//------------------------------//
// Fright 
// Story: The Watchful Eye 
// by Mr Anomalous 
//------------------------------//


Fright

"Princess Celestia!"

Hm?

Even the Princess of the Sun herfelf had been up for only a bit now. Ah, of course, it was Twilight.

The tall white Alicorn turned around with a smile on her face, fully expecting Twilight to be in a similar mood. But, as soon as she saw Twilight's face, she knew that something was up. 

"Celestia!" Twilight called out breathlessly once more as she finally reached the other Alicorn.

"What is it Twilight? Is something wrong?" Celestia's eyes widened, "Oh no, was there actually a body in the fire after all?"

"Oh no, no, no, no, nopony in Ponyville was killed by the fire."

Celestia visibly relaxed. That was close. She cared very much for each and every one of her subjects regardless of who or what they were.

"Then...what is the problem?"

"Princess Celestia...I left something out about the fire..I thought that it was unimportant at the time, or perhaps just delusions on my part, but I now beleive that it is connected to something else."

Celestia was confused.

"Well, Twilight, it seems that we have much to talk about, and here in the hall, standing, is not the place to do it. Come with me to my chambers, and we shall speak there."

Twilight nodded and they started on their way. It was silent, but not uncomfortably so. It had been almost a decade since Twilight had become and Alicorn, and even before that her and Celestia had been relatively...chummy.

After a few short minutes, they reached Celestia's room where the two Alicorns each lay down on the comfortable cushions aside the magically ever-burning flames.

"Alright, Twilight, what is it?"

The purple Alicorn took a deep breath and said, "Well, when I was helping the civilians in Ponyville, I saw something. It was when I saw working on the last house, and there was a filly trapped upstairs. There was no way for the Fireponies or Rainbow Dash to get in, so I collapsed a section of wall and was about to levitate her out when...I don't know. I had my eyes closed. When I sent out my magic it couldn't grab anything. Then I opened my eyes and the filly was right there, in front of my eyes."

Celestia frowned. How odd indeed.

"The mother of the filly, who was standing next to me, had a bit of a... disbelieving look on her face. I asked her what she saw and she responded that she only saw a blur, her filly vanished, and then she was there. I talked to many of the other ponies and a few of them had similar things to report."

"That is odd indeed. What does that have to do with...whatever 'dilemma' came up."

Twilight looked down and bit her lip.

"You know that... thief whom we could never catch?"  

Celestia's ears piqued.

"Shady?"

"Yes...that's the one. Well, I guess he attempted a thievery last night, it seems, but...oh my goodness..."

Celestia frowned even deeper. 

"What is is, Twilight?"

Twilight looked up, a disturbed look in her eyes and said, "He was...discovered in another pony's house, Sketch was her name. He was dead."

"...Oh..."

"But that's not all. He wasn't just dead, he had been... eviscerated by something. There was blood everywhere..."

"What?"

Twilight nodded solemnly. 

"How could this have happened?"

"I don't know, Princess. I thought that maybe those two things could be connected somehow. Maybe it was the same...thing."

"Twilight Sparkle, there is something very strange going on here in Equestria. I am sad to say that I have no idea what it is. We can only hope that the deaths of more ponies can be avoided."

[img][img]http://knightleyacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sword-divider.png[/img]
	
"Are you sure, Bright?"

"Oh absolutely."

"But...I've heard some pretty bad things about it."

"Meh, it can do weird things to ya, but it's usually all worth it in the end."

"I'm...I'm not sure, Bright."

"Come on, Lens, it's fun."

Lens sighed in defeat and answered, "Okay, fine. But just a little bit."

The other pony, Bright, chuckled and said, "Yeah, sure. Just a bit."

With Bright Mist leading the way, the two teenage ponies rounded a corner into a dark(er) alleyway and began to approach a dark figure. Bright had a confident gait in his stride, where his bespectacled friend who followed was obviously much more nervous, falling behind, watching the ground.

It was past midnight in Canterlot city, and the only ponies who were up were either partying, studying, zombies, or up to no good. In this case, to get a little high.

"What do you want?" asked the dark, cloaked stallion with a harsh, gruff voice. 

"Just a little...substance."

"What kind?"

Lens watched as Bright shot him a smirk and leaned forward. He whispered something to the invisible figure under the hood, who gave a grunt and reached with a filthy hoof into his cloak. A few seconds later, he pulled out a vial. 

It glowed slightly of green and it came with two syringes.

"Now you two be careful; this stuff is strong."

And with that he was gone. He turned and hurried outside of the alley and went off somewhere else.

Bright turned and smiled somewhat evilly toward Lens.

"Ready?"

"You have to...inject it?"

"Uh, duh. If you drink it it'll mess up your stomach."

"Then how is injecting it any better?"

"I...I don't know. It just is."

"I think I changed my mind..."

"Come on. I've done this a couple times before, it's awesome."

"..."

"Come one, comeoncomeoncomeon." 

"Argh, alright. Gimme that," Lens said as he snatched the vial from his supposed friend's hoof.

But still he stared at the syringe. It was sharp. Bright, at this point, had gotten to himself and was about to inject his own filled syringe when something came whirling out of the dark and slammed into the brick wall right next to Bright's head.

"Woah!" exclaimed Bright as he dropped his needle, it shattering on the ground. He and lens both looked up. It was a crowbar. And it had been embedded in the solid brick, halfway through, less than and inch from Bright's head. Whoever, or whatever, had thrown it had either really good aim, or really bad aim.

It didn't matter, for, from where Lens and Bright had come from, a figure appeared. It was tall, dressed in black. It wore a backpack full of things, neither ponies had any idea what, and it wore a giant mask.

In its hand was something that...lens had never seen before. It was angled, and had what was obviously some sort of grip. At the end of it, though, was a round opening. Bright was trying to figure this out, but he would never get the chance. The figure, who had been at the end of the alleyway, was now directly in front of the druggie.

"Ah!" both of ponies in the alleyway exclaimed in surprise.

The figure raised its device and pointed it directly between Bright's eyes. Lens watched as something exploded, and a spray of blood covered the wall behind Bright. Lens's eyes widened even more as he watched his buddy slump to the ground, leaving a trail of blood and bits of meat smattered on the wall. The figure just stood there. For what seemed like ages. But then, slowly, its head rotated, the lenses of its mask reflecting Lens's terrified face.

He began to approach Lens, slowly. Lens tried to scramble away, but he couldn't gain his footing, so he scooted away, propelling himself with his back legs. But he was too slow. The figure was upon him. But, surprisingly, he didn't make any move to harm Lens. The figure slowly reached down and picked Lens up, much like a caring father would a child.

Then, slowly, the creature pressed Lens up against the brick wall opposite of Bright's corpse, and pinned him gently to it.

"Who...what..."

The creature let go of Lens's hoof, but it didn't crop. Lens looked up and saw that there was a sort of magic aura holding it to the wall, kind of like a unicorn's. But this creature was no unicorn.

The figure then raised its free hand and did something completely unexpected; it waggled its index finger in a scolding no, no gesture. Lens then heard a peculiar noise, like a dull knife being dragged across a piece of rough cloth. Then the figure moved, and Lens shouted in fear when he saw that the strange being held another crowbar in his hand. It came down and lens screamed. It did not pierce his gut, nor his head or throat. It was rammed through one of his front hooves and into the wall. Lens screamed in pain some more, and even more so when the figure let him go. His back hooves couldn't tough the ground. The only thing keeping him from dangling completely from the crowbar embedded in his bone was the strange aura binding his other hoof.

But then it was gone. Lens screamed in agony as his entire weight tore his wound open even more. Why didn't the creature just kill him? Lens would never get his answer, at least not from whatever it was had wounded him. as the being was gone suddenly.

"Huh...? Wha...?" Lens asked, bewildered, the intense pain in his hoof forgotten. Ah. He had been spared because he didn't take the drug, Lens figured. But Lens began to cry, both from his pain, the shock, and the death of his stupid but loyal friend. It was not long before he was discovered.