I was holding in all my laughter with as much might as I could, and didn’t fail. ‘Oh my lord! Their faces! They're full of pure fright and terror, and I didn’t even show myself yet! He-he, evil voice does its thing. This is going to be great.’ I started slowly floating from the shadows of the church in the light of the moon. The moment I floated out of the shadows they jumped almost five meters away from the entrance. I could feel their fear, their stressed heartbeats. I could see the drops of a cold sweat on their faces. But then Twilight pulled herself together, more or less. and took a pose of a unicorn warrior pointing her horn at the enemy. ‘Oh-ho! This is going to be interesting.’ I thought as she started to speak.
“By the names of the rulers of Equestria, I, Princess Twilight Sparkle order you to s-state your name, and your business in this country!” she says with a serious look charging her horn.
‘Oho-ho! She uses her royal status more than she does in a show! Ha-ha, bossy Twilight.’ I thought while looking deep into her eyes. And she looked away! For just a second, but she looked away. Purple-butt was still terrified of me.
“I̧ ḱno̶w̸ who͢ you a͟re.̕ ͜El̕e͘m͡ent͡ ͝of ͡m͢agi͟c.̢ I̕ ̀knǫw al̶l͜ about y͠ou͡.” I say without moving my mouth with my sinister voice. They all flinched at that. I think I overdi) it a little. Fluttershy was on the edge of crying, Pinkie`s mane was flat, but she looked determined, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Twilight took protective poses, Rarity almost fainted, but caught herself and magically pulled an enchanted hairpin from her mane, that then turned into... rapier!? ‘I like this Equestria more and more.’
“Oh y-yeah?! And w-what do you can possibly know about us?” snarled at me Rainbow Dash.
“F̕or e̕x̧amp̵l̛è,̕ ͘Ĺoya͜lty͜, I ḱnow t̴h̶a̸t ̶ýou s̕e̷c̨ret̵ly̧ ̡c͝h́an̨ged͟ you͠r͘ numbe͡r̶ wit͞h̡ ̸a br͟own̶ ͡s̢t͟al̨li͟on on ͏t̕h̴e Yo͢un͡g̢ Fli͜er͞ Comp̕etiti̷ơn.͞ Yo̵u̕ ̨di͏d̵ ͟it ̸out o̢f fear ͠t̕hat͟ yo̴u c̛a͝ņ ̀n͞ot p̡er̵form ͝a̢ ͞So͟ni͝c ̕Rài͘nboo̶m.” I said slowly pointing at her. Her friends looked at her with quizzical expressions. ‘AHAHAHAHAHA. They didn’t know! She didn’t tell them!’ I thought and almost snickered. By Dash`s nervous laugh, everyo- pony, understood that I was saying the truth. That scared them even more.
“By the na-“ started Twilight, but I sharply turned my head in her direction, silencing her.
“I ám͡ ̀a͜n ̀ent̕it͡y̵ ̷tha̛t̴ c͡al͘l̸e͘d Çh̨urc͠h Gri͝m̕,͏ a spi̕r͠i̶t͠ ͏th͘at̡ ̀gu̷ar͞d͞s͢ ̀thè ͢c̢hu͞rćh f̴r͠om ţh͟ie͞ve̛s̨ ̛and ̷dis̸a͏s͠t͠ér̸s̶.” I said motioning my hand towards the building. “̀Bu͏t ͏for so̡me r͠éas̷on I h̸a͟ve ̢b͟e̸en a̡w̧o͡k̡e̸n͟ ͝o̧n͜ly no͘w̵.͞” I said slowly moving to the group, but they immediately jumped backward keeping the same distance with me.
“C-could y-y-you please s-speak with less c-creep-p-py voice, p-p-p-please.” whispered Fluttershy. I turned at her direction, maybe a bit too sharply. She ‘eep’ed and dived behind her friends.
I cough a little, then proceeded to speak in a deep voice with a hint of wisdom, similar to the one, storytellers have. “Yes, Kindness. I believe I can.” This time I was moving my mouth. 'I think I went a little too far, with the whole "Scary looking entity." thing. Fluttershy almost in tears…’ I was starting to feel bad for them.
“Th-thank you.” I heard her whisper.
I allowed a little smirk to appear on my muzzle.
“W-wait, if you were awoken only now, how could you know about all of us?” said Twilight titling her head a little.
My little smile disappeared immediately. ‘Oh crap. Oh, crap! How did I even forget about this? Wait. I know!’ I thought, and then said “I have a power of vision. I can see the past and future, Magic.” and then thought. ‘At least I didn`t lie to them.’
“You can see the future?!” cried out Pinkie with her mane puffed to its original size. “Oh can you see what I get on my next birthday, or what Gummy will get, or will there be any-“
“It does not work this way, the future is not constant, it`s ever-changing because of decisions you make.” I raised a finger, “But! I can see a passes that the stream of time may take.” All I got in return was five quizzical expressions. But I think Twilight understood what I meant.
“So, basically the time is like a river? And different decisions is similar to canals and turns it my take?” she says as I nod. “So… What are you in it?”
“I am a leaf, that follows the river.” I say closing my eyes for a moment.
“That`s all mighty interestin`, but the map called us `ere for a reason. So, forgive me for mah blunt question, but are ya evil?” I turn to Applejack with a raised eyebrow, but before I could answer she goes, “Now don`t get me wrong, the last time the map called us all in the one place we lost our cutie-marks and got captured by brainwashed cultists.” Everypony visibly winced on that sentence, ‘Huh, in this Equestria they were not just locked in a room for 24 hours, something happened.’ I thought as farm pony continued, “But now, the map leads us into Everfree forest, ta meet some scary looking spirit with some weird powers, ya know how it looks for us?” she stepped closer, I nod. “So, are ya evil or are ya not?”
“I am not, as you say, evil, Honesty. But I’m not good either.” I said bluntly. ‘Oh, they all tensed up again.’ I thought as Twilight flared her horn with what I assumed was a battle spell, and every pony else taken their fighting poses, the only exception is Fluttershy. ‘I need to get them relaxed a little, or I will become a pigeon toilet.’ “But to ease your feelings, I do not plan on taking over the world any time soon.” I finished my sentence.
We stayed like this for what felt like an hour, and then Twilight stopped her spell.
“Twi, what are you doing!?” Rainbow Dash hisses through her teeth.
“We need to ask the Princesses about this one girls. They got more experience with this than I do.” answers Sparkle. “We need to take him with us to my castle, and wait for the Princesses there.”
“Darling, can you tell us how are you going to bring him there, without any chance that he will try something?” asked Rarity, pointing her rapier at me.
Purple princess flared up her horn. “Simple.” she said, and teleported us all away.
=========================================*****============================================
After the bright pinkish violet flash, the village fell into the dead silence once again. Rotten remains of the church were once more filled with darkness. But this was no ordinary darkness. It was somehow blacker, scarier… Even deadlier. And it filled the building fully, it began to spread, like oil slick on the surface of the ocean. It spread further and further, until the whole ruins were black, and then… Hundreds of white glowing eyes opened in this darkness.
Then a single word echoed in the forest breeze.
“Hunger….”