Twilight sat on her couch in the Ponyville library, lost in thought as she stared up at the end of a tall bookshelf lost in thought. She felt stupid about not hearing about the sudden disappearance of the 5 foals and Lyra and Miss Cheerilee. But what made her feel the most terrible was picking up that one twig with Lyra's hair; it felt like she had walked into some crime scene. She thought that whoever or whatever took them was still out there, but she felt it in a more fearful sense. Where Lyra got caught in the bush there were no hoof prints. It didn't sit right with her.
The Everfree had dangers before, and she knew that. Either it would be an Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, a hydra, or just a pack of timberwolves. But those only show up once in a while, and most of the time she and her friends would take care of them. But seemed far more calculated and planned for some animal hunting.
Then she thought about the mare she saw on the hill. Why was she watching her? Was the mare some serial killer seeing her witness interfering in her business?
No, that was far too ridiculous for her. She had seen many movies and she didn't want to attribute this to some fictional killers in movies. But then again that mare was acting suspiciously.
"Uhh hey, twilight, are you doing okay?" Spike asked, looking worried at her as he woke her from her daze.
"Oh, I'm doing fine... Well, actually no....What Mayor Mare told me is still stuck in my head," she rasped sadly before getting off of the couch with a nervous look in her eyes.
The drake blankly stared at Twilight with some empathy before giving a small sheepish chuckle and scratching the back of his head. "Oh... I get you... Sorry if I'm coming off as unhelpful-"
"It's fine, I can handle this, I can just move on and forget about it and try to continue my life," Twi cut Spike off, speaking to him in a quite mellow tone. The drake could tell that was affecting her, but he didn't want to invalidate her feelings because he felt the same sadness she felt, or at least he thought it was sadness.
Twilight then turned towards the door, slowly heading to it before turning her head back to Spike. "Spike, can you stay here? I’m going to check on my friends to see how they are doing,"
"Oh okay, that sounds good. Which one are you going to check on first?" The dragon asked while having a bit of excitement in his voice as he thought about his crush.
"It's going to be AJ. She has a little sister, and her brother was very close to Cheerile in a 'special ' way." Twilight explained with a slight cringe as she tried to shorten it for Spike's teen mind.
"Okay, sounds good. And not to mention she's quite the looker too," Spike mused with a smug grin forming across his face as he saw the anger welling up in his step-sister's face.
"UGH, SPIKE!"
"Gahahah, sorry, just couldn't help myself. See you later!" He waved her off after letting out another small chuckle. He did care for her, just things still felt off, like the same feeling he had in the woods was still there, watching him.
With that Twilight trotted out of the door, taking looks at ponies as they walked as she continued to the barn. She felt glad that she was going to see AJ, but couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.
Twilight walked her way up the dirt road that led to Sweet Apple Anchors looking at the big barn house as she went. She didn't know what Applejack or her family were at the moment but hoped they weren't that busy. When she came closer to the barn she saw Applejack and Applebloom sitting next to some large wooden crates with frowns across their faces.
"Uhh hey, Applejack," Twilight greeted awkwardly, waving her hoof with a forced smile.
"Hey Twilight, sorry that I ain't in the best of moods right now," The cowpony groaned as she laid her head back against the wood of the farm-house.
"No no, it's ok, I'm just here to check on you, that's all," Twilight reassured before calmly walking up to the boxes and sitting next to Applejack with her sister. "I've heard about what happened to everypony,”
"Don't blame yourself for that. Besides, you ain't a foalnapper or some sort of serial killer," Applejack responded, joking lightheartedly while she did. She glanced up at the evening clouds as her somber frown returned.
"Oh okay, thanks for that... Do you have any idea who took the mares?" Questioned Twilight, glancing back at the two members of the Apple Family. They all looked disinterested in the whole event and seemed to be still taking the news in.
"Well, I think it was some diamond dogs that took them as slaves," Applebloom gave her answer, wanting to join the conversation.
"I thought it would be something that lived in the woods," The purple unicorn added while rubbing her chin.
"To be honest with y'all, I'm not certain what it is, but Granny and Big Mac think it's something else," Applejack suddenly mentioned as she picked herself back up and turned her head to Twilight, who looked visibly intrigued by this new mention.
"Okay, like... what? Come on, intrigue me! Who does Granny Smith suspect of doing the foalnapping?” Twilight egged her friend playfully in an attempt
to make the mood less somber. Applebloom joined in as well as she lightly nudged her sister on the leg.
Applbloom already had known just as much as her sister did about what their grandmother and older brother had been bickering about for the past several nights. The 2 sisters shared a knowing yet annoyed stare before AJ rolled her eyes and broke eye contact as her sister smirked in victory.
AJ sighed and groaned, sliding down the box and leaning against it while standing on her hind legs. She then turned around faced her sister and twilight again. "It's an old legend that has been told for a long time. It may seem like some old mare’s tale to me, but to Granny and Big Mac, it's not,"
"Okay, then what's the legend's name?" The unicorn asked again. It sounded like some folktale she probably had never heard about, and she wondered what kind of crazy thing AJ's grandmother was thinking about.
"Well, we call her the Tall Mare. There's not much known about this myth that I'm gonna tell y'all because most of the details have been lost to the sands of time. Back when I was young, Granny told me about the scary mare in the woods: The Tallmare. She said that she was a tall mare with pale white skin and fur and super tall, as tall as the trees. She often told me what the Tall Mare wore differed from tale to tale—either some farmer's clothes, a noble's dress, or some dark hood. But what all tales have in common is that she has no face!" AJ, ending the physical description with an oooo. Applebloom lightly snickered at her sister meanwhile Twilight's expression stayed neutral.
"The joke was...a bit too corny for my liking but may you please continue to explain to me what this Tallmare is?" She face-hoofed having an impatience glare in her eyes.
"Sorry, that was just too tempting not to do" She chuckled before sighing and returning to the subject. "Basically the Tall Mare takes foals away if they wander off too far. So yeah, just your average Bogeystallion tale,"
"Wait....Is that it? Aren't you going to tell more?"
"Not really, don't remember anything else that would be considered important," Aj then started to walk off back to the house before looking back at her friend "But Granny doesn't see it as fake. It's like she has seen the dame mare. Even Big Mac blames Cheerile’s disappearance on the Tall Mare. I don't know if they are just superstitious ideas or if things are just stranger in reality," She said before zoning off again, thinking back to her family arguing about the existence of the Tall Mare.
"Well, I'm leaving it up to you then, because I have to go. I'm sorry that I can't stay longer," announced Twilight as she trotted off, looking back as she did.
"No problem, see ya later."
When Twilight got back to the library she noticed a box at her door. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at the package to see who sent it, but to her luck, the name and the address were scribbled out.
"What? Who even sent-" She was cut off by a sudden throbbing headache and a ringing sensation In her ears, with the same feeling of being watched again. She looked back to see but, again, it was nopony. The headache and sound vanished.
"Huh... Strange. Maybe I'm just overstimulating myself," she told herself before walking in. Once she got inside, she stopped and stared at the sudden mess of her library.