The Dark October Winds
Oh, the wind. Usually the breeze is harmless, but tell me this, dear reader: have you ever experienced it when it wasn’t? Some winds simply feel... different, odd. Tell me, brave viewer, has there ever been a wind that felt almost charged, dry, and filled you with unease and nervousness? Chances are there has been, for I am not simply spewing fairy tales and magic here. Such winds are well-documented on the planet Earth, in places such as California, Germany, and the Alps. They are known as the föehn winds. Try as they might, scientists struggle to explain the odd, disturbed feelings these winds provoke in all creatures. “But wait a minute,” I assume that you are wondering, “Why are you telling us all of this? It doesn’t seem all that relevant.” Well, it is in fact relevant, you imaginary reader in my head. For last night, such a strange wind picked up from out of nowhere and began to whip through the small town of Ponyville.
Of course, practically nopony noticed. It was three a.m., after all, and any smart pony would be sleeping at that hour. Lesson one, dearest reader: Vinyl Scratch is not a smart pony (though I would hope that this is already common knowledge). On this night, the crazy mare was for whatever reason stumbling through the streets in quite the state of drunkenness. Although the foul winds bit into her exposed sides and further ruffled her already-wild hair, the haze of alcohol caused her to ignore the odd weather. She did, however, notice the middle-aged stallion sitting alone on a bench in town square. Blinking, she stumbled over.
“Well, heya, gramps! Shouldn’t... uh... all duh old poniesh be shleepin?” she slurred at him.
The older pony turned calmly to face the DJ. “I am simply observing the winds, young miss.”
Vinyl scrunched her face. “Huh?”
“Do you not feel them? After all these years, those winds are returning. Right before Nightmare Night, too. I am simply wondering what is to come.”
“I have... dun got any idea wut yer- *hic* ...talkin’ ‘bout, you... shilly pony, you...”
“It’s that wind, the one that brought the shadows and the monsters; you’re probably too young to remember. But in the trees, under houses, amidst the clouds... spirits are building. Watch your back for the next few days, my dear, for the dark winds always bring evil with them.” With that, he rose to his hooves, tipped his straw hat, and vanished into the darkness. Vinyl just stood there, swaying slightly, then hiccuped.
“Heh. He’sh sho funneh... hehehe...”
Now, my reader, you are probably now curious about how this tale shall be carried out. Will it revolve around one of the Elements of Harmony? Will it involve the Everfree Forest? Is there dark magic involved? Exactly what types of monsters and spirits are we talking here? Well, reader, I must confess that even I do not know. I, just as you are, am watching this story unfold; I am simply your guide in this mysterious tale. Where shall we start? Where will the darkness strike first? Maybe we should simply use the default option of storytellers and check in with the local librarian....
The howling breeze continued as Twilight Sparkle slept fitfully in the upstairs loft of the Books and Branches Library. One flaw of living in a tree is that when it is windy out, your entire house creaks and rustles annoyingly. Thus, our Miss Sparkle was having quite a bit of trouble sleeping. A gust of wind caused another branch to rap against the window, and Twilight jerked awake for what felt to her like the hundredth time that night. The purple unicorn groaned and flopped over, tracing the wrinkles in the sheets with her hoof. Twilight mentally cursed herself for not learning that sound-dampening spell. Exasperated, Twilight sat up in bed and blearily glanced around the darkened loft. How was a pony supposed to sleep like this? While she loved her little “treebrary,” she had to admit that there were downsides. Ugh... and I bet Spike is sleeping right through it all. I swear, that dragon can-... Twilight paused. Spike’s bed lay empty.
“Spike?” Twilight called softly. There was no response, only silence in the library. She peered through the semi-darkness, but could not see him anywhere. Twilight wondered if her assistant had gone downstairs for some reason or another. The librarian’s curiosity quickly overwhelmed her desire for sleep as she climbed out of bed and quietly trotted down to the main level of the library.
The antechamber where her loft was located was almost completely empty, with no sign of Spike, so she continued down the main set of stairs and poked her head into the main body of the library. No dragon in sight. Twilight trotted out into into the room, genuinely confuzzled. There just weren’t many other places he could possibly be. Maybe he was in the kitchen, grabbing a way-past-midnight sna- *THUMP!*
Twilight’s head whipped around. The sound had come from the library basement. Now what’s Spike doing down there? Walking slowly to the basement door, she pulled it open with a gentle creak. Darkness. Why would Spike be in a pitch-black basement? Suddenly, a horrible thought struck the unicorn: what if Spike was sleepwalking?! She’d read a book about somnambulance once, and it said that sleepwalkers were very prone to hurting themselves! She rushed to light the torches in her subterranean laboratory, but then abruptly stopped as she remembered another detail: “Waking up a sleepwalker, however, can often result in severe confusion and violent disorientation. The best course of action is to simply lead the somnambulist in question back to bed.” If she lit the room, it might wake Spike up! She would have to venture into the basement in near-darkness. She gulped, and stepped forward to venture into the darkened basement.
*Thump!* “Ouch...” *Thwack!* “Dangit!” This didn’t seem to be going so well for Twilight.
Twilight decided eventually to go with the smart approach and stood still for a minute, letting her eyes adjust. Once she could make out the dark outlines of her lab equipment, she slowly began circling the room, keeping an eye for her little assistant. Then she paused, ears flicking as a rustling noise came from back near the base of the the stairs. She turned, pacing slowly towards the source of the sound. “Spike? You awake?” she whispered.
All of a sudden, the candle at the top of the stairs flared to life. Twilight sighed, and looked up towards the basement’s entrance. “Spike, what are you doing out of b-... huh?” Nopony was there. Then the rustling started again. Oh, that horrible noise, like dead skin dragging over a bed of fallen leaves! It swirled all around, as if blown by the breeze that had mysteriously penetrated her basement. The unicorn pressed herself against the wall, growing frightened. And she had all rights to be, for a flickering candle in a large space casts many shadows. And everyone knows that in tales such as these, shadows often represent dark spirits, or can be manipulated by them. And that’s just what happened. As Twilight Sparkle squeezed her eyes shut against the increasingly horrifying noise, the shadows began to move, twist, and rush together around the purple pony. Her eyes snapped open as she began to hear voices and chilling laughter.
“yes, yessss.... it’s soon complete...” “accipite hanc animam, et alligate ea in terra…!” “no, please don’t hurt me-!” “...and so... I killed them.... yes, yes I did...” “oh, why, why does it burn so bad?!”
The candle was suddenly extinguished and the darkness rushed in around her. Shapes and images flashed around her head. Twilight screamed as shadowy figures of monsters leered out of the whirling cloud of shadows at her, but no sound came out. The cloud whirled faster and faster, and scenes began to jump out at her, too fast to keep track of. Dead ponies, horrifying creatures, and eldritch abominations beyond description blurred together. The shadows suddenly condensed inwards, forming a giant set of reptilian eyes.
“The wind isss back... and now our fun ssshall begin, Missss Sssparkle! You ssshall get a ssspecial sssneak preview of what issss coming for ssomepony!”
The shadows broke apart into whips, thorns, and tentacles that whipped at Twilight. She howled in pain as the attacks left gashes down her sides. Another mass of shadows bludgeoned her to the side, as a dark limb limb wrapped around her neck and slammed her to the wall. Twilight screamed and cried and laughed and moaned and whimpered and yelled and gasped as the shadows whipped and pummeled and stabbed and choked and bashed and bit, whirling around and around and around as seconds bled into minutes, into hours, into days, into weeks into months into years into centuries then back into seconds, as blood and tears and snot and shadow gathered around the pathetic husk that was once a pony, forever yet never left to rot and not rot in the darkness and the light and the twilight of the place which used to be her basement but was now hell, as the eyes laughed and laughed and laughed...
And then it stopped.
Twilight froze. She was laying, curled up in fetal position, at the foot of the basement stairs. In the flickering glow of a candle that she did not remember lighting, she saw no sign that anything had taken place. There was no blood, no pain or bruising, no floating pair of eyes, no shadows other than those one would normally expect to find. All that remained were the tears.
The shaken librarian stumbled to her hooves, then turned and dashed up the stairs as fast as she could, slamming the door behind her. She slumped back against it, breathing rapidly and shakily.
“Oh, uhh... hey Twilight. What were you... *yaaawwn* ...doing in the basement?” Spike’s voice rang out in the darkened library. Twilight looked up to see the baby dragon walking out of the kitchen, a few crackers clasped in his claws.
“Y- you- you were... you were in the kitchen the whole time.” She stared at him blankly.
“Uh... I guess? What do you mean by ‘the whole time’? And what happened to you? You’re lookin’ pretty rough right now, Twi...” Spike questioned worriedly.
Twilight froze. She had no idea what had just happened. But one thing she did know is that she was going to do some extensive research before she told anyone, especially Spike! “It... it was... nothing, Spike. Nothing at all.”
“So... yeah. I’m, uh, goin’ back ta bed. You too?”
Twilight sighed. “Yeah, me too. Come on Spike. Up we go.” She and Spike ascended back up to the loft. Spike climbed into his little bed and immediately fell fast asleep. The unicorn stared at him thoughtfully for a while before climbing into bed herself. She laid back, listening to the wind, which seemed even louder than before. Shuddering slightly, she closed her eyes.
All she could see was that horrible set of eyes. All she could hear was the horrible rustling and the sinister laughter. Twilight Sparkle did not sleep for the rest of the night.
Well now. That was interesting, was it not? I almost wish I had some popcorn. So... was that it? Is the tale finished? Oh no, not at all, my silly reader. As long as the wind still blows, our story will continue. It is only a matter of whose life we shall spy on next. I would be extremely interested in seeing how our resident weatherpony would handle an encounter with the paranormal. Because, you are thinking, Rainbow Dash is not scared of anything! Well, we shall see about that. Come with me, reader, as we journey into the mind and life of the fastest flyer in Equestria...
Dawn broke, and the wind continued. Not that Rainbow Dash particularly minded, of course. Breaking up natural wind was the responsibility of weather teams near its source, not those feeling its effects, so the winds didn’t really give Dash any extra work. Well, apart from flying into it, but Rainbow Dash is of course a very strong flier. Needless to say, our polychromatic heroine completely disregarded any unusual meteorological phenomena.
As the morning progressed, Dash swooped around town, carefully shoring up stray clouds that threatened to precipitate. The weather report called for “cloudy but not raining,” which is a tricky balance for weatherponies to maintain. She dived down low over town square, where Nightmare Night decorations were already starting to be set up. She waved at a bleary-eyed Twilight and snagged Applejack’s hat as she worked her stand. The latter was, in hindsight, an unwise decision that resulted in ten furious minutes of chasing, teasing, and fighting. All in all, they caused exactly 53.72 bits in damage around Ponyville: all in a day’s work for the destructive duo.
As Rainbow took to the air to escape from AJ, who shook her hoof menacingly up at her, she happened to glance towards the Everfree. It was there that she caught sight of a mass of low, misty, potential rain clouds that she really didn’t want drifting out towards Ponyville. Sighing with frustration, the pegasus morphed into a prismatic smear across the breezy autumn sky, streaking off towards the edge of the forest.
Upon her speedy arrival, Dash set to work blasting through the natural-formed, hazy clouds with brutal efficiency. The task, however, was made slightly more difficult due to the fact that every minute, more and more weather was seeping from between the dark, twisted limbs of the ancient forest. Cursing the odd wind that blew the clouds towards Ponyville, she kicked it into overdrive so that she could finish up and get out that place. Something just didn’t sit right with her today...
“Help! HELP! Oh Celestia, somepony, please!” a mare’s voice cried out from below. The weathermare’s ears suddenly perked up. A citizen in distress? Rainbow Dash was needed!
Rainbow scanned the treeline below her before quickly spotting a young, unfamiliar-looking unicorn mare running out from the forest’s edge, crying for help. Her mane was disheveled and cuts and scrapes covered her hide. She looked around wildly, then spotted Dash. She yelled out once more, “You have to help him, ma’am! Please!”
Our brave, loyal pegasus swooped down to the mare, resisting the urge to subtly strike a pose upon landing. She did, however, loudly proclaim, “No need to fear, for your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is here!”
The mysterious mare panted for breath before gasping out, “My big brother! Timberwolves! We were- *pant* ...attacked by them! He was trying to hold them off so I could escape! Please can you help him?! He’s just in there!” She pointed into the part of the forest she’d just ran out of.
“I’ll see what I can do, miss. You just stay right here while I take care of those... those... those barky monstrosities!” The other mare planted her plot on the ground, struggling to hold back tears, and Dash rocketed off in the direction the distressed maiden had pointed.
The most unusual thing Rainbow noticed immediately was the fog. While fog was pretty normal for the Everfree forest, there was an obscene amount of it this time. Our heroine was forced to land and run instead, lest she smack face-first into a tree. As she galloped headlong through the mists, trying to keep a steady course, she began to hear muffled sounds from ahead. She adjusted her course slightly and the sounds became clearer. Panicked shouting, crashing, and snarls reached Rainbow’s ears, and she frantically increased her pace.
All of a sudden, the pegasus burst into relatively-fogless clearing and was greeted by a truly terrifying sight. A half dozen timberwolves prowled in and out of the mists, occasionally snapping and pouncing at a ragged, heavily-bleeding gray stallion. Dash ground to a halt, sending up skidding chunks of dirt. One of the beasts, demonic red eyes burning unnaturally, lashed out with its claws, leaving another bleeding gash down the poor pony’s side.
“Hey!” cried out Dash, building up her courage and tensing herself for a fight. “Leave that stallion alone and come face me! I’m right here, juicy pegasus meat! Come on!” Only two wolves broke off their attack, wheeling about to snarl at her with woody, twisted jaws that defied logic or science. The two ruthless predators eyed her for a moment, sizing up their next meal. All the while, the gray stallion screamed in terror and frantically dodged slow snap after lazy swipe. Those monsters are toying with him! Rainbow suddenly realized. I have to get to him quickly before the other wolves finally decide to finish it!
And then one of the timberwolves facing her pounced suddenly, snarling viciously. She barely had time to take to the air and swoop out of the way as it launched forwards, its bark-covered body missing by inches. The beast growled in frustration as its momentum carried right past its potential dinner.
“Ha ha, that’s right! That’ll teach you to take on the greatest flyer in Eque- WHOA!” In glancing back at the first timberwolf, Dash had nearly flown right into the jaws off the second. She banked sharply in the opposite direction, again just barely missing the oaken monster. Weaving around, she found herself neatly on the other side of the two, with nary a scratch. Now all she had to do was swoop in and try to snag the-...
A timberwolf, tired of playing, sunk its massive jaws right into the stallion’s throat. Rainbow Dash pulled up, stunned, her heart just about stammering to a stop. The poor gray pony let out a gurgling scream that was cut short as the wolf jerked its head to the side, ripping out a large chunk of his neck. Blood, so much more blood than our horrified onlooker thought was possible, gushed from the weakly struggling pony and splattered wetly across the forest floor. The light began to drain from his suddenly-tired eyes. Another of the beasts ran forward eagerly, grabbed a leg, and ripped it clean off. The stallion opened his mouth, then let it swing back closed, working his jaw as he tried to find the energy to scream once more, but just couldn’t quite do it. Finally, a third wolf bent down and hungrily ripped into the stallion’s underbelly. It was all over.
Rainbow Dash could do nothing but hover there, mouth hanging ajar. A haze of shock surrounded her and she mentally reeled as her brain tried to process what had just happened. She only dimly registered the two monstrosities behind her sprinting past to partake in the pack’s newest meal, having completely forgotten about the pony who had evaded them. Dash was surrounded by a fog, mentally as well as physically. Nothing seemed to matter except those final moments, replaying over and over and over in her head. The one thing that eventually broke through to the traumatized pegasus was a sound.
It was the sound of content, of predators feeding and celebrating after a kill. The vile beasts licked their chops and yipped happily, as Winona would when given a treat, and jostled for position around their fresh corpse. They’d just killed another living being, and they were eating him?! The fog turned red as Dash awoke to a world of hatred and vengeance and RAGE.
“GET THE BUCK AWAY FROM HIM!!!” she screamed throatily. The wolves all paused and wheeled around to glance up at whoever had interrupted their feast. One snarled, hot, sticky blood and chunks of... something dripping from its muzzle.
The enraged would-be saviour let out a pained, feral scream and dived right at the wolves! Caught off-guard, they scattered as she wheeled around for another pass. Her hooves were fully extended, fully prepared to pulverize one of those motherbuckers into splinters. She focused on the big alpha wolf, the one that had made the kill, and dived straight at it, intent on jamming a rainbow right between its stupid glowy eyes. Or something along those lines.
The alpha crouched down, seemingly preparing to meet her attack head-on. Rainbow accelerated, determined to win this lethal game of chicken. She approached, it tensed... Rainbow Dash only hit air. Huh? She glanced back over her shoulder to see the alpha wolf a few feet off to the side. It almost appeared that it had vaulted straight sideways, an extremely flexible and athletic feat for a creature made of wood. Dash glanced back forward, then dived off to the side to avoid a tree that loomed out of the rapidly-encroaching fog. She carefully circled back around, just in time for a gust of foul wind to completely conceal the clearing in a white haze.
Rainbow pulled up short once more, for she could no longer see her foe through the thick, cloying fog. She hovered, listening for the sounds of the timberwolves. Nothing. As she peered into the haze, shapes seemed to move and shift and whirl... then again, it could have just been the fog. The fog began to approach, spreading amorphous fingers towards her. The growing lack of sight and sound was already becoming oppressive. Every nerve in the athletic pegasus’ body was on edge as she waited, expecting the wolves to leap out at her at any second.
And then, the fog dissipated, just as quickly as it had appeared and in the same fashion. A gust of wind cleared the open space, revealing the crouched, aggressive forms of the monstrous, evil... apparently nonexistent timberwolves. The clearing was empty. Even the dead stallion’s body was gone. Dash spun around and kicked the nearest tree with all her might.
“BUCK!” she screamed, tears forming in her eyes. He was dead, because she hadn’t been good enough, ran fast enough, tried hard enough... she had to walk from this forest empty-hooved, as a failure. As a pony who allowed another pony to be killed right in front of her, and... Oh Celestia, no. She had to tell his little sister. Dash had to walk up to a distraught mare and tell her that her brother was dead. She could tell that this would not be fun. Rainbow Dash got her bearings, took a deep breath, and began jogging out of the forest, struggling to hold back tears and dread.
After a minute of shame and regret, Dash emerged from the forest. Keeping her gaze locked on the ground, she could practically feel the mare’s worried gaze on her. Rainbow swallowed hard, preparing to do something that she had never wanted to do and didn’t want to do ever again for the rest of her life.
“I- I’m sorry, ma’am. It was- I was... too late. Your brother, he- is... um... is...” Something wasn’t right.
She peeled her eyes from the ground and looked up. She was alone. All alone. The young mare was nowhere in sight. Dash immediately rocketed upwards and scanned the surrounding fields, but didn’t spot another soul. “MA’AM!” she yelled out. “WHERE DID YOU GO?!” But the pegasus’ voice simply echoed around the sparse, lonely hills between the Everfree and Ponyville before being sucked away by a strong breeze.
She slowly, dejectedly flapped back down to the ground, trying to hold back more tears. She needed to get out of here, to return to her friends, to escape this Celestia-forsaken place. The stallion was dead, the mare was gone... Dash kicked at the ground again. She didn’t know what to do. So she fell back to the old, cowardly option that she had always despised: she turned to go home.
However, as she turned her back to the fog drifting from the trees, the wind intensified, almost howling. Or maybe... crying. And then Rainbow Dash heard the young unicorn’s voice, echoing quietly in her ears. Or was it just the wind?
“Don’t feel too bad, dear... at least you tried... nopony tried all those years ago... no one came to help until it was too late...”
Rainbow froze. Chills wracked her body as the breeze howled against her and her ear was tickled by an owner-less voice. She stood, petrified, as the voice trailed off into mumbling, then crying, then... howling? But that was just the wind, wasn’t it? Yes. Just the wind. She... she really needed to send a letter to Weather Central about that. Yeah. This bucking wind and this bucking forest was messing with her mind...
“Oh, and one more thing, dear... don’t go out tonight... I would be so upset if such a brave, kind pony was taken...”
That was the last straw that broke her nerves. Rainbow Dash shot up into the air and flew all the way home at extreme speed. Rocketing over Ponyville, she arrived at her floating house and dashed inside, slamming the cloud door. Much to the weather team’s chagrin, she wasn’t seen for the rest of the day.
How are you faring thus far, o noblest reader? That little snippet was even more entertaining than the first two, if I do say so myself. There has always just been something about fog that gets to people. Is it the lack of sound and visibility? Is it the feeling of intense isolation? Or maybe it is the fact that you know that something is hiding, concealed in that mysterious mass of moisture, just waiting. For you? For someone else? You may never know, but that doesn’t prevent you from ducking your head and attempting to quickly, silently pass through a thick fog.
But we really must be continuing with our tale. I could have sworn that I detected some ominous foreshadowing somewhere... we should move quickly, for something tells me that we only have the span of one afternoon left. That should be enough time to peek into one more life. Hmm... I hear the Apple family is quite long-established in these parts, and I believe that a certain mare may be a bit more open-minded to certain occurrences than Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, or *ahem* Miss Vinyl Scratch. Hurry, hurry, come along with me, my friends. A veteran applebucker awaits, and we are running out of time...
Applejack stared out across the fields. The cloudy sky served as a dreary backdrop for her orchard as its leaves began to subtly shift colors. The chilly breeze ruffled her mane, threatening to undo her ponytail. She was shutting down her stand early that afternoon, on account of... well, nothing in particular, actually. Something about today just felt very wrong, and Applejack had learned long ago to trust her earth pony instincts when it came to gut feelings.
Shaking her head, she leaned into the yoke of her apple cart and slowly started down the small path up to the farm. Normally Big Macintosh would be doing this, but he was busy looking after Granny Smith, who’d been feeling a bit ill the last few days. Which left Applejack to handle the cart-pulling; not that she couldn’t handle it, of course. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a rainbow streak across the sky, causing her set a hoof on her stetson, growling protectively. But the prismatic rocket simply continued in the direction of Dash’s cloud home. AJ relaxed and lowered a hoof.
As she approached the barn, another gust of wind brushed over her back, and she shivered. Ah swear... RD’s prob’ly just messin’ with me with this wind cuz Ah took mah hat back. That pegasus... ugh. Shaking her head, she stepped into the barn and glanced around. It seemed empty.
“Hey Winona! Ya in here? Ah’m boutta shut it up fer the night!” Silence. Satisfied that her dog wouldn’t get locked in the barn all night, Applejack wheeled the heavy cart into its spot against the far wall. She unhitched herself and turned around, heading for the exit. Then she stopped, looking up curiously.
An odd length of rope hung from a crossbeam that she distinctly recalled had not been there before. It had a good-sized loop at the end and a large, looping knot. Actually, the more she thought about, it looked a whole lot like a noo-... AJ blinked. It was gone. Craning her head, she peered around the beam, searched for the suspicious rope. But no, it had vanished. She blinked again. Maybe it was just light shining through a crack in the wall onto the dusty air of the barn.
*SLAM!* And... there goes the barn door again. That Celestia-damned wind blew it shut. She really needed to talk to Rainbow about that. Trotting over to the door, AJ pulled it open, mildly relieved that it wasn’t locked or something. She would have been stuck in that barn for a while, since everypony expected her to be out selling still. As she stepped out of the barn, she turned and peered back in one final time, just to check. Seeing neither a noose nor Winona, she closed and locked the doors.
Applejack curved around the side of the barn to walk to the farmhouse. As she did, she looked up and winced at the giant Pinkie Pie mural still stretched across the old wooden wall. It would have been mean to paint over it, and Granny and Applebloom seemed to love it, but still! She wasn’t sure if she wanted a giant smiling Pinkie on her barn for all eternity. Although... maybe it was just her imagination, but the huge two-dimensional party pony looked decidedly less cheery today. If the farmpony had to guess, she’d say the painting was starting to age already. After all, she doubted Pinkie used enough coats of paint to make the darn thing last.
These thoughts were cast aside as the orange mare arrived at her front porch. She pushed through the door, hollering out, “HEY Y’ALL! Ah’m home early!” Almost immediately, an enormous red pony’s head popped around the corner at the top of the stairs, giving her a hard look. He lifted a large hoof to his lips, shaking his head.
She blushed and lowered her voice. “Sorry, Mac. She sleepin’?”
“Eeyup,” he replied curtly. Then he cocked his head in confusion and started down the stairs. Upon reaching his little sister, he actually managed to spit out multiple words, asking, “Why ‘ya home?”
“Aw, y’know... jes’ ain’t feelin’ it today. Thought mayhaps Ah’d come home and set up some decorations fer tomorrow or whatnot.”
Big Mac paused, then nodded silently and plodded into the kitchen. As she watched him leave, AJ remembered that she hadn’t seen her ailing grandmother all day, and quickly trotted up the stairs to see her.
Well, that was certainly odd. At the top of the stairs normally hung a multitude of family photos with varying levels of cheesiness. But now an additional picture sat off to the side of the others, depicting a gaunt, middle-aged stallion that she didn’t recognize. She leaned in for a closer look, cocking her head at the unfamiliar earth pony. Well, she certainly didn’t recall hanging the old grainy picture, and was certain that Mac would never do something like that without first asking. Maybe it was an old friend of Granny’s? Applejack decided to ask her whenever she woke up.
At the end of the hall, the farmpony stuck her head into the old, wizened mare’s room, and was surprised to see her grandmother sitting up in bed. She... well, looked pretty rough. Granny Smith, mane matted with sweat, stared with glazed eyes out her window into the grey afternoon, hugging a blanket to her frail form and shivering.
“Granny?” Applejack asked softly. The old pony jerked from her reverie and whipped her head around, then relaxed slightly at the sight of her older granddaughter. “Ah was jus’ comin’ ta’ check up on ya’. Thought ya were sleepin'. How ya’ feeling?”
Granny Smith exhaled in a deep sigh. “Not that great, dearie,” she creaked out. “Mah ol’ bones are pickin’ up some evil in th’ air, an’ ah dun like it.”
“Yeah, Ah been feelin’ that, too. That's why Ah came home early t’day. Not ta’ mention that cold breeze, which ain’t really helpin’.”
Granny Smith froze. “Wazzat, dearie? Izzit gettin’ windy out there?!” she hurriedly asked, anxiety creeping into her old, strained voice.
“Uh... yeah. It’s usually windy in th’ fall. It just... dun feel right t’day.” AJ paused. “Er.. what’s got ya so worked up, Granny?”
What little color remained in the elder pony’s face seemed to drain away. She sat up stiff as a board, shivering slightly. “Oh Celestia. Oh, it’s happenin’ again! Whyzit happenin’ again?! Why ain’t it done from th’ last time?!” Suddenly very worried for her grandmother, the younger mare trotted over and lay a comforting hoof on Granny Smith’s withers.
“Jus’ you calm down now... what’s happenin’ again?”
Granny Smith took several deep breaths, then calmly motioned for her granddaughter to take a seat. When AJ complied, perching on the foot of the bed, the old green mare closed her eyes and began to recount the past.
“It started one fall sev’ral years after we founded Ponyville. A strange wind started a’blowin from th’ Everfree, and ev’rypony was feelin’ all queer an’ nervous fer some reason. Then a few ponies began sayin’ they had some real bad dreams, an’ others thought somethin’ was watchin’ em all the time. Me, Ah payed no attention. That is, til the brand new li- libra-... er, book pony, Mr. Tome, died.
“He’d enchanted a big ol’ oak in the center of town, makin’ it all hollow. He was tryin’ ta hollow out th’ base or somethin’, when a pony goin’ to check out a book found him lyin’ in th’ basement with his neck snapped. He had weird-lookin’ books lyin’ all around him, and there was some dried blood splashed up on th’ walls. Nopony ever found out what happened ta him, although some sciency pony said th’ blood on th’ walls looked like it’d been there awhile. But we’ll never know what happened. All we know is that after that, th’ wind just up an’ stopped. Them durn pegasuses had no clue what its deal was; they didn’t do nothin’ to it.”
Granny Smith paused, then shivered again, and peered out the window at the barn. Applejack sat there thoughtfully, until a thought struck her. “Wait, ain’t that Twilight’s library, in the big-?”
“Hush, dearie, Ah ain’t done yet! Ain’t nice ta interrupt old ponies...” Granny grumbled, scooting around to readjust herself. “Now where was Ah? Oh yeah. ...Th’ barn.
“A couple decades back, ‘fore you were born, that odd wind started up again. It’d been windy before, but us earth ponies felt somethin’ off about it, somethin’ we hadn’t felt since Mr. Tomes died. Th’ next day, some crazed mare ran inta’ town, sayin’ her big brother had been attacked by them nasty timberwolves in th’ forest. What with it bein’ timberwolves an’ all, we didn’t have much hope for the poor stallion, but your ol’ Gramps, bless his heart, told th’ mare she could stay and rest at th’ farm while he organized a search party. A big band of ‘em marched off inta the woods, carryin’ plenty a’ torches in case the wolves came back. They don’ like fire, ya know. Anyways, after searchin’ all day and part of th’ night, they finally found him. Well, parts of him, at least. Ah heard it was real nasty.
“Anyways, they all came back with what pieces they could find, an’ mah husband told the mare the bad news th’ next mornin’. She... well, I tell, she took it rightly hard. Jus’ started cryin’ and wouldn’t stop. Once me an’ yer mum finally got her calmed down, hours later, she disappeared when we weren’t lookin’. We let her go, so she could, I dunno, have some peace an’ quiet ta grieve. Well, tha’ was a bad idea fer us. We finally started tryin’ ta find her, and it wasn’t pretty when we did. She was in th’ barn. Danglin’.”
Applejack’s hoof shot to her mouth. She... she thought she’d seen... no. It was just a coincidence, right? She gulped, and tried to distract herself by asking “An’ what about that wind? Did it stop?”
“It mos’ certainly did. That Celestia-damned wind left, takin’ two young souls with it. Both times that evil wind started blowin’ through town, it brought death with it. So if it’s back...”
“Are you sayin’ somepony’s gonna die, Granny? ‘Cuz... Ah wouldn’t really go jumpin’ ta conclusions, now...” AJ stammered nervously, glancing around.
“Is little Applebloom still in school, dearie?” Granny suddenly asked.
“Oh, uh, she should be finishin’ up pretty soon. But she and them crusaders was plannin’ on headin’ over ta Sweetie’s place for awhile, so...”
“Go get her, an’ bring her home. Now!” the wizened mare ordered. Applejack flinched, looking a bit surprised at her grandmother’s sudden harshness.
“But Granny, Ah... er... well, I wouldn’t wanna... um...” she trailed off into a sigh. “Yes, Granny.”
The orange mare hopped off the bed, and, sparing one more glance at her grandmother, exited the room. Outside in the hallway, she slumped against the wall, shaken. She had seen... no, no, she had only imagined the noose! And she said... ponies would die? And... oh hey, she’d forgotten to ask about the picture on the wall. Oh well.
She trotted to the top of the stairs once more, and peered again at the old black-and-white photo. Well now, ya old stallion... did Granny know you? Then AJ noticed something she could have sworn wasn’t there before. Inset at the bottom of the frame was a small placard, which simply read “Mr. Silent Tome, Librarian.” She looked back up at the mysterious photo in horror. Mr. Tome locked eyes with her and grinned evilly.
Applejack reared up in shock and stumbled on her hind hooves back towards the edge of the stairs, then realized her mistake as she began to totter backwards. Fighting to right herself, she flailed her forelegs, slowly beginning to adjust and fall forwards. And then, just as she was regaining her balance, she felt an invisible hoof on her chest that gave a sharp shove. Her eyes widened, and the last thing she saw before tumbling backwards down the stairs was Tome’s now-beaming face, laughing heartily as she crashed all the way down.
That night, Vinyl slowly paced down the road leading from the hospital, leaving behind immense hubbub. Despite the nurses’ pleas to the contrary, more than half of Ponyville had turned out to wish Applejack a speedy recovery. After all, the Apple Family was one of the pillars of their small community, so everypony felt obligated to at least check in on the young farmer. Vinyl had personally been invited by her pal Pinkie, who was looking decidedly less cheerful now that her friend had multiple bone fractures.
As the DJ, sober for a change, wandered idly back home, she noticed that the town was unusually empty. Everypony was either up at the hospital or at home sleeping, leaving the village center silent and still. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The cold wind that had been blowing all day had picked up late that afternoon, and was now gusting briskly. The unicorn glanced around nervously, noting the abundance of shadows. While she was normally bold and fearless, the noise of the heady breeze put her slightly on edge.
Vinyl rounded a street corner and saw the river that cut through town laid out before her. While usually clear and placid, the water seemed to rush and gurgle, as if it was being disturbed upstream in the Everfree. As she watched the water flow, the white mare suddenly noticed a dark figure standing still on the small bridge, gazing up the hill towards the hospital.
“Hey there!” she called softly, waving to the form ahead, which didn’t budge. “Uh... most everypony’s up there at the hospital, visiting AJ and all. That... err... where you’re headed?”
The shadowy pony on the bridge slowly turned its head in her direction, then nodded almost imperceptibly. Vinyl trotted closer, glancing up at the hospital again.
“Yeah, she’s in pretty bad shape. Broken ribs, two broken legs, head trauma... she’s lucky it didn’t do worse! Dunno how such a fit pony fell down the stairs, though. I mean, sheesh! Am I right?” The mysterious pony simply continued to stare at her. Vinyl paused uncomfortably, before advancing a bit more awkwardly.
“Hey, you alright? Sorry, I can’t really tell who you are, what with it being dark and and all...” Vinyl reached the foot of the small arched bridge and squinted up at the figure at the top. From this close she could sort of make out the form of a mare, but it seemed... off, rough around the edges.
“Seriously, though. You’re... startin’ to kinda creep me out, dude,” Vinyl said nervously. She lifted a white hoof and gave a cautious little wave in the other pony’s direction.
Suddenly, Vinyl froze as the stranger took a step towards her. She leaned forward, eyes narrowed, desperately trying to identify the now slightly ominous form before her. Directing her gaze upwards, Vinyl squinted at the dark face before her. Then the figure took another step forward, and she saw them. Those eyes. Those hideous, evil, reptilian eyes, gazing straight through her! Vinyl Scratch opened her mouth to scream, but never had the chance.
It was an odd case, to be sure. Ponyville policeponies who got a call early the next morning rushed to the scene to find a young white mare washed up on the banks of the river, downstream from town. Some travelers hoping to see Ponyville’s now-famous Nightmare Night celebration that night had found her as they approached the outskirts of the town. The police were mystified: there were absolutely no signs of foul play, and it did not appear that the mare had simply drowned. A coroner in Canterlot (for Ponyville didn’t have one of their own) later confirmed this, claiming that the mare had died before being deposited in the river. He was clueless as to the actual cause of death, however. All signs showed that the victim’s vital organs had simply turned off and ceased to function. The body was scheduled to be examined by a unicorn mage, to search for magical residue.
Citizens of Ponyville mourned for their local celebrity, and a funeral was scheduled for the following day, right after Nightmare Night. Oddly enough, the pony most affected by the news was Applejack, despite her barely knowing the DJ. In a state of near-shock, she promptly dismissed all visitors except for family, muttering something about her old Granny being right all along. Or something like that.
It may also bear mentioning that as dawn broke on that sorrow-tainted holiday, the strong wind that had plagued the town over the previous day and two nights was nowhere to be found. The air was calm, still, and quiet for the first time as Celestia’s sun peeked over the horizon.
Now what do you say to that, dear reader?
A/N: Well, it looks like I finished on time. When I started writing this, I expected to have at least two weeks to finish, but... the very next day, the Nightmare Night 2012 fic contest popped up on EQD, and I just couldn’t pass that up. I was going to be a cool person and actually have original cover art, but no one I talked to could do something on such short notice. Oh well! Big thanks to Random for proofreading and to BronyKen for proofreading and editing, even if Ken did keep nagging me about my odd narration style :3
Oh, and if you’re suffering from mild confusion and a case of plot whiplash, dear reader, then I’ve done my job~