//------------------------------//
// The Legend of the Mothman 
// Story: CMC Watch Bedtime Stories 
// by Lord Blundergosh 
//------------------------------//

“Checkmate!”

“Oh this is such horse apples!”

Scootaloo was fuming at Apple Bloom’s now three game winning streak of checkers. All three girls had started the night by playing some Hungry Hungry Hydras until one of the Hydra heads jammed. They then played Go Fish for as long as they could before it’s entertainment value ran dry. Now here they were, 10:00 at night, and Sweetie Belle had long grown tired of the board games, leaving the other two to have at it.

As Sweetie gradually became less engaged with her friend’s checkers war of attrition, her attention once again fell onto the crystal orb sitting on the other side of the room next to her bed. She had been occasionally stealing glances at the thing for the past several hours. While she certainly doesn’t need something to read her any bedtime stories, this image projecting crystal ball was unlike anything she’d seen before. She couldn’t help but wonder how the orb worked and what that weird little skull logo on the screen had in store for her.

As Apple Bloom was resetting her side of the board for the next game, she noticed to her left an empty space in place of where Sweetie Belle had been laying flat on her belly watching her and Scootaloo play. Apple Bloom’s ears then flicked to the right where a distinct tick stood out among the sounds of shifting checkers pieces and the downpour of rain from outside. Turning her head, she saw Sweetie Belle sitting in front of the crystal ball, using the pen to tap on and manipulate the projected screen.

“Ya checkin’ out that storytime machine yer sister gave us?”

“Seriously, no offense but how old does Rarity think we are? I dunno about you guys, but it’s been awhile since I needed an adult to read me a story before I sleep.”, Scootaloo added.

Giving Scootaloo the slyest side-eye imaginable, Apple Bloom quipped, “Ah guess by awhile ya mean two weeks ago?”.

Her back becoming stiff and wings flaring up slightly, Scootaloo’s response seemed to come a little too quickly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”, she said before quickly averting eye contact.

“Well, Rainbow Dash sure does!”, Apple Bloom replied in a slight singsongy voice.

“You’re lying! She wouldn’t admit-“, Scootaloo began before covering her mouth with both hooves after realizing what she had confessed.

Before Apple Bloom could tease further, both filly’s ears clamped down to their heads when they suddenly heard a ground shaking boom from outside and their eyes were also practically forced shut for a second as a blinding light filled the room. The storm which had long fallen into the background of their sleepover had now hijacked it momentarily. All girls scurried to the window to confirm just how dangerously close the house got to being struck by lightning. All except one.

Although she had been equally jolted in surprise from the thunder, Sweetie quickly turned back to the orb she had in front of her and did not let herself get bothered by the increasingly eerie and powerful winds picking up speed outside. She had figured out how to use the pen to scroll through this collection of “Bedtime Stories”. It seemed the skull logo was very apt indeed. Each listed title she laid eyes on contained mentions of curses, deaths, ghosts and disappearances of all sorts. What also fed her morbid fascination was how each one was accompanied by detailed black and white illustrations of so many different monsters, disasters, shadowy figures and, most shocking of all, the occasional corpse. 

As she scrolled near the bottom of the story list, Sweetie quickly passed a certain image that made her curiously scroll back up to see more clearly. She was met with the image of a winged creature flapping it’s way across a night sky, or at least what seemed to be a night sky given that the drawing was black and white like the others. The beast itself was entirely black in color with the exception being it’s red, piercing orbs that it had for eyes. Despite all the bizarre creatures she knows of that live in Equestria, something about this thing was incredibly otherworldly to her. Satisfied with her study of the picture, she finally decided to read the title. 

“The Legend of the Mothman.”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had turned away from the window upon hearing their friend’s out of nowhere statement.

“Oh sorry! That was just one of the story titles; just kinda… forgot you were here when I read that out loud.”, Sweetie apologized as she sheepishly forced a smile and rubbed the back of her head.

“What’s a Mothman?”, asked Apple Bloom.

“Wellll… apparently it’s this.”

Sweetie Belle used the pen held in her magic to point at the image of the titular monster. Upon seeing the image, the two gave off a look that, if Sweetie had to guess, signified the same sort of morbid fascination she felt earlier.

“So, I know we all sort of quietly agreed that we didn’t think being read kids stories would be a good time…”, Sweetie Belle paused and then began looking back forth between her friends conspiratorially with narrowed eyes and a grin.

“But I’ve been looking these stories over, and it looks like Rarity accidentally gave us a collection of scary stories.”

“How scary?”, Scootaloo asked.

“Probably the kind of scary that adults would say we aren’t grown up enough for, but we totally are!”

Sweetie looked on as her two friends visibly perked up at what she said. Upon seeing this she realized was her chance to pop the question.

“So, what do you say? You girls in or what?”

Apple Bloom took a few moments of contemplation before finally shrugging her shoulders and stating, “Aw sure, why the hay not?”

“Oh! No. You. Don’t!”

Scootaloo inserted herself between the two, putting herself nose to nose with Apple Bloom.

“You’re just worried that this time I might beat you! Well guess what? We’re not done until I get that checkmate, Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom, after backing up a few inches, put on a fake frown of disappointment, then looked to Sweetie Belle and said, “Well, sorry Sweetie. Ah guess we can’t watch this, cuz Scootaloo’s still a big ch-“.

Before she could finish, Apple Bloom was given her first ever taste of chicken when Scootaloo’s hoof was used to plug her mouth.

“Don’t finish that sentence.”, Scootaloo deadpanned in a thinly veiled attempt to mask her irritation. She evidently was getting tired of getting bested by the farm filly tonight and definitely did not want that old joke among her friend group being brought back.

“*sigh… look, I’ll take a break and look at one of these creepshow stories with you guys. But this doesn’t mean we’re done yet, Apple Bloom!”, Scootaloo glared while giving her final declaration.

Apple Bloom snuck a glance at Sweetie Belle and took the opportunity to say, “You’re Welcome”, in the form of a little covert wink to which Sweetie couldn’t help but giggle quietly in response.

Upon everyone getting into seating positions, Sweetie finally used the pen to tap onto the story of their choice.





The girls were almost taken aback when a voice was suddenly emitted from the device, though they all quickly reasoned in their own head that Rarity did say it was supposed to read them stories, so of course it came with a narrating voice. As the disembodied voice spoke about how long ago the residents of a small town in a place called “West Virginia” were stalked by a mysterious creature with glowing red eyes, the screen was panning up over the image of the creature matching the description standing with its wings folded next to what could best be described by the girls as a futuristic-looking carriage. Except who ever was supposed to pull it wasn’t present. The way the creature fixed its hypnotic gaze directly towards the viewer somehow made all three girls feel like they were being targeted by it for reasons they didn’t want to find out, even if it was clearly just an illustration. The voice then proceeded to ask if the creature was real or imaginary and if recent photos prove that it’s returned?

“Well, why are you asking us Mister?”, Sweetie Belle asked the narrator.

“Sweetie, ah think he’s bein’ rhetorical.”, Apple Bloom said.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure the orb can’t even hear you.”, Scootaloo added flatly.

“Dang it! I was gonna also ask where West Ver-jin-ea was.”

This conversation took place without either party looking at each other directly. Their eyes instead were trained on the collage of black & white images and words on screen, accompanied by music consisting of a repeated series of piano keynotes and percussion beats that alternated between light and rapid to more deliberate and loud. The girls sat in place, perplexed by how the contents of every image shown on screen seemed so foreign; not just foreign to them as Equestrians but foreign compared to anything known to them on their world. They almost missed the white text partnered with each bizarre drawing: Aliens, Conspiracies, Cryptids(?), Strange Deaths, Ghosts, Mysteries, Other Dimensions.

As the music was hitting its peak, the title Bedtime Stories with that now emblematic skull logo stuck between each word scrolled into frame from the left side of the screen. As the title screen faded to black, the three fillies started hearing the distant rabid barks of dogs and they all turned their head slightly to face the window as they all thought it was outside. They didn’t realize that the crystal ball was the one emitting these noises until it startled all of them by playing one of the most monstrous, high-pitched shrieks they ever heard. While Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both froze in place with wide-eyed surprise, Scootaloo’s form visibly shrank down and she could also feel the fur on several parts of her body stand up for a moment. 

Sweetie turned to her friends and shakily said, “Does anypony else feel like that sound is the stuff that the nightmares of Everfree forest are made of?”

“Yup.”, Apple Bloom replied matter-of-factly.

The girls were then shown the image of a nice-looking town with two bridges crossing over a river which cut the entire place in two and was surrounded by lush, green countryside; a city that the narrator dubbed “Point Pleasant”. According to him, despite being such a relatively small town it was wrapped in history and urban legend that was larger than life. It had a character that was as quaint and pleasant as its name suggested.

“This place sort of sounds like Ponyville, doesn’t it?”, Sweetie Belle remarked.

“Eh. I’m pretty sure a lot of towns are like that.”

Almost as if it was trying to disprove Scootaloo’s statement, the narrator remarked that it’s unassuming nature disguises the fact it was once the site of one of the scariest incidents of the last half century.

“Okay, I guess I can kinda see a resemblance.”

“Funny y’all should mention that, cuz Babs has told meh that Ponyville has started gettin’ a real dangerous reputation ta ponies all over Equestria.”

During the “1960s”, the residents of Point Pleasant began reporting having encounters on the outskirts of town with a monster so terrifying that in some cases the victims suffered years of psychological trauma afterwards. The first ones to say they saw the creature were five gravediggers at a local cemetery near “Clendenin” who said they saw what at first looked like a “human being” fly out of some trees nearby and after a few minutes swoop right over their heads and off into the night.

“What’s a human being?”, Scootaloo asked without expecting anypony to answer.

“Human…why do I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before?”

While Sweetie Belle pondered this, the narrator told about the second sighting two nights later. Someone bearing the strange name, Newell Partridge, was sitting in his home watching “television”(?) when he saw two red orbs floating over a field in his backyard that upon closer inspection turned out to be the eyes of a tall, dark figure standing in a tree a hundred meters away. It  then flew off and let out a similar blood-curdling scream to the one from the start of the story, this time only mildly creeping out the whole trio watching.

Apple Bloom began to feel uneasy looking at the silhouette of Partridge’s dog charging after the beast in the trees, apparently having never been seen again after that. She couldn’t help but picture Winona in that unlucky dog’s place. She nervously hoped it turned out okay. Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed when she was shown what looked like the same dog lying limp on the side of a road with the monster standing over it.

“Poor thing.”, she whispered.

The next night, two extremely panicked and distressed couples burst into the Sheriff’s office to report the terrifying encounter they just had. On their way back from a double date, they were making their way around Point Pleasant’s “TNT Area” when they spotted the same monster on the side of the road. Even when it wasn’t looking directly at them, sheer menacing aura that this creature gave off still managed to make all three girls uneasy.

”Why am I getting the feeling we’re gonna be shown why this place is called the TNT Area in the worst way possible?”, Scootaloo anxiously mused to herself.

They had described the creature as looking “like a man” but taller, grey all over, and with wings folded behind it’s back.

“Seriously, what does that mean? First Moth-Man, then Hoo-Man. What’s a man?”

Sweetie pondered on Apple Bloom’s inquiry. She felt like the answer was on the tip of her tongue, but it just wasn’t coming to her at the moment.

The two couples said they saw the body of a dog laying out in front of the creature. Apple Bloom frowned at the narrator’s insistence on pointing out how it was later assumed to be Partridge’s missing dog.

”Gee, thanks Mister. Ah really wanted THAT spelled out for meh.”, she thought bitterly.

As they drove past it, the monster shot up into the air and flew after the “car”. 

“Did they forget to add the ‘t’ at the end of cart?”, Sweetie wondered aloud.

The person driving the vehicle sped it up to 100 miles per hour, but the creature still kept up.

“Geez, I thought only Rainbow Dash reached those sorta speeds THAT quickly. How did it get so fast?”

“Forget about how fast that thing is! How are they in a vehicle that can reach 100 miles per hour on land? They don’t look like they’re in a train!”, Sweetie Belle exclaimed in response to Scootaloo.

“Y’all are both missin’ the real question here! What is THAT!?!”

As the orb relayed how the driver’s wife said that the monster chasing after them had glowing red eyes, emitted that same terrifying screech from earlier and eventually stopped chasing them and flew back to the TNT Area as they made it back to town, Apple Bloom pointed to the creature on screen. Not the one flying through the air, but the one that seemed to have its face pressed against the glass staring at the flying beast. Drawn in gray, this thing’s silhouette revealed a head that was too narrow and a bit too long vertically to be a pony’s. With two lanky arms, it pressed both of its hands ending in five hay-sausage-like fingers against the glass. The only thing that was remotely pony-like about this figure was its shoulder-length mane.

“Is that supposed to be the wife?”, Scootaloo asked while squinting her eyes and tilting her head as if that would help her make out its features.

Just then, the screen had cut to what was supposed to be both couples sitting at a table for a press conference with what looked like a mustachioed police officer seated in the middle. At this event, all four witnesses publicly gave their accounts of the encounter and a wildlife expert gave his opinions on what they had actually saw. With the newspapers picking on the story reports of encounters spread through the town like wildfire. Seeing all those lined up at the table made something click in Sweetie Belle’s head.

“I remember now! THESE are humans!”, she exclaimed upon receiving her rush of clarity.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo turned to face their friend, their confusion written on their faces as clear as day.

“Those are what those “hooman” thingies the orb was talking about?”, Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah. They’re these primate-looking aliens from an alternate universe.” 

“Hol’up. How come y’all have heard of ‘em and we haven’t till now?”

Sweetie’s answer was given in a tone far more nonchalant than one would expect considering it’s contents. 

“Oh that? I once found a picture of seven humans in Twilight’s desk and I asked her what it was. She told me that she sometimes visits the world where these humans live by going through a mirror. Oh, and I guess I should mention that the mirror turns you into a human when you cross over into their world and that six of the seven girls in the photo were human versions of herself, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and their friends. We apparently have human counterparts in that world too.”

Upon ending that entire rapid exposition, Sweetie somehow remained amazingly oblivious to her friends’ expressions of… well it’s hard to say what exactly. Other than initial shock, it could be said they probably didn’t know what to feel.

“I think that’s where my sister got this crystal ball thing.”, she added while gesturing to the object in question.

At a loss, Apple Bloom simply remarked with a simple, “Ya don’t say.”

Deciding she wanted to get her mind off of that existential crisis inducing bombshell, Scootaloo turned her attention back to the story. The narrator was explaining that despite how the exposure this encounter received invited many attention seekers fabricating encounters with the mysterious creature, this didn’t necessarily mean that there were no other legitimate reports since then. One incident that occurred on the day that the papers on the so-called Mothman were still being sent to people’s mailboxes involved a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Walmsley and a Marcella Bennett; Scootaloo gulped upon hearing that Bennett had her baby daughter with her.

When they had pulled up to the Thomas family home on the outskirts of town, their car (that same futuristic carriage from earlier, all three girls realized) seemed to disturb something. They were shocked to see as they were coming out of their vehicle a large grey figure with horrific glowing red eyes rising from the ground nearby. The sight of this petrified Marcella Bennett so much that she had momentarily forgotten about the baby in her arms and had dropped her to the ground.

“What are you doing, lady!?! Get her off the ground!”, Scootaloo practically screeched that last part through clenched teeth.

The other two girls sitting with Scootaloo would not bother telling her to calm down, especially since they too felt just as much as panicked concern for that baby’s safety as she did. They all thankfully got to release the breath they had all been holding once Marcella quickly picked up her child and dashed to the house. Thankfully one of the Thomas children had let her in just in time. It didn’t end there, however. The monster then terrorized every one in the house all night by peering in through the window.

The thought of spotting a face like that peering into her bedroom window caused Scootaloo’s body to rattle all over involuntarily. The girls might have been able to find relief in the fact that the Mothman disappeared by the time the police showed up, but unfortunately that wasn’t the last time Marcella would see it. In that context, the illustration on screen of Bennett getting away from Mothman, baby in her arms, on her first fateful night encountering the monster almost felt like a exemplification of false hope.

Living near Point Pleasant’s TNT Area, she claimed that on numerous occasions she saw the creature around her property and heard it’s blood-curdling scream in the middle of the night.

“*shudders… They really like playing any sounds that thing makes. It’s giving me the willies.”, Scootaloo griped internally at the now lower-pitched and distant, breathy hiss the orb had just played.

Marcella Bennett would unfortunately suffer from nightmares and other mental health issues for many years after the ordeal. The TNT Area would later become heavily associated with the Mothman.

“Yeah, ah was startin’ ta wonder why this thing likes this TNT Area so much.”, said Apple Bloom, expressing what every pony else was thinking.

This “TNT Area” is supposed to be a large tract of land, dotted with small concrete “igloos”, used during “World War II” to store ammunition and is adjacent to the 2,500 acre McClintic Wildlife Station. The whole landscape is also covered in dense forest and steep hills and is riddled with tunnels. A seemingly perfect hiding place for such a mysterious being. Most of the sightings having occurred in the area supports the idea that it acted as Mothman’s home. But the girls were less concerned about that and more caught up with the major conflict the narrator so casually mentioned.

“Hol’ up. What War Two!?!”, Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Does that mean their entire world had a war with itself or go to war with another world?”, Sweetie Belle pondered.

“And somehow did either of that twice???”, Scootaloo added as the last touch to their big question.

The idea of war seemed so ancient to them from their own cultural perspective as Equestrians, so the idea of a conflict that grand in scale was almost incomprehensible when they tried thinking about it. Unfortunately for them, their questions would not be answered. The narrator decided instead to continue on, talking about how the number of reported Mothman sightings peaked at the end of 1966 and in 1967 until November of that latter year when disaster struck. The town’s “Silver Bridge” running over the Ohio River had collapsed, allowing tons of vehicles and people to be plunged into the icy depths below; 46 people had died that night. It was likely for the girls’ best that they were only seeing this rendered in drawing. In spite of all the insanity they’ve experienced together, it still might be a bit too harrowing at their to actually see so many people falling to their deaths.

“Wait, I thought this was about Mothman. What does this have to do with him?”

Almost as if on cue, the narrator practically answered Sweetie Belle’s by explaining how reports of Mothman sightings stopped immediately after the disaster. This led many to draw a connection between the monster’s appearances and the bridge’s collapse. It’s often speculated that the Mothman was actually a harbinger of death.

“So, what are they saying? That it made the bridge collapse?”, Scootaloo turned her head to Sweetie Belle.

“Sort of. It’s more like that it was showing up to warn or announce that this was going to happen. That’s what they mean when they say ‘Harbinger of Death’.”

“Ah wonder if it’s ever done this anywhere else?”

Scootaloo would have been asking herself the same thing as Apple Bloom if she didn’t have an even more concerning question on her mind.

“Could it somehow come here?”, she wondered quietly but dare not speak aloud. 

While this conversation had taken place, the narrator had begun pontificating on what the Mothman actually was and whether or not there was even any truth to these sightings at all. Apparently, there are many different ideas and interpretations of the whole affair. The most widely held belief among skeptics is that what all the witnesses saw was a very large bird. Most likely the Sandhill Crane, which can sometimes grow up to 6 feet tall. Not only that, but this bird also has shocks of bright red feathers around its eyes.

“Do either of you think we’ve just found the culprit?”, Scootaloo said without turning to face her friends, still captivated by the menacing glare the flying beast was giving from the other side of the screen.

“Hmm… ah think so.”, Apple Bloom declared.

“Really? But didn’t they all say that this thing was like 7 hoo-… er feet tall? That bird can only get up to 6 feet.”, Sweetie Belle countered.

The witnesses and believers were also quick to point this out. 

“Ha! You see?”

“That don’t mean nothin’. Eyes play tricks on us all the time! They mighta misjudged the height.”

Another issue people take with this explanation with this explanation is that the Mothman’s always glowed red. While some birds such as owls apparently have eyes that shine red when light is pointed in their direction, most other birds have no such eyes. Plus, this creature’s eyes glowed red even when no light source was pointed on it.

“Hold on, that’s not right. There’s tons of monsters out in the Everfree with eyes that always glow.”

Scootaloo quickly moved to shoot down Sweetie Belle’s point, “Well, maybe that’s just not how it works there in… West Virginia. Their animals must not have glowy eyes.”

The high-pitched scream it emitted was also said by witnesses to sound unlike any bird they’ve ever heard and much more human-like. Mr. Scarberry, the driver from the third sighting, has also called into question whether there is such thing as any bird capable of flying over 100 miles per hour.

“Okay, ah guess they got me on the speed thing. But I dunno ‘bout that whole point with the screech. Ah’ve heard Twilight’s pet make some real freaky noises.”

“Owlowicious?”, Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “But he always seems so mellow. The only sound I’ve ever heard from him is hoo.”

“You know, I feel we keep forgetting how that poker face belongs to a natural killing machine.”

“Exactly!”, Apple Bloom concurred with Scootaloo’s statement. “Like, one time ah was walkin’ to Twilight’s ol’ library ta return a book. Ah was a few more steps away from the door when a severed rat’s head dropped right in front of mah hooves.”

The other two audibly gagged at that last detail.

“Ah then look up n’ see Owlowicious starin’ back down at me with the rat’s tail stickin’ out it’s beak like nothin’s the matter!”

Wanting this conversation to die out, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle didn’t raise any more questions. Luckily for them, they were all still looking at the screen while they had been talking, so they heard narrator bring up the last point about how unlikely it was for so many witnesses to mistake a bird for a monster. Of course, he also made sure to mention that this was on the assumption that many of the eye-witnesses are to be believed. The fact that reported sightings dramatically increased after the Scarberry and Mallette accounts were published in the papers is certainly grounds to believe that much of them were fabricated. Supposedly, even the Scarberry/Mallette sighting has changed from the way it was told to the police and how it was later told in the press, with some sources saying that the creature did not actually fly after the car but shuffled after them for a short distance.

“It’s soundin’ more n’ more like this thing was overblown.”, Apple Bloom said with Scootaloo nodding along with every word.

Some doubters have also pointed to the significant increase in tourism to Point Pleasant after those first initial sightings were reported as evidence that the entire episode was a cleverly planned hoax for that exact purpose.

“Ah wouldn’t go as far as to say that!”, Apple Bloom said. “Would anypony really do somethin’ that elaborate just to get tourists?”

“Plus, aren’t there less complicated ways of doing that?”, Sweetie Belle added.

“But what about that time we were writing for our school paper? We betrayed so many ponies’ trust just for a juicy story, even when it clearly wasn’t getting us our cutie marks. Would it be that weird if we made up a story about a monster just to get reader’s attention?”

“Hmph. My point still stands, Scoots.”, Sweetie said with a pout, crossing her forelegs in front of her chest.

It was to also be noted by the narrator that the main reason why the story captivated so many people was because of the first four sightings. Despite taking place over as many days and many miles apart from one other or no papers printing out any stories about such a beast prior to these first four sightings or none of the witnesses knowing each other, those first four were somehow still so startlingly similar. Not mention the fact that the Sheriff vouched for the Scarberry and Mallette couples, saying he knew them for most of their lives and that they looked genuinely shaken that night they reported their encounter. Assuming that there was indeed an unknown cryptid stalking the countryside of Point Pleasant, what was it doing there and where did it come from?

“What is a cryptid anyway?”, Scootaloo couldn’t help but ask.

“Maybe it just means monster?”, Apple Bloom speculated.

According to one fringe theory, the Mothman is a supernatural omen of impending doom. There actually have been reports of a similar creature showing up in different parts of the world such as the “flying humanoids” of South and Central America. In many of the places where it’s shown up, tragedy has soon followed. Upon hearing this, Apple Bloom felt her question from earlier satisfactorily answered, while Scootaloo just gulped. 

The most popular theory among believers however, is that Mothman is extra-terrestrial in origin. Some time before the first Mothman sighting, a sewing machine salesman named Woodrow Derenberger, driving along a road not far from the Point Pleasant area, encountered a UFO that stopped his car dead in its tracks. A being sporting an inhumanly wide grin then exited strange craft and started communicating with Derenberger telepathically. It asked him about the strange glow on the horizon, apparently not realizing that it was the lights of a distant town.

*Snicker, Scootaloo cracked the first smile she’s had since the story started. “What a dumbass!”

“Yeah, how does a super-advanced alien not recognize something like that?”, Sweetie Belle concurred.

“Pretty freaky how he can speak through his mind, though.”, Apple Bloom added.

According to Derenberger, this individual referred to himself as Indrid Cold. While at the time this name meant nothing, it later gained greater notoriety as more and more alien abductees have claimed to have met an Indrid Cold, otherwise known as the Grinning Man. Sweetie Belle grimaced when the screen had panned up enough to reveal the black-eyes and nasty grin on Cold’s face as he poked his head through Derenberger’s open window.

“This guy looks creepier than Mothman does!”

After asking Derenberger many questions about the people and surrounding areas, Cold thanked him and then left in his strange craft. Less than two weeks later, the first Mothman sightings began to surface, and over time links between the two entities have invariably been made. Not only that but many UFOs and strange lights had been seen around the area at the time encounters with the Mothman were going on. Some residents had even reported paranormal activity in their homes which had gradually abated after the Mothman sightings had ceased. Even the famed “Men in Black” had shown up to the town on a few occasions.

“This keeps casually name droppin’ so much stuff. Ah wonder if ah’ll even be able ta keep up with it.”

“I’m pretty sure that other stuff probably gets their own stories.”, Sweetie Belle assured Apple Bloom.

Whoever or whatever the Mothman was, the narrator concluded, there was definitely something strange going on in that small city on the banks of the Ohio River during the late 1960s. Whether people were genuinely seeing an unidentified cryptid or it was all just a figment of their imagination, one must ask themselves which is more bizarre; the existence of a species yet to be discovered - of earthly origin or otherwise - or the lengths some people will go to in order to save their town. To close the story, the narrator presented a photo taken near Point Pleasant almost 30 years to the day the original sighting.





“Woah.”

“Wow.” 

“Ooo.”

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gave their respective interjections. It was one thing to look at illustrations of this monster as they had been since watching the story, but seeing a potential photograph of this beast made it all feel so much more tangible. While the narrator raised the possibility that this was just a bird of prey (an owl by the looks of it) clutching a snake in its talons, he still insisted that the question should be asked: Could the Mothman have finally returned to Point Pleasant after all this time?

As the screen began fading to black, the orb played Mothman’s terrifying screech one last time, except now it hit differently. What had merely been a really scary sound at the start, had become something much more foreboding and ominous, threatening even. It sounded as if the creature itself was sending a warning to whoever was watching; that wherever they were, it was coming to bring the news of their terrible fate.

Scootaloo once again felt the fur on the back of her neck stand up.

“Ah personally think that picture was just an owl carryin’ a snake.”, Apple Bloom snapping Scootaloo out of her semi-trance.

“Sooo, what did you girls think? I thought it was pretty spooky.”, Sweetie Belle asked with a surprising amount of pep in her voice.

“Y-yeah it was pretty neat, actually.”, Scootaloo stated in a tone indicating her attempt shake off her now wired nerves.

“Ah really like how it also offers rational explanations instead of just telling as a scary story. It feels more grown up for some reas-“.

*CRACK-BOOM

Before Apple Bloom could finish her sentence, the storm once again decided to remind the trio of its presence. Scootaloo trotted up to the window, looking out at the relentless downpour of rain, violent winds that stripped trees entirely of their leaves, and the bright flashes of lightning that seemed to appear over every corner of Ponyville.

“Y’all right, Scoots?”

“Yeah. I’m just hoping my aunts are okay… that shack they’re staying in didn’t look so sturdy from what I saw of it.”

Apple Bloom then walked up and placed a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder.

“Ah’m sure they’re okay. But if y’all are so worried, then ah guess we can stop by n’ check on ‘em when the weather’s clear enough if it’ll make ya feel better.”

It took a second for Scootaloo to respond before saying, “Sure. I guess that will.”

“Now come on, let’s see if y’all could deliver on that promise that you’d kick my flank at checkers.”

Scootaloo snapped her around. The look on her face now free of the dread present in her voice just a second ago.

“You’re on!”