Headless Horse: Fear Beyond Fiction
"Now that everypony is comfortable," Rainbow Dash said. "It's time for another ghost story!" She laughed menacingly as a frightened Scootaloo quivered in fear.
"Hey! What if I told the story for tonight?" the young pegasus asked.
Rainbow Dash sighed and rested on the log she and Scootaloo were sitting on. "Alright, I guess. But only if it's horrible."
Scootaloo proceeded to tell a story filled with sunshine and rainbows. A story of happy ponies who sang songs and danced dances. Applejack, Apple Bloom, Rarity, Sweetie Bell, and Rainbow Dash all had a face that seemed to say, "Really?"
"No offense, kid" Rainbow Dash said. "But it's not a good story unless somepony is on the verge of a heart attack. Now let me tell you ponies a really scary story…"
Now gather 'round while I elucidate
On what happens outside when it gets late.
Long about midnight, the ghosts and banshees
Get together for their nightly jamboree.
There's ghosts with horns and saucer eyes,
Some with fangs about this size,
Some short and fat, some tall and thin,
Some don't even bother to wear their skin!
Ho ho, I'm telling you ponies, it's a frightful sight,
To see what goes on…in the night…
Scootaloo was already shivering like a leaf, though she did everything in her power to keep it hidden from Rainbow Dash and the others. Applejack just yawned as the blue pegasus continued her tale.
When the spooks have a midnight jamboree,
They break it up with fiendish glee.
Ghosts are bad, but the one that's cursed,
Is the Headless Horse, yes he's the worst!
When he goes galloping 'cross the land,
With his awful, ethereal band,
Ponies take one look and groan
And hit the road for parts unknown.
And there's no spook like a spook who's spurned.
They don't like him and he's really burned!
He swears to the longest day he's dead,
And he'll show them that he can get a head.
Scootaloo wanted desperately to plug her ears and hide in the cave they would be sleeping in. She noticed that Rainbow Dash seemed to turn her attention slightly away from the group and a little bit more towards Scootaloo. Her Persian Rose eyes burned like fiery darts into the terrified pony's soul.
They say he's tired of his endless trot,
He's got an urge to get you caught,
So he goes in search, I hear,
Of those who's heads are filled with fear.
Now he likes them little, he likes them big,
Part in the middle, or a wig,
Black, or white, or even red,
The Headless Horse, he needs a head.
With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop,
He's out looking for a top to chop
So don't try and plot a different course,
You can't escape from the Headless Horse
Applejack, Rarity, and the other two crusaders noticed that Scootaloo was acting quite jumpy. When Scootaloo caught them staring at her, she put on the façade of acting like she was bored and ready to sleep. In her mind though, she prayed for Rainbow Dash to stop her story.
Now if you doubt this tale is so,
I met that spook just a year ago…
"Yeah right, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack said. "And Ah'm the Queen o' Trottinham!" Apple Bloom laughed. Rainbow Dash acted as though she hadn't heard anything.
Now I didn't stop for a second look,
But made for the bridge that spans the brook,
For once you cross that bridge my friend,
The ghost is through, his power ends!
So, if you hear anything tonight,
Make for the bridge with all your might!
He'll be somewhere in the dark out there,
He needs your head! Look out! Beware!
With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop,
He's out looking for a top to chop
So don't try and plot a different course,
You can't escape from the Headless Horse…
Rainbow Dash fell silent for a moment. "Well," she said. "Time to go to bed!"
Rarity gave a sigh of relief. "Finally! I can get my beauty sleep!" She saw that Sweetie Bell was slightly on edge. "Now don't you worry, you have your big sister here. And if absolutely anything happens, you can bet I won't waste a second to call Applejack and the others for help." Sweetie Bell laughed. "Oh, that's very reassuring, Sis."
"Same goes for you, Sugarcube" Applejack said to Apple Bloom. "Ya got nothin' to worry about with yer big sister around." Apple Bloom gave her a hug. Scootaloo saw that Rainbow Dash had already gone into the cave. She quickly ran in and found the pegasus getting comfortable in her sleeping bag.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash? That story isn't true is it? About the Headless Horse?"
Rainbow Dash looked at Scootaloo with a look of suspicion. "You weren't scared were you?" Scootaloo quickly shook her head and denied the claim. "That's good," said Rainbow Dash. "I was beginning to worry for a second."
Scootaloo crawled into her sleeping bag and attempted to sleep, but knew she would not be able to.
The night passed by ever so slowly. Everypony except Scootaloo was now fast asleep. Suddenly, the little pegasus heard what sounded like whinnying. It was soft and sounded distant. Scootaloo feared the worst. The Headless Horse?! No, it couldn't be…could it? The sound continued. Scootaloo finally pulled out her helmet from her bag, jumped on her scooter, and took off out of the cave as fast as she could go. Little did she realize that the sound she had heard was actually Rainbow Dash snoring. The frightened pony took off through the woods looking everywhere around her, listening closely for the sound of anything suspicious. After traveling for another minute or so, Scootaloo thought she heard the cracking of branches. She turned her head to see, only to crash into something. Scootaloo rose from the ground and saw that she had crashed in another pony! "Oh no! I'm so sorry, are you hurt?" Scootaloo had never seen this pale green, pony before. Her mane was hazel brown which matched her eye color. Scootaloo also observed that she had no cutie mark! "I'll be alright," the pony said. "What are doing out here at this time of night? This is no place for a pony like you!" Scootaloo raised her eyebrows. "Well, I might ask you the same question, whoever you are!"
The green pony sat up and sighed. "The name's Bell Sprout, and I live out here!"
Scootaloo was shocked. "You live out here?! But we didn't pass anypony nor did we see any signs of civilization on our way up here!" Bell Sprout shook her head. "Never mind that, you have yet to answer my question as to what you're doing here."
"My friends and I came up in the woods to go camping. I came out this way because I thought I heard something." Scootaloo said.
"Yeah, that would have been me. I was out collecting firewood when I heard you come barreling through the trees. You must have thought I was a bear or something to be going so fast." Bell Sprout replied.
"Well," said Scootaloo. "I actually thought it was…something else…" Bell Sprout looked suspiciously at the pegasus. "Like what? The Headless Horse, perhaps?" She was smiling as she asked this question, but her smile quickly dissipated when Scootaloo looked at her with wide staring amethyst eyes. "You've heard the legend too?!" Scootaloo proceeded to tell Bell Sprout everything Rainbow Dash had said before in her story.
"Okay first of all," Bell Sprout began. "Everypony around here knows that story. Second, I've lived in this forest my whole life! If the Headless Horse was real, I think I would have seen it at some point. Third, the story in itself is just ridiculous! How can a headless horse see where it's going without a head, let alone use a weapon to cut off some other pony's head?"
Scootaloo was slightly calmed. "You know something, you're right! It is just a story after all!" She laughed. Bell Sprout started laughing as well. "Wait, you actually believed that story?! You must really be gullible!"
Scootaloo was laughing too much to care about Bell Sprout's insult. "Yeah," she said. "What a baby I was!" Both ponies continued to laugh. Just then, both of them heard the sound of a third voice join in the laughing. But this laugh was deep and menacing. Scootaloo and Bell Sprout froze and looked up. There, standing over them was a horse with no head! By its side was a floating sword. It was the Headless Horse. Its evil cackle rang through the trees.
"TH-THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Bell Sprout screamed. Scootaloo quickly grabbed the green pony and pulled her onto the back of her scooter, then took off down the forested path at top speed, thinking only on instinct. The Headless Horse followed right behind them. Cold sweat ran down both ponies' faces as they flew through the dark forest. Scootaloo didn't even know where she was going. All she knew was that the legends were true, and a demon of nightmares was after her. Fiction had become fact.
"What are we going to do?!" Scootaloo cried.
"I don't know," screamed Bell Sprout. "Just keep going!"
The galloping of thunderous hooves rang through the ponies' ears as Scootaloo's poor little scooter travelled faster than it ever had before. Its wheels were actually smoking! Over hill and dale they flew as fast as they could. The Headless Horse all the while was right behind them, swinging its sword at the ponies, chopping down trees and bushes in the process.
"Ohnoohonoohonoohono…." Scootaloo was in total panic mode.
"We're gonna die unless we think of something quick!" Bell Sprout screamed.
Scootaloo thought and thought. Suddenly, off in the distance, the pegasus spotted a brook. Further up the brook, just barely within her sights, was a bridge. Rainbow Dash's words rang through her head: Once you cross that bridge my friend, the ghost is through! His power ends! Scootaloo laid into her scooter as hard as she could and flew towards her target with all her might. The Headless Horse must have known what she was planning, because it picked up its pace and charged with an unnatural speed. Its silver blade slashing the air left and right with lightning-like ferocity. Bell Sprout did everything she could to duck and move Scootaloo's head out of the way as well. They began closing on the bridge. They were almost there. Screams of rage, suffering, and pain, suddenly rent the air. Unknown demons from hidden shadows sprang forth from every nook and cranny of the forest. They flew past the ponies, instilling fear into them at every pass. Scootaloo had no idea what they were or where they came from, and she wanted so badly to scream and give up to the ghost. But she couldn't; something within her prodded her, telling her to go on, telling her that if she so much as slowed down, her life would be forfeit. Her body was tired, her scooter was crying in pain, it seemed, from how fast it was going. The wicked blade of the Headless Horse was screaming through the midnight air. Everything was a blur to the ponies as they flew. All the pegasus on the scooter could see was that bridge. She knew that if she could only make it to that bridge, she'd be safe. Screams, roars, nightmares, visions of the darkness, all these things surrounded the ponies. All these things were on the edge of the ponies' trail as they flew. The Headless Horse was determined to catch these two at all costs. Scootaloo's amethyst eyes trembled like mad leaves in the wind. Her eyes saw a bridge, but they also saw the vengeful phantasms, the souls of the forgotten, the ghosts of demons past, the flickers of the Inferno, and the open jaw of the wicked king. Her eyes saw nightmares of Apple Bloom's body being burned at the stakes while she screamed in agony, Sweetie Bell being taken by skeletal fiends and having her body dashed to pieces while her crimson blood rained down on the crying flowers below, Applejack being buried alive in a swarm of flesh eating devils, Rarity strapped to a machine that twisted her head, and legs, one hundred and eighty degrees, and she saw Rainbow Dash's wings being ripped from her body, her eyes gouged out, her lower body sawed off with a rusted blade, and the blue pegasus, in her own blood, crawling along the floor with tears of blood streaming down her face, pleading for Scootaloo to save her, and then watching as her body was taken up into the jaws of a terrible beast and eaten as the last sounds of muffled screams vanished into its gaping jaw. Tears welled up in Scootaloo's eyes; tears of terror, tears of sorrow. Princess Luna, let this nightmare end! Take me away from this terrible place! Save me! Oh please! Save me! Then it happened. Scootaloo's scooter cracked and shattered. It sent the two ponies flying through the air and hit the ground hard. Scootaloo got up and saw that she was on the other side of the bridge! She had done it! There on the other side was the Headless Horse. From out of thin air, a flaming horse skull appeared. It hovered in the air on its own accord, and its flames were pearl white. Scootaloo was frozen in fear with eyes wider than dinner plates. All fell silent as the flaming skull flew right towards her, screaming, wailing, and cackling as it flew. The pegasus felt no pain as it made contact with her. Her eyes closed, and she fell asleep…
"Scootaloo? Scootaloo!" Scootaloo opened her eyes and saw a very worried Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Apple Bloom, Rarity, and Sweetie Bell, surrounding her. "Oh thank goodness!" Rainbow Dash said. "I thought we lost you!" She embraced the little pegasus and held her close. It took Scootaloo a minute to realize that the morning had come. There were no ghosts, no demons, just chirping birds welcoming the dawn, and very happy friends surrounding her. When she realized this, Scootaloo pressed into Rainbow Dash's chest and began to cry. "Oh, Rainbow Dash. It was awful!" After she calmed down, Scootaloo recounted everything that happened the night before, how she had met Bell Sprout, and how the two had been chased by the Headless Horse. "Sugarcube, ya sure ya didn't just have a bad dream?" Applejack asked. Scootaloo had a feeling they wouldn't believe her, but she knew what she had seen and heard.
"Bell Sprout will back me up! She was there with me!...Where is she anyway?" Scootaloo looked all over for her new friend. She got up and found where her scooter had shattered, but she found no sign on the green pony. "She wouldn't just leave without waking me up first!" Scootaloo was panicking. She knew that without Bell Sprout, nopony would ever believe her.
Rainbow Dash and the others looked on as Scootaloo searched in the nearby bushes. Suddenly, a scream of pure terror filled the morning air. The ponies rushed to Scootaloo's side. They saw that her face was filled with unimaginable horror. They turned to see what she was looking at, and immediately, more screams of terror rang out. Every face was in disbelief, shock, and again, unimaginable horror. There, laying on the ground in a puddle of blood, was Bell Sprout…and her head was missing…
With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop,
He's out looking for a top to chop,
So don't try and plot a different course,
You can't escape from the Headless Horse…
First off, I want to apologize for being away for a while, but I'm back with another story for all of you! :D As many of you noticed, I borrowed from Bing Crosby's "Headless Horseman" song and made a few altercations. I hope you enjoy the story, and let me know what you thought!