//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: Settling In // by A Wild Magikarp //------------------------------// The sweet smell of apple and cinnamon wafted through the air as a steady stream of cider flowed from a small keg into the paper cup below. Sky reached for it and brought it to his lips. Tilting his head back, he drained it quickly before filling it once again, and offering it to the filly he found himself hosting. Apple Bloom was sitting on the stool next to him, a light blanket around her shoulders and a distant look in her eyes. At the introduction of the drink she did nothing, continuing to stare at the wall, eyes wide and still brimming with unshed tears... He supposed it was to be expected. With what she had been through it was hardly as if anypony could fault her for it. After her outburst in front of the observatory, Apple Bloom had broken down sobbing for several minutes, making it impossible to get answers out of her. He would have loved to let the filly get her tears out, but he still hadn't known what was going on, except that ponies had apparently died. He needed to know the whole story. After bringing her inside, and getting her the blanket that she now clung to so desperately, he had managed to get out the basics. A monster had attacked her and her friends when they had gone into the woods looking for Fluttershy, one of the ponies he had talked to last night. It had caught and killed the others, and only she had escaped. The realization was terrifying; A creature with a taste for ponies, stalking the shadows of the forest just outside his window. And it had taken four victims today alone, five if you considered the possibility that it could have been the cause of Fluttershy's disappearance as well. The forest was filled with all sorts of dangerous creatures, but the fact that it had attacked them as they followed her trail gave credence to the idea. Still, there were blanks that needed filled, and questions to ask before he decided what to do next. Which meant he would be asking a broken little filly to relive the horrors of earlier today. "Apple Bloom?" He asked softly, putting the cup to the side and sitting down next to her, bringing them to eye level with each other. he reached up to her head slowly, and when she did not retreat from him, he began gently pulling the twigs and leaves from her mane. "A-Apple Bloom, can you hear me? I need to ask you a few more questions about... about what did this." He took another breath to calm himself, trying to stop the shaking he felt going through his own body. He was scared as well, but right now, he needed to be brave. Whatever this thing was, he needed as much information about it before he went to whatever garrison Ponyville had. Hopefully the local guard would know what to do with it. Apple Bloom turned and looked at him, one of her unshead tears finally breaking free and rolling down hear cheek. She sniffed and rubbed it away with the edge of the blanket. "L-l-like what? W-w-what do ya n-need to know?" "As much as you can remember. Anything that could help find this thing and stop it... Why don't we start with what it looked like?" Apple Bloom looked away, watching a random floorboard as she envisioned the events of earlier today. Every detail of the beast, its hide, its claws, its teeth burned into her memories. She suppressed a shudder as the last image of the creature came to mind, the seeing of it standing over Sweetie Belle, noxious gas flowing from its maw to envelope the limp unicorn. A whimper escaped her as she thought of her friends again, more tears forming in her eyes as she closed them in pain of her recollections. The hoof that had been removing the forest from her hair stopped. He hadn't known her for more than a day, but it hurt to see her like this. That look had no place on the face of a child her age, and nopony should have to go through the nightmare she had just experienced. A moment of hesitation later, and Sky moved closer to Apple Bloom, placing a his hoof around her in a light embrace as he placed her head under his chin. He could feel her ragged breaths, and a wetness on his coat told him the crying had returned, albeit much more controlled than before. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry Apple Bloom. It's terrible what happened, and I know it must be hard. But I need your help right now. I don't like asking you to remember, but I need to know more about what attacked you and your friends if I am going to tell the guards what they're looking for. We need to know what it is so they can stop it." He gave a light squeeze before releasing her and looking down into her eyes, which where now looking up at him in turn. "So please, can you help me?" "...... I-it w-was big. REALLY big, like, as big as a house. I-it had a tail an' long claws... It's skin was rocky, like it was made of stone, w-with teeth like needles. And red eyes, NO, yellow eyes that turned red! Rainbow Dash looked at it and j-just... stopped moving, like she was frozen solid or somethin'..." The filly continued to describe the creature, and the more she did, the farther Sky's heart dropped into his stomach. He knew the creature she was describing. He remembered it from a bestiary in his personal collection back home. "What did it sound like? Did it roar, hiss? What color was the gas?" "It hissed. N-not like a snake, more like a... a crocodile hiss, or that weird growlin' sound they make. The gas was green." Sky looked back outside, at the forest beyond, eyes wide, new fear making its way into his body as he thought of the monster lurking inside. "Drakon..." "W-what?" Gulping, Sky looked down to his smaller earth pony counterpart, trying and failing to hide his concern. "What attacked you and your friends in the forest. It's called a drakon. It an alpha predator, tier two. Classification Basiliscus Toxicus. A subspecies of the basilisk and a relative of Basiliscus Lapis. Can paralyze its victims in a magically induced terror. It... um... it... oh..." "Sky? Mister Sky, whats wrong?" A grin slowly made its way onto Sky's face as he continued to go over what he remembered from the bestiary. Specifically one very important fact. "They're not dead..." "What?" Apple Bloom asked, cocking her head slightly in an attempt to catch what he said. "THEY'RE NOT DEAD!" Sky exclaimed, jumping up and looking back out the window with renewed energy. At his outburst Apple Bloom let out a yelp and fell backwards off the stool. A groan drew Sky's attention and he looked to see the young Apple on the ground, rubbing the back of her head and wincing. "Uh, sorry." He extended a hoof to her, which she quickly waved away as she sat up by herself. "Never mind that! You said they're not dead? I know what I saw, I didn't imagine it all!" "I never said you did," Sky replied. "You just don't understand! Th-the gas that the Drakon breathes, it isn't toxic! Or, it IS, just not deadly, at least not to animals! The name 'Toxicus' was given when it was first observed killing plants in the wild with it. To animals, it is merely a highly potent sleeping agent! It's meant to keep the prey from running, while keeping them..." He paused. "Er... fresh." 'Real smooth idiot,' He thought dryly to himself. 'Even if we both know what the thing plans on doing with her friends, there's no need to be so blunt about it.' "So you sayin' it just, what, stashed them away someplace? Hid em somewhere for later?" Apple Blooms asked as eyes began to sparkle at the realization of this new hope, a small grin forming on her face. Sky nodded with a smile, and moved passed her towards the door. "Yes, exactly. Which means there's still time. Come on, we need to tell the authorities, and I'm still new here. Can you show me where the local guard post is? They should be equipped to deal with this." The filly cocked her head to the side and gave him an inquisitive look. "Guards?" Sky looked back at the younger pony, raising an eyebrow of his own. "Yes, guards. You know, a local garrison?" Apple Bloom shook her head. "Do you have a police station or sheriffs department?" Another negative. "... A militia?" Sky asked weakly. "Ponyville doesn't have any guards. The only ones we see round here are the ones that come down from Canterlot. Most of the time we just deal with the problems ourselves." The two ponies took a moment to stare at each other, one in shock, the other confusion. Apple Bloom blinked, breaking eye contact and prompting Sky to end the silence surrounding the two of them. "T-that makes no sense! Every town should have some form of law enforcement at the very least! A-a-and we're right on the edge of wild territory, I mean the Everfree is RIGHT THERE! Somepony should be here to take care of the creatures that wander out of there right? You mean that you have NOPONY to deal with a situations like this?!" "Normally when stuff happens round here, my sis and her friends take care of it. They don't seem to have any trouble." She paused. "Well, 'cept when its alicorns, monster armies, Discord and stuff, but they got those all sorted out in the end." The casualty in which the foal listed off such catastrophes was jaw dropping. Sky resumed staring as he struggled to understand what was going on. How could one small town get into so much trouble, and NOT have a guard post SOMEWHERE?! And all of this was dealt with by the local populace how?! Sky opened his mouth to ask, when the light outside the back window grew dark. The shadow passed as quickly as it came, and for a moment Sky wondered if he had imagined it. Or perhaps a stray cloud from the forest had passed overhead. A low, near impercieveable hiss resonated through the air, and Sky's heart stopped. A dull thump, the sound of claws on stone. Something was moving outside. Something big, and he thought he knew what. Eyes shrank to pinpricks, and it became hard to breath. Sky attempted to calm himself, thinking of any other reason there might be for such noises, rationalizing away his fear, but the appearance of a massive, craggy tail in the window confirmed it. The Drakon was here. And it was right outside. "S-s-sky?" Apple Bloom asked as she drew closer, tail tucked and ears down. She had noticed the creature as well. Sky looked down to see her huddle next to his foreleg, watching the window. They needed to get out of here. SHE needed to get out of here. It was too much of a coincidence that it had found its way to Apple Bloom so soon after the attack. It had likely tracked her scent through the forest, hunting for her. But why? The part of Sky not suffering from crippling fear asked. It has enough food to last it weeks, and its likely got prime hunting territory in the forest. What reason does it have to track down this one filly? Perhaps it is being territorial, and takes her trespass as an affront? How intelligent are Drakons anyways? I should have read more from the bestiary, it would likely- Outside, the sound of scratching turned to a screech as the beast tested its claws against the bricks of the observatory's walls, and Sky pinned his ears back in a vain attempt to stop the noise. Sudden silence was followed by a crocodilian growl and the Drakon began its work, throwing itself into the structure. Visible cracks formed in the plaster and the back window shattered as the building shook, breaking Sky's train of thought. It wouldn't be long till it was inside, the brick and mortar certainly wouldn't hold this thing for long. Fear took over and he ran for the front, grabbing the filly along the way and putting her quickly on his back. Throwing the door open, Sky raced outside, moving as fast as possible towards town. The sound of falling stone and shattering lumber drew his eyes back towards his new home. A thick cloud of dust and flailing limbs where seen through the window. A loud roar reached the two ponies ears as the Drakon found its prey missing, and began its search of the observatory. Sky felt a pain grow in his chest at seeing the residence destroyed such a short time after its construction. Only a day had passed, and already he was left without a thing, his belongings left to the creature within's whim. At that thought, a much more pressing concern was brought to his attention. "SELENE!" Sky stopped where he was, turning to face the building proper. His muscles twitched and hooves danced as he fought the urge to rush back into the chaos. A new kind of terror entered him as he looked back at the building currently under siege. In his rush to leave he had left her behind. He stood there frozen for a long moment, uncertain what to do. "Mister Sky?! What are you doing, its going to catch us!" Sky looked back to his passenger, currently occupying his feline companions favorite spot. "I-I... Selene she... I don't..." ...Priorities Sky. Get help, keep the filly safe, that's your job right now. Selene... Selene can wait, it isn't looking for her, its looking for you. He looked back once more to the devastation, imagining the poor girl tucked away in some corner, weathering the storm. Eyes grew wet as he made his choice, turning away and continuing his race to town, the wind clearing the moisture as quickly as it appeared.. "A-Apple Bloom, what do you do when something like this happens in Ponyville? You said your sister and her friends take care of things? What does that mean?" "Y-ya, Applejack, Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony. They take care of it." "Elements of-" This announcement silenced him for a moment. Applejack was one of the Elements of Harmony, the ponies who had freed Princess Luna and defeated Discord? He knew Twilight Sparkle was one of them, and as for the others... He had read about them before in the Canterlot Gazette, but that had been over a year ago, after the first Nightmare Moon incident. Thinking hard on the contents, he struggled to remembered their names. Applejack, Pinkamena Pie, Rainbow Dash, Flutter- "You mean, huff... that I have been meeting THE Elements of Harmony, huff... for the last two days, puff... And NONE of them ever thought to bring that up?!" "Guess they just kinda got used to it." Sky shook his head, frustrated with himself for not recognizing them sooner. "Do they have someplace to meet? Some way to get a hold of one another?" "Ya, they meet at Twilight's place, the library at the North side of town." Looking ahead to the rapidly approaching town, Sky's mind continued to race. So, he was running from a rampaging monster to go get four of the most important ponies in Equestria. All so they could hunt down said dangerous monster and find its lair in a dark, unnatural forest and save their friends. How could it have possibly gotten this bad? "Well, lets hope Miss Sparkle and her friends have a plan to help with this sort of thing." He looked back at the observatory, from which the sounds of chaos could still be heard, even from this distance. "Celestia knows we'll need it."