks for being such a sweetie and helping me.”

“Anytime for my girlfriend.” Home Run smiled.

“No, no, don’t you interrupt me.” Applejack wagged a finger. Home Run looked like he was about to say something, but stopped.

“Stop flirting there and let’s get on with it!” Velvet called with a wave of her arm. “The faster we get up there, the faster we can set up camp!”

“Coming!” Rarity picked up the pace and hurried on, with Home Run in tow.

The hiking group pressed on, entering into a more dense section of a forested area, the view of the cliffs disappearing by the start of the forest. The woods were filled with trees that reached up high to the sky, most of the leaves already gone, falling away as winter began to creep closer.

As the group got higher, the air around them began to get colder and colder and visibility faded as a light fog began to envelop them.

“Almost to the designated campgrounds now.” Velvet peered over the map she was holding and pointed ahead. “We’ll know it when we get to a clearing.”

“I wonder if anything lives up here.” Rainbow exhaled, watching as her breath appeared in front of her face. “I hope we get to see some real sights up here. I don’t want to have hiked up all the way for nothing.”

“It’s supposed to be. Mostly untouched by humans. It should be rather nice.”

“I suppose.” Rainbow Dash turned around and waved. “Come on, Home Run, you’re too slow.”

“Gimme a break! Rarity packed all kinds of unnecessary things in her pack!”

“Now what in my pack would you say is unnecessary.” Rarity folded her arms and huffed. “I only bring the essentials.”

“Uh, a hair dryer?” Applejack groaned, interrupted again. She was beginning to know what it was like to constantly be interrupted.

“A hair dryer is an essential. What if my hair gets wet? I can just blow it dry.”

“And you’re going to plug it into…?”

Rarity gestured a square shape. “I always bring a battery pack too.”

Applejack slapped a hand to her face. “Anyway, may Ah continue?”

The five students finally decided to set up camp when they arrived at the clearing. It was a circular area with a stack of stones in the middle for a campfire. There was plenty of room for at least ten tents, so the group set each of theirs up with enough space between each other.

“I’m going to go scout out our surroundings, get a feeling of where we are.” Rainbow got up after setting her things beside her tent.

“I’ll get the fire going.” Velvet pulled a box of matches from her sleeve. “We’ll break for the night and go exploring first thing tomorrow morning.”

“That works.” Jetstream stabbed his last tent peg into the soil below their feet. “I could use a good time to relax.”

Home Run had placed all of Rarity’s gear inside her tent before setting up his own. He hadn’t packed as much himself, but he had brought a fan favourite snack, knowing just how much everyone enjoyed it.

“Who wants some Turnip crackers!” He pulled out a green box from his bag and shook it.

“We do!” Everyone’s head tilted up and smiles appeared on their faces.

“Hol’ up!” Jetstream stretched a hand out to stop Applejack. “Really? Turnips? Gross! Why would we like that!”

“Turnips are wonderful snacks. Y’all don’t think so?” Applejack looked at her friends.

No one answered.

“Right, uh, anyway, my story my rules, got it?”

After a hearty time of eating turnip crackers, the group settled down around the campfire, having a proper meal of chicken stew that Velvet had brought with her.

“This sure warms you right up.” Home Run took another spoonful from their pot, which hung above the campfire.

“Absolutely delicious. Wise of you to bring this, Velvet dear.” Rarity slurped at her spoon.

“Exactly why I cooked it and brought it.” Velvet grinned, then looked to the edge of the forest. “Hey, Rainbow hasn’t come back yet. Do you think we should go look for her? Maybe she got lost.”

“Wait, they started eating without looking for me?” Rainbow asked. “Some friends.”

“Ahem.” Applejack coughed and frowned. “It’s a story. My story. May Ah continue?”

The athlete raised both hands in surrender.

“I’ll go have a look.” Velvet set her bowl down and got up.

“Be careful. There are supposed to be bears and such on this mountain.” Rarity watched her go. “If a bear sees you, play dead!”

Velvet raised a hand in acknowledgement before vanishing through the treeline.

“I wonder just what’s taking Rainbow so long.” Jetstream eyed the forest and tapped his spoon against his bowl. “Maybe she found bigfoot.”

“Bigfoot? No way.” Home Run blew a raspberry. “Bigfoot doesn’t exist.”

“He does! Remember that robot from the dance?”

“That was no robot.”

“It was!”

“What does it even have to do with Bigfoot?”

“My point is… Hey, there’s the captain.” Jetstream pointed his spoon at the returning rainbow haired girl.

“You guys didn’t wait for me before eating?” She put her hands on her hips.

“Rainbow, you’re back!” Rarity exclaimed, then looked past her. “Wait, where’s Velvet?”

Rainbow Dash looked around. “Velvet? I didn’t see her. I did, however, find some deer. They seemed fine. Probably adjusted to the air up here.”

“But no Velvet, huh?” Jetstream clapped his hands together, then rose to his feet. “Guess it’s my turn to go look. If she comes back, just let me know.”

“How?” Home Run asked, but Jetstream didn’t reply and bungled his way through a bush. “Great. Are we taking turns to get lost in the woods? It’s getting dark. And the fog isn’t helping with visibility.”

“He’ll be fine, dear.” Rarity gave him a peck on the cheek. “He’s Jetstream.”

“Ew, gross!” Rainbow bent back with laughter. “Come on, Rarity, do that right now. Give Home Run that kiss on the cheek. I just can’t picture it!”

“I will not do something as scandalous as that.” The fashionista folded her arms. “Home Run already has a girlfriend. I won’t do anything that may potentially change that.”

“Thanks, Rarity,” Home Run said after a sigh of relief. “AJ, could you continue on, please?”

“Ah’d be happy to.”

Finishing their dinner, Home Run and Rainbow helped put away the bowls and utensils before looking back to the treeline, where Rarity was standing, a blanket around her shoulders.

By now, the sun had already set and the area was thrown into a deep black. Jetstream and Velvet were still out there somewhere.

Home Run sighed and removed a flashlight from his backpack. “Okay, I guess it’s my turn to go look for them.”

Rarity grabbed his sleeve as he attempted to leave. “No! You can’t! What if… What if you don’t come back too?”

“Well, we can’t just leave them. Someone needs to find them. They could’ve fallen somewhere.”

“What if you disappear too? What are we going to do?”

“I won’t. I’ll find them. Don’t worry, Rares.”

“Heroic boy, isn’t he?” Rainbow nudged Rarity as Home Run was next to disappear into the thicket. “Hey, don’t worry, he’ll be fine.”

“Well, thanks for the hero title.” Home Run smiled. “But splitting up is the last thing anyone should do in a horror story.”

“Yeah well, people still do it in all them horror movies.”

“True. Okay. Continue.”

Rarity had gone back into her tent to wait for her friends to return, curling up into the blankets she had packed and read a great romance novel she had brought along.

It had only been about ten minutes when something caught her ear. It sounded like a footstep.

Averting her eyes from her book, Rarity looked around from inside her tent. With the campfire casting its light on the area, she could kind of see if there was anything outside her tent. At first, the only things she could see were the faint outlines of Jetstream’s and Sunset’s tents, but then there was another footstep on the dirt outside. Then another. Suddenly, a hulking shape came into view, which made every nerve in Rarity’s body freeze and jump-

“How can a nerve freeze and jump at the same time?” Pinkie chuckled. “It’s like saying I shrank back motionless. It’s weird.”

“Alright, alright, Ah’ll change it, okay?” Applejack resisted the urge to wipe a hand across her face.

Suddenly, a hulking shape came into view, which made every nerve in Rarity’s body freeze up like a deer in the headlights. From the shape alone, she could tell it wasn’t human. The thing outside stood about half a body taller than Home Run, and its back was hunched almost like that of a turtle shell. It had a rounded head that didn’t seem to sport any nose, but what scared her most were its arms. The thing’s elbows passed below its waist, and its arms stretched back up almost to its neck. Rarity didn’t know how something with arms that long could walk around normally, but there it was, just outside her tent.

Wrapping her blankets tighter around herself, the girl could only watch in fear as the shadow outside continue to creep along her tent, looking in the direction of the campfire. Whatever it was out there, Rarity had no intention of letting it know she was here.

“I’m back!” Jetstream’s voice suddenly rang out in the clearing. “Couldn’t find them. Holy m-!”

The creature suddenly shifted its head in the direction of his voice and with a low guttural growl, its shape faded away from Rarity’s tent and she heard a thundering of footsteps as Jetstream screamed with terror.

Rarity shut her ears as flesh was torn and bone was broken, silent tears sliding down her face. She didn’t know what was happening out there, and she didn’t know if the others were okay.

She shut her eyes, trying to push it all out of her head. It wasn’t happening. It wasn’t real. She was probably just dreaming. If she opened her eyes again, maybe it would be gone.

When she finally decided to do so, Rarity realized it had all gone quiet. Dropping her blanket from her eyes, Rarity peered through her tent, hoping not to see the hulking creature. She was sorely disappointed. It was now standing close to Sunset’s tent, its body heaving up and down with breath, though she heard nothing.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she heard Rainbow scream from her tent before the creature roared and charged.

“No, no…” she whispered, but she dared not speak out as the creature began tearing at Sunset’s tent.

“Gee, thanks, Rarity.” Rainbow Dash folded her arms and leaned against her knees. “For, you know, just sitting in there.”

“It’s not me, dear.” Then the fashionista squinted at Applejack. “Applejack’s the one giving me a bad image here.”

“Hey, would ya have helped her in this situation?” the cowgirl asked and tipped her hat higher.

“And hey, am I already dead?” Jetstream stroked his moustache and leaned back against his log. “I’d think I would’ve won against that thing.”

“Uh… sure, Jets...” Home Run snickered. “But yeah, Rarity wouldn’t have been able to do anything about that, right?”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. So let me go on, otherwise we’re gonna be here all night.”

Rarity heard footsteps lumber away from her position after Rainbow had gone quiet. She didn’t dare leave the safety of her own tent just yet. She might not have been able to see the creature anymore, but it could still be out there somewhere, just away from the campfire and tents.

Jetstream, Rainbow Dash. Rarity knew they had to be dead. She had heard the sound of rending flesh and breaking bone, along the the crunches of something chewing through them; Rarity was likely going to hear this through the rest of her life. That is, if she ever made it out of here. She needed to get off the mountain, fast. But then there was Velvet and Home Run. Her beloved Home Run. They were both still out there somewhere, looking for each other and Jetstream.

Rarity could only hope they had seen what had happened and were hiding somewhere right this moment.

She wanted to leave right now. To run down the mountain in the direction they came, but Home Run and Velvet were out there. She couldn’t just leave them up here with that thing.

Vowing to find them before she left, Rarity got to her feet and crept slowly towards the exit of her tent, careful not to make a sound. One hand made its way to the tent’s zip and held it. Rarity wanted to pull it down and peer out, but her entire body had froze. She didn’t know if the creature was still out there, maybe waiting for her to go outside and be its next meal.

Images of the creature’s eye appearing just outside her tent filled her mind and it became even harder for Rarity to pull the zip down.

“Your friends need you, Rarity…” she whispered out loud to herself. “You need to find them. You need to get off the mountain with them.”

With all the courage in the world, Rarity pulled her tent zip down and held her breath. The creature wasn’t there anymore. As she pulled it down lower, the sound of the crackling fire outside became more noticeable, and that seemed to be the only sound out there in the forest right now. Everything else was deathly silent. No rustling of any bushes, no wind amongst the trees, and not even one animal call anywhere in the distance; it was so quiet that Rarity could hear her heartbeat smashing in her ears, almost drowning out the campfire in the middle.

Very hesitantly, Rarity slipped one leg out of her tent, then the other. When she was completely sure nothing was going to come and attack her, she fully stood out of the tent and crept to Rainbow’s.

The athlete’s tent had been completely decimated. The entire thing had collapsed in the attack and pieces of it were strewn everywhere, all caked in fresh and glistening blood. Rarity almost choked as bile began to rise from her stomach. Pieces of Rainbow lay on the tent’s torn floor, with the only discerning piece left being a-”

“Wooooaahhh, woooaahhh!” Home Run held up a hand, then raised the other to his mouth. “You can stop the description there, AJ.”

“What’s the matter, Home Run? Can’t take a little gore?” Rainbow prodded him in the shoulder. “And you say you’re a man? Keep going, AJ.”

“I mean, you can just tone down the descriptions, right guys?” Home Run looked to the others.

“I can take it.” Jetstream smiled smugly. “I’m a man.”

“I’d rather not have to listen to such detail, if that’s okay.” Rarity began to fan herself with a hand.

“Yeah! And remember, this story doesn’t have a gore tag!” Pinkie blew a balloon and began tying it. “You can’t go on with gore if you didn’t have it, silly.”

“Uh, yeah. That.” Home Run pointed a finger in the air. “So let’s just go on with what’s going to happen, how about that?”

“Alright, alright. Ah’ll tone down the uh, gore. Ahem…”

With tears streaking down her face with the loss of her two friends, Rarity stumbled away to the forest, hoping to find out where Home Run and Velvet had gone. She crept along into the forest, walking as carefully and quietly as she could. With the darkness of the night and the layer of fog all around her, it was hard to see very far and in no time, everything around her began to look the same. She had forgotten which way was forward and which way was back.

Rarity recounted tales of this mountain in her mind. Just like that of Bigfoot or the Loch Horse Monster, the Sanhill Mountains were supposed to have its own cryptid. The Man on the Mountain, people had taken to calling it. A rather unoriginal name, Rarity thought, but she didn’t know how else to describe it. It’s description was that of a hairy man, giant in height and ferocious in behaviour. She didn’t know about the hairy part, but the ferocity and the size seemed to be right.

So now here she was, atop the mountains with the Man on the Mountain. It was really a mouthful.

Creeping quietly past another few trees, Rarity’s eyes began to adjust to the darkness and she could see her surroundings a little more clearly, though the fog still did a good job to keep her visibility low.

She tried to look out for tracks, for any signs of shoeprints in the soil beneath her feet, but it was a lot harder than any detective shows she watched back at home. Already hard to see through the gloom, she had to look out for odd shapes in the ground, which were never shoeprints.

“Come on… really?” she groaned to herself. This wasn’t as easy as it was on TV.

And then she saw it, grooves in the soil that looked like shoeprints. Measuring her foot next to one, she determined these were Home Run’s shoeprints. Her beloved and most handsome Home Run.

“Is that what you really think of him, Rarity?” Rainbow Dash snickered, with Pinkie Pie joining in a few seconds later. “You should’ve said something sooner.”

“No, it’s not!” Rarity covered her reddened cheeks. “I’ve never thought of the boy that way. AJ’s the one telling the story. Maybe that’s how she feels.”

“Naw, hey, Ah’m just addin’ that to add a little more character,” the cowgirl explained. “Ya know, for us to really know how much ya like him in the story.”

“Uh. Yeah, okay. Could we continue? It’s getting weird.” Home Run adjusted his seating position uncomfortably.

Rarity trudged through the woods, frantically twisting her head left and right as she looked for signs of her beloved and Velvet Breeze. Perhaps they were close now. Before she was able to do anything else, there was a crackle of something to her left, somewhere beyond the fog. Suddenly, there was a thump, followed by another, then another.

Footsteps.

Rarity tensed up and pressed her back against the nearest tree, keeping her ears attentive, trying to determine where it was coming from. The footsteps were slow and heavy, unlikely to be Home Run or Velvet.

Rarity gulped. Home Run and Velvet Breeze were close, and now, so was the beast. What if it found them first? She needed to do something about it.

Picking up a rock on the floor, Rarity weighed it in her hand and looked to her right. With a deep breath and a large pull back, Rarity threw the rock as hard as she could into the distance, watching as it sailed into the air before disappearing into the fog, impacting against the wood of a tree.

There was a grunt, followed by a deep growl from behind her tree, then a thunder of footsteps as something hurried in the direction of her thrown rock. It was frightening how loud the beast’s footsteps were as it tried to search for the source of the sound. Rarity took this chance to scramble away, following Home Run’s footsteps, every now and then turning around to look behind her to make sure she couldn’t see the Man on the Mountain.

As she passed a cluster of boulders, something suddenly swung out from the corner and smacked her right in the forehead, knocking her down.

“Oh my gosh, Rarity?”

Rarity rubbed the stars from her eyes and shook her head. Velvet stood above her, a branch in one hand.

“Ve-Velvet? What on earth are you doing that for?” she said as the teal-grey haired girl helped her up.

“I thought you were the monster.”

“You were going to hit the monster in the face with a branch?”

“I don’t know. What are you doing all the way out here? It’s not safe!”

“I came looking for you and Home Run. Speaking of which, where is he? Please tell me he’s with you? Oh, I can’t bear to think what would happen if he got eaten by that thing!”

“I’m okay, I’m okay, Rares.” Home Run walked out from behind Velvet, his hair a mess and housing a twig. There were scratches all along his body and his outer shirt was torn in two places.

“Oh, my darling!” Rarity grabbed him in a bear hug and kissed him repeatedly. “I thought I’d lost you!”

“Ew…” Rainbow Dash snickered with Pinkie Pie as they pointed to Rarity, who was steadily blushing. “Now that’s something you don’t see everyday.”

“I wouldn’t- It’s not me!” The seamstress covered her cheeks. “Oh, how disastrous. Uh, no offense, Home Run.”

Applejack was not amused. “Did ya seriously interrupt my story just for that, Rainbow?”

“What? It’s weird! Really? Home Run and Rarity are such an odd couple.”

“Reason why Ah picked it! Ah didn’t want to go for somethin’ common.”

“We need to get off this mountain,” Rarity said after she had finished kissing her boyfriend. “That thing… It already killed Rainbow and Jetstream. It was… It was so dreadful. We need to go before it gets us too!”

Just then there was a roar, coming from somewhere beyond the fog, echoing across the forest. A creature like that wouldn’t make loud sounds like that unless it had found something.

“We need to go. Now.” Home Run ushered his friends past him. “If we can get back to the camp-”

“No, we need to get off the mountain. As soon as possible!” Velvet hissed. “Forget the stuff!”

“But-”

“No buts! Let’s go!”

Pinkie Pie snickered. “Butts.”

Applejack sighed and ran a hand down her face.

Home Run led the way, with Rarity sticking close behind him, not wanting to lose him again. Velvet kept up behind them, branch in hand, ready to give the monster a good beating should it appear.

Rarity didn’t know what that little stick was gonna do against the Man on the Mountain. She had heard Rainbow’s cries as the beast tore into her. A stick wasn’t going to be much good, but it was better than nothing.

The rush through the woods seemed to go on forever, with tree after tree passing them in a blur. They needed to make sure not to run into a tree in their bumbling escape as well, so they couldn’t go down the mountain too quickly.

After what felt like forever, Rarity could see the fire of their campsite burning ahead. They didn’t stop, but the torn tents could be seen from here; it still wasn’t a pretty sight.

Behind them, they could still hear something bellowing, something with malevolent intent.

And it was coming.

“Go, go!” Velvet pushed Rarity and Home Run with her branch. “I think it’s picked up on our scent! Go!”

“Can we even outrun this thing?” Home Run called out, not even turning around to look as he led the way down.

“We have to try!”

Rarity ran along with them, but as she had expected, she soon began to tire, unable to keep up with Velvet and her boyfriend. “I’m tired! I can’t… keep going…!”

“Really?” Velvet was bewildered. “If we stop, it’ll get us!”

And then Home Run decided to do the heroic thing and picked Rarity up under his arms, running down the hill carrying her.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Rainbow waved her hands through the fire’s smoke. “Home Run might be strong, but he’s not that strong!”

“Now how would ya know how strong he is?” Applejack slapped a palm to her forehead. “It’s my story, Dash.”

“Come on, Ah’m sure Home Run can carry Rarity. She’s light, ain’t she?”

“Now, how do you know how heavy she is?”

Applejack sputtered, then sighed. “It’s my story, Dash! My story, my rules. Now, can Ah finish? Otherwise we’ll be here all night.”

Home Run ran on with Rarity, with Velvet continuously looking back as the sounds behind them got louder and louder. Trees began to shift, but it was too dark to accurately see how far the Man on the Mountain was.

Rarity held on for dear life, willing Home Run’s legs to go faster. She could feel it. They were almost to the bottom now.

And then behind them, a tree snapped in two and the beast barreled through it, using its long arms to propel itself forward as it charged.

It’s face was like that of a man’s but its mouth opened wider. Much wider. Rows of sharp dagger-like teeth lined it from side to side, with some meat even still stuck on them. It’s eyes were black and beady like that of an animal, and its nose was sharp like that of a bird-looking man, and it didn’t look happy.

“Keep going!” Velvet yelled, throwing her branch back at the creature. It bounced off its head, but did nothing to slow it down.

“Aaaaah! I want to go home!” Rarity cried out.

“Stop that!” Velvet waved a hand, trying to get Home Run to run faster. “Keep running!”

“What do you think I’m doing?!” Home Run called out.

Velvet gritted her teeth. They weren’t going to get much further before the large creature were to catch up. Something had to be done.

“Keep running, Home Run. Don’t you stop! Get Rarity to safety!”

“What? What do you mean?”

Without another thought, Velvet diverted away from the two of them and grabbed another branch from the forest floor. Rolling to a stop, she faced the monster fearlessly and readied her weapon.

“Velvet, no!” Rarity called out.

Home Run wanted to run back to help her, but there wasn’t much more he could do. Velvet knew what she was doing. The best he could do was to do as she told him. To get Rarity out of here.

Picking up speed again, Home Run didn’t turn back as the monster roared. Its footfalls had ceased, but only for a moment, before they started again, but judging from their sounds, it wasn’t coming after them.

“We should almost be out now! Once I get you out of here, I’m going back to help Velvet.”

“What?” Rarity looked at her boyfriend with shock. “No! You can’t!”

“I can’t just leave Velvet in there all alone!”

Behind them, the monster’s scuffle had died down and there was silence.

“Oh no…” Rarity gasped and covered her mouth.

There was a loud guttural bellow from within the woods and the sound of heavy footsteps started up again. Velvet hadn’t lasted long against it.

“Run, run faster, Home Run!” Rarity pounded on his shoulder with a hand.

The pounding behind them increased in volume as they ran.

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

It was closing the distance again, and it was closing it fast.

“Is that… Is that road?”

Rarity looked ahead. Down the slope and past the trees, she could make out the end of the road. This must’ve been the way they had come when they began their climb up the mountain. They were going to make it!

A street lamp illuminated the broken gates they had come in from. They were close!

Turning back to look behind Home Run, Rarity could just see the Man on the Mountain’s white shape coming up, smashing through trees with its lanky arms, ready to grab its next meal.

“Just a little more!”

Reaching the gates, Home Run basically threw Rarity to her feet, beckoning for her to squeeze out of the space between the gates. The girl stuck one leg out, then followed through with the rest of her body. In her rush, she cut herself against one of the gate’s barbed pieces of metal, but that was definitely better than getting mauled by a monster.

“I’m through, I’m through! Come on, Home Run!” She waved both hands furiously.

Home Run had stuck one leg out when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Rarity shared one look of horror with him before he was pulled back through the gates, his screams piercing the night.

“Home Run, nooooo!” Rarity reached a hand out, but the sound of crunching could already be heard. There was nothing more she could do.

With tears blinding her vision, Rarity stumbled away from the gates, running on wobbly legs down the road, away from the nightmare she had gone through. They were gone. Her friends were gone, and she wasn’t able to do anything about it.

When she had reached far enough, Rarity dropped to her knees and cried. She didn’t stop until a car with sirens pulled up behind her.

“What, seriously?” Rainbow snorted. “That’s how this ends?”

“I’m not finished.” Applejack tipped her hat lower and growled.

Three days had passed as Rarity slammed her prepped backpack on her dining table. She had made sure she had her flashlight, some food, and even a machete she had procured recently. She knew this was a terrible idea. She did. But she also knew she had to go back. Her friends were all gone, and no one else believed her. She had to do this herself. She had to find justice.

“For all of them…” Rarity said to herself as a tear slid down her eye. “For Home Run… That beast… must… die.”

“The end.” Applejack clapped her hands together and leaned back, a satisfied smirk plastered on her face.

“Oh. That’s it.” Rainbow stood up and dusted her skirt. “Well, not bad, AJ. Not bad. Could use some work and could be a little more awesome, but entertaining enough. A few plot problems too.”

“You’re one to talk…” the cowgirl said.

“And really?” Pinkie chuckled. “You killed Velvet? She’s like, an Assassin and all.”

“Ex-Assassin.” Rainbow reminded. “I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of hearing that story. We should really get her to come to the next camping trip.”

“Yeah, and she killed me off so early too!” Jetstream threw his hands into the air. “I’m not that bad! I’m a skilled swordsman, you know?”

“Right, right.” Home Run patted him on the shoulder. “Well, it’s time to get some shut eye. Good story, AJ.”

“Sounds good. Anyway, Home Run and Rarity?” Sunset looked at them and covered a smile. “I don’t see that ever happening in real life.”

“Come on, y’all. It’s my story. My story, my rules, remember?” Applejack scratched at her forehead. “Next time, someone else can tell their story and decide on their rules, alright?”

“Right. Yes. Someone with more relationship sense, eh?” Rarity fanned herself with a fan she had brought along. “Uh, no offense, Home Run.”

“Right...” Home Run picked up the bucket and dumped its contents over the fire, plunging them all into darkness.

Pinkie began to whistle a tune as they tried to find their way back to the tents.

The Tale of the Donkey's Tail

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It arrived in the mail today. As Rainbow Dash held the strange object up to her eye to examine it, her nose took one whiff of it and she recoiled back, putting the thing back on her coffee table.

It was a donkey’s tail and it reeked.

Rainbow wondered just who could’ve sent her something like this. There was no return address on the parcel she received. Hay, it didn’t even have a name. All she had with the tail was an old sheet of paper. No, she couldn’t even call it paper. It was an old piece of parchment, yellowed with age and the words on it looked to be written with a quill, sloppily and big.

They were instructions.

“To use the Donkey’s tail,” she began reading out loud as she followed the words. “Simply hold it out in your left hand and say, ‘I wish…’ and then whatever it is you are wishing for. You will only have three wishes. But be warned, be careful what you wish for. You have been warned.”

“Wait, wait…” Rainbow Dash waved her hands madly. “Why am I the one in the story? And why did you say ‘be warned’ twice?”

“Okay, perhaps once was enough.” Rarity cleared her throat. “As for you being in the story, why, I thought it would fit better, wouldn’t you think?”

The fire crackled, sending cinders up into the air. It was a cold night tonight and the group had been all too happy to be sitting around the campfire.

Tonight, it was Rarity’s turn for a spooky story, and she said she had a good idea. That was still yet to be determined.

She sat around the fire with Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Home Run and three newcomers. The first was Twilight Sparkle, who had shifted over from Crystal Prep Academy a few months back. Some crazy stuff had happened then, but that was a story for another time.

The other was Velvet Breeze, who was a girl with teal-grey hair, living in Equestria with her sister at the moment. She still came over to this world all the time, and that was another long story for another time.

Then the last newcomer was Moonglade, a beautiful girl with blonde hair and tan skin, who was Home Run’s girlfriend. Her introduction was also another story for another time.

Tonight, the story was Rarity’s, and did she have a story to tell.

“Rainbow, don’t interrupt her so early on,” Applejack lectured. “Let her continue.”

“I think it’s an interesting premise,” Velvet added. “I want to hear where this goes.”

“Why’d it have to be a donkey’s tail?” Fluttershy asked. “Poor donkey…”

“But it grants wishes, huh?” Moonglade leaned against Home Run’s side and held her legs up to her chest. She looked like she was already spooked. “I wish I had something that could grant wishes.”

“But didn’t you hear?” Home Run gave her shoulder a rub. “You have to be careful what you wish for.”

“I would wish for lots of cakes!” Pinkie giggled. “Then we can all have cake all day long!”

“Ahem, girls?” Rarity forced a coughed. “Maybe I continue? We can debate about cake later.”

“Guy…” Home Run sighed and leaned back against his log. “There’s a guy here too…”

“A wishing device, huh?” Rainbow held the tail between two fingers. It was all shriveled and dried, as though it was as old as time itself. “Really? Whoever sent this to me has a sick sense of humour. As if something like that exists.”

Immediately dismissing the object’s claims, Rainbow threw the tail back in the box it came in and shoved it into her school bag. If anything, it would be an interesting thing to show her friends tomorrow.

“Wish grantin’ device? Ain’t no such thing.” Applejack was predictably skeptical about it when Rainbow had shown her friends the tail in the box.

“That’s exactly what I think.” Rainbow waggled the tail in their faces. Fluttershy drew back as it passed by her. “How in the world is this supposed to grant wishes? It’s just an old donkey’s tail.”

“Who do you think sent it to you, anyway?” Sunset Shimmer rubbed her chin as she eyed it. “Maybe someone’s trying to prank you.”

“Who would even bother?” Rainbow put her hands on her hips. “I’m awesome.”

“Yeah, yeah, ya always say that.” Applejack picked up the tail and held it out to have a better look.

“That’s ‘cause I am!”

The cowgirl grunted. “Ah wish you’d just stop sayin’ that.”

She suddenly took a few steps back and dropped the tail on the cafeteria table.

“What? What happened?” Sunset asked, an eyebrow raised.

“The-the tail…” Applejack looked at her empty hand. “It moved.”

All of them eyed the tail, which was now on the ground. Rainbow expected it to start flopping about like a fish, but it just laid there, unmoving.

“Wait, you said something about holding it and then saying a wish?” Twilight Sparkle picked up the tail by its end and squinted at it. “What was it again?”

Rainbow took out the parchment. “Simply hold it out in your left hand and say, ‘I wish…’ and then whatever it is you are wishing for. AJ, did you hold it in your left?”

The cowgirl held out her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Well, duh.”

“And you wished for me to… what was it, I’d stop saying I’m awesome?”

“What, you believe it works now?”

Rainbow folded her arms. “Uh, well, no. But uh, you said it moved.”

“What do you think is going to happen?” Rarity asked. “Rainbow, dear, try saying ‘awesome’.”

“Uh… I’m awesome?” Rainbow said slowly.

Nothing seemed to happen.

“Huh. I guess it really is baloney!” Pinkie Pie grinned and dashed off.

“Still, I wonder who gave this to you, Rainbow.” Sunset eyed the tail as Twilight put it back in the packaging it arrived in.

“It has to be some si-sicko…” Fluttershy frowned at the thing.

“Well, whatever or whoever or whichever, we’ll worry about it later.” The athlete shoved the package and parchment back in her bag and slung it over a shoulder. “I’ve got a soccer game to get to. I’ll see you girls after I win!”

And she was off, leaving the rest of the Rainbooms standing there, wondering just what the tail was meant for.

Rainbow Dash plopped herself down in a cafeteria chair as she sighed and blew up at her fringe. “I can’t believe it! Another loss! We haven’t won a soccer game in weeks now! What gives?”

“Maybe ya just ain’t as good as ya thought ya were,” Applejack told her bluntly.

“She definitely isn’t!” Cloudy Kicks walked by behind her and stuck out her tongue. “You’re not awesome, Rainbow. You’re pathetic.”

“That wasn’t very nice…” Fluttershy whispered.

“Ugh…” Rainbow slapped a hand to her face and groaned.

But Cloudy Kicks was right. She hadn’t been playing very awesomely recently. Her every pass and her every dribble had been intercepted by the opposing team. Every time. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to try a solid kick at the other team’s goal. In fact, she hadn’t been able to play well since…

“Hey, remember your wish, six weeks back?” Rainbow looked to her blonde haired friend. “You wished for me to not say I’m awesome?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I haven’t got to say it since!” Rainbow threw her hands up. “Happy? Your wish was granted!”

“Wait, wait.” Home Run snapped his fingers to get Rarity’s attention. “It’s been that long? Six weeks is a long time. That’s like… uh…” He held up his fingers to count.

“About two months, Home Run.” Moonglade ruffled his hair.

“Yeah. That’s a long time.”

“Does it matter how long?” Rarity asked. “It’s my story. I get to decide the length, don’t I?”

“She has a point.” Velvet held up a finger.

“Yeah, anyway, can we continue?” Applejack interrupted. “Ah wanna know where this goes.”

“Thanks, Applejack. Anyway…”

“How do we know if it was the wish?” Applejack challenged. “Maybe ya just started playin’ bad on your own.”

“Since when have I ever had a problem with sports till now?”

“Well, that is a little odd, yeah.” Sunset rubbed her chin.

“Do you still have the tail, dear?” Rarity held out her hand. “We should try it out more.”

“Oh, I actually never took it out of my back.” Rainbow unzipped her backpack and dug through it, getting the tail out. “Aha. Here we are.”

“Ya actually believes it works now, then?” Applejack folded her arms, unconvinced.

“I didn’t say that,” Rainbow countered. “But I don’t see why I suddenly got bad at what I do best.”

Fluttershy eyed the tail and gulped. “I think we should just leave it alone…”

Rarity took the tail from her friend and held it out in her left hand. “Let’s see now, what’s a good way to try this out…”

“Wish for cakes!” Pinkie jumped on her seat.

“Nothing too big, Rarity,” Sunset warned. “We don’t want another case of what happened to Rainbow.”

“That’s… if it even works,” Applejack reminded them. “We don’t know that yet.”

Rarity rubbed at her chin, then stretched her arm out in front of her. “Maybe if you had a boyfriend, you would be thinking less about sports. I wish Rainbow Dash had a boyfriend.”

“Wooahhhh woaahhhh, wait wait, hold up.” Rainbow interrupted the story. “Why would I need a boyfriend? I’ve got sports! Life is exciting enough!”

“Rainbow, you do not know what you’re missing out,” Rarity answered her and tilted her head up proudly. “It’s nice to have people to love. Isn’t it, Home Run? Moonglade?”

“Sure is.” The baseball player nodded.

The blonde girl nodded as well and sniffed at the air. “Definitely.”

“Yeah, well, like I told Home Run long ago, I don’t need any relationships at the moment. I’ve got so much to do in life. A relationship will spoil my life.”

There was an awkward silence, broken only by Velvet Breeze clearing her throat. “Can we uh, just keep going?”

“Yeah, the story’s getting interesting.” Twilight adjusted her glasses and leaned closer.

“Gladly.” Rarity dusted her hands. “So…”

“Come on. I don’t need a boyfriend,” Rainbow retorted.

“It would make you feel better.” Rarity batted her eyes. “In more ways than one.”

“Yeah, uh, well, we don’t even know if it’ll work. So yeah.”

“We’ll see, I guess.” Sunset pushed off her chair. “Come on. Lunch is almost over. We better get ready for next period.”

As Rainbow and her friends moved to put their trays away, she internally scoffed at the idea of having a boyfriend. She had sports to play, but then again, maybe that would be good, seeing as her sports hadn’t been all that good in the recent months.

“Rainbow, what happened?!” Applejack grabbed her friend as she ran through her front door, slamming it shut behind her.

Rainbow Dash’s clothes were torn, there was blood on her face and she looked hysterical.

“He’s out there! He’s looking for me!” Rainbow gasped, keeping her back against the door.

“Who?” Applejack pushed her aside and looked through the peephole.

Everything on the road to the farm looked normal, except for a black haired boy walking around holding a knife in his hands.

“What the hay?!” Applejack turned to look at her friend. “What’s Hoodlum doin’ with that? Did he do this to ya?”

Rainbow nodded. For a month now, Hoodlum had been her boyfriend. He’d mysteriously appeared one day and somehow, just somehow, Rainbow had agreed to date him. Looking back, she didn’t know what she saw in him.

“He’s crazy! He’s trying to cut me up! Look!” Rainbow lifted the remains of her cut up shirt and stuck a finger through it. She’d even been nicked just below the right breast and blood was staining her white shirt.

Hoodlum had been showing signs of weirdness for a whole week now, but only just today, on their date, he said he wanted to see inside her. Rainbow thought he meant something more… intimate, but then he pulled out his knife and tried to gut her.

She put a hand on a cut on her cheek and shivered. “You see this? Rarity got her wish. I hope she’s happy! Because I sure as hay am not! I almost died!”

“Calm down, hold ya horses.” Applejack looked back out the peephole. Hoodlum kept looking left and right, but soon he shrugged and went off on his way, stowing his knife back in a belt under his shirt. “Okay, he’s gone.”

“Ughh…” Rainbow slumped to the floor, her adrenaline fading and her wounds hurting. “Finally…”

“So do ya believe that tail works now?” Applejack ran to grab her first aid kit. “First, ya got bad at sports and now ya have a boyfriend.”

“A boyfriend who wants to kill me!” she reminded.

“Still. It’s a boyfriend. Ah think this tail actually has some magic to it. Ya still have it?”

“It’s in my bag.” Rainbow turned her head to it. Her bag was lying on the floor near the door, one strap cut at the top. “What happened to saying the tail is a dud?”

“Ah can’t deny that now, can Ah?” Applejack held it up in her fingers and inspected it. “So it actually grants wishes…”

“Wish me some ice, would you?” Rainbow held her chest wound and winced.

Holding the tail in her left, Applejack held it up and said, “Ah wish there was some ice for Rainbow.”

At first nothing happened, but then there was the sound of something breaking, something tearing, and then something hard hit Rainbow in the head. Hard.

“Ow!” She fell to the side and grabbed her head.
It was bleeding, but her hand also came away with… “Ice?”

There were more thuds and the two girls turned to the side to see hail falling through the roof, smashing into the ground and shattering into a million pieces.

“My house!” Applejack dropped the tail and covered her head. “What the hay?! Why’s it hailin’?”

“That tail!” Applejack pulled out an umbrella and held it up, but the hail tore through it with ease. “Dagnabbit, hail!”

Rainbow shielded her face and crawled to the tail, holding it out in her left hand. “I wish-!”

A large hailstone smacked her in the face and she fell over. “I wish for it to be sunny!”

One more hailstone hit her on the head, then it became all quiet. Rainbow opened her eyes slowly to check and the hail had indeed stopped.

“It’s over?” Applejack lowered her broken umbrella and shook the water droplets off of it.

Rainbow rubbed at her head and looked down, noticing all the fallen hailstones had already melted. The sounds of crickets could suddenly be heard from outside and before she knew it, her body was already starting to prickle from the heat. It was hot, and not just hot like a sunny day. The heat right now was like that of standing next to a furnace. It was sweltering and burning at the same time.

“Hoowee, mighty hot out now…” Applejack dragged a fan over and turned it on, which did little to cool them against the heat, but it was better than nothing. “Wish it away, Dash.”

“I don’t know…” Rainbow eyed the tail. “It’s already plagued us like… basically every time we’ve used it. We need to be more specific with our wishes.”

“Or… we could just toss it.”

“Come on, toss a wish-granting thing?” Rainbow stuck her tongue out. “No chance! We just need to be careful with what we say. We could get anything we want!”

“Uh huh, well, whatever. You’re pretty banged up, Dash. Let’s get’ya back up to speed for now.”

Applejack helped patch Rainbow’s wounds up, especially the knife wounds, which she stitched back together, albeit quite crudely.

“Hey. Ah know how to stitch things just fine, thank you.” Applejack folded her arms and huffed.

“I thought that was only a skill Fluttershy had?” Rarity asked.

“I mean… I can do it, yes.” Fluttershy stroked her pink hair. “But AJ’s quite good at it too. She has farm animals and a younger sister…”

“Ah mean, not as good as Fluttershy, no, but yeah, a younger sister who blows herself up at times.” Applejack nodded.

“Fine, fine. I shall tweak the story a tad, alright?”

Applejack helped patch Rainbow’s wounds up, especially the knife wounds, which she stitched back together quite well.

“I need a soda…” Rainbow wiped her forehead while Applejack stowed the first aid kit back on her shelf. By now, the sun had set and darkness was rising.

“You and me both.” Applejack spat a wad of saliva into a nearby bucket with a resounding ding!

“What if we wish for money?” Rainbow swung the tail in her fingers like a pendulum as she leaned against the wall. “Loads of money.”

“Ah dunno. How many wishes do ya got left?” Applejack raised her fingers, dropping them as she counted. “Ah’ve got one left.”

“Two for me,” Rainbow said.

“You try.”

“Umm…” Rainbow thought about it for a few seconds, then held up the tail and cleared her throat. “I wish for a thousand dollars. Money that isn’t illegally acquired!”

The tail twisted in her hand and she dropped it. It still felt weird when it moved. It was like it was alive, but at the same time, it’s movement wasn’t natural, it felt almost… sinister to her, and she didn’t mean the left hand aspect of it.

“Gee, really, of all things to ask for, ya ask for money.” Applejack shook her head. “What are ya gonna do with money?”

“Uh, a lot of things? Duh. If I were rich, I’d be the star of Canterlot!” She stretched her arms to her sides, then winced and grabbed for her chest. “Ow…”

Like magic, when she had done that, her phone began to ring. She gestured for Applejack to get her bag for her, which the cowgirl did. Once she had her bag, Rainbow dug around it until she found her phone, but when she saw the number, she was a little surprised.

“It’s the cops.”

“Ya wished to get that money legally, didn’t ya?”

“I did. I wonder what they want.” Rainbow gulped, then answered the call. “H-Hello?”

“Hi,” a voice said on the other end. “Is this Rainbow Dash?”

The athlete swallowed. “Umm… yes?”

There was a short pause on the other end. “We have some bad news, I’m afraid. Your parents have… they’ve had a serious accident on the freeway. We are still looking in on what happened, but it seems to involve foul play. I don’t have a better way of putting this, but… we need you to come in to properly identify your parents. The crash has... mangled up their bodies quite a bit.”

Rainbow almost dropped the phone. Her parents had been in a car crash…

“Hey, hey hey hey!” Rainbow Dash pushed to her feet and waved her hands wildly at Rarity. “You killed my parents?!”

“Come on, Rainbow, it’s just in the story,” Twilight Sparkle reasoned.

“Yeah and it’s not like we’ve been spared in your stories too.” Applejack gave her leg a pat. “Come on, sit back down and let Rarity continue.”

“Yes, be a good darling and do so.” Rarity clapped her hands together. “Let me finish. Now…”

“We know it is hard to accept such… conditions,” the policeman on the line continued. “But there’s more. We found something in the back seat that your parents have left for you. If this was indeed foul play, we could guess why.”

“What did you find…?” Rainbow had to squeeze the words out of her throat.

“Your parents left a letter, saying they’ve been saving up money for you, and they had intended to hand you some for your own spending. As a bonus for being such a… such a good daughter.”

Tears welled in Rainbow’s eyes. “How… How much…?”

She knew the answer, but she couldn’t fathom it. She couldn’t accept that it was her fault that they were gone.

“They’ve left you one thousand dollars.”

This was too much for Rainbow and she threw her phone against the wall and she wailed into her arms. Her parents were dead and it had all been because of her wish. A petty wish for a thousand dollars.

“Rainbow, Rainbow, what happened?” Applejack was immediately beside her, consoling her and rubbing a hand up and down her back.

The athlete slowly recounted everything the police had told her, from the car crash to that one thousand dollars her parents were going to give her.

“No way…” Applejack sat on the floor and took her hat off. “Ah’m so sorry, Dash, that it turned out like this.”

“That’s an odd thing, for my parents to be driving down to hand me loads of money,” Rainbow said, interrupting the story again.

“It does sound a little odd, yes…” Fluttershy nodded.

“It isn’t entirely out of the picture, right?” Home Run decided to chip in.

“Scientifically speaking about the human mind…” Twilight adjusted her spectacles. “That isn’t out of the question. Rainbow’s a loyal child of her parents. Perhaps they had just gone to the bank to get her a little something just then.”

“That… does make sense.” Moonglade smiled.

“Right, yes. I shall leave it to interpretation, then.” Rarity combed a hand through her hair. “But we are past that, yes? So back to the present…”

Rainbow Dash blew into a tissue Applejack had given her and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. It had almost been an hour since they received the grave news, and she didn’t know where to go from here. It was like her whole world had just crumbled before her.

Applejack was the first to break the silence, getting to her feet to pick up the donkey’s tail. “We can use my last wish.”

“Uh, what are you going to do with that, AJ?”

The cowgirl held the tail out in her left hand. “Ah wish Rainbow Dash’s parents were alive.”

The tail moved and Applejack instinctively tossed it out of her hand. “Dagnabbit, gets me every time!”

There was a brief silence as Rainbow contemplated what her friend had just done with her last wish.

“You used your last wish… for me?”

“Of course Ah did. You’re my friend. We friends stick together and help each other out, don’t we?” Applejack smiled proudly. “Dagnabbit, where’d that tail go?”

A few knocks on the door interrupted the both of them. Their heads turned to the entryway.

“Could be your parents,” Applejack said. “Who is it?”

No answer came, only another series of knocks.

Rainbow couldn’t explain it, but something felt… wrong. The hair on her arms and neck had stood up and the more she thought about her parents being alive and outside Applejack’s door, the more she didn’t want to open it. A picture of burnt and crumpled flesh appeared in her mind, only for the briefest second, and then it was gone. It was like her brain was trying to warn her about something.

“AJ…” she breathed slowly. “Don’t open that door.”

The blonde girl turned to her with a dumbfounded look on her face. “What? Why?”

“I… I don’t think those are my parents. Outside.”

“What? Why not? Ah wished for them to be back. It must be them. The timing’s too perfect.”

“I-I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.” Rainbow carefully got back on her feet.

“What if it’s really your parents?”

“It’s not.”

“But what if it is?”

Just then, the knocking had stopped. Instead, it began to be replaced by a bang. Whoever was outside was now pounding on the door with their fists, and by the sound of it. There was more than one person out there.

“We should open it.”

“What, are you mad?!” Rainbow grabbed her friend’s arm. “You can’t! Don’t!”

The pounding got rougher and a piece of the door splintered in, just enough for them to see a glowing yellow eye outside. It didn’t look like anything but a ball of fire in a socket of deepest black.

“The tail, we need the tail!” Rainbow scrambled on the ground, looking for it. “Where’d you toss it?”

“Ah dunno. Shouldn’t have gone far!” Applejack bent down to help look.

Rainbow yanked the carpet off the ground and tossed it away, then searched under the nearby table and flower vase, but she saw no sign of the tail.

As the pounding got more desperate, so did she and she was afraid that door would bust down any second now and whatever those things outside were, they were going to come in and get them. All this foolish wishing had just made things worse since the first day and she knew just what she had to do to change it all.

“Found it!” Applejack ducked to her nearby umbrella rack and fished the donkey’s tail off the ground. “Catch!”

She tossed it to the athlete, who did a somersault and caught it in the air. Holding it out in her left hand, she cleared her throat and looked at it intently.

The center of the door broke and a broken and bloody arm reached through, grabbing in the air and forcing Applejack to scramble away from it.

“Dash!” she yelled.

“I wish…” Rainbow began. “I wish I never opened the box the tail was in when I received it in the mail!”

The tail moved in her hand and she dropped it.

She heard the entire door give way, but when she turned to look at it, the door was fine, as though it hadn’t even been splintered by the things outside.

“Is it… Is it over?” Rainbow patted herself down to see if everything was okay. To her surprise, she found that the wounds Hoodlum had inflicted on her were all gone, bandages and bandaids and all. “Hey, I’m all better!”

The two girls looked up at the ceiling, then at the door. They weren’t damaged anymore and it was as though nothing had happened in the first place.

“Woah nelly.” Applejack took off her hat and ran a hand through her hair. “Did we perhaps imagine all that?”

Rainbow looked around the floor for the tail, but no matter how hard she looked, she just couldn’t find it. It was gone. Her wish had come true. She had wished she hadn’t opened the box and the tail must be in there, untouched now.

There was only one more thing she needed to find out. Whipping out her phone, Rainbow dialed in the number of her dad and waited, her heart at the edge of its seat. There was a click on the other end and she was afraid it was just going to disconnect.

“Hello? Rainbow?” It was her dad’s voice and he sounded normal. “What’s up, sport?”

“Dad, you’re okay!” Rainbow exclaimed with glee. “And… And Mom?”

There was a pause on the other end. “Yeah. We’re… fine. Why wouldn’t we be? Did something happen?”

“Oh, too much has happened. But just checking up on you both. Nice to know you two are doing okay.”

“Well alright. We’re currently on the road now, but we’ll be home in no time. How about we watch a movie tonight?”

“Yeah, that’ll be great, dad.” Rainbow nodded.

“Right, then we’ll see you at home. Have a great day.”

“We did it… It’s over…” She rested her head on the wall and sighed with much relief as she dropped her phone to her side. She was so glad her parents were okay.

“Yeah…” Applejack chuckled lightly. “What are ya gonna do about that tail? I reckon its back home now in that unopened box?”

Rainbow dug around her back and she couldn’t find the box too. “Yeah, you know, I’ve got a special place for something like that. It starts with a ‘S’ and ends with a ‘ix feet under’. Under the dirt out back.”

“Ah’ma help you with that.” Applejack gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Least Ah could do. Ah’d like to give that tail a good place under after what it did to my house here.”

“Settled. Let’s go.” Rainbow got up and flung the door open.

“Just wait till we tell the others about what happened here…” Applejack followed her out.

“The end.” Rarity said with a smile. “I do hope that story kept you on the edge of your seats.”

“You mean our logs?” Pinkie Pie snickered. “Yeah, that was great!”

“Always be careful what you wish for, huh?” Twilight agreed. “Interesting story. And a good lesson to add.”

“I liked the supernatural element of it.” Moonglade chuckled and leaned against Home Run. “If only stuff like that existed.”

“Well, ya never know.” Applejack dusted her hat and got up. “We’ve dealt with plenty o’ magical artifacts. What’s another one that can grant wishes?”

“Not something I’d like to find.” Rainbow shook her head. “Especially not after what Rarity’s put me through.”

“It’s just a story, Rainbow.” Rarity daintily flicked her hair back. “Why, perhaps an actual wish-granting artifact might actually deal you better wishes.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Pinkie waved her hands around frantically. “Me next, me next! For a campfire story! I think I’ve got a pretty good one!”

“Another night, huh?” Applejack stretched her arms. “Ah think it’s time for some shut eye.”

“Yeah.” Fluttershy got up as well. “We better get to sleep before it gets too late.”

“Right, Home Run, if you will, darling?” Rarity pointed to the bucket of water.

“Right, okay.” The boy got up and picked the red object up. “Moonglade, you better get a headstart.”

“Hmm? Why?”

“Let’s say it’s going to get dark real soon.”

“That’s kinda racist.” Rainbow slapped him on the back.

That sudden jolt made him stumble and drop the bucket’s contents over the fire, plunging them all into darkness. Moonglade shrieked.

The Tale of the Sea Song

View Online

It had been precisely one o’clock in the morning when Sunset Shimmer had first discovered it. Under the vessel they had commandeered for their research grew a bioluminescent shape, which she couldn’t tell whether it was blue or green; it looked similar to the two colours, but at the same time, it was unlike any colour she’d ever seen. It seemed to shift between the two colours as well, but whatever it was, it was beautiful. With it came the softest, but the most melodious tune, entering her ears almost like a kiss of a lover; it was a soft and delicate touch and it felt as though she could let all her troubles go.

“Wait, why me again? I just have to ask.” Sunset Shimmer lowered the hand she had raised and waited for Pinkie Pie to reply.

“I didn’t give it much thought!” Their storyteller beamed and stopped in her tracks. She had been walking around the campfire while telling her tale.

This night was a warm night and they didn’t really need the fire to stay warm, but as always, it was a welcomed source of light that kept the darkness away.

This night, Sunset sat among her friends, consisting of Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Velvet Breeze. The rest had decided to call it a night, as they had already spent most of the day canoeing in the nearby lake and they were bushed. Pinkie had really wanted to tell her story, so Sunset and the rest had volunteered to listen.

“Sounds like it’s shapin’ up to be a mighty fine story, Pinks.” Applejack leaned back on her log. “Keep goin’.”

“Yeah, I want to know what’s up!” Rainbow added, and waited.

“Right!” Pinkie cleared her throat and continued.

Sunset marveled at the spread of the glowing shape, leaning over the side of their ship to have a better look. It was glowing brighter by the second, like some expanding out of the water.

They had come out on an expedition to research whale migrations and throughout the day before, they had filled up on more research than she has hoped to find in a single day, but all this… this was something incredible no one would’ve thought to find out here.

“Sunset? What’s that sound?” Rainbow Dash wandered out of the ship’s interior, rubbing at her sleepy eyes. “Sounds rather nice. But it’s like… early.”

Their vessel, the Lorelei, was a splendous white jewel in the vast ocean of blue. It had a single red stripe lining its edge and along its sides were two life buoys in case of emergencies and under the deck were two bedrooms. The space wasn’t really big, but it was still quite cosy.

Sunset had set out on it with Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy on the latter’s plan to study whales. Sunset didn’t feel like it at the time, but once they were out at sea, she had changed her mind. The smell of the salty sea and the wind in her hair was a nice change from the usual hustle and bustle of the city and she loved the sound of waves as they crashed against their ship.

But now, that was nothing compared to the song that was rising from the ocean.

“I don’t know where it’s coming from, Dash, but…” She leaned slightly off the edge. “It started when this glowing shape appeared.”

“Nah, there’s no way this thing would be singing, right? I mean, what even is this stuff?”

“Might be some form of algae…” They both turned to see Fluttershy standing by the ship’s bow, a camera in hand. “It’s beautiful…”

“Fluttershy, how long have you been there?” Sunset asked.

“Quite a while. I was here before you came out…” The meek girl replied and snapped another photo of the glowing phenomenon. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The closest resemblance, like I was saying, is bioluminescent algae. They’ve been sighted around the world and they’ve been appearing more frequently due to the warming c-climate… This could be something like that too. But it’s… different.”

“Doesn’t that like, make it bad for the environment?” Rainbow asked and scratched at her head. “I’m no egghead, but won’t this cause problems for the fish?”

“Speaking of fish…” Sunset eyed the water. Other than the expanding glowing mass, Rainbow did bring up a good point. She hadn’t seen any fish since the glow pierced the night. “Where did they all go?”

“It’s still growing… Whatever it is.” Rainbow painted at the mass of colour. “Do we need to be concerned? I mean, it’s cool and all, but we don’t really know what’s up.”

The song too, in Sunset’s head, grew louder, now sounding more like a soft whisper than a tune. All of a sudden, there was a bump from under their ship and they had to hold on to the sides as it rocked about on the sea.

“Woah, what was that?” Rainbow held on to a railing by the side to steady herself.

“I don’t know.” Sunset went to look over the side again. The colour under them had intensified tenfold since she last looked at it. It was almost solid now, unlike earlier where it just seemed to be a glow underwater. It looked almost like it was an actual object now.

Rainbow and Sunset both peered down at the source of the glow. Through the veil of water that separated them, Sunset felt herself being pulled towards it, like a magnetic force, the faint melody coaxing her closer.

She didn’t even notice that she had one leg over the railing until Rainbow Dash shouted.

“Sunset! What are you doing?”

Sunset blinked. She found herself with one foot on the guardrail of the ship, staring down at the glowing sea. The song still echoed in her ears, gently pulling her down into the water. She shook herself and climbed back over onto the deck of the ship.

“I… I don’t know…” Sunset shook her head and pounded one palm on one side of her head. “I really… have no idea.”

Fluttershy jogged over, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe you should lie down, Sunset. The sea’s not for everyone, you know…?”

“You girls are alright?” Sunset had to ask her friends.

Rainbow scoffed and raised an arm to flex. “What do you think these are for? I’m tough!”

Sunset cast one last look over the side of the ship at the glowing patch. It seemed a little dimmer now. She shook herself and allowed Fluttershy to lead her below deck to her cabin. Perhaps it was as Fluttershy had said and she was getting sea sick and she had lost her footing before she knew it. Like they had all said, she hadn’t really been on the sea very often, even back home in Equestria, so all this was still pretty new to her. Perhaps they needed to go on a yacht some time.

“Ha, I get it. Cause we were on a yacht once,” Rainbow laughed. “How’d you like that ride, Sunset?”

The girl in question shrugged. “It was okay, I guess. I did enjoy the seabreeze. Pinkie’s right though. I think I still get seasick.”

“Yup.” The pink haired girl smiled. “I know! Anyway…”

Sunset sat herself down on her bed as she took a few deep breaths to try to settle her nerves. With the ship still rocking in the ocean current, she decided to have a bit of a lie down while she waited for things to calm down. As she drifted off to sleep, her last thoughts were of what that glow in the water could be, and what might be causing it.

An indeterminable amount of time later, Sunset was jerked awake by a bloodcurdling scream. She tumbled out of her bunk and fell onto the floor.

“Ow…” Sunset groaned as she hit the ground. She picked herself up off the wooden boards and hurriedly wobbled outside.

The rest of her friends were gathered around a table in the lounge room of the ship. All of them looked surprised to see Sunset barreling in looking so concerned.

“What happened? Who screamed?” Sunset blurted out.

“Screamed?” Rarity repeated, checking the puzzled faces of the rest of the group. “No one screamed, darling. We were just discussing what we should catch some fish for an early morning snack.”

“B-But as I’ve said… there hasn’t been any fish for a while…” Fluttershy rubbed the back of one hand anxiously. “It’s as though s-something’s… s-s-scared them all away…”

“Could be that glowing algae as you were saying.” Then Rainbow turned to Sunset. “But no screams, Sunset. Not even that soft song we were hearing outside.

“I… I can still hear it.” But Rainbow wasn’t correct. Sunset could still hear that song in her ears, ever so faintly. It almost blended in with the sound of the waves outside, but it was still there. She knew it was. She wasn’t imagining it.

“I think you just need more sleep, dear.” Rarity pointed to the face mask still plastered on her face. “Would you like one? It helps to relax your facial muscles.”

“No, no, I know I heard it. I hear that song. And I definitely heard that scream!” Sunset waved her hands wildly, trying to convince her friends she wasn’t crazy.

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a parrot or something?” Rainbow asked.

“Did you girls hear any parrots?”

“Nope.”

"I didn't bring any parrots with me," Fluttershy poked her fingers together.

"Maybe it was just a bad dream," Rarity suggested. "We have been at sea for a while now. It could be you're just restless."

Sunset rubbed at her jaw. “I don’t know. It only started when we first saw that glow out there. Does algae emit any sounds?”

Everyone turned to Fluttershy.

"Um, I've never heard of algae that makes noise," she said. "But it could be that we're dealing with something completely new here."

“Why don’t we just move the ship away from the algae, then? If you’re still hearing whatever that song is, then it’s not that.” Rarity pulled at her light sweater. “But really, Sunset, I don’t hear anything other than the waves.”

Sunset swallowed and nodded in defeat. “Yeah… I guess I’m just hearing things. I’ll go and reposition the ship, then we can eat.”

“Ah, no. You stay here and rest,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ll take the wheel.”

Sunset nodded and sat down with the others as her rainbow haired friend pushed up and headed above deck. She gazed out one of the portside windows, where she realized she could see some colour reflecting off the glass. Whatever that glowing algae was, it was still there, just floating under their ship.

Part of her wanted to go out there and look at it and analyze it again, but another part of her kept her bum seated on the ship’s plushy orange leather seats. Something about that phenomenon was off, something in their original sighting of it was incomplete, she knew that, but as to what it was, she couldn’t know from her initial speculation.

Perhaps the algae released some kind of intoxicating fumes that made her feel good, or perhaps the glow had some kind of disorientating effect to her brain and it was making her see and hear things.

She pulled out her phone from her pocket and opened the mapping app that Twilight had created for them. She put a pin on their current location, in case they wanted to go back to look at the algae in greater detail.

The ship gave a small lurch as the engines kicked into gear, and the vessel began to move, slicing through the water with ease. Sunset watched through the windows as the glow began to lessen and finally, disappear completely. It was then that she realized the singing in her ears was gone and it was as though she had unclogged her ears for the very first time. It felt refreshing.

“Ahhh…” She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Somehow, it just felt relaxful again. “It’s gone…”

“So that algae was emitting sound?” Fluttershy scrunched up her face in thought. “That is unusual…”

“I do wonder if we’ll find fish now, away from that.” Rarity rubbed at her tummy. “I still fancy an early morning bite.”

Sunset sat there in silence, contemplating the ordeal since her time above deck. She didn’t know any kind of algae that could sing like that, nor really any kind of animal. What had produced those sounds?

Before she could think any further, it returned again, but this time, louder than over. The once soothing lullaby in the air was now more of a strong wind blowing through, a high pitched whistle in her ears, rushing through her like a steam engine. She bent lower and threw her hands over her ears as the whistling got higher and more intense.

“Agh, what is that?!” She groaned and stood up, unfortunately at the wrong time.

There was the sound of something that sounded like a foghorn, followed by something knocking their ship from underneath. Sunset flew from her spot and smashed her face against the side of a bar counter, before being thrown into the corner, where she landed on her side.

Fluttershy and Rarity had to hold on to the table to maintain their positions, and once the rocking had stopped, they ran over to Sunset, who was holding her face in both hands, curled up to her knees.

“Sunset, dear, are you hurt?” Rarity helped her to her bum and tried to move her hands aside, but the fiery haired girl shrugged their hands away, then lifted one hand, which was coated in blood. There was a long gash across her face, starting from her left eyebrow and ending just beside her right nostril and blood was still trailing down from it.

Sunset still had stars in her eyes, but the pain was brilliant across her face and she groaned in agony as she tried to think of something, of anything to stifle the pain. Eventually, Fluttershy ran over with a towel and an ice pack, and the girl was quick to wrap it around her face before pressing the pack against it.

“What was that…?” Rarity looked around the lounge, then scurried over to one of the windows to have a look outside. “Did we hit something?”

There was a clutter of footsteps and Rainbow Dash reappeared at the stairway. “Hey, the engines are dead. Whatever hit us has gotten the boat pretty beat up.”

“Something hit us? Are you sure you didn’t just run into something?”

Rainbow scoffed. “What, me? Running into something? I’m too awesome for that! As for that, Sunset! What happened to you?”

“I lost my balance…” Sunset didn’t know what happened, but there was a part of her that was afraid of what it might actually be.

She grunted as she fought to her feet. “The glow… Is it… Do you see it?”

“Just off the starboard bow,” Rainbow reported. “Anyway, I’ll go to the radio transmitter and call for help. Being out at sea with a busted engine isn’t really high on my to do list. You girls look after Sunset.”

With that, Rainbow Dash left the room, leaving the rest of them to process this turn of events.

“We still have the anchor, right?” Fluttershy asked.

“Of course,” Rarity nodded assent. “We will simply stay in this spot until help comes to us.”

“But… But the algae…” Sunset looked out the window. “Did it… follow us?”

“Don’t be absurd. Algae is not like any living creature to simply follow a ship.” Rarity laughed her comment off.

Sunset took out her phone and held it out. “Look. We must’ve moved some distance from where I pinned the algae’s location. Have a look.”

Fluttershy took the device from her and gazed at it as she cupped it in both hands. “We moved on about twenty meters east… But… It’s outside now… How?”

“Something’s not right here…” Rarity stood up and looked to the window, where the greenish-blue light was now changing into another colour, a colour Sunset herself couldn’t even describe. “We should check if Rainbow got the word out that we’re dead in the water.”

And Rarity disappeared above deck, leaving Fluttershy to care for the fiery haired girl.

All the while, that song was still floating about Sunset’s head, but her friends didn’t seem like they could even hear it. It was louder than before, still that shrill whistle of wind blowing by a valley. Unlike the first melodic, almost hypnotic tune, this one sounded more angry, as though they had made a mistake traveling away from the algae in the first place. Something was very wrong here, and Sunset still couldn’t figure out what it was. All she could do now was try to mend the injury on her face and try to block out the song in her ears.

And then there was a new sound. A scream. A very familiar scream. Rarity’s scream.

It jolted Sunset and Fluttershy up and they both turned their heads warily to the stairs. After that single scream, there was no more. The only thing Sunset could hear now was her beating heart and the sea song, still singing away in her head.

“You heard it, right? It wasn’t just me?” Sunset asked to make sure she wasn’t just hearing things again.

“Y-Yeah… Wh-what should we do?” Fluttershy trembled on the spot.

“We need to see if they’re okay…” Sunset folded and tied the towel around her face, then gestured for Fluttershy to follow her.

The pink haired girl followed after her reluctantly and they slowly made their way up the stairs to the deck.

It was an odd sight above. The railings reflected the unknown and bizarre colour from under the water’s surface, making it look like some kind of demented night club of sorts, and there was blood. A lot of blood sprayed out from the railing all the way to the walls. It was too much blood and it was also too much for Fluttershy. She bent forward and-

“Woah, woah! Okay, okay, too much information, ain’t it?” Applejack waved her hands madly.

“What, the blood’s okay for you, but not barf?” Velvet Breeze wore an amused face.

“I mean, we see blood all the time on TV shows and stuff,” Rainbow said. “You see how they always usually keep the barfing off screen?”

“She’s got a point there,” Applejack added in. “Yeah, alright, guess we can keep at it.”

“Yeah, come on, I see it all the time!” Pinkie grinned. “Remember when I had to look after the cake twins? And then they ate three whole cakes in a matter of seconds and then they-”

“Yeah, alright, alright, can we just continue with the story, Pinkie?” Applejack held on to the edge of her hat like she was ready to pull it down to cover her eyes to block out that mental image.

“Righty-o!” The poofy haired girl leapt up on her feet and put one foot on her log. “So as we were seeing…”

“Whe-where did all this come f-from…?” Fluttershy eyed the trail of blood.

“It’s… It looks like it started from the railing. But that’s weird… What happened?” Sunset wanted to approach the side to have a look, but something inside her stopped her. Something was telling her to just go back down and get in bed and throw the sheets over her head. But at the same time, she needed to know just what was going on here. “Let’s find Rainbow and Rarity.”

The pair carefully made their way to the bow of the ship. There was the sound of muffled speech.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called. “Rarity? Are you there?”

“I told you, I saw it! It came on board! It did!” Rarity’s voice squealed, almost desperate-sounding.

“And I haven’t seen anything! The lights must be playing tricks on your eyes.”

Sunset and Fluttershy found their other two friends arguing in front of the window to the helm. Rarity looked manic, and Rainbow looked… as she always did. Calm and cool.

“Hehe, you know it, Pinkie.” Rainbow flexed one arm and grinned smugly.

Applejack simply rolled her eyes.

“Well, Sunset was hearing things earlier. You could’ve been seeing things yourself.” Rainbow spotted her two friends coming and pointed to them. “Go on, tell Sunset and Flutters what you saw.”

“You saw something, Rarity?”

“On-on the side. Near the entrance to the lower decks.” The violet haired girl was very much on edge, like the smallest twang of string would set her off. “It was like… a meaty lump of flesh. I would not make this up, darlings… I wouldn’t! But I saw it. It came up over the railing and it looked straight at me!”

Sunset gulped and looked at Fluttershy, who already had her head pointed at her. She knew they were both thinking the same thing. They had seen the trail of blood and Rarity had mentioned it looked like a fleshy… thing. Flesh generally had blood. Was that why it had trailed from the railing? That just meant…

“It’s on board...” Sunset reached her conclusion. “There’s something here with us.”

“What? Are you girls serious?” Rainbow threw her hands up. “There’s nothing on board! I mean, except us!”

“Something weird is going on here, Dash, don’t you see it?” Sunset grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her. “Whatever’s happening, we can’t explain it, but there’s something on board with us. You’ve got to believe us!”

“That light below’s just messing with your mind.” Rainbow made a swirling motion with a finger beside Sunset’s head. “Here, I’ll show you. I’ll get in the water with that and you’ll see.”

“What? No! What, are you crazy?!”

“Not any crazier than you lot.” Rainbow took off her jacket, kicked off her shoes and placed one foot on the railing. “I’ll be right back.”

“No, wait!” Sunset reached a hand out, but Rainbow kicked off the railing and she went sailing into the water, breaking the surface. Now, she was just a dark shape over the brilliance below, slowly swimming deeper.

“She’s mad.” Rarity made a fainting gesture. “We need to get her back.”

“I’ll get a lifebuoy…” Fluttershy ran off to find it.

“Wh-what are we going to do?” Rarity grabbed her own head. “She’s going to get herself killed! The water is freezing! And what if there are more things down there?”

“I… I don’t know…” Sunset gripped the railing till her knuckles had turned white.

They could still see her shape under the water, but at this point, they couldn’t tell what she was doing, with the waves rolling around their ship. She could be staying still for all they knew, just watching the glowing light.

“I think I’m going to be sick…” Rarity put the back of a hand to her head and leaned back.

Before either of them could say anymore, the shape underwater suddenly burst back up, and Rainbow Dash took in a huge gasp of air, then kept her mouth open in an ear-piercing scream.

“Rainbow, what, what happened!” Sunset looked around furiously, hoping Fluttershy would be back with the lifebuoy soon.

“It hurts!” Rainbow screwed her eyes shut. Sunset was about the jump in to get her back up, but then the water around her friend began to turn dark and it was then that she noticed Rainbow’s skin was melting off her body. Literally melting. “Aaagh, it hurts so bad!”

“Woah, woah…” Rainbow sat back down and stuck her tongue out. “Are you for real? Am I going to die already? I thought I would survive till the end!”

“Ya can’t always be the hero in every story, Dash.” Applejack smiled as she watched her friend’s disgusted face.

“Still, skin melting off…” Velvet looked into the fire. “That’s gross. Even for an Assassin.”

“Sorry, I guess I got a little too into it!” Pinkie answered happily. “But, since I’ve already introduced it, I’ll just continue to roll with it. Don’t puke, okay?”

In less than a minute, Rainbow Dash was no longer recognizable. All that was left of her was a globule of meat with eye holes, a nose hole and a mouth. Rarity fainted on the spot, but Sunset just couldn’t take her eyes off her friend. Tears stung her eyes as she watched the shape flail in the water, trying to make its way to the ship. The meaty mess of her friend touched the side of the ship and began screaming more, but then it began climbing.

Sunset’s heart skipped a beat and she let go of the railing. Somehow, whatever was left of Rainbow was still alive and it was sticking to the side as it made its way up towards her. Sadness left her and dread began to take its place as the shape got higher and higher. She scrambled back against the cabin wall and tried to calm her breathing, but it only got worse as a hand reached the top of the railing, followed by its head.

“Ra-Rainbow?” Sunset called out, but she received no response. All she got from the meaty mess was a low groan.

And then it was fully over the railing, now standing opposite her. It was still roughly the same shape as Rainbow, but it no longer had hair or facial features. All that remained on its face was a gaping maw. Blood pooled around the shape as it stood there, further staining the deck.

Without warning, it raised both hands and charged at Sunset. She reacted instinctively and rolled out of the way as the shape crashed into the cabin’s wall, splattering blood in all directions. Sunset took in a breath of cold air and backed away, but then something grabbed her from behind, something sharp and thin. She slowly turned her head to see yellowish spiky appendages gripped onto her shoulder, even poking through her coat. Turning further, she spotted a familiar head of pink hair, but under it was a pulsating sac where Fluttershy’s face used to be. There were white spots on it, beating like a heart and occasionally dripped sticky white fluid.

“Ew. You know, I’m not even going to ask what that is…” Sunset said.

“Come on, I know what you’re thinking there, Sunset.” Rainbow nudged her and winked. “Disgusting, that you even thought of it.”

“I didn’t say what I was thinking of.”

“You don’t have to say it. Rainbow Dash knows all.”

“Uh, right. Pinkie, could you continue, please?”

“Suuuuunsseeeeettttt…” the Fluttershything breathed, but Sunset saw no mouth on her. From her chest, more spiky legs grew and they grabbed Sunset’s back and held her firmly, preventing her from moving. “Iiii haaavvveeee seeeeen ittttt allllll. Thheeeee truuuuutttthhhhhh… Suuuuunnnssseeeetttttt, allllll wiiilllll beeeee reeeevvveeeaaaallllleeeedddd…”

“What? Let me go! Fluttershy, stop!” Sunset tried to struggle.

The meaty mess that was Rainbow Dash walked over to Rarity’s unconscious body and picked it up.

“No, leave her alone!” Sunset wailed, but her struggling was still to no avail.

All this time, Sunset had been so focused on what her friends had been up to, she almost forgot about the song coming from the ocean. It was still going and it was picking up speed now, like a rollercoaster plunging down after reaching its maximum height. It wasn’t a song, not in the way she had been thinking. Something was calling to her from the water, something old.

The shape held Rarity’s body high, then threw it into the frigid waters below. Sunset screamed out, but the Fluttershything held onto her with its spindly legs.

“Shhheeee willlll nooowwww knnnooowwww thhheeeee trrruuuuttthhhhhh…” the Fluttershything slurred. “Asssss wiiillllll yooouuuuu…”

Sunset was walked over to the edge as the meaty shape threw itself off next, following after Rarity’s body. Sunset could see her form under the water’s surface, but like Rainbow’s body had been, she had no idea what was happening. Under her, the bright light shone up, turning their shapes into black masses.

“You will know all soon, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset looked around. That hadn’t been the slow voice of the Fluttershything. Something else had spoken to her.

In a split second, the light in the water was gone, and then it was back, almost like it had been switched off and on very quickly. Sunset looked down at the light now, and it did it again, but it disappeared from view from top to bottom, then reappeared from bottom to top. It wasn’t switching itself off. It was blinking.

“It’s… an eye…” Sunset’s own eyes widened in realization. Whatever was below them was alive, and it was massive.

“To know all that the universe holds… I will open your eyes, Sunset Shimmer… And you will know all…” The voice floated around in the air, in tune with the sea song. “Your mind will be opened. Your thoughts will transcend.”

The eye began swirling below as Rainbow and Rarity disappeared from view completely. It was as though a whirlpool was forming within the light. Then images flashed into Sunset’s mind. She could see worlds throughout the galaxy, some red, some pink, some multicoloured, some in colours she didn’t know existed. Each world existed in the palm of gigantic beings, their bodies made out of more stars and dark space. In their heads were blue suns, lighting up the darkness around them.

There were tens of thousands of such beings, each one monitoring a planet and her view soon zoomed in on one particular planet: Earth itself. It moved to the oceans, where Sunset could now see creatures of mammoth proportions, sleeping deep under the earth’s surface. The giant being over the planet began to wave a finger across the atmosphere and one by one, these giant beings began to wake, stirring from the depths and rising up towards the surface, breaking underwater mountains and causing the waters to churn and swirl. One such creature had a familiar single giant eye, which shone of an unknown brilliance, fixed above a huge mouth filled with rows of stalagmite-like teeth, each one bigger than Sunset’s apartment complex. It had no body or even arms and legs, but tentacles trailed from behind its head, long and thick, swishing in the water as the thing moved.

“Hamoraeyl, the Revealer, the first to show the way to the Universe’s Truth… Rise from the deep and reveal all…” a darker voice spoke in Sunset’s ear, a voice that filled her with dread beyond anything she had ever known.

And her view shifted once more, revealing all the giant planet entities circling around a dark shape, something black beyond any black Sunset had seen before. In its center was a blinking red light, like that of a signal tower. The giants were lined up as they revolved around the darkness, and one by one, they threw their planets into the dark void, which opened up in rows of teeth, consuming them entirely.

“The end of the universe. It comes. And you will wait it out in bliss.”

Sunset screamed and her visions ended, bringing her back to reality. But nothing would be the same again. With her mind now opened, with the truth of all worlds revealed, her head itched. No, not her head. It was her mind. Her brain itched, and it was an itch Sunset could not reach.

The Fluttershything had let go of her, but Sunset did not try to escape. She instead tried to get at the itch within her skull, clawing at her head, trying to get in.

“Stop. Stop itching!” she cried out, desperate to scratch it.

From the top of her head, tendrils began to sprout and they pierced through her skull like it was made out of mud and they extended up as high as they could before falling past her face like hair. Each tendril was like a worm with a single eyeball on each end, writhing in place as Sunset lost her sanity to the Universe’s Truth.

“All is now known, the true workings of the world.” Sunset’s mouth opened and closed on its own.

Then together with the Fluttershything, they both threw themselves off the railing and disappeared into the water below, which was now dark and unmoving, as though nothing had ever been there in the first place.

“Moral of the story? Don’t go looking for the truth. You might not like it!” Pinkie finished ecstatically. “The end!”

“Woah nelly, Pinks. You really come up with the weirdest things.” Applejack took off her hat, trying to comprehend tonight’s story. “How’d ya come up with all this?”

“I dunno!” Pinkie tapped the side of her head with a knuckle. “It comes as it comes!”

“Well, I enjoyed it.” Velvet stood up and pulled her hood over her head. “For the most part. Wasn’t a big fan on the gross stuff, but it was interesting. Very, uh, how should I say this… out of this world.”

“You can say that again. I can’t believe I died.” Rainbow pouted, then picked up the bucket of water by her log. “Well, time for some shut eye. Hopefully we won’t dream of the stuff. Everyone ready?”

“Well, may you find out the Universe’s Truth, Rainbow. Go for it.” Applejack laughed.

“No thanks. Not after what Pinkie’s told us.” And she poured the water over the fire, plunging them all into darkness. “Till next time we meet for more spooks.”

The Tale of the Midnight Visitors

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Fluttershy woke up that morning, and sat up in bed. Her curtains were still drawn and the room was in complete darkness. She wiped the corner of her mouth before getting out of bed and dragging herself over to the bathroom to wash up. Once there, she was careful to brush every inch of her mouth before jumping into the shower for a nice and warm bath. After that, she left to change into her usual attire, with the addition of two thick beige coats, a grey hoodie, a red wooly scarf, a pair of dark tinted goggles, black leggings, and brown leather boots.

When she was satisfied with what she had on, she wrapped herself up tightly, then ventured out of her house into the snowy landscape of Canterlot, where snow was still falling from the storm that had blown by just last night. The forecast mentioned it would continue for a few nights, but at the moment, it was clear enough for her to get out there to get some necessities.

Fluttershy kept the hood low over her head and pulled her scarf higher as she trudged on. Canterlot Mall wasn’t far, but after all this time, she never liked walking out here like this. She wished there were more convenient ways to get what she needed, especially if she could just stay at home.

“You do know there are grocery delivery services now, do you, Rarity?” Sunset Shimmer had interrupted the story with a cough. “If she really didn’t want to leave, she could just get her stuff that way.”

“And hey, you remember that this is supposed to be a scary story, right?” Rainbow Dash picked up a sizable stone and began throwing it up into the air to catch. “Come on, let’s have some action going.”

“Will you girls let me finish, then? The story’s barely started,” Rarity said and brushed her hair away from her shoulder. “A good story takes time to establish things.”

This camping night, Rarity was out here by the campfire with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle and Velvet Breeze. The rest of them had already either turned in for the night, or were playing board games in Fluttershy’s tent. She had recently obtained something called Erupting Equines, and everyone was crazy over it. The rest of them would’ve been there to join in too, but wanting to keep tradition for their camping nights, here they were in the cold darkness outside with nothing but their campfire to light their surroundings.

“So something to note before I continue.” Rarity raised a finger. “I would like to not be interrupted so frequently. If you have questions, please wait as I will probably cover them at a later point.”

“Sounds good to me.” Velvet pulled her legs up to her chest and leaned against her log. “Carry on.”

“Right.”

Fluttershy entered Canterlot Mall and pulled her scarf down, along with her hood. It was good to be back inside. She shook the snow off her coat at the entrance before heading deeper inside, where the Cantermart was. She spotted Sunset Shimmer at the Eastern stand, selling some takoyaki and waved to her. Sunset smiled and waved back as Fluttershy passed. It was good to see friends so many years after starting their working lives. Back in school, they would meet everyday and even on the weekends, but now as grown ups, they really only met up maybe once a month.

She passed Rarity on the way to the Cantermart, who was sitting by the mall’s fountain with her husband, who was madly good looking and super rich-

“Rarity, come on. Really?” Applejack groaned.

“What?” She lifted her head and tried to look innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, darling. Can we continue, please?”

Applejack waved a hand. “Sure, sure.”

The first person to notice Fluttershy as she entered Cantermart was a man with slicked back black hair, whose name was Hush Echo. He was an employee of the supermarket and whenever Fluttershy would walk in, he would take notice of her soft pink hair and her beautiful face. He had thought repeatedly of talking to her, but he never actually got around to doing it. Today, however, was going to be the day he’d say something.

“Hello there,” he said as she walked by his position. “Hush Echo. Nice to meet you.”

Fluttershy jumped when he spoke, then blushed as she gave him a light nod. “H-Hello. I’m F-F-Fluttershy…”

“What a nice name.” Hush grinned at her. “Hey, I was wondering if you, uh, want to go get a drink together. You and I.”

“O-Oh… really?” Fluttershy’s blush deepend. “I’m so-sorry, but n-no thank you…”

And she ran off into the mart and disappeared around a corner.

“So that’s how she wants to play this, huh?” Hush sighed and pictured her cute face. She always had a huge coat around her, but he could already picture her body underneath, or at least, what he thought it looked like and in his mind, it was amazing and he really wanted to see what it looked like.

“Woah, creep much?” Velvet Breeze snickered.

“Yeah, if I heard someone saying stuff like that about Fluttershy, I’d give him a piece of my mind.” Rainbow pounded her fists together.

“Won’t we all?” Rarity placed a hand against her chest. “So anyway…”

By the time Fluttershy got back home, it had already been close to evening and the temperature outside had dropped even lower as more snow began to fall from the sky. Over the course of her time at the mall, she had gone to a beauty salon to touch up her hair, along with some clothes shopping. She had bought a new black dress and some green and pink skirts. Now back home, she shrugged off her winter garments and headed to the kitchen, where she dumped her bags of groceries on the counter. Today, she had gotten an extra load of chicken and beef for a feast, really for no special occasion. As she began packing everything into her refrigerator, she pulled out a packet of chicken and sniffed at it. She could already taste what she would be having later.

“Delicious,” she said to herself and slid it into the freezer.

She also thought of the man working at the mart who had tried to ask her out. She’d seen him a few times whenever she went there, but she never really thought anything of him until now.

“He’s not that bad looking, I guess…” Fluttershy mused. “Oh, but I don’t know, it’s so embarrassing to be asked out like that.”

“Uh, Rarity, just checkin’ again, are ya sure this is a scary story?” Applejack waved her hat at the other girl before putting it back on her head. “Ah don’t want to be sittin’ out here if it’s just gonna be some kinda romantic thingamabob.”

“It’s coming.” Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Stop interrupting and we’ll get there quicker.”

As Fluttershy put her bags away, she heard something. Just the faintest of taps against her window. The window that was behind her. She turned, but as she looked out into the snowy landscape, she could see no one, even now as the sun began to set. She wagered it must’ve been a twig or maybe even a raccoon and she went back to it, going upstairs to take a bath before dinner.

She had forgotten all about the noise outside as the showerhead rained water down around her. Fluttershy smiled at the warm water flowing over her face and ran her hands through her hair. She had always enjoyed a warm shower, especially during the winter, where everything was so drab and cold. As she almost got lost in her thoughts, there was a thump and she jumped. She looked to her right, where the sound had come from. Her bathroom had a high frosted glass window just outside the shower cubicle, but as far as she could see, there was no one there.

“Odd…” Fluttershy peeked her head past the glass of her cubicle to see if she could get a better look.

She stood there with the sound of running water pelting the floor beneath her and the smell of shampoo in her hair, hoping she wouldn’t see anything weird outside her window and thankfully, she didn’t. There was nothing out of the ordinary. She had anticipated and feared she was about to see someone standing out there trying to break in, but it was just her paranoia playing tricks on her again.

“Stop it, Fluttershy…” She told herself as she washed the shampoo from her head and flicked off the shower. “You’re okay. There’s no one out there and they have no way in…”

To her horror, she heard the sound of glass shattering downstairs and she knew she had been wrong about that. Something was awfully wrong. The only glass she had at home were her windows and shower cubicle. She didn’t even have a bathroom mirror, because she found she never really needed one anyway; she could brush her teeth and hair just fine without having the need for one. And windows would never shatter for no reason.

She quickly wiped herself down before cautiously peeking her head out of her bathroom. Her halls were deathly quiet and there was not a sound of anything, at least, nothing yet.

Fluttershy threw on her home clothes and left the bathroom and crept down towards her staircase, keeping her hands in front of herself. If it was a home invader, she would be prepared to defend herself and she would make them sorry for trying to rob her.

She peeked down the stairs and listened, trying to pinpoint if there was anyone down there. There was not a sound now. No footsteps creeping about, no breath, no objects being looted. Nothing.

And then there it was. A clinking of metal on skin. But it wasn’t coming from downstairs. No, it was coming from behind her.

Fluttershy turned around just in time to see a crowbar smack into the side of her head and everything went black.

“Woah. Ouch. You seriously just did that to Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked.

“It’s but a story, Rainbow.” Rarity waved a hand at her. “It’s all in the good name of storytelling. I can do anything I want, as can you.”

“Yeah, okay. Just surprised that you’d do that to her.” Rainbow leaned back and placed one leg over the other. “Carry on.”

“Right.” Rarity cleared her throat. “So…”

Fluttershy shook the blurriness from her eyes as she tried to lift a hand to rub her throbbing head, but she realized her hands couldn’t move. They were tied down to the armrests of one of her chairs.

“Hey, Fluttershy…” A voice called. It was soft and almost like a whisper and it came from behind her. Suddenly, a man in a rabbit mask darted out in front of her and she couldn’t help but shriek in surprise. “My, oh my. You’ve got a pretty gasp. And your body. Wow, it’s everything I’ve always pictured…”

He leaned closer and ran a hand along her neck, then to her collar bone.

Then he leaned back and laughed, and his voice was soon followed by what sounded like three others. Fluttershy could see them now that her vision was clearing up. There were three more men standing at the back, next to her kitchen, each of them sporting a different animal mask. The one on her right was a short and pudgy man and he had a mask of a horse. The one next to him was the tallest of the lot and he had on a rooster mask and a yellow jacket. The last guy had a panther mask and a bright pink coat, which was rather contrasting.

“Fluttershy, I’ve dreamed day and night of you…” Rabbit Mask began running his hands along her arms now. “Your skin is so soft… I can’t imagine what it must be like under your clothes…”

“W-Who are you?” Fluttershy flinched as he leaned closer and sniffed at her through his mask.

“You don’t remember me? You’ve walked past me many times.” He clucked his tongue. “Then again, I guess it’s only fair. We only spoke once before and that was earlier today.”

Fluttershy remembered his voice now. He was that cute attendant at Cantermart, the one who tried to ask her out.

“Y-You. The Cantermart em-employee…” she breathed. “Hush Echo.”

“That’s right. You refused me. But I can’t help myself, you see…” He chuckled and moved one hand to her chest, where he began to travel lower. “I’ve wanted your body for so long. Tonight, I decided to take it. Me and the boys.”

The three men behind him laughed together again.

“Now come on…” He ran his hand down her curves, then grabbed the bottom of her shirt. “Let’s see what we have here…”

Fluttershy shivered under his touch, but then lifted a leg and kicked Hush between the legs. He squealed, then toppled over, grabbing at his crotch. He groaned on the floor and spat out a thick wad of saliva. That gave Fluttershy some sense of satisfaction, but not when Horse Face decided to approach her.

He rolled up his sleeves, then gave her two punches in the face, one on the left and one on the right. “Not so funny now, huh?”

Then he pulled out a butterfly knife and flicked it open. “How about we cut you up instead?”

“N-No…” Hush croaked. “I want her body. Don’t you cut her up till I’m done.”

“You know, we saw you. Through your bathroom window.” Panther Mask snickered. “Frosted glass or no, we could still see your body shape. I must say, it is definitely as Hush has sold. I’d like a piece too.” He began unbuckling his pants and he wrapped one hand around his-

“Rarity, woah nelly! Stop!” Applejack flinched and reared further back against her log. “Ah thought we’re keepin’ it PG here?”

“Was there that rule?” Rarity tilted her head to the side. “I don’t believe we’ve ever established that rule.”

“Well, it was kinda inferred when we started. We don’t do any of that crazy stuff here,” Rainbow added.

“So gore is okay, but not sexual content?” Rarity flicked at her fingernails. “The best horror movies have a little bit of skin, darling.”

“She has a point.” Twilight raised a finger.

“But okay, we didn’t sign up for… stuff like that.” Applejack waved her hat in her face. “Rarity, Ah’d like it if ya kept that stuff down, please.”

The storyteller sighed. “Very well, then. I shan’t mention them in detail.”

Fluttershy turned her eyes away from the man’s privates, but then Horse Face turned her back and tried to pry her eyes open.

By now, Hush Echo had gotten back up and judging from his breathing, he was not too pleased at having been kicked in the groin.

“I was going to take it slow, but you’ve forced my hand, Fluttershy.” He slowly unbuttoned his pants.

Then he dashed forward and grabbed at her shirt and ripped it off, or at least part of it. Shirts weren’t all that easy to tear off.

“Amazing…” He raised both hands like he was holding two balls. “Now, it’s time…”

“N-No, please, no!” Fluttershy squirmed back in her chair.

“I’m gonna have my way with you all night long!” Hush Echo rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. “I’m going to enjoy this. Very much. I’m gonna run my tongue all across your naked body and then much more.”

His friends around him continued to chuckle and they began handing money out to each other, probably from some kind of bet they were having. Fluttershy didn’t know what for, but one thing she did know is that she had already let them have too much fun. Now, it was her turn.

As Hush Echo reached for her face, intending to kiss her, Fluttershy broke the bindings around her hands and reaching down, she grabbed him between his legs and pulled. Hard. Blood splattered against her face as Hush fell back screaming, his hands between his legs as blood seeped between them.

Horse Face and Rooster Head both took a step back in surprise, but Panther Mask still had his knife out and he wasn’t having any of it.

“Why you little…!” He ran forward and tried to slash Fluttershy across the neck, but then she was no longer there.

In the dim light of her house, it almost looked like she had vanished into the shadows when she moved. Panther Mask felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by the ripping sensation of the side of his neck detaching from the rest of his body. He squealed like a pig, then fell to the side and clutched his wound as Fluttershy now stood over him, a grin from ear to ear plastered on her face. In her mouth among her teeth were twin fangs, and her pupils had become a faint red glow.

“What… are you?” he croaked and tried to shuffle back, but Fluttershy stepped down on his left leg and stopped him.

Fluttershy licked her lips and bent lower. “I’m hungry…”

Her mouth wide open, she darted forward and sank her fangs into the man’s open wound. He began screaming and thrashing his arms and legs around, but to no avail as she began to suck his life from him.

Fluttershy’s mouth was a bloody mess by the time Panther Mask stopped moving and the other two members of Hush’s group stood behind the couch, shaking from head to toe. As Fluttershy growled, the already dim lights in her home began to darken until the brightest lights in the room was the glow of Fluttershy’s red pupils.

They disappeared in a flash as she leapt for them and the two men scrambled to the left and right. Unfortunately for Rooster Head, the right led him straight into a bookshelf and he smashed into it head first. He fell back, reaching for anything he could find to stabilize himself, but all he did was pull the entire bookshelf down on top of himself.

With his friend down, Horse Face stumbled back and fell over a chair as Fluttershy stalked closer and closer to him. He picked up books from the fallen shelf and threw them at her, but Fluttershy didn’t even bother to hit them aside; she never flinched once as they smacked against her before falling to the ground.

“Stay away! Stay awaaaaay!” He raised both hands to his face as Fluttershy suddenly vanished.

After a while of nothing happening to him, Horse Face opened his eyes again to see she was no longer standing there. Not wasting another breath, he got to his feet and took off down the way they had come: the kitchen window. He fell a few times, scrambling like a mad man to get away, but just as he touched the windowsill, his left leg was yanked back and he slid down, smashing his face against the kitchen counter and then the floor as he was dragged away from freedom.

Fluttershy spun him around and all he was able to see was the smile plastered on her paling face, where her veins looked black on her alabaster skin. He knew this look well and it was a look he and the others had made when they were carving their way through the streets. She was enjoying this.

“Night night,” Fluttershy said and sank her fangs into Horse Face’s neck.

His struggles turned into panicked flailing, and his flailing turned into convulsion as his blood drained away from his body, and then his convulsion turned into stillness as Fluttershy finished her meal. His body was nothing more than a grey dessicated corpse now, emptied of all life as its head fell to one side.

“So tasty… ohhhh yes…” Fluttershy hugged her shoulders and shuddered as blood ran down her mouth. “Mmmm, I can never get enough of it…”

She sucked on one of her fingers, covered in the blood of her intruders and grinned in satisfaction. So far, Hush’s blood tasted the best. It had a sweeter tinge to it, something that she knew came from one repeatedly going down on others, be it man or woman.

“Ew, Rarity…” Twilight’s glasses fogged up as she breathed. “It doesn’t even make sense. His blood wouldn’t change if he, uh… did that.”

“That’s just weird, ain’t it?” Applejack scratched her forehead.

“My story, girls.” Rarity tilted her head up proudly. “I get to decide, crazy or no.”

The darkness grew around Fluttershy and she was back in her living room once again, standing by the bookshelf. With one hand, she lifted the entire shelf back up, gazing at the unconscious man in the rooster mask below.

She licked at her lips, then bent lower to sniff at Rooster Head’s neck. Under his skin, she could see a glow each time his heart beat, sending blood throughout his body, specifically, the veins on his neck. Opening her mouth, Fluttershy stuck her fangs into the man’s throat and leaned in close, drinking as blood began to ooze from his wounds.

It had been so long since she had the taste of human blood and Fluttershy knew, whether it tasted good or not, that this wasn’t something she should be doing. The more she drank, the more she felt herself slipping away, giving rise to something darker, something from the bowels of her heart and soul, pushing her to drink, to consume and then some more.

An eternal hunger for human blood.

She hadn’t always been like this. Fluttershy had been normal all the way through high school and college.

“Ooh, backstory. This I like.” Rainbow grinned. “It’s like a superhero first gaining their powers!”

“Or in this case, someone turning into a monster.” Velvet pointed out.

“Meh, it could be like the superhero, Sword.” Rainbow shrugged. “A vampire hunter who turned part vampire, gaining their powers, but none of their weaknesses, like sunlight or garlic.”

“Never heard of him. Then again, I haven’t really seen that many movies.”

“No matter. We’ll be sure to get you to more movies, Velvet dear.” Rarity wiggled her fingers at the campfire. “In the meantime…”

Once she had drained Rooster Head dry, Fluttershy stood up and wiped at her mouth. Her interlopers were dealt with and only one remained, squirming on the floor, all the while trying to get himself away from her, but with the pain coming from between his legs, he couldn’t even stand and he had only been using one hand to drag himself further.

“How pitiful…” She licked excess blood from around her mouth.

It had been in the year of her first job at an animal shelter. Fluttershy had gone out back, tasked by one of the higher ups who had been jealous of her looks to take the trash out, a job nobody else had wanted to do. Everyday, Fluttershy would diligently take it out, sometimes even without needing to be asked to, but one fateful day, as the door had slammed shut behind her, a figure emerged from behind one of the dumpsters, clad in a dark hoodie and ragged clothes, breathing heavily.

She thought perhaps he was a junkie, needing money from her to continue his habits, but then he jumped forward and attacked her and she thought he was a sexual predator. It was only after he had sunk his fangs into her neck did Fluttershy finally understand what was on top of her.

To this day, everything after that had been a blank spot in her memory, but she remembered waking up in the alley, coated in blood, her clothes torn and tattered. It was soon after that that she realized she was no longer able to consume normal food. It just tasted bad and it made her sick. The only thing she could find relief in was the blood of humans, animals, or that of raw meat from the supermarket.

She could still go out into the sunlight, but it hurt her eyes and it gave her a splitting headache whenever she did so. To counter that, she would always have to cover herself up as best as she could before leaving.

As for work, she could only take night jobs now, to make sure the sun was out of her eyes, and she would have to control herself when she was around her colleagues and friends, but tonight, tonight she didn’t need to.

Fluttershy stalked over to Hush Echo, who was now madly mumbling something as he pushed against a carpet, staining it red and slowing his already slow escape. Wiping the back of her hand against her chin, Fluttershy reached down and flipped the man around so he was facing her. In the dim room, her most distinct feature were her eyes, and even though the front of her shirt had been torn off, he could not peel his eyes away from hers.

“P-Please, no. Anything. I’ll leave now. I-I’ll never… I’ll never come back. You’ll never see me again. Please!”

He raised a shaky hand in front of himself.

Fluttershy snorted and closed her mouth, her fangs sticking out past her upper lip. She reached for the end of her torn shirt and removed it. Then she bent down and removed her shorts, revealing her-

“Rarity, again? Come on!” Applejack fell back over her log as she covered her face. “Unnecessary! Really!”

“Fine. Fine…” The storyteller sighed. “I’ll tone it down. It’s not my fault you girls don’t seem to have an ear for good storytelling.”

“This ain’t good storytellin’.”

“That’s your opinion.” Rarity coughed. “Anyway…”

Fluttershy sat down on top of the bleeding man, running one hand from her left thigh up to her left shoulder. Even now, Hush could not take his eyes away from her eyes, her very terrifying eyes.

She bent lower, brushing her fangs against the man’s cheek. He shivered and began to cry out and Fluttershy wrapped one hand around his neck, choking his voice.

She sniffed at his neck and smiled. “Mmm… Tell me, did you think that it would be me eating you tonight?”

Hush Echo shook his head.

She let go of his throat and caressed her fingers along it. “I don’t normally resort to this, but you forced my hand, Hush. Feeding on human blood hasn’t been on the top of my list. But perhaps now, with you here…”

Fluttershy left home the next day, covered from head to toe as she braved the morning sun to make her way to the nearby scrapyard. It had been a long time since she’d been there, because she really had no reason to go. This time, she carried with her a giant white sac, slinging it easily over one shoulder as she adjusted her goggles on her face. The weight was trivial to her, and she was soon at the scrapyard without breaking even a drop of sweat. After all, she could no longer sweat, not even if she was doing something hot and heavy like-

“Rarity…” Applejack groaned.

Rarity sighed. “Fine, fine. We’re almost done now, anyway…”

Fluttershy was soon at the scrapyard, keeping one hand over her eyes as she trudged through a thin layer of snow on the ground. Even with her hood and goggles, the sun was much too bright in the sky today and it was giving her a grievous headache. She just wanted to be done here and get home to the comforts of the dark.

Finding what she came here for, she swung her sac over to her other shoulder, then over her head as she let go of its end, letting it fly at least two meters before it landed in a yellow metallic box that sloped down. Fluttershy walked to its controls and fiddled with the knobs before pressing a big red button. The entire machine began vibrating and soon, grinding noises were heard below as the sac began to descend into the machine. Blood sprayed up into the air above her and she avoided getting it on her clothes as she slid back faster than the eye could blink.

With her work done here, Fluttershy returned home, glad to be out of the sunlight. She removed her extra layers of clothes before descending down into her basement. There was nothing much she kept down here, save for solvents, extra buckets of paint, and an old couch. The floor here was pure concrete and most of it was still dusty, as she had only started coming down here again just yesterday night.

There was a muffled gasp as she descended the stairs and the rattle of chains. Once she reached the bottom, she smiled and curved around the stairs, finding a chained up Hush Echo cowering in fear as he tried to speak through the gag around his mouth.

“Hello, it’s good to see you again, Hush Hush.” Fluttershy peeled off her shirt and-

Rarity glared at her friends and raised a finger, daring anyone to say anything. “I’m not going into detail. Don’t speak.”

She ran a hand down her body and leaned closer to him. “This was what you wanted, wasn’t it? As a reward for being my eternal slave, I don’t mind showing it to you if it keeps you sated…”

Hush mumbled and tried to back away, but there was only so much he could do while binded.

Fluttershy’s fangs sank out of her gums and she grabbed the top of his head. “Now stay still. This will be over in no time. Fluttershy’s hungry now…”

“The end.” Rarity clapped her hands together.

“Well, apart from all that… ya know…” Applejack took off her hat and looked at the stars in the sky. “Not bad. Not bad, Ah say.”

“Yeah. If you ever tell a second part, make her a hero or something. She can like, go out and fight crime at night!” Rainbow punched a fist forward.

“Seeing as these are meant to be spooky, I don’t think it’ll fly.” Velvet smiled weirdly.

“I did like the twist though.” Twilight stood up. “Even if I saw it coming from the very beginning.”

“Yeah, I did like how those crooks got what they deserved.” Rainbow leapt up and placed one foot on her log. “Oh well, shut eye time. Who wants to do the honours?”

“I’ve got it.” Velvet picked up the bucket. “Safe travels to the tents, everyone.”

And she poured it over the fire, concluding yet another night of spooks and thrills.

Tales Around the Campfire

by Cinders of War

The Tale of the Untold Story

The Tale of the Springy Floorboards

The Tale of the Man on the Mountain

The Tale of the Donkey's Tail

The Tale of the Sea Song

The Tale of the Midnight Visitors