The Windigo

by -Hidden Identity-

20

Day/Night 20:
It must be just after midnight, and the moon seems to have decided to stick around to watch. The Windigo still sits in the center of the circle, waiting. It has barely moved, but it has stretched out its gangle legs to scratch the cold stone with hooked hooves. The eyes have never done so much as blinked, but it has finally hid its smile. There is just the dark outline of its body, and the eyes. I now have a choice to make: do I go and confront the Windigo on its terms, or do I sit here, just outside of the circle, and wait until morning? I fear that if I wait then it will run and simply stalk me yet again for another day, and challenge me once night falls again. Yet if I go and face this thing here and now, I will be limited to the circle of moonlight, while it can move in and out of shadows with silent ease. So what do you do? When you know that either way you are going to be at a major disadvantage? I was always told when I was younger that the best time to face your fears is when they are most prominent in your life, the time when they are seemingly overpowering. Somehow I don’t think my parents were talking about fighting a shadow that used to be your friend, and ripped three other ponies to shreds and skinned them. But what good is advice about fears if it can’t be applied to any fear?

Just listening to the sound of the Windigo’s hooked hoof scraping across the stone floor of the circle is enough to make me want to run crying into the forest. It’s a sound that goes beyond fright, and implants itself in your mind, bringing you close to a state of shock. It has shown that it knows exactly where I am, and has made no movement towards me yet. Chances are that it knows my thoughts, and knows that I am eager to end this. It doesn’t need to approach me; it assumes that I will approach it, and the longer I wait here the more certain I am that that is the correct course of action. Oh, why doesn’t the moon pass on? Why has time decided to stop? I am unsure whether the moon’s glow is better or worse, as with it I can see, but it also illuminates the Windigo, which almost gives it a far more intimidating presence. Without it, however, I feel that I would already be dead.

The moon waits, but does not grow impatient; neither does the Windigo. I must go to it; there is no other alternative that is any more optimal. With that being said, I bid my life, my parents, my remaining friend, and you, my journal, a fond farewell. I do not expect to survive this. As for the few possessions that I have back home, I give it all to my parents, to do with it what they will. However, I give this journal to an old friend of mine in Ponyville. I regret to say that I cannot remember her name, but if it weren’t for her, I would not have earned my cutie mark. You know who you are, and I thank you for giving me that gift, so now it is my time to return the favor. I finally thank you, my journal for being here all this time. I know that you are not a living thing, you can’t speak back, or give me advice, but sometimes all you need is the pony who just listens. You are not a pony, granted, but you are that friend. It must know my intentions, for the Windigo has turned to look at me. It’s starting to stand. Oh, Celestia. Dear Celestia why? I’m going to die, that’s now certain. And there’s the smile. My initial final wish was that I would be buried in that certain grave, now it’s that this goes quickly. I have no words to describe what stands before me.

It threw the journal and the pen within to me, as two of my legs are broken. Why does it torment me like this? Just kill me already Windigo. You disappear into the shadows after breaking me. You want me to write? I can hear your shrill laughter in this eternal silence.

Once again you throw the journal to me from where it lay. Somewhere inside you, the memory that Peers had of me saying that I would describe everything in this trip must have awoken, and you are keeping me to my promise. It’s awfully hard to write with only one working eye to see the journal.

Inner bark.

Just let me die! You stop and throw the journal a few feet a front of me, and I try to drag myself towards it, but then I feel one of your hooked hooves pierce my back and drag me across the stone towards you. I cannot scream anymore, for you ripped the screams from my throat, and yet you want me to stay true to my word and document.

Why? Windigo, you throw me against one of the ruins, place the journal and pen in my mouth and leave? Finish the job. Or, perhaps this is a kindness. My front legs still aren’t broken; I can drag myself to where I said I was to rest. Deep inside, some part of Peers must still be alive. Thank you, my friend.

Now I am to rest eternally in a ruined city. This is my escape. I require no earth to cover me, time will do fine for hiding what lay in this grave. What? Why do you return? You left me this one final pleasure. Don’t take it. Please. Peers, if you are still in there somewhere, grant me this one last kindness. Kill me if you so desire, but let me lay here. Peers. Oh Celestia, it’s Peers. So you must be the Windigo, an odd cloud that crossed over the moon that one night. At least I know that Peers is not suffering, and that he was truly innocent in this. It was you, Windigo. So now what? I am broken in spirit and body, what more can you do to me? Better yet, why am I still alive after all this time? Get back! I don’t deserve that fate!

Cath Wintergreen Amber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is described as “The Final Entry”, as there is nothing else within the journal save a small piece on the next page that was clearly separate from this entry. The piece does not have a labeled day or is signed. It has been officially labeled as: “Day 21”, but still is not included with the rest of the entries. Day 21 will be released to the public along with the final notes of the investigation, as Princess Celestia has requested.

There is much speculation concerning why Cath decided to write the details of his conflict with the Windigo. It does not make much sense, but it is clear that the Windigo was taunting him by handing him his journal, which he has described as “his last friend”. The accepted theory is that Cath wrote down the events of every day during his experience, which is the only thing that kept him partially sane after what he went through, which was enough to drive anypony mad. By the time he confronted the Windigo, his mind was broken enough that it must have seemed a necessity to write down what was happening, even after the Windigo left him to crawl to his grave.

Comments

[Corn Caiks]

Really? After all this? He just comes and breaks his legs. So...Peers is not the killer? But...I thought a Windigo was a...human type thing, not a pony, meh whaterver, this is Equestria. Kinda.

[-Hidden Identity-]

254542
Yeah, a bit anticlimactic. But Cath didn't just get his legs broken, the Windigo beat him up a little bit more than that. The show used "The Windigo" incorrectly, and I am just restoring balance to the universe. It also is a mythological creature, so I'm figuring that it can be applied to multiple worlds.

There is still the epilogue to come, with one or two final notes to be revealed. All will (maybe) become clear. Glad that the story is making you ask questions, I was hoping for that.

[-Hidden Identity-]

246530
Why do you think I update at night?

[Balancer]

R.I.P Cath

[Nonagon]

This was, I suppose, inevitable. And yet, if this were to end here, I wouldn't be satisfied. This isn't just a Blair Witch monster; I feel that there's more to this than I'm seeing, some final piece of the puzzle yet to fall into place. What, truly, is the method behind the madness of the Windigo? Even if the Final Words can't answer this, I hope that they will at least bring some closure to this tale, and leave me with even some small peace of mind.

[That_one_guy]

Fucking chilling.

[ExtraSoap]

254729 Well played, my good sir. Well played...

[-Hidden Identity-]

254915
I have never seen the Blair Witch Project, and as such I cannot promise that it won't be, on account that I wouldn't know either way. I based my Windigo off of the old-timey definition, with a couple of twists, so the main "method", as it were, is pretty much based on that. I will try my best to bring this story a good amount of closure.

[Rizu-Chan]

FFFUUU- Rest in peace, Cath.