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Three Heads Are Better Than None
By Little Orphan Timmy
The Everfree Forest was a dangerous place for even the toughest of ponies. The thick tree canopy kept huge swaths of the forest in a state of dusk at all times, much to the benefit of the dangerous creatures that dwelt there. Creatures who wouldn’t think twice about gobbling up any pony they could catch. So it wasn’t without reason when the little white unicorn filly asked, “What are we doing out here again?”
Apple Bloom sighed. “Weren’t you paying attention to what ah was saying?”
"Well a little,” Sweetie Belle said. “I just didn’t understand the part where we had to go into the Everfree Forest again.”
“Because we’re trying to find a leprechaun, duh!” Apple Bloom replied.
Scootaloo grinned. “Yeah! Once we find one we’ll be Cutie Mark Crusader Leprechaun Catchers!”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER LEPRECHAUN CATCHERS!” Sweetie Belle joined in with the chant out of pure habit.
“Wait, what’s a leperkon?” Sweetie Belle asked. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both halted their march and turned to face their friend.
“It’s a little green fairy that carries a pot of gold,” Apple Bloom said. “Twilight told me all about them. There’s supposed to be one living in the Everfree Forest.”
Sweetie Belle gazed around at the shadows covering the trees, hiding the deeper parts of the forest from sight. “But this place is really scary. Shouldn’t we get somepony older to help?”
“I’m not afraid!” Scootaloo said with naive bravado. “Rainbow Dash goes in here ALL the time! If I want to grow up to be as cool as her, I’ve gotta get tough!”
“It’s okay, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said, putting a reassuring hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder. “If you’re worried we can go find mah friend Zecora. She’s really smart when it comes to stuff in the Everfree Forest.”
Sweetie Belle thought about this for a moment, her eyes tilting downward. “No, that’s alright. I’m not afraid either,” She looked back to Apple Bloom. “Besides, if we don’t find the Lep-pra-chan by ourselves, it might not get us our Cutie Marks.”
“Leprechaun, Sweetie. Lep-pre-kon.” Scootaloo began to march forward, leading the other fillies. “We gotta get the name right if we’re gonna be Cutie Mark Crusader Leprechaun Catchers!”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER LEPRECHAUN CATCHERS!” This time, the three fillies’ cries were met by a low growl that echoed all around them.
The response caused Sweetie Belle to whimper and Scootaloo to look around frantically. The fillies paused for a moment, listening for any more sounds before Apple Bloom finally said, “Maybe we shouldn’t do that again.” Once they were assured that nothing was following them they began to move forward once again, their little hooves trotting over the muddy ground.
“So what kind of tracks does a Leprechaun make?” Scootaloo asked, her eyes looking all around and her ears perked up.
“Well, Twilight said they’re supposed to look a lot different from ponies”, Apple Bloom replied, her eyes tracing the path they traveled over. “The way she said it, they almost sounded like monkeys.”
“A monkey!” Sweetie Belle said happily. “You mean they are all fuzzy with a tail?” Sweetie began wishing she had an adorable monkey to cuddle with.
Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nah. More like they’re supposed to walk on two legs instead of four.”
“Two legs? Freaky,” Scootaloo replied. Just as she finished speaking, Scootaloo heard another guttural growl echo through the trees just like the first one. Scootaloo’s eyes went wide and her wings sprang up as through she were about to take flight. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“T-that growling sound! I heard it again”, Scootaloo said, now shaking.
“Ah didn’t hear anything”, Apple Bloom said. “Besides, ah thought you were brave like Rainbow Dash.” A smirk came over Apple Bloom’s mouth as she mocked her friend.
“I am brave! I’m just saying I heard something!” As her friends began to launch into an argument, Sweetie Belle’s ears became aware of a new sound. This one was different from a growl, more like a sickly hissing.
“Wait! I heard something too!” Sweetie Belle cried, interrupting the argument.
“Yah’ll are hearing things. There’s nothing making-” this time Apple Bloom was interrupted by a noise that sounded like a wild creature’s bleating. Apple Bloom didn’t say anything in response, simply holding a hoof to her lips, signaling for quiet.
The three fillies waited in terrified silence. After several seconds of nothing, the calm of the forest was broken by a cacophony of shouts, what sounded like several different animals crying out.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled together into a circle, backs to each other and each filly looking in a different direction.
“Maybe we better go find Zecora,” Apple Bloom said with more than a hint of panic in her voice. The din continued to sound as the trees began to shake around them.
“Maybe we better go back to Ponyville,” Scootaloo said, her little wings shaking against her friends’ backs. In the darkness a pair of scarlet eyes stared at the fillies.
As the fillies stared back in horror, the eyes were joined by another pair of eyes. Then a third pair manifested before them, all three narrowing on the little ponies. This was all the motivation Sweetie Belle needed to shout at the top of her lungs, “RUN!!!”
And run the three fillies did, each of them moving as fast as their short legs could carry them. None of them dared look back for fear of being caught by those monsters. Scootaloo, who led the pack, took a sharp right turn into the tree line and then dove into the bushes on the left, her friends following suit. There they hid in silence, listening for the growling and rustling and hoping no creature would find them.
Fairly certain that they had lost any pursuers, Apple Bloom whispered, “Is everybody okay?”
“What were those?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“It was a lion! I’ve seen ‘em in picture books before!” Scootaloo responded.
“One of ‘em looked like a reptile or something. Ah’ve seen lizards before but nothing big like that.”
“I thought it looked like a goat.” Her two friends gave Sweetie a deadpan stare. “W-well that’s what I saw...”
“Whatever they were, we need to get out of here before we end up Cutie Mark Crusaders lunch!” Scootaloo said and her friends nodded in agreement. Before they could make any decisions, however, a rustling was heard in the brush and the familiar growl returned. The crusaders froze stock-still as the growling grew closer and was joined with another hiss. A pair of sharp, hungry jaws attached to a massive snout came snapping through the bush, sending the fillies scrambling out of hiding and further into the forest.
The ponies ran headlong without any sense of direction, simply hoping to find a way out of the darkness and away from danger. Apple Bloom tried to zig-zag through the forest, hoping to throw their pursuer off their trail without losing Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo. A sudden feeling of hope rose in her heart as she noticed rays of light cutting through the tree line. “Hurry! We’re almost out of the forest!”
The three fillies were exhausted and terrified but they knew once they made it into the light they’d be back in Ponyville. They would find somepony like Rainbow Dash or Applejack or even Twilight. Surely this monster would be no match for the pony that calmed an Ursa Minor!
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle bounded out of the trees and came to a stop moments before smashing into a large rock. Before them was a jagged, stony outgrowth that rose straight up in the middle of the Everfree Forest. It had created a clearing in the forest, where the lack of trees allowed the sunlight to shine in unfiltered.
Scootaloo looked back the way they had come, realizing that their pursuer had not yet come bounding into the clearing. She realized with some fear that the beast had chased them into a trap. The rock outgrowth blocked the way forward, so the beast merely had to lie in wait for the little ponies to make a run for it. They would be easy prey unless the creature was distracted.
Scootaloo knew what she had to do to save her friends.
“Girls, get ready. I’m gonna charge him and you need to run when I do.”
“What?!” Sweetie Belle cried. She knew she was louder at that moment than was safe.
“You won’t last a second against that thing!” Apple Bloom added.
“Listen, it’s got us cornered. It can just stalk around out there and wait for us to make a move”, Scootaloo said, keeping her voice low. “If one of us charges it, it will go after them and the other two can get away.”
“Then let’s all run in three directions!” Apple Bloom countered.
“It has to go for me. That thing’s been running after us on foot this whole time.” Scootaloo flapped her wings. “I can fly, so I’ll go over his head and lead him away from you two.”
“But you’ve never managed to fly!” Sweetie Belle said with tears forming in her little myrtle eyes.
“Well you two don’t have wings at all, so that puts me above you two!” Scootaloo snapped. She didn’t know if she could fly, but she wasn’t about to loose her friends without even trying. She’d heard some pegasi needed to experience a serious fight-or-flight response to fly. She hoped this would be serious enough.
“Scootaloo don’t do this, please.” Apple Bloom pleaded.
Scootaloo turned towards the forest and charged forward, flapping her wings at such speeds that they made a loud buzzing sound. “Run and get help!” she cried, her voice and the buzzing sending something rushing out of the forest to catch her. It was a massive brute covered in light brown fur, all teeth and claws bared towards her. Its head was like that of a lion, as Scootaloo had theorized, but a massive hump on its back seemed to bear a resemblance to another head. One more equine in nature.
As Scootaloo closed her eyes and prayed for strength, she took one massive leap vertically into the air. She easily leapt high above the creature’s head and spread her wings. In an instant she opened her eyes and found herself soaring through the air, gliding on her little wings. It was an incredible sight, one that astonished her as much as it did Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who were wide-eyed in surprise. It was the single greatest moment of her life, the fulfillment of her dream to soar like Rainbow Dash, as she flew over the monster with the greatest of ease...
...only to be cut down mid-flight by sharp whack from the beast’s tail.
The blow knocked the wind from her lungs and flung her to the ground. Before she crashed she was grasped by the same appendage, which drove sharp spikes into her abdomen. She cried out in pain as the tail flung her back towards the rocks.
Scootaloo fell onto the earth with a loud thwack. Prone on her side, she tried to pull herself up. But her legs had become sluggish and heavy. As she tried in vain to wiggle them, she realized that her whole body had become still, a wave of numbness spreading out from her puncture wounds.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had seen Scootaloo fall and ran over to her. Scootaloo could hear them calling out to her. ‘Why didn’t they run?’ she thought, her mind the only thing still working as far as she could tell. She was paralyzed, unable to move at all. Except her eyes. She was quick to discover that her sense of sight was still totally intact as she watched the beast get closer to her friends.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom gazed down in horror at her helpless friend. Viscous yellow liquid oozed out of the tiny wounds in Scootaloo’s sides. Her face was frozen in a mask of pain and sorrow. Sweetie Belle tried to coax Scootaloo back up as Apple Bloom turned to face their attacker.
Apple Bloom had seen what this creature had done to Scootaloo, taking her out with a swipe of its bizarre tail. She knew she stood no chance against it, and yet she also knew she was boiling with an intense hatred; hatred for this monster for threatening her friends, for hurting her friend. “Sweetie Belle!” she said. “Take Scootaloo and get out of here!” With that she charged forward with all the strength the little earth filly could muster.
As courageous as she was, Apple Bloom was no bigger because of it. The massive creature batted Apple Bloom down like a bug, one huge claw raking over her soft flesh and sending her sprawling to the ground.
“Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. Apple Bloom now lay in the dirt as blood pooled under her. Three claw marks ran across her underbelly. Within moments Apple Bloom was coated in blood and heaving her chest feebly against the earth.
“Sweetie...” Apple Bloom said. “Run for it.”
Sweetie Belle stood stock still. She couldn’t abandon her friends. They were about to get torn up by a hungry monster! But she wasn’t strong like Apple Bloom and she had no wings like Scootaloo. She was a unicorn, and only a little filly. She had never successfully used her magic. She was completely helpless in the face of this crisis.
But she couldn’t give up! She needed to escape, she needed to find help! That was the only way Apple Bloom and Scootaloo would even have a chance of surviving. She would save them, she had to!
Slowly, Sweetie Belle began to back away from the beast. Two heads, one forming the creature’s hump, looked down with anticipation at the two little fillies they had snagged. For a brief moment, Sweetie thought it would be quite easy to sneak away while the beast dug in greedily to their catch.
No! She shook these horrible ideas from her head. She couldn’t let her friends be eaten! With little forethought, she cried, “Hey creep! Over here!” The heads’ attentions turned to Sweetie.
The little unicorn turned and made for the trees. If she could lead it back into the forest, she could keep it away from her friends. Then she could lose it and get them help. She galloped with all her might back towards the trees, but her trip was cut short as something grasped her by the haunches and lifted her backwards into the air.
Sweetie trotted her legs helplessly through the air, unable to break out of the grasp of whatever held her aloft.
“Well, well, well,” a voice rang out behind her as she found herself being elevated back before the creature. It was a deep voice, guttural yet with a refined quality to it. “What do we have here?” Sweetie Belle found herself brought before the head of the lion, whose large eyes narrowed on her.
“Looks like our third course was trying to get aw~aaay from us”, another voice said from behind the lion. The creature’s second head, clearly distinguishable now as a goat, spoke with a higher, almost musical voice.
Sweetie Belle felt the grasp on her loosen as she was dropped, only for the big lion’s paw to catch her by her tail before she hit the ground. Hanging upside-down from the lion’s paw, Sweetie looked up to see what had previously been holding her aloft, a black snake growing out of the creature’s hindquarters. The third head began to speak in a soft, lulling voice. “Ooh, left me have thisss one! I like them to be wriggling and writhing while they go down!” Sweetie Belle eyes grew wide with fear at this idea.
“Oh, and I suppose that means I get the one you ta~aaagged with your poison?” the goat head said, motioning towards the prone Scootaloo.
“Well I simply must have the earth filly” the lion said, licking his lips as it lowered its face to the wounded Apple Bloom. It sniffed at the little filly, who cowered in response. “I have smelled her blood and it is simply intoxicated! Besides, you can eat anything. Your stomach is practically invulnerable!”
“You are right”, the goat conceded. With a quick bob the goat head ducked down and ripped Scootaloo’s left hind leg off from her body with its teeth. Sweetie Belle screamed. Apple Bloom closed her eyes and looked away. Scootaloo didn’t move a muscle. Trapped within her own brain by the serpent’s poison, unable even to feel the pain of having a leg removed, Scootaloo cried internally at the sight. After a few chews on the legs the goat continued, its mouth still full. “But just once I’d like to get first di~iiiiibs on lu~uuuunch!”
The lion’s head, mouth watering at the sight, opened its gargantuan jaws to the body of Apple Bloom. With ease the beast could have swallow a filly in one bite, but the lion head seemed to prefer savoring his meals. Pearly white teeth tore into the tender flesh of the yellow filly’s side, causing Apple Bloom to cry out in pain. The lion tore out a rich, meaty chunk of Apple Bloom. It chewed on Apple Bloom’s bone and muscle as more blood drained out of the filly.
“Stop it! Please don’t eat my friends!” Sweetie Belle pleaded, sobbing uncontrollably. The massive paw that held her aloft pushed her to the ground, holding her in place. The lion and goat heads were now zealously tearing into their meals, her dear friends.
The goat head was tearing through Scootaloo methodically. It ripped Scootaloo’s other legs off one-by-one and munched on them just as it had the first. Scootaloo was helpless as the beast then moved to tearing off her little wings. ‘No, please, no!’ Scootaloo thought as the goat ripped off her first wing and ate it before her eyes. By the time it finished with the second one, she was completely despondent. She would never be able to run, never fly through the sky, even if she survived this. Tears streamed from her eyes and rolled across her lifeless face. As the goat began to works its way up Scootaloo’s torso, taking bright orange chunks out of her, the filly prayed only for a quick death.
Meanwhile, the lion lapped its tongue at the blood that drained out of Apple Bloom, like a kitten out of a milk saucer. “Big Mac... Granny... Help...” the yellow filly tried to shout, but her voice was too weak. The lion’s head ignored her cries and took one mammoth bite out of Apple Bloom’s hindquarters. The bite severed her hind legs from her torso and left her basically bifurcated. Apple Bloom moaned in pain as tears streamed down her eyes. The lion finished chewing and swallowed before it spit out Apple Bloom’s tail and smiled, crimson coating its teeth.
“Pleeeaase don’t!” Sweetie Belle cried out.
“Don’t worry, little one,” the snake’s head said to Sweetie Belle, drawing her attention from the nightmarish sight. “You’ll be joining your friendssss sssssoon enough!” It licked at her head with its thin, forked tongue.
“You’ve always got to pla~aaaay with your food, don’t you?” the goat chided the snake as it bit into what remained of Scootaloo’s torso. Unable to chew through the tough, paralyzed muscles, it began to shake Shootaloo’s body around without abandon. With a sickly snap, Scootaloo’s head was broken off entirely as a result of this wild shaking. The severed head flew through the air and landed before Sweetie Belle. She shrieked in terror at her friend’s lifeless head.
“Indeed,” the lion’s head said between bites. “You don’t want us getting impatient and depriving you of your share, do you?” It then returned to tearing bits of muscle and organ out of poor little Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom cried out softly one last time with tears in her eyes. Her last words before she expired were “Applejack...”
“I ssssuppossse you’re right.” The snake then unhinged it’s jaws and latched onto the restrained Sweetie Belle’s hindquarters once again, lifting the scared little filly out of the lion’s paw and into the air. Sweetie Belle was in complete denial at this point, sobbing uncontrollably. ‘They can’t be dead’, she thought as her little legs waddled helplessly over the sides of the snake’s mouth. ‘This has to be a nightmare! Please don’t let them be dead! Please don’t let this be happening!’
Within seconds the snake had slid its jaws over Sweetie’s hind legs and rump, part of her tail still poking out at the side of its mouth. “Fwossse fwiwwiesss fwere fwight! Fwhissss fwahn fwis fwwwweet!” the snake tried to say with its mouth full. Neither of the other heads was listening as they were totally engrossed in their meal.
Sweetie Belle began to realize with horror that this wasn’t some dream that could be willed away. Her friends were dead, what was left of them was being torn to bits by this monster, and she was about to become desert! She desperately pushed against the snake’s mouth with her front hooves, calling out for help. Her lower legs kicked from inside of the snake. “Rarity! Zecora! Twilight!” she called to anyone she could think of, although through her sobbing every name became garbled and unintelligible.
Meanwhile the snake was only spurred on by Sweetie Belle’s resistance, moving its jaws faster over the filly’s abdomen. Her tiny hooves were little more than an amusement to the snake and with one massive gulp it covered her upper torso, leaving only her little head and mane poking out.
Sweetie Belle turned her tear-stained eyes one last time to her friends, or what remained of her friends. The goat head had eaten all of Scootaloo and was now mechanically chewing her head over in its mouth, bits of brain and bone spraying everywhere. Apple Bloom had been reduced to little more than a head, the lion licking blood from its paws. Sweetie Belle was most horrified, however, by the prospect of dying slowly in the snake’s body. She was so horrified, in fact, that her bladder spasmed and she began to relieve herself as she was swallowed by the snake.
The snake’s head didn’t seem to mind, however, and as it swallowed Sweetie Belle little head, it simply said, “Mmm! Sssweet with a ssssour aftertasssste!”
Sweetie Belle could do nothing but cry within the snake’s body. It was cold and tight all around her, her legs pinned to her sides. She spent along time trapped inside the snake, unable to do anything. In her trapped state, she prayed that her sister would come rescue her, cut her out of the snake’s belly and save her like in one of fairy tails she had read. Once or twice she even thought she heard Rarity’s voice calling out to her.
Before long, however, Sweetie began to feel something soaking around her tail and bottom. It burned as it touched her body, causing the filly to moan in agony. Digestive acid soon washed over her, searing off her beautiful coat and mane. She could feel as it burned through her abdomen and legs, reducing skin and muscles to bone. Sweetie watched with terror as the acid ate through her chest, exposing her lungs and ribcage. The sight was so ghastly that it made her throw up to her side, unfortunately sending another spurt of acid straight into Sweetie’s face. She was actually thankful for this, as it made watching herself digest impossible.
She could still feel herself being melted away and smell the acidic death all around her. Sweetie Belle sobbed into the Snake’s skin, praying to Celestia that she would die quickly. Her prayer was not to be answered.
Twilight Sparkle groggily opened her eyes to the sound of knocking, although it took a few tries. Sleep tried to take hold of her one more time, but memories of bizarre and terrible dreams from her nap shocked her awake and back to the knocking.
Twilight picked herself up from where she had fallen asleep at her desk and walked over to the door, still only half awake. With a yawn she opened the door.
“Twilight? Sorry, did I wake you up, Sugarcube?”
The purple unicorn opened her eyes wide in response to this, hoping to convince her guest otherwise. “No, no, it’s fine. Spike’s having his week off I’ve just been a bit overworked. So how can I help you two?”
At Twilight’s door were her two friends, the orange pony Applejack and the white unicorn Rarity. Both looked more than a little unnerved. “Well Twi, we’ve been going around asking if anypony’s seen lil’ Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. They went out earlier today on one of their Cutie Mark Crusaders adventures and nopony’s seen them or lil’ Scootaloo all day.”
“Oh, that Sweetie Belle. When I find her she’s going to wish I hadn’t!” Rarity was clearly masking her fears with hostility. Twilight had known her long enough to tell she truly did love Sweetie Belle and that she was genuinely concerned.
“Apple Bloom came by earlier today asking to borrow a book. Something about Leprechauns and finding mystical creatures.”
“Oh no!” Rarity cried. She could already tell where this was going.
“Ya’ll don’t think they went back into the Everfree Forest, do yah?”
“I hope not, AJ. C’mon, we need to get a search party together to find those little fillies before it gets dark. The Everfree Forest may be dangerous now, but it only gets worse when the predators wake up at night.”
Applejack and Rarity nodded and turned to head out. “Let me just get my things together.” Twilight called out to them. “I’ll meet you in the town square!” Again, her friends nodded and began to gallop away.
Twilight turned back into her house, shutting the door with her magic. She decided to put the books she had been studying up while she was at it. On her desk were two opened tomes, one a spell book containing details on a transmogriphication spell. The other was a compendium of creatures that lived in the Everfree forest, its pages turned to the entry on Chimera.
As Twilight closed the books and levitated them up onto the shelves, her stomach made a high grumbling sound, a remnant of her lunch from earlier. Although it was innocuous enough, Twilight smirked all the same. She couldn’t help but think that the grumbling sounded more than a bit like the cry of an ailing little filly.
THE END