Coat-Trotter

by WindigogoGadget

Research

Nothing.

She had nothing.

The library was empty, she'd decided to send Spike away for the day. He'd earned it, for everything he'd done. And everything he slept through.

In all honesty, Twilight couldn't trust the library. Nor did she really trust anyone else to keep him safe, but it was day time. And things, that thing, didn't work in the light. That had to be one of its rules. It shut out the lights. It shut off the lights.

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath, and nursed a cup of hot coffee. Too little sleep. Too much fear. She felt herself fraying at the edges of her mind. She didn't exactly have nothing, now that she calmed herself. But she didn't have much.

On the nature of pony predators, nothing evolved explicitly to eat them. Changelings ate love, and it was likely convergent evolution that made them appear like ponies. An ancient race of shapeshifters, and for all she knew there might even be ones shaped like griffins. They were parasites sure, but they needed their quarry alive and well.

Psychologically? Possibly not. But physically, yes. Those pods- were proof of that.

She wondered if there were any still inside. Somewhere out there. Locked away in deep storage somewhere underground, widely forgotten about.

The thought scared her.

Lots of things scared her. She could make a list. A bigger list by this point.

Griffons could eat ponies. So did dragons. Hydras. Bears. Other ponies, if extremely desperate. That bit of forgotten pegasi mythology was something she wasn't ready to learn about.

But there was nothing that actually pretended to be a pony. Changelings had pony-like sillhoutes, likely to avoid detection in the dark, or to appear as a pony while fleeing. One might be more likely to chase after a thief and in turn get caught, rather than investigating something like a wild animal running off.

That was a new theory she'd have to look into when her mind was... Less foggy. Words didn't work right.

And yet, there was something. Uncanny. She knew that whatever she saw, wasn't a pony. It wasn't part of a very large list of existing predators. An instinct told her that it was something wholly wrong, an instinct that told her to avert her eyes from it.

And it wasn't using magic, it wasn't trying to disguise itself with magic or with glamor or practical camouflage.

It wanted to be.

It wanted to mimic, it could mimic.

And it wanted to be her.

It was real. Real flesh. Real hair. Skin and muscle twisted around every which way like putty. There wasn't any magic. It learned by watching, hearing, experimenting.

It heard her speak, so it tried to speak. It knew in some capacity her name, and she'd never said it outloud.

Why?

It had to be intelligent then.

The simplest solution, was that she had come into contact with a predator. A predator, that mimicked its prey. One that actually ate them.

Twilight Sparkle had long since drained the coffee cup in her thoughts. Barely enough for a cup half full remained in the half empty pot. She hadn't prepared much. Yes, she wanted to get to the bottom of this, but for once, keeping calm and sane was more important than staying awake and powering through.

There were rules. There had to be. Otherwise...

She didn't want to think about that right now. The best case scenario was that it fed on fear. She caught a glimpse of it, and she was afraid. Then she was afraid of what it was doing- what if it got into the house, what it would do, to her- to Spike.. Then it did, it did get into the house. And it didn't do anything to Spike.

But she was terrified that it would.

Logically, if a predator ate meat, it would do so quickly and efficiently.

It hadn't done that to her.

Her best case scenario was that it fed on fear and not flesh, because the alternative was that this was either a persistence predator. Trying to wear her down. Or it was taking its time. Sadism. It wanted to scare her before it lunged.

Or maybe she was already-

No. Nope. No, no that is not what we are thinking about today.

She was already scared enough as it was and she did NOT need to make it harder on herself.

A hug from Mister Smarty Pants felt really tempting.

Mom. Celestia even. Why hadn't she thought of getting her involved?

A myriad of rebukes came up in an instant against that thought. She wouldn't know. She wouldn't understand. She'd be too busy. We can solve it on our own. We won't be caught off guard again- it'll spiral out of control if we get more ponies involved.

Twilight slammed her hoof down on her table. The coffee cup was empty and rolling faintly on its side before it caught itself on its own handle, a dent in the wood evident.

Zecora knew about the... For the lack of a better word, the supernatural. The things that most ponies scoffed at. No such thing as curses- stupid. Why wouldn't they exist? The Alicorn Amulet was absolutely cursed. Hexes, jinxes- in any case she didn't understand them, but Zecora did, and she understood avoiding predators and getting them to avoid you.

So, she'd march right on through the Everfree and straight to Zecora for help.

As soon as her countertop stopped being comfortable enough to rest her head on.