> Late night designing > by Nimbus Bolt > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Illusions of the eye > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a late night in Equestria, At the Carousel Boutique one window had a faint glow coming from it, A pony was inside at a desk drawing on a piece of paper, the pony was Rarity, Ponyville’s go to and quite frankly, the only place to buy clothes. Rarity sat at her desk with nothing but a lit candle to accompany her, and her little cat named Opalescence. Rarity has been working hard on a new dress design for days now, only just now coming up with a last minute idea for it. Rarity continued to put her quill to the paper and mark out every detail she could. Rarity looked up from the paper, and stared out the window, seeing nothing but the peaceful beams of the moon coming through the window. Rarity smiled and rubbed her tired eyes as she yawned, she then looked at a tiny clock on her desk and seemed quite surprised by what hour of the night it was. “Two in the morning?” She said with a tired yet very calmed voice. “It feels as if it was only ten o’ clock mer moments ago, But I suppose it is true what they say, Time flies fast when you’re having fun.” Rarity smiled and went back to drawing on the paper tapping her hoof on her chin every now and again, pondering what would look good or not. Just as soon as she was about to redirect the contact of the quill to the paper, she heard a faint noise come from outside somewhat of a whisper. Rarity got up from her desk and walked over to the window, once she looked outside however she saw nothing out of the ordinary, although it was rather hard for her to see anything for all she had for a light source was the moon’s wonderful white beams making objects in the night cast a shadow. From this however, all she could see was the slight tugging on the branches of the trees and the grass outside swaying from the wind's touch. Rarity eyed the dark world outside her window one last time before going back to her desk and sitting down. Opalescence, who was sitting on Rarity’s bed, decided to get up and walk up to the door standing on her back paws. She pressed her front two paws on the door. Rarity looked over at Opalescence and she smiled faintly “Ah I see, Getting tired of watching me work all night?” Rarity said before wrapping her beautiful blue magical aura around the door knob and opening it. Opalescence meowed and walked on out the door “I’m sure you have more exciting things to do Opal.” Rarity said with a slight giggle as she got back to looking at the design on her paper. As Rarity proceeded on the design’s progress, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It appeared as if something had skittered across the floor, Rarity’s eyes widened, thinking it was a mouse or rat. She took her gaze away from her work to focus on the room, With seeing nothing noticeable from a first glance, she decided to get up and look around the room. Perhaps whatever it was, was hiding in the room somewhere. Rarity checked behind shelves and under tables, But after several minutes of looking, there seemed to be nothing. Rarity sighed and shook her head “I think my eyes are starting to play tricks on me, I am well over my normal sleeping schedule anyway” She rubbed her eyes gently and started to walk back over to her desk, but before she was able to sit back down she heard scratching coming from behind the door. Rarity jumped “Opal? Is that you darling?” She said with a startled voice then changing to a more calm tone “I thought I told you not to scratch up the door.” Rarity walked over to the door and opened it, She expected to see Opalescence to be on the other side but instead there was nothing, just a dark hall. Rarity started to have a strange feeling in her gut, She looked at the door and there were indeed scratch marks but no Opalescence. Rarity looked into the darkness outside the door and called out into the dark “Opal? Are you there darling?” Rarity stood there a little while, expecting some sort of response back but yet nothing came, No meow, No nothing. Rarity stepped back into her room and felt very uneasy, She placed a chair in front of her door just to be safe, she walked back over to the window to give one last look outside before shutting the curtains. As she looked outside she noticed something in the moonlight, Outside her home was a pony looking up at the top floor window of the Carousel boutique, The pony was waving. Rarity tried to get a good look at the pony but couldn’t tell if it was a stranger or somepony she knew, As she was looking at the pony the wind picked up it’s speed, viciously pulling at the grass and trees and as it did a large cloud pass by the moon taking away the moonlight and leaving nothing but darkness outside.  Rarity looked outside but could see nothing, But just as soon as it came the cloud went and with it gone the moonlight returned, Upon looking back outside however the mysterious pony was gone. Rarity closed the curtains of the window as she took in a deep breath and exhaled, sitting back down at her desk “That’s odd, now why would a pony be up at this hour?” She rubbed her hoof against her chin for a bit thinking of some ideas to answer this question, then she smiled nervously “Perhaps they were just returning home from late working hours, very late working hours.” Rarity looked at her clock and realized how late it was getting and was about to finish up, But a noise coming from downstairs halted her progress once more. Rarity looked up with a concerned look at the door, she shivered a bit and looked at the candle on her desk and picked it up. She took in another deep breath and exhaled, walking over to the room door and opening it and staring into the dark abyss before her. Rarity walked down the dark hallway, looking at purple wallpaper and the occasional picture on the wall, until she stopped at the top of the stair leading down to the first floor. Rarity called out “Hello? Opal, was that you?” Her voice shook a bit. A thud from downstairs could be heard but nothing else followed it, Rarity started to shake as she walked down the stairs to investigate the noise. Rarity got off the final step and began to look around with the dim candlelight, seeing if any figure could be made out of the darkness. Upon further inspection she did find out what made the thud she heard when she was upstairs, A mannequin had fallen over. Rarity sighed and picked up the mannequin with her magic and sat it back up right, dusting off the outfit it was wearing off a bit. Rarity was about to walk back upstairs to finish up her design, but she felt something rub against one of her back legs. Rarity screamed and kicked her legs as she looked down; she noticed it was just Opalescence rubbing against her leg. Rarity pants a bit “Oh, It’s just you, You scared me half to death.” Opal purred and continued up the stairs, Rarity sighs and follows Opal up the stairs giving the first floor one last glance before doing so. Rarity walked into her bathroom on the way to her bedroom, brushing her teeth and what not before preparing for sleep. Opal entered Rarity’s bedroom and Rarity followed right behind her, locking the door as she came in. Rarity started to put on her bathrobe and blew out the candle laying it down on her nightstand before collapsing onto the bed. Rarity got underneath the covers and began to close her eyes as she felt the nice soft pillow beneath her head. Rarity opened her eyes, she had a strange feeling as if she was being watched, she sat up slowly and looked around her room although it was dark she did leave the window curtains parted from one another, letting the beautiful moonlight to pour into the room. Rarity looked but saw nothing until something moved out of the corner of her eye, A pony was standing behind the curtain in her room. Rarity gasped, as she did the pony behind the curtain shuffled around a bit and began to peek it’s head around the curtain and stare at Rarity. As the pony saw that Rarity already knew of its presence it pushed back the curtain and began to slowly walk towards the bed. Rarity tried closing her eyes, hoping that this was some sort of horrible dream and that she would awake from it at any moment, But that didn’t seem to happen as the pony continued to get closer. As the pony got closer Rarity got a better look at it, The pony was pitch black and it’s eye sockets were hollow, it’s teeth were sharp but strangely enough black as well. Rarity closed her eyes and screamed as the pony got close, reaching out to grab her. As Rarity opened her eyes she was still in her bed, and there was nopony to be seen. Rarity took in another deep breath and exhaled, setting her head back down on her pillow and relaxing. As Rarity closed her eyes she felt an air brush against her she turned over to face the window and saw nothing, she turned over to face the other side of the room and saw nothing as well. She went back to stare at the ceiling only to see the dark pony drop from the ceiling, extending its hooves towards her, Rarity screamed and then everything went black. > Epilogue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rarity woke up in a very well lit room, The walls were a very light shade of blue and she noticed she was wearing a hospital gown, Her eyes looked over towards an open window and noticed that it was day time. Rarity rubbed her eyes “H-How did I get to the Hospital?” she said with a very confused look, whilst panting a bit from what she experienced what felt like mere moments ago. As she was trying to get a grip on her surroundings a white mare with a pink mane walked into her room, Rarity looked at the mare with confusion “Nurse Redheart?” “Oh we’re so glad to see you’re awake” The Nurse said with a smile “Why am I at the Ponyville Hospital?” Rarity asked Nurse Redheart looked at her “Well, last night, ponies heard screaming coming from the Carousel Boutique. A pony came in to investigate and went up to the second floor, and saw you screaming and kicking in your bed. When he asked you “what the problem was ?” You just continued to kick and scream telling something to let go of you. After he saw that you weren’t going to come willingly, he dragged you here and we got you situated into a room and gave you some anesthetics”  Rarity blinked and looked at Nurse Redheart “So are you saying that I wasn’t being attacked last night? And that it was all in my head” “Yes, Ms. Rarity, Whatever was “Attacking” you, was not actually there, you were most likely having a very bad nightmare. But rest assured that you are perfectly safe here, now I think you should continue to rest.” The Nurse said as she went out the room door. Rarity shifted a bit in her bed as she laid her head down on the pillow, she began to close her eyes and began to drift into sleep.