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// 2 - Evil in the Night 
// Story: Six Two Six Three 
// by lunabrony 
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	It didn't take much for the similarly designed red alien to climb out from underneath Twilight's Library. The soil was surprisingly soft and fertile, more than adequate for growing plants and crops. He broke free from the capsule prison that had contained him for so long with joyful laughter, standing for the first time in front of the Library. The sun had gone down, and the only source of light came from a few lit lanterns which hung in pre-arranged increments along the various streets.
Very few were out at this point in the day, houses and shops and businesses were closed. A few couples still wandered together along the roads, and they all seemed to be horselike in design. An odd choice, but not one that he couldn't deal with. Scampering away from the library, the small red alien tore through the streets in randomly selected directions, not sure where he was going and not entirely caring. At one point he happened upon a small swingset in a residential yard, it was the pride and joy of some lucky child.
WAS.
It didn't take long at all for 627 to rip the playset apart, crumpling the pieces into an salvageable twisted mess. Unfortunately, this was also a fairly noisy process, and a curiously annoyed stallion appeared in the barely lit doorway of the back of the house, a lantern in one hoof.
"Who's out there!?" He demanded, not yet seeing the traumatic scene that his heartbroken foals would find the next day.
"Evil!" 627 cackled, and disappeared into the darkness, not giving the playset a second thought. He darted down the road again, and the buildings slowly started to become more and more scarce. He turned up one last dirt road, the last for a while, it seemed, rolling into a ball. His spherical form was faster, and the road he was on was lengthy and increasingly worn. He dodged around several large pieces of equipment that had been left around the sides of the road, before springing back onto his feet.
It was dark, late evening, but that didn't stop his eyes from clicking through various modes until he reached night vision. A large farm lay in front of him. It was quiet, though light flickered from one of the rooms. From what little he could see, it appeared to be a bedroom. It took only a moment to climb up the side of the house, peering in over the side of the windowsill. Inside, he could see a small horselike creature fast asleep in bed, wearing a bow that was nearly bigger than her body itself. He grinned. She would do nicely.
Downstairs, two ponies sat across from each other at a worn round table, the mare with rectangular glasses perched on her nose.
"Winter was rough, Mac. Rougher than usual. Business was down 17% from the year before."
"Eeyup."
She sighed. "We're really going to have to haul flank this year if we're going to turn a profit. Every year it seems harder and harder t'break even. Ah think we're gonna have to have a second cider haul this year."
The large red stallion placed his hoof on the mare's shoulder, shaking his head.
"Your confidence is overpowering," she deadpanned. "Something's gonna have to go this year, Mac. Ah'd hate to cancel our trip to Manehattan, Bloom is so lookin' forward to it."
Mac looked ready to respond, but a loud scream came from upstairs. The two adults wasted absolutely no time in knocking over the table in their rush to get upstairs. Bloom's door was locked, and the orange pony rattled the doorknob relentlessly. "Bloom! Bloom! Open this door immediately!" She yelled.
No answer.
Mac looked ready to kick it in, and the orange pony looked hesitant. "That's more expenses we don't need, Mac..." She didn't sound fully sure of herself, though. But... heck with it. Mah sisters in there."
"We'll manage," Mac said, and in one swift kick, reduced the door to splinters.
Rushing in, the two frantically looked around. Seeing nothing amiss except the curtains fluttering on either side of the open window.
But the room... was empty.
Rushing to the window, the orange pony screamed a nightmarish cry out into the air, but got no response.
"BLOOM!"
---
"Twilight, are you sure you're gonna be okay without me?" Spike asked. Naturally he had no intention of giving up  his day off, he got them so infrequently. But he did worry about Twilight, who was at the moment the closest thing to a mother that he had. 
"Are you sure you're not gonna overwork yourself like last time? Especially now that Princess Celestia has all those new things for you to do."
"I'll be fine, Spike," Twilight said. Her wings were folded, but even that had taken quite some work to get them to behave properly. "I have plenty of strength and stamina, you don't have to worry about that. You're a baby dragon, you can only do so much."
"But I'm not a baby!" Spike insisted. "I keep growing, you said so!"
"Very well. If you're so grown up, maybe I'll let you stay up all night."	
"Really?!"
Twilight smirked, and reached under the dragons pillow, removing a large sapphire from it. "Since you're so grown up, I guess you won't need your midnight snack then."
Spike looked devastated. "Give that back!" He fidgeted. "I mean... I don't need it... I don't... I don't need..."
Twilight placed the sapphire back under the pillow, and gave Spike a 'That's final' look. 
"Good night, Spike. Go to bed." She blew out the lantern, and paused at the doorway. "It's going to be nice to have a quiet night for once," she said, and closed the door.