Chapter 1
Final Account of Ms. Loose
Note found on pillow of missing patient E-199
Tonight shall be my last among pony civilization. The strange compulsion that has haunted me these past weeks has finally become too much to bear, and so in a few scant hours I shall make my escape from this accursed institution in which society has seen fit to incarcerate me, no matter the cost. My only hope is that the doctors who discover this note shall realize the futility of attempting to follow me, and finally leave me to live out my days where I truly belong, for I am no longer fit for this quaint society I once counted myself a part of. There I shall not only be free of pony society, but it will be equally free of me.
My escape is inevitable; my wardens think my mind full gone, but I am mad but north-northwest. I have planned this act in secrecy for quite some time and at the first sign of some commotion, I shall make my move. The element of surprise shall be in my favor – they have no idea how easily I can escape from their petty straightjackets – enabling me to slip out with the guards and into the night, to my true home, far from ponykind. Before I go, however, I feel compelled to record all that has happened to me as a sort of warning. Once you have read my account, you will understand why I can stay here among your kind no longer, and perhaps even thank me for my departure.
I. THE BEAST
My early life is of little consequence; I was born and raised in Ponyville and have never ventured far from its borders. I was a normal enough child, born into a middle-class earth pony family. I found my special talent early on – carpentry, as befitting my name. My parents are long gone, and I have no other family to speak of. I make my living off performing small jobs around town, especially with the Apple family. It was on one of these jobs, two months ago today, that the series of bizarre incidents the lead to my current state began.
I was out at a small cottage on the outskirts of town by a small stream, repairing damages to a pegasus mare’s chicken coop. This was about the time that we had been hearing reports of missing animals – pets and livestock alike. This mare – Fluttershy was her name – kept various animals around, such as rabbits, chickens, and a whole host of peculiar creatures. However, she was particularly afraid for the security of her fowls and requested that I reinforce the walls, fix up some damage, in order to make sure that nothing would get in. I paid little attention to the rumors at the time – why would I? I kept no pets, and I lived in the middle of town. I was confident there was no way these supposed incidents could affect me. Now, however, I realize my utter folly.
The job itself was simple enough, though time-consuming. I shall spare you the boring details, but suffice to say, I was still working when the sun went down. I saw no reason to leave, though, when I was so close to finishing up. Fluttershy wished me luck and left my payment on the doorstep in a show of good faith as she wished her many birds good night. I worked on into the night, the finishing touches taking me much longer than I had anticipated.
As I worked, I became aware of a queer sensation, as if I was being watched. By this time the sun was entirely down but the moon was rising, providing me with enough light to work by, but it painted everything in dappled shadows in a way that set my teeth on edge. This cottage, as it happened, was right on the edge of the Everfree Forest, a place I had never dared to venture. I was never a superstitious kind of pony, but I misliked the place for more reasons than one. Tonight, however, I felt a strange desire to enter its secret glades.
I heard a dog-like howl, off in the distance, and a chill ran down my back. I paused in my work to look up at the forest itself, but saw nothing but indistinct shadows. It was an unusually windy night for summer, and the shadows the trees cast in the faint light shifted about in a somewhat unpleasant manner, but I told myself I was being a worrywart. After all, Fluttershy was an exceedingly meek pony and if she lived here, surely nothing that ventured out of the forest was a threat to a pony. I resumed hammering in the last nail in the roof of the coop and, once this was completed, began to pack up my tools.
Suddenly, there was a loud crunch nearby, in the direction of the forest. I stopped short and turned to face the direction of the sound, past the coop, and was immediately frightened half to death by what I saw. I am certain that you remember Twilight Sparkle's exceedingly analytical account of the wolf-like beasts, but no words can convey the true horror of the things. It was immense – in the moonlight, I would have sworn it was twice my height, maybe more – and it was all teeth and claws, or so it seemed in that frightful night. It was also not a stone’s throw away from me.
I stood stock still, petrified in terror. The creature merely stared back at me, as if daring me to move. I could hear its low breath, see saliva dripping down its fangs, all in perfect clarity. I looked directly into its eyes and was struck by another detail that never made it into any of the reports – its eyes had a distinct tinge of something intelligent, more than a beast behind them. In that glimpse I felt as though I could understand this monster, if only for a brief moment.
This realization shocked me into motion, and I galloped away from the scene as quickly as I could, too frightened to look over my shoulder to see if I was being followed or not. I ran until my legs could carry me no more and I collapsed just within the outer buildings of the town proper. As I lay there, too tired to move, I heard another one of the strange howls and felt again the inexplicable urge to venture away from the town and into the forest. My legs were too weak to carry my weight, however, so I stayed where I was and fell into an uncomfortable sleep.
I dreamed vividly that I was running through the forest, my surroundings a blur and my destination unknown. I was drawn forward by an invisible force, as if pulled by a leash. After what seemed like hours, I came to a clearing, where I found what I had been running towards; a huge temple of some kind, curiously untouched by the ravages of nature and time with blue carvings engraved all over. What I was looking for was inside, but I knew not what it was. I made my way to the entrance, but as I reached the threshold, my vision faded and I awoke to find a kind-hearted green mare looking over me.
I thanked her for caring for me, begged her pardon and left, returning to my own home. I was too rattled by the incident to say anything to anypony, and I did my best to put the incident out of mind; I chalked it up to a lack of sleep and the hype surrounding the supposed attacks. Perhaps, I thought, it was just a particularly convincing illusion created by the shadows on the dark forest floor. How sadly mistaken that assumption would turn out to be...
II. THE FOREST
The next event in the inauspicious series that lead to my incarceration in this asylum came almost a month later. Fluttershy brought my bits over in person, wondering that I'd forgotten them, but I shrugged it off as a lapse in judgement from sleep deprivation. By this point in time, I had convinced myself that my vision was nothing; the reports of missing animals had stopped and it was all attributed to a rash of escapist pets and out-of-season timberwolf attacks. However, a second incident forced me to reconsider this position, as well as several more concerning questions.
It was a thick, hot summer night, and I was exhausted from a full day's work repairing various damages to livestock pens around town. However, when I made to retire for the night, I found myself tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Memories of my terrifying experience by the forest replayed themselves in my head. I decided to go for a walk to try to clear my head of these disturbing images. As I locked the door to my modest house, I reflected that I hadn’t been out of the inner town in weeks and decided to walk a little outside Ponyville itself before turning back.
Not paying attention to where my hooves were taking me, I soon found myself outside the town limits, at Fluttershy's cottage where my first encounter had been. I felt a sense of unease similar to that which I had experienced before the appearance of the beast, but shook it off as best I could. It was only an optical illusion, I told myself. As I was about to leave the cottage and depart for my own home, I noticed in the moonlight some strange imperfections in the chicken coop I had repaired only a month prior.
As eager as I was to get home and sleep, I was curious about these markings. As I approached the coop, I noticed two things: First, that they were not merely scratches, but deep gashes made by large claws such as that of a manticore; and second, that there was a deathly silence around. The chickens were silent, the rest of the livestock nowhere to be seen; even the wind had died down. I felt a sudden chill, despite the warm night.
Stranger still, despite my desire to sleep, I felt compelled once more to enter the forest. Nothing good could come of this, I thought to myself, but it was as though my hooves were moving of their own accord. I walked slowly into the dense woods, all thoughts of home forgotten. My senses kicked into overdrive – I could hear my own breathing as a great roaring sound, feel every leaf underhoof, taste the forest itself in the air. Despite the thickening canopy, which now blocked out most of the moonlight, I could see as clear as day the forest before me. Something feral awoke in me and I began to trot faster, and faster still, until I was galloping through the forest, surefooted as a mountain goat.
I began to feel as though I was reaching my destination, whatever it may be, when a foreign sound alerted me to a presence nearby. I slid to a halt and looked around, sniffing the air absurdly as though I could smell out my pursuer. Then I saw it: The very same beast that had confronted me that night a month prior. Somehow I knew that not only was it of the same genus, but it was the very same individual, and I saw once again the spark of sapience in its face.
It drew close to me, a curious but determined look in its eyes, but this time I was unafraid. It – no, he circled around me, sniffing me, trying to discover if I was friend or foe, I suppose. I stood my ground, an insane courage filling me. Now that I had a closer look at him, I realized he was less terrifying, less full of claw and tooth than I had thought the first night, and I almost bizarrely started to warm to him. After a few moments of this treatment, he barked loudly and loped away into the night; I felt as though I had no choice to follow him.
Before long, we came upon a massive clearing. We had to be miles away from Ponyville at this point – given the density of the forest I doubt anypony had been there in hundreds of years, if not more. In the clearing was an ancient blue-capped temple, which was peculiarly familiar. In a flash, I remembered the dream of a month ago – this was that very temple. I knew this could be no coincidence, so I followed my companion inside that I might probe the bottom of the mystery. As we drew closer, I could see that the entrance was lit by an eerie blue-green glow, coming from somewhere inside. In fact, the entire interior of the temple seemed lit, but by what I could not tell.
I still know not what I saw inside that place, for that is the last memory I have of that night. My own imaginings have been horrible beyond mention, and I have seen it in my dreams a great many times since then.
I awoke in my own bed, pillow damp with sweat, sun streaming onto my face. Groggy, I disentangled myself from the covers, not remembering a thing of my ordeal. I tried to reconstruct the events after I left my home, but was interrupted by a very gentle and familiar knock at the door. I opened it, tired-eyed. It was Fluttershy again, inquiring if I wasn't too busy and if it would be alright if, um, I could come and fix her chicken coop again? I was confused and bewildered. Had I not repaired it already a month ago? She replied that something had come in the night last night and left huge gashes in the coop, and that several hens were missing.
In a sudden epiphany, I recalled all the events of the previous night at once. It was all I could do to stay standing! What kind of dream was that? A premonition? A vision? Worse still, could it have been reality? I managed to stammer out that I would come by in the late afternoon and fix it. She was worried that it might take more than an afternoon, but I waved off her fears. Now I wonder if I somehow wanted to be working there after the sun went down.
Regardless, I fixed myself a meager breakfast and went into town. I had some research to do, and I knew just the pony to help.
III. THE HUNT
At the library, I requested any books available on the topic of obscure beasts. I selected a few at random – Bestiary Apocrypha, The Egghead's Guide to Cryptozoology, and a few other voluminous tomes, and searched throughout the pages for any mention of such a beast. I found nothing of substance; a few obviously fabricated reports by drunkards, some unlikely tales from farmers, but nothing that described the horribly intelligent eyes that I had noticed so keenly.
After several hours of this, it became clear that my research was not getting me anywhere, so I consulted Twilight Sparkle herself – if anyone had read of such a creature, it would be her. However, she just looked at me queerly, almost piteously, and asked if I was all right. Not wanting to look mad, I pretended it was just a story I'd heard as a child and I was curious if it had any basis in fact. I do not think she believed me; my wild appearance at this point (for I had had no time to groom myself in the morning and my night had left me with, I am certain, atrocious bed-mane) did not help my case.
I thanked Twilight for her time, and departed. By this point, it was getting time to trek to Fluttershy's cottage to begin my job, so I packed up my tools at home and went over, strangely excited to leave the town once more.
When I arrived, it was late in the afternoon. The sun was lazily making its way down the summer sky, and there was plenty of time for me to complete the job. I got another chill when I inspected the chicken coop, for the gashes in the wood were just as I remembered them from the previous night. I didn't dare tell Fluttershy I'd seen this last night – what would she think? I hid my shock as best I could and began the work.
I worked at a somewhat leisurely pace despite – or perhaps because of – the setting sun. Something inside me desired to drop my tools and enter the forest, but I resisted it, though the pull became stronger and stronger as time went on. Finally, I completed the repairs, just as the sun was getting low in the sky. I collected my payment from Fluttershy and packed up my saddlebags. Rather than return home, though, I elected to walk along the border of the forest for a time, reasoning that it was summer and might stay light for a while yet.
As I wandered, the magnetism drawing me into the forest grew stronger and stronger, and when I heard another unearthly howl at sunset, I could bear it no longer. I dropped my saddlebags where I stood and galloped into the woods. Twigs slashed at my face, but I cared not. The feral being within me awoke once again, and I became one with the forest. I was suddenly acutely aware of the smell of a group of deer, and was filled with a bizarre urge to sink my teeth into their flesh. I galloped all over the forest, my nose low to the ground, in hot pursuit. One, then two, then three of the beasts joined me in the hunt, and I accepted them as my brothers and sisters immediately.
We hunted as one, then, herding the deer left, then right, until we had them cornered against a steep precipice. Just as I was ready to pounce, however, an absolutely huge specimen burst out of the undergrowth and shoved us out of the way. At this point, I lost my senses entirely and I know not what I did, only that I was eventually found bucking down the doors to Fluttershy's chicken coop, covered in scratches and foaming at the mouth. Somehow, she supposedly managed to calm my wild rampage with a single glance. Of this I am thankful, for I shudder to think what I might have done otherwise.
At this point, of course, I was taken here, to the mental ward of this hospital, and here I have remained for another full month. My feverish bloodlust waned for the first few weeks of my imprisonment and for a time I thought I might recover. But recently, the dandelions and carrots they serve me every day have begun to taste bland and lacking in substance. Even the birthday cake Pinkie Pie sent me tasted stickly sweet, though I didn't dare break her poor heart by saying so. I crave only the taste of meat, the thrill of the hunt. I only hope that I can get far enough away from Ponyville to save its inhabitants from myself.
My time is at hand – I see an intruder who will provide me with the perfect window for escape. I go now to live with my true bretheren, where I can run and dance and hunt to my heart’s abandon in the gladed woods of Everfree.
- Screw Loose