Nothing but silence, the stranger would not move an inch, the same goes for Twi. Both were locked in an intense staring contest, though it was very clear who was winning this hypothetical contest. Twi was slowly starting to shake in fear while the man was as still as a statue. It felt as if any sudden move could make the ominous person aggressive like a wild animal.
This guy was bad news, really bad news. After what felt like an eternity, Twi regained control of her legs and chose to back away to go to the other side of the crosswalk and hopefully get past him. Creepily enough, the stranger followed her every step with his gaze... before he finally took one towards her. Bones cracking accompanied his step, the sickening crunch sounded like he was snapping his bones in half each time his feet made contact with the ground.
This also reflected in his walk as he looked like he could fall at any moment with just how uneven and hesitant it was. Feeling her heart beating faster, Twi accelerated in hopes to get as far away as possible from him.
Then, he stopped moving. Raising an arm in the air, his hand was closed in a fist before it opened. A pendulum fell out of his hand and hung by the thread wrapped around his index. Twi slowed down without even knowing why. The stranger began to move the pendulum left and right and she felt drawn to the movement of the object.
She kept on looking at it and strangely enough; it made her fears go away. She felt comfort in watching the thing swinging about. That was until the man began to walk towards her again, startling her. Twi tried to move her legs but they wouldn’t respond. She tried to move her arms but they too wouldn’t respond. Not even her eyes would look away from the incoming danger. She was stuck in a trance.
Her eyes were still staring at the pendulum, they couldn’t even blink. It was a very strange feeling, made even worse by the fact that it left her defenseless from the creepy man. Tears of terror began to leak down her face as her body started to shake. It was the only type of movement she was capable of doing, or perhaps allowed would be a better word to describe this feeling.
He was now right in her face; at this distance she would be able to feel him breathing down her face but there was nothing. No breaths, no sound, only cracking noises as he methodically tilted his head from side to side as if he was analysing her.
“P-P-P...”
She tried as hard as she could to speak, but her lips were sealed shut. The stranger slowly lifted his arms up to her face, grabbing her by the cheeks and he lifted her head to get a better look.
Tilting her head left and right, Twi could feel the man’s finger cracking with every slight pressure he applied to her face. Looking into his eyes, she could barely perceive a faint yellowish glow that showed some semblance of life in him.
Finally, he let go of her and slowly walked away, leaving Twi in disarray. She crumbled on her knees as soon as she got back control of her body, still terrified of this scary encounter. She could have easily been murdered back there.
Twi slowly turned her head to look at the stranger leaving without a single care showing in his body language. He simply walked away after his bizarre examination.
I have to get back home, now!
Just as she stood up, a horrible migraine overcame her. It was so bad that she felt dizzy. Walking became extremely difficult, it felt as if she was really drunk, even though she had never consumed any alcohol in her life. Then, she fell down on the ground and passed out.
Dark, gloomy and deathly silent. These were good adjectives to describe this rundown shack in the middle of nowhere outside of Canterlot. There was no electricity, mostly because it was abandoned a long time ago from the looks of things. Nobody remembered this shack and none even ventured close to it, the perfect hideout for him.
All he had to light up the place was a small lantern that he had brought with him, very archaic in design. He was sitting on an old wooden chair, staring at the pathetic looking shiv he placed on the table. Was he really going to use it to murder his target? It would take at least 256 stabs to kill a person with it. Oh my, how long as he been searching already? So long he hadn’t even though of a plan.
Well, first things first, he had to get a real weapon. Something sharp, bigger and deadlier than this.
“Do you ever worry you might be going mad?”
He stopped fiddling around with the shiv. Instead, his focus was now on his hands. They looked so pitiful. They were shriveled up in the same way a person’s hands would look if they stayed in water for a long period of time. Not only that, but his hands had lost their beautiful color. Now all that remained was a faded sickly tint. It’s been so long since he’s been this way to the point that he was starting to forget who he was.
Looking to his right, he noticed a beanie sitting on the table. Drawn to it, he wore it without a second thought. Better hide his dying hair than to let anyone see just how pitiful he was.
“It’s going nowhere. To succeed, one must send a message first. Then and only then, would it be a good time to savor the kill.”
It was right, he must let himself be known first. Though he must stick to the shadows, too much exposure would jeopardise everything. It won’t happen, not after all these years and all the things he sacrificed. He needed a weapon, and he’ll get it now.
Or perhaps tomorrow. The sun is slowly rising over the horizon, guess he’ll just have to be patient. An easy thing to do now for he was so close to fulfilling his and only desire at the moment.
Another day, another exam. These were getting really wearisome to Sunset Shimmer. It was that awful period near Halloween where the teachers would cram all their exams, making for a really stressful week. Good thing she was studying hard, because she finished early and got to head out of class. She took a seat in the cafeteria and pulled out her phone while waiting for her friends to finish their exams.
Unsurprisingly, Twi was the first of her friends to finish. She walked up to the table Sunset was sitting at and fell down on the chair, looking somewhat exhausted.
“Hey Twilight! I’m quite surprised you finished after me. You’re usually better at maths than I am.” playfully said Sunset.
Twi rubbed her eyes before responding. “I haven’t slept much last night, that’s probably why I was slower this time around.”
“You didn’t sleep much? Why, was it the exam that got you spooked?”
Twi shook her head and opened her mouth as if she was about to explain why, but then she looked confused. She looked away for a moment, trying to remember something, but it just wouldn’t come to mind.
“Uh, Twilight? Is something wrong?” Sunset worriedly asked, putting down her phone to face her friend.
Twi finally snapped out of it. “No, I don’t think so. I’m just trying to remember why I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but... I just can’t remember.”
“And that is... not a cause for concern?”
“The exam was pretty easy, so thankfully that didn’t really cause any problem. Plus, if I forgot about it; then surely it must have been not important.”
Though still unsure, Sunset didn’t want to pride any further. “Yeah, I suppose this isn’t really something we should be worried about. I mean, there are some stuffs that I can’t remember too... Hehe... he.”
Time passed and eventually, the entire band was here. Each of them looking worn out from the difficult exam they had just finished.
“Oh man, that wasn’t very fun...” Pinkie exclaimed, her chin resting on the table.
“At least darling, I can say that I’m confident that I will get a good grade!” said Rarity as she was running a hand through her nicely combed hair.
Applejack turned to look at her, unimpressed. “Why? Is it the flashy clothes?”
“Oh yes indeed! A girl has to look good for such an important event!”
Rainbow Dash groaned. “You do know that fancy clothes don’t equal good grades? You can ask Twilight about that.”
Rarity looked at Twi and noticed that her friend’s sense of fashion was clearly nowhere close to her standards.
Twi giggled nervously. “I didn’t have time to slip into something flashy.”
Fluttershy didn’t seem to think it looked that bad. “Hum, I still think it looks good on you, Twilight.”
“Meh, let’s stop talking about exams and fashion, ‘cuz I've got something cool to show y’all!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, suddenly filled with a wave of energy. She rocked back on her seat to take something out of her pockets. As she did, the seat cracked, though no one seemed to have noticed except for Fluttershy.
“Hum, Rainbow Dash. I thi-”
“Huzzah!” Dash pulled out a butterfly knife, much to everyone’s surprise.
Sunset looked especially shocked. “Dash, that’s a butterfly knife...”
“Dash...” said Fluttershy in an attempt to get Dash’s attention.
“I know! I saw this cool French guy on YouTube doing all sorts of cool tricks with it and I thought it would be awesome if I learned how to do some myself!” she continued enthusiastically. She once again rocked back and this time... the seat snapped and she tumbled on the floor.
“Dash, I wanted to tell you that your seat was going to break.” muttered Fluttershy as she looked at her friend resting on the floor.
“I can see that...” groaned Rainbow Dash out of embarrassment.
Her friends laughed at her tumble for a moment before stopping entirely, now looking somewhat worried.
Dash lifted her eyes only to see the school’s supervisor looking at her with disapproval. He bent down to pick up the butterfly knife. “I’ll have to confiscate such a dangerous item and well... probably notify Celestia about the broken seat.” He looked back at Dash with a cold, uncaring look. “We’ll have to talk about this, later this day.”
He then walked away as the Rainbooms watched on in silence. Rainbow Dash got back on her feet and took the other seat next to Fluttershy, covering her face with her two hands in embarrassment. “That was a stupid idea...”
Sunset agreed with her. “Yeah, bringing a knife to school was probably not an awesome idea if you think about it for more than a second.”
Trixie walked by and looked at her in amusement. “The Great and Powerful Trrrixie commands you for your absolutely stunning stunt, Rainbow Crash!”
Rainbow Dash buried her face further in, now blushing.
“A little piece of advice for ya; show us these kinds of things anywhere but in school if you don’t want to get scolded!” exclaimed Applejack mockingly.
“Well, I thought the butterfly knife was pretty cool.” admitted Pinkie Pie with a smile.
It was now night time, the school was closed with only a night guard as the sole person wandering the dark halls. He had to make a quick round just to make sure everything was in order and then he could finally leave.
Everything was quiet, it was quite unnerving but to him, it was just another shift. Working the night shift really made the darkness much less terrifying. He got used to it, though the occasional strange shadows can still catch him off guard.
Canterlot, in general, doesn’t see much crime happening. It’s a relatively safe city all things considered, though people still take security very seriously just in case. Just in case...
A door creaked, odd but it isn’t really something to be worried about. No, wait... it so is! The security guard spun around and pointed his flashlight at the other side of the hallway. A door was opened, though he swore it used to be closed when he first passed by it.
No doubts about it; someone else was inside. Although the security guard always hoped for some action, he didn’t want to investigate. He always had fantasies about being a hero, stopping a robber from stealing something or beating up a creep who wanted to do some morally questionable things. On one hand, simply going away and acting as if nothing was happening would be the safest bet.
On the other hand, he’d probably get fired. Okay, yeah, this is kind of bad. Better check it out. He wasn’t going to give up this job. The horrors of job hunting motivated him to take a look at this mysterious intruder.
Peeking through the open door, he noticed that the room the intruder had entered was Celestia’s office. Rustling sounds broke the silence as this mysterious person fiddled around with the various drawers on the desk.
“Hey! Get up and put your hands in the air!” shouted the night guard as he took out his handgun and pointed it at the intruder. The rustling stopped and the figure rose up from its crouched position. As he did, his bones cracked and nearly snapped as his trembling frame finally came into view. Right as he was standing, his body stopped trembling, almost as if he had a hard time simply getting on his feet.
The darkness was hiding all of his features to the guard. The only thing he could make out was his frame. Bulky and rather tall, he was a bigger guy than him. A much bigger guy. Now it was the guard who was trembling, though he tried his best to hide it from the intruder.
“I-I said; put your hands up!”
The man stared him down for a while but eventually complied. The stranger lifted his left arm, closed in a fist before suddenly opening it, startling the night guard. A pendulum attached to his index dropped and hung in the air.
Then, he swung the pendulum left and right. It swung, and swung. The guard stared at it in surprise at first, but it quickly turned into a very warm and comforting feeling.
Keep looking at the pendulum. Keep looking and... let the hypnotist work his magic.