When Scootaloo disappears one day, it falls to Rainbow Dash and her friends to track down what happened to her. Their search will lead them to confront their worst fears… and That.
Rainbow Dash’s young friend, Scootaloo, disappears one day during a downpour. Plagued with guilt over Scootaloo’s disappearance, she and the rest of her friends take it upon themselves to investigate just what the adults are hiding from them. What follows will take them down a winding path of fear, darkness, and self-discovery. And friendship. That too. And That too.
This is a crossover(?) of sorts with It, by Stephen King, taking place in the MLP EQG universe. The story takes place before Rainbow Rocks and after the Fall Formal.
The gore tag and the mature rating are for any potential violence That may cause.
Scootaloo had been excited for Saturday morning all week, and when Saturday morning finally rolled around, she hopped out of bed in a flash, already throwing her clothes on and washing up.
When she was done preparing, she headed for her home’s garage, stopping at the doorway as she peered in. It was her practice to always flip the lights on before going in, but the bulb must’ve blown, because no matter how many times she flipped the switch, the garage remained dark.
Scootaloo returned with a flashlight and gulped. She’d never liked the darkness, but she had to do this. Rainbow Dash was counting on her.
Creeping into the garage slowly, she kept her eyes and ears peeled, her mind constantly trying to tell her something was going to jump out from the darkness and eat her. She fought against such thoughts, but they were much too powerful. All she wanted to do now was find her ball and get out as quickly as she could.
Fear was such an odd thing. Scootaloo found the darkness foreboding and mysterious. She didn’t know if there were monsters in darkness, but she found it much scarier if she couldn’t see the monster than if there was actually one standing right in front of her under a light.
Perhaps it wasn’t exactly the darkness that she feared, but the unknown.
Finding her ball on top of a pile of boxes in one corner, Scootaloo grabbed it and sprinted out of the garage, slamming the door behind her and breathing heavily.
That had been quite the heart thumper for her, but at least she was now through the hardest part. She could now go on with the rest of her day.
Ball in hand, the young girl burst through her front door and grinned at the sky, only to be greeted with a flash of lightning and a torrential downpour of rain.
“Oh, come on!” she yelled at the sky.
She had waited all week for today. Today was the day Rainbow Dash said she would hang out with her at the nearby park to play some soccer. The star athlete of Canterlot High was Scootaloo’s idol. She was everything the young girl wanted in an older sister. In fact, Rainbow was like an older sister she never had; to spend time with her was like winning the lottery.
No, Scootaloo was not to be denied this day.
Donning a bright yellow raincoat and grey boots, she trudged out into the storm, pulling her hood low as the heavy rain pelted against her like watery bullets.
A little rain like this wasn’t going to stop her from having fun.
Wasting no time in splashing her way to the park, Scootaloo had arrived there in only six minutes. The park was devoid of people for obvious reasons, but she knew a little rain like this wouldn’t stop the awesome Rainbow Dash. She was Canterlot High’s star athlete, after all. She wasn’t going to be afraid of some wet weather.
And so Scootaloo stood under a fairly large gazebo and waited.
Fifteen minutes had gone by and there was still no sign of Rainbow Dash or any chance the rain was going to go away.
Scootaloo sighed to herself and retrieved her phone from her pocket. Perhaps she was just running late, or maybe she overslept. That wasn’t all too surprising, so she decided to give her idol a call.
She waited a few seconds before someone picked up on the other end.
“Hello?”
“Rainbow Dash! It’s Scootaloo! Just checking to see when you were coming to the park?” she had to yell over the heavy rain. “We were supposed to play some soccer!”
“Scootaloo? It’s pouring deer and bison out there, what are you doing out?”
“It’s just a little rain. You wouldn’t let a little rain stop you. You’re the awesome Rainbow Dash!”
“Well, yes, right, but…” There was the sound of a violent spat of coughs on the other end of the phone. “You know what, Scootaloo, I’m not feeling so good today. I think I might’ve caught something…” It ended with another series of coughs.
“O-Oh…” Scootaloo tried not to sound so disappointed. “That’s… That’s not good.”
“Tell you what, I can still come out if you’re really interested in playing-”
“No, no! Don’t. I don’t want you getting sicker out here in this weather. Don’t worry about it, Rainbow, you don’t have to come.”
“But-”
“Really, it’s fine. You should rest up if you’re not well. Don’t worry, we can always arrange another day.”
“You betcha, Scootaloo.” More coughing erupted on the phone. “I’m sorry. Hey, I should be back in the game in a few days.I’ll let you know when’s a good day and we can just play soccer all day, how’s that?”
“That’d be great! Okay, get well soon, Rainbow! Don’t cough your lungs out!”
“You got it. I’ll see you for soccer when I’m back up in good shape!”
Scootaloo put her phone back in her pocket and let out a deep sigh. Sure, she didn’t want Rainbow to come out here and get more sick, but she had been anticipating today’s activity all week. To have it canceled at the last minute put a dent in her day.
Right now, her disappointment was quite immeasurable, but she wasn’t going to let that ruin her day. She was still going to make the best out of it.
She looked at her faint reflection in her bright red ball. Rainbow had gotten that for her last month, and though it looked simple, it was autographed in permanent marker by one of the Wonderbolts and it was a very good ball to kick around. She understood how much it meant to Rainbow Dash, and promised to take care of it; it was one of Scootaloo’s most prized possessions.
So going back out into the pouring rain, Scootaloo placed the ball on the muddy ground and kicked it along, imagining there was an open goal on the opposite side of the field. Adding a couple of invisible defenders into the mix, the young girl weaved and dribbled around them, even kicking the ball under one of the defender’s legs to get by in her path to the goal.
“Rainbow would be so proud of me if she were here!” Scootaloo said to herself.
Scootaloo dribbled the ball far down the field, then went around a few trees before returning to the spot her imaginary goalposts were at. Drawing her foot back, the she brought it back for a powerful kick, but the mud under her foot gave way and she slipped on her back, knocking stars into her eyes as the ball went sailing away from the goal and in the opposite direction.
“Owowowow…” Scootaloo rubbed the back of her head and sat up. Her raincoat was now caked in mud.
She looked around, trying to see where her ball had ended up and to her horror, it was now rolling across the street.
“Nonono!” She scrambled for it, falling a few more times as she tried to steady herself. If a car were to come along now, there was always the chance of going right over her prized ball. She couldn’t let that happen.
“What would Rainbow say if you got that ball popped?”
She kept her eyes left and right as she ran to her ball, watching out for any oncoming traffic, and thankfully, there was none. She would be able to get her ball safely!
And then her eyes widened as she spotted where her ball was heading to: a sewer drain.
“No!”
Scootaloo ran harder, even doing a slide on the slick gravel and hurting her bum to get to it quicker, but she wasn’t fast enough to grab her ball before it rolled on into the darkness of the drain.
“Oh man!” She bent down and peered in, trying to spot her bright red ball. “Rainbow’s gonna kill me for this!”
A part of her held her back, not knowing what was down there. It was so dark and she couldn’t even see how deep it was.
“Man, how am I going to get it back now...?”
Just then, a pair of beady magenta eyes opened in the darkness and Scootaloo jumped back with quite the loud shriek, falling on her butt and scrambling back.
“Hey there, Scootaloo,” a high voice squeaked from within the drain. As she watched, the face of a clown emerged into the light. He had a white painted face, along with a red nose and red lips, and his hair seemed to be a fiery orange. “Lose something, did we?" The clown giggled, but there was an undercurrent of something that wasn't humour in it.
Scootaloo looked down at the clown more closely. She wasn’t afraid of clowns. He was hard to see in the drain, and she had never heard of a clown in a sewer before.
“What are you doing down there?” she asked him. “If you stay there, you might drown. The rain’s quite heavy.”
“Oh, why, the whole circus was blown away by the rain. Washed us all down here.” The clown laughed again and grinned, revealing a row of squarish teeth. “What are you doing out in this rain all by yourself? Don’t you have any friends?”
“I do, but… only my friend Rainbow Dash was supposed to meet me out here today.” Scootaloo looked up at the rain. “But she’s sick today.”
“Oh, that’s just too bad.” The clown shook its head. “Hey, how about I give her a balloon? Everyone likes balloons. Would you like one too?”
“Umm… No thanks. We don’t take things from strangers.”
“Ho ho, wise of you to say that, Scootaloo. Wise of you indeed. Well… I’m Nickelfool, the Prancing Clown. And you’re Scootaloo. We’re not strangers anymore, are we?”
“Nickelfool?” Scootaloo held back a laugh. “That’s really your name?”
“It’s a funny name, isn’t it?” Nickelfool laughed. “I love talking to children. I’ve been told I’m very good with them. Do you want to see me prance?”
Scootaloo nodded. “I wouldn’t mind. But it’s really dark down there. I can’ts see the rest of you.”
“Well, why don’t you come closer?” Nickelfool beckoned. “There’s a whole circus down here. There’s rides, and magic tricks, and candy! You like candy, don’t you, Scootaloo?”
Nickelfool smiled widely. Scootaloo felt drawn in by that smile. Clowns were supposed to smile, right? And it wasn’t as if she had any other plans for the day, since Rainbow was stuck being sick at home.
“There’s really a circus down there?” Scootaloo leaned closer and tried to look past the clown. “How’s it all fit?”
“You’d be surprised how big the sewers really are. Wuh-would you like to come see?” Nickelfool gestured with a gloved hand for her to come closer. The clown’s face suddenly went still, almost like someone had hit the pause button on the TV.
Scootaloo looked uneasily at the clown, who just stopped doing anything. Even his eyes seemed to have glazed over. For some reason, that sent a chill down her spine, and it wasn’t the rain.
“I-I don’t know…” Scootaloo was tempted. She really was, but no matter how she looked at this, it was more than a little sketchy. “Maybe I should just go back home.”
“That’s fine. But oh, without your ball?” Nickelfool held up her red ball in his hand. “It’s a really nice ball, kind of like the ones I have down here. Bright and shiny red bouncing balls. Come on. Take it.”
Scootaloo eyed her ball. Nickelfool had the ball turned towards her so she could see the Wonderbolt signature. She gulped. This was one of her most prized possessions. She couldn’t just leave without taking it. Rainbow had worked hard to get something as valuable as that, just for her.
“Take it,” Nickelfool called again, giving it a little wag. “Go on. It’s right here.”
The ball was held just out of reach. Seeing no other alternative, Scootaloo got onto her knees and slowly reached her right arm out for the ball.
“Yes…” Nickelfool breathed, his magenta eyes changing into orange ones. Scootaloo couldn’t see it, but the clown’s mouth had gotten wider and wider, wider than any human mouth could go. “Such a nice ball. Very bouncy…” And just as Scootaloo’s fingers brushed the ball, he hissed, “And once you’re down here, you’ll bounce too!”
Scootaloo felt something sharp puncture her arm, and then nothing. She could no longer feel her fingers. She looked down and where her lower arm usually was was now a bloody stump, with a torn bone jutting out of her upper arm, blood dripping down and pooling around her legs.
Then a second later, unimaginable pain shot up to her brain and she screamed, but nobody was there to hear her, and nobody was there to see her get dragged to a gruesome end.
With the ringing of the last bell, Rainbow Dash knew for sure that school was finally out. Out for the year. She’d done it. She’d made it through the year without too much difficulty. Somehow, she did it.
“So, got any plans for the summer break?” Watermelody asked as she stuffed her folder into her backpack. “I’ve got plenty. I can’t wait to get started!”
Rainbow looked out the window at the warm rays of sunlight shining through the trees. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got some plans I’ve been waiting to start on.”
The star athlete left the room, proceeding down Canterlot High’s hallways, bag over a shoulder. She watched her friends and classmates roam about, some of them even dumping their papers into the many bins scattered across the campus. Everyone was so ecstatic that school was out, and truthfully, she was too. Not having to worry about the next poetry test was great news, but more important matters stuck to her mind.
She thought back to the previous day, when she had come up with her grand plan.
“She’s gone, Rainbow. She’s gone. There’s nothing more you can do about it,” her dad had told her sternly. “It’s been about a year. If she were still alive, she’d already have been found.”
“No, I know she’s out there, dad. She is! I’m Canterlot High’s best athlete. I’ll find her. I’ll bring her home.The sewers are huge. She must’ve washed out somewhere if the storm got her.”
Her father shook his head. “Look, you do what you want, Dash, but I’m telling you, you’re wasting your time. She’s gone. The police have already searched for months. You’ve already searched for months. I know it’s hard, but that’s the truth…”
Rainbow refused to believe that. She couldn’t believe that. Scootaloo wasn’t gone, and she was going to find her. She had to.
She had hit herself yesterday for not thinking of checking the sewers earlier. It actually would make some sense that perhaps she had washed away. The rain the day she had disappeared had been heavy beyond anything she’d seen before. And even so, Scootaloo had not been fazed. Rainbow admired her friend's courage and stubbornness, but only if it had been on any other day.
“All set for the break, Dashie?” Pinkie Pie jumped up beside her as she plowed open the school’s front doors. “I know I am! I’ve got lots of plans, like baking, airsoft, baking… Did I say baking?”
Applejack pulled her down and flashed her a cautious look. “Quit your yammerin’, Pinkie. Can’t ya see? Dash ain’t got time for all that.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry, Dashie.” Even Pinkie knew when to stop. “So, to the sewers, huh? I have a packet of gum somewhere. You could take it with you and stick it on the walls to find your way back.”
“Thanks, Pinkie.”
The three girls walked along the school’s front lawn and past the Wondercolt statue, but something stuck on the side of its base caught Rainbow’s eye. It was a piece of paper, but it wasn’t just any regular paper.
“Poor Thunderlane…” Pinkie stared at the missing persons poster. “I do hope they find Rumble.”
“Ya don’t think he got washed down the drain too, do ya?”
“It hasn’t even rained that heavily in the last three months.”
“Well, then Ah got nothin’.”
Rainbow looked at the picture of the missing boy. It wasn’t just Scootaloo. Others had gone missing as well over the last year. Perhaps if she could find out what happened to her young friend, she could find out what happened to the others too.
“I wonder if there’s a killer on the loose.” Pinkie tapped her chin with a finger. “It would explain all the disappearances, but I really hope I’m wrong!”
“Killer? Please…” The three girls turned to see Trixie walking smugly towards them from the school building, flanked by her two sidekicks, Lavender Lace and Fuschia Blush. “No one’s that good. Not even the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
“Well, we don’t know that.” Applejack narrowed her eyes. “And don’t tell me you’ve killed before.”
“If you want a killer, you’re looking in the wrong place.” Trixie pointed a thumb back at the school. “It’s probably that Sunset Shimmer. After what she did at the Fall Formal, it’s no surprise she’d want to kill people.”
“Come on, give Sunset a break. She didn’t mean any o’ that.” All their eyes turned to her. “Uh, right, she did, but she’s sorry about it. Ah think she genuinely wants to change.”
“Psssh, as if. Just she wait. The Great and Powerful Trixie will get back at her. If she’s responsible, Trixie will make her talk. Come, girls, let us be off! We’ll need a few things first.”
Trixie and her sidekicks walked past Rainbow and the girls, heading down the street to who knows where.
It wasn’t important to Rainbow at the moment. She had a mission to the sewers to get to. She was going to do it. If she could find proof, any proof that Scootaloo was out there, that would at least help rest her mind. Her friend had been out there that day all alone because of her. She had to see this through. She hadn’t spent most of the whole school year searching for her for no reason.
She was going to search the sewers, but first, she needed more gear.
Flash Sentry left school that day, not knowing just what to feel. For one, he was leaving his friends and school behind, but at the same time, the accusations he’d been getting would also cease.
“You were dating here for so long,” he repeated to himself. “And you didn’t think to warn us she was a demon? You would date this thing? You would date this demon?” Flash sighed to himself. “Come on, give me a break, how was I to know? I’m not on her side!”
Heading for the carpark with his things, he spotted someone on her way off as well.
It was Rarity, and she seemed to be deep in thought, not even noticing him when he walked along beside her.
“Hey, Rarity, what’s up.” As he had guessed, she jumped up as soon as he opened his mouth.
“My goodness, that was quite the fright, Flash. You can’t just go sneaking up on people like that.” She fanned her face.
“Yeah, sorry. Just wondering what’s up, and I was hoping I could ask you something too.” The boy rubbed the back of his head.
“My apologies, I just had my mind buried somewhere in my head. I was planning on a new line of dresses. Hard work not just for the hands, you know. And please, go ahead and ask.”
Well, uh… I was wondering what you think of me. I mean, you know, with all the word going around about Sunset and I. Surely someone such as yourself has heard.”
“Ah, the allegations that you’re in cahoots with her, eh?” Rarity leaned against the wall and brushed her hair aside. “Yes, I’ve heard plenty, dear. But I know, you weren’t taking part in any of her… for a lack of better word, madness.”
“Yeah, that was Snips and Snails,” Flash chuckled. “Makes me wonder why they’re not getting flamed on like Sunset.”
“You two broke up, didn’t you? Why? Was it because you found out what she truly was?”
“Definitely. I couldn’t stand the bullying.” Flash sighed. “Now, I just kinda feel sorry for her. She’s being pushed away by everyone. I do hope she’s really a changed person, but… You know, it was hard to tell back then.”
“What, really?”
“Well… Yeah. I was in love.”
“Uh huh.” Rarity smiled and looked at her phone. “Well, it’s time I head over to my store to put my thoughts to paper. Stay okay, won’t you, darling? And have a good summer break. You’re no monster for deciding to date her, okay? And people change. I’ve decided to give Sunset a second chance. Others should too.”
Flash Sentry watched her leave, then headed over to his car and threw his things in the back. “Summer break, huh?”
Flash hadn’t bothered to think about what he was going to do during the break besides playing his guitar. He also thought of Sunset. She really did seem like she was a changed girl. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her now, with everyone against her.
What had he even liked about her when they were dating? Was it just her looks? It couldn’t have been her personality, could it? Her fiery hair, her blue eyes, her slender body… Was that all it was to it?
Perhaps he could find some time to talk with her this break as well, get to know her again.
Well, the real her. Maybe.
Dense Bush had stuffed his entire backpack into one of the dumpsters outside Canterlot High School, before leaving for home. School wasn’t one of his favourite activities, nor was studying, so when he realized he no longer needed any of those textbooks or notes for the rest of the year, he wasted no time in teaching them a lesson.
“Ha, teaching a lesson… I get it…” he snickered to himself.
It wasn’t much, but at least it gave him the satisfaction of getting back against the idea of learning.
Bush couldn’t stand having to learn so much for no reason. It wasn’t like he was going to be a mathematician when he grew up, so he didn’t see why he even have to learn math in school.
Deciding he wanted to give himself a treat for finishing yet another year of school, the green haired boy made his way towards Sugarcube Corner. Images of chocolate ice cream began to flood his mind as he walked along the streets.
Mmm mmm! That sounds good.
His little brother liked ice cream too. Perhaps he’d buy some for him too on his way home. Thicket Bush really loved his junk food.
“Dense.”
Bush turned about, hearing his name being called, but there was no one there. He shrugged and was about to flag it off as his imagination, when he realized how weird it was.
There was no one else on the street.
Canterlot’s streets always had people about in the daytime, but somehow, he was all alone. Even the road was devoid of cars.
“Hiya, Dense,” the voice came again from behind him this time. “Would you like some ice cream?”
Flipping himself around, Dense Bush came face to face with an elderly woman with low squarish spectacles. She had a book in one hand and a ruler in the other.
“C-Can I help you?”
“If you want ice cream, you’re going to have to learn up this entire book first.” She shoved it in his face.
Suddenly, jagged teeth emerged from the pages and clawed into Bush’s face. The boy screamed and pulled against it, eventually throwing it across the pavement when he broke free. Blood dripped down his face from various cuts, with one even showing the inside of his mouth through his right cheek.
“We’re not done yet,” the woman cackled as her mouth began to widen, revealing rows of sharp teeth, matching the book’s. “There is still much learning to be done.”
Dense Bush yelped and turned around to run. However, it felt as if he were trying to run through a pool of honey; his legs seemed to move in slow motion and the demon teacher seemed to advance closer and closer without effort.
“Get away from me, you crab teacher!” Bush shouted, picking up a piece of gravel off the floor and throwing it, missing by a mile in his panic. “Away! Away!”
“Come on, little boy,” the demonic teacher cackled. “Don’t you wanna learn some more? I think we’ll start with anatomy, beginning with a live dissection of your body!”
“Nooooo!” Dense Bush tripped and fell onto the road, banging his chin. He rolled over and crawled backwards, fear overtaking his rational thinking.
The teacher’s book righted itself on the floor and flew back into her hand, its mouth of razor sharp teeth ready to tear into his flesh again.
“Leave me alone!” Bush scrambled to his hands and feet and ran.
The woman just stood there laughing, but set her book after him, which bounced and hopped its way towards him.
“Help! Somebody! Help!” he cried out, but as he dashed down the street, he still didn’t see anyone else.
Once again, he tripped and fell on his face, scraping his forehead against the cement and hurting his nose. Blood began to pour from his nostrils, but he knew he couldn’t stop.
Unfortunately, as he stood, the book had caught up and dug its teeth deep into his left calf. Bush screeched out in pain and tried to pull the book free again. He stopped beside a fire hydrant and smashed the book against it, but still failed to dislodge it.
Opening its mouth again, the book bit down hard and as it jumped off the boy’s leg, it took a chunk of fabric and flesh with it, leaving a sizeable hole in Dense Bush’s leg.
“Aaa-Aaaaaaaah!” Bush yelled and collapsed beside the fire hydrant, unable to stand against the raging pain in his calf.
“There’s a good boy ready to learn.” The woman now stood over him, the vicious book in her hand. “See how that book bounced? When I’m done with my lesson, you’ll be bouncing too.”
“No, no, please! No! All I wanted was ice cream!”
“Tasty fear…” Saliva dribbled down the teacher’s chin, but it wasn’t the teacher anymore. Instead, now a clown stood in her place. He was dressed in a silvery suit with red buttons, still holding on to the killer book. “You like ice cream, Bush? You like it? Well, I have plenty down where I’m from. Yes, lots of screams…”
Holding the book open, the clown latched it shut over Bush’s face, pressing hard. The boy screamed for only a few more seconds before his head was crushed between the pages and the book’s sharp teeth, with brain and bits of his skull seeping out from under it.
Giggling to himself, the clown dragged the now unmoving body to one of the sewer drains and slipped inside with anybody none the wiser.
Rainbow Dash bent down to inspect the gravel beneath her feet. She picked up a few stones and spun them before her left eye, rotating them in the sunlight to see if she could spot any clues, anything to point her towards Scootaloo’s location. She couldn’t be far now. She had to be close. Rainbow could almost taste it.
“Uh, Rainbow, what are ya doin’?” Applejack stood behind her, her arms folded and had an unamused look plastered on her face.
“I’m looking for tracks. Duh. What else does it look like I’m doing?” The athlete stood up and brushed her knees.
Earlier, she had gone back to grab her utility belt and dump her schoolbag at home. Her belt contained a flashlight, some spare batteries, mosquito spray, binoculars, a magnifying glass, and a fruity bar. She had made sure she was prepared for anything, though Applejack had suggested otherwise.
The girls had come to what Rainbow called the Muddy Place, which was a small stream just underneath the bridge at Maple Road, leading out to the Canterlot Reservoir. A grassy slope led down from the bridge to the stream, where the floor was covered in gravel. From her current knowledge, the sewers had a massive drain that emptied out here, so there was a chance they might find clues to Scootaloo’s whereabouts here.
Behind them, Pinkie Pie pushed a low branch of leaves out of her face, followed close behind by Fluttershy, who had also volunteered to help look for Scootaloo. Rainbow wondered just how Sunset had managed to divide their friendship when they entered high school. They were always willing to stand by each other until then, like they were doing today. She only had Princess Twilight Sparkle to thank that their friendship had been patched up.
“So why didn’t we search here when we went to look for Scootaloo last year?” Pinkie scratched at her nose and then her hand.
“Because… Who would’ve thought to search the sewers?” Rainbow panned a hand to the stream. “And all the adults gave up. They didn’t look hard enough, but here we are today. It was thanks to my awesome researching skills that led me to believe Scootaloo could’ve been washed out here.”
“Riiiight…” Applejack adjusted her hat and exhaled. “So Ah also wanna know, if she was washed out here last October, then where has she been all this time?”
“Come on, your sister already asked me that question. I’m gonna tell you the same thing. She could’ve taken refuge some place else.”
“For a whole year?”
“Hey, I’m trying to be optimistic here.”
“There’s a line between optimistic and delusional,” Applejack said under her breath. “But alright. Ah got nothin’ else planned today. Ah guess ya have my help for today.”
“Thanks, AJ.”
“Jus’ today.”
“Hey, do you girls think these plants make you itch?” Pinkie began rubbing at her shoulder.
“J-Just try not to touch anything out here, Pinkie.” Fluttershy searched a pack she had brought with her, taking out some kind of spray. “Use this. It should help.”
As Pinkie was busy spraying herself, Rainbow and Applejack scouted out ahead, following the stream to where the sewers were supposed to empty out. She’d never really been here, but it was quite the massive place. The sides of the stream widened out as they went on, eventually leading to grounds that were covered in grass and boulders; it was actually a good spot for some sporting activities.
“Ah got a question, afore we get to searchin’,” Applejack said. “Is this a sewer or a storm water drain? Cuz usually sewers ain’t this open. Ya need a permit to get into those.”
“Psssh, there’s a difference?” Rainbow waved a hand at her. “We’ll be fine. No one will ask for a permit if no one knows we’re here.”
“Well ya can’t blame me for not wanting to spend the night in a police station if we get caught,” Applejack retorted. “Storm water drains, on the other hand, are open to everyone. It’s not as hazardous.”
“Right. I’m guessing we should be fine. I didn’t even know this place was so big. Imagine all the other people who didn’t even know this place existed at all.”
“I didn’t know it existed!” Pinkie splashed in the stream beside them. “Did you, Fluttershy?”
“N-Nope.” The quiet girl shook her head. “But it’s beautiful. I should bring Angel along next time.”
Rainbow led the way on, occasionally pulling out her magnifying glass to inspect the gravel, but she still came up with nothing. Applejack kept giving her weird looks, but she didn’t say anything.
“Your sister didn’t want to come along, AJ?” Rainbow asked after stowing her magnifying glass. “Scootaloo was one of her best friends.”
“Ah didn’t tell her about this,” Applejack replied stoutly. “Didn’t want to do it. Give her hope after all this time.”
“But I know it. I know she’s alive.” Rainbow shook a fist. “We’re going to find her. I have to. It was all my fault she disappeared that day.”
“Rainbow, real talk,” Applejack said wearily. “Ah honestly don’t see how she could still be alive after all this time. If she were still livin’ don’tcha think she would have let us know she was okay? Ah know ya feel bad about losin’ her, but we all made peace with her passin’, went to the funeral, mourned an’ all. And if the cops couldn’t find her, what’re the odds we can?” Applejack picked up a rock and examined it before tossing it aside. “Face it, Dash. She’s gone.”
“If you’re so sure Scootaloo’s dead, why did you even come along?” Rainbow snapped.
“Because you’re my friend, Rainbow Dash. And this is yer way o’ coping. Wouldn’t be right if Ah jus’ left ya when you needed a friend the most.”
“I… uh…” Rainbow raised a finger, then lowered it. “Thanks, AJ. Hey, speaking of friends, where do you think Rarity is? I didn’t get to catch her after school.”
Over along the streets, Rarity steered her car over to the side of the road. Putting her car in park, she got out and walked a few shops over to her boutique. She went in, smelling the fresh scent of new fabric. She never got tired of that smell.
“Work work work, busy busy busy,” she said to herself as she flipped the lights on. She needed to get her ideas on paper before she lost them. With so much going on in her mind, it was a miracle that she still managed to hold on to seven new designs for dresses.
She didn’t manage to talk to her friends when school ended, but she figured she had the whole summer to do so. Penning her ideas down would only take a few hours or so. She went to the backrooms where all her raw materials and notebooks were. She slipped on her red-rimmed glasses and sat down at a table, taking a pen from a cup full of them on the tabletop.
As she began drawing out her ideas, she also began to think of summer. She knew Rainbow Dash was likely going to spend it searching for Scootaloo, that poor girl. Rarity didn’t know what could’ve made her just disappear like that, but it had already been so long. Surely if she were still alive, she would’ve appeared by now. Sweetie Belle had been so broken up over it, especially at the funeral. Rarity’s mouth went taut at the thought of that.
It had been a bright, sunny day when the coffin had been lowered into the ground. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had stood at the edge of the grave, tears streaming down their little faces. To lose a friend at such a young age, for weeks afterwards, Sweetie Belle had been almost comatose, acting on autopilot. She had tried to put up a strong act for everyone, but more than once had Rarity heard her sister cry herself to sleep while looking at photos of the three of them together. According to Applejack, Apple Bloom was more or less the same way.
“Absolutely dreadful. Can’t imagine what I’d do if one of my friends were dead… especially now that I’ve rediscovered how much they all mean to me.”
When she had first learnt of how they had seemingly betrayed her, it had left her broken and angry. Losing a friend must’ve been way worse than that. Rarity had made sure to give more care to Sweetie Belle since Scootaloo’s funeral. It was the least she could do as an older sister, though perhaps allowing them to perform science experiments in the boutique wasn’t the best of her judgments.
“I don’t know why Rainbow Dash insists that Scootaloo is still living,” Rarity said to herself as she outlined a gown on her sketchpad. “Officially, she is deceased. Let the dead rest in peace, I say.”
She sat there drawing and erasing and embellishing her designs for a little over an hour, then she leaned back in her chair and flexed her fingers, making sure she would not get cramps.
“Time for refreshments,” Rarity decided, going over to the boutique’s break room and opening the fridge. She found a cup of fat free yoghurt and opened it, and had a spoon halfway to her mouth when her phone began to ring in her pocket.
Rarity set down the yoghurt and looked to see who was calling. It was Sweetie Belle.
“Hello, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, putting the phone to her ear. “What can I do for you? Is everything alright?”
“Hey, Rarity,” her younger sister said on the other end. “I’m… okay, I guess. I was wondering if I could spend the night at Apple Bloom’s?”
“Why of course, darling, that would be splendid! Much better than going out there searching with Rainbow Dash, anyway.”
“I still don’t see why I couldn’t go along, but thanks.”
“You know how dirty the sewers are. Dreadful places. Your clothes would get so dirty. And besides, dear, I don’t wish to give you hope where there might be none.”
“I know, I know, it’s been so long… But, I want to believe it, you know? That she’s still out there. Rainbow does.”
“Believing in something doesn’t make it real, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said gently. “But I won’t lecture you. Have fun with Apple Bloom, alright? And be careful.”
“I will. Thanks, sis. Really. For always looking out for me and all that.”
“You’re my sister. Sisters look out for each other. Ta-ta, now.”
After ending the call, Rarity picked up her yoghurt again and went back to the drawing room, where she sat down and slowly ate her snack.
Being an older sibling, she was a little worried about Sweetie Belle, especially since there were all the recent missing person cases. First, it had just been Scootaloo, which had already been devastating enough. Then another kid vanished, then another, then another. But it hadn’t just been the younger kids. Cloudy Kicks had gone missing about three months ago. That just showed that any of them could disappear too.
Now the puzzling question was why the adults didn’t seem to be pursuing the matter with more effort. The police had of course gotten involved, but even Canterlot’s finest had been unable to locate any of the missing children, which Rarity privately thought reflected rather poorly on the police force as a whole.
Being an avid reader of detective fiction, Rarity herself had been secretly keeping tabs on all the disappearances in one of her notebooks. Scootaloo had been the first disappearance, all the way back in October, with the latest being Thunderlane’s younger brother, Rumble. She hadn’t told anyone else about this, not wanting to incite any panic or mass hysteria, but to have so many people go missing with not so much as a dead body popping up, she didn’t even know if this was the work of a killer. No one was that good, right?
Rarity finished her yoghurt and threw the carton away. Then she went into the main display room of the boutique and set about straightening and adjusting the dresses that were for sale, making sure that everything looked perfect.
Humming a tune she had just invented to herself, Rarity grew so engrossed in her work that she did not notice the sounds of the people outside grow quiet and fade away, and she most definitely did not see the dark sludge oozing in under the front door until she took a step back and her foot made a squelching noise.
“What the…” Rarity said, looking down. She shrieked.
Rarity tried to pull her foot out of the gunge, but her boot was stuck fast. She faced a difficult choice. Was she to surrender her custom made fashionable boots to whatever this was and attempt to get away, or was she going to stay here and let the ooze flood her entire shop?
With a mournful squeak, Rarity removed her foot from her boot and ran to the wall on the opposite side. The ooze was now approaching her worktable, and to her horror, it began creeping up its legs, something that shouldn’t even be possible.
“My notes, no!” Rarity ran back and grabbed her papers and books off the table.
Stuffing them into her bag and slinging it over her shoulder, she made for the kitchen, returning with a basin of water. Tipping it over the sludge, Rarity watched as it did absolutely nothing.
“No, no! What’s going on? Where is all this coming from?” She panicked and began clutching at her hair, not sure what to do. If this got all over her shop, all her clothing would be ruined. “Not my clothes! Take me instead! Please, anything but my fabrics!”
Almost like the ooze heard her, it stopped about halfway up her table’s legs, then as if it was alive, it balled up for a second and began sliding towards her like a gigantic black snail.
Saying something that could not be repeated here, Rarity backed away, making for the boutique’s back door. She kept her eyes on the ooze, fearfully wondering whether it would return to attacking her shop if she managed to get away.
Without warning, the sludge opened some kind of maw and spat out a glob of slime at her. Rarity raised an arm to cover her face, but as it splattered across her forearm, her skin began to hiss and burn. The girl cried out in pain and shock as she rubbed her shirt over her arm, trying to wipe the slime off, but it had already done its work. Her forearm was now red and blistering, with bits of her skin falling off, and it felt as though she had just stuck her arm in a buzzsaw.
“Aaaah, noooo! Why is this hap-pen-ninggg?” she wailed to herself. She had to grab a couple of paper towels to wipe the sludge from her shirt, which had begun to eat away at the fabric. She was a mess right now, with her makeup being smeared by her tears.
Throwing open the back door between sobs of pain and fear, Rarity had more to worry about now than finding another pair of shoes or a matching outfit. She didn’t know where this ooze was coming from or if it was really even ooze.
There was no reasonable explanation for this, unless one counted Equestrian magic as a reason. But Twilight had taken the crown back to Equestria. There was no more magic left in this world. There was absolutely no logical reason for this at all.
Turning back to look at her boutique, Rarity was horrified to see the ooze sliding out the door behind her, now dragging itself along with skinny human-like arms.
With a very unladylike curse, Rarity turned on her heels and ran as quickly as she could away, a little slower than she would have liked now that she was missing a shoe. The pain in the arm was a brilliant fire searing into her brain, but if she were to stop and tend to it, the ooze might catch up with her.
“Why? What’s going onnn...?” she whined as she ran down the street. She wanted to call out for help, but for some reason, there was no one else around. “This has to be a dream. It has to be!”
Rarity wanted to lie down and shut her eyes, but she dreaded what would happen should she get caught.
Another spat of ooze from the creature made her hurry up, leaping aside as another one splashed onto the pavement where she had been standing. The cement began to hiss and steam as it melted.
At this, two legs sprouted out from the sides of the ooze monster and it stood up, rising higher than Rarity. Its head formed into a more human-shaped one, sprouted two beady eyes from under the sludge.
“No! Leave me alone!” Rarity turned and ran, trying to get as far as she could from the vile monster. “This isn’t happening, it can’t be happening!”
The ooze chased her down a few streets, keeping pace with her now that it had legs. It occasionally spat out globs of sludge at her, but Rarity managed to avoid all of them, though just barely. She didn’t know how she was doing it with just one boot and injuries, but perhaps it was her want to avoid a gruesome death that kept her running.
Unfortunately, that fuel could only keep her going for so long and Rarity stopped at the bridge of Maple Road, leaning on the railing to catch her breath. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up.
Behind her, Rarity picked up the sound of something sailing through the air. She skipped out of the way just in time as a glob of sludge splashed across the railing, melting right through it, with some spilling onto her legs. She frantically wiped them off with her hands, shrieking with pain as the sludge ate away at her skin.
“No use running, Rares…”
She looked up.
The ooze monster had melted away, revealing a strange clown in a silvery suit standing just under at the end of the bridge, carrying a small red ball in his left hand.
“Where are you off to, Rares?” he said, his voice shrill and scrapey. “Why don’t you come join me instead? It’s a lot more fun down there. You’ll bounce too. Just like this ball.”
The clown began laughing as it bounced the ball on the ground. With each bounce, his laughter became more and more maniacal and insane.
It was too much for Rarity and as her eyes rolled back in her head, she plunged back over the hole in the railing and rolled down the grassy slope, all the while with the clown laughing at her.
The entrance to the sewers from the Muddy Place was a huge tunnel leading into a mound of dirt, with water trickling out into the stream from deep within.
As Rainbow Dash stood before it, shining her flashlight down the tunnel, she couldn’t help but imagine this was the gaping maw of a giant dragon of sorts. Either that, or it was the entrance to a dragon’s lair, where gold and jewels awaited her, where in this case, gold and jewels would be any clues she can find about Scootaloo.
It wasn’t a welcoming sight, that was for sure, but she wasn’t called Rainbow “Danger” Dash for nothing.
“Come on, let’s go have a look.” She stepped up into the large pipe.
Pinkie Pie walked in behind her, one hand quickly going for her nose. “Gee, what’s that smell. Smells like something died here. Oh, sorry, no offense, Dashie.”
“It’s okay, Pinkie. I know what you mean.” Rainbow panned her light across the darkness inside. “It’s no buffet, that’s for sure.”
“I wonder just how big our sewers are…” Pinkie kicked a foot out, splashing some water against one of the pipe’s sides.
“Yeah.” Rainbow turned around, spotting Applejack and Fluttershy still by the entrance, with the cowgirl running a finger along the side of the tunnel’s opening. “You girls coming?”
“U-Umm… It-it’s quite d-dark in there…” Fluttershy squeaked, holding her hands up to her chin. “A-Are you sure she’s in th-there? B-Besides… Sewer water. I d-don’t know if it’s a good idea to go in th-there…”
“Come on, it can’t be that bad!” Pinkie bent down and pulled up a broken plank and waved it around. “Where do you think this came from? Odd, huh?” She gave it a sniff, then quickly pushed it away from her face.
“Pinkie, really? You’re gonna pick that up?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “That’s real nice, ya know?”
“Don’t be pansies, you too.” Rainbow Dash aimed her light at the water beneath her feet, watching the light reflect off it. “It’s not like we don’t have shoes on.”
“Hey, look, a shoe!” Pinkie skipped on in.
“What if we catch some kinda sewer disease?” Applejack tipped her hat higher. “Like too-ber-col-loh-sus or somethin’?”
“I-I don’t think you can get that here…” Fluttershy said.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Rainbow bent back and laughed. “It’s just sewage. The worst that can happen is probably drinking it. We’ll be fine! Look, Pinkie and I have been in here for, what, five minutes? We’re fine. Come on, we’ve got to find Scootaloo.”
Fluttershy shifted her feet. “Y-You know… What if… What if we d-do find Scootaloo? I-I mean, I don’t know what happened t-to her, but… What if it was a kidnapping and they g-g-get us too…?”
“Really? We stopped Sunset Shimmer from taking control of the school, remember? What kidnapper could be worse than that? We took her down together. So together, we’ll find Scootaloo, and if she was indeed kidnapped, then that kidnapper’s got a thing or two coming to him, right, Pinkie?”
The pink girl returned from deeper inside the pipe, carrying a torn and tattered grey sports shoe with her. “Look what I found!”
“Could that be…?” Applejack tried to peer in from outside.
Rainbow took the shoe in her hand and flashed the light in it. “Too big for Scootaloo. This isn’t…” She spotted a name written inside in faded marker. “This… This is Rumble’s shoe…”
“Rumble?” Pinkie looked back down the dark tunnel. “Rumble! Rumble, are you there?”
No answer came back.
“Psh, Pinkie, he ain’t gonna answer ya. What, ya think he’s gonna be hoppin’ around in there with just one shoe?”
“Hey come on, now’s not the time to horse around. If Rumble’s in here, we need to find him.” Rainbow took three steps forward. “You girls coming?”
Fluttershy raised a finger. “Uh, sh-shouldn’t we have a lookout? Y-You know, in case he comes this way?”
“How big’re these sewers anyhow?” Applejack peered into the entrance. “Don’t wanna get lost in there, y’know.”
“Oh, you’re right,” Pinkie said. “I know! We’ll do it like that myth did. Use a ball of string!”
“A what now?”
“You know, like we learned in history class! Where that hero who had to go through the maze used a ball of string to make sure he didn’t get lost? Well, we can do the same here!”
“‘Cept we ain’t got no string,” Applejack pointed out. Then Pinkie pulled a ball of it out of her poofy hair. “Of course ya have some… Why did Ah even think otherwise.”
“Yeah, if we find Rumble, maybe we’ll find Scootaloo too. Rainbow smashed a fist into her palm. Since last year, the athlete hadn’t felt such hope. She was closer than she ever was in finding her friend.
“That don’t mean anythin’.” Applejack pointed down the stream. “He could’a dropped it on his way outta there. We don’t know that he’s still inside.”
“Applejack has a point.” Fluttershy smiled.
Rainbow Dash looked between them and the tunnel. “I still think it’s worth a look.”
Just then, a splash behind them made everyone jump, Fluttershy the highest. In the stream, a harrowed and crazed looking Rarity had fallen on her side, her makeup smeared down her face and her hair in a state of mess that was very unlike her.
“R-Rarity?” Fluttershy called out.
When the fashionista noticed them, she began bawling, almost yelling as she cried out. Rainbow and Pinkie dashed out of the sewer pipe to join Applejack and Fluttershy as they helped Rarity up.
Her right arm was red and looked as though her skin had been burnt off and her shirt also looked like it had torn off just below her navel. She had more cuts and bruises all over her body, with even soil coating her back and front.
“Rarity, what happened?” Applejack tried to coax it out of her, but she wouldn’t stop crying.
“That looks serious.” Fluttershy pointed to her arm.
“Should we get her to a hospital?” Rainbow stowed her flashlight and searched her pack for anything that could help.
Fluttershy shook her head. “I-I think I can take care of this. I’ll just need some supplies. You girls don’t happen to be carrying any wipes or bandages with you… do you?”
“Now why would we have any o’ those?” Applejack patted her pockets. “Ah ain’t got any.”
“If it’s anyone with anything, it’s Pinkie.” Rainbow pushed her hands into her friend’s poofy hair. “Let’s see what do we have here?” She removed a plunger, then a horseshoe, but she couldn’t find any bandages. “I’m… I’m not even gonna ask.”
“I don’t have any, silly.” Pinkie giggled, then pointed in the direction they had come from. “But there’s the nearby pharmacy. I’m sure we can get some there.”
“Oh, right. Yes, that’ll do.” Fluttershy smiled, then patted Rarity on the back. “Everything’s gonna be alright, Rarity. We’ve got you…”
The fashionista sniffled, but nodded. Her friends gave her a group hug, trying to comfort her a little before going off.
Rainbow Dash led the way back, occasionally looking back to see if Rarity was doing alright. She still hadn’t told them as to what had happened, but judging from her injuries and her tattered clothes, it couldn’t have been anything good.
Was it a dog? Or even a puma, perhaps? But that didn’t explain the burns on her arm and legs.
Dashing up the slope next to the bridge, the athlete hopped over the railing, then beckoned for her friends. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”
Applejack glared at her. “You come here and haul her up, then.”
“Maybe I will,” Rainbow Dash put her arms over the railing and tugged at Rarity’s arms, pulling her up to the road level.
“Aa-ca-carefully…!” Rarity grimaced and Rainbow let go of her right arm.
“Sorry.”
Once she was clear over the railing, Rarity wiped at her eyes and looked at it, even running a finger over it. “Th-th-the hole… Wh-where’d it… Where…”
Pinkie put her eye against the railing. “What hole? Was there ever a hole here? Or are you talking about a different hole?”
“There was a-there was a...Cl-cl-cl-”
“She’s delirious. We need to get her some aid. Fast.” Applejack steered them all away from the railing and down the street.
The walk to the pharmacy didn’t take long, but for Rainbow, having to drag Rarity along made it feel like an hour had gone by before they pushed the pharmacy’s front door open, their entry signalled by a little jingle from a bell above the door. They had left Pinkie Pie outside with Rarity in an alleyway, not wanting to make such a big fuss about how she looked.
A staff member dressed in a starched white coat came to greet them.
“Hello, welcome to Canterlot Chemist’s. Can I help you?”
“Uh, yes. We’re looking for some first aid supplies,” Fluttershy requested. “One of our friends hurt herself and we wanted to patch her up.”
“Oh, that’s not good. Her getting hurt, that is. Do you want to bring her inside so we can take a look at her? All the staff here are trained in first aid.”
“It-it’s okay. We can take care of it.” Fluttershy put on her best smile. “We’ll just need some things and we’ll get right on to it.”
“Well, by all means…” The attendant stepped aside and gestured to the rows and rows of pharmaceutical items. “We have a lot of items in stock. We should have everything you need. And if you’re up for that examination, feel free to approach one of us.”
“Thank ya, kind sir.” Applejack tipped her hat for him. “We’ll be sure to do just that if we need to.”
As the pharmacy attendant went back to his duties, Fluttershy led Rainbow and Applejack down one of the rows of items. She began grabbing things off the racks, like bandages and various types of wipes.
“We really need this much stuff?” Rainbow picked up a packet of cotton wool and sniffed at it. It smelt musty, like it had been there for years.
“If we don’t want to check Rarity in to a clinic, then yes,” Fluttershy replied. “And we’ll need this, and that, and some of these…”
The basket grew more and more full until Fluttershy stood back and nodded.
“That should be enough.”
“Ah gotta agree with Dash. This seems a bit…” Applejack rubbed her jaw. “Overkill.”
“W-Well, we need all this…” Fluttershy’s cheeks grew red. “I get most of these when I treat pets, but humans need maybe just a little more...”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” Rainbow nodded. “But wait. Why didn’t we just bring Rarity to your pet clinic if it has all these supplies?”
“I can’t treat Rarity at a pet clinic.” Fluttershy chuckled. “She’s not a pet.”
“Would save on medical supplies, though…” Applejack said, looking at the price tags on the shelves. “This stuff don’t come cheap.”
“I normally carry around enough… Could you?” Fluttershy handed the basket to Applejack, then produced her wallet. “Oh… I might have used up the money for a wounded cat two days ago…”
Applejack sighed. “Rainbow, how much do ya got?”
The athlete shoved her hands into her skirt pocket and shrugged. “Didn’t bring my wallet. Didn’t think I would need to buy anything today.”
“Sheesh. Flutters, how much do ya have left? Ah think Ah have a buck and a half in her or somethin’...” Applejack searched her pockets and her hat and took out some money. “Make that three bucks.”
“Why do you keep money in your hat?” Rainbow asked.
“You know how some wallets are made of leather? Well, just so happens my hat is also made of leather. So keepin’ money in it’s as natural as keepin’ it in a wallet,” Applejack explained.
Rainbow Dash held up a finger. “That… makes no sense. But whatever. How are we gonna pay for all this stuff?”
“I have twelve dollars…” Fluttershy took out the notes in her wallet. “We still need, umm… sixteen.”
“Do we really need all this stuff?” Rainbow lifted a tube of aloe vera ointment.
“It’ll be good if we do.”
“Well, where are ya goin’ to get the last sixteen bucks? It ain’t gonna magically drop from the sky.”
“If Twilight were here, maybe she could do just that.”
“R-Really…? She can make money appear with magic…?”
“Oh hay no, she couldn’t do that. Ah mean, Ah’m sure she couldn’t.”
Fluttershy rubbed her arm and looked away. “A-Applejack, you shou-shouldn’t say things like that…”
“What, which thing?”
“Okay, girls, the money. What are we going to do?” Rainbow ran a hand through her colourful hair. “We’ve got to have money. Somehow.”
Fluttershy made an adorable pouty face that did nothing to help their situation, though it did make her look very cute. She looked like she was about to suggest something when the sound of footsteps approached.
“Sixteen, huh?” Flash took out his wallet and flipped through it. “I’m sure I can do something about that.”
Fluttershy blushed and shook her head. “Oh, no no no, we couldn’t ask you t-to do s-something like that…”
“No, it’s fine.” Flash held out two ten dollar bills to them. “After what you girls and Twilight did to save us, this isn’t even enough of a gesture for you. Go on. Rarity needs it, right?”
“R-Really? You’ll do that?”
“Don’t sweat it. You girls deserve more.”
“Well then, thank ya kindly, Flash,” Applejack said, accepting the money. “Let’s go pay and then see to Rarity.”
The four of them went to the counter to pay for the supplies, then hurried back outside to where Pinkie and Rarity were waiting. Rarity seemed to have stabilized a little in the time they had been gone. She was still rocking back and forth and staring out into the distance, but at least she wasn’t babbling about holes anymore.
“Rarity, I’ve got the medical supplies.” Fluttershy knelt down in front of her and removed the wipes from her shopping bag. “This might sting a little, so… hold still, okay?”
The fashionista was squeamish and resistant as Fluttershy gave her wounds a wipe, but once she got to applying the aloe vera lotion, Rarity seemed to calm down more.
“That looks really painful.” Flash stood behind Rainbow and Applejack, looking at the disheveled Rarity. “What happened to her?”
“We haven’t got a word out of her yet, besides something about a hole.” Rainbow shrugged. “She’s been in shock or something.”
“I… I don’t even think I know what I saw…” Rarity rubbed at her shoulder, then wiped at her face with one of the wet wipes Fluttershy handed her, cleaning up her smeared makeup. “It was this sludge… at my boutique… So… dreadful. So dirty. My clothes… What am I going to do?”
She continued mumbling to herself, all the while rocking back and forth.
“She doesn’t look too good. Maybe she should go to a hospital,” Flash suggested. The girls all turned to look at him. “What? Oh, I mean, not a mental hospital. I meant like, a hospital hospital.”
“Ohhhh,” they all said at once.
“Rarity just needs some time to let it wash over.” Fluttershy began bandaging up the girl’s arm.
“Look, even her shirt is torn.” Flash pointed. “I don’t think Rarity would let that slide in a normal situation.”
“Well, best we can do now is wait.” Applejack stood up and adjusted her hat. “Man, with summer rollin’ around, it’s gettin’ mighty hot. Might be time for a change o’ attire.”
“Or a swim.” Rainbow pulled off her jacket. “Hey, anyone want to hit the pool with me?”
“How about that abandoned quarry at the edge of the city.” Pinkie’s eyes widened, as did her smile. “You know? That really big one that no one will ever find you if you drown at? That’s perfect for a swimming hangout.”
“Yeahhhhh, no thanks, Pinkie.” Rainbow didn’t know whether she was joking or being serious. “I might be called Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash, but that’s just nuts.”
“Yeah, imagine if you hit your head at the bottom...” Fluttershy gulped as she finished applying the bandages. “I don’t think that’s a g-good idea at all…”
“Oh well!” Pinkie hopped about happily. “I’ll come with, Dashie!”
“I suppose I should get going.” Flash pointed a thumb behind him. “Hey, do you girls need a ride back? I could drop Rarity back at her place too.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Rainbow nodded. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave Rarity alone, at least for a few hours.”
“I’ll come along then.” Fluttershy packed the rest of her supplies back into her bag and grinned. “I’ll have to make sure Rarity’s well cared for.”
“Then it’s off for a swim for me and Pinkie.” Rainbow fished out her phone and dangled it between two fingers. “If you need anything, you know who to call.”
“The Poltergeist Crackers?” Pinkie snickered.
“No.”
As Rainbow watched Flash Sentry lead Fluttershy and Rarity away from the alley, she couldn’t help but wonder just what had spooked and injured Rarity so bad that she couldn’t even tell them what happened. She mentioned ooze and a hole. She still didn’t know what that hole meant, but maybe it had something to do with the railing on the bridge at Maple Road. That’s when she had first mentioned it.
Then again, sleuthing wasn’t her speciality. It was Rarity’s, so she couldn’t really come to any solid conclusions except for one thing. Something bad had happened to Rarity, and Rainbow had a feeling that it wasn’t over yet.
The sun was already setting when Sunset Shimmer made it home that day. It had felt like a long last day of school, but she was glad to finally be done with all that studying and for lack of a better word, bullying.
She was trying. She was honestly trying to right all the wrongs she had done in her last few years in this world. She didn’t blame the others for doubting her change, but it still hurt.
She was sorry. How much more sorry did they want her to be?
Dropping her soaking bag by her door, Sunset walked up the stairs, leaving wet footprints all over the floor, which she would have to clean up later. She began removing her still drenched clothes and dropping them impassively on the floor on her way to her room, glad to finally be out of them.
Trixie and her goonies had caught her off guard on her way out of school that day. Sunset had emerged out through CHS’ front doors when a giant water balloon the size of a small car was dropped on her. It burst with an almighty splash, sending her tumbling down the steps until she was on her bottom, not even sure what had just happened.
After that, Lavender Lace and Fuschia blush had restrained her as Trixie tried to slap the confession from her that she was kidnapping and killing the missing kids.
Sunset rubbed at her sore right cheek. “I may have been bad, but I wasn’t that bad…”
Entering her room, Sunset dragged herself over to her cupboard and grabbed a fresh towel, giving herself a wipe down. Did she deserve everything that was happening to her?
Yeah, I probably do…
She’d done some terrible things in her quest for power, like splitting Twilight Sparkle’s friends apart. To think that they were the only people in school who accepted her after she tried to take over CHS…
As the sun began to get lower and lower, shadows began to grow longer across Sunset’s room. The girl shivered, and it wasn’t from her lack of clothing. She had never once enjoyed the sight of shadows in the corner. It always felt as though someone was sitting there, watching, waiting for a time to strike. This was probably part of when she was the backstabbing power hungry witch she was, always thinking someone was about to kick her off the top, but it seemed to carry over even now. Walking to her wall, Sunset flicked the light switch on, bathing her room in a bright white light and banishing the shadows.
With a sigh of relief, Sunset went back to toweling herself dry, resuming with her hair. Now she knew what it felt like to be teased and bullied. She had never considered the welfare of others in her quest for power, but since Twilight Sparkle had defeated her, she now knew true power didn’t lie in strength. True power came from friendship. Unfortunately, making friends wasn’t all that easy, seeing as no one but Twilight’s friends made the effort to do so.
“Oh, Sunset. You’re in a pickle, aren’t you?” she said to herself.
At least now with summer rolled around, she had some time to herself. Some time to ponder on her actions and perhaps also time to figure out how to win back the trust of Canterlot High’s student body.
That suddenly made her think of Flash Sentry, her ex-boyfriend. She’d targeted him as her boyfriend a year ago because of his popularity and his looks, but he’d left her once he found out how big of a bully she was. For some reason, he too wasn’t teasing her like most of the other students, but not like he really talked to her either. Perhaps he was still sour that she had used him, but didn’t want to join in with the rest of the bullying.
She was busy wallowing in her own self pity when her lights suddenly went out. Sunset froze for a few seconds as darkness enveloped her vision. Thankfully, the sky outside was still orange, and managed to cast some light in, but the shadows along her wall had grown longer, creeping closer to her.
Sunset Shimmer rushed to her light switch and flicked it down, then back up. The lights didn’t come back on.
“Great, is this a power trip?” Sunset walked to her window and looked out. Her neighbours still had their lights on. “Huh.”
Then a worse thought came into her head. What if this was a prank by Trixie or one of the students to get back at her? That sent a shiver down her spine. What if they had set up cameras in her home to record her reaction?
Sunset clutched her towel to her body and blushed. She hadn’t been wearing anything for some time now. If videos of her naked body got out, it would certainly be disastrous.
Sunset walked around her room, discreetly trying to find out where the cameras were. With the shadows getting longer as the sun got lower, it didn’t help to make Sunset feel less paranoid. What if someone was hiding in her room already, waiting for the right time to strike? What if-
“Sunset…”
Sunset bolted upright and caught movement in the corner of her eye. For a while, she didn’t dare to look at it. But she soon forced her head to turn to her left, but when she focused her vision in the corner of her room, there was no one there.
She let out a sigh of relief and even laughed to herself. “Silly girl. It’s just the shadows… Just the shadows…”
There was a reason shadows scared her, and it was scares like this that made her wary of them. But then there was that voice. Someone had called her name. Or had she imagined it?
Suddenly, cast against her wall in the direction she was facing, Sunset saw a long skinny arm emerge from behind her, rising higher and higher, its fingers hovering over her shadow’s head. This couldn’t be a trick of her eyes.
Sunset shrieked and turned around, but there was no one behind her. She flipped her head back to the wall, but the shadow of the arm was also gone.
“I’m hysterical. That has to be it. I’m just tired after a long day and people are still trying to teach me a lesson. Yes, that must be it.”
“Sunset shimmerrr…”
The raspy voice came again, this time almost like a whisper right beside her ear.
Sunset jumped and spun about, looking all over her room, her eyes darting back and forth. They settled on the wall when the shadow of the arm rose from the shadow of her bedpost, reaching for her again.
“No!” Sunset turned and scuttled back.
There was still nothing behind her, but this time, the shadow of the arm didn’t disappear. It was still there, reaching for her, though Sunset couldn’t see anything that would cast that shadow.
A second arm shot out from her desk’s shadow, inching towards her from the opposite direction. Then from the shadow that her window frames cast, more arms emerged, attached to some kind of bulbous growth that looked almost like the shape of a head.
“Sunset Shimmeerrrr…”
One of the arms grabbed her shadow’s neck, and Sunset immediately felt something cold and icy pressing down around her own neck, unable to breathe. Another grabbed her right arm, which was pulled away from her neck by an unseen force.
“N-No… Th-this isn’t…” Sunset croaked, trying to free herself.
All around her, the shadows of the setting sun crept closer and closer, conjuring up more shades of evil, populating her room with creatures imaginable by the mere human.
The hand around her neck unclenched from her neck and grabbed her other arm instead, holding her in place as she gagged and coughed, breathing in as deeply as she could to regain her lost oxygen.
“Light…” Sunset gasped. “Gotta get to the light!”
Sunset looked to the switch on her wall. She didn’t know if flicking it would help, but she didn’t have any other options. She had to try, but there were so many shadow creatures all over her room. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she struggled to draw breath. The shadows were closing in on her body and she felt as though she couldn’t get enough air. A shadow creature loomed over Sunset, its mouth cracked open in a hungry grin, revealing teeth that looked like spikes in the shadows on the wall.
Sunset struggled, against her unseen attackers, but she could not break free.
“Fear… I can taste it…”
Before her, instead of the shadowy figure with fangs, it was now a clown. A physical, real clown. It held out a red ball to her and grinned.
“Why fight it, Sunset Shimmer?” he said. “Take the ball. Come join me. We all bounce. You can bounce too.”
“N-No, nooo!” Sunset screamed and yelled, trying to get free. “Help! Help!”
It couldn’t be real. None of this was real. Sunset watched with horror as the clown’s teeth became sharp, like that of the shadow earlier. Dream. It must all be a dream! Please, wake up!
“That’s right… Fear… Oh, sweet fear…” The clown opened its mouth bigger and bigger until even the sides of his face split open, dripping blood down his painted white face.
Sunset screamed again and closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Then there was a sudden click and the shadowy arms around her had disappeared, allowing them to drop down to her sides.
“W-What?” Sunset cracked her eyes open, flinching as they were greeted by white light. She soon began to open them again, slowly this time.
Her power had returned. Somehow her power had returned!
Sunset ran her hands all along her body, almost not believing she was alright. The shadow creatures all around her had all vanished, including the frightening clown that had been about to eat her.
“I’m alive… I’m alive!” Sunset began to laugh, but that laugh soon turned into a cry of relief. She really thought she was going to die, but electricity returning to her home had saved her in the nick of time. She didn’t know if it was dumb luck or if someone had intervened, but she was too relieved right now to put too much thought into it.
Lying down on her side, Sunset covered her face and let her tears flow, not bothering about the expanding pool of warm liquid that wasn’t coming from her face.
She was just glad she was alive.
The moon was high in the sky when Flash Sentry parked his car outside his home. It had been quite the eventful day since meeting the girls outside in the pharmacy. He had readily volunteered to send Rarity back, with Fluttershy coming along just in case.
Rarity had been babbling on and on about ooze coming into her boutique from outside and then chasing her out, but other than that, it hadn’t been particularly clear what she was trying to tell them.
After arriving at her place, the three of them had a look around, trying to find the cause of the ooze, but other than a few scorch marks on the carpeted floor, there hadn’t been anything else that looked out of the ordinary.
After making sure everything was as it is, Flash was about to go when Rarity wailed about not wanting to be alone, so in the end, he had dropped both of them off at Fluttershy’s place before heading back.
Whatever had happened to her wasn’t just something any of them could wave off. He wanted to get to the bottom of it, but he didn’t even know where to start besides asking Rarity about it.
That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Better to let her recover anyway…
Strange ooze spilling into the shop and causing burns? Flash had never heard anything quite like this. And then the ooze having some kind of sentience and pursuing her? Now that just sounded a little far fetched, but after what Sunset Shimmer had done, turning into some kind of fiery flying demon, perhaps it wasn’t all the far fetched after all.
Remembering what Sunset had become sent chills down Flash’s spine. It had been a freaky experience, especially the mind control, and not to mention, she looked like a demon right out of one of Series King’s horror stories. She resembled nothing of the beautiful girl he had dated and he actually had nightmares for a week after that.
The huge red and black wings, the claws, the fiery evil face…
“Ergh…” Flash shuddered.
But he was glad that was all over. It was thanks to Twilight Sparkle and the others.
Twilight…
It was already a while since the Fall Formal and that was the last time he got to see her. It made him wonder if he would ever get to see her again.
Somehow, he doubted he would get what he wanted. After all, she was from an entirely different world. Their dance was probably just a once off thing, though he wished it could’ve been more than that.
Getting out of his car, Flash walked down his pathway to his home, his hands in his pockets as he thought about Twilight.
He had been so deep in thought that at first, he hadn’t noticed the gust of wind that blew over his head. Flash looked up, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Then to his right, there had been the flap of wings and he turned his head to look. Again, there was nothing.
“Huh, must’a been a bat,” Flash told himself. “Or maybe an owl. The owls here are weird.” Something flew by him again, then again. The third one clipped him in the face with a wing and Flash fell to the side, using an arm to keep himself up.
“Ow!” He rubbed at his head. His eyes widened when his hand came back with blood.
There was a sort of a scratching sound and Flash looked up. In front of him, between his home and himself was a round-shaped creature. Something he’d never seen before. It had wings like a bat and a tail sticking out behind it, but what made his hair stand on end were its four red eyes, looking back at him, unblinking.
Another two landed beside it, gazing at him with their red ominous eyes as well.
“N-Nice bat-thingies…” Flash said, scrambling back a few paces. He didn’t know what this was, but by just standing there before him, it made the hair on his arms stand up.
There came a stretching noise from somewhere within them, but Flash couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It kept growing in volume, but the flying things continued to stand there, watching him with an eerie stillness. If he wanted to get home, he would have to get by them. The question is, could he?
As Flash sat there thinking about what to do, the stretching sound got louder and sounded like it was just in front of him now. Then with a startling tear, the creatures’ bodies ripped in half and sharp fangs sprouted all around the inside of the two halves, held together by the skin at the back. A growl emerged from the darkness of their new mouths and the creatures spread their wings and took flight. Right towards Flash.
“No! Go away!” Flash scrambled to his feet, almost tripping a few times. He had to run past them to get to his house, so that was out of the question. The only other safe place he could think of was his car.
Talons grabbed at his sleeves, tearing through cloth and flesh as he ran, but Flash pounded at them with his fists, getting them to dislodge from his arms, his speed not decreasing.
Pressing the unlock button on his car keys, Flash ripped the driver’s door open and jumped in, slamming it shut as one of the creature’s legs tried to rip his face off, trapping it inside.
Flash pulled on the door, leaning back as far as he could as the creature’s talons opened and shut, trying to get him. Its gaping mouth attacked his window, trying to get through, but it didn’t get a good position to sink its teeth through it.
“Just leave me alone!” he cried, still unable to get the door shut.
With no other choice, Flash inserted the car keys and turned them, spurting the vehicle to life. With one hand still on the door, Flash stepped down hard on the accelerator and shot out of his driveway, speeding along the road, swerving left and right, trying to get the creature to leave.
Letting go of the door for a second, Flash jammed hard on the breaks and watched the creature spin forward, its talons leaving the inside of his car long enough for him to shut the door. It landed on the hood of his car, its mouth opened like a psychotic smile, and before he could react, the other two bashed their heads at his side windows, cracking them.
Flash put his car into reverse and spun it around, then driving in the opposite direction. Looking at his mirrors, the two flying monsters continued to follow after him, while the other one hung on to his car’s hood with its talons.
He looked down at his speedometer, his car already approaching fifty miles per hour. And still the creatures kept up, not losing speed. In fact, they were gaining on him, with one smashing its head into the boot of his car. Flash felt the whole vehicle jump as he fought to keep control of the wheel and his mind.
He needed somewhere safe to go. And if he were to even leave his car, they would surely catch him and devour him. If he couldn’t leave the car, where else could he go?
Flash’s heartbeat was thumping in his chest, threatening to break out like those xenos from the Xeno films. It took all of his willpower to keep driving and to stay away from those creatures.
“Flash Sentry…Tasty Flash…”
He looked at the monster on his hood and its smile somehow widened. It lifted a foot and plunged its talons back into his car again, and again, and again. It was making its way closer to him.
“No, no! Stop! Don’t come any closer!” Flash jammed on the brakes, but the monster held on tight.
“Oh, but why, Flash? I can’t devour you without getting closer…”
Suddenly, the flying monster was no longer there. Instead, a full-sized clown had taken its place, its feet planted on his car’s hood, with one hand, still with razor sharp talons, stabbed into the hood.
“You don’t like flying creatures, Flash? What an odd fear,” it chuckled ominously. “If you don’t like them, why don’t you come with me? Down where I’m from, there aren’t any.”
Flash stopped the car, his mind spinning and unable to comprehend what was happening. When did this clown get there? He didn’t even see the flying monster leave.
Suddenly, the clown’s smile widened and he thrust his head against the windshield, cracking it. When it withdrew its head, Flash could see its mouth had widened, splitting at the sides and revealing a few rows of dagger-like teeth. Blood dripped down from where his skin tore, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Noticing the situation he was in, Flash kicked his door open and lunged out just as the clown smashed its head completely through his windshield, his head vibrating and shaking like a crazed machine, his teeth tearing his seat into shreds. Flash could only imagine what would’ve happened to himself if he had still been sitting there.
The clown spat out a mouthful of leather and foam, and retracted its head from inside the car. “Off sooooo soon?”
He bounced off the car hood and did a bow, claws springing out from under his gloved hands, almost as long as kitchen knives.
“Come here, Flash. It’ll be fun. I’ll make you bounce too. You want to bounce, Flash?” The clown released a maniacal laughter, then screamed horrifyingly and rushed the boy.
Flash screamed like a little girl and ran down the road, trying to put as much distance as he could between himself and the clown.
“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening!”
Flash just ran and ran, like he had a sackful of diamonds with the devil close behind him. All the while, the clown followed along, almost bouncing as he laughed maniacally, somehow keeping up with him.
“Come play with Nickelfool! I promise there will be lots of fun!”
“Leave me alone!”
Suddenly, a blinding ray of light shot out from the darkness before him.
Turning his head back to the front, Flash only had enough time to throw himself back a few steps as a car stopped in front of him, its tyres screeching on asphalt as its driver jammed on the brakes. He had fallen when he jumped away from the car, but Flash was quick to spring back on his feet and ran over to the driver’s window, which was already rolled down.
“Flash? What’s going on?” It was Lightning Dust, a senior from school. He had never been more relieved to see a familiar face. “What are you doing?”
“There’s this crazy clown! It’s trying to kill me!” Flash’s voice broke, almost hysterical sounding.
“What clown?” The girl raised an eyebrow.
“That!” He pointed where her headlights were shining, but to his astonishment, there was nothing there.
“Have you been drinking, Flash?”
“But… But… It was there. It was after me…” The guitarist blinked his eyes rapidly. “T-There were flying mon-monsters and they had teeth as sh-sharp as kn-knives. And then the cl-clown…”
Lightning Dust gave Flash a long, scrutinizing look. “Look, what you choose to do in your free time is up to you, but try not to get high in a place that endangers other people, ‘kay?”
“Get high?” Flash exclaimed. “No, Lightning Dust! I’m not on anything! There was this clown, and it was trying to kill me! I can prove it!”
Lightning Dust looked skeptical, but sighed and relented. “Fine. Where’s this proof then?”
“B-Back at my car,” Flash said, pointing back down the road.
Lightning Dust followed Flash’s finger. “How far did you run? You just ditched your car?”
“It’s way back there,” Flash said apologetically.
“Well, I’m not walking all the way there,” She popped open the passenger side door. “Get in. I swear, if this is some prank…”
“It’s not!” Flash said earnestly. “Just follow the road; my car should still be back there.”
As Lightning Dust put her car into gear, Flash Sentry thought back to the flying monsters. He shuddered. He had no wish to encounter them again, but if he was going to prove he wasn’t crazy, he would have to go back there.
A short drive later, Flash’s car came into view, right where he had left it.
Lightning Dust slowed her car down and finally parked it on the side of the road.
“Huh,” she said, looking at the hole in the windscreen. “That’s a lot of damage, all right. How did you get a break that bad, anyway?”
“It wasn’t me,” Flash insisted. “I love my car. I wouldn’t trash it for anything.”
“Hmm. True...” Lightning Dust got out of her seat and walked up to Flash’s car and examined it. Flash followed warily behind her. “Man, did you drive into a chainsaw or something? Your seat is totally shredded.”
“I told you, it was the clown!” Flash threw his arms up.
“Just what kind of clown can do this to your car?” Lightning looked at him and snapped her fingers near his eyes. “Are you sure you’re not on anything?”
“I’m not! Honest! There was a clown! Come on, how often do you even see clowns out here? I know what I saw. I’m not high!”
“Gee, okay, slow your horses.” Lightning Dust looked at the wrecked car. “Whatever it is, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all this. A prank maybe? After all, you were Sunset Shimmer’s boyfriend. For all anyone knows, you helped her rise to power. Someone must be out to get you too.”
“You really think someone would go to all that trouble just to give me a scare?” Then Flash touched at his head and arms where his injuries were. “Then how about these? I got attacked by those flying monsters. See?”
“I don’t know, Flash. But I don’t see anyone else out here. Do you?”
The guitarist looked around. “No, but-”
“I think you should just head home for the day. Whatever’s going on in your mind, you should go cool down and let it wear off. I’ll send you home, but you owe me a favour, got it?”
Flash nodded. Had he really imagined all of that up? He had the cuts on his head and arms to prove something happened, but there was nothing else. The clown and the flying monsters were gone, as though they had never been there in the first place.
And then there was his car. He didn’t know how he was going to explain his way out of this one, but whether imagined or not, something had damaged his car. He felt his heart sink as he put together how much repairs would cost. Several months’ wages, at least.
“Hey! You going to stand there all day, or are we going?” Lightning Dust honked her car’s horn, jolting Flash back to the present.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Flash said as he slid into the passenger seat.
An owl outside Rainbow Dash’s house hooted. It sounded like laughter.
The day overall had been a colossal failure, if she were to rate it by her plans. They hadn’t gotten anywhere near to exploring the sewers, but she supposed that helping Rarity would count for something.
As she got ready for bed, Rainbow was already planning out tomorrow’s activities. First, she needed to rally her friends again and go to explore the sewers in greater detail. She was sure that there was some clue in there that would lead to the discovery of Scootaloo’s location, alive or dead. After all, they might have even found a clue to Rumble’s whereabouts. Maybe if they could find him, they could find Scootaloo too.
Applejack seemed so sure that Scoots was dead; all the adults too. Rainbow sighed to herself. She looked at her reflection in her Wonderbolts mirror as she got into her sleepwear. She was still as awesome as ever, and she would be the one to find her young friend.
Climbing into bed, Rainbow reached for her copy of Daring Do and the Griffon’s Goblet. She had read this one many times before, but it was written so well that she couldn’t help but keep coming back to it.
She was just reaching her favorite part where Daring Do fought Caballeron’s henchmen on top of a speeding train when she heard a tap on her window.
Rainbow lowered her book and looked over. She had not drawn the curtains shut, so she had a fairly unobstructed view the house across the road.
The tapping came again, but Rainbow Dash could not see where it was coming from. Curious, she left her bed and walked over to the window.
At first, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. The street was quiet and tranquil.
Then something yellow flashed right in front of the glass. Rainbow swore and fell over backwards.
Once she had collected herself, the athlete stood back up and returned to the window. She gasped in shock.
“S-S-Scootaloo?”
It was in fact Scootaloo, dressed in a bright yellow raincoat with a hood. The same outfit her parents had said she was wearing the day she had vanished. Storm clouds had formed outside, reminding Rainbow of the day she had disappeared.
“Hi, Rainbow.” Scootaloo had a sad expression plastered over her face.
“S-Scootaloo! You’re a-alive! You’re alive! I knew you were!” Rainbow ran back over and threw the window open. “Wh-where have you been? All this time? I’ve been so worried!”
“I’m so sorry, Rainbow. I lost the ball. The ball you gave me. The red one with the signature. I’ve been looking for it.”
“Scootaloo, I wouldn’t care if that ball was gone. You know how important you are to me. It’s almost been a year since I last saw you. But I knew it! I knew you were still alive, Scoots. I just knew it!”
She reached a hand out to help her friend in, not even bothering that Scootaloo was somehow standing outside her second floor room’s window. But Scootaloo didn’t take it. She just continued to stand there, in the air, though now there was a grin on her face. A stark contrast to the expression she had on earlier.
“Come on, Scoots.”
The young girl didn’t make any effort to move. “Rainbow I wanted to take you somewhere. Somewhere I found.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Rainbow, if you come with me, you’ll bounce too. Don’t you want to bounce?”
The athlete looked at her friend, a little confused. She didn’t know what Scootaloo was going on about. “What do you mean? Where did you go?”
“I found a place, Dash. A good place. A nice place. A fun place. Come with me.”
Rainbow looked at her. Something about Scootaloo and what she was saying was odd, and for some reason, it made the hair on the back of her neck stand.
“I don’t… I don’t understand, Scootaloo.”
“What’s there not to understand?” The girl pressed her hands against the window frame. “If you come with me, you’ll bounce too. You’ll bounce too! You’ll bounce too, you’ll bounce too!”
Scootaloo began repeating if faster and louder with each breath, her mouth still widening and her eyes rolling back in her head as she continued.
Rainbow Dash took a few steps back instinctively, not believing what was going on. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be Scootaloo. She couldn’t be.
Suddenly, a long arm shot through Rainbow’s window from beside Scootaloo and grabbed her wrist, holding hard and fast, trying to drag her out. Rainbow screamed in surprise, then kicked her legs against her wall and tried to pull her arm away.
The arm continued to pull her, trying to get her out the window as Scootaloo giggled. “You’ll bounce too, you’ll bounce too!”
All the while, Scootaloo continued to chant about bouncing. She made no move to help her friend.
Rainbow braced herself against the wall underneath the window, her athletic legs keeping her from being pulled any further. The arm’s grip did not loosen; as she watched in horror, Rainbow saw a garish face rise up over the window sill and stare at her hungrily. It looked like a deranged clown’s face, with white face paint and a red nose. But there was no joy or levity in those eyes.
“Come on, Rainbow!” the clown snarled. “Don’t you want to see young Scootaloo again?”
“Oh, no, no, no…” Rainbow squeaked. She felt her legs starting to buckle at the knees and she looked around for anything that might help her. Her eyes lit upon her hockey stick.
Grabbing it, Rainbow struck at the clown’s arm, using the hockey stick like an axe, chopping at the appendage ferociously.
The clown howled and let go of Rainbow, who fell backwards as the pressure vanished. She hit her head on the floor and saw stars, but she shook them away and scrambled away from the window, still holding her hockey stick.
All was quiet.
There was no sign of Scootaloo or that demon clown anywhere.
A few moments later, the door to her room was thrown open.
“Rainbow Dash!” It was her father. He was dressed in a nightgown with the Wonderbolts’ logo imprinted on them. “What is that ruckus! People are trying to sleep here!”
“C-Clown, dad!” She pointed out the window. “A clown tried to get me! An-and he’s got Scootaloo!”
Mr. Dash sighed. He, like everyone else, had known that Scootaloo and his daughter had been very close. When the former had died, Rainbow had been convinced that she was still alive somewhere, but several visits to a psychiatrist had concluded that this was just Rainbow’s way of coping. Sooner or later acceptance would sink in, and all anyone could do was be supportive.
“Look, Rainbow,” Mr. Dash said, coming closer. “I know you miss your friend. But you’re letting your imagination run away with you. Just go to bed. Everything will be better in the morning, you’ll see.”
“Dad, no, I really saw her!”
“No, you didn’t. Your mind’s telling you otherwise. Just listen, Rainbow. You’ll see. You’ll wake up tomorrow and realize there was never any Scootaloo or clown at your window. Besides, you’re on the second floor. What, do you think they can fly?”
Rainbow shook her head. “No, not fly, but… she… wanted to bounce…”
Mr. Dash sighed and patted his daughter on the head. “Just try to get some sleep, Rainbow. You’ve had a long day, and we all need our rest. Even Daring Do needs her sleep, don’t you know?”
Rainbow Dash looked back at the window as her dad closed her room door. Outside, the first drops of rain began to make themselves known, pelting against the leaves of the trees on the street, making them dance in the darkness.
The athlete pushed herself to her feet and walked slowly towards her opened window, holding tightly onto her hockey stick. She didn’t get a good look at the clown, but she could swear she saw rows of sharp fangs in his mouth. But that all couldn’t be true. There was no way some deranged clown would attack her at her own home like that. Right? And there was no way they could be outside her second floor window. Right?
She looked out her window one last time, but didn’t see any signs that anyone had even been here. “Maybe I really was dreaming…”
Shutting her window, Rainbow crawled into bed and placed her face on her pillow and groaned. She was so obsessed over finding Scootaloo that she was now going crazy. Perhaps her dad was right. All she needed was a good night’s rest and she would be all better tomorrow morning.
“Just in time to search for Scootaloo again…” She smiled to herself.
As Rainbow Dash shut her lights off and drifted to sleep, she failed to hear the laughter of childrens’ voices coming from the drain beside her home.
It was a sunny and sweltering day when Fluttershy parked Rarity’s car outside the nearby Cantermart, Canterlot’s largest chain of supermarkets. She had resolved to continue watching over her friend while she healed, worried about her after what had happened.
Rarity still had yet to tell her the full story, but from bits and pieces, Fluttershy could pick out that some sort of ooze had spilled in her house and then somehow chased her out over to Maple Street. She didn’t know if she heard that right, but she didn’t want to press her friend. Rarity would tell her when she was ready.
“Poor Rarity…” Fluttershy got out of the car and scurried to the supermarket’s entrance.
She wanted to prepare lunch for her, but once she saw she had run out of ingredients, she decided to take a drive down to the supermarket to get more food. Fluttershy had decided on some good old fashioned spaghetti. After all, it was the food of friendship.
She grabbed a shopping basket once she entered and made her way to the pasta aisle. It was only a matter of minutes as Fluttershy grabbed the pasta and the necessary ingredients for a bolognese spaghetti, dumping everything into her basket as she went to pay for them.
Carrying the bags back out to the car, Fluttershy got in the driver’s seat with the groceries on the passenger side, then twisted the key in the ignition.
As she made her way out of the carpark, the pink haired girl sighed. This was definitely not how she intended to start her summer break. First, it had been Scootaloo’s disappearance almost a year ago, then all the other missing kids, and then now, something had happened to Rarity to leave her a trembling wreck.
She had wanted to help out at the animal shelter most of her break, but that seemed like it would have to wait. Fluttershy imagined the little cats and dogs waiting in their kennels for her and it was hard to just leave them be for now.
“Sorry… But Rarity needs me more…” she said out loud, mainly to herself.
The drive back didn’t take long, except for a few red lights in her way, but she still made it back to her place in less than twenty minutes.
The girl got out and was about to shut her door when a series of gurgled barks drew her attention to the sidewalk behind the car. It sounded like an animal in dire need and her heart immediately tugged at her insides. If it was an animal in trouble, she had to help it.
Along the pavement beside her car, stood a dog. It was furry and big, but those weren’t its defining features. Its fur was matted with blood and what even looked like bits of meat, its eyes were a stark white, and its snout was dripping with snot and more blood. Bits of greenish growths popped out from its legs, looking diseased and gross. The sight alone made Fluttershy want to cry, but then the dog began to charge, lumbering towards her.
“Stop!” Fluttershy said sternly, using a tactic with her eyes to show her dominance over the animal. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work, and it only seemed to provoke the dog more, making it take big leaps towards her.
Doing the only logical thing left to do, Fluttershy dropped her groceries and got back into the car slamming the door shut just as the dog jumped at where she had been standing, biting at the air, its mouth unnaturally wide and its teeth almost like that of a shark.
“Th-that can’t be real…” Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes. Perhaps it was just the heat playing tricks on her. There was no way the dog could have opened its mouth that big. There was no way it would have teeth like a shark.
She looked out the window to see if it was still there. Just then, it slammed against the car window, making her recoil back in shock. The dog’s saliva and blood smeared all across the window as it barked and growled, trying to get to her.
The girl couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Her affinity with animals was something she was proud of, but why wasn’t it working here? And why was it making her absolutely terrified?
Now that the animal was closer, Fluttershy could see the torn jaw hinges at the sides of the dog’s mouth, dripping blood and saliva. It sort of looked like a smile in an extremely twisted way. Such a poor creature was running about the streets like that. She just couldn’t bear the thought of what it had been going through.
She needed to get help for the dog.
Winding down a window, both to get air and to be able to talk to the dog, Fluttershy kept it up more than halfway, more for her own protection.
“U-Um, hi, excuse me…” she started. “I know it must all hurt. I w-want to help. Could you… stop jumping at my d-door, please?”
The dog stopped throwing itself at the door, but then it did something she hadn’t been expecting, and that only made her skin crawl even more.
The dog looked directly at her and began to laugh.
Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes. “Wh-what’s going on…?”
“Tasty fear…” the dog breathed, fogging up the glass with its wet breath. “So very tasty…”
“Wh-what?”
“Do you fear me, Fluttershy?” The dog placed one paw on the glass, smearing a bloodied print on it. “Do you fear… that which you love?”
“N-No, why… Why are you like this? What hap-happened to you?”
“I’m hungry, Fluttershy. All I want is to eat… Would you feed me?”
And then the dog smashed its face against the glass, sending white tendrils across the window as it began to crack.
“Feed me, feed me, feed me!”
Fluttershy instinctively backed away, crawling on her bottom as she dove for the door on the passenger’s side. As she threw it open, the dog had already anticipated her move and ran around the front of the car, its rotting form appearing past her bumper.
Fluttershy squealed and closed the door, with the dog jumping at it and slobbering its saliva and blood all over it.
“Feed me! Feed me!” The dog bashed its head at the window again, trying to break in.
Fluttershy was in tears by now, unsure of what to do. And then suddenly, almost as quickly as it had happened, the rotting dog had vanished from her windows and it had gone deathly silent.
“H-Huh?” Fluttershy cracked open an eye and looked around.
There was nothing around the car, except for an odd object, an object that didn’t quite belong.
A single red ball rested on the hood of the car. And without warning, it started bouncing on its own.
Up and down, up and down.
Fluttershy had seen enough. Looking around once more, she decided to take her chances and got out of the car, grabbing her fallen groceries and dashed back to her house, slamming the door behind her and locking it.
Dropping her groceries on a nearby table, she peered out the window next to her door, looking at the car. The ball was still bouncing there, but now, there was a clown standing next to it. He had fiery orange hair and a silvery suit, but what scared her most was his wide and demented smile. And he was looking directly at her.
Fluttershy quickly slid the curtains shut and ran into the house to find Rarity.
“Ra-Rarity? Rarity!” she cried out.
She found her friend waiting in the kitchen, falling into her arms almost immediately, sobbing away. She’d never been so frightened in her life.
“Darling, what’s wrong?” Rarity asked, worry scrawled all over her face.
“Ou-outside…” Fluttershy sniffed. “Th-there was this d-dog. And then a cl-cl-clo…”
At that, Rarity’s eyes shot wide open and she sat straighter. “A clown, dear?”
The pink haired girl nodded.
Rarity got up and walked to the front door, looking out the same window. Her car was still outside, but there was no one else on the streets. Absolutely no one. That was a weird occurrence and it had been the same when she had rushed down Maple Street to evade the goo monster and then that clown as well, and just the thought of that sent a whole freezer of ice cubes down her spine.
It was no coincidence that Fluttershy had also seen a clown. Was there something more going on here? Heading back to her friend, the two of them sat there in silence, just needing the presence of each other to know that they weren’t alone.
Pinkie Pie liked baking. She liked it a lot. In fact, it might just be one of her favorite things to do, second only to throwing parties for people. That was the great thing about baking; baked goods were ever so helpful at parties, like reliable friends. Friends that could be eaten, but friends nonetheless.
Right now, Pinkie was making cupcakes. The base cakes had already been made, now they sat on the countertop cooling while she whipped up some frosting to go on top. And of course, Pinkie couldn’t just settle for one colour and flavour of icing. Where was the fun in that? The pink girl had already mixed up three flavours of frosting, but she felt as though that wasn’t enough.
Pouring sugar into a bowl and adding some egg whites, Pinkie whisked away at the mixture, dropping in some orange zest and a couple of drops of food colouring to bring the concoction to a light orange colour. She stuck her finger in the frosting and licked it. Yummy!
Dusting the orange frosting with some rainbow sprinkles, Pinkie checked up on the cupcakes. They were still warm, which meant that the frosting would melt if she put it on now. Oh well, she could always put together another flavour while she waited.
Earlier in the morning, she had gone with Rainbow Dash to the Muddy Place to search for Scootaloo again. They didn’t go too far into the sewers, but it did make her wonder if all the missing persons were in there. They had found Rumble’s shoe the other day, after all. Perhaps he was still wandering around in there with just one shoe. She had tried telling her parents yesterday, that perhaps Scootaloo was still alive and well in the sewers somewhere, but they had dismissed her claims, even after she told them about Rumble’s shoe. Her father had said there was no way anyone could be living in the sewers for almost a year without anyone finding her. She had to be dead.
Pinkie didn’t know what to believe, but at least she knew for sure that cupcakes were delicious.
As she was reaching for the bag of sugar, Pinkie heard the front bell of Sugarcube Corner ring.
“Ooh! A customer!” Pinkie zipped out of the back kitchen and to the front of the house, where Mr. Cake was waiting behind the counter.
Pinkie peered over Mr. Cake’s shoulder to look at who had come in. It was Brawly Beats from school, and he was looking at the menu as if deciding what to order.
“Hi!” Pinkie said cheerily. “What are you in the mood for?”
Brawly Beats seemed not to hear, but he stepped up to the counter anyway, addressing Mr. Cake.
“Yeah, I’ll have a bagel and a large black coffee,” he said. “To go, please.”
“One bagel and coffee coming right up, Mr. Cake,” Pinkie said, making her way to the coffee machine. She was just about to press the button to start the machine when she felt something pressing into her back. It was Mr. Cake.
“Uh, Mr. Cake?” Pinkie said, confused. “I’ve got this, okay?”
Mr. Cake gave no indication he had heard her. In fact, he did not seem to see her either. His eyes slid from Pinkie’s left to her right without stopping in the middle.
“Mr. Cake?” Pinkie waved her hand in front of his face, but Mr. Cake didn’t even blink. He reached past her and started the coffee machine, then went to retrieve a bagel from the glass display case.
“Here you go!” He eventually handed the goods to Brawly Beats and accepted the money, banking it in the cash register, all while Pinkie stood there, unsure of why he couldn’t see or hear her.
“Mr. Cake? Hello?” She even pulled out a balloon from her hair and blew it up, but he didn’t even notice that. Even popping it got no reaction from him, or anyone in the cafe for that matter.
“Oh, I get it! This is a prank, isn’t it?” she giggled. “Okay, I’ll play along!”
She happily went back to the kitchen to check on her cupcakes. They would be cool enough by now to add her multi-coloured frosting.
Pinkie arrived back in the kitchen, where she was relieved to see Mrs. Cake putting something onto a shelf. She sighed in relief. Surely Mrs. Cake would want to talk!
“Hi, Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie chirped.
The baker gave no indication that she had heard anything, and continued shuffling through the shelf.
“Mrs. Cake? Hello? Are you in on the prank too?” Pinkie waved her hand in her face, but she made no reaction.
Pinkie began to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. If this was a prank, it wasn’t very funny. And she had never known Mr. and Mrs. Cake to participate in such pranks anyway. Her Pinkie Sense was telling her that there was something very, very wrong here.
Now feeling unsettled, Pinkie ducked out of the kitchen and went back out into the dining area. Even though she was visibly sweating and panicking, nobody seemed to notice. Pinkie barrelled outside and ran right into someone wearing a trench coat and a hat that covered their face.
“Sorry,” Pinkie said instinctively.
“That’s quite alright,” the person in the trench coat said.
Pinkie was about to run off when something clicked. “Wait… you can see me?”
“Sure I can, Pinkie,” the stranger said. “You want a ball?” He held out a bright red ball in his right hand. “It bounces.”
“Oh, sure!” She accepted the bouncy object. “I just knew it was a prank. But I can’t think of why anyone would want to do it. It isn’t funny.”
“Maybe it’s because they know you fear their rejection, Pinkie Pie.”
That caught Pinkie off guard for a second, which was more than enough for the stranger to reach his hands out and grab her around the throat. Pinkie gasped and dropped the ball, then tried to pry his fingers off her neck, but he was too strong. A strong wind blew, snatching the hat off the stranger’s head. Without the headwear obscuring his features, Pinkie’s eyes landed on one of the most unfunny and frightening clowns she had ever seen. Skin as pale as the plague, glaring hungry eyes, and a mouth full of sharp teeth!
Pinkie opened her mouth to scream, but could find no air to do it. The clown’s trench coat flapped in the gale, blowing up behind him like a pair of hideous wings. She looked around the streets, but like Mr. and Mrs. Cake, everyone just walked around her as though she wasn’t there.
“No one’s coming to help you, Pinks…” The clown chuckled evilly. “No one loves you. No one sees you. No one really knows you. But I do. Come down with me. You’ll bounce too! Just let go.”
“N-No…” Pinkie stuck her tongue out, doing anything she could to get air.
She repeatedly kicked the clown in the gut, but he still stood there, gazing into her eyes as though he was looking right into her soul. He knew exactly what she was feeling and it was something she hadn’t felt in such a long time; such fear usually went right over her head, because she knew most fears couldn’t harm you, like shadows in the corner or spooky looking objects. This, however, was much different.
By now her face was turning purple and she still had no way of getting herself free, but without warning, there was a blare of a horn and a truck suddenly smashed into a lamppost and a fire hydrant, just beside her and the clown.
Pinkie gasped and coughed, suddenly finding that she could breathe once again. When she looked around, she realized the clown was gone, and she was now sitting before the truck on the pavement as the fire hydrant’s water spout began to drench her. A red car was positioned near the middle of the road, its front smashed, with the driver already shakily exiting his vehicle, blood dripping from his head. She’d never been so glad to see an accident before. It had potentially just saved her from getting choked out by a clown.
“Pinkie, are you okay?” Hands suddenly grabbed her from behind and hauled her to her feet. It was Mr. Cake and he looked absolutely worried. “Were you hit?”
“Y-You can see me, Mr. Cake?” Pinkie said between breaths.
“Why won’t I be able to see you?” He raised an eyebrow.
Tears ran down Pinkie’s cheeks and she smiled. It had been such a dreadful thing to be ignored like she didn’t exist. Prank or no, she was at least glad it was over.
Returning to the cafe, Pinkie was glad to be seen again. She resumed work and got back into making her delicious cupcakes, the memory of the clown already taking a backseat in her mind.
It was a late Thursday afternoon when Rainbow Dash exited the mouth of the Muddy Place’s sewer entrance for the fourth time that week, wiping muck and sweat from her forehead as she squinted at the orange summer sun above.
After so many hours down there, still nothing. No sign of Scootaloo, or even any sign of Rumble. They only thing worthy of attention seemed to be an old scribble of the words, ‘Do you want to know the truth about your parents?’, and she didn’t even know what that was supposed to mean.
It was as though everything was against her finding her friend.
“Ain’t nothin’ down here, Ah’m afraid…” Applejack removed her hat and fanned herself with it. “Seriously, Dash. Ah ain’t comin’ down here again. We ain’t gonna find nothin’.”
“I can’t believe she’s dead. I just can’t…” Rainbow clenched her fists. It had been her fault that Scootaloo was even missing today. “I need to find her, AJ.”
Applejack sighed. “Say ya do find her. Then what? What if ya find her dead? Can ya live with that?”
“Anything’s better than not knowing.”
Truthfully, Rainbow didn’t know what she would do if Scootaloo was indeed dead. But she couldn’t bare doing nothing, knowing that there was a chance she was still out there. But what if she did find her body instead? What then? Would she be able to handle that?
“Anyway, sun’s gettin’ real low.” The cowgirl looked up to the sky. “Ah think a much deserved milkshake is needed, don’tcha think?”
After a moment of silence, Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, okay…”
“Ah’ll ring up the others. See if they wanna join us.”
Rainbow went over to splash some of the stream’s water in her face before following Applejack out of the Muddy Place. The walk over to Sugarcube Corner didn’t take long, and when they got there, Fluttershy and Rarity were already waiting inside, waving them over to a table, though they both looked high strung, as though they were on the lookout for something.
“Hey, girls, what’s up.” Applejack scooted into the booth beside them. “Y’all okay?”
Fluttershy shook her head.
“I… I think it’s time we talk about something…” Rarity held a cup of hot chocolate to her face. “I thought maybe I was going crazy, but… I think there might be more to this than we thought.”
“Ooh boy, I love talks!” Pinkie suddenly slid over beside their table. “What are we talking about?”
Rarity gulped, her fingers squeezing tighter around the mug in her hands. “Remember a few days back? When I said I was… was at-attacked…?”
“Wel, you didn’t say what exactly…” Rainbow scratched her head. “But you said something about sludge in your boutique?”
The fashionista nodded slowly. “It was-wasn’t just that… It was chasing me down M-Maple Road… Like it was alive. It shot mor-more ooze at me. That’s what burnt me. That’s what burnt a hole through the railing…”
Rainbow vaguely recalled Rarity talking about a hole when they were heading to the pharmacy, but a sentient ooze? That sounded a little weird, and they’d faced a flying demon.
“Th-that’s not all…” Rarity shivered. “After that… After that it… it… It changed.”
“Changed?” Applejack leaned closer on the table and squinted. “What’dya mean changed?”
Rarity inhaled. “The oo-ooze. It wasn’t ooze anymore. It became a… a cl-cl…”
“A c-clown…” Fluttershy finished for her.
“Clown?” Applejack said a little too loudly. “Are ya makin’ things up now?”
Rarity shook her head.
“I-I saw it too… This clown.” Fluttershy looked down. It at-attacked me when I was in Ra-Rarity’s car…”
“Attacked? Come on.” Applejack snapped her fingers. “Ain’t no clowns gonna be attackin’ anyone like that. They’d get caught. Ain’t that right?”
“Clown, huh?” Pinkie Pie sank lower next to the table. Very unlike her. “Did this clown have orange hair and a silvery suit?”
“Not one of your hunches again, Pinks?”
“Uh uh.” She shook her head, her eyes fixated on the table. “I saw him too.”
Rainbow sat there silently. It couldn’t be a coincidence. It couldn’t be. That night she had dreamt of Scootaloo, she’d seen the clown too. The clown had tried to pull her out the window. But it was just a dream, right? Scootaloo had been there too. Unless…
“I thought I had been dreaming.” Rainbow stood up. “Scootaloo was outside my window. She wanted me to go with her. Somewhere that we could bounce or something. Then the clown tried to pull me out of my window, but I taught him who’s boss with my hockey stick. I thought it was a dream, but if you girls saw it too, then Scootaloo’s alive! She’s alive!”
“Now y’all crazy too.” Applejack shook her head. “Ya know how ridiculous that sounds, Rainbow?”
“The clo-clown said that too…” Fluttershy said. “That w-we can bounce.”
“He said the same to me too!” Pinkie nodded.
“Y’all saw the same clown?” Applejack’s conviction seemed to waver. “This uh, shapeshiftin’ clown?”
Fluttershy and Pinkie shared their encounters with the clown as well. For Fluttershy, a mad dog had attacked her before the clown appeared, while Pinkie had become invisible to everyone before the clown tried to choke her out. The clown had spoken to Pinkie about fear, and Rainbow knew from her many years with Pinkie that the girl was afraid of being rejected, of being left out. Rarity was afraid of dirt and anything that would make her dirty. Was that what the ooze was about?
“This clown… It knows our fears?” Fluttershy asked, trembling. “Because th-that dog I s-saw… It was suffering so so much… It was so sa-sad…”
Rainbow thought hard about it. The clown hadn’t assumed any fears for herself. All she saw was Scootaloo outside her window. Or was that it? Deep down, she knew it had been her fault Scootaloo disappeared. She was afraid. She was afraid to find out that Scootaloo was really dead and it was because of her choices that day.
“So this clown, uh, it turns into… what you fear?” Applejack had to be sure.
“Looks that way.” Pinkie shrugged and spun a donut on a finger.
“But why?”
“Do you think it’s another creature from Equestria?” Rarity took a sip from her mug. “Something that’s come here for power, like Sunset Shimmer.”
“Wouldn’t be surprising if it was.” Rainbow leaned back and clucked. “But how do we beat it? Twilight’s already gone back. We’re on our own here.”
“What if we weren’t afraid o’ anythin’?” Applejack took off her hat and ran a finger on its rim. “He can’t scare ya if ya ain’t got a fear.”
“The trouble with that tactic, darling,” Rarity said. “Is that everyone is afraid of something.”
“I’m Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash.” The athlete folded her arms and smiled smugly. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
“But the clown appeared to ya too, dinnit?” Applejack asked. “What did it show ya?”
“I just saw Scootaloo. She wanted me to join her. Then the clown tried to get me.” Rainbow’s bravado broke for a second. “Okay, I am afraid. I’m afraid of what I might find out about Scootaloo. I’m afraid she might be dead because of me.”
“Well, there ya have it. Hay, we’re all afraid. Ah’m afraid a’ bats. Those varmints are always eatin’ my apples. But that clown hasn’t appeared to me yet. Why’s that?”
“How should any of us know, dear?” Rarity finished her hot chocolate and set the mug down. “We don’t even know why this clown wants us.”
“Do you think… this clown could be behind the disappearances?” Fluttershy gulped and looked around. “All those missing kids…”
“That might just be the case.” Applejack rubbed her chin. “But what does it want them for?”
“Maybe it’s like Sunset. It wants that magic from Equestria. Remember when we all were imbued with magic? What if it’s still there.”
“What, you mean we can use this magic when we want?” Pinkie grinned. “That would be amazing! But how do we even know that?”
“What if…” Rarity’s eyes suddenly widened. She looked like she had a plan. “Do you think Sunset Shimmer would know anything about this?”
“What, ya think she’s behind this?”
The fashionista shook her head. “Not behind it, no. But what if she knows why this clown is… doing what it’s doing. She may have something that could help us stop this.”
“I don’t know about this…” Rainbow Dash said slowly. “If Sunset had some kind of magic, don’t you think that she would have used it against us back at the Fall Formal?”
“I didn’t say she has magic! I said maybe she may know something about that.”
“Rarity has a p-point.” Fluttershy wiped at her mouth with a tissue. “If that clown is from Equestria, she might know something.”
“Where are we going to find Sunset though?” Rainbow Dash asked. “It’s not like we even know where she lives. And she obviously won’t be at school during the break.”
“Maybe we can ask around?”
“What if the clown’s already appeared to her?”
“Why does that matter?”
“She came in here earlier today.”
All heads turned to Pinkie, who stood by their table, nodding.
“Yeah!” Pinkie’s grin widened. “She came in forrrr… was it a bagel or a donut? Bagel! She came in for a bagel and a coffee this morning. She looked beat.”
“Don’t tell me Trixie’s still picking on her?” Rarity sighed and leaned on a hand. “It’s summer. You’d think she would stop.”
Pinkie shook her head. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”
“Did she come by too?” Applejack asked. “Trixie, Ah mean.”
“Yeah. She came with her two sidekicks. They’re going to the Muddy Place or something. They were carrying this huuuuuge water balloon. It was all brown and stuff.”
“Y-You don’t think…”
“Sounds like enough of a clue.” Rarity dabbed her mouth with a napkin and got up. “If Sunset’s to be anywhere today, Trixie would know. Let’s go.”
“Yeah. The faster we figure all this out, perhaps the faster we find Scootaloo!” Rainbow agreed enthusiastically.
“What about our milkshakes?” Applejack turned to look at the counter, but sighed and got up as her friends began to leave the cafe.
Sunset Shimmer struggled against her bonds as Trixie shoved her down against the rocky ground, hitting her head on a larger stone and spinning stars in her eyes.
Earlier, she had just been walking back from a day at the park with a nice cup of coffee when Trixie and her goonies jumped her, pulling a bag over her head and binding her arms with rope. The next thing she saw was this place when the bag had been removed. She was at some kind of stream, and there was a sort of a sewage smell coming from somewhere close by. Trixie and her sidekicks, Fuschia Blush and Lavender Lace stood before her, along with Zappy Ozone, whom Sunset remembered to be Fuschia’s boyfriend. A giant water balloon sat on the ground next to them, filled to the brim with brown liquid and most likely a combination of other foul ingredients.
“The dunking we did the other day wasn’t enough,” Trixie said.
“Really? It wasn’t?” Sunset groaned. She really didn’t want to have to deal with this again.
“Trixie figures you deserve more after all you did to us. It took us time to collect everything, but our efforts have paid off. Behold! The foulest water balloon on the face of this earth! You would not believe what we have in there.”
“I’m sorry, Trixie. I’ve said that so many times,” Sunset said. “I didn’t know any better. Just give me time. I can prove I’ve changed.”
Trixie rubbed her chin, then shook her head. “Changed or no, what’s done is done. You did some bad things, Sunset Shimmer, and you still need to pay for those.”
Sunset sighed. It seemed nothing she said was going to get through to Trixie. But her bonds were tied pretty well. Unless she was going to crawl like a worm on this hard gravel ground, she was going to have to take the balloon like a boss.
Guess I do sorta deserve it…
“Prepare the weapon!” Trixie raised a hand.
With effort, Zappy Ozone, Fuschia Blush and Lavender Lace lifted the balloon and walked over to Sunset, the giant rubber thing now casting a shadow over Sunset.
The fiery haired girl shivered as she remembered what had happened the other night. She tried to scurry out of the shadow, but they had really tied her up pretty good. She could already imagine the shadowy arms coming out to grab her, along with that devilish clown, sneering at her from under the rocks, with his sharp fangs ready to sink into her neck.
“No, no…” Sunset began to utter, shutting her eyes. She could already picture shadowy hands snaking out of the darkness, trying to grab her legs and drag her in.
Trixie grinned at the sniveling girl and signaled with her fingers. “Do it.”
Sunset readied herself for the torrent of disgusting liquid, but after seconds and seconds of screwing her eyes shut, nothing happened. Was Trixie waiting for her to open her eyes and let her guard down before dunking her with the balloon? She didn’t know, but she also didn’t know if she was willing to try it.
“Trixie, don’t do it!” Sunset heard someone say.
She cracked open her eyes to see a very familiar group of girls stop along the small stream, standing across from Trixie and her sidekicks.
“She doesn’t need another one o’ these.” Applejack pointed a finger at them.
“Yeah, just leave her be,” Rainbow yelled.
“Come on. Why should we?” Trixie sneered at them. “After everything she did to us? You want us to stop? This could be a lot worse, but Trixie knows her limits. Sunset Shimmer does not. She deserves to be punished for what she did to all of us. Even you. Trixie remembers what she did to you. She tore you apart, did she not? She divided you. Don’t you think she should be punished for that?”
“She’s already paid enough, Trixie.” Rarity stepped past her friends, stopping right beside the stream.
“Or what? You girls going to stop me?” Trixie looked to their large water balloon. “No chance. Dunk her.”
With more effort, the three of her goonies lifted the balloon again, higher this time and Sunset prepared for the worst, but from the side, she heard a swish of an arm, like something being thrown, and the water balloon, the disgusting water balloon, burst over Fuschia Blush, Lavender Lace and Zappy Ozone, drenching them with that brown gunk they filled it with.
The smell was immediately more noticeable. It reeked, and Sunset had to squirm away to get as far as she could from the smell, in hopes of not gagging, her eyes already watering from the intensity of the stench. Her hands were tied, so it wasn’t like she could even cover her mouth.
Trixie had gotten her fair share of the gunk as well, her white hair now brown. “You… You…! How could you do this to the Great and Powerful Trrrixie! You pick saving her over helping Trixie?!”
Rarity held up a rock and tossed it from hand to hand. “She may have done wrong, but she doesn’t deserve all this. I believe she’s trying to change, as do the rest. Give her a chance.”
Lavender sniffed at her arm. “Eww, we stink so bad!” She turned and barfed all over the ground, leaving a nasty greenish patch there.
She was right about the smell. It smelled like a combination of rotten eggs, a garbage dump, and leftover cheese, multiplied by a hundred. It was really nasty.
“Just beat it, Trixie. Come on.” Rainbow picked up another rock. “You don’t want to tangle with us. We’re all about that friendship anyway.”
Trixie looked between them and Sunset, then balled her fists and waved one. “Trixie’ll remember this!”
And she and her crew were off, faster than a speeding bullet, though the trail of smell followed very quickly behind them, not letting them go.
“What were ya gonna do, start a rock war?” Applejack knocked the rock out of Rainbow’s hand. “We’re more civilized than that, ain’t we?”
“It worked, didn’t it? What matters is that they believed we were gonna start one.” Rainbow motioned to the fleeing Trixie and her group. “Besides, I’m sure we would’ve won. We have me.”
“Wow, it really smells!” Pinkie pinched at her nose, then she was over the stream and undoing Sunset’s bonds. “You okay, Sunset?”
“Thanks, you girls…” Sunset’s right hand was the first to go free, which was quick to go right to her own nose. “You didn’t have to help me. Really… Trixie has been pranking me for weeks now.”
“Enough is enough, ain’t it?” Applejack helped her up. “Hooweee, that smell is just awful. How ‘bout we all head on outta here to someplace better smellin’?”
“Won’t argue with you there, Applejack.” Rarity waved a hand in front of her nose. “This is just terrible for the skin.”
“Of course she’d say somethin’ like that…”
“You girls too?” Sunset drank from a warm mug of coffee. “You’ve seen… That?”
After leaving the Muddy Place, they had gone back to Sugarcube Corner for another round of drinks, or really, the same round. When they got back there, they found all their cups still on the table, and their ordered milkshakes on the counter.
“We think it has the ability to assume the forms of what we fear most,” Rarity continued, tapping a finger on the table. “But in the end, it always turns into that… that clown. Perhaps that is its true form.”
Sunset nodded, remembering the hideous face that appeared through the shadows. She shivered. She had never liked the darkness before, but since that incident, the smallest of shadows passing over her made her freeze with fright.
“What do you think it wants?” Sunset whispered, her hands shaking.
The other girls all looked at each other.
“We were hoping you could tell us, darling,” Rarity was the first to say.
“W-We were thinking it could be from Equestria too or something…” Fluttershy added on.
Sunset sipped at her drink to calm herself before speaking. “No. I’ve… I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this…”
“So… we’re stumped.” Rainbow slurped at her milkshake loudly. “We don’t know why this is here, we don’t know why it takes the form of our fears, we don’t know why it wants to bounce us or something.”
“It said… taste.” Sunset looked up at them. “Didn’t it? Did he say that to you? He had said… I think… I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think it eats our fear.”
“Eats fear?” Applejack scratched at her forehead. “How can somethin’ eat fear? Fear ain’t even touchable.”
“Well, no one said it had to follow the laws of our world!” Pinkie shrugged. “I mean, Sunset turned into a flying demon with mind control powers. Uh, no offence, Shimmy.”
Sunset sighed. “None taken.”
“Pinkie does make some sense,” Fluttershy added. “This clown has already demonstrated it can do things that we haven’t thought possible. Like turning into things we fear.”
“I suppose, yes, if it can turn into our worst fears, then consuming our fear isn’t too far fetched.”
“So none of us know what it is…” Applejack rubbed her forehead and sighed. “Any ideas how to beat it, then?”
“Sounds easy!” Rainbow pumped a fist up. “It feeds on fear. So if it doesn’t have fear to eat, then it’ll starve!”
“It can’t be that simple.”
“Yeah, it can.”
“Uh, definitely not.”
“Why not?”
Everyone waited for Applejack to say something.
“Ah-Ah mean…” She pulled at her hat. “It’s never been anywhere near that simple for any of the world dominatin’ plots we’ve had to deal with.”
“Well, this one isn’t a world dominating plot now, is it?” Rainbow challenged.
“Well, it ain’t that simple. We can’t just stop bein’ afraid.”
“She has a point…” Fluttershy said.
“What if we go look for it and kill it?” Pinkie butted her head between Rainbow’s and Applejack’s. “I mean, we know it’s living in the sewers or something, right?”
“Umm…” Sunset looked at the others to make sure they were all on the same page. “No. No, we actually don’t. What gave you that notion?”
“Meh, just a hunch!” Pinkie leaned back to where she was.
“I say we find a way to kill it.” Rainbow slammed her fist on the table, which spooked Fluttershy and got others in the cafe to look at them. “Sorry. But uh, Scootaloo must be there with… with That. We need to find her. She’s been missing all this time, but I knew it. I just knew it! She’s been taken hostage by that clown!”
“Rainbow, uh, look dear…” Rarity leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I… I don’t think the clown takes hostages.”
“Well… Well… Doesn’t matter.” Rainbow stood up. “I say we find it and kill it. We just need to find out how to find it, wherever it hides.”
“Applejack, isn’t there that spooky house on the way to your farm?” Pinkie bounced up and down on the booth seat. “Maybe the clown’s hiding there! Spooky and spooky. They go together!”
“What, seriously? That old house over on Neighbolt Street?” Applejack scoffed. “Ain’t no one’s been there in years. Never seen a soul come in or go out.”
“Well, you should totally check it out,” Rainbow said. “Don’t take any weapons with you though. And go alone.”
“Uh…. Right.” Applejack narrowed her eyes.
“I really hope we can get to the bottom of this…” Sunset sighed and looked into her now empty mug. “I haven’t slept well in days. Not since that clown was in my house…”
“We’ll figure this out, Sunset. I’m sure we will.” Fluttershy managed a smile for her.
“Maybe we can find something out at the library?” Rarity suggested. “Some sleuthing ought to help.”
“Well, we all have our assignments.” Rainbow arranged her shirt and stepped out into the aisle. “You eggheads go read books, I’ll go search around. Applejack, that Neighbolt house is all yours.”
Applejack got up too and groaned. “Ah’m tellin’ y’all, if Ah die from this, Ah’m stranglin’ Rainbow.”
Not too far from Sugarcube Corner, Candle Wax was on her way home, finally collecting all the art supplies she needed to make her next sculpture. She blew up at her white and red hair to get it out of her eyes as she hefted her paper bag of acquired goods higher so that she could walk better.
She had just seen a movie yesterday, Xeno: Pact, which was a movie about aliens and spaceships. It wasn't all that bad, but it had definitely inspired her next art piece. She was so excited thinking about it that she almost dropped her bag. Again.
Almost home, Candle Wax found herself next to the river running along her house, its surface sparkling in the sunlight. She took some time to admire its beauty, and the tiny little dragonflies darting over its surface. And then she noticed something weird floating above the water as well.
It was a red balloon.
That sent shivers up her spine. Candle hated balloons ever since she was young. She hated how the rubber squeaked and how they popped in a deafening explosion. It was almost like a bomb going off and she really despised anything that was too loud.
"Gross..." She quickly left the waterfront and rounded the corner where a short stairway led up into her apartment.
As she turned, she came face to face with another red balloon and this time, it popped, disorienting the girl and making her throw her bag's contents into the air. Candle's hands were immediately at her ears as she reeled from the sudden sensory explosion, her lip trembling as she fought to keep herself under control.
As her heart pumped hard in her chest, Candle Wax looked around to see her supplies strewn across the grass and pavement. But that wasn't the only thing to catch her eye. Above her descended another balloon, this one much larger than any balloon she'd ever seen and it was coming straight for her.
"No, no!" She scrambled back, her hands still plugged firmly in her ears. "Don't come near me!"
As the balloon continued to get closer, she curled into a ball and jammed her eyes shut, hoping for the pop to be over and done with so that she could return home. With her eyes shut now, she didn't know just how close the balloon was to her, but it had been too long now and she still hadn't heard even the tiniest trace of a balloon popping.
Deciding to crack an eye open just a bit, a reflective red filled her vision and in a second, it was gone.
The balloon popped with the force of a hurricane and Candle Wax found herself sailing into the river, her hands still over her ears, shock scrawled over her face.
She hit the water with a large splash and she quickly swam to the surface, gasping for air as she rubbed the water from her eyes. When she could see again, she spotted someone standing by the river side watching her.
"He-help!" she cried out as she tried swimming over to them.
The person on the side crouched down and reached a hand out to her. It was then that she noticed something weird about this person. They had gloved hands and they were dressed in some kind of silvery suit.
"Come on now, Candle Wax," that person called. His voice was odd. "Come with me. You'll bounce too. You'll never need to worry about balloons again."
“I can’t believe we’re drenched in this stuff!” Fuchsia Blush complained, wiping the corner of her mouth as she fought the urge to hurl again.
“Don’t worry, we’ll almost be home.” Zappy Ozone kept a hand over his nose. “We’ll have a nice shower, then we’ll change into something new, okay? Or we don’t even need to put on clothes, think you know what I mean.”
Like most of the other students, he too, had a problem with Sunset Shimmer. After what she had done, why was she even still allowed to be in school with them? Principal Celestia should’ve just expelled her right then and there. Hay, she should’ve even been in prison or something after her whole takeover debacle. Zappy had been glad to play his part in ridiculing the girl, but after getting the water balloon dumped on themselves, he now had second thoughts about the whole thing.
Zappy had only been dating Fuchsia Blush for a year now, but he’d already grown very fond of having the pink haired girl around. Sure, he didn’t mind hanging out with her friends too, if it meant he could spend more time with her, but this water balloon thing really pushed his limits.
“Really?” Fuchsia glared at him. “That’s what you’re thinking about now?”
“I mean, what can I say, a man needs his needs.”
“I don’t feel like it right now.”
Zappy grabbed her around the waist. “I’m sure you’ll change your mind once we get in that shower.”
“I said not now!” Fuchsia pushed him away and began storming away.
“Man, what did I do?” Zappy called out, but she didn’t respond. “All I wanted was some hot time with my girlfriend!”
She didn’t answer him and disappeared around the next street.
Zappy blamed Trixie for this one. He had told her the balloon was a little much, but she said that Sunset deserved every bit of it. Unfortunately, it backfired and they were covered in all of it. It was mostly his excretion, but still, it was extremely awful. Fuchsia was probably mad that he inadvertently took a dump on her, because of that.
Throwing his arms up, the boy went on away, waltzing over to the railing by the Canterlot River. He looked over at the water to see his reflection. His face was coated in brown and slightly green, and by now, it had hardened, forming a thin layer of disgusting crust over his skin. And the smell was still just as bad.
“Maybe I should just take a swim in there,” Zappy joked to himself. “That would clean me right up.”
As he gazed into the clear depths of the water, something gleamy caught his eye by the side, wedged between two rocks. It looked to be a badge of some sort.
“Oh, what’s that.” He leaned closer off the railing to get a better look.
Zappy recognized that badge. It belonged to one of his classmates, Candle Wax. She said it was a family heirloom and she would never be apart from it, always wearing it on her jacket. But why was it here now?
“Finders keepers.” Zappy flipped himself over the railing and carefully inched his way towards the water. “Sorry, Candle Wax.”
Stopping just by the water’s edge on the steep, Zappy Ozone reached in and picked up the badge. It was a fine piece of gold, shaped into a shield with the insignia of a candle on it. Sure, it belonged to her family and it was passed down generation after generation, but she lost it, so technically, it was her fault that he was going to sell this for loads of money.
As he lifted the badge higher, he found that it was getting harder and harder to pull as it got closer to himself; it felt like there was a force coming from behind it.
“What?”
Turning it around, Zappy recoiled slightly. There was a long strand of… something red sticking to the back of the badge like slime and its colour began spreading across the water, turning it the colour of blood.
“Gross!” Zappy almost wanted to throw up again.
He was about to let go of the badge and let it remain in the river, but before he could release his fingers, something on the other end of the strand seemed to pull hard and the boy found himself slipping off his perch and falling face first into the river.
Zappy surfaced and gasped, but almost as soon as he had gotten his breath of air, the water seemed to grab and pull him, trying to pull his head under again. He found himself sliding down the river, almost like millions of hands were dragging him along, like some kind of sick crowd surf, his head going under the surface many times.
“Stop! Help…!” Zappy tried to call out, but his head was submerged again. The river was dragging him down towards the reservoir at the end at an alarming speed, and by now, the water was stained a dark red and he could barely see under it.
Every time he managed to get his head above water, he tried to look past the railing, hopeful to see someone who could help him, but all the way down to the reservoir, it was as though there was a virus out and about and he saw no one.
Fortunately, the dragging stopped when he arrived at the reservoir and Zappy was able to break the surface again. He gasped deeply for air and then stayed floating there, panting from exertion. It was like the entire river was red now, and when he looked at his hands, it looked like he was covered in blood and it smelled almost as bad as the gunk he had been covered in earlier.
“Just what… is going on?”
Zappy would’ve been content to just lie there for a few hours after everything that happened today, but before he could even feel the sense of calmness, he felt something brush against his toes. He immediately snapped to attention and looked down, but the water was still stained a dark red and he could not see anything past his chest.
Probably just a fish… he reasoned with himself. After all, it was a reservoir. There were fish here. He was scaring himself for nothing.
Something brushed his foot again, but this time he let it go. And then there it was again and again and again. Something was checking him out.
“I’m not food. Go away,” Zappy said. He knew the fish probably couldn’t understand him, but it was better than nothing.
When he finally resolved to get to shore to get out of all this, he felt something shift under him, and this time, the pull was strong and he felt himself being dragged along a current. Something under him was moving, but it was big. To prove his suspicions, a gigantic sailfin appeared just to his left, coming out of the water silently, swimming along as he was pulled alongside it.
“No, no no no no no!” Zappy flipped himself around and paddled frantically, trying to get away. Whatever was underwater with him was massive and he wasn’t about to find out what it was.
The boy eventually got through the creature’s pull and began frantically making his way back to the side where he could get out of the water. Behind him, the fish noticed his departure and turned itself around, the giant sailfin now making its way towards him.
Zappy swam harder than he had ever swam before, throwing each hand forward like he was reaching for a dodgeball at the start of a match. The density of the water was slowly exhausting him and Zappy could feel his breath sliding further and further away from his lungs, but he kept pushing himself. It was either that or being a meal for that thing in the water.
He was about five meters away from the shore when he felt something warm wrap around his flailing leg. His advanced was immediately halted and he felt a sting, almost like that of a needle piercing through his skin. No, thousands of needles piercing his skin. And then his entire left leg went numb and he felt himself moving forward again. Not thinking twice, Zappy continued to propel himself forward, though without the feeling of one leg, it was getting harder to stay afloat.
He heard the water part behind him and immediately, a shadow passed over him, extending further and further ahead of him until it reached the shore. The boy stopped moving in that instant and he hadn’t known dread could creep so far past his spine. He waited for something, for anything to happen, but it was as though the creature was allowing him one last look upon its form before consuming him.
Zappy slowly paddled his body around, anticipating the end any second, but still it eluded him. The creature had a long serpentine neck, like that of a plesiosaur, but because of the dark red water, Zappy couldn’t see what its body looked like underneath. It’s snout was long and filled with thousands of tiny needle-like teeth, one of which hung a shred of denim, stained red.
The boy remained there, frozen, unable to fathom the creature looming above him, nor did he have the strength left to swim to safety.
The monster leaned its neck down slowly, staring into his soul with its beady yellow eye. Zappy began to sob. He didn’t know what more to do and he felt so helpless and so afraid.
Suddenly, the yellow eye was no longer there. Instead, a strange figure stood where the creature’s eye was. It was a clown in a silvery suit and he held out a red ball to Zappy.
“Come with me, Zappy. I can make all your troubles go away.” He had a raspy voice. “Take the ball. Take it and like me, you’ll bounce too.”
Still in shock, he didn’t do anything, but there was something about the clown that was warm and comforting. In contrast with what he just had to face, it was almost like a reprieve.
“Reach out,” the clown said again. “Old Nickelfool is a clown of my word. If you take this ball, I promise, you won’t feel a thing.”
It was as though he were in a trance. Zappy reached a hand out, not so sure why, but something about the clown made him feel comfortable. Perhaps it was that smile, or maybe it was the ball. Whatever it was, it made him clasp his hand around the clown’s red shiny ball.
“Gotcha.” Nickelfool’s smile widened way beyond the reaches of his cheeks and razor sharp teeth emerged from his gums.
Zappy Ozone only had a second to widen his eyes and think about his girlfriend when the clown brought its jaws down around his head, followed by the sea creature shutting its jaws entirely over them.
Applejack sighed deeply to herself as she stood outside an old abandoned house on a street close to her home. She couldn’t believe she had actually listened to Rainbow Dash about having a look here.
The house was of a dark grey colour, with its paint having faded at least fifty years ago. The rotting wooden walls that supported its roof up looked about to give way with just the slightest touch, but yet, this house stood here, abandoned and untouched for years. Four windows were positioned on the second and first floors facing her, all shattered, cracked and absolutely grimey. It was a sorry sight, this house.
Applejack really didn’t think anyone could live here, not even that clown.
But she had to be sure.
Walking up the steps to the old and decrepit house, Applejack looked in through one of the windows. It was so smudgy that it took her a while to figure out what was inside. She could vaguely see a set of stairs leading up to the second floor, along with roots of plants coming down from the ceiling. There were chairs scattered around the room, some knocked on their side; nothing seemed out of the ordinary just yet.
Applejack was still looking around when she noticed something seemed to shift past the doorway of the room, which led into the hallway towards the front door. From how dirty the window was, she couldn’t tell if she had seen something or if it was the reflection playing a trick on her.
“No, uh uh.” Applejack leaned away and shook her head. “Ah didn’t see no nothin’. A trick of the light, yeah that’s what’s up.”
She decided to inspect the front door. It was still boarded up as it always was, so surely no one was coming in and out of it. Or perhaps if that clown could really change shape, then maybe it could get through the planks.
“Argh, real or not real?” Applejack grabbed her head in exasperation. This clown business with her friends was driving her nuts. Each of them have had an encounter with it. Even Sunset Shimmer. That couldn’t all just be a coincidence.
Deciding to go around back, Applejack pushed through a thicket of uncut bushes and shrubs to get to the fence, which had quite the big hole in it; it was wide enough for her to crouch through.
“Ah must be crazy.”
To even think of walking into the decrepit house was mad enough, but to prove that this clown wasn’t real seemed even nuttier.
The backyard was, to no surprise, overgrown, with the grass reaching almost to Applejack’s waist. There was an old rocking chair on the porch in the backyard, which was old and looked like it could fall apart any minute. The door there was smashed in two places, just barely hanging off its hinges, which meant that was a way in.
Applejack put one foot on the bannister and looked into the darkness. She could see light coming in from the boarded windows in front, but everything was still in the house. There was not the slightest sound, not even the rustling of leaves.
That’s odd…
It reminded her of the calm before a storm. A huge storm. A pit suddenly formed within Applejack’s gut and it felt like she was about to drop during a rollercoaster ride. Applejack couldn’t explain why she felt like that, but it was an unmistakable feeling of dread. She only felt this when she was about to chase off the bats that ate her apples.
Applejack didn’t like bats. She didn’t like them one bit. Their tiny beady eyes and their needle-like fangs in their mouths, along with their jet black wings in the night, she couldn’t stand the sight of them, much less their fangs sinking into her skin. If they had to deal with bats at the farm, she’d normally leave Big Mac to take care of the varmints.
Steady yourself, Applejack… she said in her mind. Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen. It’s just an old house that’s dark and gloomy with the chance of clowns. Ain’t nothin’ to be afraid of here…
As she crept inside the house, she inspected the floor and the walls, trying out some of her detective skills, taking some inspiration from Rarity. She looked for any footprints or even marks on the walls, seeing as how dusty they were, but there was none. The only footprints she could see were her own and this only helped to solidify her claims that the clown just couldn’t be real, even if the rest of her friends had seen it. Perhaps it was just another case of that mass hysteria she’d heard about.
Last week, she had read reports of people being gassed somewhere over at the city of Mareoon, which the media eventually concluded was mass hysteria. Everyone claimed they saw the gasser, but no one could prove he was actually there. Perhaps this was just another example of something people thought they were seeing.
Applejack didn’t know. She was really never one for fairytales.
A shattering of glass cut Applejack from her concentration and she looked back up into the dark house. It sounded like a vase had fallen off the table and crashed on the floor, but that was a little odd, seeing as there was no wind, unless…
She was no longer alone.
The cowgirl heard it before she saw it. It was a gust of wind blasting out the door at her, and the beat of wings that numbered at least a hundred. A beat of wings that was all too familiar to her.
She covered her head and held her hat down as a rush of bats blasted through the cellar door, tearing it right off its weak hinges and smashing Applejack in the face with them. The girl fell back on the dirty floor in a heap and rubbed at her nose, her hand coming back with some red, but Applejack was too focused on the bats to feel the pain. There they were, those varmints, out to get her and her apples. She shivered as they bared their tiny fangs at her, each of their eyes glowing a deep red. They were looking right at her and they looked hungry.
“No, no!” Applejack grabbed a piece of the door and protected her face as the swarm of bats descended upon her, biting at what flesh they could get.
Applejack had always been afraid of bats. When she was younger, she’d see their eyes in the dark, watching her every move as she helped get the apples down from the trees. She had imagined them coming out from the dark unknown to eat her whole, a childish fear, she knew that, but now, she wasn’t so sure.
They bit at her fingers and it was hard to keep the door pinned up against them. She had to think fast. Pushing the door against the wall, Applejack tried to get back to the porch and started in a sprint. A cluster of bats were stuck behind the door, but many still flew after her, biting at her neck and fingers as the cowgirl waved her hands wildly above her head, trying to ward them off to no avail.
As she neared the backdoor, a group of them descended between her and freedom and their mass blocked out the light coming from the exit, plunging the hall into darkness.
In front of her, the mass began to take shape and it looked like their skin was bubbling and melting, like some kind of sick soup. Two jet black wings stretched out from the sides and from within the central mass, two red orbs flared into existence, staring directly at her as a gigantic maw opened below them, revealing four large fangs as long as her forearm.
Applejack scrambled back and to the front door, hoping to get it open as the creature rose up on two muscular legs. Unfortunately, it was boarded shut and she wasn’t going to get the planks out of the way in time. Doing the only thing she could think of, she sprinted upstairs as the gigantic bat followed, all the way whimpering and panicking as she did so.
As she began climbing the stairs, the bat creature slammed its whole head against the wooden railing and splintered it, spraying Applejack with tiny wooden shards, some of which nicked her skin as she fought to get away.
“No! Leave me alone!” Applejack screamed as she ran.
She arrived at one of the rooms and to her relief, the door was open. Rushing in, she shut it and locked it behind her, pressing her whole weight against the door.
She could hear the bat’s claws scratching on the old wood outside and it sounded like it was taking its time approaching her, each step a torment to her ears and heart. It knew it had her.
With her heart pounding in her ears, Applejack looked around the room for any way out. It was a barren room with completely nothing in it, except for disintegrating leaves and dust. A single window stood against the wall, its surface caked with grime, but it showed a tree that Applejack remembered stood in the backyard. It could be her way out.
She was about to leave the door when someone pounded on it hard, knocking her to the ground. Applejack wiped dirt from his face and first looked at the door. It was still in one piece, but there was no way it was going to hold. Getting on her feet, she rushed for the window and dug her fingers under it, trying to pull it up.
Behind her, the the door bulged forward again, this time pieces of it falling off, revealing a menacing red eye on the other side.
Applejack shrieked and pulled harder, doing her best to get as far as she could from that thing outside, but still the window would not budge. It was jammed tight.
There was a scratching sound and when she turned around again, she could see a long black claw reaching in through one of the door’s new holes and it jabbed itself into the door’s lock.
She was out of options now.
Applejack turned back to the window, tears blurring her vision and she thrust her elbow against the stained window, cracking it. As her second blow extended the crack further, the door knob was turned and the door popped open, revealing the bat creature smiling at her, its mouth hanging open as though it were looking at something delicious.
“N-No!” Applejack threw her third strike and this time, the entire window shattered outward.
She wasted no time in climbing out, cutting her arms and legs as she scampered through, but she didn’t care about the pain or the blood. She had to get away from here as quickly as she could.
Applejack spun herself around and landed on the porch and fell on her butt, but she didn’t stop yet. Turning, she gave it her all as she threw her legs forward, one after the other, racing for the fence’s hole.
Above her, a swarm of bats blasted out of the window, spiralling up into the air before descending down upon her like a mad wind.
“Stop! Please!” Applejack cried and dove under the fence’s hole.
She expected to slide all the way out, but the edge of her skirt caught on to one of the fence’s splinters and her escape was halted. She tried to pull herself from the fence, but the splint wouldn’t budge. As the bats got closer and closer, their hideous fangs at the ready, Applejack curled up, covered her head, and prepared for the worst.
There was a shout from somewhere ahead of her and then she felt arms grab her under her shoulders and began to pull.
“My skirt’s stuck!” Applejack cried out when she was still going nowhere.
There was a shuffle of footsteps, followed by the fence’s grasp on her skirt disappearing.
“Come on!”
Applejack recognized that voice. Opening her eyes, she watched as Flash Sentry hauled her up and helped her race towards his car, which was left in the middle of the road, its driver’s side door wide open. He must’ve gotten out in a hurry.
The bats flew over them, biting at what they could, but Flash removed his jacket and flicked it over their heads, knocking away what he could. When they were close enough, he yanked the car’s back door open and practically threw Applejack in and shut it behind her. He dived back into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut, catching a bat between it with a crunch.
Before Applejack could even let her heartbeat go down, the rush of wind that followed the bats was gone. Outside the car, it was all calm, except for one oddity. Just in front of the fence stood a clown, bouncing a red ball. He had a demented smile plastered across his face and he pointed at Applejack.
“Step on it!” Applejack pushed Flash’s seat and stomped a foot on the floor until the boy peeled away from the old house, speeding back towards the city. She watched as the clown waved to them, eventually disappearing from sight as the house disappeared around the next hill.
“You okay, AJ?” Flash looked at her through the rearview mirror.
The farmgirl nodded. “H-How did y-ya know Ah was here?”
“Oh, I happen to be driving by,” he explained. “Sometimes I take drives down towards your farm, because the road is long. Good for a little racing. Glad I came by today, huh?”
She nodded again. So the clown was real. Everything her friends said, they had all really gone through something like this. The face of the bat monster smiling at her came back to her mind and she shut her eyes and shivered as Flash entered Canterlot City. It wasn’t something she wanted to see again.
When she finally had time to breathe, Applejack cried out and released her pent up fear, shivering as her emotions pooled out. For once, it felt good to cry.
