“Well, Ms. Sparkle, it seems like you’re ready to leave!” said Nurse Redheart, a warm smile forming on her lips.
Twilight nodded and returned the smile, thankful to be able to get back to her friends, who had been growing more and more worried about her health ever since she had cast that spell, an event that was still hazy and fragmented.
“What book was I even studying?” she wondered as she left that sterile room behind and trotted down the hallway,
Twilight shook her head, as if the physical action would shake the mental cobwebs away, but, try as she might, she was still unable to remember anything.
She was almost to the front desk when the sounds of a scuffle reached her ears.
Twilight turned and looked back down the hallway to see two burly orderlies wrestling with an earth pony with an olive green coat and a brown mane and tail.
As she watched, the pony threw himself into the nearest orderly, throwing him to the ground before spinning and delivering a powerful buck to the other, who was thrown into a nearby stretcher with enough force to send him rolling down the hallway.
Having seen quite enough Twilight decided that it was time to step in; She lowered her horn and yelled out “Hey!”
The olive pony whirled on her and bared his teeth, which Twilight noted bore canines-an unusual genetic defect for a pony to have and one that made him look far more intimidating.
“Don’t try anything, mister!” she warned.
The hostile stallion narrowed his eyes and took a step towards her.
Twilight fired a bolt of magic that hit the strange pony right between the eyes: his eyes rolled up and he slumped to the ground in a boneless heap.
Twilight heaved a shuddering sigh and sank to the ground, feeling a spike of pain pierce her head. Why did I do that? she thought, groaning and rubbing her head with a hoof as the pain slowly died out.
Behind the unconscious stallion, the orderlies were slowly getting to her hooves with moans of pain.
“Sweet Celestia, that guy was strong!” exclaimed one of them.
“Yeah, it felt like getting hit by a bus.” groaned the other.
“Hey! Did you knock him out?” asked the first orderly, pointing to Twilight; his partner frowned, obviously annoyed at being emasculated whilst knocked-out.
“Eh heh heh….yes?” responded Twilight, weakly.
The two orderlies sighed and then lifted the unconscious stallion onto the dented stretcher with much grunting and muffled curses. Twilight turned away and started back for the front door, after all, her job was done, she had stopped a crazy pony and had remained injury-free whilst doing so.
All in all, I’d say that concludes any strenuous things that I’ll be doing today. she thought as she walked out of the hospital and into the cold rain.
Inside her house, Fluttershy lay huddled and trembling in her bed as the rain pounded her roof, filling her house with its cacophony. The yellow pegasus whimpered and curled up tighter as a peal of thunder boomed outside.
She hadn’t moved from her bed ever since she had seen that monster looking in at her. She shuddered as she recalled those dead eyes looking right at her, sizing her up, probably wondering if she’d taste good.
What if it’s still out there? she wondered, feeling tears of fear spring up under her tightly-shut eyelids, What if it got into the house and is standing over my bed, waiting for me to fall asleep so it can take me and eat me?
One of her eyes popped open and she stirred slightly, wondering if she should chance a peek.
No! That’ll only make it angry!
Something cold touched her hoof.
Fluttershy screamed and leaped onto the floor, her fall softened by the many blankets that she had pulled down with her.
She was up and ready to flee a nanosecond later, her wings unfurled and ready to fly. She looked around her small room, scanning every shadow before her eyes landed on a lump that was moving under her sheets.
Fluttershy backed away as the lump moved slowly towards her like a shark in a fabric sea.
“P-please…” she whimpered, getting ready to bolt.
The lump stopped, then let out a decidedly un-monstrous yip.
Fluttershy blinked, then fell on her rump as a small dog emerged from under the sheets, grinning goofily and wagging its tail.
Fluttershy stared at the oblivious dog, then burst into gales of relieved laughter that shook her whole body.
“Oh, thank-hehehe-thank goodness ihihihit’s you, Spot.” she said through her giggles.
Spot yipped again and barreled up to her, covering her face with wet dog kisses.
Fluttershy wrapped her arms around the dog and pulled him closer, feeling herself calm down as she felt his heartbeat against her skin.
A sudden peal of thunder made her hold the dog tighter.
“Why hasn’t the storm stopped?” she wondered aloud, “You’d think that the weather pegasi would have broken it up by now.”
As if to illustrate her point, there was another peal of thunder and a flash of lightening that filled the room with its blue light.
And in that light, Fluttershy caught a glimpse of a dark shape fly by her window.
A dark shape with wings.
The yellow pegasus whimpered and held the dog tighter, knowing that it would be a while before she even dared to set a hoof outside of her room.
Nurse Redheart stood outside of the cell, looking at the raging tornado of a pony within.
It was absolutely amazing how strong the mysterious stallion was: he had already broken two restraining spheres, given three of the hospital’s burliest orderlies bruises and black eyes, and he had bucked several small holes in the wall.
The beasts aren’t working. she thought as another orderly went down, clutching his jaw, I guess it’s time for the beauty to step up.
Redheart stepped inside of the cell and smiled benevolently at the panting stallion, who was glaring at everything and everypony.
“Ahem.” Redheart cleared her throat loudly, getting the stallion’s attention, “Excuse me, sir, but I’d very much appreciate it if you could refrain from doing any more damage to the cell and the orderlies. I don’t know what your issue is, but I’m sure that it can be resolved peacefully.”
The stallion looked at her inquisitively and seemed to be holding back a comment. Redheart lit her horn and levitated a syringe full of sedative from a nearby tray, which was one of the few that had yet to be knocked over. “ Now, why don’t you let us give you something to help you sleep and-”
“I don’t need to be sedated!” shouted the stallion, suddenly, “I don’t need a nice, warm bed, I don’t need medication and I don’t need your damn kindness! I just need to end it before the next full moon!.”
Redheart’s magic drained from her horn along with the blood from her face; The syringe fell to the floor, forgotten.
“‘End it’?” She asked, hoping that he hadn’t meant what she thought he had meant.
The stallion’s tense shoulders slumped slightly and his ears flattened against his skull as he let out a deep sigh. Redheart was shocked at the sudden change in his demeanor and greatly unnerved by the way the angry blaze behind his brown eyes went out, leaving nothing behind at all.
“Please” he said, looking her in the eye, “I need to die. I’ve seen you ponies use magic, it must be very powerful here, right?”
Redheart said nothing, only gaped at him in horror.
The stallion sighed again, “Please answer me, I don’t want to have to go through another night under the moon.”
Redheart numbly shook her head, “N-no.” she finally managed to stammer out, “I-I’m not going to...to help you do something so...so horrible!”
She moved forwards a few feet, not wanting to get too close to the stallion for fear of him lashing out again. He’s obviously insane. she thought sympathetically, I can’t let him try anything, I won’t let a fellow pony die when I can prevent it! I just need to calm him down and then subdue him.
“Listen, mister-?”
“Talbot, Lawrence Talbot.” said the stallion without any enthusiasm.
Lawrence Talbot? That’s certainly an odd name. thought Redheart as she moved closer.
“Okay then, mister Talbot. Just tell me why you want to die.” she said, adding a soft “Please.” to cap it off.
Talbot’s eyes grew misty and he said, in a low voice, “I’m a murderer.”
Redheart’s heart stopped.
“Wh-what?” she stammered, cold sweat breaking out on her brow as her horn powered back up.
“I've killed people, tore them to shreds, eaten them.” said Talbot, his tone never changing, “I’m cursed, y’see. Every full moon I turn into a wolf.”
He turned slightly and showed off his cutie mark, which was a strange symbol that Redheart had never seen before: it was a simple star-shape surrounded by a circle, the star lacked any detail or color, and the lines that composed the symbol were straight and black.
“This is the mark of the beast.” explained Talbot, “It shows that I’m a cursed man: I can’t age, I can’t die, and I will never stop killing unless someone finds out how to kill me first.”
Redheart fell on her rump, still gaping at Talbot, who only sighed and hung his head dejectedly.
“I’ve had this conversation so many times before.” he said sadly, “And nobody ever believes me. Even you think that I’m crazy and you’re a talking horse!”
Redheart yelped as Talbot kicked out, knocking another hole in the wall.
“I don’t know how much longer I have before I turn!” he shouted, “If you aren’t going to kill me then put me in chains and lock me in your strongest prison; I will not kill anyone again!”
Neither Talbot nor Redheart saw the orderly with the syringe until he had stuck the needle into Talbot’s rump and pressed the full dose into his veins. The olive-green stallion gasped as his eyes began to cloud over and he staggered a few steps towards Redheart as his mind was pulled into a drug-induced haze.
“Please...please help me….please kill me.” he whispered a second before toppling over, out cold.
The silence that followed Talbot’s fall was deafening, and Nurse Redheart wished she could scream to drive it off.
What is wrong with this town? she thought, Angry griffons, parasprites, chaos gods, Ursa Minors, Nightmare Moon and now this nutjob.
She started to get up, but a little voice in her head said something that gave her pause.
Then why did he seem so sad? He wasn’t lying, that much was obvious. So why would he say all that if it wasn’t true?
Nurse Redheart tried to stifle that little voice, but the damage was already done and, as she went into the bathroom to clean herself up, she found her mind wandering back to the mysterious stallion with the strange name and the even stranger cutie mark.
He did talk kinda funny. she thought as she washed her hooves and ran them through her disheveled hair, “Anybody”? “Man?” “Horse”? Who would call a pony a Horse and what the hay is a “Man”?
Redheart sighed in exasperation as she started drying her hooves.
There is definitely something wrong with Lawrence Talbot, she thought, but it can’t be a curse….can it?
Far, far away, in a small, snow-shrouded town that sat in the sprawling shadow Falconia, the capital of the Griffon lands, something was prowling the icy streets; Something without fur, feathers, skin, bones or organs that could be seen.
Paw and talon prints appeared in the snow out of nowhere, random griffon townsfolk felt unseen talons grasp their limbs or caress their bodies with careful, almost sensual softness and, if one were to listen in the dead of night, one could hear a disembodied voice talking in a high, mirthful voice.
“Oh, what a brave new world is this!” it had been heard saying, “A new body, a new world and so much potential for experimentation! I could get used to this place!”
The joyful madness in that voice had driven many of the townsfolk to sleep with pillows over their heads to block out the ramblings, though it didn’t muffle him when he sang.
Of course, no-one knew what was happening and the authorities were never able to catch the unseen individual.
And then the first murder occurred.
A homeless griffon had been found with his throat viciously slashed. Whoever had killed him had taken his clothes and left the body in the snow; the blood that had pooled around the body had frozen solid by the time that it had been discovered.
No-one knew who had done it, but many whispered accusations were aimed at the unseen entity that had been stalking the street,
And, as the townsfolk talked and whispered and feared, Jack Griffin, known by his victims and enemies as the Invisible Man, began his trek towards Falconia with a song on his beak and murder on his mind.