The exploits of Equestria's resident monster hunters.
There is a secret organization that specializes in the capture and containment of Non-Equestrian entities that threaten to disrupt or damage the peace of Ponyville, Canterlot, and beyond. They work on a don't-ask-don't-tell basis, and have been working behind the curtain of everyday life keeping the ponies of the world safe from ghouls, goblins, and ghosts not of their world. These are their stories.
The sound of rapping came from the front door of Applejack's home.
"Ah'm comin'..."
She opened it to see a stallion standing before her. He had a gray coat with the cutie mark of a tape recorder on his flank. She couldn't see his mane under his brown fedora, save for his horn, but she assumed it matched his messy, dark gray-and-white tail.
"Hello there!" he said with perkiness. "I'm Headline with the Ponyville Daily. I'm here to interview you about life here on the farm and about the recent apple shortage, if you'd be so kind."
He looked at her with red eyes and a smile. Something about his eyes struck her as odd, though. Something she couldn't place.
She looked at him again, pondering whether or not to let this stranger in.
"Shouldn't I have gotten some sort of letter or somethin' before hoof so I knew you were comin'?"
He looked mildly surprised. "Oh; I was told that one was sent to you. Maybe it just got lost in the mail. You know how Derpy can get sometimes..." Headline countered smoothly.
Applejack was quite familiar with the wall-eyed mailmare that was recently hired for the postal service.
"Trust me, I know," Applejack replied. Then, after another moment of thought, "All right, Ah guess you can come in."
Headline clicked the pen he was holding with his telekinesis and lifted a notepad the same way as he proceeded into the living room. He settled down into the couch and patted the cushion next to him.
"Have a seat."
Headline asked her several basic questions about her life: what goes on in the farm, what her family does to help out, recreational activities, what the apple-selling business was like, etc. He smiled and nodded, and occassionally wrote down notes on what she said. He noticed that she seemed tired and unfocused while answering his harmless questions. He lowered his notepad and looked at her strangely.
"Is everything... all right? You seem despondent," he asked curiously.
"Huh? Oh, I've just been workin' extra hard after the apple orchards started going bad."
"Ah, yes. Do tell me about that," he said picking up his pen and paper again.
She hesitated a moment, and then, "Well, Ah just don't understand what's goin' on. We're tending to the crops exactly like we've always done, but somehow they're doin' poorly. We've tried everything: watering 'em, trying different fertilizers, anything we could think of, but nothing works."
"Hmm... And you say you don't know why they're acting like this?"
"No. No clue."
"Could it be something in the water? Maybe some sort of bug infestation?"
"No, and no. We boil the water to sterilize it to get rid o' parasites, and we're sure to use plant-friendly pesticides."
Headline tapped his lips with the pen, deep in thought, then shrugged. He closed the notepad and clicked his pen to close it. His light perkiness vanished, and his tone became one of seriousness. The sudden change sent a chill down Applejack's spine.
"Tell me, and this is unrelated, but, have you seen anything... odd around here recently?"
Applejack looked at him with curiosity. "How d'ya mean?"
"Just anything odd; out of place, out of the ordinary," he looked at her with a straight face.
She rubbed her chin and looked at the ceiling, trying to think back on things she's seen recently.
"Hmm... Can't say that Ah have."
Headline looked down slightly and sighed quietly.
"Wait-"
He looked at her again, intrigued.
"I did see somepony around the lake near the back of the orchard a few times--Here, I'll show ya."
She led him upstairs to her bedroom and over to her bedside window. He had set his pen and notepad on the couch to mark his spot.
"See that lake right there?" She pointed to it with her hoof. There was a moderately-sized body of water just between the edge of the woods and the back fence of the farthest rows of apple trees of the orchard.
"Yes; what about it?" His stern look had not faltered.
"Well, Ah sometimes see a pony comin' out of the woods and goin' into the lake. They usually come out at night, so I can't tell who it is. It's probably just somepony going fer a late-night swim. Heh, don't even know why Ah brought it up now." She rubbed the back of her neck with a tinge of embarrassment.
Headline looked intently at the lake now, though Applejack didn't notice. In an instant, he reverted back to his perky attitude as though he never put on a guise of seriousness.
"Well, thank you for your time, Miss Applejack. I'll be on my way now; see you in the papers!"
He briskly returned downstairs, grabbed his pen and paper, and exited out the front door just as she could quickly spurt out a goodbye.
He dropped the perky act the very moment he closed the door behind him.
His smile vanished, and his eyes became gloomier, darker. He walked down the dirt path until he was joined by two other ponies walking beside him, each matching his spooky demeanor.
"The target area is Sweet Apple Acres, definitely," he said as he pulled off the tape recorder stickers on his flank that covered his cutie mark. "We're each going to monitor the area behind the farm tonight. More specifically, by the lake."
As he talked, he removed his hat, notepad and pen and held them in the air along with the stickers with his telekinesis. "Silver, I want you to stay in the clouds to get an aerial view," he said to the female pegasus on his left. "Zen, I want you hidden in the woods and watching carefully," he said to the male earth pony on his right. "Right now, we've got to go talk to Grey about supplies. We are dealing with a high-threat situation, so we've got to be careful. Are there any questions?"
"Yeah, I've got one," the pegasus, Silver, said. "Where are you gonna be?"
"Trust me, I'll be there," he said sternly.
He lifted the objects higher into the air, and they spontaneously burst into flames, sending a light sprinkle of dust and ash to the ground.
Without another word, the unicorn enveloped the trio in a bright sphere of light, and then they were gone in a flash.
~N.E.C.C.B.~
All was peaceful in Ponyville as Luna's beautiful moon shone down on it. Well, almost all.
Applejack was just getting ready for bed. She hung her hat on the rack behind her door. She yawned and settled into her bed. A single moonbeam shone into her room through the window, one that proved too bright for her comfort. She got out of bed to adjust the blinds.
As she got to the window, she spotted that same pony she had seen several times emerging from the woods and going to the miniature lake. The moon was brighter than it normally was, so she could just barely make out a few features on it. Its distance, however, posed a hindrance to further examination.
It looked like a pegasus; she could see some sort of appendages on the sides, it looked reddish, and seemed to have a sea-green colored mane and tail, but the same green could just barely be seen on the backs of its hooves. There was something on its back, some unknown object.
She watched it wade into the lake until it completely submerged itself.
Dismissively, she closed the blinds and returned to bed. She was so close to becoming totally immersed in restful sleep, when a noise startled her. It was not a natural noise. It sounded like the howl of a timberwolf, but there was something... unearthly about it. Something... disturbing.
Slightly startled, she sat up in bed. It sounded far-off, and she remembered the pony by the water. She quickly went to the window and opened the blinds, hoping to see the stranger unharmed by whatever had made the sound. She could see nothing but the orchard, the lake, and the woods.
"Oh, please be all right..." she said to the stranger.
She saw the leaves of some of the apple trees rustle as a silhouette of something brushed under them, hidden under the greenish canopy.
She watched the mysterious shape walk through--no--skulk through the trees with no apparent aim or direction.
After several more seconds of watching, she felt that an investigation was in order.
She tiptoed downstairs and went out the door to the crops as quietly as she could so as not to wake her family.
"Hello?" she called as she ventured through the rows of trees.
Silence.
Just then, a pony-shaped figure passed calmly through the trees a dozen yards ahead of her. Minor relief filled her then; at least she could tell it was that odd pony, and not a timberwolf.
"Hold on a minute!" she called as she tried chasing after it.
This time, she saw it in the corner of her eye running off to the right.
"Stop! Ah just wanna talk!"
No matter how close she thought she'd gotten to the stranger, it would always evade her and lead her in another direction.
Eventually, she became fatigued, and reduced her speed to a slow trot.
Panting, she said, "Come on; where'd ya go? Whew... You can run, I'll give ya that much..."
She scanned through the rows, considering heading back home. She froze as she heard breathing coming from behind her.
Slowly, and oh so cautiously, she turned around to face the source of the eerie breathing.
The figure was standing there, just a few feet away, hidden in the shadow of a tree. Nothing was visible except its shape and a pair of red, beady eyes. There was something on its back, something that looked like it was riding the pony. Her brain instantly filled the silhouette with an image in her mind of Twilight with Spike riding on her back.
"Twi? Is that you?"
Applejack's heart skipped a beat as a second pair of red eyes opened on the thing on the pony's back.
She stepped backwards, but with every step she took, the thing took one in her direction.
Her eyes widened as the creature emerged from the shadows, revealing its pink, slimy, skinless, muscular form. In place of a mane, it had a slimy, green, fin-like extremity, the same kind found on the back of its hooves.
Pure, unbounded terror filled Applejack as the thing on the beast's back came into view.
It was a torso, a skinless, legless torso and head, and its waist was fused to the back of the pony, and its disproportionately long arms dragged the large knuckles along the ground, creating light grooves in the dirt. Steam passed through its jagged teeth as it exhaled in the cool night air.
The beast opened both of its mouths, and released that cry that was not of this world. It translated in Applejack's mind as: "Run."
She took off at full speed in an attempt to escape the skinless horror, but became frantic as the clopping of hooves began closing in on her from behind.
She made a sharp turn, and realized that she had run all the way to the edge of the plantation, and hopped the fence to end up in the field at the back of the farm with the lake in the middle.
She stopped to catch her breath. She stood in the field, panting, sweating, and looked back through the dark trees, hoping not to see that beast again.
She waited for minutes, on edge each slow, painful second. She finally edged forward, step-by-step, closer to the fence separating her from the rows of darkness, and peered into the rows of shadows.
"H-Hello?" she said meekly.
Why was she acting like this? She stood up to a manticore with no hesitation, but when one pony-like thing barely bigger than herself shows up, she turns and runs. She had to toughen up, she thought. Running isn't the Apple family way. She had to buck up or shut up.
"Hey!" she called. "I ain't afraid o' you! Come out here and face me like a real stallion!"
She regretted opening her mouth with such bravado as four, red, beady eyes snapped open in the dark. She only had time to gasp before the beast lunged at her, landing both of them in the field.
It loomed over her as she scrambled to regain her footing. She took one more frightful look at it, and frantically tried to get away again.
While her rear was facing the creature, it reached out with one of its oddly long arms and grabbed her rear legs and dragged her back.
It flipped her around and held her throat with its free hand, bringing her eye-level with its upper head. It stared into her fearful eyes with its own beady, soulless eyes. She took sharp, choppy breaths and nearly gagged at the smell of its own dank, warm, repulsive breath.
She flailed her legs and tried to break free to no avail. The thing began choking her, and she panicked even more before losing strength and growing dizzy, but the beast was sure not to strangle her to death, no, it was too cruel for that. It kept her just barely alive and conscious.
It made her watch with glazed eyes as it opened its primate-like head unnaturally wide, as if on a hinge. She stared down its throat as it lifted her up into the air, head-down, above its gaping jaws.
She had lost the energy to fight back, and let a tear drip down her face and into the monster's mouth as she closed her eyes and waited for the end.
Everything froze. The beast stopped moving, and Applejack heard it... sniff the air. She opened one eye just a crack to see it close its mouth, much to her relief, and glance around the area. It sniffed again, and tossed her aside roughly. She landed on her side and took deep breaths to recover from the choking.
It looked around the field warily, sniffed again, and covered its nose-holes. It sort of shrunk down and looked to the woods. After glancing around once more, it galloped towards the thick forest.
Just as it almost reached the edge, something stepped out and blocked its path. It was an earth pony with a maroon coat and a clean, neat blonde mane and tail. He had piercing blue eyes and was carrying a torch in his mouth with some green weed wrapped around the end.
"No! Wait! Get back!" Applejack shouted hoarsely at the stallion. He shot her a look of calm and charisma that made her freeze with surprise.
The creature screeched and turned towards the lake. It went into a full sprint in a panicky attempt to reach the water.
Just then, a swift object punched a hole through the clouds and shot straight down in front of the beast, obstructing its path again.
Her light blue wings were spread out intimidatingly, and her blue-and-white streaked mane moved lightly in the wind. She was also carrying a torch with the green herb burning at the end.
She waved it at the beast, causing it to rear back and turn around. It wanted to go back to the forest and lose them in the bush, but the calm stallion was walking towards it. The pegasus, smirking, slowly came in its direction as well.
It looked at Applejack. It could take her hostage, it thought. It could threaten to tear her to shreds if those two wouldn't let it into the woods. Yeah, that's what it would do. That had to work...
It shrieked once more and charged at Applejack. She fearfully clambered away, unable to stop looking at the skinless abomination. It got closer and closer to her, and the other two ponies got worried.
Applejack held up a front hoof in a futile attempt to get the beast to stop. As it screamed one more time, a flash of light startled the beast, and it stumbled. Applejack shielded her eyes, and when the light subsided, she saw another stallion standing there. He had a light gray coat, and his tail matched that of the news reporter this morning. She could see that his cutie mark was two drama masks, one happy and one sad, the sad overlapping the happy, and behind them a gold ribbon.He bore a set of saddlebags, and from the left side hung a sword, a thin, rapier-like weapon with a curve.
He swiveled his head just enough to see her in his peripheral vision.
"Are you okay?" he asked without emotion.
She quickly nodded her head. He looked back at the creature that was glaring angrily at him.
He addressed Applejack once more. "I suggest you stay back for this."
She obediently ran back towards the apple orchard, which was a safe distance away from the beast and the three strangers. But curiosity got the better of her, and she watched from just behind the fence.
The three closed in on the creature, two holding torches and the other just drawing his sword from its sheath.
The one with the sword spoke. "P-132, you're going to have to come with us."
"Resistance will only make this more painful than it needs to be... for you," said the earth pony with a disturbing calmness.
It looked around at them, contemplating who to attack first.
It swiped at the unicorn, but its gnarled claw was blocked by the dull side of the sword. He sighed deeply. "Fine, be that way..."
The earth pony charged it while the unicorn parried its follow-up attack. The earth pony bucked it in the side, sending it flying several feet and landing on its side.
It scrambled back up and fled to the lake, thinking it could evade any attacks from the pegasus.
As it drew near her, she spun around in an attempt to smack its higher head with one of her wings. The creature successfully ducked before her wing could make contact. It became frustrated to discover that this had merely been a fake-out. It had inadvertently positioned itself in the perfect spot for her to whack it directly in the face with her torch.
It let out a howl of pain and collapsed to the ground, clutching its bleeding face. The three moved towards it, the earth pony pulling a net and a syringe out of his saddlebags, the syringe filled with a clear tranquilizing liquid.
"Heh, how long did that take, thirty seconds? That's gotta be a record," the pegasus said proudly.
The earth pony tossed the needle to the unicorn, and he caught it with his telekinesis while simultaneously sheathing his sword.
"All right, big guy. This'll only hurt for a second," he said, squirting a little bit of the liquid out of the needle to test the flow.
The beast went limp, and the three stared at it for a while.
"Guess we don't need it. I must have hit it harder than I thought. Heh, heh."
The unicorn shrugged, and put the needle into his own saddlebag as the earth pony prepared to throw the net over the beast.
In an instant, it got back on its hooves and knocked the pegasus onto the earth pony. The unicorn drew his sword again and pointed it at the thing. It spared no time in dashing for the water. He chased after it as fast as he could, but it was too quick for him, and dove into the water, splashing each of them.
"No!" the unicorn grunted as he reached the edge of the water. He kicked the water and growled as he put his sword away.
The other two joined him by the edge and looked into the murky water.
"Well, great," the pegasus said. "What do we do now?"
"Well, we can't just dive in; it's in its element down there," the earth pony said. "If we hadn't had to assist Grey with the gremlins running rampant, we'd have the proper equipment now..."
The unicorn sat down and rubbed his temples. "Our best bet is to head back, grab some aquatic gear, get back here, and take this thing down."
"What if it comes out while we're gone?"
"Plant some torches around the area; it should stay under while we're gone."
The other two nodded in agreement. The earth pony looked back at Applejack, who was still hiding behind the fence.
"What should we do about the civilian?" he asked.
The others looked at her, and she shrank back a tad, thinking they might do something to her.
"Should we tell her?" asked the pegasus.
"Maybe later. We do have to warn her of the immediate danger, though," answered the unicorn.
They each planted some small torches in the ground around the lake, and began to walk towards Applejack. Not knowing what their intentions were, she backed away from the fence warily.
"Now, now. Hold on," the unicorn said. "We're not going to hurt you."
"It's kinda hard to believe that when ya got a sword strapped to yer side," she countered.
The earth pony stepped forward, "Miss," he said with a soothing, polite, and deep voice that held undertones of an English accent. "If we wanted to hurt you, we wouldn't have asked you to remove yourself from the danger, you see. We were trying to rescue you from that creature, now we only ask a moment to speak with you." He put on a smile that made it impossible to for her to refuse obeying this stallion's charm.
"O-Okay..." she sighed.
The unicorn looked at the earth pony irritably. He walked over to her and looked through his saddlebag while he talked. "Okay, look, we'll be right back. If that thing comes back out, just burn this and you'll be okay. It hates the smell." He handed her a torch with seaweed wrapped around the end and a match.
She took them, and asked the unicorn, "What was that, that... thing?"
"The technical term is 'Nuckelavee.' They're an amphibious species, and spread disease wherever they go. This little bugger's the reason your crops are doing so poorly."
"They?"
"Don't worry; only this one lives in Equestria."
"How do ya know all this?" she asked.
He sighed, "We don't have time to explain everything now; just hold down the fort until we get back, okay?"
Before she could answer, there was a flash like the one from earlier, and the three strangers were gone, leaving Applejack alone holding a seaweed torch, a match, and wondering what just happened.
~N.E.C.C.B.~
The trio reappeared on the main floor of their hub. Their dragon companion was sitting at his work desk, fiddling with a small metal contraption and wearing comically large spectacles. The adolescent dragon's white lab coat was stained with various stains from throughout the years of tinkering with mechanical objects.
"Hey, guys. Welcome back," he said without turning around. "No Nuckelavee, I see."
"There was a... complication," the unicorn answered.
"It got into the water, didn't it?"
The unicorn sighed and lowered his head slightly. "Yep."
"All right, follow me," the dragon said, getting up from his desk and leaving the spectacles next to the small metal object. He went into a room located on the far wall, and the others followed him.
The pegasus passed by his desk, and noticed the object. She picked it up and examined it curiously.
"What're you working on this time?" she asked.
Without looking at her, he continued walking as he answered, "Push the little blue button."
She located said button and pressed it. She jumped back when the device sprung open, revealing four thin, spider-like legs while gears spun around in the center. She dropped it out of surprise and watched it scurry around on the stone floor before hiding under the desk.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "What is it?"
To which the dragon replied, "I have no idea. Ah! Here they are..."
He emerged from the room carrying a mass of tubes and oxygen masks. "Ta-da!"
He handed one to each of the three ponies. When he finished, he leaned on his desk and cupped a hand over his mouth. "In the event of an emergency, please place the oxygen masks over your mouth and nose like so, and then proceed to beat the nuckelavee within an inch of its life. Thank you. Kssh."
The three chuckled at his joke, grateful that they had some comic relief on their team to break up the seriousness.
"Actually, Grey," the unicorn said. "We could use you for this situation, you being half water dragon and all."
Grey merely shrugged, "Okay." He went over to a small bucket by the wall that held two umbrellas, a cane, and an odd-looking metal rod. He grabbed the rod and examined it before blowing dust off of it. He set his coat on the back of his chair and joined the other three, who were standing in a ring in the floor made by the burns of several teleportation spells.
They looked at him curiously before the unicorn spoke up. "You know that's a trashcan and not an umbrella rack, don't you?"
"Is it, now?" Grey replied.
Four seconds of silence passed before the unicorn cast the teleportation spell and landed them all back in the field.
Applejack was still sitting where the group left her, but jumped back at the sudden reappearance of them.
"Wah! What the- Oh, it's just you. Wait..." she said, eyeing the dragon. "Who's that?"
He put on a friendly smile and strolled on over to her. He smoothed his bluish scales and slicked back his light green spines. He thrust out a hand for a handshake, "You can call me Grey." Applejack was about to take his hand, but refused when a glint of moonlight reflected off of his unintentionally frightening talons. He noticed her uneasy look and retracted his nails. "Sorry about that. Now, where is the pest?" he said, looking around the area.
The other three advanced toward the lake and Grey followed.
They all peered into the dark water. The three ponies began putting on their aquatic gear while Grey simply did some stretching while he held the rod in his teeth and flexed his gills.
The unicorn flipped a switch that turned on several lights in and on his mask to help see through the upcoming darkness. "Is everypony ready to go?"
The other two turned on their lights and replied "yes." Grey gave a thumbs-up and pressed a button on his rod that extended it into a large, metal baton with two small prongs on the end. The pegasus looked over at it and saw a small arc of electricity pass between the prongs.
"Electricity? In the water?" she asked.
Grey looked at his baton. "Yeah; you're right," he turned a little dial on the handle which retracted the prongs, turning it into a mere blunt weapon.
"All right," said the unicorn. "Dive!"
They all leapt into the water as one, making a giant splash.
They found themselves in total darkness. They swam rather clumsily through the dark water, save for Grey, who expertly fanned out the end of his tail, toes and fingers to make for perfect gliding through the murkiness. He contracted his pupils to maximize visibility.
They searched diligently for any motion in the weeds and sand at the bottom of the lake, but found nothing for the longest time.
"Anything yet?" asked the pegasus.
"Negative," said the earth pony.
Grey had separated himself from the group inadvertently as he searched for the nuckelavee. He skimmed the bottom observantly, but found nothing. This fruitless search continued for almost ten minutes, none of them turning up anything.
"I don't get it," the unicorn said. "It couldn't have just... disappeared..."
As if the universe had a sense of humor, Grey saw four red eyes snap open in the darkness, and was tackled by the beast savagely. He spun and tried to recover as the others quickly swam over to his position. They tussled with the monster and tried to sedate it with the paralytic syringe. Every attempt to attack it was thwarted, as it was swiftest and most agile in the water.
"We can't stop this thing!" cried the pegasus.
Just then, Grey looked at his baton, and pressed the button that extended the prongs. He looked at them all and signaled for them to leave.
"What? Are you sure?" asked the pegasus again.
He signaled again, and this time they obeyed. They clambered up to the surface and removed their masks, worrying for their friend stuck down there with the skinless beast.
Grey, determination in his eyes, turned the dial on his baton all the way up, and readied himself for the upcoming attack. The nuckelavee howled in the water and charged at him with the speed of a shark that just got the smell of blood in its nose. He masterfully dodged out of the way and grabbed it by the upper throat, swinging himself around to its front. He grinned wildly as he thrust the baton into the mouth of the pony head until it stopped at the back of its throat. He then sent a powerful wave of electricity through the both of them, the water amplifying the effect. The others up on top saw bright light strobing spasmodically, illuminating the entire bottom of the lake. He kept pushing the power until the beast spasmed wildly and then closed its eyes. He killed the juice, still twitching himself and took some time to recover.
The others were on edge as they saw a few dead fish surface, waiting to see if their friend was all right. They were startled when a claw burst through the surface and grabbed on to the edge of the ground. Grey emerged and pulled himself up and onto land, carrying the baton in his mouth. He flopped onto his back and, still twitching, looked at them. He spat out the baton and smiled up at them, gasping for breath.
"Heh... Heh; that felt good..." he said. The others were aware of his masochism, and he often reminded them of it as he put himself in dangerous situations repeatedly. "Now, would you mind helping me with this?" He hauled the unconscious body of the nuckelavee onto the wet grass with a grunt.
~N.E.C.C.B~
The four had tied up the beast and picked up their torches and other belongings. Applejack had watched the whole spectacle unfold before her eyes, and was stunned. She had sat in the same spot since they came back, wide-eyed.
They felt that they needed to explain to her what had just happened, so that she wouldn't live her life in mystery.
"All right," the unicorn said plainly. "First: names. This here's Silver Lining," he gestured to the pegasus with bright green eyes, blue coat, and blue-and-white streaked mane. "... And Zen," the earth pony with the piercing blue eyes bowed his head politely. "... You already know Grey, and I'm Headcase."
She looked at Headcase, tilting her head and feeling deja vu. "You look familiar... Do Ah know you?" She saw his red eyes, and could finally place where she'd seen him. "You're that reporter, ain't ya?" He nodded quietly. As she looked into his eyes more, she noticed that they were different from the last time. There were small scars around the edges, burn marks, perhaps. They looked strange that morning because he was wearing makeup to cover them. "But... But why were you... What did..." she stuttered, but couldn't properly force the words out.
"I was disguised as a reporter to learn more about the situation. We'd been getting strange readings from this general area, but before we launched a full-on sting operation on the orchard, I had to go undercover to get some information out of you, to confirm our readings. A reporter cover just seemed logical.
"And as for that thing, it's called a nuckelavee, as stated earlier, and it was our job to catch it. You don't have to worry about stuff like this bothering you anymore. And don't worry about your crops, either; they should be back to full health in no time."
They began to walk away from her, and Headcase prepared to use his teleportation spell to return to base, but Applejack stopped them.
"Wait!" she said with an outstretched hoof. "Who are you?"
Headcase turned to face her as his horn grew brighter and brighter with magic, his eyes like dark bullets that shot through one's soul.
"We are the Non-Equestrian Creature Containment Bureau," and they were gone again in a bright flash of blue light, leaving her alone again in the moonlit field.
The hooded figure watched Grey lift his pawn out of the water with mild irritation. His latest pawn had failed in its mission, and as a result it got itself captured, just like so many others before it.
"It seemed the nuckelavee failed me..." he said to his tall companion in the shadows. They hid together in the thick foliage of the woods. Headcase cast the teleportation spell and left Applejack alone while the hooded figure examined her from a distance. "Keep an eye on her..." he said as he slowly proceeded deeper into the dark forest to his distant, tenebrous lair.
Twilight Sparkle wandered through an endless, gray desert of stone. The fog was thick, and covered everything in sight. The air was cold and smelled unfamiliar, and though the moon was out, very little light pushed through the veil of mist.
She came across a massive chasm in the ground that seemed to stretch on to the unseen horizon, and no matter how deeply she looked, the bottom was not visible. She feared that the longer she looked, the farther she would get pulled in towards its abysmal clutches.
She continued walking through the fog until it parted, revealing a massive mountain that reached the clouds. An enormous face was carven into the side of it of someone unknown to all of ponykind.
She would have been filled with awe and wonder, but she had seen this mountain almost a dozen times, and now the awe was gone, and the wonder left behind.
She stood there, staring at the stone face of the anonymous being, bored and dazed. She would have stared at it much longer, had something in the corner of her eye not caught her attention. A shadow moved through the fog swiftly, then disappeared behind it.
She curiously walked over to it after it had gone, but found nothing. A breeze hit her from behind and made her shiver. She swiveled around, but saw nothing but fog.
The ground around her began glowing brighter, causing her to look up at the moon. A few clouds had parted, revealing the moon and out-of-place stars dotting the pitch black sky.
She examined the peculiar stars and their unlisted constellations. To her surprise, several of the stars began blacking out and then relighting as something had passed over them. As she watched, more and more of the stars blacked out and then re-lit, until the sky seemed to strobe with hundreds of white dots. Then, for an instant, all was still. She stared up at the sky, scanning for movement, and she found it.
A dark silhouette flew by the moon, visible for less than a second. And soon after that, to her horror, what looked like dozens of large shadows followed the lone one, passing in front of the moon in an instant, then blending back into the black sky.
She could vaguely see an arc of descent in their flight pattern heading for the ground roughly a hundred yards from herself. They dove into the sea of fog and sent veins of shadows through the mist as they swooped and flew through it. She tried to run, but they had encompassed her, blocking all means of escape. They flew around and around and around her, moving closer and closer to her with each swoop. Terrified, she backed away from the spinning wall of silent shadows. Step by step, she walked towards the center of the ring, but froze when she touched something. It felt cold and rubbery against her skin.
No matter how much she told herself no, she couldn't help but turn her head to see her cold, dark assailant.
She looked upon a tall, bipedal figure, much taller than herself. Its limbs were long and thin, and its torso had so little meat that the ribs and spine could be seen through the smooth, black skin. But the part that frightened her more than anything was that it looked down on her with an empty countenance. The thing had no face, and it horrified her beyond reason. The alien moon created a mysterious sheen on its smooth, shell-like head and inward-pointing horns.
As she looked up at it with fearful eyes, it fanned out its large, membranous wings, and the swirling typhoon of shadows stopped, and soon after, dozens more of the faceless winged things emerged from the fog and approached her, tiptoeing on silent feet.
This is the part she always forgot about. The part where they all converge on her and grab her legs, the only sound to hear being her screaming and begging not to take her.
Twilight shot straight up in bed, trembling, panting, and in a cold sweat. She looked around; she was relieved to find that she was back in the safety of her room. She looked out her bedside window, and shuttered at the sight of the moon and stars. She looked over at Spike, who slept soundly despite Twilight's rude awakening.
She looked at the clock: two o' four. She buried her face in her hooves and cried a little; this was the tenth night in a row that she'd had the exact same nightmare. She was almost... afraid to go to sleep now, just in case she didn't wake up before those things finished what they attempted to do with her.
Her lack of sleep had kept her from her studies, and around her friends she was sluggish and despondent. Tonight, she decided something needed to be done about it. She had kept her nightmare a secret from everypony to keep them from worrying, but she couldn't take it anymore.
She quietly got out of bed ans went downstairs. She grabbed a parchment and set it on a table next to a quill and ink well.
Dear Princess Celestia,
As your faithful student, I know my duties to write you a letter telling you of what I've learned about friendship from the previous day. But, I have been having... nightmares that I fear are getting in the way of my studies. I have tried using spells to get rid of them--every one I could find, in fact--but they keep coming back.
I'm sorry to bother you with something as trivial as this, but I don't know what else to do.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
She set the quill back in its inkwell and read over the letter, making sure it sounded all right. She rolled it up and tied it with the standard red ribbon, and placed it back on the table. A small noise from behind her made her jump.
"Whatcha doing down here, Twilight?" Spike asked, rubbing one eye like a child.
"Oh, Spike. It's just you..." Twilight said.
"Well, yeah. Who else would it be?"
She shuttered again at the thought of those silent, faceless, winged creatures.
"Uh, nopony. Go back to bed, Spike."
He grumbled and went back upstairs to his little bed. Twilight turned out the lights behind her and followed him. She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for morning to come.
~N.E.C.C.B.~
The following morning, she asked Spike to send the letter to Celestia. He obeyed, and sent its ashes flying out the window and towards Canterlot.
Celestia was just having breakfast when the scroll landed in her coffee. After ringing it out, she read intently, curious about what Twilight would be sending her so early in the day. Her interest peaked near the end, and she, in reply, sent her student a letter stating that her well-being wasn't a trivial subject in the least, that she was concerned for her student, and that she might be able to assist with the nightmares if she was given an in-depth description of them.
Twilight was reluctant to describe what they were like, but trusted her teacher completely, and told her everything pertaining to the nightmares, from the chasm to the mountain and to those silent creatures.
Celestia's interest turned into worry; those creatures described were what tipped the scales. Luckily, she knew exactly who to call for the situation.
~N.E.C.C.B.~
An earth pony arrived at Twilight's door the next day. He carried a briefcase and greeted her with a calm voice and peaceful eyes.
"Hello there. Are you Twilight Sparkle?" he asked, straightening the glasses resting on the tip of his nose.
"Y-Yes," she said. He saw that she had dark marks and bags under her eyes.
"Lack of sleep, I see. But, then, that's why I'm here, isn't it?" He chuckled warmly. "May I come in?"
She allowed him entrance and closed the door behind him. As he passed her, she realized that he had a very muscular build, and caught herself staring at his firm glutes. She tore herself away from the sight and, blushing, locked the door.
He sat down in one of the smaller chairs, letting her have the long, red sofa. He produced from his briefcase several folders and papers, and clicked a pen as he made himself comfortable.
"Hello, my name is Rorschach, and the Princess sent me here to help you with your nightmares, correct?"
She nodded.
"Now, tell me about these... nightmares." He straightened his glasses again and prepared to take notes.
The two began the round of conversation about the dreadful thoughts assailing Twilight's dreams. He nodded with acknowledgement mostly, but stopped her to ask a question from time to time. She became more uneasy as she continued to speak. She had to stop after a bit and fix a cup of tea to calm her nerves. An hour passed as she explained her dreams and allowed Rorschach to pick her brain.
"All right," he said, closing his pen. "I've heard enough." He pressed a hoof to his ear and spoke. "Yes, it's as we thought. You may come in now."
Just then, a shout of surprise was heard from Spike upstairs. "Gah! How did you get in here?!"
Twilight jumped. "Spike?!"
"Ma'am, I assure you it's quite all right."
Spike dashed downstairs as quickly as his little legs would carry him and hid behind the sofa.
Silver Lining floated down after him and landed on the bottom. "Sorry, little guy. Didn't mean to scare you."
Just then, a knocking was heard of the door. Rorschach, after removing his glasses, stood up and opened it. A dragon walked into the room. "Hey there, Twilight."
"W-Who are these people?!" Twilight said, panicking a bit and hiding behind the sofa with Spike.
"No need to fret, miss. We're here to help," Rorschach--or Zen--said. "This here's Grey; that over there is Silver Lining, and I'm Zen. We're here to help you out with your nightmares."
"B-But the Princess-"
"The Princess wanted us to assist you with your dreams, and that's precisely what we'll do."
"But she told me she was sending a psychiatrist!"
"Well, I guess she thought we were the next best thing," Grey said humorously.
"Hey, Zen," said Silver. "Where's Headcase? I thought he was coming along with us."
"There are more of you?" asked Spike.
"Oh yes, there are more," came a voice from directly behind him. He turned around to see Headcase crawling out from under the floorboards.
He and Twilight both shouted with surprise and hopped back over the sofa.
"Stop all that shouting, will you?" he said as he dusted himself off and put the boards back into place. He blew a lock of his messy hair out of his face and looked back at their shocked expressions. "What?"
"Why are all you ponies here?" Twilight asked.
"The Princess sent us. Those things, the ones in your dreams, that's what we're here for."
"W-What does-"
"We, in short, are a group of underground 'monster hunters,' and those creatures that keep attacking you are why the Princess called us."
"But they're only dreams; how can they be actual monsters?"
Headcase leaned in close and stared her dead in the eye. "Dreams can be more real than you know," he whispered ominously.
His dark comment stunned her into silence. The others began arranging chairs in a circular shape, with Grey's facing backwards as he straddled it. After a brief time, everypony had settled down, and Headcase decided that it was time to get down to business.
"All right; in order for us to successfully do our business, all you have to do to cooperate is go to sleep."
Twilight looked at them all, puzzled. "How am I supposed to go to sleep with you all hovering over me?"
Grey and Headcase exchanged a glance. Headcase then turned back to Twi, and shot a puff of blue smoke out of his horn at her face, making her cough.
"Hack! Wheeze! What--cough--What was that fo-" She wasn't allowed to finish her sentence before her eyelids fell like a guillotine and she hit the floor, snoring loudly.
Spike just stared at her unconscious body for a second with a blank face, then he looked at Headcase.
"What did you do to her?" he asked.
"Don't worry; she'll be fine. Now, we have to act fast if this is going to work."
"Guys, make yourselves comfortable," said Grey, grabbing a couch cushion and placing it under his head as he lay down on the floor. The others followed his image and found a comfortable position wherever they could while Spike looked at them confusedly.
"What in Equestria are you doing?!" he asked them.
"What does it look like?" answered Grey. "We're going to sleep. We can only deal with her nightmares if we're actually in them."
"But how are you going to get in to them?"
"Trust us: We are all very experienced dreamers," clarified Headcase. Spike tilted his head as he pondered this thought for a moment. His thought was interrupted by Headcase calling to the others. "All right, get ready; I'm casting the sleep spell now." A light purple glow came from his horn, and then a burst of purplish-pink smoke filled the room, surprising Spike, and enveloping everything in a thick haze.
There was light coughing that ensued, but then each of them passed out cold in their various spots in the room. Spike hadn't gotten out of the way nor prepared, and as a result he landed face-down on the wood flooring.
~N.E.C.C.B.~
They all used their unorthodox experience and mental training to escape their own minds and seek out the mind of Twilight Sparkle. Their consciousness floated in the ether for several moments, and then they found their target. They converged on the troubled dreams of their client, and found themselves in her desert of stone and her ocean of fog.
Headcase, the one who had trained them all in the surreal art of dreaming, and who had had the most experience out of all of them, was caught off guard at this scenery. He had seen many a strange dreamscape in his day, but this one disturbed him, somehow.
They gathered their surroundings as quickly as they could, and heard Twilight's hooves clopping off in the distance. They followed the sound through the moist, cold air. She shrieked at their sudden appearance, but then recognized their faces and settled down.
"How did you... get here?" she asked. The feeling of dream was fading away as she looked at them, and she became more conscious of her surroundings as she came to realize that she was in fact dreaming. Although, since she was aware that it was a dream, it would feel that much more real to her now.
"It would take too long to explain right now, but later. Tell us about the monsters you see," said Headcase, glancing around uneasily at the emptiness around them.
"Huh? Oh; yes: the creatures..." she looked up at the sky as though searching for them. "They... I always see them in the sky. They fly over the stars and blot them out, and I can never make out their shape until the fly past the moon..." She grew fearful quickly, and it was visible to the others.
"What's wrong?" asked Grey, looking up at the stars with her. "Do you see them?"
"No... No, I don't see them at all. I usually see them right about now. This is the part where they fly down and... and..." Her breathing grew quicker and quicker, and she shuffled in place with anticipation.
Something behind her whizzed past and hit her with a cold breeze which was enough to make her scream and dive to hide behind Grey.
"What was that?!" he asked, extending his claws and puffing out his scales to appear more menacing.
A shadow darted to his side and slashed at him with an unseen claw, scratching his upper arm. He winced in pain, and recovered quickly.
Headcase summoned his cutlass in a flash of light, and held it defensively. The others made a wide, outward-facing ring in the fog, prepared for anything these beasts could throw at them.
There was silence.
Twilight made herself small behind their barrier, and scooted carefully into the center of the circle. She closed her eyes and covered them with her hooves in fear. She felt a breeze on her back, and felt two soft things touch the ground on either side of her. She looked up and saw the blank countenance glaring down at her, unnoticed by the others. It swiftly grabbed her front legs and rocketed up into the air at incredible speed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and startled the others, causing them all to look behind them and up at Twilight being suspended by the monster that had now hidden itself in the blackness of the sky. Silver immediately darted after it and left a gap in the group's defenses. As if on cue, another creature flew into the ring and knocked them on their fronts before disappearing into the fog once again.
Silver had difficulty catching up with the beast, and it would have been practically invisible if it hadn't been carrying Twilight with it; her light purple standing out against the blackness. She glanced behind her to see Grey, Zen and Headcase battling endless waves of imperceptible attacks by hordes of the things. She soared with the resolve to let them take care of themselves while she saved Twilight.
She trailed behind the terrifying thing, pushing her limits to keep up, and repeatedly called to Twilight to remain calm (Twilight subconsciously snickered at this absurd request).
The onslaught showed no signs of stopping down below. Grey's claws missed their mark over and over again, Zen couldn't focus on a single target, and Headcase was struggling to overcome the strange feeling flowing through him. He was attacked over and over again by black blurs with tails and wings and horns. His body was riddled with cuts and bruises as he swung his cutlass, held by his telepathy, almost blindly through the mist at the wicked and ruthless enemy.
"What are they?!" asked Zen.
"I... I don't-" Headcase's sentence was cut short as one got behind him and tackled him, grabbing him as it did so and holding tightly.
It sent him through the mist and onto a clear, rocky ledge near a chasm that stretched on for ever. It was about to fly over the edge and drop him to his death into the dark emptiness below. He anticipated this move and reared his head back, whacking it in its "face," and freeing himself.
He rolled to a stop and regained his footing and assumed a ready stance with his sword as the thing tumbled and rolled on the rough ground before sliding off the tip of the ledge and out of sight.
Silver Lining could almost touch the beast's tail, but it took a sharp dive and circled around to appear behind her. It floated there, motionless for a time, letting Twilight scream and scream while Silver tried to turn around to save her. It closed its wings and dropped straight down, letting Silver give chase once more as it let Twilight suffer the g-forces and watch through teared-up eyes its trajectory towards a field of jagged, sharp, blood-stained pikes of stone stabbing through the ground.
Headcase neared the edge of the chasm and stared into the emptiness warily. Suddenly, the thing shot up right in front of his face and hovered in the air at the end of its ascent. It spread out its thin, membranous wings and assumed a threatening pose. He stared at it in awe; at it and its coincidental background: the massive carven face in the side of the mountain, and the dozens of caves in the base that held countless more of the ferocious things.
This frightful image was enough to shock him into dropping his sword and staring dumbly at it.
"N...Night... Gaunts..." was all he could utter.
His awe disappeared as more of the winged black night gaunts flooded out of the caves and converged on him. He howled a loud, deep sound into the air, a howl mixed with some indecipherable glibbering.
Silver filled with dread as the creature neared the field of spikes and death, but was stunned as it ceased its descent, and hovered in the air. Twilight still screamed, but quieted down by degrees as she noticed her current situation. The thing slowly glided back over to solid ground and roughly let Twilight slip through its rubbery hands and onto the rocky earth. Silver dashed to her aid to make sure that everything was all right.
Just as Grey and Zen had nearly given up hope and submitted to the monsters, they noticed the lack of movement among them in the fog. They all stood still, Grey and Zen included, and became lax and less threatening and battle-ready. The night gaunts all turned in the same direction, and walked on silent feet over to the source of the strange call.
Headcase was soon surrounded by the innumerable winged nightmares as they crowded around him. The others became worried for his safety and rushed over as well.
"Headcase! Are you okay?" called Grey.
"I'm fine; don't worry. Is Twilight safe?"
"She's fine. What's going on? What are they doing?"
Headcase muttered something strange to the faceless night gaunts. They parted the large crowd, creating a path from him to his companions. Headcase strutted down this path to the surprise of his partners. Silver glided over to them carrying the shaking Twilight on her back and saw this strange sight.
"What in the buck is going on?" she asked bluntly.
"These things, these night gaunts, were the things in Twilight's nightmares," Headcase began to elaborate. Twilight looked at the large horde of them and screamed one more time before falling backwards. The instant she touched the ground, she burst into a puff of dust. The others stared at the spot where she disappeared for a few seconds. The ground around it began peeling away and floating into the sky. The stars slowly faded out one by one, and the blackness behind them crumbled away to reveal total whiteness. The night gaunts shuffled warily and started soaring back to their various caves below the massive face in the mountain.
"She's waking up; we have to get out of here," Headcase ordered.
They each closed their eyes and focused their thoughts until they, too, began to fade away into whiteness and disappear like the world around them.
They all awoke with a start in Twilight's living room, but she was the only one in a cold sweat.
"What... What happened?" she asked.
Headcase's eyes snapped open and he quickly got to his hooves. He moved around the room, opening drawers and cabinets and checking every square inch of the room frantically.
"Head, what're you doing?" Silver asked.
He moved over to Twilight and looked her in the eyes, and she noticed the burns around the edges of his. "Where is it?" he asked her vaguely.
"W-Where's what?"
"The key?! The Silver Key--Where is it? You have to have it; there's no way you would be dreaming about the night gaunts if you didn't have it. Where is it?"
She looked dumbly at him, searching her memories for anything involving a silver key.
"Um... I don't..."
He grunted with frustration and continued his raid of her home. Spike awoke at this point and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on? Twilight, why's this guy trashing your house?"
He proceeded up to her bedroom, to her dismay. He saw a small box on her nightstand and went over to it. He flipped the lid open and froze when he saw its contents. There were some pictures, nick nacks, and lint, but what he was after was sitting on top of these useless items. A small, silver key with an extravagant design on it lay on top of a picture of Twilight and her friends. He picked it up, and stared at it in awe and surprise.
Twilight came up to see him fawning over the key. "Is that the key you were looking for?"
He shut the box without looking up at her and asked, "Where did you find this," in a low, flat voice.
"Oh, that key. I found it stuck on a rock in the river a little over a week ago. I don't know what it was doing there."
He merely kept staring at the strange key that he held in his hoof. Memories hit him the longer he stared; memories of the night gaunts, of the mountain face, and of the innumerable strange dreams and nightmares it granted him while it was in his possession, and the memory of its dreams pushing him over the edge as he tossed it into the rushing waters of the river that was home to the water serpent in the Everfree Forest.
The other three joined him and Twilight upstairs. Grey looked at the key and went wide-eyed.
"Is that... the key?" he asked. "The one that unlocks the..."
Headcase's gaze snapped back to Twilight, and his wonderment was replaced by eyes that shot daggers at her.
"We'll be going now," and then in a flash they were all gone, and Twilight, along with Spike, were left in confused silence and curiosity.
~N.E.C.C.B.~
Headcase strolled through the stony corridors of their Hub, past the cages and holding pens for the hundreds of vile and horrific creatures captured over the years. They hissed and barked and howled at him as he went down the multiple levels, though he never paid them so much as a sideways glance. He arrived at the gargantuan steel door protected by an advanced security system. Headcase opened it and walked into the circular stone room with a lone pedestal in the center. He approached it, and looked upon the leather tome resting on it.
It lay open on the shiny white pedestal, the spine having a very visible tear down the spine, and all the pages torn out. It could hardly be called a "book" now. He stroked the leather binding slowly, nostalgically. He held the key in his hoof again and looked down on it longingly. He slowly set the key next to the binding, and let the sound of metal against stone echo through the room.
But then he changed his mind.
He snatched up the key and turned to head out the door. He furrowed his brow as he passed the multi-ton door and heard it close behind him. Before it was fully sealed, he turned his head and looked at the book one last time, remembering the day that lead to all this madness.
"Just prop it up against the wall while I move this chair to make room," said Headcase to Screwball, who was carrying a rolled-up rug into the living room.
They were in the process of renovating their home, moving furniture and decorations and putting new things in their place. Their marriage was roughly one week ago, and they had begun living in the former home of Headcase's great great grandfather. It was a grand, old house, almost a mansion, and had been standing for over a hundred years. It had been left alone and abandoned after his great great grandfather had died long ago, and yet its condition would have stunned most. Everything looked perfectly preserved, although a little dusty.
Headcase proposed that they should begin living there after their engagement; it would be simple to move into, easy to maintain, and big enough to start a family when the time was right.
Cleanup was a breeze, but actually moving in was the tough part. Some of their heavy furniture scraped up some of the wood flooring, wouldn't fit through most of the doors, and all the stairs made it quite a problem, but they muscled through it, and now all that was left was to put one measly rug on the living room floor.
"And... done!" said Screwball. "We are now officially moved in," she giggled.
She and Headcase both plopped down on the couch next to each other, tired after a hard day's work. They looked at each other, smiling. Headcase leaned over and kissed her on the nose playfully. She stared into his red eyes and he into her purple ones, each pair full of nothing but love for the other.
Screwball got up and led Headcase into the bedroom, where she lay on top of the covers, belly-up. He took the hint, and lay on top of her, propped up by his front hooves. They kissed each other, simple pecks, a few times, before locking lips for a good amount of time. He pulled back and looked at her, and she at him.
The daylight peeked through the blinds, reflecting off of his smooth, dark hair, and highlighting the peculiar swirls in her eyes. They briefly reminisced about the circumstances that brought them together.
They were both considered as "those weird foals" throughout childhood. He had a tendency to talk to himself and have hallucinations, making him a lonely colt who was either teased or avoided by other children. She was always the bastard offspring of the crazy old mare that was her mother, and the unknown father she always believed was Discord himself. Both of them were outcasts nearly their whole lives, until one Nightmare Night when they saw each other from across the fairgrounds, and fell in love instantly. They had both experienced something the other understood, and knew that their love would last forever.
He kissed the side of her face, and then moved down her neck sensually. As he made his way to her chest, he noticed something in the corner.
One of the floorboards by the wall was cracked, and part of it was protruding upward. It looked like an eyesore against the contrasting smoothness of the rest of the floor. An eyesore that went unnoticed in the bustle of moving in. He groaned with frustration and tried to move off the bed.
"Oh, what is it?" Screwball asked, disappointed.
"This floorboard is bothering me," Headcase answered as he went to examine it.
"Can't you just ignore it and come back to me?"
He chuckled. "If I don't do something about it now it'll bother me until I do."
Screwball sighed. "You and your OCD..."
"It's not OCD, I'm just picky about the house that we're going to live the rest of our lives in." He spoke as he fiddled with the askew board.
"I'll call a carpenter tomorrow, now come back to--"
"Oops," he said as the protruding chunk came loose in his hoof.
Screwball sighed. He noticed something underneath the board, something flat and strange. He tilted his head as he looked at it, tempting Screwball.
"What is it? Do we have termites, or something?" she asked, getting off the bed.
He made a dismissive sound to acknowledge her question, but didn't answer it.
He used his horn to illuminate the darkness below, and saw a book--a thick book--hidden under the floorboards.
"What the-"
He jostled the rest of the board, trying to get it loose, and ended up prying the entire thin panel out of the floor. Screwball thought to herself, "Great, you made it worse, mister picky-pants..."
The book was more visible now, and Headcase lifted it up with his magic and examined the front. The book was sealed shut by a heavy metal brace held closed by a shiny silver lock. The lighting in the room was poor, so he advanced to the living room to get a better look.
"What is it?" Screwball asked.
"It's a... book."
"What was it doing under the floorboards?"
He set the strange tome on the coffee table and looked over the binding.
"Is that... Is that leather? Gross!" Screwball shuttered at the thought.
"I hope not..."
Time had not been kind to the book, as the light from the lit fireplace revealed. Whatever may have been written on the cover had been worn off, just like any and all colors and designs. The edges of the pages were worn down and the hopefully-not-leather seemed to have been slightly nibbled by rats or some other rodents.
They looked at the lock curiously; Headcase touched its keyhole with his hoof. Screwball saw Headcase's key dangling from his neck. She noticed that it looked like the same silver as the lock, and they both had the same fancy design.
"Maybe that key you always wear goes to it," she suggested, almost jokingly.
Headcase had never considered that his key had ever unlocked anything. He had worn it around his neck since he was a colt. It was given to him by his mother, who had gotten it from his great great grandfather. She died while he was young--a natural death, thankfully--and nopony had ever told him what the key even went to; no one was able to. It was as much of a mystery to them as it was to him.
All he knew was that it was a magic key. As a child, it gave him fantastically wondrous dreams, and let him talk to a certain pony that told him secrets and acted as his friend for years, posing as the reason and the cure for the other children ignoring him. Most of the others believed Headcase to be completely mad for a while, until he grew up and matured as the other pony faded away.
He held the key up and pondered this possibility. He eventually put the key through the hole, and gasped as it went in! It actually fit into the hole! He would almost have a heart attack if it really--It turned!
There was a click sound, and the latch came loose. There was an odd feeling in the room, as if the air flow had just stopped suddenly. He removed the heavy brace and set it on the floor.
He opened up to the first of the yellowed pages, and they both saw a message written in ink on the inside cover:
To whom it may concern,
I know that I am old, and reaching the end of my days. But I do not fear death, no, my greatest fear is that all that I have seen will die with me.
I have always been nomadic in nature, and as a result have traveled far and wide in search of adventure. I have seen things that nopony would ever believe, and been places never dreamed of. I owe it all to my travelling "chauffeur," if you will. He took me to those fantastical places, and I owe all of my wonderful life to him. He's seen the things that I have, but I doubt he will be able to keep our stories alive in Equestria.
I have taken to the task of cataloging the objects of my fanaticism in the very tome in your possession. They are in no particular order, forgive me. But I hope that you find comfort or interest in every beautiful abomination, every abominable beauty, that I have included for you.
Who knows; maybe this book will be studied in colleges and universities in the future. Yours truly, Lunacy
"Lunacy? Who's that?" asked Screwball.
"Dunno..."
He turned the page and discovered another message, this one hastily scribbled and not nearly as neat. It was written in pencil, as opposed to the ink one.
Something terrible has happened. Ever since I wrote this book, I have been attacked by wretched ponies who wish to take its secrets for themselves and use its contents to destroy Equestria. I have been able to fend them off, but just barely. I have been forced to take drastic measures.
This book will be hidden under, closed shut for eternity, hopefully, and locked away with the Silver Key. If you happen to be reading this, then it is already too late. I have put a curse on this book, unleashing woe unto any who dares try to read it. If you happen to be one of those awful, corrupt ponies, then you deserve all that you will soon receive, but if you are innocent, then I am truly sorry. I had no choice. Hopefully the curse does not affect you too greatly, but who knows how time can alter a curse. Yours truly, Lunacy
"This 'Lunacy' guy sounds like a piece of work," jested Screwball.
Headcase felt odd at hearing the name. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.
He dismissed the feeling and turned the next page. There was an illustration of what looked like a tree, with its trunk raised up on its roots, which resembled legs. Its branches looked like arms, and a frightful face was on the front of its trunk. The top of the page had the word "Treant" in calligraphic lettering. Under the illustration was a lengthy description of the creature.
The adjacent page had an illustration of a short, bipedal creature with green skin and a hideous complexion, a "Goblin." He turned to the next page, and saw another picture, with another description. He turned a few more pages to discover that nearly the entire book was an encyclopedia of strange and mystical creatures, most of them never heard of by anypony.
"Cool," Screwball chuckled, thinking the book an interesting novelty.
"I think it's weird."
"What's wrong with it? Or are you afraid of the curse? Boogedy-bloo..." she teased.
A page turned on its own. They looked at the book, puzzled. The air surely couldn't have been to blame, for the flow had stopped since opening the tome. That page was followed by another, and another, and then another, another, another... The pages whizzed over in a blur of sepia and ink, with nothing in the area to blame.
Screwball leaned over it, fascinated by the oddity before her, while Headcase leaned back, unnerved.
In an instant, an enormous pillar of multi-colored light blasted out of the book, and shot a hole through the ceiling and knocking Headcase back, yet Screwball remained in place, her head just inside the pillar. He quickly yanked her back, and saw the expression on her face: a blank, vacant stare at the still-moving pages and the obelisk of brilliance.
Two arcs of red lightning burst from the book, and shot into Screwball's eyes. Headcase, fearing for his wife's safety, wrenched the book from the table and flung it into the open flame of the brick fireplace, severing the red link between them, but in doing so, the beam of destructive beauty transformed into a massive flame full of thousands of colors, and two new arcs of energy, blue in tinge, violently lashed out at his eyes, leaving scars at the edges, and he felt his entire body burning.
The arcs surged through his brain, and he saw a thousand sights and heard a thousand sounds enter his mind all at once, setting his psyche on fire.
Then there was silence. All the roaring, all the shocking, and all the lights condensed into the body of the book, turning it into a levitating mass of super-dense power, almost like a star one could hold in one's arms. Headcase turned to his wife, who was now lying on the ground, that same look on her face, her eyes still focused on that evil star hovering now in the fireplace, burning the bricks it touched into ash.
Headcase reached over to her, his body and eyes still burning, and then all went white.
The star exploded upward, sending hundreds of miniature sun-like orbs in random arcs into the sky, to land anywhere from the front yard to another continent. The following silence was complete; it crept up the stairs, down the vents, across the floor, draped itself over the unconscious couple, and flowed like water out into the night through the destroyed structure of the living room.
The two were trapped in dementia and paranoia for the following week. Each had a thousand alien thoughts and ideas and hallucinations running rampant within their heads; that wretched book had, indeed, cursed them with all it contained. They each were filled with a thousand pages-worth of knowledge about horrific creatures from distant worlds that plagued their every waking moment in the form of fearsome hallucinations, or formless shadows on the walls. They each expressed their terror in different ways: Headcase frantically writhed and twitched at his moments of brief spontaneous combustion (in his attempt to destroy the tome, it lashed out in automatic retaliation by cursing him with the element he vainly used to obliterate it), while Screwball merely screamed and mumbled to herself.
A passerby would immediately condemn the two to a psychiatric hospital without a second thought, but only because they do not know the truth: what plagued them was not traditional madness, but knowledge. Each of them now had every drop of knowledge that cursed book contained, and their mortal minds could not bear the weight of it all without wavering severely. They knew every little detail written about every little creature as well as if they had written the book themselves. They also knew what a terrible thing they've just done.
They knew that all of those wretched arcs of starlight were not a mere spectacle of wonder, but a display of danger and future horrors. Each burning star was the embodiment of the abhorrent creature that those innocent-looking pages sought to contain with their writer's magic; but now that magic had been torn away, and the beasts within now had a way out. They now waited in random holes and crevasses for their turn: their turn to wake up, and to act as viciously as they need to.
In that final blast of light, the book itself burst into pieces (spine, front cover, back cover, key and metal lock) and made like those arcs to hide itself among the earth, as if to make the following years of adventure very difficult for Headcase; the only way for those beasts to be returned to their prison was for all of the pieces of the book to be in one place, and for the wielder to cast a touch of magic as a kick-starter for the process to take place. They both had this knowledge, but could only cower in dementia by themselves, knowing that horrific monsters now wait in the darkness to sweep them up in their claws and chomp their heads off, or worse.
The first, and most moving, example of this happened one afternoon. It crept out of the woods and beckoned dear Screwball outside, where she met its disturbing, blank countenance and tall, disproportionate body which wore an inky black suit and blood red necktie to offset its pale skin. It reached out with its long, black tendrils that sprouted from its back to gently have them dance before her as it receded into the thick trees, leading her hypnotically. Headcase looked out to see this, and shouted at his beloved, snapping her out of her trance. Realizing her situation, she screamed at the thing as it gently, yet at the same time irresistibly, grabbed hold of her with the same tendrils, which had now become more vicious.
Headcase grabbed a cup-hilt sword framed on the wall with his magic and rushed at the beast. It retreated into the woods while he neared. Screwball was now being dragged on the ground, reaching out for her husband and screaming for help. Headcase drew the sword and tried to swing at the tentacles, but the closer he got, he found himself plagued by a mental haze that slowed him down and made him dizzy. He closed his eyes for what felt like a half of a second, but when he opened them, he saw the creature and its prize much, much deeper into the woods. He tried to keep up, but the haze slowed him down more, until he collapsed on the ground of exhaustion and confusion. The haze began to consume him, but just before he went unconscious, he focused the last of his energy into the sword, aimed at the creature's heart (if one could say it had one), and shot it forward like a bullet, slicing the air and landing, hopefully, on its mark before his eyes closed the last time.
The sword was planted deeply in a tree, and a thick, oily liquid was dripping from the blade, but no sign of the slender monster or his beloved. Headcase made a vow right then: he would finish what he started. He would save this blade, keep it as an embodiment of his vindictiveness, and use it only to sever the head of that wicked monster, whether it would bring Screwball back or not. The blade already had the taste of its target, but he wouldn't stop there; he would see to it that each and every one of those beasts got put back in their place. He would find all the pieces of the book, and he would fix this mistake himself; it was his burden to carry.
However, he could not possibly do it alone. He needed help. He needed influence, needed power, needed... a team.
There was a tapping sound that echoed through the inside of the cave as Headcase walked deep within. The light became weaker and weaker to the point that all was as black as the soul of the Shadow-king, Sombra. Headcase, having spent his days since the incident using his magic to control the flame forever burning inside of him at will. A small blue flame hovered before his horn, covering a mediocre area around him with soft light. He passed by several stalagmites, and swore that he saw movement behind them, though when he looked, nothing was there.
Unknown to him, a slithering, scaly organism crept silently on the stone floor, down on all fours, its scales fanned out to appear even more menacing. It hung back in the shadows a mere six feet behind Headcase, its yellow eyes like slits in a sheet of blackness. Slowly it rose, its forked tongue almost grazing his back. It now towered above him, its claws bared and its fangs dripping hungrily.
Headcase heard a vague hissing behind him, and he turned around and saw the bluish demon with pale green spines poised to tear him limb from limb.
"Grey?" he said.
Instantly, the beast lost all of its threatening aura.
"Headcase! Wassup, man?" it--he--said. It wrapped Headcase up in a big, brotherly, albeit sharp, hug, making the small flame go out.
"Sorry, bro," Grey said as he released his old friend. As soon as the flame was reignited, Grey noticed the physical changes on his friend's face. His hair was streaked with gray parts against the usual black, and his eyes looked tired and had strange horizontal burn scars around them. Even the expression on his face looked haggard and weary with an underlying, nihilistic cynicism.
"Whoa, man. What happened to you?"
Headcase gently touched his scars briefly before answering.
"It's a... long story..." He paused for a moment. "I need to ask you for something... a favor."
"Sure; what is it?" Grey said, ignorant of the coming magnitude of the service about to be asked of him.
"I need you to help me... take care of some things. Now, before I explain, I need you to understand that you don't owe me anything, and I don't want you to hate me for dragging you into this-"
"Dude, we're practically brothers. We help each other out when the other needs it. Besides, how much trouble could it be?"
Silver lining soared alone through the orange evening sky, frustrated and angsty..
"I don't need those Wonder-dorks!" she thought to herself. "Bunch o' lousy, good-for-nothing showboaters!"
She ascended above the vertical limit of Cloudsdale and saw the mountain that supported Canterlot sitting on the horizon, and the quaint town of Ponyville seated in a valley below it. She seethed for a time while she soared, carrying her decommissioned Wonderbolt uniform with her, but then, with some heavy breathing, she learned to calm down. When she did, her thoughts changed from frustration to elation at her newfound freedom. Now, she didn't have to perform flight drills or get up at five in the morning or answer to Spitfire or Soarin (although, she didn't mind answering to him). She could start a new life, do new things better suited to her personality.
She was wild. She was reckless. Her passive explosiveness could not be contained. All that the Wonderbolt academy did for her was teach her how to be a plain Jane who could do some flight routines that were mildly exciting to her. But mildly exciting wasn't enough for her to be satisfied. She wanted spontaneity; something to keep her interested. All there was for her there was routines that were practiced over and over and over again and exercise after exercise after exercise.
She couldn't stay interested in career like that. And frankly, she couldn't understand why anyone would want something like that.
She thought deeply about what she would do now while she flew. "Maybe I could be an adventurer, or a stunt double for the upcoming 'Daring Do' movie. Anything!"
Her thoughts of the future were interrupted by a disturbance in the now-thickening clouds. One jerked its light, fluffy body to one side, as if something had flown past it, and then dissipated. She was surprised by this, and then felt a cold blast of air swipe past her on the other side. She stopped in the air and looked around, slightly panicked. She saw no sign of anything that could have caused the disturbance.
"Hello? Can I help you?" she called out into the sky. Embarrassed by her childish fear, she puffed out her chest. "If you're screwing with me, then you've got another thing coming!"
Silence.
"Hmph, that's what I thought." As she turned to continue on her path to nowhere-in-particular, a massive, dark shape swooped down, clutching her in huge, oily talons. It wrenched her from the sky and pulled her high up into the atmosphere, beyond the clouds, where the cold emptiness of space was staring down at them. In the clarity, she saw its entire hideousness looming over her: A body larger than an elephant, with slick black scales and enormous bat-like wings. Its head was equine in shape, but was a sickly beige-red with black eyes. She would scream, but she was being strangled by not only its claws, but the lack of oxygen at that altitude. Thinking quickly, she bit into the disgusting flesh of its talons, forcing it to let go with a quick yelp.
She began freefalling, and continued to do so for several hundred yards until she regained control, at which point she fanned out her wings to slow down. Then she looked up and saw the hippocephalic demon closing in on her. She led it on a lengthy chase through the sky, it nipping at her wings and she diving under it masterfully. This went on for much longer than she could handle, and she made a dive for a nearby mountain. She skidded on a large platform before the mouth of a cave, and the thing quickly dove after her again. She rolled out of its path and made it slam hard onto the stone, cracking some of its gnashing teeth. I clumsily tried to get back up, but she brutally kicked it in the face, knocking it out cold.
She stepped back to examine this unholy beast that she had felled. She herself was bruised, scraped, and bleeding lightly from the mouth, yet she had enough energy to teach this thing a lesson. She turned and strutted (limped, more like) towards the ledge, preparing to take off and abandon this thing and continue her contemplation.
She heard shuffling just barely audible coming from behind her. She turned and was looking down the throat of the monster, seeing all of its cracked and vicious teeth surrounding its long tongue stained with blood marks.
There was a large blue flashing behind it, and it writhed and twitched before going limp and revealing the odd pair standing behind it. A unicorn holding a sword with the blade turned backwards in the hilt, and an adolescent dragon wielding an electric baton. Odd, indeed.
"I totally had it," she defended. Headcase and Grey looked between each other and then back at her. Grey looked just a bit too long, and then was completely smitten. A moving cloud revealed her shining hair and beautiful face (even with all the blood and dirt). A tiny movement of the beast interrupted his fantasizing, so he jabbed it once more with the baton, shutting it up for good.
"Stupid Shantak..."
"We saw how you handled things up there," Headcase said. "We could use someone like you on our team."
Silver looked at him questioningly. "What do ya mean?"
"Termination?" Zen asked.
"Yes, you have been terminated on account of multiple reports of your reckless endangerment of your fellow teammates and others." said Shining Armor.
Zen was confused and angry. "What?! Counter Strike was in the way! There's no way I could have defeated the changeling assailants without collateral damage."
"That's the problem," Shining said calmly to his subordinate. "You consider everything that's not you 'collateral.' You have to take into account the thoughts and well-being of others. Defending the castle is great and all, but you sometimes cause more damage than you prevent. I'm sorry I have to do this to you, I know we served together once, and that you really try, but you're too dangerous to have around. I'm... sorry. Please turn in your uniform by the end of the day."
Zen stormed out, his face red and his veins pulsing. He knew that an outburst now would only make his case seem more ridiculous, but he felt himself losing control. He screamed and reared his forelegs up and brought them down hard on the tiled floor, shattering the ones unlucky enough to be under him at that moment. A long crack now ran along the floor for several feet. He practically bucked open the doors as he was leaving, making Shining Armor hang his head and sigh.
Zen didn't know what to do now; the royal guard was all he had, and violence was all he knew, not in a wicked sense but a mere experience-in-battle sense. There weren't many jobs around where he could utilize his immense strength other than plowing fields, but that sort of job was for simple farm folk.
He walked grimly down the street when a piece of paper flew up and planted itself on his face. He wrenched it off and saw that it was a flier for a series of classes to help one control their emotions via meditation and yoga and that sort of thing. He snarled at the paper, but deep inside he knew that this would probably benefit him by teaching him to not be so emotionally reckless.
The next several months were spent in those same classes he had openly ridiculed. He had made great progress in his endeavors; he was now a true interpretation of his no-longer-ironic name. He had come to his own conclusions about subjects like life and death, and what purpose everything serves or does not serve in the universe, as if he had achieved oneness with himself and discovered his own personal truths. His emotions were no longer on the surface for all to see, but were instead deeper inside and under his control. He had even become the teacher's top student, learning some things not taught in the class, such as a great handful of calming types of martial arts of passive nature.
He was in one of the normal classes on a day just like any other. He was surrounded by others who had come for similar reasons to his, and were getting ready for a session of stretches. The teacher at the front of the room spoke with his quiet, relaxing tone that Zen was so used to, and gave a short speech about self-awareness and inner peace before starting.
Everypony had gotten all good and relaxed, when a disturbance from outside interrupted them slightly. It was a sort of rumbling, followed by a distant hum. One student peeked out the window, and almost instantly his eyes widened and he made a mad dash for the back exit, whimpering in fear. The teacher himself got up and looked out the window to find the source of the now very near sounds. A shadow came over him as he stood at the window, and a massive explosion rocked the building and knocked the other students back. There was dust and rubble floating around in the air, getting into ponies' eyes and making the scene even more difficult to observe. Zen made it to his hooves and cleared the debris from his eyes.
The entire wall of the building had been caved in, and a large, hairy beast was looming over the dojo. It had a hideous face: its mouth was turned sideways, so the yellow teeth ran vertically, and its eyes were situated on either side of the wretched orifice. Its body looked a disgusting shade of dull blue and gray, and had coarse, thinning hair all over it. It stood on two relatively stubby legs, and at the elbows, its arms split into two separate forearms, bringing its four claws to the ground with their length. But two of those large paws were raised, and Zen saw that they were clutching his dear master!
"Heaven Mandate!" he called to his oriental teacher. All the sensei could do was look at his top student with a clear face, void of worry or fear. Before he could save his beloved master, the thing opened its already-gaping maw even wider, snapped it shut loudly, and sent a thin spray of blood across Zen's face. He looked in horror at the disorder before him: screaming, blood, pain and fear. All of those mixed elements brought about a complete imbalance that he could not stand. The loss of his master, along with a few corpses outside the building, troubled him, but he believed that they would not be bothered with earthly troubles now, so he was less concerned with grievances and more concerned with the disharmony that he felt he had to stop. He believed in balance, and what erupted before him was not balanced.
He nimbly dodged a blow from the beast and bucked its messy red jaws, using all of his mass in the kick. It stumbled back, giving him space to move and lead it down the street, away from the most ponies as possible. It gave chase, and he led it down a steep path that went off the main road. It stumbled a bit and went tumbling down the path towards Zen, but he quickly dodged it and let it crash into a rocky stream. It lumbered back to its feet and swiped an arm across the ground. Zen once again dodged with a powerful jump, and came crashing down with both grace and awesome power on its elbow, eliciting a howl that shook the trees. It swung and lashed and scraped and chomped and pounded at Zen, but he moved like a feather floating loosely in the wind, yet when he struck, it was like a great quake focused into a single spot, be it the size of a hoof or an elbow or knee. Their mighty duel lasted for approximately three and a half minutes, before Zen wore it down finally.
The behemoth, known to the wise as a Gug, slumped forward at his feet, exhausted and beaten. He himself only suffered from a light sweat on his brow. He bowed in respect to the fallen but not dead beast as a thunderous menagerie of hooves clambered down the steep hill. Dozens of ponies dressed in gray-and-blue armor surrounded the Gug, pointing menacing rifles and electric prods at its tired body. One came over to him and gestured him away from the scene. The tired, rugged-looking unicorn carried a sword with his magic and wore a band around his front left leg that read: "N.E.C.C.B."
"Are you okay, buddy?" he asked.
"I am fine, friend. What... is that?" Zen asked calmly.
An adolescent dragon walked out from behind him and looked at the scene with his claws on his hips.
"That, my fine... buff... friend, is called a Gug. Right?" The last part was directed at the unicorn, who nodded.
A female pegasus floated upside-down in front of Zen's face, mildly surprising him.
"You're a pretty good fighter, ain't ya? Hey, Headcase, whaddya think about this guy joining our team? Huh? Huh? If he can take down a- a Gag, then he cou--"
"Gug."
"Whatever... So how about it?"
Headcase looked at Zen thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, it's completely up to you, mister..."
"Zen."
"... Zen. Are you interested in enlisting in the N.E.C.C.B?"
"What is this... 'N.E.C.C.B?'"
The other ponies in their uniforms gathered up the creature in a sturdy type of net as the unicorn, pegasus, and dragon all said in unison:
"Whoa," Rainbow Dash marveled at the tales of the four standing in front of her and the other Elements of Harmony. "That's some hardcore stuff."
"Ah'll say," Applejack agreed.
"So, all you guys do is hunt monsters? And you've been in the Canterlot cave system for years?"
"Yes, Twilight Sparkle," the princess of the night answered, standing gracefully next to the teams. "Headcase informed my sister and me of this situation, and, after some time, we organized a program specifically designed for this very unique dilemma. The Canterlot caves were reopened and re-purposed into a... prison, if you will, for the captured anomalies."
They all stood around in a large room, the main entrance of the large facility that stretched miles below the surface.
"Why do you have to lock them up? Can't you just ask 'em to stop being so meany-smashy-breaky?" Pinkie Pie asked with a childish optimism. That optimism was disregarded by Headcase, who stepped in with his angsty demeanor.
"Contrary to popular belief, one does not simply 'giggle at the ghosties.'"
Pinkie was disturbed by his pessimistic attitude, but still thought one could fix all issues with a pinch of laughter.
"So... why did you bring us here, again?" Fluttershy asked.
"Since you all have a relatively high standing, as well as recent incidences including Applejack and Twilight, Celestia and I decided to let you know about the organization. Perhaps, you might be able to help in our endeavors, should you so choose."
"But of course, if you're going to be in on our little secret, we have to give you..." Grey made a broad gesture with his arms, "THE GRAND TOUR!!"
The facility was enormous, and teeming with energy. Ponies wandered all about the place in their gray and blue uniforms, guarding entryways, transporting items, or just taking up space. The floors were smooth and lit up where they met the walls, giving a peculiar lighting effect. Some parts of the structure were still under construction, with some halls being excavated out of the stone and built as the group walked past.
They soon entered a massive hub full of maps and papers and boxes with ponies handling everything left and right.
"This is the anomaly-recording room. Reports of sightings and encounters are recorded here, where these guys look over them for, like, patterns, and stuff..." Grey said unprofessionally. He had never had to give a tour before, but he demanded to be the guide, nonetheless. Silver Lining offered, but he shot her down with a bloodthirsty glare.
A massive table rested in the center of the room, and on it was a raised map of the entire country with all the landmarks in full color, as if created by a master craftsman. A handful of ponies were standing around it, touching the map with their hooves and sending small ripples of light across the false landscape.
"Ooh... What is this room?" asked Rarity.
"That, my marshmallow-colored friend, is our continental anomaly-monitor. Whenever a creature pops up," He gestured across the map, igniting a series of red flashing dots within the image of the mountain sustaining Canterlot. They stretched down the whole length of the miniaturized mountain.
"Wait, are all those dots..."
"Beasts? Yes. Yes they are. Approximately one hundred and thirty-seven. All under our feet. One-thirty-seven."
A visible shiver went through the six young women as Grey chuckled.
"Oh, don't freak out; they're all locked up tight. And besides, only four-fifths of them are dangerous."
As soon as the elevator door opened, the sounds of roaring and snarling and hissing most foul entered their ears. Some of them receded in surprise and fear. Grey waltzed into the open expanse of the hallway lined with the barred cells of different sizes, containing untold horrors beyond their imagination.
The six mares walked cautiously into the corridor, and Twilight carefully peered into the cell nearest to her. All she saw was blackness, due to a dead light-bulb, but a pair of green eyes opened in the corner, disturbing her. But what was more offsetting was that two more pairs of eyes opened above and below the first, making her back up uneasily.
"Is it really... safe to have all these things down here, in one place?" she asked.
"Trust us," Headcase said. "Each cell is imbued with a spell specifically designed to contain its respective captive. There's no way any of these are getting out unless I let them, personally."
"What if another unicorn learned how to deactivate the spells? One more powerful than you?"
Silver Lining chimed in, "I doubt that there's another unicorn better with magic than this guy." She then looked to the princess standing a few feet away with a strange look on her face. "I mean, except for you, Princess Luna. And Celestia... and Cadence... and, you too, Twilight..." she drifted off quietly in embarrassment.
"And besides, even if they did get out, the soldiers here are trained by the top combat forces available," said Grey. "That includes the toughest guy in the world, right here!" He wrapped an arm around Zen. "All that kung-fu tai-chi biz, and former member of the royal guard to boot!"
"So wait;" Rainbow Dash interrupted, "How many floors of these cages are there, exactly?"
Grey looked up and rubbed his chin, muttering numbers to himself and making vague gestures with his claws. "I guess I'd have to say... somewhere around thirteen. But don't worry; like we said, there's no way anything's getting out on our watch. We've got guards on duty 24-7-365. And even if something were to get past them, they've got us to deal with. And we have all sworn an oath to Equestria itself to protect and serve!" He clutched a fist close to his chest and raised his chin to the sky.
"Dude, that's the police. That's not our oath," Silver said.
"Oh. Then... What's our oath?"
"We don't have an oath, dude."
"We don't? Crap. We should. Headcase, how's about we come up with-"
"No."
The tour moved down to the very bottom level of the "lair," as Grey liked to call it. Headcase wasn't comfortable letting the Elements of Harmony this deep into the facility. This floor was the most highly guarded, and Headcase was the only one who went down there anyway, save for a small cleaning crew every two weeks. He felt like it was his floor; it was special to him, and he was uneasy with so many others with him down there.
"Your highness, with all due respect, I don't think this part of the 'tour' is mandatory, and I'm not very comfortable letting them all down here." Headcase said to Luna, pulling off to the side.
"I understand, Headcase, but I feel they should know where it is in case of a unique situation. And Celestia thought they would be more apt to join us if they knew more of the facility; they would be more comfortable feeling that there are few secrets kept from them."
Headcase sighed and lowered his head, understanding her and her sister's reasoning. He stayed behind while the group continued on down a flight of stairs towards a heavy steel door that was three feet thick, sixty feet high, and magically as well as digitally encoded (Grey developed a type of high-tech console with a number pad that he hoped to patent and market across Equestria as a new type of security system).
"That's the biggest door I've ever seen!" Pinkie shouted, letting an echo bounce around the room.
"What could be behind there?" Twilight muttered. Grey got really close to her and whispered in her ear.
"What's beyond that door... is the most dangerous creature we have captured in all our years. It's a massive behemoth with claws like machetes, and teeth like axe blades... It destroyed a dozen towns before we could capture it, and we lost a great number of our men. It was a tragic day in Equestria..."
The faces of the six went completely pale and a few began to tremble noticeably, though the members of the N.E.C.C.B. team smirked and chuckled.
Grey turned around and punched in a few numbers on the console, and a loud sliding and banging of metal was heard from behind the door.
"You know, I should really be home to check on Sweetie Belle," said Rarity, hoping that would be a valid excuse to leave.
Grey nodded to Headcase, to which he lit up the wall with a blue aura, and another loud clatter was heard as the door creaked open a sliver. At this point, Fluttershy was making her way back to the elevator when Grey slowly heaved the door open all the way, showing a large, circular chamber with ominous lighting coming from a ring of dots in the floor, and a narrow spire falling down upon a single marble pedestal in the center with vague, separated objects resting on top of it. The walls had ambiguous outlines of bipedal forms on the walls with hulking, top-heavy bodies.
"Just kidding," Grey said.
"What's in here?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"The most heavily guarded room in Equestria," Headcase answered.
"It looks just like any old room to me; what makes it so special?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Headcase shot her a strange look. "Try to reach that pedestal."
She hesitated a moment, then her hubris got the best of her and she took a step into the room. Nothing happened. Another step. Nothing. She soon went into a slow but strong trot towards the beam of light, when sets of blue eyes opened all across the walls and cast their gaze down on her. The bipedal outlines were looking at her now, and there was a rumbling as, one by one, each broke free of the wall, and slowly but menacingly shuffled towards her. Their bodies were made of large hunks of rock, not all connected, but held together with a magical blue flame that coursed through their bodies like blood. She was surrounded by several of these stone giants with massive hands and top-heavy bodies prepared to smash her to bits before she could touch the pedestal.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!" she screamed.
Headcase shot little beams of light from his horn into the foreheads of each one, and they began to recede back into their holding places within the wall. He entered the room and looked at Dash's terrified face and said, with a tone that just dripped with sarcasm, "Told you so."
"What were those things?!" she asked.
"They're called Golems. Usually they're found in the wild, but I found a way to create some of my own with my magic, and I figured they would fit best as the world's biggest bouncers for our base."
"What is it exactly that they do here?" asked Twilight, no longer worried for her friend's safety.
Headcase looked at her, then at the pedestal. He didn't answer, but instead walked over to it and looked at its contents longingly. The others sort of gently walked in, sensing his seriousness and hinting at the importance of the things before him. They all looked in silence at what they now knew were the fragments of an old book sitting in front of them. They rested in softly carved-out ruts within the marble to hold each item well; there was the front cover, spine, and back cover, but there were two more beds in the marble to hold something that was not there.
"What are those ruts for?" asked Rarity.
Headcase paused and exhaled a sigh. "These are the fragments of the book that started all of this."
A pregnant silence was upon them now.
"When they were scattered, we knew we had to bring them back together. It was the only way to return all of these... beasts to where they wouldn't cause harm. If all the pieces are united, they will absorb them all back inside, and this will all be over, but we're still missing one piece. In total, there is the spine, the covers," he took off the silver key around his neck and placed it in its respective bed, "the key... and the lock."
All of them looked at the indentation where the lock would go.
"But, let's worry about that some other time. Tonight we should be... having fun," he said hesitantly, forcing a smile.
Grey's eyes widened and he slapped his forehead. "OH CRAP! I totally forgot tonight was Nightmare Night!!"
They all walked down the dirt path to the train station as Canterlot got smaller behind them. Headcase, Silver, Grey and Zen were in their go-to costumes for celebrating Nightmare Night. Headcase posed as a zombie pirate, Silver a seductive vampiress, Zen as a boxer, and Grey as his favorite character from My Little Alchemist, Edward.
The six Elements of Harmony took a personal chariot back to Ponyville with Princess Luna, but the four decided to take the train. They were all the type to take the scenic route. They didn't celebrate Nightmare Night for the sake of eating candy or socializing with others; they just liked to get away from the stress of their day job and take time to be friends instead of co-workers.
Along the way they saw a peddler in a cloak and mask walking the opposite way towards them. Grey, being a bit of a shopaholic, inquired about the sellers wares, but was turned down when told that his saddlebags were empty. He was hoping to get some supplies for a new device he was working on.
They heard the train off in the distance, and hurried him back with the group and to stop bothering the poor salespony.
The train ride was quiet; few ponies would be using it at this hour, and arrived in Ponyville quickly. They ran back into the six there outside of Sugarcube Corner, and were met with pleasant greetings.
They all made merry and gallivanted around, admiring the festivities and costumes of others, but Headcase couldn't shake this feeling he had in the back of his skull, like a pressure on his brain.
"You feelin' all right?" asked Grey, sipping from his mug of cider.
"Huh? Yeah, I just... feel strange..."
"Well, you know what'll make you feel better?" Grey asked with a broad smirk.
Headcase dreaded the answer. "What?"
"Smashing mailboxes!"
"Grey, I don't think that's legal here. Or... anywhere, for that matter."
"Well, there's always Plan B: bobbing for apples!" He yanked a barrel full of water and apples out of nowhere and thrust Headcase's face into it without giving him a chance to react. He gurgled a bit, then pulled his head up violently out of the water, letting it spew out of his nostrils and coughing. He wiped his eyes, and spotted a pony across the street in a ghost costume made of a white sheet and some light chains.
The pressure in his skull grew to a vicious vibration as he looked at the child in the ghost sheet, and he was compelled to go toward her. He had no idea why, but he just knew that the closer he got, the greater the feeling was. Now he was looming over the little girl, and she was uneasy at this weirdo in the pirate costume giving her a vacant stare.
He looked at the chains, and noticed that there were a few padlocks sprinkled here and there for a better "ghost" feel. The instant his eyes fell upon one in particular sitting on her back. It was attached to a rectangular frame that it was meant to hold together, and the vibration became a rumbling burn. He lifted it up and looked the now frightened little girl in the eyes.
"Where did you find this? Please, tell me where you found this lock..."
She cried for her mother, and Headcase severed the chain holding it and retreated, knowing that no good could come of a protective mother.
"Dude, why'd you freak out that little girl?" Silver asked, joined by Zen now.
Headcase looked at the padlocked frame with unbridled happiness and shock at the same time. He looked at his comrades with a smile and shook the metal thing in front of them. Wordlessly, they all understood what this was:
The last piece of the book.
They all sprinted up the dirt path to the secret entrance to the caves, and passed that peddler, again going in the opposite direction. Headcase could have teleported them all, and Silver could have flown up on her own, but he wanted them all to enjoy and savor the moment together.
The doorway they entered wasn't deep enough in the base to bypass all the other floors and go straight to the book, so they had to walk a few floors to reach the elevator, but they didn't make it but a few steps past the entrance to be halted by the sight before them.
Soldiers lay on the ground, scattered and with their uniforms ripped. The walls and equipment were destroyed, indicated by a range of marks from gashes to bite marks to brute-force annihilation. Claw marks were peppered on the walls and floors, and various fires were being weakly put out by the broken automatic sprinkler system. All the maps and weapons were in pieces, and sirens blared at intervals corresponding to the flashing red and yellow lights.
"Oh my god..." was all that could escape Grey's scaly lips, and Silver rushed to the aid of a trooper being pinned beneath a large ventilation shaft that had been ripped from the wall. Zen followed her lead and went to help other troops who had been injured; Grey fell to his knees and stared at the carnage. He had designed and built most of this equipment himself; he made the blueprints for this entire room and practically everything in it. He was crushed to see it all lying in pieces in front of him.
"Wait... oh god..." a viciously dreadful thought tore through Headcase's mind, driving him to teleport to the elevator shaft on the other side of the room, only to find the large metal box damaged and stuck diagonally in the shaft.
"Dammit!" He set the machine on fire, making the scratched and bent metal soft and malleable. He incinerated the thing in seconds, sending chunks of melted steel down the dark shaft to splatter at the bottom. When it was cleared, he dove through and fell like a comet, his skin being licked by tongues of blue flames. He landed in the open doorway of one of the prison floors a few hundred feet down, and saw steel bars and metal and stone lying in twisted and mangled heaps on the cracked and cratered linoleum floor. Each and every one of the captured beasts that filled those open cages was out there somewhere in Equestria, wreaking havoc and needing to be captured all over again. Almost pushed over the edge, he took back to the shaft; the walls sizzled behind him until he landed at the bottom in a blaze of fury and hysteria. He made it to the steel vault door protecting that which was so precious to him. It had been ripped off of its hinges and implanted in the stone walls as a feat of some beast's impossible strength. The massive round chamber was riddled with chunks of stone in sizes ranging from pebbles to massive boulders. the head of one of his stone golems stared at him from the floor as he walked inside, mortified at what he saw.
"...No..."
The marble podium lay on its side, broken at the base.
"...No..."
He walked closer to it, and examined the head of the podium from a distance.
"...No..."
The fragments were gone.
"NOOO!!"
His mind raced with all the horrid thoughts about what could have happened, who or what could have done this, and why they felt the need to steal from him the only thing that gave him purpose in life, and he remembered the peddler on the street.
When he and his comrades had returned, the vendor's bags were full, though they had been empty when Grey had confronted him. What's more, he considered the dirt road they had been on to get to the train station and back: it didn't lead to anything but the train station... and the secret entrance...
The hooded, masked stranger walked down the dirt path quietly and slowly, toting the saddlebags containing his precious cargo. the blood red mask hid the almost imperceptible smirk at a job well done. His tall, dark companion walked alongside in the shadows, unseen and unheard by anyone else.
Suddenly, he heard the clopping of hooves, flutter of wings, and patter of scaled feet erupting from behind him.
"Look, they've found us..." he said in a sing-song tone.
"Stop!!" cried Silver.
A blue fireball whizzed past his head--a warning shot--and struck a defenseless tree nearby, prompting him to turn around and face his pursuers, who skidded to a halt before him.
"We know what you have, and we want it back," hissed (quite literally) Grey as he extended his electric baton.
"Why, I don't know what you--"
"Shut up! Give back what you stole!" interrupted Headcase, brandishing his sword angrily as it burned.
The Stranger didn't hesitate to hold the book fragments and dangle them in front of the four, and then immediately put them back in the bag.
"You don't have any idea what you're doing with those..." Silver warned.
"I think you'd be surprised at what I know about this book, Silver, the dropout..." His voice had a metallic, cold vibration in it, as if the red mask had a voice-altering mouthpiece. "And, Zen, gotten over your temper, I see. Grey! Still going by your last name because you hate being called 'Madison?'"
This complete stranger was revealing very personal secrets about them, making them uneasy and mad at the same time.
"How do you know about us?" Zen asked, implicating his meditation techniques to remain under control.
The stranger silenced him with a quick 'Shh!' and looked Headcase in the eyes.
"... And I could never forget about you, Headcase; this book means a lot to you, I know, and I truly am sorry. You know as well as anyone that sometimes one has to do things they don't want to for a greater cause; you sacrificed your happiness to live this life of hunting and danger, and I must..." his tone shifted from mocking to almost genuinely sympathetic, and in a whisper, he said, almost with the volume with which a mosquito flaps its wings, "... you have no idea what I have to do..."
He picked up his mood to its previous state, and smirked again.
"Who are you?" asked Headcase.
The smirk was sustained, but still hidden. "Frankly, I don't care what you call me; Stranger, Peddler, The Bad Guy, Ricky, but... I suppose, Headcase, you could certainly call me a monster..."
"Why's that?" he asked, taking the obvious bait.
"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? I am the reason you lost Screwball after all..."
The masked enemy turned to leave as if the encounter was over, even though to Headcase it had just begun. All the surprise and angst coupled with his personal vendetta rose to the top of his mind, and he visibly shook with impetuous rage. He charged 'Ricky' with his blade bathed in flames, when he saw a previously-hidden figure step out into the open. This new character was tall, pale, and unhealthily thin.
