The town of Ponyville was known far and wide for its strangely huge number of visitors and citizens, with not a day passing by where the paved streets weren't filled with hundreds of ponies, their voices and hoofsteps raising such a loud noise that one may wonder how anypony there got any rest. The perpetual activity was rather symbolic of the small town; they were known for it, and many simply visited to escape any pervading feelings of loneliness they had.
With such large crowds always present, anypony wanting to hide could easily walk unnoticed amidst them. They all kept themselves to themselves, and no questions were asked of anypony suspicious trotting past. It may have been a home for law-abiding ponies, but it was a haven for criminals. It was, as many believed, rather difficult to go about your life without running into some vile fugitive along the way, but the long-time citizens of Ponyville had learned how to defend themselves in anticipation of such an event.
It was on one of these typical busy days that a grey mare sat unnoticed and seemingly unimportant at the edge of the steady flow of ponies entering and leaving the town, leaning against a wall covered in meaningless graffiti. Her yellow eyes, cast in shadow by the torn and ripped hood covering her head, scanned the crowd tirelessly, moving back and forth as she flicked her tail annoyedly. Giving a tired grunt, she rose to her hooves, having apparently decided that whatever she was waiting for was not worth it. Taking great care not to draw any attention to herself, she slid into the middle of the crowd of ponies, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
From time to time, groups of regal-looking mares and stallions from the royal guard trotted past, the glinting metal spears and swords they carried bobbing as they marched in time and their shiny golden armour reflecting the warm sunlight. With stern looks in their eyes, they too were watching the crowds, though they seemed to be in much greater of a hurry than the grey mare. The royal guard was known for its high interest in security and safety, but on few occasions did they actively patrol the cities and towns of Equestria. This drew attention to them in the way of sceptical glances from the ponies on the streets, but nopony dared question them. They knew what they were doing.
One lone earth pony mare caught their attention in particular. Her brown fur was kept immaculately clean, and her dark mane, tied up in a loose ponytail, was almost the colour of chocolate. She had been walking along the streets by herself in an oddly slow and careful manner, as if she were calculating each step she took in her head before she moved. She did not have a smile upon her face, nor did her eyes betray any glint of happiness; in fact, she didnt seem to show any emotions at all. Turning and looking the two pegasus guards in the eyes as they cut through the crowd to approach her, she stopped in her tracks.
"Good day, sirs. What can I help you with?" Her voice, clear as her movements, was barely audible over the cacaphony of noise from those surrounding her. Her expression was, rather surprisingly, almost bored, quite unfitting for the situation she had found herself in.
The guards looked at each other with queer expressions, creating a long moment of silence before the taller stallion began to speak. "Ah, yes. Our apologies for disturbing you. We were wondering - have you noticed any strange behaviour around here lately?" He seemed unsure about his words, stuttering and tripping over each letter.
"Strange? How do you mean?" A spark of concern appeared in her orange eyes, though it faded quickly. "Are we in any danger?"
"No, no! Nopony is in any danger if we have anything to do with it!" the shorter stallion cut in as his companion was about to speak, waving a hoof around as if to dismiss the mare's apprehension. He gave a sheepish smile as the tall stallion - his mentor, it appeared - turned and glared at him. Bowing his head in apology, his wings twitched as he attempted to avoid eye contact.
"Ah... well, as much as I hate to say it, it would appear that we are all in danger." the tall stallion countered, his ears pressed flat against his metallic helmet. "Lately, there has been a string of... incidents, for lack of a better term, occurring in and around this very town. Evidence at the scene of each has pointed towards a single culprit, but we cannot identify them. We have only two things to go on; that being that the murderer, we believe, is some kind of bat pony, and that they are female." He seemed rather reluctant to speak. "The most recent murder was reported earlier this morning in the farthest northern part of Ponyville. A young unicorn filly was found dead in her home by her elder sister after she investigated her not appearing for breakfast. A horrible sight, I've been told. Blood everywhere, and clear signs of a struggle." He shivered, though tried to hide his disgust for the sake of the others. "Her name was Vanilla Candy, I believe. Does that name mean anything to you?"
The mare hesitantly shook her head. Though she didn't dare outwardly betray any emotions, she was rather relieved that she had no connections to the filly. The last thing she needed was news of a dead friend or family member to further ruin her day. "The name is not familiar to me. I am not from around here, you see."
The two guards seemed surprised. Giving her an apologetic smile, the short guard began to speak again. "Oh, you're not a Ponyville citizen? We're so sorry, we just assumed that you were acquantined with this place. You didn't strike us as somepony from Canterlot or Manehatten, and you're definitely not from Cloudsdale, so our first guess was..." He trailed off, turning to his companion for help.
"No, it's alright. My name's Nutmeg, and I'm from Vanhoover, you see. I've travelled a long way to get here, and news of this... murderer... didn't reach us so far away." Finally breaking her straight face, she gave a small smile.
"Well, it's only natural that you have no information to give us, then. We're sorry for disturbing you."
"No, no, don't be! It's definitely for the best that I'm aware of anything that may put me in danger here, so thanks for stopping me." Turning tail, she began to walk away, rejoining the crowd and following the path that she had been carefully taking before. "Good day to you two!" she called out over the loud noise to the two guards, who bowed to her simultaneously, the warm sunlight catching the steel weapons tied to their backs, before trotting off to talk to somepony else. Though outwardly she appeared as calm as ever, the mare's mind was in turmoil, as she was both fearing for her own life and despising the villainous mare who decided to take an innocent filly's life among many others at the same time. She didn't like to generalise, but she had never heard of a good bat pony. Perhaps they were all just made to be evil. Ah, no, that's not right. Disappointed in herself, Nutmeg shook the morbid thoughts from her mind, allowing them to be replaced by the overwhelming excitement she had for her new life in Ponyville. She smiled as she walked. Perhaps her life had taken a turn for the better.
The positive thoughts, however, were ripped cruelly from her mind in an instant as a piercing scream tore through the air. The noise of the crowd died immediately, replaced only by a rather horrified silence; and in that one single moment, time seemed to stand still as the sky overhead darkened to a near pitch black, blocking out all sunlight and leaving the town in a state not too dissimilar to midnight. From the streets and alleyways leading into the main road, huge tendril-like plumes of heavy black smoke emerged, coiling and writhing around each other like snakes, and a choking, suffocating scent of what could only be described as death itself filled the air. Nutmeg watched in silent horror as the black smoke began to swirl around her hooves, submerging them in complete blackness. It was covering the paved ground like some viscous fluid or another, seemingly attracted to the ponies like a predator is to its prey. Keeping as still as she could, she noticed in her peripheral vision that some had tried to flee, while the others were all clearly paralysed by their growing fear. Watching as the escaping ponies simply ran deeper into the darkness, she stayed where she was, not daring to risk the wrath of whatever evil being this was.
It wasn't long before she began to fearfully question her decision. As the black smoke rose higher and higher, she began to feel a burning pressure deep within her; not at all like physical pain, but more like her mind was being torn apart, her conscience ripped to shreds. She gave a pathetic whimper. God, she had come to this friendly-seeming place to escape her horrible old life, but she'd give anything to be back where she came from now, no matter how bad it may have been. She couldn't see five inches in front of her face, and no matter how loud she screamed and shouted, her words were all swallowed up by the shadows. Horrible, unbroken silence followed - one that seemed to lay an almost physical pressure on the frightened mare. Aside from the sound of her heart beating rapidly echoing in her ears, she could hear nothing. It wasn't a calm silence. There were no sounds to be heard because nobody was there to make any. She was alone, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She braced herself as her little remaining strength finally failed her and she fell heavily to the ground.