//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Sketching Dusk // by Dawn the Pegasus //------------------------------// Overhead, the moon is covered by clouds, giving a thin mare darkness. She steadily makes her way towards her target, a sleeping stallion. Taking slow steps, making sure she doesn't step on any fallen twigs. Nearby an owl flies by, rustling the leaves of the trees surrounding the clearing of the crash site. Snarling, she looks at him with disgust, hatred towards him fills her every nerve. Her plan was to take him out quick and quietly. Hovering above him, she lowers her back, emitting a low growl. She wanted to make him suffer, but stealth was of the essence. She curled back her lips and opened her mouth wide, revealing glistening white fangs. She leans down to the stallions exposed neck, a grin spreading across her face. Her fangs were just about to pierce his skin, sinking into one of his main arteries, leaving him dead in seconds. A voice nearby belonging to a certain purple unicorn interrupted her. The sudden noise made the mare jump, and her fangs pierced the stallion, but they missed home. She quickly pulled her fangs covered in blood out of his neck, and stretched out a pair of wings. With one flap, the mare was high in the air, blood dripping down her chin. She dove into a nearby tree in silence as she watched the unicorn proceed to the stallion. Pure hatred filled her gaze. She then left for the cover of pitch black darkness. knowing of her next plans, and smirking with the knowledge that she had injured whom they called the Doctor. I wake up and notice two things. 1. There is a strange metallic taste in my mouth. No idea where that came from. 2. I'm in my bed, in my house. When I'm pretty sure I fell asleep outside... with him... My cheeks flush red. I don't know why but they do. I crawl out of bed slowly, remembering how much I do not remember about the night before. How did I even get here? How come I can't remember anything. This was all too strange for me. I look out the window and see it's about noon. Celestia probably rose the sun without dawn this morning. I can't wait till I see her next. The more I thought, the more those blue eyes came to mind. I need to find him. Hopefully before somepony else finds out that he's here. He's just about the only pony that could help me in all of Equestria. But facing him once more scares me. The voice sounded as if it hated him, what would it do then? Times before, there have been moments where I've lost control, was it because of the voice? I needed to find him soon. But then, the voice had said he isn't to be trusted. He did know my name without me telling him... and what did he mean by he was sorry that he was late? Is the voice not to be trusted? Silly Dawn, of course you can trust me, I've always been here for you. Guiding and helping you. You need to trust me, or you may not survive. We may not survive. A storm was brewing, yet it was a sunny day. There is almost never a day where a storm brews. I let out a heavy sigh. No matter what I do, my path will cross his soon enough, may as well just cut to the chase. I set out the door, worried about what may happen when we meet next. But regardless whatever happens, it needs to happen. Something was different when I reached the site. The Doctor was missing, and not in a good way. I walked over to where I thought we had been the night before. In the grass there two indents showing proof of two bodies previously being here. I assumed that the older one was mine. But the fresher one, wasn't so fresh. I gasped a little too loudly and quickly turned my head around. This wasn't a sight for my weak stomach. But I had to know the truth, I needed to know where he went. I turned my head back to the ground. There was a maroon pile of dried blood, sitting there at my hooves. What happened to him was a complete mystery to me. Something buzzed in my head. But it wasn't a buzz. It was laughter. It must know what had happened. Looking around, I searched for clues. Nopony can just vanish without leaving a trace, unless you were a very careful Pegasus, but he didn't have any wings. A few inches away, I found a smaller pile of the icky substance. From there, another inch or so, was another, along with a hoof print. They were tracks. Hope fluttered in chest, which confused me. Why was I so happy to find tracks that could lead me to this stranger. I don't know anything about him except that his name is the Doctor, he might be able to help me, and... he's a traitor... But it couldn't be right, not at all. He wasn't a traitor, how could he have been? Maybe it's all an act... Maybe it's all an act?... I don't know anymore. I shut my eyes, trying to brace myself against the invisible storm. I just didn't know what to do, where to go. But there was one clear question echoing throughout my head. Why me?... Once I finally gather enough courage to open my eyes, I find my self well away from where the site was. I look down and see my hooves moving without telling them too. At this point, I'm just so tired to even notice, so I just let my legs take me where ever they want to go. The trail leads me to Twilight's humble home which also serves as the town's library. My stomach fell and my guts twisted into knots. I had no desire to confront this mare. I had no idea why, but I hated her. I hated the sight of her. I hated the way she spoke, moved, the way she did anything. I hated her existence. Which greatly surprised me, since I never really think of anyone in a negative way. Sure, I'm a freak, and she may have been studying me, but I wouldn't use that as a reason to hurt her. It's completely against my morals. Against my nature... Anyways, I pushed the door to the library open, hoping she wasn't home. Wasn't today the day she has one of her pet play-dates with her friends? Every week they all have a pet play-date in the park for an hour or so. Hopefully today was that particular day of the week. I slowly put a hoof on one of the wooden boards, not wanting to make a noise in case she was here. Putting my weight on it, a loud creak emitted from the floor, alerting any living thing in the tree of my presence. I froze in place, adrenaline running throughout my body. I felt like a spy in one of the action and adventure books I love to read. Why was I sneaking in? This is a public place after all, and I always come here. I let out a sigh of relief after a few seconds and not hearing any noise. Shifting my weight, I lifted my hoof again and placed it in another spot, careful of the old floor boards. I take a quick glance around, knowing the Doctor must be in here somewhere. The tracks stopped right at the library's entrance, leaving me to rely on my instincts. Something tugged at my mind pulling towards the bookshelf. Taking the same practiced pattern of steps to the shelf, I fly up to become level with the correct shelf. I didn't want to continue on, but I had to, I needed to find him, see him. Shutting my eyes tightly, I reached out with a shaking hoof, and pulled the false book, making it tip over on its spine, and revealing it's secret. Unknowingly, I let out a sigh of relief. How much did I care for this stallion anyway? I was tempted to just go away and leave him alone, but my body was paralyzed, hovering in the air. It was getting so difficult lately to get control of my body, but how was that even possible? Am I just insane? Is it some kind of medical problem? Shaking the strand of thoughts out of my mind, I continued with my mission and pulled the lever, making it squeak loudly, it badly needed some oiling. Just like the other day, a chunk of the wall beside the shelves contain the lever slid over to the side and revealed the stone tunnel. Since I knew what to expect today, I wasn't as worried like the last time. Stepping into the tunnel, I shuddered, my nerves tingling. Loud echoes bounced off the rock walls from my hoofsteps. My mind kept wandering to the Doctor, creating vicious ideas as to put him to sleep; permanently. I'm not a violent pony, so those thoughts shocked me. I couldn't hurt anypony without feeling the twinge of guilt in my gut. Hesitantly, I made my way to the room at the end of the long tunnel as worry seeped into my soul. Trodding as silently as I could, I made my way to the center table, where I had found the book the day before. But instead, there was a large lump underneath a blanket in it's place. A pony sized lump. Looking closer at the blanket, there was two red spots, originating from what must have been a neck from the looks of it. Blood. I licked my lips. Confusion. Hatred. Unsatisfaction. Blood lust. It all filled my entire being. My eyes narrowed. My teeth sharpened. And I leaned closer to the body. Grinning, I opened my mouth wide, the desire to finish him off was growing in anticipation. Then, I stopped short. My eyes widened in confusion and horror. What was I doing?! I fell back onto the floor, bringing a pile of papers down with me. A loud clatter echoed. I scrambled up onto my hooves, my heart racing wildly. I flapped my wings and flew straight for the door, wanting to get away from this horrid place and, without realizing it, myself. "Dawn?!" I couldn't go back now. Not now, not ever. At the moment, all I had wanted to do was to just run away and hide from everything I knew and loved. Which is saying quite a lot, considering, I don't love anything at all, except for one stallion. So I had just flew in a beeline straight for what I had called home. And the last thing I did that night, was cry. As the moon starts it's journey across the night sky, Twilight sits in her hidden room, lit only by candle light. She sits at the center table, deep in conversation with a stallion. "Since you are now awake? How do you feel? Any pain? Aches?" She looks up at the stallion, a single eyebrow raised. "No. I feel fine, a little stiff, but fine." He stretches his neck, revealing a bloodied bandage. "Last night when you found me, did you happen to see the attacker?" "All I saw," replied Twilight, "was a winged pony. Not any normal Pegasus, that's for sure. But more of a Bat-pony, but not quite one either. The attacker also had a long flowing mane as well. I couldn't get that close of a look, it flew away before I could get any closer." The stallion looked down in disappointment. Lifting his hoof, he rubbed his forehead, deep in thought. "No, no, no, no, no. It couldn't be. Why would anypony want to even hurt me? Certainly not a winged one. In fact I haven't met any pegasus before-" He stopped suddenly and paused. "It couldn't have been her, no. No-" Twilight interrupted his sentence, "Doctor, who did you meet after you crashed-" She was then cut off by the Doctor. "No. That does not matter now. What matters is that she could not have done it. She doesn't fit your description." He took a heavy sigh and looked down. His eyelids closed as he once again got lost in thought. After a few moments, his eyes opened and seemed to gleam under the flickering candlelight. He stood up suddenly and nodded towards Twilight's direction. "Thank you for helping me Miss Twilight Sparkle, but I must be on my way now." He turned towards the exit. "Wait before you go, let me give you a fresh bandage. It'll help you out in the long run." She heads for the secret entrance at a brisk trot, not wanting to keep him waiting, while he takes his time, meandering after her. Once Twilight reached her closet full of medical supplies, which she had learned to have close by after a few misfired spells, she shuffled through everything in attempt to find another bandage. She created a ball of magical light from her horn and looked deeper in the closet. All the while, from a nearby open window, a shadow swooped in and landed like a feather a few feet behind Twilight. The mysterious figure crouched and took a few steps closer to her target until she was in range. The strange mare spread her wings and enveloped her prey with a grin. Her fangs gleamed in Twilight's light before it was snuffed out by the dark magic emanating from the mysterious pegasus. Twilight's eyes widened in fear as realization swept over her. The stranger reared her head back, her eyes flashing a fiery gold. Like a strike of lightning, the mare brought her head down, fangs sinking into flesh, as well as hitting it's mark. Twilight let out a shriek before her eyes rolled back, blood dripping down her neck. Her body went limp as it collapsed to the floor, sounding a dull thud. The strange mare let out a low chuckle and licked her fangs clean of the dark liquid. She glided towards the window and paused, looking back at Twilight's limp body. Her pupils narrowed into slits as a thought crossed into her mind. The Doctor, just upon reaching the secret entrance, heard a scream. He muttered under his breath cursing himself for leaving her to go on by herself. He quickly raced as fast as he could towards the source of the scream without pushing past his limits. Reaching the hallway containing the closet, he skidded to a stop a little ways from her body. With a straight face, he went over and inspected her body. After some time, he found two needle like pricks on the side of her neck with a slow trickle of blood gathering on the floor. Lifting her head, The Doctor looked into her eyes. Lifeless. "I am truly sorry Miss Twilight Sparkle." With a fluid movement, he took his hoof and closed her eyelids. A single tear rolled off his cheek and into her fur. The tear slowly disappeared as it was absorbed into her still warm pelt. "Goodbye." The Doctor gently placed her head back on the ground and stood paralyzed, staring at her body. Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was a shadow. He took a closer look and found writing in it. Eyes darting towards the window, he found it closing, as well as a message in an oozing, deep, dark red. Anger filled his expression as took in every one of the words. Unexpectedly, he ran for the door and out into the moon-light night, the words seared into his memory.