• Published 11th Dec 2011
  • 4,750 Views, 70 Comments

Draconequus - cheezesauce



Something lurks in the shadows of the night. Twilight doesn't know what it is.

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Never-ending Night

Ooo Never-ending Night ooO

In the darkness, Twilight Sparkle opened and closed her eyes. She did it once, twice, a number of times more. As far as she could tell, it didn’t make that much of a difference. Everything was pitch black around her. Letting her eyelids slide shut, Twilight lingered on the darkness behind them as she lay on her makeshift bed. She couldn’t find sleep. At least, not since the first night she sought safety in the Carousel Boutique.

There was something about that story told by Steel Heart that made it swirl around her head. A story that was passed down through generations of police ponies. It was similar to that tale from the ancient black book: markings at the crime scene, symbols at the jewellery shop.

A mysterious gemstone-loving thief and a cold-blooded murderer.

They were connected. They had to be. Actually, now that she thought about it, everything was connected... the book, the symbols, the horrible death of Fluttershy’s pet.

Twilight reached around for her pillow, bringing it close. She wrapped her legs around it firmly and pressed the soft fabric comfortably against her belly, as if she was hugging a friend: a soft and cuddly one. Feeling all troubled and shaky wasn’t going to help. She needed to take one thing at a time, to work things out slowly.

Twilight took a deep breath in and exhaled out slowly. Her bed was next to one of the boutique’s windows, and placing it there was a good idea. She could listen to the pleasant calls of the crickets, the gentle rustling of the leaves in the light breeze as they brushed against one another.

But a few minutes later, the peace was broken by a shrill cry, sounding from a distance away.

Twilight raised her head, flicking up her ears. She heard the cry again, similar to the first. Feeling a little unnerved, the unicorn crept up to the window beside her bed and peered out.

It was pitch black outside; she could only make out vague shapes in the darkness, that of trees and bushes. She wasn’t scared. No, she wasn’t. It was just that her dumb imagination was playing up on her. Terrifying, shapeless beasts materialized in her mind, ones with sharp teeth and claws, with horns and spiked tails. Ones with haunting red eyes...

Twilight didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t need to. All she needed to know was that cries in the middle of the night were made by nasty things, maybe monsters even. And that meant that she was not going out to investigate on it.

The unicorn clambered back onto the mattress and ended up standing on it awkwardly. She briefly considered waking Rarity up, but the mare would end up spending the rest of the night fussing over her. It was difficult to pin a large, fearsome monster to a rather... high-pitched cry like that. Twilight rubbed the side of her head with a hoof at the inconsistency. Blinking a number of times, she sat on her haunches, wrapping her tail around her hooves.

Be more reasonable, she told herself. Monsters don’t make cries like that. The sound could have been made by a young filly, lost in the middle of the night.

She nodded vigorously at herself, liking the idea. Then, her smile evaporated as she realized that she didn’t like the idea at all.

What if it WAS made by a young filly lost in the middle of the night?

Twilight couldn’t just leave her alone there, if that was the case. She shook her head and looked back out of the windows.

And it’s so dark outside... Where are the street lights? Did they stop working?

Twilight decided that the odds of that happening along with the unusual cries in the night were about one in a thousand, and when she saw that the lights had indeed stopped working, she decided that she probably had the worst luck ever.

There was be a patch of forest across the street, as far as she could recall, and parts of it would have been lighted up by the street lights. Or should have been, rather. The cry sounded again, and this time it sounded as if it had come straight from the dark patch of forest. Possibly a cry of a tiny filly, a scrap of fur curled up under a massive tree, shivering, scared, maybe even wounded.

Twilight had an idea of how that must feel like, having gotten lost as a filly once. She had abandoned her brother’s side along a crowded street in the Canterlot Bazaar. It had seemed like a perfectly fine thing to do, until she jumbled up her bearings. Things had gone downhill from there, and she had spent the whole day frantically searching around the sea of ponies for a familiar face. Ponies had bumped into her, knocking her off balance and sending her tumbling to the ground. It wasn’t until moonrise that the crowd had cleared out, and she was found crying at the end of an empty row of pushcarts, a large purple bruise covering the side of her face. She had been only twelve then.

Now, the all-grown-up Twilight shivered at the memory. That had to have been one of the worst days of her life, and she wouldn’t wish it upon anypony.

Okay, she decided. I can’t just ignore that. It’s time to pony up and check that noise out.

Not wanting to wake Rarity up, Twilight moved around the boutique in the darkness, feeling her way to the door. She gently pushed it open with a forehoof, stepping out into the quiet night.

The cold air seemed to cut into her throat as it filled her lungs. She stepped onto the hard, unforgiving sidewalk, and then continued across the cobblestone street. In the mornings, the street would be busy with merchants pushing their carts of goods to the market, but now, not a single pony was in sight.

Her hooves knocked into a few loose pebbles along the way, causing them to skitter in front of her. She didn’t like the tiny and unpredictable noises they made.

It took longer than expected because of her fear, but Twilight eventually reached the other side of the street. The dark forest stretched out in front of her. As she moved up to edge of the trees, she picked up the cry again, sounding a little closer. The unicorn looked nervously at the darkness ahead. She could make out shapes inside, black against black. She couldn’t tell what they were. The silhouettes of trees and bushes, or the outlines of unknown terrors?

Suppressing a nervous gulp, Twilight cautiously made her way into the woods, her legs trembling ever so slightly and feeling a little like jelly.

It was only a small patch of forest. She knew that. It didn’t matter that she had never went in before; she couldn’t get lost inside. And even if she did, it wasn’t dangerous like the Everfree.

As Twilight continued on, the canopy of the forest gradually shielded the moonlight away, plunging the area into darkness. Tall grasses were beneath her hooves, throwing tiny dew drops on her fetlocks. Some of them had interlaced themselves into deceptive traps, waiting for a pony to become snared in their thorny vines. Once or twice, Twilight had unwittingly gotten caught, and the grass held on in twisted satisfaction as she struggled frantically to free herself.

The unicorn narrowed her eyes at the grass, her hooves feeling a little sore. She bent down to lick the cuts around her hooves, much as Rarity’s pet cat would do, but there wasn’t any taste of blood. Instead, the drops of dew came off as pleasant icy bursts against her tongue. She smacked her lips in surprise, straightening up and continuing on to navigate her way between the woody trees and bushes.

The forest looked the same no matter where she looked. She didn’t know how long she continued on like that, but she knew that she would be reaching the cries soon. They sounded close now. Eventually, she came across a small forest clearing. Padding up to it, she pushed past the line of trees and moved into the open space.

Around the edges of the clearing, the trees were illuminated by the soft light of the moon, shining brightly in the patch of sky above. Twilight wondered if the sound could have been coming from somewhere around here. She couldn’t make out much, except for a few bushes growing in the clearing. One or two in the middle looked a little odd in shape.

At least she could be thankful for the bright moon tonight. It gave her a slight edge of confidence, as if there was something nice watching over her.

Twilight walked to the center of the clearing, feeling comfortable with testing out a spell or two. Focusing her magic to her horn, she formed a brilliant ball of light at its tip. The white star bathed a huge radius around her in light, turning the trees and bushes at the edge of the clearing a pale silver.

Standing in the open space, Twilight wondered if she was making a wise choice. Probably not, she figured. Her magic would attract the attention of anything nearby. She quickly toned down the light until it was just bright enough for her to see, Twilight scanned the treeline, making sure that the shadows stayed where they were.

Look, there’s nothin—

Twilight spun around, noticing the leaves of the oddly-shaped bush in the middle of the clearing swaying, as if it had been disturbed. A dull creak came from its branches, and then it fell silent again.

Something had moved it. That was why the bush was oddly-shaped in the first place—because something was hiding within. It was watching her, waiting to pounce. Its next meal was a juicy purple unicorn. If she didn’t do something she would be—

Enough!

Twilight gave herself a mental kick. She being so ridiculously paranoid. This was just a small patch of forest, nothing like the Everfree.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Twilight inched towards the bush, despite the panic fluttering in her chest, straining to place one shivering hoof in front of the other.

The light at the tip of her horn pulsed erratically as it fed off her fears. Trying to ignore it, Twilight raised her head higher up, letting the light shine into the bush at an angle. Stretching her neck forward, she could make out the dark outline of something hidden inside. A bushy mane, and then a snout, roughly equine in nature.

A filly was trapped deep inside the bushes, with a yellow coat and a red tail. Then she saw a torn shred of an oversized bow tie hanging from the filly’s head. Twilight let out a surprised gasp.

“Apple Bloom! Is that you?”

The filly made a noise that fell between a croak and a whimper. The leaves of the bush budged a little as she moved.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to you?” Twilight extinguished her horn. Without thinking twice, she used a foreleg to thrust the branches aside. Something sharp pierced deep into her skin, and Twilight drew back with a yelp.

“Twilight...?” Apple Bloom called out uncertainly. Her voice had gone all raspy, as if it had cracked from too much shouting. “Help... help me.”

“Oh, oh no! Are you tangled up really bad? How did you even get in there? Did you slip and fall into the bush?” All of a sudden, the little details seemed to be important as Twilight danced frantically on the spot.

“Please help me, Twilight. Please...”

“Don’t worry! I-I’ll find a way to get you out.” Twilight reached out a foreleg again, but paused halfway as she remembered how it had gotten pricked. Drawing it back sharply and rubbing her foreleg, Twilight realized that it did feel a little sore, and she tentatively held it up in the air. She lighted up her horn again, taking a look at her leg, which seemed perfectly normal. Then she promptly shifted her gaze to the bush and saw the sharp something that had pierced her.

“Oh my gosh, these bushes are really prickly,” Twilight whispered, her eyes widening at the gleaming black thorns wrapped around the branches of the bush.

Apple Bloom merely let out a weak sob in response.

Twilight looked anxiously at the dense web of crisscrossing branches. “If your coat’s gotten caught up in them, I think I’m going to have to break these away one by one.”

Wrapping her magic around the nearest one, she moved it experimentally. It was stronger than it looked, almost a strong as a vine. She bit her lip, knowing that she would need more force to pry it open. Concentrating her magic into a thin band of purple, Twilight looped it experimentally around the branch in a ring, bending the branch at an angle. It shivered under the pressure before finally giving in with a loud snap, and Apple Bloom cried out in pain.

“I’m sorry!” Twilight exclaimed, “What happened?”

“It hurts... it hurts.”

Twilight looked anxiously at the tangle of thorny branches. “I’ll try to be more careful. not to move those around so much.”

She focused on her next woody target, bending it more slowly this time. Her magic pulsed ever so slightly as she strained to keep a steady force on the branch. Apple Bloom twitched as it broke, but said nothing.

One by one, Twilight painstakingly worked away at the branches, placing the woody pieces neatly in a growing pile next to her. Twilight pressed on, feeling her concentration straining. Eventually, the thorns were removed from Apple Bloom’s coat. Once the filly had enough space, she squeezed her way out of the bush, careful to avoid brushing her coat against more of the thorny overhangs.

“Thanks so much Twilight.” Apple Bloom said in a hoarse voice, examining the scratches on her coat. “Ah would have been stuck here till morning if you... if you hadn’t come along.”

Twilight nodded, then she groaned and sat down on the grass. A bad headache was starting to form just beneath her horn. She rubbed her temple, attempting to bring back her focus.

“Ugh... I’m feeling a little dizzy now. I think I might have used too much magic. ”

Apple Bloom shot a worried glance at her. “That needed a lot of magic?”

“Yes, the branches are stronger than they look. It took a lot concentration to remove them, and carefully too, without pricking you.”

“Oh...” Apple Bloom hung her head in shame. “Ah’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine, Apple Bloom.” Twilight pushed herself up to her hooves. “What were you doing out here at this time anyway?”

“We were playing hide and seek,” mumbled Apple Bloom, a sheepish look beginning to creep on her face. “Ah fell down a slope and ended up in the nasty bush there. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo probably thought that I had run off halfway or something. They didn’t come looking for me.”

“Hide and seek at night?”

The filly hung her head lower. “It was in the evening.”

“Apple Bloom, you know that’s not safe...”

“Ah’m so sorry, Twilight.” Apple Bloom shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. “And if it helps, Ah promise never to do that again.”

Twilight gave a tired sigh. Her head was hurting badly. “Let’s take you back to Sweet Apple Acres.”

She began to head back to the village, making sure that Apple Bloom was following close behind.

Twilight couldn’t imagine why the Cutie Mark Crusaders would choose to play hide and seek in the forest. An added level of fun, maybe? Tracking through the vegetation and all. Maybe she would done it herself if she was younger. The unicorn blinked twice. Or maybe not; she would have stuck to reading.

The bookworm and the filly continued along the dark cobblestone street and further out to the edge of town. Twilight kept within a few hoofsteps of Apple Bloom, casting occasional glances down at the filly to see that she was alright.

Soon, the familiar shape of the farmhouse came into view, silhouetted against the moon, a long winding dirt path cutting across a field of tall grasses and leading up to it. Twilight noticed the soft yellow light coming from its windows.

“You can leave me here, Twilight. Ah’ll head home myself.”

Twilight looked from the farmhouse to the filly. “Are you sure? It’s just a short walk in.”

“Ah... Ah don’t want you to hear Applejack scold me.”

The unicorn paused. She bent down and gave Apple Bloom a soft nuzzle on her cheek, looking into the filly’s large, liquid eyes. Twilight gave her a comforting smile.

“Hey... Applejack’s just worried about you. I’m sure she just wants to tell you that.”

“I know,” Apple Bloom murmured.

Twilight touched the filly’s forehead with her muzzle. “But she will never stop you from playing altogether, because we all need to have our fun.” The mare smiled and tapped a hoof to her chest. “Even us older ponies. She just wants you to be careful when you run around. You wouldn’t want to run into that bush again, would you?”

Apple Bloom giggled in spite of herself. “No, of course not! That nasty thing.”

“Don’t you think it was lucky that I found you?” Twilight continued. “Actually, I was a little afraid of entering the forest to begin with, but I realized that the cry sounded a lot like a filly’s, and so I decided to have a look around.”

She closed her eyes and gave a soft sigh, as if letting out the last remaining flakes of fear. Things were all settled down now.

“It’s been a long night,” she said, turning to Apple Bloom. “You should head home now.”

The filly nodded obediently and gave Twilight a last nuzzle. “Thank ya so much Twilight. I really owe you a big one.” She turned around and began to walk towards the path.

“Remember, stay safe!” Twilight called out.

“Got it!”

Twilight stood on the edge of the field, watching the filly make her way on the dirt path. She hoped that Apple Bloom had learnt a valuable lesson about safety tonight. A few minutes later, the unicorn gave a light giggle. Actually, she had learnt a lesson of her own as well—one about overcoming her own fears.

Twilight stood there for a moment longer, the smile gradually fading off her face, her ears beginning to droop. Now that she thought about it, she was really tired. Her headache was back and her legs were aching from all that walking. She felt like lying on the ground there and then to sleep.

Or maybe stay in the farmhouse for the night.

The exhausted unicorn paused, giving that idea a few moments of serious thought. But a few moments later, she realized how bothersome that would be for Applejack. Twilight dropped her head as her hopes deflated like a punctured balloon, turning around and beginning the long trek home.


Twilight had no problem finding her way back, despite how everything seemed to become darker still. The moon must have become dimmer. But that didn’t matter, she was only a short way from the boutique, walking along the small cobblestone street with the forest at her side. And when she reached it, she would give her hooves a wash and head straight to bed.

Perhaps she would look up on those thorny bushes too, if her schedule allowed her to tomorrow.

Twilight took a shortcut through along the edge of the woods. As she dragged her hooves against the grass, she let her head hang in exhaustion, her gaze wandering to the ground passing underneath her hooves. She noticed, almost lazily, that a dark spot of mud had splattered over a few long blades of grass, staining them black against the moonlight. Twilight sighed, reminding herself once again to scrub her hooves thoroughly with soap when she got back.

Without much thought, she took a few steps back to look at the spot again, only to discover that it was actually a drop of liquid that had partially dried up. Twilight stared at it dumbly for a few seconds, her mind foggy and throbbing in pain. She decided to smear it against the grass, and it turned dark red in color.

A gasp escaped her lips, then she winced as her head responded with a hissing bolt of pain. Her thoughts snapped back to Apple Bloom. Was she bleeding? Was she that badly hurt? How deep were her scratches? Were the thorns poisonous? ...What if they were?

Twilight danced on her hooves, and her head screamed in protest as she fretted about the blood and the thorns and Apple Bloom. Through her scrambled mind, she tried to recall how the bush looked like.

A bush, a big one. With black thorns.
Big bush with black thorns.
Big bush, black thorns.

Her headache forgotten, she raced back into the forest, under the thick canopy and around the tree trunks. She skidded to a halt, suddenly remembering an old spell she had picked up years ago. Spreading her legs apart into a defensive stance, she squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating the magic into her horn and feeling it collect into a thick aura. When she opened her eyes, her horn was glowing ruby red. A simple sweep of her magic revealed similarly colored specks on the ground, sparkling like miniscule jewels amongst the undergrowth, too small to form a direct trail, but enough for her to follow.

Confident that she was being led to the bush, Twilight moved deeper into the forest. It felt as though the trees were growing closer together, their trunks scraping against her coat and depositing bits of scratchy bark between the soft hairs. Ducking under more branches of woody fingers and moving around a set of warped tree trunks, she struggled to keep track of the tiny specks of blood. The clearing wasn’t too far in, and it shouldn’t be, but it was difficult to gauge how much distance she had covered.

She slowed down a few times to catch her breath, taking in the musky scents of the forest with the icy air. Keeping her spell up, she scanned the ground. The blood seemed to come in little droplets now. She spotted one on a leaf, an irregular spot, glowing crimson red against her magic. Stretching out a foreleg, she pushed the leaf with the tip of her hoof and it tilted sideways. The blood rolled off its waxy surface and fell to the grass in a fat drop.

Twilight felt a tinge of disgust mixing with her fear. She hated seeing split blood like that. It made her spine tingle. The blood couldn’t have come from Apple Bloom. The filly couldn’t have been that badly injured. Twilight knew she would have noticed that. And the blood was fresh...

Feeling confused, Twilight continued on, stumbling around in the dark forest. Her headache had formed a dull cloud of pain around her sleep-addled mind. Then, as fast as lightning, a thick length had caught her around the neck, rapidly tightening around her throat. A snake! A SNAKE! Her hooves sprang up in reflex, desperately trying to wrestle the vile creature away. Terrifying seconds passed before she managed to throw it off, collapsing to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Panting, she looked around wildly. Then, she saw that the snake wasn’t a snake at all, but a low hanging vine. Her eyes narrowing at it, Twilight raised a hoof and prodded suspiciously at the living rope. Her throat felt sore now, and she had the feeling it would stay that way for a good few hours.

Twilight lighted her horn for a brief moment. She didn’t need to keep the spell up all the time now, only using it when she needed to. As she trekked through the forest, she noticed specks of dark on the leaves and the grass. But now they looked more like dark splotches. Whatever it was, Twilight knew that she was close to it. She stepped over a thick branch that had broken off, one leg over at a time. She didn’t want to get cut on all those sharp pieces. Then she wondered why were there were broken branches lying around.

In front of her, the splotches of blood had formed a rough trail. Looking further ahead, she realized that she could recognize the patch of forest there. Those trees marked the entrance of the clearing. Twilight raced towards the clearing, her spine back to its tingling.

Suddenly, the trail of blood veered abruptly to one side, continuing into another part of the forest. Twilight slowed to a halt and frowned in confusion, looking from the stains to the clearing and back to the stains. Then, she abandoned the trail and continued straight ahead into the clearing.

She crashed through the line of trees and into the clearing, cantering to where the black thorny bushes would be, or should have been. Standing in the middle of the clearing, Twilight looked at the mess of splinters and twigs at her hooves. Leaves lay strewn around the ground, along with pieces of stem, bark and branches. The bush had been completely destroyed, with some parts of it even being uprooted, leaving its roots exposed.

Twilight picked her way around the mess, staring at the pieces of wood.

Did I do this?

She wasn’t sure. Maybe that was why she had been so exhausted after freeing up Apple Bloom. The amount of energy spent must have been enormous.

She levitated up a broken branch. It had its top half sliced off cleanly, as if by a blade. There were smaller cuts running along its length, and bits of stem had been gorged out.

I didn’t... make these.

Twilight was sure she didn’t. She had broken the branches, not sliced through them, and she definitely didn’t uproot anything. It looked like the bush was the only thing destroyed. All the rest of the vegetation had remained untouched.

Twilight’s throat felt a little dry as the mystery deepened. She thought of the splotches of blood again, and how they appeared to be fresh.

They couldn’t have come from Apple Bloom. That would have been all dried up by now.

That was a good thing... was it? She remembered that the trail of blood had veered off to the side. She hasn’t taken a look around that area yet. Maybe she should.

Twilight placed the branch down. She retraced her steps back to the treeline and into the forest. It didn’t take long, and with a flash of her horn, she found the dark stains on the grass again, which glowed briefly from her magic. She veered away from the clearing, following it closely.

Not twenty hoofsteps later, the splotches collected in especially large patches on the grass a distance away, black against the lighter gray of grass.

Squeezing around a giant tree and pushing through a thin curtain of vines, Twilight moved towards the dark patch. She lignited her horn and used it as a source of light. Something small and furry lying in the middle of the patch, hidden among the clumps of blood-stained undergrowth.

Her stomach tightening, From what she could make out, it was a tiny scrap of fur that had once been a possum. The poor creature had been crushed against the ground, its blood splattering the grass around it. Twilight stared at its body, lifeless and broken and gray.

A wave of terror crashed along her spine. It was here, lurking around in the dark forest. The monster. The thing that blended in the shadows. The one with haunting red eyes and a freakish head.

Snapping her head up, Twilight spun around sharply, looking at the trees that loomed around her. She didn’t know why it had come here. There was nothing here. It was supposed to be a small forest. It was supposed to be safe. She had only used a few spells for light and a few more on the bush. And now that bush had been shredded to pieces.

The hairs along her spine stiffened, and her muscles began to tense up. The horrible feeling spread through her body down each of her four hooves. Her magic. Some of it would have lingered, especially after the huge amount she had channeled into breaking its branches.

Hardly daring to breathe, she stood on the spot. Her throat felt dry. The shadows didn’t seem so still now. Yet everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

Twilight felt her wits snap under the pressure. Letting out a terrified scream, she began an adrenalin-powered dash back to the clearing. She would have sworn that sharp rustles burst from the trees in response. Sounds that did not belong to her.

As Twilight burst into the clearing, she looked frantically around at the line of trees, wondering which direction was the right way out.

Oh Celestia, oh Celestia...

They looked all the same. Everything did. She couldn’t think of where to go. There was something coming from a distance behind. Unnerved, she picked out a bunch of trees that looked familiar and cut across the clearing, moving towards and then past them.

She dived into the dense forest once again, tripping on the roots and getting caught among the treacherous vines. The branches clawed at her mane and her coat, as if displeased at her escaping.

The unicorn ran through the forest, certain of the shadows and rustles that followed her. She had lost her bearings again, but there was no time to think. Keeping her attention split between the movements in the woods and untangling herself from the trees and bushes, Twilight wondered if she was nearing the edge of the forest.

She needed to get out of this place fast, perhaps move out to the open, where she could see things clearly... Where there were houses and ponies and help.

It was supposed to be a small patch of forest; she kept telling herself that. Why do the trees look so different? Twilight looked around at the hideously warped trunks and crooked branches. Something was not right. In fact, something was very, very wrong. She was familiar with these crooked trees. They belonged to a different area and a different forest.

Acting on impulse, Twilight made a sharp turn, her hooves digging into the earth as she changed direction. The trees were the same no matter where she looked, twisted and corrupted. The dark woods sped past her, tall trees looming around her as she ran, blocking out the moonlight and plunging the area into darkness.

Twilight knew something was watching her, some unknown horror that raced amongst the shadows, rustling the leaves and causing the occasional snap of a twig. But every time she shot a glance back to see what was chasing her, she could only make out shadows flitting among the trees.

The sounds grew fainter and fainter as she galloped. Eventually, she slowed to a trot, stopping to lean against the rough bark of a tree trunk. Putting a hoof to her heaving chest, Twilight fought to catch her breath. She was stuck in the middle of the with strange things all around and no help. It was like living in a nightmare.

Twilight Sssparkle...

A snap.

Another snap.

A series of deliberate, slow crunches, the sound of grinding bone and popping sinews.

Twilight jolted her head up, turning in a clumsy circle, trying to look everywhere at once. She caught sight of a few bushes trembling. Seconds later, a figure stepped out, pony-shaped in the darkness. It looked to the left, and then to the right, as if trying to orientate itself.

The pony shape took a few steps forward, its belly wobbling ever so slightly. It moved under the moonlight, revealing an old pony in a navy blue uniform, a few bloodied scratches on his coat where the uniform had been ripped apart.

It was Officer Steel Heart.