//------------------------------// // Shadows // Story: Ever Watching // by Redback Spino //------------------------------// Cherry Pop kicked at a nearby rock as he wandered around the outskirts of Ponyville. “Why do I even bother?!” Looking up at the sun, he gave a hollow, humourless laugh as it beamed down on the town, reflecting the exact opposite of his mood. The scrawny, tan-coloured young unicorn sighed and sat down on a small haystack, musing over the events of the morning. After weeks of trying to summon up the courage to ask his neighbour Lily out... He sighed. He had felt like he was ready. So sure of himself. But as he entered the flower shop where she worked, and was greeted by that familiar smell of flowers he so associated with her, it was as if his limbs had turned to hay and the moment he saw the pretty young filly standing at the cash register, he froze on the spot. One perfect smile from Lily was all it took to shatter his nerve, and he turned and bolted. “Why do I have to be such a scatter-mane?! I’ll never have what it takes!” He muttered to himself, kicking at a pebble, his head held in his forehooves. “She probably thinks I’m an idiot now.” He sat there for a few minutes, just him and his thoughts. There was no way he could go see Lily now; no doubt she was wise to his feelings. She’d probably told her friends Rose and Daisy all about it by now: About how Cherry Swirl was such a timid little colt, he would always run as soon as he saw her. He’d be hearing about this from his roommates anytime now. He groaned aloud as he envisoned their reactions. But what if she felt the same?, he thought. What if she does like me the same way I like her? His eyes screwed up in pent up frustration. “Rrrggh! What do I do now?!” He shouted aloud to the world in general As he got up to continue his walk, he glanced to his left, at the dense and dark trees of the Everfree Forest. He gulped audibly as he walked alongside the fringe, sure to keep his distance. His mother had told him all sorts of stories about the Everfree: All about the monsters and strange beasts that live in it. About how nature gets along in the Forest without the help of ponies: The plants growing, the weather changing, the animals living, all on their own. Those tales had fascinated him more than scared him, but then she told him the other stories. The stories of young foals and fillies who had wandered into the Forest and never returned. Of strange figures seen in the trees, of ponies dressed strangely, always just out of sight, always glanced just out of the corner of one’s eye, before vanishing into the darkness. Of one particular thing that lived deep in the dark of the trees… Cherry shuddered as memories of these stories flooded his mind. ‘Honestly, they’re just pony-tales’, he told himself. No reason for a grown stallion like himself to fear them. Shrugging, he turned to head down an alleyway back into town. But any further thought was cut short as, without warning, something heavy landed squarely on his back, knocking him clean off his hooves. He yelled out in shock as he struggled against the weight holding him down. He felt his own hooves held down by the hooves of another, stronger stallion; no doubt that was what landed on him. “Get off….me!” he wheezed out, squirming and heaving with all his might, but to no avail. Either this pony was a lot bigger than he felt, or he was insanely strong. He tried and tried, but no amount of fighting seemed to help. Cherry stopped his struggles, however, as something emerged from the Everfree Forest. A shadow, thin and lithe, moving among the trees, breaching the fringe of the foliage. But he saw nothing more, as he felt something heavy and muggy pulled over his face, blocking his vision. Struggling with all his might, he doubled is efforts, heaving and bucking, desperate to throw off his assailant. In response, he felt further weight pressing down on his body, another few pairs of hooves holding his limbs and body still. He let out a muffled cry of pain as he suddenly felt a stinging sensation on his flank, as if a blade was cutting into his skin, just over his cutie mark. The pain was excruciating, even when the cutting stopped. He sobbed gently as he felt a warm trickle of blood run down his thigh, when a hoof pressed gently onto the cuts. A chill went through his whole body, as if the hoof as made of pure ice. His eyes strained against the darkness that consumed his vision, as he tried time and again to cry out. But his mouth was held shut by whatever they had put over his head. Then there came a voice. The voice of a stallion, whispering gently into his left ear. The very stallion that pounced on him, perhaps. It was the last thing he knew before all consciousness and sense left his mind: “Welcome. To The Herd.” Chapter 1: Shadows The glow of Twilight’s horn shone bright purple as the young unicorn levitated another book into her enormous bookshelf. Looking around herself at the massive Ponyville Library, with its shelves of books stretching all the way to the ceiling, she wondered to herself how anypony other than a unicorn could have managed it. Every day, there were dozens of books that need shelving, sorting, archiving, refurbishing, and those were hard enough with magic, let alone without! She nodded with satisfaction as the last book floated up into place. Just as the glow of her horn dimmed and went out, there came the sound of a door closing, and that familiar voice: “… Thanks, Ditzy… Twilight! Mail’s here!” Spike, her ever-loyal dragon assistant entered the main room of the library, carrying a small stack of letters and parcels in one hand, and a small muffin in the other. “Thanks Spike, just leave them on the desk. I’ll get to them in a moment… Where’d you get the muffin from?” “Ditzy Doo gave it to me.” Spike said, half-muffled through his snack “Looks like she brought breakfast with her again, and she must’ve been in a really good mood today, ‘cos she just gave me one of her muffins.” Twilight smiled “Well, that’s nice of her.” Good old Ditzy, she thought. One of the friendliest ponies she had ever met in Ponyville, though her googly-eyed expression could be distracting at times. She headed over to the desk to check out today’s mail. Levitating the stack of envelopes and parcels in front of her, she flipped through them one by one: “Bills…junk…junk…ah, that new copy of ‘A brief History of Equestria’ I ordered, excellent...hmm, junk… Ooh!” She stopped and singled out a small package that, unlike most of today’s mail, was addressed directly to her, not to the library. “These must be the photos Rarity was talking about!” Twilight muttered to herself, eagerly ripping the top from the envelope. One by one, she levitated the individual photographs inside, and placed them each on the floor of the library. Spike wandered over to have a look for himself. “Take a look, Spike. It’s the pictures from Rarity’s fashion-shoot last Monday. I helped her out a bit by modelling some of her outfits, so she agreed to send me a copy of the photos.” “Nice.” Spike said, glancing at each photo in turn. “You look great in these ones!” He pointed to a series of photos with Twilight modelling a blue, wispy dress, with a turquoise trim. Twilight grinned modestly “Heh, thanks Spike. It is kinda pretty, huh?” Together, she and Spike went through each photograph, critiquing the look and the style of the dress. “Ooh, here’s a good one of Fluttershy. Green really suits her…” “Oh wow, I think I like these ones best.” “Any other reason, other than Rarity being the model?” Spike blushed “Ahh, cut it out!” Twilight frowned slightly at one photo “Hmm, look at that pony over in the background… there, y’see? Way back there. You’d think rarity would have spotted that…” The critique went on for a good while before Twilight’s stomach rumbled unexpectedly. “Oh, heh… Lost track of time there. How about some lunch Spike?” The minute dragon nodded “Great idea! Want me to cook somethin’ up here, or shall we go out?” “Let’s go out. I’m in the mood for a daisy and dandelion salad myself.” Twilight replied, as she gathered up the photos once again to put back in the envelope. But as she opened the envelope again, she noticed that something else was in there. “Hmm? Oh, there’s another one in here…” She said to herself as she quickly levitated it out. As it floated in the air before her, she paused as she looked the photo over. Even at a glance, she could tell something wasn’t quite right about this photo. “Hey Twi! You comin’ or not?” Came Spike’s voice from the porch. The young unicorn shrugged and slipped the curious photo back into the stack of other photos. “Coming, Spike!” __________________________________________________________________ After a hearty lunch of a heaped plate of hay-fries, complimented by a daisy and dandelion salad, Twilight returned to the library, as Spike hurried off to do some shopping for supper tonight. As she closed the door, her mind wandered once again to that curious photo she found in Rarity’s photoshoot. She hadn’t had a proper look at it, but something about it just seemed…off. She quickly retrieved it from the stack and set it down on the table. Looking closely at it, she realised instantly what seemed so off about it. It appeared to be a hastily taken photo of a pony, in the park just outside Ponyville, where Rarity’s photoshoot had taken place. It was slightly blurry and out of focus, and clearly zoomed in from a distance. But what unnerved Twilight about it was that the subject of the photo was her! Is this some sort of joke, she thought to herself. What was the meaning of this photo? And furthermore, who took it? She could see just to the side of the photo, Rarity and the other ponies, standing oblivious of their covert photographer. A sudden gust of wind from an open window blew the strange photo from her telekinetic grasp, sending it swirling through the air and face-down on the floor. As Twilight stooped to pick it up again, her eyes grew wide as she saw another image on the other side of the photo. Picking it up, she saw that on the back, somepony had scrawled in black pen, a strange set of images. First, a circle, with an X scrawled through it. Beneath it, a crude drawing of an eye, with a strange word written beneath that, in a language Twilight did not recognise. “…’V-vigilemus’? What in Equestria is that supposed to mean?!” she wondered aloud. As she raised her head, she saw a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye. Squeaking in surprise, she looked to the window. Was it just her imagination, or did somepony just hastily move out of sight? Peeking her head out the window, she looked around. Nopony. “Weird… I could’ve sworn I saw something…. Ehh, you’re working too hard, Twilight.” She reassured herself. With a day of work to do, Twilight put the whole matter out of her head. For the rest of the afternoon, she dedicated her mind and attention to her studies and her library work. But that strange word kept floating up from the depths of her mind. ‘Vigilemus. What does it mean?! Why is it written on the back of that photo? What does that strange symbol mean? And for that matter, who took it?!’ These questions plagued her mind long into the evening, but she did her best not to let it intrude on her day to day life. But that night, any semblance of “day-to-day” went straight out the window. Around midnight, she stirred in her sleep, opening her eyes slightly. Was it just a dream, or did she just hear something downstairs? It sounded like somepony was moving about down there, walking around in the library. She rolled over in her sleep. ‘Probably Spike getting a midnight snack’. She gazed out her window, up at the gentle glow of the moonlight. Clearly, Luna was doing her job well. She had graced the land with a beautiful full-moon tonight. The noise downstairs increased, as more hoofsteps echoed through the hollowed-out tree. A chair groaned as it was dragged across the floor, mingling with the familiar sound of books dropping to the floor. ‘OK, there’s no way I’m imagining this!’ Twilight raised her head, as she threw back the covers… She then froze as a shadow crossed her window. Just for the briefest of moments, but definitely something. Something passed by, blocking out the light of the moon for a brief moment. From the shape of the silhouette, it appeared to be the head of a pony passing by. She lay still, petrified with shock for a moment, before relaxing. It was probably just somepony out for a moonlit stroll, who just passed her window. Shrugging, she rolled over again, closing her eyes again. Her eyes snapped open, however, as realisation flooded over her like a bucket of icy water. Her bedroom was in the top of the tree, about 10 metres above the ground. A very groggy Twilight lumbered down the stairs to the kitchen the next morning. Her tired legs stumbled on the stairs from her room down to the ground floor, giving way on the last step. With a groan of mingled pain, exhaustion and frustration, she picked herself off the floor at the bottom of the stairs. After the incident with that strange shadow, falling asleep was out of the question for her. She had lain awake all night, her eyes wide open and fixed on her window. The sight that greeted her arrival downstairs did little to raise her spirits. Books lay stacked and heaped all over the library floor, whole shelves emptied onto the floor. Chairs were toppled, inkpots were spilled, once-neatly stacked scrolls lay scattered everywhere. No question about it. Somepony had been in here last night.