• Published 27th Sep 2019
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Dear Princess Sunbutt - 2Merr



Anon takes over Spike’s job of transcribing Twilight’s friendship reports. He does exactly what you’d expect.

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Letter 124

Author's Note:

Letter 109 for context

Dear Princess Celestia,

I found the zombie deer again. My initial suspicion about it being an intentional creation has grown stronger, as I will explain below.

This encounter was similar to the first. I found the deer deep within the Everfree around midnight. It was standing motionless in a seemingly random spot. There were no timberwolf remains nearby, but there was most of a black bear corpse. The body was intact, the head was pulverized. Have you ever stepped on an acorn? It looked like that, only if you stomped on it repeatedly until every piece was driven an inch or more into the ground. Needless to say, the deer's legs were covered in blood.

I didn't want to provoke it again, so I chose to remain hidden and observe it as long as possible, which ended up being a little under six hours. Most of that time was spent completely motionless. The only time it moved was to attack something, after which it returned to standing in place. The attacks, while gruesome, allowed me a better understanding than what I would have gained otherwise.

To start, it possesses physical abilities far exceeding any living deer. There were very few injuries on it, and the ones I could see were only shallow cuts and some bite marks that barely broke the skin. This on its own is strong evidence that the magic preserving it must have come from a focused source rather than the weak but widespread magic of a curse.

In addition, there appears to be a set of criteria for what it will and won't attack. From what I was able to gather, it ignores any creature more than forty feet away, even if they are directly in its line of sight. It also ignores anything smaller than a cat, anything bipedal, and anything with more than four legs. Those last three build a disturbing framework where ponies are a prime candidate, if not the intended target.

I unfortunately made the mistake of trying to get closer shortly before sunrise. It attacked the moment I was in range, but I was ready with a shield spell. Just like in the first encounter, it immediately gave up the attack and fled. I was unable to follow it, but I marked the direction. In both instances, the deer fled southeast. I will angle my investigation in that direction and keep you appraised of any future discoveries.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

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