AN: My first pony fic! I knew it would come to this eventually.
Yes, for those in the know, the title and premise are a nod to Ray Bradbury's kiddie horror classic Something Wicked This Way Comes. I don't know how much I'll end up borrowing from it, but it won't be a beat-for-beat retelling. I had the idea a while ago, and I put off writing it, but I knew I had to act before somepony else took this sweet title. Enjoy!
"Ah smell cotton candy," said Apple Bloom.
"Um, d'you hear music?" asked Sweetie Bell.
"Music?" said Scootaloo. "I can't even hear birds. It got real quiet all of a sudden. Huh. Weird."
Three heads emerged from the tree fort window like a bouquet containing one tulip, one daisy, and one tiger lily. Their big eyes scanned the forest. The air was very still. Then a slow, deliberate-seeming breeze washed through the trees, and over them, brushing their forelocks, causing the now-old boards of the fort to creak gently, a noise like a sigh of relief. The fillies shut their eyes.
"It smells real sweet," whispered Apple Bloom.
"It sounds pretty," said Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo's eyes snapped back open, and she was grinning from ear to ear. "It sounds like fun! C'mon you guys, what're we waiting for?"
"But…" Sweetie Belle shrunk back slightly. "What is it?"
"I dunno," said Scootaloo, with an impatient buzz of her wings, "maybe Pinkie's testing her new Party Washing Machine or something."
The other two nodded without missing a beat.
"Yeah."
"Sounds plausible."
"Then let's go!"
The pegasus sprang out the window, while the others made eagerly for the ramp. A moment later, a cloud, blown on the track of the fragrant smelling, pleasant-sounding breeze, passed under the sun's bright belly and splashed the empty room dark.
Granny Smith, curled up in her familiar red chair on the porch of Sweet Apple Acres, dreamed. She dreamed mostly of a long-ago time and of Awe Shucks, the little, tan-colored colt who'd creep up to the fence while she and her father bucked in the orchard, then turn and bolt when she caught sight of him, presenting her with his corn kernel cutie mark twinkling like gold in the sun; and she blushed, and went silently back to work, until one day he arrived with a perfect corn cob between his strong white teeth, spit it over the fence, and, staring at his hooves, mumbled: "It's the b-best we grow, Miss Smith, and there are many more of the same if you should do me the honor of accompanying me to the barn dance next Tuesday eve…"
Then as she blushed and smiled, she became aware of another noise. At first she thought it was Shucks' teeth rattling. But it was louder, and got more so, until it drowned him out; a great clanking and whizzing and rattling, like a huge engine moving overland, and Shucks was getting darker and further away; she thrashed and groaned in her sleep. That sound was familiar somehow. But if she'd heard it before, it was worse now; there was a new note in the unmusical chorus, another tortuous, badly tuned instrument. Granny Smith snapped awake.
A huge shadow was passing between her and the sun, and the porch rafters of Sweet Apple Acres were trembling.
The door to Twilight Sparkle's study burst open. The purplish energy drifting from her horn whiffed away; an empty beaker fell and smashed on the desk.
"Spike! Now look what you did! We're both lucky I hadn't filled that container with this extremely rare acidic moss I'm researching, now what did we agree about knocking?"
"But I did knock, like eight million times! You…know how you get, Twi."
She sighed, rolled her eyes, tidied the glass fragments with another puff of magic energy, and turned to face a dark-faced, breathless Spike. As soon as their eyes met, her expression softened into one of polite concern.
"What's wrong?"
"This…could be big. It's…coming."
"It? What? Spike, what did we agree about being cryptic?"
He tried to catch his breath, steadied his small body on the doorframe, and muttered something.
"Huh?"
"…I said I think it's the carnival."
"Well gee," Twilight rolled her eyes again, "how sinister. But isn't it kind of late in the year for…?"
"That's the thing! And I don't think it's one we've seen before. I mean, I know the two of us haven't been here long, b-but nobody else has heard of them; and everybody's acting weird, too."
"Weird, how?"
"They're excited…and confused. It's like they feel something and don't know what."
Which description, Twilight thought, regarding Spike sympathetically, applied to him as well.
"We'd better go check it out."
"I know, they're all headed over there. If we hurry we can catch up with them."
"Wait. If it's not here yet, how do you know where it's coming from…or that it's coming at all?"
Spike held out a glossy black pamphlet, and Twilight obligingly magicked it across the room into her hoof.
"Hmm. 'Starke Raven and Starke Dedd present their Equestria-famous Pandemonium Shadow Show'… it can't be all that famous if nopony's heard of them. Hall of Mirrors…Wax Museum…Pony-Go-Round…it looks pretty standard, to be honest. Maybe they're using some kind of magic to spook everyone out and drum up business. Who knows," and she smiled, "it might really be fun. Pinkie's gonna love this, anyway, she always cries when carnival season's over. Speaking of which, did you talk to the girls?"
"I couldn't find any of them! They must already be over there."
"Really? Even Fluttershy?" Twilight flipped the pamphlet over. There on the back were the Starke brothers in their glory, with identical bone-white fur, stylish black vests, arched eyebrows, and neatly styled, salt-and-pepper manes. "One of them's got a mustache," she observed. "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Y-yeah, I thought about that too, but they look way older than those guys."
"Curious. Well…no sense dragging our hooves. Let's get to the bottom of this, faithful assistant."
"Right behind you, oh wise one."
Spike meant it. He waited, still breathing heavily and casting his eyes skittishly around, until she passed in front of him, then followed her out the door and shut it behind them.
