Dreadwing sighed to himself as he felt the mental bond he shared with a particularly annoying colt weaken. The young pony had just earned his cutie mark, two playing cards situated next to each other, and thus had received a strong resistance to the creature's absorption magic. There wasn't any point in hanging around. It was time for him to find a new host, as the amount of energy he would receive wouldn't be enough to sustain him.
Sighing again, Dreadwing pushed himself onto his two rear hooves and stepped out into the cold evening air. Over the years he had traveled all across Equestria, and there wasn't a nook or cranny he hadn't seen yet. Now, he found himself in Ponyville, a small town not too far from Canterlot.
Dreadwing scratched the back of his head and looked at the rising moon above him. "Damn, this is getting old. Am I really just going to do this forever?" he thought to himself. It was definitely a dissatisfying way to live, never being able to talk to anypony. It's not like he really had a choice, though. Not feeding would give him terrible side effects. First, the twitches started, before eventually evolving into tremors. Dry eyes and mouth began shortly after that, followed by hallucinations and terrible cramps in his chest. Eventually, maddening effects develop in his mind, turning him animalistic. He would completely lose control at that point and turn quite violent, feeding ruthlessly until his mental state returned to normal.
The entire body of the unusual creature shivered from head to hoof, and not from the cold. It was a terrible feeling to not be in control of oneself. If he had to spend eternity alone, he'd rather be coherent.
A single black feathered wing that sprouted from the center of the monster's back cast a dark shadow over a passing mare. She blinked in confusion at the sudden darkness, as Dreadwing had chosen to not appear to her. He moved out of the way quickly. Being discovered was something he didn't really want to do. The last time that had happened, Celestia had chased him tirelessly for days, only stopping when he had feigned defeat.
The mare shook her head and continued unsteadily on her way, assuming she had simply had too much to drink. Dreadwing sighed and turned back down the street. Most of the ponies had already begun their nightly routines, and a few were already asleep.
Dreadwing closed his eyes and allowed his magic to flow through the town, light tendrils searching for a suitable host. He felt small tugs here and there that signified a markless pony, but one particularly unusual flicker caught his attention. The emotions of every foal he had encountered over his long lifespan burned bright like a raging bonfire of innocence and excitement. This filly, however, had very little light present in her mind. It was like a candle reaching the end of its life span, hoping against hope that it had the strength to survive the darkness.
"How odd. I think I'll investigate," Dreadwing thought. Something new like this was something he never thought he'd encounter, and he was curious to see its source.
A light tingling enveloped Dreadwing's body as he teleported himself to the filly's home. It was little more than a run-down shack, held together with scrap wood and lazily applied nails. The door was horribly crooked, half of the windows were cracked, and the overgrowth around the building almost made it look abandoned, save for the lamplight visible inside.
Dreadwing walked forward and phased through the walls of the house directly into the foal's room, feeling even more intrigued than before. A thousand theories filled his mind, but he wanted to see if he could discover the source of this foal's emotions without magic.
He found the filly curled up in bed, crying quietly to herself. She was a pitiful thing; her fiery coat was mangy, her flowing violet mane was disheveled and uneven, her sunken lavender eyes were screwed shut in pain, and her anemic wings were wrapped around her emaciated body.
"What could cause a pony so young to develop such powerful feelings of despair?" Dreadwing questioned curiously. He could feed off of negative emotions just the same, and it would probably end up being beneficial to the poor girl. He didn't particularly care about that, but it was a good change of pace and scenery.
The sound of shouting caught Dreadwing's attention. He could hear what sounded like a stallion and a mare yelling at each other from another room. The filly's sobs grew stronger and her wings wrapped tighter around herself as a reaction.
"Ah, parent troubles. That explains it, though it doesn't seem like a serious enough problem to cause such pain in somepony unable to fully understand the workings of the world yet." Dreadwing walked over to the filly and positioned a black clawed hand directly over her forehead. He welcomed the familiar feeling of pure energy flowing through his arm and into his body as he created a link between their minds. As he had felt before, joy was all but absent from her, and anguish was the reigning emotion.
Dreadwing nodded to himself and turned to go, wanting to be out of the cramped home, but stopped when he had noticed the filly's cries had ceased suddenly. He turned around and found her glancing around the room, sniffling, but no longer crying.
"H-hello..?" she whispered tentatively into the air.
Dreadwing froze as countless worries assaulted his mind. After a short moment he managed to get them under control, noticing that she had not actually seen him as he had initially thought. It was as if she somehow felt when he had entered her mind. "This... this has never happened before," he thought nervously. He remained still for many minutes until the filly finally gave up and fell back into her bed.
"That was very strange," Dreadwing thought as he walked back outside. "How did she know when I made the link? I've never seen another pony do such a thing." He glanced back over his shoulder at the house and frowned slightly. "One thing is for certain, though. That pony is not like the others, and for some reason I get the feeling that things are about to take an unusual turn."