Eq Renaissance Part 8 (Ed)

The Pony and the Graveyard

    “Well, we’ve got to do something!” Pinkie Pie put her foot down.  She looked around at her silent friends.  She added a smile, hoping that would encourage them into agreement.
    “I agree,” Dash said sternly, not a hint of a smile on her face.  “We’re long overdue.  It’s time we got ourselves involved in this.”
    “An’ just what would you have us do?” Applejack asked.  Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash stared down at the floor, not having thought of a good answer yet.
    “Well,” Pinkie mumbled.  “Something.”
    “Don’t you even care?” Dash asked pointedly.  “She’s your best friend.  Aren’t you even worried?”
    “Well now, of course I am,” Applejack shot back.  “How could you ask such a thing?  Of course I care about Twilight.  Of course I’m worried.  I just don’t think we should be running around half-cocked.  She’s a grown woman.  She can take care of herself.”
    Dash’s brow furrowed.  “Don’t you think it’s just a little suspicious that Twilight took off without even saying goodbye?”
    “Not particularly.”
    “Oh, c’mon!”
    “She just showed up one day out of the blue, didn’t she?  She was just here for a single day?  On royal business?  It surprised all of us when she was allowed to stay here and study, but there’s only so much an important person like Twilight can learn from a little place like Ponyville, charming as it is.  It was only a matter of time before before she was whisked away back to Canterlot.  The fun times can’t last forever, you know.  It was probably royal business, and there ain’t no sense in the likes of us trying to make sense out of royal business.  Especially with a war on.”
    “But Twilight left before the war started,” Pinkie pointed out.
    “Well, sure, but a war’s a big business.  Secret plans and all that.  They were probably planning for it ahead of time.”
    “But it started because a terrorist attacked the Princess,” Dash said, “and that happened AFTER Twilight left!”
    “Well, hell, I don’t know!” Applejack shouted.  “What are y’all ganging up on me for, huh?  You think I ain’t got problems of my own?”  Pinkie and Dash seemed to shrink, feeling a little ashamed.  “You think I ain’t up to my ears in problems?  My big brother, that big dumb dumb-headed dope has gone off to fight and he’s left me all alone to run the farm.  Granny’s under the weather again.  Apple Bloom's reckoned this is her big excuse to act like some kinda wild-child, cause I’m the only one left to yell at her.  I’ve got more important things to do than to look after Twilight too.  Like I said, she’s a grown woman.  Hell, I shouldn’t even be here right now.  I should be back on the farm.  For all I know, the barn’s on fire right now and all the pigs are loose.  The whole bottom will fall out if I don’t get back soon.”
    “Okay, Applejack,” Pinkie said.  “We weren’t trying to gang up on you.  But if Twilight’s just at Canterlot, how come she hasn’t written back yet?”
    “Now that I don’t know, Pinkie Pie,” AJ said.  “I suppose she’s busy.”
    “Excuse me,” Rarity chimed in.  She had been waiting for an appropriate moment to speak.  “I hate to interrupt, but on this point I have to agree with Pinkie Pie.  Twilight was such a silly girl when she first met us, but I’ve been teaching her oh so much about the finer points of etiquette and she’s learned so much.  I simply don’t believe she would have just forgotten to write, regardless of how busy she is.”
    “Hmm,” Applejack said.  “I suppose you’re right.”
    “And we’ve all been writing to her,” Dash added.
    “Just about every day,” Pinkie added.
    “Then if she can’t write to us,” Applejack said, “what in tarnation do you suppose has happened to her?”
    “I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Pinkie said.
    “How much trouble could she have gotten into at Canterlot, anyway?” Dash asked.  “That place is like a fortress.”
    “That place IS a fortress,” Rarity corrected her, “and I’m sure she’s perfectly safe in the castle.  But... are we absolutely sure that she went to Canterlot after all?”  The five friends looked around at each others' faces, all assuming that had been a given.  Then their five heads turned and looked at the figure in the corner.  There hadn’t been enough room for him at the table, so he had taken up a stool to listen.  “Darling?” Rarity asked.  “That is what she told you, isn’t it?  That she went to Canterlot?”
    “Yes,” Spike grumbled.
    “And she didn’t say she would be going anywhere else?”
    “Nuh uh,” Spike said.  The five young women turned their attention back to themselves.  “She hasn’t returned my letters either,” Spike mumbled to himself.  If Twilight’s friends had heard him, they gave no indication.
    “Well, there you go,” Applejack said.  “She’s at Canterlot.  Safe and secure.  Maybe she’s even gotten involved somehow in the war effort, and it’s all hush hush like.”  The other four women seem unconvinced.  “I mean, it’s not like Celestia threw her in the dungeon or something.”
    Everybody else at the table perked up.  “Oh... my... god,” Dash said, “that has to be it!”
    “Oh wow, I wonder what she did to deserve it,” Pinkie said.  “Ooo, I bet it was real naughty!”
    “I just knew there was something fishy about that Princess Celestia woman,” Rarity said.  “Nobody who looks that beautiful could be so perfect.”
    “Whoa whoa whoa!” Applejack interrupted.  “Hold your britches, everybody.  Rarity?  I’m shocked at you.  She’s a lovely woman.  I was only joking is all, I’m sure Twilight ain’t in any trouble.”
    “What else could it be?” Dash asked.
    “We’ve got to do something,” Pinkie said for the second time today.
    Applejack threw up her hands in frustration.  “Spike?” She turned to the boy in the corner.  “You don’t suppose Twilight got herself into any kinda trouble, do you?”
    “I...,” Spike said.  “No,” he finished, lowering his head to look at the floor.  He listened to them, but they weren’t speaking any more.  He heard the sound of chairs being scooted out from the table.  Then he saw the toes of AJ’s cowboy boots.  When he looked up, Applejack was kneeling down in front of him.  The others were standing behind her.
    “Sugarcube?” AJ asked sweetly,  “is there something else about Twilight that we don’t know?  Something that you know, but you’re not telling us?”
    Spike looked into her eyes, then lowered his face and shook his head.
    “Spike, sweetie, I can understand if sometimes you think it’s OK to tell a fib if nobody gets hurt.  But right now Twilight just might need our help.  I think you might be worried about her too.  Now if there’s something that you know about her, I think you should share it with us.  We want to help Twilight, and after all, we’re her best friends you know.”
    “I...  I promised not to tell,” Spike said.  “It’s a secret.”
    “Well, OK.  But I think you should tell us what it is.  Twilight won’t be mad.”
    “Applejack,” Pinkie said.  “If he doesn’t want to tell us the secret, don’t make him.  A secret is a secret.  Forever.”
    “Now, sugarcube,” AJ was still talking to Spike.  “Nine times outta ten I’d be agreeing with Pinkie.  Secrets are important, especially between friends.  But we’re all Twilight’s friends.  She probably would have told one of us.  She probably just told you because you’re always here in the library.  I know you get upset at us from time to time, because were not taking you on our adventures.  But if you’re going to go out with us some day, you’re going to have to learn that we trust each other.  Sometimes even with our own lives.”
    Spike looked into AJ’s green eyes again, then blushed as he looked down at the floor.  “Before she left...,” the crowd around him drew in close, “Twilight was seeing Zecora.”
    There was a hushed gasp from the standing women.  Applejack, still crouching down, did everything she could not to react too harshly.  She couldn’t keep the sweet smile on her face.
    “Zecora,” she repeated, in acknowledgement.
    Spike nodded.
    “And she didn’t just go to drink her special tea.”
    “Nuh uh,” Spike said.
    “She was teaching Twilight how to make them magic potions?”
    “Worse.”
    “Worse?”
    “Well, bigger anyway.  Bigger than potions.  Zecora was teaching her black magic.”  Spike looked at all of them and they just seemed confused.  “Twilight is forbidden from learning black magic.  Her and Celestia used to get into big arguments over it, back before we moved to Ponyville.”
    “Sugarcube?  You done the right thing.  I’m proud of you,” she kissed him on the forehead, then stood up and turned around.
    “Right,” she said to the rest.  “She’s gone to the forest.”
    “It all adds up,” Dash said, excited.  “It makes sense.”
    “That would have been before the big terrorist attack,” AJ said.  “And remember that fire in the woods?  That was the same day.  Twilight took off before that all happened.  But she’s got to be connected somehow.  Zecora?  Celestia?  The whole world going crazy?  No wonder she’s not writing back.  She ain’t even in Canterlot.  We’ve got to go in and get her.”
    “Are we going right now?” Pinkie asked.
    “As soon as we can,” AJ said.  “I gotta run home and grab something right quick.”
    “So shall I,” Rarity declared.  “I don’t mind going into that awful place if Twilight needs us, but not unprepared.”
    “It’s settled then.  I’ll meet you at the trail head in front of the forest as quick as a wink.”  Applejack headed for the library’s door.  Pinkie, Rarity, and Dash followed her.  Then they all stopped and turned back.
    “Are... you OK, sugarcube?” AJ asked.
    “Oh, um, yes,” Fluttershy answered, demurely.
    “Listen, Fluttershy, I’m sorry I didn’t even ask you first.  If you’re too scared to go into that forest, we’ll all understand.  You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”
    “Yeah,” Dash agreed with Applejack.  “If you think you might slow us down maybe it’s best if you stayed back here in Ponyville.”
    “Um,” Fluttershy murmured.  “I am scared, and I don’t really want to...”  There was a long pause as she worriedly kneaded her hands together.  “But I’ll do it.  If Twilight really is in those woods, then we’ve got to go get her.  There’s no other choice.  So I’m going.  I mean... if you’re going too.  If you’ll have me.”
    Applejack walked over to her, threw her arms around her, and squeezed her in a big bear hug.  “That’s what I like to hear.  Now, c’mon!  What are we waiting for?  Let’s go!”  Twilight’s five friends charged out the door.  Dash and Pinkie were screaming their excitement over finally having something to do.  AJ was hollering as well.  Their voices diminished in the distance.
    “I guess I’ll stay here then,” Spike said to the empty library.  “Thanks for asking me to come though.”
    “Where you been?” Apple Bloom jumped off the couch when Applejack came flying through the door.
    “Nowhere,” she said, matter-of-factly.
    “Whatcha doing?”
    “Nuthin’.”  AJ ran up the stairs and turned down hall.  She opened the door to their brother’s bedroom.  Apple Bloom was shocked.  Neither of them had touched that doorknob since he had left.  It was a solemn, sacred room.  And besides, it kinda stunk like boys.
    Apple Bloom watched from the open doorway as AJ rummaged through a shoebox on a high shelf in Big Mac’s closet.  She pulled out a key hanging on a lucky rabbit’s foot.  “What’s that?” Apple Bloom asked.
    “You ain’t seen this,” Applejack said, and nearly bowled Apple Bloom over as she marched back out of Big Mac’s room.  She went to the end of the hall, reached up, and pulled down on the hanging cord that lowered the folding step ladder.  It led up to the attic.
    “What’s up there?” Apple Bloom asked.
    “I said ‘nuthin,’” AJ responded in a frustrated tone.  She went up, and Apple Bloom followed, as she almost always did. The attic was packed to the rafters with boxes and old junk.  There were several little pathways leading through all the clutter like a maze.  AJ pushed her way through the clutter to the far wall.  Then she was standing before a tall locker.  Apple Bloom was surprised to see it.  She had been up there plenty of times, but she had never really noticed it before.  It was very innocuous.  It was sort of like one of the lockers the older kids got at school.  Maybe it was a little wider, and a whole lot sturdier.  It looked like it had been built like a safe.
    Applejack looked down at the key resting in her palm.  It wasn’t Big Mac’s key.  He had just been holding on to it.  It was because he was the oldest.  At least that’s what AJ thought.  Maybe it was because he was a boy; AJ sometimes wondered.  All her life, she had worked as hard as any boy working the farm, but every now and then it felt like that still wasn’t good enough.  As if the previous generations still had higher hopes for the sons of the family.
    It wasn’t her brother’s key; it had been her father’s.  A lot of the junk up here had been his stuff.  Most of it was useless now, but they had never thrown anything away.  There was one thing, though, that was more important than the rest.  It was something like a family heirloom.  AJ could remember back when she was just a girl.  Big Mac and Granny had gotten into fights over whether or not he was old enough to take the responsibility of having the key.  She could remember the event that precipitated Granny giving it to him.
    AJ pushed the thought out of her mind, and all other memories that weren’t immediately important to going after Twilight.  She put the key in the lock, turned it, opened the locker, and pulled out her father’s old 12-gauge double-barrel side-by-side shotgun.  Applejack broke open the action, noticed it was unloaded, grabbed a couple of shells from a box also in the locker, loaded it, and slammed the action shut again.  She grabbed the box of shells from out of the locker before spinning around to head back out of the house again.
    Apple Bloom got her first good look at the weapon.  It was more than just a weapon, it was a work of art.  There was beautiful engraving and inlay all over the gun.  She could see intricate scroll-work depicting abstract spirals, grape leaves, and scenes from a hunt, like a leaping deer, a hunting dog, and even a prancing pony.  It could have been a museum piece, and looked as if it had been carefully cleaned and polished, even though it had been up here in this locker for who knew how long.
    “Hol-ee shit,” Apple Bloom cussed.
    “Watch your tongue,” Applejack said, and walked around her.  It was Apple Bloom’s lucky day.  Any other day that would have been worth a switching.
    “What’s that for?” Apple Bloom asked, as she followed her sister down the stairs.
    “Never you mind.”
    “Where you going?” she asked, as she followed her sister out to the porch and down the front steps.
    “None of your concern.  Yer staying here.”
    “Who you gonna shoot?” Apple Bloom asked as she kept pace with AJ down the drive.  Winona thought they were going out to play a game, and was running figure eights around their legs.
    Applejack spun around on her heels and pointed straight back at the farm.  “You get right back in that house, missy.  Not another word.”  Apple Bloom opened her mouth in protest.  “Not another word!” AJ said, without the slightest hint of compromise in her voice.  Apple Bloom stuck out her lower lip, then slowly marched herself back to the porch.
    “Don’t you dare follow after me.  And keep Winona with you!” AJ called.  Winona looked at AJ and cocked her head.  She recognized her name, but it didn’t sound like there would be any playing today.
    “Here Winona!” Apple Bloom called out, then whistled.  Winona went sprinting back to Apple Bloom.
    Applejack took the opportunity to head off to the Everfree Forest at a brisk pace, gun in hand, shells in her backpack.  Apple Bloom watched her go from the porch.  “You’re not my mom,” she grumbled while scratching behind the dog’s ear.  “You ain’t that much older than me anyways.  And why should I listen to you in the first place?  What are you going to do?  Tell Big Macintosh on me?  He ain’t even around no more.”
    Rainbow Dash, as usual, was the first to show up.  She stopped at the forest’s edge and impatiently kicked at rocks on the trail as she waited for the others.  As time passed, she tried to keep herself from peering into the woods.  She wasn’t able to peer far anyways, the shadows were dark and the forest was thick.
    Dash felt like she was standing on a border between one world and another.  Borders were strange things.  They were very important to politicians and geographers, but from the air most of the time you couldn’t even see them.  They may as well be imaginary.  Sure, sometimes there was  river, or sometimes the patchwork of a farmers’ crops all ended along a line, but that was pretty much it.  This was different.  There was kind of a psychological border.  On one side was Equestria and home, the other was the deep forest and the unknown.  It gave Dash goosebumps.
    Pinkie and Fluttershy came running up together.  Fluttershy had her typical look of timid concern, and Pinkie was telling her usual dumb jokes, perhaps to make Fluttershy feel better.  AJ came next, and the others were surprised to see her shotgun.  Dash openly admitted it was a good idea.  Fluttershy was scared of it.  Pinkie asked AJ to fire off a couple of rounds just for the hell of it, and AJ politely declined.
    They all had a long wait for Rarity, which they had all expected.  They joked about her taking her time, putting on make-up and trying on fancy outfits for an excursion into the Everfree Forest, as if they were going to the Gala.  She surprised them.  She had been preparing herself, but not in the way they had imagined.  Her usually perfectly done hair was pulled back into a single, straight ponytail.  Her outfit looked like it was the most expensive money could buy, only it looked like she had purchased it from some kind of hunting or military supply store.  It was a kind of jumpsuit, with multiple pockets and zippers, all utilitarian.  She wore heavy leather combat boots.  Around her waist was a belt equipped with a machete, a smaller knife, a flashlight, and several other tools.  All of it was jet black.  She looked like the sexiest woman on a SWAT team.
    She noticed them staring.  “It pays to be prepared for any event,” she told them.  “Well, shall we go in?”
    Without another word, the five young women walked beneath the boughs of the Everfree Forest.  They all felt a shiver run up their spines as the thick foliage blotted out the sun.  “So, um, are we absolutely sure Twilight is even in here?” Fluttershy asked.
    “Well, we’re pretty sure,” Rainbow Dash said.  “Where else would she be?”
    “It’s the best place to look,” AJ said.  “If she’s mixed up with that Zecora woman, this really is the first place we should look.”
    “Wanna know what I don’t understand?” Pinkie asked, and then went on without waiting for a reply.  “If Twilight isn’t really at Canterlot like she’s supposed to be, and she’s so close to the Princess, how come Celestia herself hasn’t come in looking for her?  Or why hasn’t she sent the army or something.”
    “I don’t know,” Applejack said.  “Maybe Celestia can’t because she’s too busy with the war.”
    “Hmm,” Rarity spoke up.  “What if Celestia did come into the forest looking for Twilight?  What if she’s the one who caused that smoke that we saw?  The very next day it looked as if she had been in a terrible fight.”
    The five of them stopped in their tracks and they all looked at Rarity.
    “Nah,” Applejack dismissed the idea and they continued down the trail.  “That’s not what the news said, and the news wouldn’t lie.”
    “Maybe Princess Celestia can’t go into the Everfree Forest.  Because of magic or something,” Dash said.
    “Well now that’s happened before, there’s precedent,” Applejack said.  “You all remember.  We all had to step up when nobody else in Equestria could do it.”
    “Has it really been over a year?” Fluttershy asked.  “Already?”
    “Yeah, it has,” Dash said.  “Boy, that sure went by fast.  Hey, remember that time we were in that really thick part of the woods, and Pinkie Pie cheered us all up with that goofy song?”  The others all laughed and Pinkie’s grin grew wide.
    “Yeah,” Pinkie said.  “And remember that time Rarity talked that weirdo ferryman guy into letting us cross the river?’
    “There’s nothing wrong with being a little eccentric,” Rarity said.  “Especially if you live way out here among these atrocious trees.  He certainly turned out to be a charming fellow.”
    “Sometimes I can’t believe we did all that and ended up saving the day.  Err... night.  Whatever,” AJ said.
    “We’re one short now,” Dash said.  There was another brief pause as they stopped to consider that.  The forest chirped and buzzed around them.  They set off again.  Twilight was missing, and they were all worried about it.
    “It’s going to be okay,” Fluttershy said.  “We’ll find Twilight.  Then we’ll be six again.  When Twilight’s around, and we’re all together, I just feel so much better.  It feels like nothing can stop us.”
    They pressed on, deeper into the forest.  A half hour passed, and the bird calls sounded stranger and stranger.  They weren’t sounding much like birds at all.  The trail split.  One was a fairly wide, even trail, almost a dirt road.  The other was a winding footpath.
    “If we keep going this way, we’ll end up at the Castle of the Two Royal Sisters,” Applejack said.  They all remembered the ruins.  “We could go that way.  But I think we should head straight for Zecora’s hut.  If Twilight’s not there then we make Zecora tell us where she’s at.”
    “Is this the right pathway though?” Rarity asked.  “I seem to remember it being a little less... rugged.”
    “Ah’m pretty sure.”
    “I thought it was further down,” Pinkie said.
    All of them were beginning to realize that none of them knew exactly where they were, or where they were going.  They took a vote on it.  It was unanimous, except for Fluttershy, who abstained.  They chose the narrower path.
    They were silent as the forest passed by them.  They hiked a mile.  Then two.  Zecora’s hut hadn’t been so far off the main trail.  They knew it, but none of them wanted to admit it.
    “Listen, there’s no need to get worried,” Pinkie said.  They stopped to take a breather.  “If we get lost, then all we have to do is keep our ears to the wall on the right, and then we’ll find the exit.”
    “Pinkie, that only works in mazes,” Applejack said.  “This is a forest.”
    “Really?  That’s weird.  It always works in video games.  How do you get unlost from a forest?”
    “Beats me,” AJ said.
    “Huh.  Maybe you should ask that lady behind you.  She looks like AHHH!”
    The five of them screamed out all at once.  There was the panicky moment, when adrenaline surged into their bloodstreams.  Their hearts raced in their chests for a few seconds.  Then they realized their error, and each blushed.  They laughed at themselves, self-depreciatingly.
    There had been a woman standing behind AJ’s shoulder.  Only it was just the figure of a woman.  It was an old stone statue.  It looked as if it had once been carved of polished, shining white marble.  Now it was nearly ruined.  It was covered in clumps of moss.  Green vines twined around its features.  The surface was mottled gray and cracking in many places.  Its harder edges, like the edge of the shawl, or the tip of the nose, had been weathered round.
    “Well that sure scared the bejeesus out of me,” AJ laughed.  “Darn near needed a change of clothes.”
    “Um, girls,” Fluttershy said.
    “Yeah,” Pinkie said.  “What kind of jerk statue sneaks up on a person like that?”
    “I wonder what it’s doing way out here,” Rarity said.
    “Um, girls.”
    “Oh, I just noticed the wings.  It’s an angel!” Rarity added.  It was easy to miss the two long, feathered outstretched wings. There was a tree rising up close behind it, and some of the vines at the base of the statue were its roots.  The statue’s left arm was raised before it, with its hand open in prayer.  The right arm was missing, broken off long ago.
    “It’s pretty,” Pinkie said.  “I wonder who put it here.”
    “I guess it’s like that statue of  Nightmare Moon,” Dash said.  “Except that one’s at the edge of the forest, just off the road.”
    “Um, girls?”
    “What’s that on her head?” Pinkie asked.  “Is it a crown?  Or a tiara?  It kind of looks like Princess Celestia’s tiara.”
    “Looks like a horn,” Applejack said.
    “Yes, a horn,” Rarity said.  “A spiralling horn, like a unicorn’s horn.”
    “Who ever heard of a unicorn horn on an angel?” Pinkie asked.  “Hey, what’s this?”  Her train of thought instantly derailed when she noticed some lettering on the base of the statue, obscured by a clump of moss.  She brushed it off with her hand, then read it aloud.  “Honey.  Is that somebody’s name?  That sounds like somebody’s name.  The angel is named Honey?”
    “There’s no such thing as angels,” Dash said.
    “It almost looks like a... oh dear,” Rarity said.
    “A gravestone,” Applejack finished for her.
    “Girls,” Fluttershy spoke up, “look.”
    They had seen odd stone formations since they had first set foot in the Everfree forest.  These stones here were a little too regular, a little too evenly spaced.  Most were more thoroughly covered and obscured than the angel.  That was the reason they hadn’t noticed that they had blundered into a graveyard.  There was a long silence.  Even the birds seemed to quiet themselves.
    “We should go back,” Fluttershy said.
    “And go which way?  Back home?  I say we press on,” Applejack said.  Without waiting for a response, she led them forward.  The forest seemed to pull back and thin out.  The graveyard became much more apparent.  They got a good look at the sky now.  It had become overcast.  Everything was gray and ugly shades of green.  A few trees grew here and there, but they seemed of a different species than the ones that made up the forest proper.  They wondered if these trees had originally been part of the landscaping.  Their strange roots now looked like black tentacles rising up from the earth.  Once this place had been taken care of.  Now it was utterly forgotten.  For all they knew, they were the first people to come here since the forest had taken over.
    The graveyard seemed to stretch on forever.  It was far larger than the modest one back in Ponyville.  Here and there stood tombs.  They could have been mistaken for large boulders if the trees had been thicker.  As they walked on, the clouds seemed to sink lower until they almost touched the ground.  Tendrils of chilling fog were rising up out of the lower, sunken portions of the graveyard.
    “I think maybe we should turn around after all,” Applejack finally admitted.
    “But where’s the trail?” Pinkie Pie asked.  The forest had thinned so thoroughly that they hadn’t noticed they had lost the trail.  The spaces between the tombstones were equally open and accessible in all directions.
    “Let’s just go back in the direction that we came.   We’ll find the trail again.”  Applejack said it in a hushed but hurried whisper.  She was scared, and the fear was spreading amongst the five of them.
    They didn’t make it very far before they heard a strange sound.  It wasn’t any bird.  It was a deep sound, like the earth was being torn up.  They could feel the vibrations through the soil.  Then there was a weird, guttural “naug, naug, naug.”  None of them had heard anything like it, although there was something undefinable about it that seemed uncomfortably familiar.  It was impossible to tell which way it had come from in the growing fog, although their best guess is that it was in the direction they had just come from, between them and the trail.
    “Alright, new plan,” AJ whispered. “We keep going the first direction.”
    They spun around on their heels and walked swiftly away from whatever was making the noise.  Fluttershy squeaked in fear.  She was visibly shaking.  AJ checked the safety on her shotgun.  Rarity pulled the machete from her belt.  She had only used in once previously, on some thick vines that had grown over the trail.
    There was a tremendous crunching sound.  It was chewing.  Then came the “naugh naugh.”  This time they couldn’t tell where it was coming from.  They stopped.  The noise stopped.  They started to creep forward again.
    For some reason that Pinkie would never be fully able to explain, she suddenly grew worried for Twilight.  They were out here looking for Twilight, that meant Twilight might be in the same danger and they had to find her fast.  “TWILIGHT!” Pinkie Pie screamed out at the top of her lungs, making her friends flinch.
    Twilight Sparkle didn’t answer.  What answered was a terrible roar.  It came from off to the side.  Then there was the heavy thudding of some large feet stomping on the ground.  The whole earth seemed to shake.  All five of them panicked and ran in the opposite direction.
    Fluttershy had been walking behind Dash.  As they ran, they ran through separate rows of gravestones.  Dash was much faster, and soon, as both dodged around big vines and large tombstones, there were two rows of stones between them.  Then three.  They were becoming separated as they ran.  Soon all her friends were lost in the fog.
    Fluttershy shrieked when there was a tremendous boom.  The creature in the fog roared, and there was another tremendous boom.  Fluttershy ran on, and moments later, she realized it was Applejack, firing.  The ground she was running on sloped to one side.  She ran down the hill, simply because she could run faster that way.  She was worried for Applejack.  At the bottom of the hill she stopped to catch her breath.  There were two more loud booms in rapid succession. There was another roar.  Applejack was actually fighting the thing.
    The shots were very close though, and Fluttershy ran on again.  There was a shadow in the fog before her.  It was very large.  It must have been another tomb.  Fluttershy thought that she might find shelter in hiding behind it.  The thought of actually running into it never crossed her mind.  She turned back once to see if something was following her.
    When she turned back to see where she was going, the tomb had moved.  It wasn’t a tomb but the creature itself.  Fluttershy slid to a halt in the mud, then fell backwards on her ass.  She screamed.
    The creature turned around.  It was a massive thing.  It’s tail was whip like, almost like it was a gigantic snake all by itself.  Its body had a thick gray hide, like a rhinoceros more than anything.  The thick wrinkles of skin and flesh made it look like armor.  There were four gaping wounds in its side, each pouring blood, but they were insignificant in comparison to the size of the beast itself.  As it turned, the tail flattened several tombstones in a tremendous crash, as if they were a child’s set of wooden blocks.  Its head was the worst thing of all.  It was long, and flat, and its tooth-filled mouth stretched all the way back.  Its maw resembled a crocodile's more than any other natural creature.  When it saw Fluttershy get back up on her feet and run away, it opened that terrible maw and bellowed.  Bits of bone and strips of mummified flesh flew from between its teeth.
    Fluttershy screamed for help as she ran.  She could hear the thing running behind her.  Its legs were longer than any crocodile and it could run faster than any as well.  It could run at least as fast as herself, Fluttershy realized.  She ran between tombstones, hoping they would slow it faster than it would slow her.  She heard the stone crunching beneath its feet.  It wasn’t slowed at all.
    She saw Applejack, off to one side, holding her gun.  Applejack was actually running in her direction.  Fluttershy heard two tremendous booms, almost on top of each other, then the snap of the gun’s action as AJ hurried to reload.  The thing roared and AJ ducked behind a tall tombstone a second before the thing’s swinging tail took the top of it off.
    Fluttershy ran on, and the thing followed her.  She never saw Rarity, but she saw her machete come spinning through the air in a high arc.  Fluttershy watched the arc of that blade as it came down on the top of the beast’s head.  It landed knife point first, only it bounced off the beast’s head.  It didn’t even flinch.  The hide was too thick, and the machete only drew a bit of blood.
    Ahead of Fluttershy was a large tomb, the largest she had seen yet.  Several large Greek columns decorated the front facade.  Now she didn’t think twice about running inside.  The door in front was missing, and the frame was only large enough for a person.  She ran inside, thinking it couldn’t follow her.
    Fluttershy had never been inside a tomb before.  She had been afraid they would be filled with dusty, spider-webbed mummies, like in the movies.  In this one there were only clean marble walls, and a featureless stone sarcophagus at the far end.  It was lit by sunlight streaming in through holes in the ancient ceiling.  There weren’t any bodies in sight.
    She ran past the sarcophagus and ducked down in the corner.  The frame of the entrance didn’t stop the monster at all.  Fluttershy screamed when there was a huge explosion of dust and stone, and the thing's horrible head was sticking in where the front wall had been. It was only slowed slightly by the columns at its shoulders.  There were two more booms, followed by a pause, and two more booms.  Applejack was unloading her gun into it, but the thing only seemed to get angrier.  It could see Fluttershy cowering in the corner, and nothing would stop it.
    The creature pushed its way almost entirely into the large tomb.  With its head hanging above the sarcophagus, it stopped to turn its head, not to eat Fluttershy, but to stare at her.  Their eyes locked.  Fluttershy could hear AJ shooting outside, but the thing didn’t even flinch any more.  Then the noise of the shots seemed to diminish, as if somebody were turning down the volume.
    Fluttershy felt cold.  It was colder than she she had ever felt in her entire life.  Her fingers and toes grew numb.  Then her arms and her legs.  She had already lost her sense of hearing, and now her vision was fading as well.  Growing dark at the edges, she was beginning to black out.  Tunnel vision, like the shrinking iris at the end of an old-fashioned movie.  All she could see was the one horrible eye of the creature that was peering into her soul.  Fluttershy felt herself being devoured.
    Then she saw another explosion of stone and dust, this one from the wall right next to her.  It obscured the eye.  Her senses returned to her.  The iris opened.  Her peripheral vision returned and she saw the woman standing before her, protecting her.  Her hearing returned just in time to hear Zecora yelling.  “Do not look, you would rather die, than to stare this monster in the eye.”
    She swung a heavy fist and struck the thing right at the end of the snout.  It didn't just flinch, but was flung back into the opposite wall and the whole tomb shook.  Enraged, the thing lunged back at the both of them.  Zecora fell backwards and almost fell on top Fluttershy while Fluttershy screamed and shut her eyes as the thing's maw went snapping shut.
    When Fluttershy opened her eyes again, Zecora had her arm between its mouth.  Her elbow was on its lower jaw, and her fist up between the teeth of its upper jaw.  It couldn’t shut its mouth.  Both of them struggled, but neither gave way.  Somehow Zecora was keeping it at bay.  Then Fluttershy saw something else.  A man.  He had come through the broken front entrance, and was running up the creature’s back.
    Big Macintosh plunged his spear straight down into the creature’s head.  It pierced the flesh, but was stopped by its skull.  The creature opened his mouth to roar and flung Big Mac off of itself.  Zecora took the opportunity to jump up and wrap her arms around its neck.
    Zecora twisted it.  Her arms couldn’t come close to reaching all the way around the neck, but still the things head bent.  It stamped its feet.  Its tail whipped around, destroying what was left of the front wall.
    Then Fluttershy heard thick, heavy bones breaking.  Big Mac found his spear, then yelled as he brought it down through the creature's eye.  He drove it in as far as he could.  The creature's whole body twitched violently, then instantly it was dead.
    Fluttershy shivered in the corner.  “Come,” Zecora said.  She helped Fluttershy up, then out of the tomb through the hole that she had made on her way in.  Big Mac followed them out.
    Fluttershy’s friends came rushing out towards them from the fog.  “Fluttershy!” they said.  “You’re alright!” Then, “Zecora?”
    They looked from Fluttershy, to Zecora, to Big Mac, standing behind her.  His blue jeans had been so torn by the bushes and thorns of the Everfree Forest that they were now ragged denim shorts.  His favorite red t-shirt was now long gone, exposing his muscular body.  He seemed a little thinner, as if he hadn’t been eating properly, but he looked stronger than ever.  Around his neck was a necklace of talons and fangs.  Big Mac had gone native.
    “What are you doing here?” Zecora asked the young women.
    “We came to find Twilight.  And you,” Pinkie said.
    “Yeah,” Applejack said, loading her gun with two more shells.  “We’ve got a few questions to ask you.”
    “What was that thing,” Dash asked. Its tail was still sticking out the front of the tomb.
    “The Greeks called it a catoblepas,” Zecora answered casually.  “The Egyptians called it an Eater of the Dead.”
    “It eats the dead?” Rarity asked.  “That’s why it was in a cemetery?  That’s disgusting.”
    “No,” Zecora answered.  “It was only hunting here.  It really devours living souls.  Fluttershy is lucky it did not devour her.  Come.  You can ask your questions elsewhere.  We need to leave.  Its death will only attract scavengers.  And there are worse things than Eaters of the Dead beneath the leaves of the Everfree Forest.”