“A-Are you sure that this is all you have, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked as she looked around the extensive tree-library. “Yep. This is all I have on whatever it is you call “The Rake” Twilight Sparkle replied, “Historical documents, first-hand accounts contained in reports from centuries ago, and I even found one drawing of what the artist called, ‘Rake’.” Twilight levitated a small drawing over to Fluttershy, who looked at the artwork. There could be no doubt that the creature that Fluttershy had seen on her bed was represented here, in a small painting dating back three hundred years.
Fluttershy gulped. “D-D-Did you find a-anything else unusual, Twilight?” Fluttershy stammered. Twilight thought for a moment. “Ah, yes! Yes I did!” she exclaimed. Twilight grabbed a slip of paper in between her teeth and placed it in front of Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked at the hastily written note on the paper, which read as follows: “My child, my Featherwing…He is gone. Taken, from his bed. The only thing that we found was a scrap of black
clothing. It feels like cotton, but it is softer…thicker. Featherwing came into my bedroom yesterday, screaming at the top of his lungs that “The Shadow is outside!”, I asked him what he was talking about, and he told me some nonsense fairy story about The Shadow. He said he went into the groves by our village and found one of my cows dead, hanging from a tree. I thought nothing of it at first…But now, he is gone. We must find Featherwing, and my family must leave before we are killed. I am sorry my son…I should have listened. May Celestia forgive me.”
Fluttershy swallowed. She stared at the last note of a father that had most likely lost a child to whatever had been in the fog in the Everfree forest. “Umm, m-may I take this with me, Twilight?” she asked. “Of course you can, Fluttershy! Keep it as long as you like!” Twilight replied happily. She bounded off to the upper levels of her library.
Fluttershy stepped out into the bright sunlight after bidding Twilight goodbye. A bag with the note, as well as a magically transcribed copy of the painting of the Rake, hung loosely by Fluttershy’s side. A butterfly floated lazily through the air, occasionally catching on a draft that propelled it upward. Derpy Hooves flew overhead, spilling mail and packages from her bag as she did. “Hello, Fluttershy!” the adorably special pony said as she lowered herself to Fluttershy’s level.
“Hello, Derpy. Is my reply from Celestia here yet?” Fluttershy asked earnestly. Derpy shook her head. “Nope, sorry. I’d know for SURE if I had a letter from the Princess herself!” Without another word, Derpy turned back to the road and flew off. Fluttershy laughed to herself and watched the light-grey mare fly off. Fluttershy tightened the bag, drawing the cloth closer to her body.
Fluttershy floated to her cottage and nudged open the door. The cottage was brightly illuminated, just as Fluttershy had kept it since the intrusion. Angel lay curled on his bed on the floor, sighing contently in his sleep. “D’awww,” Fluttershy whispered as she walked over and placed a small cloth blanket over Angel’s sleeping frame. She then set the bag down on a table and sighed. The day was coming to an end, and Fluttershy felt her usual evening weariness coming on strong. She yawned and pulled herself into her bed, sleep taking her easily.
Rainbow Dash staggered around her house in Cloudsdayle, her head pounding. Her vision splintered and faded to grey, then to blotches of red and white. She gritted her teeth and twitched as an icy coldness seeped into her veins. Her heart raced fast, much faster than it should. She was sweating, and her body alternated between a fever and the chills.
Dash heard a knock at the door, and she shook her head. “O-O-One second,” she called as she placed a foreleg against her forehead. Sure enough, she was burning up again. I’ll call in to the hospital tomorrow. It’s-It’s just something from the Wen… the Wen… Oh, whatever it was, she thought as she regained her composure. She walked to the door and swung it open.
Dash screamed. It was not a pony that stood before her, but rather a skeleton of one. Its bones had been stripped of flesh and skin, leaving only brownish-white bones. The lower jaw hung limply, but it was the upper jaw that caught Dash’s attention. There was not simply one upper jaw, but rather a dozen or so stacked on top of one another, all forming one grotesque mound of teeth. Dash screamed.
The mail-pony stared in shock as Rainbow Dash opened the door and flew into a fit. He reached out to grab her shoulder. “Ms. Dash?” he said as softly as he could. Rainbow Dash turned to him and bucked him as hard as she could in the mouth. In her mind she saw dozens upon dozens of teeth fly, heard the bones clack against each other, and she took off flying.
Fluttershy felt groggy, her eyes still weak and heavy. She closed them, and woke up what felt like minutes later. Bright sunlight shone down from the windows above, illuminating falling dust particles. A moth briefly fluttered into the cottage before flying happily out and along its way. Fluttershy sighed.
At the end of her bed, Fluttershy noticed something. It was small and pale, about the size of Rarity’s cat. It was completely hairless and lacked any form of eyes. The flesh over its jaws had been seemingly stripped away, revealing glistening gums and yellowish teeth. Fluttershy noted that the teeth lacked the definitive tip that was associated with carnivores, but in her years of experience Fluttershy had learned to be wary of new creatures.
“H-H-Hi there,” said Fluttershy as she stared at the creature. It paid her no mind, and actually seemed to not notice that she was there. It scratched at its chin with small paws much like a rat or a mouse would. Fluttershy felt the initial fear of this unknown creature ebb away as she watched how it moved, how similar to rodents it was. She reached out and touched the hairless thing on the head, saying, “My name’s Fluttershy? Can you talk?”
The second that her hoof touched the top of the things head, it reacted. Its head snapped to face Fluttershy and it hissed in the most evil, demonic hiss Fluttershy had ever heard. As it hissed, she heard another hiss from the darkness of her house. And another. And another. The chorus of hisses began to fill Fluttershy with fear, and she screamed. She leapt out of bed and bounded down the stairs.
At the base of the stairs lie the lifeless bodies of Angel. Angel’s skin had been mutilated, his white fur stained red with blood. The flesh on his face had been peeled off and the eyes removed, leaving only a bloody, empty skull that grinned horrifically at Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she wailed in grief. “Angel!’ she screamed, feeling tears stream down her cheeks as she ran down the stairs to hold the limp corpse of her pet. “Angel!” she screamed again, her brain unable to find any other words to say.
Fluttershy heard the scratching of dozens of tiny paws on the wooden floors above, and she heard the hissing grow louder as the creatures that had killed Angel grew closer. Still sobbing, Fluttershy sprinted out the door of her cottage, taking flight towards Ponyville to seek comfort in her friends. Hot tears mixed with the cool wind of the night as Fluttershy collapsed in a heap outside of Ponyville and sobbed.
Spike slept soundly in Twilight’s library. He had grown considerably in recent years, to the point where he was able to look Twilight in the eye without any difficulty. Twilight sighed as she magically lifted a book onto a shelf. Soon, Spike would descend into a century-long dragon sleep, and her closest friend would no longer be around. Granted, Twilight would be able to visit him in his slumber, but she would not be able to have her usual conversations with him, or tell him all about the new books she had gotten or anything like that. Twilight felt sadness creep into her heart as she thought of just how much she was going to miss her best friend in the coming years.
Twilight shuddered as she felt a cool breeze blow through her house. She turned and saw the door had blown open in the night, and that a cool breeze had picked up. She shivered as she walked over and closed the door. As she turned, her eyes lighted upon something that she had not noticed before. It was a book lying on her table where a book had not rested before. It was small, with a black cover and binding. It was a short book as well, containing no more than one-hundred pages. A small note sat tied to the cover, written in perfect hoofwriting. The note read, “Page Fifty. Read me.”
Twilight shrugged and removed the twine tie on the cover and opened the book. She noticed that the pages were all blank, save for the page numbers in the top right-hand corner. She reached page forty-nine and noticed that there seemed to be a magical inscription on the next page, page fifty. Twilight turned the page and gasped. It was indeed a magical inscription, a spell used to capture an image forever in a snapshot.
It looked vaguely like a smiling dog, but its face was something else. It was something indescribably horrible, to the point where the image of its face was engraved into Twilight’s mind. She screamed and thrashed, feeling a hot burning agony as the picture burned itself into her memory. She screamed, and fell to the floor.
It stood over the purple pony, watching the mare thrash on the ground. The inscription had worked just as predicted. Now all It had to do was wait, and this pony’s will would snap like her friend’s had.