The Diary of Steady Quill
-July 23rd, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
My name is Steady Quill. I was a teacher at the Canterlot Secondary School, and I am now moving from my ancestral home to teach mathematics at a very well-recommended residential secondary school near the Hoofington outskirts. I am writing in this diary to record my thoughts and feelings at the behest of my old schoolmate, Rocky Blue.
My luggage has already been sent ahead of me to the school, where they assured me they would treat it with the utmost care until I arrived. I am now on the train over to Hoofington proper, and will take a carriage over to the school when I arrive.
I must admit, I feel no small amount of trepidation at the thought of staying so far away from everything I have so far been accustomed to calling home. My mentors at the Canterlot Secondary School applaud my willingness to relocate to this place, however. They all tell me that this school has boasted nothing but the highest marks in examinations for years. I am truly excited to join the ranks of first-rate instructors they must posses there.
But still. Something yet nags on the edges of my mind. Like I’m forgetting something that ought not be forgotten. It’s probably just a disquiet of my nerves.
---
-July 28th, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
I have arrived at the school and, as I have been quite busy settling in and preparing lecture plans for my soon-to-be students, I have not yet had time to write my thoughts of the new school in which I will be teaching. I am currently done with my first month of plans, however, and classes do not start for another three weeks yet, so I have time now to write a little.
Upon my arrival to the Hoofington Academy, I was greeted by none other than the headmaster himself, Strict Teachings. I was given a tour of the school’s extensive grounds and shown to my quarters. The room in which I will be teaching will have a beautiful view of the forest to the north of the school, a forest which, I am told, is strictly off-limits for any student without a faculty escort. I was also told that unless it’s for a life sciences class, no faculty is allowed to escort students into the forest without the headmaster’s approval. Since I will be teaching mathematics, I hardly think I will ever set hoof in the forest anyway.
The rest of the tour was uneventful. We visited the kitchens, my office, my classroom, and the student dormitories, ending our tour with the teacher’s lounge. A few of the other teachers were in the lounge and they greeted me as the headmaster introduced me. They seemed a little tense around the headmaster, but I simply attributed that to being around their boss. I mingled with them a while, learning their names and subjects, and then retired to my quarters to unpack.
----
-July 29th, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
Forgive my writing in advance, it must be around three in the morning and I have just awoken from perhaps the most frightening dream I’ve ever had. I can hardly keep my quill afloat in my magic from the fright, I feel that I must write this dream down, to get it out of my head if nothing more.
In my dream, I was walking down the dormitory wings of the school, perhaps as a night monitor or some such thing. I heard a bit of a scuffling coming from a room behind me, and so I turned. A student, a small blue earth pony with a brown mane, had crawled out of his room. I began to walk toward him, but he was pulled back into his room. I rushed forward to see what the problem was, but the door had closed just as the colt vanished in the doorway. I reached my hoof forward to pull open the door, but paused when an inequine shriek came from just inside the door.
I ripped the door open, fearing some other student was beating the blue colt, but the only pony inside the room was the colt, standing straight, back turned to me. I started to ask if he was alright, but paused when I found that I could not talk. I began to fret at this, but before I could really become too worried by this, the colt began to turn around and face me. His eyes were open wide, as if he did not have even the slightest hint of eyelids, his pupils were small, almost to the point where I could not see them from but a few feet away. He was also pale, very pale, as much as you could tell from under his dark coat. The thing that really held my gaze however was his smile. His face had broken out into a manic grin, big enough to be quite painful on the small face, and it kept growing.
His pupils drifted for a moment before finally focusing on me. He took a step forward, and I took one back. He tilted his head to one side, and then I heard him speak; his mouth didn’t move, but I heard it all the same: “Run from here.”
I gained control of my legs again and began backing away from the colt faster now. He said it again, this time louder, though still without opening his mouth: “Run From Here.”
I turned and ran from the doorway and down the hall. As I ran, the doors to all of the dormitory rooms opened up and the colts from inside stumbled out, all with the same demonic staring eyes and horrible rictus grin. As one, they said: “RUN From HERE.”
I sprinted as hard as I could, but before I could reach the door at the end of the hallway, it opened, revealing the headmaster, head bowed. Then, before my eyes, the hair from his mane began to turn white and fall out, his flesh became pale and ragged, shrinking around his body and giving him the appearance of a skeleton. He raised his head. Wide, demonic staring bloodshot eyes, smile so wide it threatened to split his head in two.
“RUN FROM HERE.”
The floor fell from below me as I slid to a stop, hopelessly backpedaling away from the ghastly visage before me. I fell, down, down, down, I know not how far.
“...run from here…”
I awoke with a shout and fell from my bed. As I lay there regaining my bearings and catching my breath, I fancied that I heard, from the direction of my window:
“...while you still can…”
I fear sleep will be hard in coming to me for the next few nights.
----
-August 16th, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
Today is the day when students start arriving for classes that start in two days. I have by now fully prepared my lecture plans for the next semester, along with a few extras just in case some do not go according to plan.
The headmaster gathered all of the faculty in the lounge the other day and gave us a schedule for night monitor duty. As I was handed mine, I fancied for a moment that he lingered and was staring into my eyes a bit longer and harder than was necessary, but I’m sure it was just jitters. I still haven’t quite recovered from the nightmare, although it has yet to repeat itself and I am getting sleep like normal again. Thankfully, my monitor nights are not in the dormitory wings this month, although we will be rotating positions this time next month.
The dining hall was packed with excited students this evening, all excited to begin their next semester of studies. I smiled a bit as I listened to the general din of conversation coming from the student tables, ignoring the chatter of my colleagues. It was calming, to a degree, hearing all of the voices instead of the quiet of the empty school building. I was pulled out of my reverie when the headmaster tapped his fork on his glass, causing the students to eventually quiet down. He next introduced all of the faculty including myself to the students, noting that I was, in fact, new this year. After a polite round of applause, he began announcing the general rules for new students those colts that had forgotten since last year.
I let my attention waver. I had heard more or less the same set of rules when I had arrived at the school.
Eventually, the headmaster stopped with his welcome and dismissed the students to bed for the night. Tomorrow they would have free reign to do whatever they pleased: roam the buildings, the grounds, or start studying for classes to begin the next day. Us teachers were free to roam about as well, keeping an eye on the students. I rose from my seat and headed out the door toward my quarters.
I readied myself to retire for the night and went to bed. Just as I was about to drift off for the night, a knock at the door brought me back to my senses. I put on my robe and answered the door. It was a young colt. Apparently he was a new student and was having trouble finding his room. I asked him his assigned room number and led him to the correct wing and floor. I said goodnight to the colt outside his room and turned to leave when I felt a rock hit the pit of my stomach. I turned and stared at the colt’s door, now closed. He had looked the exact same as the colt from my nightmare, down to the mane and cutie mark. I whirled around, taking note of the hallway I was in: it was the same as from my dream!
I ran from the hallway, straight through the school toward my quarters, slamming the door behind me. I sat there, breathing heavily for a while. I eventually gained the constitution required to pull myself to this desk and write this entry.
The Hoofington weather team has scheduled a thunderstorm for tonight and it is just now starting.
I fear I will not be sleeping at all tonight.
----
-August 31st, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
Classes have been going well. My students are all eager to learn my teachings. I seldom have troubles in the classroom and the homework grades are all quite good. Better in fact than the scores at my old post in Canterlot ever were. My nightly rounds through the science wing of the school have been excellent as well. I have yet to catch a student out of bed, and my rounds are scheduled in such a way that I am able to plan sleep around them and keep myself from sleep deprivation during classes.
Not everything is going smoothly, however. Twice since classes started I have had the nightmare. Each time the same as the first, yet each time more terrifying than the last. The colt from the nightmare is in one of my classes. His marks are slightly above average, but otherwise nothing differentiates him from the rest of the student body. He seems about as normal as any of the other colts in class.
The faculty seems a bit off lately though. I catch some of them staring into space in the lounge from time to time, and conversation at the staff table during meals has been lacking of late. I asked one of the language teachers about this one day in the lounge and he simply waved it off as being overtaxed from the recent grading load. He kept glancing around while I asked him though. He was particularly focused on the door, as if frightened that something would break it down at any second.
I’m not sure if something is going on here or not, but for now I think it best to just lay low around the other teachers. Especially when the headmaster is around. He’s been nothing but polite to me so far, but I just can’t shake the feeling of fright I feel whenever he looks at me. I know it’s because of the nightmares, but those are just bad dreams.
Right?
----
-September 20th, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
There’s a bout of flu circulating amongst the students. I think I might have succumbed to it, but not as bad as some of my students have. I’ve always been resilient to this kind of disease. My classes are still going better than they ever had in Canterlot. I don’t even have a problem student anymore. One of the colts fell asleep during lecture a week or two ago. I sent him to the headmaster, as required by school policy, for a slap on the hoof. The other students glared at him on his way out. I’ve never seen anything like that before. He came back twenty minutes later in a kind of trance almost. He sat quietly for the remainder of the lecture and came to my desk to apologize afterwards.
It wasn’t the apology that unsettled me. It was the delivery. He said it in a kind of monotone, staring at the wood of my desk. Then he just left, not even waiting for a reply. I caught a look at his eyes before he departed. His pupils had shrunken to tiny pinpricks.
Needless to say, I had the nightmare again that night. And every night since.
The mild sleep deprivation hasn’t helped this flu I’ve gone and contracted either. I’m beginning to worry about this school.
----
-September 27, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
I confronted the headmaster about the disciplined student shortly after my last entry. He assured me that whatever was wrong with that student when he returned to class was just in my head. As I left his office, I turned back to see him smiling at me.
The same way he had in my nightmares. I closed the door a bit harder than I probably ought to have and rushed to my quarters. There I remained for the rest of the night. I didn’t sleep at all that night.
Ever since my confrontation with the headmaster, the other teachers have started avoiding me. I walk into the teacher’s lounge and all conversation stops and they start trickling out one by one. I sit down for meals and those next to me get up and leave, whether they’ve finished with their meals or not. I tried to corner one of my (now former I suppose) friends in the hallway one day and he simply shoved me out of the way and kept walking.
I’ve also had a new nightmare. Two nights ago, and again last night. I’m running through a forest, from what I don’t know, when suddenly I fall into a pit. It’s pitch black in the pit until a pony to my front lights a candle. He slowly lifts up his head, revealing the same eyes and
the same eyes and smile as the other nightmare. I try to back away, but a firm hoof holds me back. I look back to see my other colleagues with the same face, eyes glued to me. The headmaster places his candle on the ground, never breaking eye contact. The hooves on my shoulders tighten. I wake up screaming.
I’ve taken to carrying this diary with me wherever I go. I read from it while students are working in classes. Write in it at night.
I’m going to the infirmary now. I need sleeping aids.
----
-October 21st 22nd, year 886,
I haven’t slept in two three days. My sleep from last week and the week before has been lacking as well. The Nightmares come every night now. I… I can’t take it. I think it’s the stress of this new position. I keep telling myself that. It must be right!
But this job is the same as my last. Just a new location. Students are less trouble here. I don’t know why I’m so taxed of late.
They come one after the other. Always the second first and then the second. Each night.
My rounds at night have been my only reprieve. My nights patrolling the dormitory wings are the most relaxing, to my surprise.
I found a spell in the library that emulates the effect of five cups of coffee on a pony. The caffeine effects, at any rate. I can stay awake, it’s just not fun at all.
I went and saw the hedMas headmaster today. He put me on medical leave. There’s been a bout of flu spreading amungst amongst the students. Maybe I caught that? No. I had that a while ago.
I’m going to bed. I
I can’t focus.
----
-October 29th, Year of our Princess Celestia 886,
The week’s rest has helped. The nightmares have subsided, but I still have them quite often. The school nurse gave me a sort of herbal tea that calms me immensely. I drink some before sleep every night.
The students are glad to see me back in class. Apparently the headmaster took over my classes while I was indisposed. As I write this, they’re doing an assignment from their books. Carrying this diary around is helping me as well. Writing in it is a relief.
Even so, I’m looking forward to my rounds in the dormitory wing later in the week. That round is always the most calming, despite the nightmare it’s featured in. I don’t know why.
The headmaster came to see me on the last day of my break. He assured me that all was well with my classes and hoped that my health had recovered. I assured him that it had. As he left, he gave me the same smile. The same as in his office. The same as the nightmare.
I think that this is enough writing for now.
----
-October 31,
My name is Steady Quill.
I am about to die. I can think of no other outcome.
I write this from a holethechantingisgettingto me I must hurry.
Iwas doing my roundsin the dormitorywing. It happened.!! theDREAMit’sreal
I
Idon’t know
The coltSAMEASINTHE NIGHTMA heSCREAm
pulled intoCHANTING ABOVE ME
RUN FROM HERE
I ran from ther.
Iran into the forest
I tripped the headmaster is followingCHANTING ABOVEME
I fellinto a hole andThe painin my legI thinkit’s Brokenm
The students from the floor are atHTe mouth ofHoleCHANTINGABoveME
I
Ican feel them getting inTO my head
Ica’t stopsmiling
There’s a roomALWYASSMILINg up ahead.
Isee candleligh
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On November 3rd, Our Year of Celestia 886, Double Digits, a mathematics teacher in Manehatten received a letter from the Hoofington Academy. He quickly responded and was never heard from again. It read as follows:
Dear Double Digits,
A mathematics post has recently opened in our faculty due to illness. We have been looking at the test scores from your city and the scores from your class seem to be among the most exceptional in the region. We’ve been in contact with the principal at Manehatten High School, and we’ve reached the conclusion that your services would be better suited teaching students of a much higher caliber.
We hereby invite you to take up the position of Mathematics Teacher here at the Hoofington Academy. No doubt you’ve heard of our school. We can have you here and teaching at the start of the Spring semester, January 4th, 887.
We look forward to hearing your smiling response!
Yours truly,
Strict Teachings
Headmaster-Hoofington Academy
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I approve. Stand by for a longer review.
Longer review as promised.
Grammar:
A few smaller mistakes but good overall.
Nice descriptive words.
Pacing:
Nice and slow. Leading us into the story while giving us enough to be intrigued but not enough to spoil it.
Plot:
It intrigues me... It has much mystery... I like it...
Overall score: 8 out of 10
Note: This story needs some exposure, add it to some groups and you'll get some more follows.
Also put the music at the beginning of the chapter if you want people to listen to it while reading your story. Otherwise they will be like me and get to the end and go, "Oops, oh well, I'm not gonna read that again."
3347166
Well thanks!
Point the grammar flaws out and I'll correct em.
As far as the music goes, that's just what I was listening to while I was writing it. Listening to that while reading would kind of spoil the mood. It's not exactly a fitting song for the story.
3348323
Oh, okay for some reason I read "read while listening to"
And I'll get on those few corrections soon.
Don't forget to add this story to some groups!
Wow. This story still has no exposure. I don't get it.
3397030
So was it you who added all those other groups? Thanks for that by the way.
But yeah, as far as actually getting more exposure goes, I'm gonna actually submit this to eqd today sometime. Before it was just in that contest that I didn't win. Oh well.
I think my description is kind of lackluster as well. Gonna rewrite that when I get a chance. Books 'n covers 'n all that after all.
3398193
Yeah, that was me. Guilty as charged.
You description doesn't really have anything wrong with it (from that I can tell).
Example: Two of my stories have ONE SENTENCE descriptions and they have 64:2 and 37:2 likes dislikes ratios.
I think you are just a casualty of chance.
3398227
Hm maybe. Either way, fic submitted. We'll see what EQD says.
And I dunno, I just kind of felt that the description was kind of lackluster. Oh well. "You are your own worst critic" after all.
I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO WRITE MORE STORIES
Wow that was something different for sure. I for one love the change of pace, the story was really well written and the way it led to the end was just...mmmph.
Okie dokie, pretty good! I myself can't write horror. I stink at it. Just a few things...
1. I think this story would serve better as a stand-alone original horror in epistle format than a MLP fanfiction. I mean, there's really nothing in here that necessitates its "needing" the MLP universe. I'm just of the opinion that if a story doesn't require residing in a fan universe, don't try to put it there. Take pride in it being an original.
2. I'm a bit confused about the nature of this story. To be honest, I originally thought it would be in the same vein as the "premonition" scary stories. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. To use the archetype that appeared in an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (...don't laugh at the pun), a woman in a hospital has a recurring nightmare where she finds herself drawn to the hospital morgue in a particular numbered room late at night, and always sees a frightening woman telling her: "Room for one more, honey." She's terrified by these dreams, and, finally, when she's cleared from the hospital, she's going to take a vacation and heads to the airport. However...her flight number is the same number as that of the morgue, and when she moves to get on, the stewardess is the frightening woman from the dream and she says: "Room for one more, honey." Terrified, she refuses to get on the plane...and watches as it blows up shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board. I figured that the dreams were a warning that everyone who he saw in his dreams was going to die of the flu outbreak, including him if he didn't leave.
However, when that turned out to not be the case, I couldn't help but feel that I might have been reading a story from an "unreliable narrator"...in other words one who was progressively going insane. I mean...to me...there seems no other logical reason to stay there when he starts seeing the faculty and staff getting the deranged, inhuman looks. It's like that classic Eddie Murphy comedy bit about the ridiculousness of families in scary movies remaining in haunted houses:
NEW HOMEOWNER: (walking in) Wow, this is a real nice house!
UNSEEN DEMONIC VOICE: GET. OUT.
NEW HOMEOWNER: (turning right around and walking out) Too bad I can't stay!
It also would explain why the faculty and students didn't immediately "spring" on him as opposed to waiting an extended period of time first. As well as what exactly is "malevolent" about the school other than hideously grinning students and faculty.
3. I actually thought it was all in the narrator's head until that last entry...but that one seems to not make a terrible amount of sense. It seems to be "confirmation" that what we just read was indeed real by pointing out another would-be teacher vanished. However, the fact that the letter was found indicates that any authorities searching for the missing pony would know where to look first: Hoofington Academy. The opening entry indicates that not only is Hoofington Academy "known" but is actually recommended by others as opposed to being a "phantom school" that ceases to exist for the rest of the world. Granted, any authorities could have checked it out and found nothing...but the implication is that the school is constantly looking for "new victims" as well as leaving "paper trails", and it would only be so long that teachers would continuously transfer to this school and then vanish before someone would smell something fishy.
Don't know if there's an alternative "final entry" you can make to that, like a classified or something. Perhaps a new first entry in a different person's journal? (Similar to what Stephen King did in "Jerusalem's Lot")
Last but not least, if this is a "one-shot", you should remove the "Chapter 1" designation in the title.
Other than that, once again, good job! Genuinely spine-tingling, and the "misprinted" entries looked legitimate too!
3400032
Heh, I try to be different at least, glad to know you liked it! And I was actually pleasantly surprised myself at how the pacing turned out, but it is still a bit short to me. Oh well.
Thanks for reading and the fav!
(aaaaa why do they have no happy Fluttershy emotes here?!?!? EDIT: Guess I wasn't looking hard enough.)
3400073
1. That occurred to me as I was writing it, and I was going to edit it to make Equestria more central to the plot, but it was for a contest and I had put it off til the day of the deadline, so oh well I guess.
2. I hadn't even thought of that as I was writing. I haven't seen too much Twilight Zone (or at least not that episode) but it sounds like the first Final Destination movie copied that storyline for the beginning of their movie. I mean, that's almost what this story is, I just hadn't thought of that til you pointed it out. And this was definitely a case of "Unreliable Narrator". I like that stuff, seeing the story through the eyes and viewpoints of the person telling it.
3. EDIT: I JUST REREAD YOUR COMMENT AND I COMPLETELY READ IT WRONG THE FIRST TIME HAHAHA
Yeah, now that you mention it, that would seem
a bitreally fishy, but as far as I'm concerned, nobody ever found the letter to the pony who disappears at the end and no one cares. Maybe whatever they do to the ponies erases them from living memory as well? Dunno. Too lazy to really iron that bit out, but a journal entry from the next victim does sound like a better ending. I think I went with the letter for the end of this because I wanted to change the format up a bit from the rest of the story, make you feel like it was still going to happen but leave you in the dark as to how or how quickly. I think I like how the letter bit turned out though, if just because it's not from the victim's perspective like the rest of the story is. /editAs for the "Chapter 1" designation, that's just fimfiction's default chapter title. I didn't put one in and felt that using "Run From Here" as both the Story and Chapter title would be a bit much. I dunno. I guess "Diary of Steady Quill" would be acceptable, since that's what this is. I'll probably change that now. good idea.
And I spent a good deal of time (relative to the time I spent on the rest of the story at least) on the misprinted entries. I even went through a few different versions of the October 22nd one. I was going to try to find some way to change to font to some sort of handwritten script or something so the hoofwriting could get steadily worse as he got crazier, but again, time constraints.
As for the idea with doing a first entry in a second pony's journal, I may do something longer as a continuation of this with more tie-ins to MLP. Now that you've got me thinking about it anyway. Hmm. I honestly hadn't considered touching this again after this was published before now. (EDIT: I now have a page of notes for a sequel. WELL I GUESS THIS IS A THING NOW
)
Anyway, thanks be to you for reading! Makes me feel good that people actually appreciated this
You can has review!