//------------------------------// // Don't look over your shoulder // Story: Don't look over your shoulder // by USSOakland //------------------------------// Don't look over your shoulder It was as foggy day in ponyville, most residents weren't out at such an early hour, much less when the visibility was low from the fog. Only a few ponies where out but not in town square, most where out on their porch reading or watering their flowers. All the ponies that where outside stayed close to their house in fear of getting lost in the fog at town, but only one pony didn't follow like the rest. Her name was Carrot top, she was out walking across ponyville to a friends house to try a new carrot stew recipe her friend had told her about. It was very foggy, almost to the point where you couldn't even see your own hoof in front of your face. But Carrot top didn't care, she needed to learn the stew recipe so that she could enter and win in ponyville's annual "Superb Soup Contest". She was very exited that that she might have a chance at winning this years contest. She had entered it before but never got close to 1st or even 3rd place, Carrot Top was confident that with this new recipe she would knock the judges socks off. About ten minuets into her walk she got a feeling that someone was watching her, she looked behind her just by instincts but of course she couldn't see very far. Carrot just shrugged and shook the feeling off and continued walking. When she arrived at her friend Bon-Bon's house she knock on the door and waited a few seconds before the door opened. Knock knock "Coming!" said a voice from inside. The door opened letting a wave of hot air hit Carrot Top in the face, she moved her head to spare her eyes from the sudden change in temperature. When she she look back to she who opened the door she saw a familiar face, it was non other than Her friend Bon-Bon. "Carrot!" "Bon-Bon!" They both said in unison. The two friends hugged each other and went inside. "O Carrot please make your self at home, you can hang your scarf on the coat hanger by the door." Said Bon-Bon happily. Carrot Top proceeded to take of her scarf and hang it on the coat hanger. She turned around to ask Bon-Bon where her marefriend Lyra is, but she soon found out when she finally heard the sound of a lyre being playing upstairs. Carrot smiled when she heard the sound of Lyra's beautiful strumming. She then turned her head to the direction of the kitchen to hear Bon-Bon call her. "Carrot come in the kitchen please, I have the recipe right here." Carrot began to trot over to the kitchen where Bon-Bon was preparing all the ingredients for the stew. When she walked in she was met with a strong smell of spices and flavors. Bon-Bon was wearing a big silly chef hat witch bobbed around on her head. Carrot Top laughed and said "You look ridiculous with that hat on Bons!" "Hey, the purposes of the chefs hat is to lift the hot air up and away from the cooks head so he/she doesn't over heat" said Bon-Bon matter-of-factually. "You still look hilarious" said Carrot While giggling. "Yeah yeah alright lets get this recipe done and taste it" said Bon-Bon. The two to started to work on the stew. Carrot Top chopped up the carrots she brought from her garden and puched them into a pot of boiling water. After that Bon-Bon put in some homemade broth into the pot with some spices like rosemary chives and cloves. They both work fast and cautiously on the pot of soon to be stew. Step by step they followed the recipe to the exact amount of spices and measurements the stew needed. Once the final direction was preformed the two stepped back and admired the work they made. "Wow that smells amazing Bons" said Carrot "Yeah, and I couldn't believe that it only took an hour to make" said Bon-Bon while wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Well let see how it tastes" Said Carrot. They both sat down with a bowl of stew and started to eat. Once the stew was in Carrot Top's mouth, it exploded with flavors like a firework. It reminded Carrot of a strong,healthy stew that her uncle used to make for her when she was a filly but with out some of the hardy taste. The Hardiness was partially replaced with sweet exotic flavors from the spices. "Holy hay Bon-Bon, this is awesome!" said Carrot happily. "Ya Carrot, I think were going to win this years contest" said Bon-Bon while swallowing the last of her stew. "We I guess that's it for today" said Carrot Top while getting up from her set. "Bye Carrot!" Said Bon-Bon while Carrot trotted out the door. It was still foggy but not as much when Carrot when to Bon-Bon's house an hour earlier. She started to walk into town with a happy face, but that wouldn't last for long. Carrot got the feeling that she was being watched again, she ignored it for about 3 minuets until she she finally stopped and turned around to she what was watching her. Nothing, nothing but fog and the cobblestone street she was standing on. She got frustrated and shouted at the fog, "Hello? Who ever you are go away,your creeping my out." No response. "Really, go away! Don't make me call the cops!" Again, no response. "That's it I'm getting the police!" right before Carrot turn around a very tall,thin figure came out of the fog. To Carrot it look about 15 feet tall with very long arms and legs. The thing just stood there watching her, or what seemed to feel like it was since she couldn't see its face. She started to get scared, then she realized that it was probably the human that came into town a month ago, he help with Applejack's farm, he was very friendly to. But how did he get so big? It was probably one of Twilight's magic spells go wrong and made him look like this. but why was he just standing there? Easy, its probably one of Rainbow Dash's pranks again. She knew his name was Mark so she called him, "Jokes up Mark, I know Rainbow Dash put you up to this." said Carrot but he did not answer. "Ok dude this isn't funny any more....." said Carrot getting a little scared. Run,her instincts but she just turned and lightly jogged away. O Celesta this is creepy, I wonder if he was standing there the whole time when I went to Bon_Bon's house.... Is he still there?...Carrot look behind her to she that the figure was closer to her now.O this is just to weird. Thought Carrot Top. She turned again to see that it was now even closer to Carrot. She then realized that what ever this thing was, it was following her, it was a threat. A shiver went down Carrots spine when she looked away from it. Run Said her instincts again. She happily obliged. Carrot started galloping as fast as she could to where ever she could. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm sure as hell running from that thing. The thought of the figure made her gallop even faster to the edge of the fog covered town. 1 minute in to running she stopped to take a breath, Carrot sat down and tried to catch up with her heavy breathing. When she calmed down she stood up and took a deep breath. "Ok, I think I lost that thing, nothing with such long legs like that could catch up with me" said Carrot calming down. But something wasn't right, she had the same being watch feeling again but more intense. Carrot then stop breathing and froze like a statue............she couldn't her the birds chirping or the wind whistling. Just the her own heart beat. She slowly turn around to she a figure as tall as a tree, staring down at her with no eyes,no mouth,no face, no emotion.... just pure fear the creature seemed to emit. Before Carrot Top had a chance to let out a loud bloodcurdling scream, the creature's arms flung at her and muffled her scream of bloody murder. The last thing that was heard was a stomach churning crunch!, the sound of flesh being ripped from bone and a heavy dragging noise. Then silence...... .................................................Ponyville town square; 9:00 AM Twilight Sparkle put on her saddle bag filled with books and some snacks. She was going to head out to Fluttershy's for a picnic. She was planing to bring Spike along with her because she lost the lock to the ice cream freezer, and she couldn't leave spike alone with a un-locked freezer full of ice cream. She didn't want to have to bring Spike to the hospital again. "Spike! come down stairs were leaving!" said Twilight in the direction of the stairs. "Ok ok Twi I'm getting up" said a groggy Spike coming down the stairs. "Hurry, we need to get too Fluttershy's before noon." said Twilight "I don't see why you can't just leave me here with the ice cream." said Spike while climbing on to Twilight's back. "You don't want another bad stomach ache like last time now do you?" said Twilight while trotting out the door. "O yeah, that was still a pretty wicked stomach ache he he....." remembered Spike. Twilight just sighed and rolled her eyes. The two made their way out of the tree house and into town. Lots of ponies where out after the heavy fog, it was very sunny to so Twilight guessed that that's what lured them outside. A bit further into town a large crowed gathered around at ponyvilles's city limit. All the ponies where talking or milling around a wall of big police officer ponies blocking their view. Twilight trotted up to one officer and said, "What happen officer?" "Is that you miss Sparkle? Princess Celesta's prize student?" said the officer perking up. "Yes that's me so...can you tell me what happened?" The cop looked left then right and put his muzzle by her ear and whispered, "I'm not suppose to tell anypony what happened,but for you.......there has been a brutal murder." "A murder?!" Twilight practically shouted it out loud almost waking Spike from his nap on her back. "SHSSSSSS!!!! you know that ponies don't really handle things like this well" Hushed the officer. "O sorry" said Twilight sheepishly. "So what happened, where is he or she?" Asked Twilight while trying to look over the guard. "The body was never found, only a long blood trail that just abruptly ended, like the body just vanished......." trailed of the guard. Then he snapped back to reality and turn to Twilight, "would you like to see? you could help us determent what happened." Twilight thought of it for a moment then answered back, "Ok, Ill try to help in any way I can" Said Twilight. The officer moved to the side to let her through. Once Twilight was through the guards shielding wall, she could see a long blood streak that moved forward out of town in to a part of the EverFree forest called the Silence Woods where there was no wildlife, just large trees that where spread out so you could see very far into the woods. That part of the woods was some how always foggy or had a light mist in it, some legends say that in the forest no magic could be used what so ever, that's why nopony ever wondered into those foggy trees in fear of never being able to get out again. But Twilight knew that those stories where partially true, in the forest it was in harder to use magic for some unknown reason. But she also knew that the forest was very hard to get out of even know that there was practically no under brush or over growth, actually there was no plant life besides the trees that grow within it. Twilight followed the trail of blood until it stop just out side of the the forest, no tracks, no blood drops, no trace, the killer and the victim had seemingly just vanished out of existence...... To Twilight's left she could see ponies in police uniforms carrying a small black bag. She decided it was a good time to leave now. When Twilight came back she saw that the blood was being washed up and cleaned from the streets, the crowed of ponies had left and the police officers where packing up. Twilight spotted the guard that she talked to earlier and trotted up to him, "Excise me officer but...whats in the black bag?" said Twilight curiously. the guard looked at the bag that a pony gently placed into a cooler that was in a black coach and shut the doors. He then turn back to Twilight and said, "In the bag was a pony's foreleg" "O my gosh....." said Twilight "Who did it belong to?" she asked. "Well we believe that the foreleg belonged to somepony named Carrot top" Twilight just stood there, Shocked by the name of a now dead mare she once knew. "Where you close to her miss Sparkle?" said the guard tentatively. Twilight just nodded her head and said blankly, "Yes, yes I knew her.......I guess I should go now...have a nice day" Twilight just walked away from the guard and headed towards Fluttershy house for the picnic with the name of her now dead friend Carrot Top ringing in her head like the chimes of a grandfather clock, Carrot Top Carrot Top Carrot Top....... ---------------------------------Fluttershy's picnic 10:00 AM---- Twilight was walking past Fluttershy's house to the fields where her friends where sitting on a picnic mat laughing and smiling unaware of the news Twilight had heard. Rainbow Dash was there, of course Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and her new friend Mark the human had showed up to the picnic. Twilight walked over and said, "Hello everypony, hi Mark." said Twilight solemnly. "Howdy Twi'....Whats a'matter sugercube?" said Applejack worried. "Yeah Twilight whats wrong you look really down" Said Rainbow Dash while the others asked to. Twilight sighed and told them what happened this morning, " guys, The reason I'm so down is.....There was a murder this morning. I talk to a police officer their and found out that the killer and the victim just some how vanished....and the bad part is.....the victim was one of our friends, Carrot Top..." Everypony and including Mark sat still, sadness and shock appearing on their faces, even Pinkie Pie's intense smile was washed off her face like the blood at the murder scene. Everyone sat their in silence, Fluttershy began to silently cry. Rarity took hold of Fluttershy in a hug and allowed her to cry into her shoulder. After 3 minuets of grave silence Mark spoke up, "I Think we should go home now....." Everypony nodded in agreement and packed up. Twilight told everyone that the funeral was in two days. While everypony left Twilight woke up Spike and told him that the picnic was called off, She said that she would tell him why when they got home. Before leaving, Twilight looked into the Silent Woods of to her left, she saw a large figure the size of a tree move into the woods with out a sound. She didn't get a real good look at it, but what ever it was, it was watching her. Twilight then lightly jogged out of the fields after her friends. ( hi guys this is my first scary fan fic so i hope you like it,it was originally going to be a one chapter story but I will narrow it down to 2 hope you guys like it :{D)