The Nightmare Night Collection

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Equestria can be a scary place. Just ask the ponies who find themselves center stage in these unusual tales of horror.

Special thanks to everypony who offered an idea and/or writing prompt for this anthology

Happy Halloween/Nightmare Night to you all!

Chapters (8)

Monolith · 29th Oct 2018 · 1,479 words
1,479
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Feathers · 29th Oct 2018 · 2,703 words
2,703
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Pests · 29th Oct 2018 · 1,796 words
1,796
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The Painting · 29th Oct 2018 · 3,249 words
3,249
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The Statue · 29th Oct 2018 · 3,312 words
3,312
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Don't Look · 29th Oct 2018 · 1,077 words
1,077
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The Cave · 29th Oct 2018 · 2,118 words
2,118
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The Mirror · 29th Oct 2018 · 2,280 words
2,280
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Comments ( 27 )

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BlueColton

BlueColton #1 · Nov 2nd, 2018 · 1 · · The Mirror ·

I was working on a concept like this. Guess you beat me to it

B_25

B_25 #2 · Jan 20th, 2019 · · · The Mirror ·

Damn fine writing.

Vinyl Synth

Vinyl Synth #3 · Mar 27th, 2019 · 2 · · Pests ·

Somebody needs to make the last part into a picture or something, the description doesn’t feel like it’s doing the story justice.

AisheyruFox

AisheyruFox #4 · May 29th, 2019 · 3 · · The Statue ·

*cowers under a pillow* Weeping angels!

Butterscotch Moonglow

Butterscotch Moonglow #5 · Sep 17th, 2019 · 3 · · Pests ·

9530822
I don't know, that was certainly a deliciously scary last image to end this little tale on. Personally, I'm not sure I could stand an image.

Butterscotch Moonglow

Butterscotch Moonglow #6 · Sep 17th, 2019 · 2 · · The Statue ·

I see what you did there...

Butterscotch Moonglow

Butterscotch Moonglow #7 · Sep 17th, 2019 · 1 · · The Mirror ·

This was simply magnificent! (I've been a big fan of your work, particularly the psychological horror pieces, for a long time, so thanks for using my prompt!)

I really like seeing Rarity's psyche fade bit by bit in this one, it seems very fitting for her to fall apart over minor flaws in her personal appearance and still drag herself to the mirror every morning. It might be more suitable if the glass had cut her throat, or if it couldn't be shattered, but this was a great ending all the same; and now I have to ask if there was ever any dark energy tied to the mirror, or if it was all a product of Rarity's mind...🎃

pandoramouse

pandoramouse #8 · Oct 14th, 2019 · · · The Mirror ·

Damn, this was a good series, little short horror stories that I wish were a little longer, but I know are best left as they are! Shame it seems like you`re done with these, but I`m happy it (and you, dear author) exist either way!

justheretoreadstories

justheretoreadstories #9 · Apr 15th, 2020 · · · The Statue ·

images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120204130848/tardis/images/b/be/Series5weepingangels.jpg

Legioner8

Legioner8 #10 · May 30th, 2020 · · · Feathers ·

Gameloft was right all along!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/2/19/249320.jpeg

AlienQueen2020

AlienQueen2020 #11 · Aug 12th, 2020 · 2 · · Don't Look ·

Sounds like they're dealing with the When Day Breaks version of Scp 001

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot #12 · Feb 24th, 2021 · 1 · · Pests ·

Kill it with fire. Lots and lots of fire.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot #13 · Feb 24th, 2021 · · · The Statue ·

This is some SCP 173 bullshit

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot #14 · Feb 24th, 2021 · 1 · · Don't Look ·

10380832
A man of culture!

I wonder how that would work, considering Celestia’s role in controlling the sun. Maybe she went nutty and melted everyone.

LeylaQuartz

LeylaQuartz #15 · May 12th, 2021 · · · Monolith ·

This monolith is giving me Keter class vibes.

LeylaQuartz

LeylaQuartz #16 · May 13th, 2021 · · · Don't Look ·

10380832
I was just thinking that as soon as it mentioned the sun, the images popped into my head.

FarmFreshAppleTarts

FarmFreshAppleTarts #17 · May 14th, 2021 · 2 · · Monolith ·

This hole! It was...made for me....

FarmFreshAppleTarts

FarmFreshAppleTarts #18 · May 14th, 2021 · · · The Mirror ·

Of all the stories, Feathers is my fav

lochbessie

lochbessie #19 · Jul 13th, 2021 · · · Monolith ·

This is so me when I play Stellaris.

lochbessie

lochbessie #20 · Jul 13th, 2021 · · · The Statue ·

10693975
I think it's a little unfair to say this is just one thing. I mean the idea of something moving only when you aren't looking has been around for a LONG time. TV tropes very helpfully made an entire list of every time this trope has appeared.

Films — Animation

In An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Tiger passes by a buffalo skeleton that rises up to pounce on him, only for Tiger to turn around and prompt it to revert to its prone form. It attempts again, but Tiger again turns around. He then repeatedly looks away until he catches it moving, at which point it dances and collapses. Only after Tiger gives up after the fact does it finish the pounce and trap him. Turns out there was a tribe of mice controlling the skeleton.

Literature

In the Chronicles of the Kencyrath series, the short story "Bones" features attacking skeletons that only move when they're not being looked at.
Inverted with the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; the creature is so mind-bogglingly stupid that if you block your line of sight by wrapping a towel around your head, you are safe because the beast thinks that since you can't see it, it can't see you either.
The Shining: The topiary animals outside the hotel, which are brought to life by the hotels' power, act like this. When Jack notices how they are stalking him when his back is turned, he even compares their behavior to "red light", a game he played in his youth.
The living shadows that come for Edwin in Seven Stars advance towards the house whenever Catriona looks away from them. At one point, a shadow slips partway under the stair carpet, and Richard hastens to take up the carpeting while Catriona's gaze keeps it pinned; otherwise, the flat invader would be "free" to move all over the carpet-covered upper floor without being seen.

Live-Action TV

Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels have Super Speed, but turn into stone when looked at because they are "quantum-locked". Pointing a camera at them doesn't work either as "anything that holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel", meaning the picture on the screen will come to life and kill you.
The Doctor: In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away. Then you blink, and oh, yes it can!

Video Games

The Aladdin video game adaptation has enemies hidden in baskets, who will creep up on Aladdin while he's turned away and try to punch him when they get up close.
Commander Keen: The page image comes from "Secrets of the Oracle", which contains a creature called the Mimrock. It looks just like regular rocks found throughout the game, and as long as Keen is looking in its direction, it remains motionless, but when Keen is looking away it can sneak up and pounce on him. And to make things more difficult, Keen's neural stunner only works on them while they're moving.
Condemned: Criminal Origins has many creepy mannequins that stalk the player off-screen.
Control features a very SCP Foundation-style take on this with an "altered" item known as the Arctic Queen, an innocuous-looking refrigerator that will "deviate" and kill people if it isn't being watched at all times. When Jesse comes across its containment cell, a hysterical Red Shirt has been stuck staring at it for over a day since his replacement never showed up. If you offer to help him, he turns away for a split second, to which point the fridge erupts the poor bastard into a bloodstain on the floor and thus puts supervision duties on Jesse, causing her to rapidly take damage if isn't in full view of the camera.
In Don't Starve Together, there exists a type of non-hostile mob known as the Stagehand: an entity that is attracted to light. In broad daylight or by firelight, it appears to be a normal but quite out-of-place end table in the middle of the forest. However, in complete darkness, it reveals a set of insect-like legs that it uses to scurry about in pursuit of a light source, playing an ominous music box tune the whole time. Unwary players may be alarmed when traveling by torchlight, as a nearby Stagehand may pursue them throughout the night only to appear as a misplaced set-piece to those unwary of its true nature. To make things even more unsettling, in spite of the fact that it cannot harm the player, the Stagehand itself is nigh-indestructible. It cannot be attacked or broken, and is completely immune to fire.
Drawn to Life:
- One enemy in the snow world attacks by throwing snowballs. When the player is facing them, they hide in a snow mound, only to attack again when you're not facing them.
- The snow world also contains a snowman monster that spawns mini snowmen to attack the player, but only when the player isn't facing them.
- Watersong in the second game features a level that has living statue enemies, which rush toward the player once the player passes them.
For most of the part, the animatronics at Five Nights at Freddy's freeze when monitored and will only move onscreen when twitching or directly attacking the player. Staring at them won't completely stop them, however, as there are random intervals where the camera will glitch out and they will move.
- Foxy the pirate in the first game is an interesting case. While he is gradually emerging from his curtains he behaves like the other animatronics, however, once he has fully emerged, he will spontaneously charge at the player.
- In Five Nights at Freddy's 2 the animatronics behave the same way, however, Toy Bonnie can be seen sliding away when he gets uncomfortably close.
- In Five Nights at Freddy's 3 Springtrap moves in the same way as the previous animatronics for the most part, but is a lot more active and the camera frizzes out whenever he moves from room to room. Whenever Springtrap is seen moving onscreen, he moves much more fluently and less robotic than the previous animatronics.
Kirby:
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land has bandage-covered enemies that stop when looked at.
- The Scarfy enemies is a cute little floating blob that means no harm... unless you turn your backs on them, in which case they turn into one-eyed large-jawed monstrosity that tries to fly straight at Kirby, only to turn back to their usual self if Kirby faces them again.
Lobotomy Corporation: When an employee works on The Burrowing Heaven, the player must observe it on the camera to keep it from breaking out.
In some Mega Man games, Mettaurs behave this way.
SCP – Containment Breach, which is based on the SCP Foundation, has SCP-173, who tries to break the player's neck when they look away or blink. The game has a "blink" mechanic, where you can only force your eyes to stay open for so long. That moment when you finally have to blink and the meter recharges may be your last.
Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin: This Sherlock Holmes game forgoes the walk animations and pathfinding routines for your NPC companion, Dr. John Watson. The results static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/external_link.gif are rather unnerving.
Countless objects and props in the Silent Hill series. Most of them are physically harmless but are played for psychological horror.
In Slender, the Slender Man will stalk the player off-screen and freeze when looked at. However, looking at him too much kills the player so it is best to keep your back turned.
Boos from the Super Mario Bros. series turn invisible and/or hide their faces when looked at, stopping dead in their tracks. Some can even turn into solid blocks, opening a new way for Mario if baited into appropriate location.
- The Mad Boos in Super Princess Peach have the opposite behavior. They attack Princess Peach when looked at and do nothing when she turns her back to them.
In Zork II, there is a garden of living topiary. They move very slowly at first, and freeze whenever you come into the room. Unfortunately, they get over their fear and attack openly if you wander into the room one time too many.

Web Original

The SCP Foundation has a few SCP objects that will move when not looked at:
- SCP-173 ("The Sculpture")static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/external_link.gif tries to brutally kill anything not looking at it, and cannot move while observed even through cameras. While it has a hard time breaking out of simple enclosures, it's very good at breaking necks, and it will go straight for it in the literal blink of an eye.
- SCP-650 ("Startling Statue")static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/external_link.gif can use Offscreen Teleportation when not being observed by a human. However, unlike SCP-173, it's only interested in scaring people, and is otherwise completely harmless.
- SCP-689 ("Haunter In the Dark")static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/external_link.gif is by far the deadliest of them. It's a green soapstone statue of a skeletal figure that, if not looked at, will kill and teleport on top of a person who has previously viewed it before, and it prefers to choose a victim that is currently within a large group of people to cause a chain reaction of disaster.
Night from Worm is a normal human when watched, but heals instantly and turns into a super-strong monster when unseen. And she has lots of tricks for breaking line of sight, like gas bombs, throwing cloaks and the presence of her husband, Fog.

Web Videos

In the The Adventures of the League of S.T.E.A.M. episode "Bitter Gnomes and Gardens", lethal garden gnomes begin to attack a pair of hapless gardeners. The gardeners realize that the gnomes don't move when being directly looked at.
Coyote: All the others have been moving, but that one [pointing to a gnome Ellie is holding a mirrored tray to] hasn't. So what if... they can't move when they're being looked at?
Ellie: Like that situation that Doctor guy told us about!
Coyote: Who?

Real Life

Many predators that stalk their prey, such as cats, try to do this.
Animals that rely on camouflage, such as praying mantis, also do this.
This is probably why many insects feature some eye shaped patterns on their back or wings: to confuse predators who do this.
A common tactic in the military during sneak attacks or infiltration operations is to only move when a sentry is looking away, and to freeze when they start to look back. A still target, especially when properly camouflaged, is very hard to spot. One way around this is to have teams of sentries where everyone is looking in a different direction.
During the Korean War, when China was sending large units of soldiers into North Korea, in order to avoid detection by the Americans they only moved at night. When dawn approached, everyone dug in and stayed out of sight and motionless until nightfall. Anyone caught moving was immediately executed on the spot.
The classic children's game "Red Light, Green Light". Someone stands far away, facing away from a line of people advancing on them. When the person turns around and shouts "red light" the line stop, and if the single person sees anyone move the moving people are disqualified. Then the single person says "green light", turns around, and the line advances. The single person wins if they get everyone disqualified, and the line people try to win by touching the single person.

lochbessie

lochbessie #21 · Jul 13th, 2021 · · · Don't Look ·

10380832
Yeah I cant really justify this as being an overused trope this is an exact re-make of SCP-001 "When Day Breaks"

josue

josue #22 · Nov 21st, 2021 · · · The Mirror ·

9838032
I like to think that the mirror is a lost relic maybe created by Sombra to torture whoever looked into it

josue

josue #23 · Nov 21st, 2021 · · · The Statue ·

10693975 actually it's based off of the episode from Doctor who in fact SCP-173 is based off of the statue from Doctor who

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot #24 · Nov 21st, 2021 · · · The Mirror ·

11057006
Actually, SCP-173 isn’t based off the weeping angels. Both the weeping angels and 173 were created in 2007, with 173 appearing several months beforehand. You could even make the argument that the weeping angels are based off of 173, although that’s likely false.

josue

josue #25 · Nov 21st, 2021 · · · Feathers ·

So are the wings parasitic creatures that get stronger with every generation and are planning on taking over Equestria cuz that's the vibe I'm getting here or am I completely wrong or is this an It HP Lovecraft horror that can only be defeated by getting rid of it by cutting off the affected limbs

twindrill