Absence Of Life

by AnnEldest

Part One: It All Led To This

One of the nurses led the students to Sandbar’s room. They promised Twilight that they would be gone for too long. At that moment, being around somepony like Twilight was when they felt the safest. He seemed to be doing better as he was moving around and eating properly. They were told that he most likely would be in the hospital for a couple of weeks more.

“Care to tell me what has been going on?” Sandbar asked. He shifted on his bed trying to find a comfortable spot. “I heard something crazy happened.”

The others made unsure and worried glances at each other. They didn't know exactly how to tell him everything that's been going on. It wasn't even about whether or not he would believe them. It was more that it was so much to explain with very little to go on about what actually happened and why it was happening.

“It’s a very long... long story,” Smolder was the first to answer.

“It’s a lot,” Ocellus added.

“We’ll tell you about it later but for now how have you been?” Silver Stream asked.

“Well, not being in school is nice,“ he joked. "It's been a little boring. My parents and everyone else keep asking me what happened but I really don't remember. I was hoping you guys would see me. It's been really boring.”

“We've been wanting to see you. It's just things that happened that made it hard,” Cozy said then she flinched at the next part. “Also, we kind of got suspended for sneaking off.”

“What? Really?” Sandbar asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, Twilight wasn’t happy about that,” Yona chuckled guiltily.

“No, she was not,” Gallus said. “I'm just glad she didn't tell our parents about it.”

“That would have caused a lot of problems for me,” Silver Stream shivered at the thought.

“Yona is glad that Sandbar is okay.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be out soon enough,” Sandbar said warmly.

“We're really sorry that this happened to you. We should have never gone down there to that house,” Cozy Glow apologized and the others put their heads down in shame.

“It's nopony’s fault that it happened. I agreed to go along with you guys.” Sandbar bit his lips debating on something he had in mind. Then he added: “And I knew what was going on.”

The group was silent, not sure what to say to that. Some of them weren't sure what he meant. However, some of them had an idea that they were about to be called out.

“Umm, what?” Silver Stream asked.

Sandbar pointed at Smolder and Cozy Glow. “I overheard you two. I knew you guys were trying to prank us.”

Cozy avoided looking at them as Smolder signed heavily.

“Smolder, what is he talking about?” Gallus asked them.

She stood up and threw her arms in the air. “Yeah, it was a prank. So what?” She then continued to explain. “Cozy Glow told me the story and I thought ‘why not spook a little bit for our first Nightmare Night?’ The plan was to take you guys to the house and Ocellus was supposed to turn into Savannah and scare you guys.”

“I said I might do it. I never said I was actually going to do it and that was over a month ago,” Ocellus jumped in Immediately to defend herself. “I also said I was only going to help you translate whatever was in the book that you gave me.”

“Book?” Gallus asked.

“The book that Cozy Glow had,” Ocellus nearly yelled out.

“Now Yona is confused?” Yona was rubbing her head.

“Same,” SIlver Stream said.

“Is Savannah real or not?” Gallus snapped at Smolder. He got up close to her face.

“She was a real pony that was accused of murder and killed it. Of course, there are legends and myths that are about her that were never proven.”

Cozy got in between them hoping to avoid a fight from happening. “But we didn't cause any of this.”

“Well, something happened?” Yona pointed out.

“Yona’s right,” Gallus backed her up. “Savannah didn’t just start popping out of nothing for no reason at all. Someone here had to do something.”

“Okay, can someone tell me what's been going on?” Sandbar sat still completely unaware of what any of them were saying.

Cozy Glow wasn’t even listening to what they were saying anymore. They were all confused and the verge of yet another argument. It kind of hurt since they all had just apologized the night before. Of course, apologizing didn't fix the problem they still have to deal with. She had the hope that after talking to Princess Luna that maybe they'll be able to clear things up. But she still had to wait a couple of hours before they were supposed to meet.

Cozy thought back to that night when they first went to the house. She thought about the ritual they said. She thought about what she had learned in the book and what they saw in the house. It all had to connect somehow. The book...ritual and the symbols... She began to wonder if they were really the cause for all of this happening.

You can end this if you find me…

She froze wondering if she heard that right or if she was crazy. Her eyes slowly made their way to the door where she believed the voice came from. For a quick moment, she swore she saw Timber Hall standing there. It was quick like a flash of lightning but bright enough to know that it was there. She wasn't sure if she should say anything. The other didn't seem to hear nor notice that he was just standing there moments ago.

Without saying anything, she got up from her seat and trotted out of the room.

She stopped at the entrance of the Everfree Forest. She knew she needed to get to the house. She needed to know exactly what they did But she wasn't ready to get her friends involved especially after everything that was happening. it was best to keep them away from the house especially after what happened the night before.

However, she herself was too afraid to go to the house. She tried to build up the courage to take another step but all she could think about was what had happened between her and Luna. For a moment she thought one of them was going to be killed by this thing.

“You can do this.” She tried to encourage herself. She lifted her hoof to take a step but put it right back down.

Something’s wrong.

She knew that it came from behind. She didn't want to turn around to see him again. Why was he talking to her now? She took a couple of deep breaths and I grabbed any bit of courage she had left in her and turned around to face him.

He stood there, pale and gray, holding something in his hooves. His body was covered in scars, blood dripping out of them. Something felt off this time. He seemed...different.

Something’s wrong. Find me. Something is wrong. He told me he would fix this. He kept this from me. He was talking about what he was holding. I needed her to see this. She can help me with it. She can find me

Cozy was on the verge of passing out from holding in her breath to prevent herself from hyperventilating. He dropped whatever he was holding onto the group. Who was he talking about? Who kept what from him? And who did he want to see it? Who was she? He kept mumbling to himself as his body began to fade until he completely disappeared out of sight.

She trotted up to where Timber Hall was at and saw what he had dropped. It was an old, rusty, and clearly broken camera. Despite the fact that she wasn't sure if she should trust him or not, she felt compelled to pick up the camera.

She wasn't sure what happened but she took that as a sign to stop what she was planning on doing and just head over back to the school. Hopefully, the others were still at the hospital and hadn’t informed Twilight that she had left them. If they haven't and she went back to the school, most likely no one would have figured out that she left and went to where she wasn't supposed to be.

It didn't take long for her to get there. She went into the courtyard and to her surprise, there waiting for her at one of the tables was Princess Luna.

She actually came.

She wasn't sure why she was so surprised. It wasn't like she doubted that Princess Luna would come.

Well, here goes nothing. She trotted up to the table and came up to Luna from behind.

“Princess Luna?”

---

I thought over everything Cozy Glow said after she finished telling me her story. It was a lot to take in. So much happened to them and none of it was even aware of it. I felt so bad that we weren’t there to help them. I knew that it was going to be up to us to help these kids from whatever this was. The good news was that everything was now making sense. The pieces were putting themselves together.

“Well umm.” I was processing it all. “I’m so sorry this has been happening to you and your friends.”

She shrugged casually. “It’s not your fault. We were the ones who went to the house. We were the ones who did something.”

“Yes,” I began. “It does explain a few things.”

“Like what?”

I took the book from her and flipped to the page that had some familiar symbols in them.

“For starters, I think I know exactly what you all did in Savannah's house.”

Author's Note:

Till Next Time!!!