• Published 22nd Dec 2011
  • 3,033 Views, 144 Comments

The Windigo - -Hidden Identity-



An account from a pony by the name of Cath who has an encounter with a true Windigo.

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Day 21/Epilogue

Final Notes/Day 21:


Windigo. Why did I ever run from you? Peers killed the others with your help. Thank you, Windigo. I will follow.


This is the last thing ever written in the journal of Cath Amber. It is a complete and total contradiction of almost every other journal entry. It seems that Cath has decided to accept the Windigo, and that he is grateful of what it has done. In Day 20, Cath stated that Peers was innocent, yet here it seems that he was guilty after all of the deaths of three ponies. It has been officially recorded that Peers Abslove murdered, mutilated, and (at least partially) ate: Cross Dreedle, Wymble Skyre, and the unknown Host. Cath Amber lasted 21 days: three weeks.

The search for the ponies ended with the discovery of the bodies of Cross and Wymble, which almost confirmed the fates of the others, save for the fact that this journal was found. The journal, in question, was found far away from any of the ponies, in the cabin that they originally were trapped in by the storm. It lay in the center of the room, amidst a large scorch mark on the floor, placed very deliberately. The dust around the journal was undisturbed, with no tracks of any kind.

After the journal was finished being analyzed and copied, Princess Celestia granted the pony in charge of this case to make one final search, following the path that Cath had taken. We had crossed over into the Outer Centre in the initial stages of the search, but were too far south from where Cath journeyed to find anything. During this last search the following were found:
Host’s Cabin
Host’s Mutilated Body
The Crevasse
The Massive Cliff (North of Host’s cabin)
The Lost City
The “Three Miles to the Edge of the Forest” signs. (There were two, and the actual edge of the forest was another three miles past the second sign)
The Graveyard in The Lost City
Gravestone Bearing Cath’s name
Peers Abslove

The following were not found and remain unknown:
Eastern Field
Eastern Field’s Mysterious Tree
Cath Amber
The Windigo

The grave bearing Cath’s name was filled in. We dug it up to find the twisted remains of Peers Abslove. The body was identifiable, regardless of the fact that there were several features that were different from Peers. Namely, the coat had become darker, the teeth had become separated and jagged, and the legs were significantly stretched. The cutie mark on the body was an identical match to Peer’s, and his was truly unique. (A rope tied into an Alpine Butterfly knot.)

The whereabouts of Cath Amber, as we stated, remain unknown. Another thorough investigation took place simultaneously with the final search into the Everfree/Briar Sanctum/Outer Centre. This search was through several large tomes of history and facts about Equestria, only found within the Canterlot Archive. There were only two references to anything by the name of “Windigo”. One had to deal with the creation of Equestria, and did not fit the description, the other was written by a pony no one working in this had ever heard of. The passage in the tome described the Windigo as being a “collector”, that is to say that the Windigo picks out the member of a group that it finds best. The passage goes on to say that the Windigo is an ancient creature, but very rare, and eventually saying that it eats anything it can. The Windigo cannot, however, eat in its own form, thus it must use another creature from a group to eat for it. The Windigo will use said being to devour the others, changing the being all the while. First come mental changes, and then the physical form actually alters. Physical alterations vary by the type of being taken by the Windigo. The changes always make the creature more apt to its surroundings and its prey. The Windigo does want the best, however, so it is liable to change its mind should it find that a different member of the group is superior to the current prize. The final point of the passage from which this information comes claims that the Windigo can both access and use the memories of the creature it has taken. This raises questions about who exactly knew any of this and had the opportunity to write it down.

Overall the above information cannot be verified, and the validity of the information is still in question. No records of the author have been found.

It has been decided that Cath’s good name should be preserved, and that he is overall innocent in this. Peers’s name has become somewhat taboo, and has turned into a ghost story over Equestria, to tell to young foals, and in the dark with nervous company.

Cath’s original journal has been given to the pony in Ponyville he requested should have it, and she has asked for her name to not be revealed at this time.

Questions that remain unknown are as follows:
Where is Cath Amber?
What happened to him?
What was Host’s real name?
What is “The Master of Ceremonies”?
What were the foreign shadows?
Who lived in The Lost City?
Why did the Windigo not kill Cath in the beginning?
What is the Eastern Field?

There is much speculation as to the answer to the second question, and the most widely accepted answer is that Cath is still alive somewhere in the Briar Sanctum, but is “not himself”.

There are still many loose ends to be tied up, but the case has been closed for now. This has been given to the public so they may know of what has happened, and (if they choose) answer unanswered questions themselves.

Princess Celestia has, in Cath’s honor, made three laws concerning the Everfree Forest, known as the Cath Amber laws.
Any section of the forest is the Everfree Forest, yet the separate sections of the forest will keep their name to identify them simply as a part of the Everfree, and all records and maps must correspond.The Briar Sanctum is unfit for ponies to enter for any given amount of time, and thus has been made illegal to venture into for any reason.There is a creature that has been marked as an enemy of ponies, that lives in the Briar Sanctum, who shall be known as The Windigo.

Comments ( 52 )

It's finally done! Wow, kind of hard to believe that it's actually finished. So, I hope the final information I supplied to you all in this epilogue ties up some loose ends and answers some questions. I must admit, it was a lot harder to wrap this all up neatly than I thought it was going to be at first. I'm hoping that the information given line up with the story well enough, I was trying. There are questions that remain unanswered, so (if you so desire) you can answer those for yourself. I'll be honest, the ending didn't turn out exactly as I hoped it would, but I hope that it is still satisfactory.

Special thanks to everyone who commented, rated, tracked, or favorited.
Regular thanks to everyone who read any part of the story.
Another special thanks to everyone who read the entire thing.

And now I'm bored and too lazy to work on the comedy piece I've been working on simultaneously with this. Any suggestions for what I should do next?

A fucking fantastic piece of grimdark literature. Your worldbuilding and character development are fantastic. Anyone who is about to write some shitty Cupcakes knockoff and pass it off as "grimdark" should first read this little masterpiece. This is how it's done. Spectacular.

Glad I made the decision to track this quirky little journal. You have not disappointed.

I will no longer be receiving e-mails to say the story is progressing....But I am not sad.
This story was amazing to read, you could feel Caths emotions from the very first chapter until the very end. You good sir have an amazing gift and I can not wait to see more from you.

I have enjoyed every moment of this wonderful yet hopelessly dark story, the way you made me care for cath even though we all knew in the end that he would not make it was nothing short of masterful. I can only hope to one day be half as good writer as you and I wish to say thank you for your hard work.

Also you should do a humanized ponies fic.....and not make it smutty

272488
Thank you. That means a lot to me.

272668
Thank you as well. I'm glad that you enjoyed my story that much, it also means a lot.

273193
Balancer, you've been with me since Day 1, and I'm glad to see that I was able to keep you captivated till the very end. You flatter me, I'm just very happy that my writing has been enjoyed. Thank you.

Humanized ponies, eh? Hmm. I've seen those around, but I've never gotten around to actually reading one yet. I'll take a look.

"We dug it up to find the twisted remains of Peers Abslove." Wow - I think that may be the most chilling line in this entire tome!
Hidden Identity - did you intend to imply what this seems to imply?! This potentially puts such a wild spin on the story - can we trust Cath's narrative at all? Should Cath trust himself? (It would help clarify quite a lot of improbabilities - especially regarding how Cath has the time to record so much detail in the midst of so much action.)
H.I. - you can explain or not, according to author's perrogative, but I gotta know!

284012
First off, I like your use of the word "tome". I did think about that, that Cath is possibly not what he seems, and yes that was intentional. As for if Cath should trust himself, he was approaching full insanity as the story progressed, so that is a good question. Here's my answer: if you can't trust yourself, who can you trust? He trusted that he would be able to survive and escape, and he trusted Host, and for the most part he does pretty well. He does survive for quite a long time. Yet, he also trusted Peers in the beginning, and didn't want to believe his own suspicions.

Hi, H.I. (ha - almost a pun. Or something...)

So, thanks for the response. Yes, it was clear that Cath was going insane as the story progressed. But I'm still bothered about Peers, and not Cath, being found in the tomb. Is it reasonable that Cath could have - insane or not - made even reasonably lucid entries in his journal if he were as broken and injured as he describes? I begin to suspect him of being deeply, darkly schizophrenic. Could the Windigo from which Cath is fleeing be Cath himself? Perhaps even from quite early in the story (sorry - tome)? I'm not sure it holds, entirely, but it certainly could throw a wild twist on the story!
-nm

I'm sure there's some kind of puzzle to all this and once I start putting the pieces together it'll all make sense (which I've been unable to do.) but this went right over my head... Mainly for the reason it being 11:47 PM where I am, and I am a zombie right now sooo... Yeah... I probably shouldn't be reading at the moment, let alone solving complex puzzles, when I have to get up early. So I'm gonna come back to this tomorrow when I'm actually AWAKE and try to figure it out because I can already tell this is gonna be bugging me all dang day.

You were expecting an emoticon?? Why not Zoidberg (V)_(;,,,;)_(V) Whooop whoop whoop

296277
Yeah, definitely a wild twist when you look at it from that perspective. I'm not sure how much I want to really give away here, no offense. That was one of the main questions that I was trying to ask indirectly, as there are a variety of things that Cath appears to see and do that are not found. (Eastern Field) Hmm... the Windigo is supposed to be a very real creature, I will say that. Eh... let me think about this one for a bit and get back to you. Those are some good questions, very nice.

297278
Aight, good plan. Yeah, solving things while not being coherent in the mind is probably not the best. Glad to see you here at the end of the story, you've also been here for a long time.

Oh Zoidberg...you so funny.

Fantastic piece of work. The Eastern Fields were a very interesting part, and by interesting I mean scary as shit. The entire story was frighting and intriguing, probably one of the best. But I would definitely want to know more about the Eastern Fields.

296277
Aight, sorry I took so long to reply. As my blog post states: work has been piling up and it was time to ensure that I didn't fall too far behind. It seems that Cath could not make too lucid of entries in his journal, regardless of physical injuries, with his mind being broken. The Windigo took Peers at the very beginning, and then hunted Cath instead of killing him off, wearing him down to a..."workable" level. I don't want to give too much away, but I hope this helps.

Ok - I'll buy that. You have a gift, and I look forward to you trotting out your next story!

Oh Celestia and Luna, this story was absolutely amazing. I read it all in one go, from beginning to end; I just could. Not. Stop. :twilightsheepish:

Wonderful and scary little masterpiece right here, and I am dying to know if the friend in Ponyville to whom this "delightful" tome was left to was Twilight herself. For some reason she popped into mind since the first time Cath mentioned wanting to leave the "diary" to an old friend of his back in Ponyville, but her name he could not remember.

Again, I applaud you for a wonderful literate work of art. :yay:

405210
Aah! Comments! Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but I thought that I clicked that it should notify me when someone comments on my story. Sorry about that. Anyway, glad you enjoyed it. Always happy when someone gets drawn in. Something that you might be interested in...I am working with Hasbro to get this thing published and on sale on Amazon.com and the Kindle. I just need to work out copyright issues. But glad that you are enjoying/enjoyed it.

421872
Glad that it is scary. I know that it gets dark, but I like it that way. I'm flattered that you are putting me on the same level as "Cupcakes". I don't know if I will be writing more anytime soon, life got in the way and projects like getting The Windigo published are getting in the way.

470562

>Same level as Cupcakes

Cupcakes is a shitstain upon this fandom. This story is a fair bit more than a cut above Cupcakes. And when I say that, I mean this story belongs on a goddamn fucking throne of gold.

546885
High praise. Thank you very much, sir! I saw this comment just after I had woken up, and it was a bit startling, but thank you all the same.

Dear God, I just read this entire story in one sitting. Alone. At night.

I love horror and it usually doesn't bother me much, but I am officially terrified right now.

Damn good job on this. It just... it touches on so many primal fears--fear of the dark, fear of the unseen, fear of losing control of oneself, and fear of being lost, of course... If you ask me, the most devastating part of this story was the epilogue where it was mentioned that there were two "Three miles to the edge of the forest" signs, and the edge of the forest was actually three miles past the second one. Aw Cath, you were so close... :fluttercry:

703591
I'm very pleased that I was able to scare you with this story, as I was trying to get it to be at least a little unnerving. Also, it is excellent that you enjoyed it enough to both favorite and watch. I'm glad that I could entertain you with this and I hope to be able to in the future.

Yeah, poor Cath. He just doesn't get a break from his turmoils. He was so close, and then that had to go and happen.

Hoooly mother of fuck.

I fucking love this
I fucking love you

Windigo 4 lyfe

733197
Hello, Sir. I was wondering where you had gone off to, as I hadn't heard from you in many a chapter. Your complements flatter me, and I will take a bow with the knowledge that I have successfully entertained you until the very end. The Windigo lives on.

Hidden - love that you are putting up some new work!

>> mrheadhopper & that_one_guy
I appreciate your enthusiasm for Hidden Identity's work - its really great, isn't it? But seriously - wow, do you guys eat with those mouths???

752888
I love that I'm putting up so new work too. It won't be updated as regularly as the Windigo, but I will try to appease those who want to read/follow.

This makes me feel like a completely terrible author, trying to write a grimdark then reading this. It eclipses what I tried to do.

Kind of depressing, but it's also a goal to reach for. Perhaps I'll find what I need to write what I want to be seen by the world, a truly grand piece of literature, much like this. It was a humbling honour to read this story, Hidden, and I'm glad you wrote it.

Good stuff.

272488 You know, I'm going to be straight with you. I really didn't like reading this, but not because the story was bad or I hate grimdark. Both of these are untrue, the story was fantastic and I love grimdark, the hopeless scenarios it puts the characters through, the ultimate climax that you saw coming from the start of the story yet can't truly accept at the end.

I hated this story because it makes me feel terrible as a writer, to write as hard as I can, then come across this story which isn't even half my story's length, yet tons better. I feel eclipsed by this.

So yeah, be proud in the fact that you've pretty much destroyed this writer's confidence. I will keep writing, but...I dunno what I'm gonna write next. Silent Ponyville needs to be finished, that much is obvious, but after that, who knows? May write some other stuff, try my hand at humor...may take another shot at grimdark.

844783 Shit as in 'oh crap didn't mean to do that', or shit as in 'oh crap he's gonna try and do grimdark again'?

845632

"Shit" as in look at it this way: You have that more room to improve. Don't give up just because I gave you a superior example of a fic in the genre you're trying to write in. Instead, take away some inspiration from it. If you're that easily defeated then you have no business writing fiction in the first place.

Loved the story! But, curiously, is there ever going to be a sequel? I mean, So many questions! Not enough answers! :rainbowhuh:

843017
Well, I really hope I didn't end your hopes of writing, because I would feel rather terrible about that if I did. Very pleased with the favorite and the positive feedback. Also, it is very nice to make your acquaintance, hello and whatnot. But thank your for the great compliments, I am truly thankful for them.

847063
Ah, so you led him to my story? Good job! Also, that's some perfect advice you have there. I struggled with the exact same thing when I first started out, and that is exactly what I tried to remember to do when I felt discouraged.

847783
Thank you for the watch! Very encouraging to know that this is apparently good enough to encourage readers to follow me, so thanks for that. As for a sequel, I really don't think that there will be a sequel to this. I am planning on shedding some light on the Master of Ceremonies. Believe me, I have that guy all laid out, and he is creepy. That may be a separate story or part of Shadow Play, but it will come out eventually. As for the unanswered questions, I enjoy watching readers figure out what is going on and solving the puzzle with the various clues I have left, but you are correct that there are many questions that do not have an answer, and I plan to answer those in my other stories. They will not directly reference the Windigo, but answers will come out, probably. I have still yet to decide whether this is a good idea. I may just may a sequel, but that seems much less fun.

856143

Anyone who suggests "Cupcakes" is anything other than a steaming pile of shit is yelled at by yours truly and then instructed to read this fic.

847063 Oh hell no, I'm not gonna stop writing yet. Just really surprised, that's all.

I've always seen things that were better than me, and I've always pushed forward. People do like my story, so that's just more fuel for the fire. Guess I'll see what you all think of my other stories once SP: DoS is done.

856143 All you did was provide me with a proper showing of how to write horror. I've never really had an experience of real terror, since I tend to avoid games like Silent Hill, Amnesia and Resident Evil (the first ones, not 5) like the Black Plague. Seeing this story was a wake-up call, so I'll be taking my time with my next story, see if I can't draw out the fear in people.

Thank you again for writing this, as it really is a great example for people to work with, not to mention a perfectly enjoyable fanfic.

856480
Well thank you, it is good to hear that. You mentioned that you tend to avidly avoid the horror genre with games and whatnot. My inspiration for this came from, the misuse of the legend of the Windigo for one, and seeing videos/movies such as the Marble Hornets videos on YouTube and movies such as [REC]. I also tend to avoid the horror genre, but all it took was just the right approach to make it work. I'm looking forward to your next story.

856158
Very nice. Well it seems that the majority of this odd fanbase of the show rather appreciates/adores cupcakes, so we have our hands/hooves/whathaveyou. Thanks for being great.

859105 I kinda like the concept for the Windigo as shown by MLP though. How hatred between tribes can kick up disaster after disaster, forever dooming themselves to more wars and more strife between each other, which only fuels the cycle of the Windigo.

Though having two simply exist in the world is fine as well.

860140
Yeah, and several people have argued that their version of the Windigo can work with the original mythos, but the Windigo was the first "monster" that ever truly scared me back when I was younger, so I hold it in high regard, which drove me to correct them. But you are right, their version is pretty swell. If they called it anything else then I would be fine with it. Like: Equine furies from the Norse version of the underworld's icy plain. But that probably wouldn't work. Also, if they didn't call it a Windigo, then this story would probably have never come to be. So I would have to say I am more grateful that they changed the being rather than not.

861218 MLP's Writers: Even their warpings of ancient mythology are inspiring.

Wonder what'd happen if an Equestrian Windigo got taken over by a Norse Windigo? ...I dread the thought.

So what's your next plan? More horror?

862001
Ooh...I might just make a Norse Windigo take over an Equestrian Windigo just to see what happens.
As for my next plan, Shadow Play is going to be a bunch of short, dark stories of various themes, and 1010 is underway, but life has decided that I have to do a lot of stuff lately, so writing has been slow. 1010 is going to get stranger and creepier very quickly.

863829

Comment unrelated to the one quoted here, just have a quick question. Mind if I mention this story in one of my own? I'm not sure on the community policy with mentioning other people's work, even if it's just the name of the story.

905555
Go for it, by all means. Just give me a citation in the comments or something. Whatever feels appropriate to you. But yeah, I have no qualms about it.

Comment posted by -Hidden Identity- deleted Dec 19th, 2012

1802533
Well thank you for the compliment, I rather enjoyed that part myself. I hope that it keeps you entertained.

Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.

3658595
I am not inclined to share with Equestria Daily. Their general air of pretentious superiority irks me. I thank you for the implied compliment, however. If Everfree Network ever develops an interest in fan fiction I will certainly submit my works there.

This has been without a doubt one of the greatest horror MLP fics I've ever read. I salute you good sir. :rainbowdetermined2::rainbowdetermined2::rainbowdetermined2:

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