Moth Ponies

[Kirby Krackle]

Remember when Bat Ponies suddenly became a thing? Well, I was just on /mlp/ browsing and I stumbled upon a couple anons building the rules on... well, you'll see. I saved (and had TortoiseShell edit the curse words out of) a capped green text story. It's actually cute as a button and I would probably churn out some fanart if I wasn't a lazy blob. Anyways, cheers. Also, feel free to move this if it's the wrong forum.

You've been regretting your decision to ignore Twilight's real estate advice

You had your house-

THUMP

ugh, you had your house built closer to the Everfree forest to save a few bits on land. They warned you that the darkness of Everfree made it dangerous.

You laughed in their faces. and then

THUMP

-YOU LAUGHED IN THEIR FACES AND BLEW THEIR MINDS WITH YOUR ELECTRICAL SCIENCY MAGIC.

A few light bulbs would push back that terrifying and terrible darkness, you thought.

But the lights had their own drawbacks

They drew in their own form of Eldritch horror.

Moth ponies.

A completely undiscovered species of- THUMP

-of pony that lived in the Everfree. They were drawn in like, well, moths to a flame. It was pretty cool at first. You had barely been here a month and you'd already made a massive scientific discovery.

The cool wore off quickly. They wouldn't leave you alone. They practically lived here now. They kept you up all night with-

THUMP

-THAT THUMPING. They keep flying into your windows. You were getting tired of this. literally. You haven't had a good night's sleep in a week.

If someone offered you their time machine right now you'd go back in time and stab Edison in his filthy patent-stealing face.

You'd tried just turning the lights off and forgetting about the whole thing, but a hydra ate your porch.

THUMP

"SON OF A-'

You abandon your expository monologue and stomp over to the window. You grab the bottom of the window and flung it open.

Before you have a chance to start throwing out your carefully planed insults. you are a suddenly slammed back into the room by a sudden weight against your chest.

You fall back onto the floor as the moth pony who'd been making your life hell for the past hour started to tumble over your head and into your nightstand.

"Owww" she says. rubbing her head. You prop yourself up on your elbow and start to regain your composure.

You look over your assailant. trying to see if you can remember which one she was.

She had a medium-length, shaggy coat. with a large tuft of fur on her chest and It was a weird. kind of shimmery purple color. Her mane was light orange lined with thin green highlights that was styled in a sort of wild left part The fur on her ears was really long, coming up in a straight line from the tips and spreading out like a moth's antennae.

Her cutie mark was a name surrounded by wispy haze. You remembered her now. Frosty Flicker. She was a regular on your porch.

Once she got herself sorted out she spun on her hooves to face you.

"1-l'm sorry! Are you okay?" She rushed over to your side. and started trotting in place, worried about your well being.

How were you supposed to stay mad at that?

"I'm fine." you grunt as you climb to your feet. You gesticulate a bit to get the aches worked out. and loo k down to the moth pony at your feel

She looks you over to make sure you're okay. When she's satisfied that she didn't break you, she smiles and gives a small giggle.

"Sorry about that. Anon. l just" she trails off as she looks to one side. You quirk an eyebrow.

"Just what?" you question. No reply. You follow her gaze. and sigh in annoyance. She's staring at your lamp.

She walk over to it and sits on her haunches. She stares at the yellow glow of the bulb with half-lidded eyes and a contented smile on her face.

This would be cute if something like this didn't happen every other night. You snap your fingers to get her attention.

As soon as you do. she jumps up, and whirls to face you with a look of fear in her eyes. You step back in surprise. She quickly regains her composure and looks up to you with a small smile.

"What's up?" She ask with a small smile.

Is she serious? You sigh, as you reach down to pick her up around her midsection. She yelps in surprise.

"H-hey! Put me down!"

"We can't keep doing this guys. l need some sleep". You start carrying her towards the front door.

"B-but, the light!" she whines as her eyes flick to the dimly lit wall sconce in the living room.

'I'd appreciate if you'd tell your friends outside to find their own light' you say flatly as you pull open your door."

As soon as you open the door. you immediately regret it.

There were about fifteen or so of them on your porch. and as soon as the door opened. they took it as an invitation to come right on inside.

You manage to avoid being pushed over, but your pants look like they were the victim of a glitter catastrophe at the carousel boutique.

Lousy dusty moth wings. You turn to face the horde now taking up residence in your living room. There's a veritable rainbow of moth pones all huddled around various light figures like- they were roaring fireplaces.

They start talking among themselves. and soon there's a pretty loud din echoing throughout the house.

No. You set Flicker down at your feet. Not tonight. You've got to be at the farm in three hours. Flicker looks up at you with a worried expression.

"Anon, are you okay?''

You down to her and smirk, "Be right back." You step around her and make your way to the basement.

Right next to the entrance you find what you were looking for: the main breaker. You quickly flip it, and the whole house is cloaked in darkness, and the noise from upstairs ceases instantly.

You're thrown a bit by that. but you shake it off and make your way up the stairs.

"Sorry· guys, party's ov-" you stop as you see the expressions of pure terror on your guests' faces.

After what felt like an eternity of pure awkward silence, they all immediately bolt for your front door.

Your gaze follows them out into the darkness, but hangs on a shape next to the door frame.

Flicker is still paralyzed in shock. You run up to her and drop down lo her eye level.

"Flicker! Are your okay? What's going on?" You put a hand on her shoulder. which seems to snap her back into reality.

"What happened to the light?" You can tell from her voice that she's on edge. She repeatedly glances around and back out your door.

"I'll go turn it back on ... " You slowly stand back up, and Flicker lets out a breath.

"Sorry, about that." she says as you turn to go back to the basement. "i -it's just. the forest is so dark. .. "

Your heart sinks. You can hear a slight crack at the word dark. You swear these ponies were designed to make you feel guilty.

You start groping along the wall to try and find the basement door. You hear a strange sort of crunching sound outside.

You pause and try to figure out what exactly is making the noise. Suddenly the wall to your right explodes into a shower of splinters as a large scorpion stinger plows through it

You fall back to avoid it but quickly scramble to your feet to avoid the lumbering beast that charges through.

"Anon!" Flicker dive tackles you out of the way its stinger as it brings it down right where you were.

You wrap your arms around her and run for the back door.

'STUPID FOREST' You shout. as you catch your breath against a tree. Flicker fidgets in your arms.

The manticore chased you through the forest for an hour before he'd finally given up.

"Um. you can put me down now if you want to ... "

"Right" you mumble as you set her down. She glances around, unsure.

"I don't recognize this place ... " she sounds unsure of herself. "Do you know' where we are?"

"No. I avoid the forest like the plague." You glance around quickly before looking back down to the shimmering pony.

"Do you know which way leads out of the forest?"

"I usually find my way out by the lights in your house." she replies. You detect a hint of exasperation in her voice.

You ponder your options "It should be three in the morning. If don't show up for work at Sweet Apple Acres in two hours, Applejack should come looking for me."

"She'll see the hole in the wall and the manticore track. She'll get help." You slump against the tree trunk. Flicker look unsatisfied.

"What do we do in the meantime?" She starts glancing around wildly. "What if another creature finds us? Do we just wait here?"

"I don't know, Flicker." You say, exhausted. Her eyes catch on something in the distance. "Look"

You try to make out what she's pointing out but simply can't. She bites onto your pant leg and starts to pull you towards the .. .whatever.

You acquiesce and jog behind her as she gallops into the forest

As you get closer, you see it

A glowing mushroom.

It's extremely dim, like the ember on the end of a blown-out birthday candle dim.

Despite this. she looks extremely happy to see it. She turns to you with a smile bright enough to light up the whole forest

"I didn't think they grew out far!" She plops onto her belly in front of the 'shroom and levels her gaze with it.

"Um ... Flicker..." She raises her hoof to the mushroom as you speak, "I don't think that's enough light to-"

she bats at the mushroom and the thing practically EXPLODES into bright blue light.

"GAH!” You shield your eyes. You wait a few seconds for your eyes to adjust before peeking out

She's still laying on the ground staring transfixed at the gentle blue glow of the mushroom.

She quietly stands up, and boops the mushroom. When she does. it flares up again. but this time you notice the glow spread out in various colors from the mushroom through its roots.

She begins chasing the glow down, following it from it's source. You see her dive behind bushes, trees and rock, each time triggering a flare of color.

After about a minute of this. she comes back towards you with a satisfied look on her face. The area is lit by luminescent mushrooms of various colors.

She sits on her haunches and sighs. She looks up to you and smiles. "That should keep the monsters away!"

"Wow. I didn't think the Everfree forest could look so beautiful"

A! least this one part of it. The light given off by the mushrooms was still rather dim. dimmer than most of your lights back home.

Beyond the lights was a wan of almost pure darkness. You turn back to Flicker and smile, mostly out of pity. How could she live in this darkness?

Something bothers you though. "How did you find this?" It was so dim. There's no way she just saw it even with superior nocturnal vision.

She smirks and gestures to her cutie mark. "It's my special talent! I'm really good at finding light. l find light for the herd!"

"I was actually the one who found your house." She's still smiling, but her face falls a bit. I led every pony to it."

Apparently she's to blame for the sleepless nights. You can't bring yourself to get angry about it though.

Her smile falters. "I'm sorry Anon. I thought you'd want to share."

She has to be doing this on purpose. There's no other explanation. You sigh in defeat.

"It's okay. t shouldn't have been so stingy." As soon as you're done wiring up Applejack's farm and the Sofa and Quill shop, you're going to put string Christmas lights on every tree in Everfree.

Her face regains some of it's buoyancy, and a small smile creeps onto her lips. "You mean it?"

HHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG

Applejack can wait

"I mean it." She flutters up in to the air and does a little flip before diving into your torso and wrapping you in a warm fuzzy hug.

The two of you sit in the glow of the mushrooms talking the night away.

She told you about the various bio-luminescent flora that can protect you from the darkness. and you told her about the big cities back home and all of their lights.

You promised to take her to Manehattan sometime so that she could get a taste. She promised not to try and get in your windows while you're asleep.

The hours passed in what felt like minutes. as Rainbow Dash dropped into your clearing and announced your location to the rest of the search party.

You fell to your knees and praised the sun as soon as you were out of that wretched forest. Applejack galloped over to you as soon as you broke through the brush.

"Ya'll alright? Ya had us worried sick! We warned ya not to build out here!" Twilight nods in agreement

"What happened? I thought you said the lights worked to keep the monsters away?"

She cocked an eyebrow inquisitively.

"I just made a mistake, that's all. I'll get the hole patched, tum the lights back on, and everything will be fine." You turn to Applejack,

Flicker yawns. "I need to start heading home soon. I need to get some sleep." She starts to flutter off, but you stop her.

"If you want you can sleep on my couch." You expected to have to try and convince her, but as soon as the words are out of your mouth. she thanks you and runs into your house.

You've never felt more exhausted in you life. but there's something you have to do. You turn to the other ponies and tell them what you have planned.

They agree without hesitation. The moth ponies needed something--anything. Their situation was pretty awful.

You all make sure to work relatively far from the house. so that Flicker doesn't wake up.

At any rate. you'd like it to be a surprise.

You just woke up from the most wonderful nap you've ever had. This couch was super comfy Anon had it good.

You l ook out the window and see that the sun will go down soon. You need to get back to your heard. It'll be hard for them to move through the forest without you.

You push open the backdoor and head towards the forest. When you see it. In the large clearing behind Anon's house is a large gazebo thing.

There are lights all over it. and lots of tables and benches and stuff to sit at. But the light's though. There are a lot of them.

You manage to pull your eyes away from them to see a familiar form sitting back on a bench. You gallop over to him excitedly.

You smile at what you see when you get there. Anon is fast asleep.

You look back to the forest. then Anon. You still have some time. You climb up next to him and lat your head on his thigh.

You smile as you zone out staring at one of the multitude of lights around you. You sigh contentedly. You snuggle closer. You could get used to this.

Tortoise Shell and Adobe Acrobat solved most of the type-from-image problem. The rest was me doing minor (and I mean minor. I'm a doctor not a proofreader!) edits to spelling (mostly because the program thought cl was d, and so forth) and grammar. But anyway, tada.

[Corsair]

Can't magnify the file enough on PB to read it.

[Halide]

Could you just post the text? That format is completely illegible.

[Kirby Krackle]

Transcribing done! Check that OP, party people.