Prologue
1987
It was a warm August night, the sun had just set and Officer Fuzz had just gotten off duty. He was driving home in his squad car, which was located just past the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Admittedly, he wasn’t a big fan out of the rural life, though his wife insisted on it and unfortunately, they didn’t have the money to afford a place in the city.
Every night he passed by that same forest and especially at night, it still gave him the creeps. A lot of times it just seemed quiet, which was normal for the time of day but it was eerily quiet. Unfortunately, it was a common place for delinquents.
As he drove, he noticed a car parked on the side of the road, its lights still on. At first, Fuzz thought maybe the car had broken down, but as he rolled his window down and parked behind it, he could hear the engine still running. The driver didn’t even put his flashers on.
Fuzz turned his sirens on, lighting up the area with red and blue before stepping out and grabbing his flashlight. He shined the flashlight through the back windshield but there didn’t appear to be anyone there. The window on the driver’s side was open so he was able to look inside. Aside from fast food bags and a small amount of cassette tapes strewn throughout the back, there didn’t seem to be anything suspicious. Still, he had to call it in.
He went back to his car and grabbed his radio. “Dispatch, this is Fuzz. I’m Code Six with a suspicious vehicle parked right outside Everfree. Could be a possible D&D, over.”
“Copy Fuzz, you in need of assistance?”
“Nah, I’m just gonna take a look around for right now. Could be one or more high school or college students. If I don’t find anything, I’ll call in for the car to be towed.”
“Understood Fuzz, just be careful out there.”
When he was finished, Fuzz went back to the car and looked around. He found a set of footprints heading out into the woods, confirming there was only one individual. With a loud sigh, he slowly made his way into the forest.
As always, the forest was quiet. Not even the sound of something running around. Unfortunately, the trail of footprints got lost with all the leaves on the ground, which crunched underneath his boots. Judging by the way the car was left, the individual didn’t plan on stopping here originally, but why here exactly?
His first thought was to start whistling, since it usually helped him calm his nerves. However, his wife, who knew much more about the outdoors than him, warned him that creatures like bobcats, mountain lions, or even timberwolves could be out at this time at night and he certainly didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He wasn’t a fan of shooting animals either.
As he continued deeper into the forest, he then noticed what looked like a light near one of the trees. As he got closer, he realized it was someone’s flashlight. “Hello?” he called out. “I’m Officer Fuzz of the CPD. I saw your car parked out near the front and wanted to make sure you were okay.”
There was no response. Fuzz felt a tightness forming in his gut as he slowly got closer. At first, he saw a hand next to where the flashlight was. Attached to that hand was an arm, and attached to that, a body. The body was slouched onto the ground, as if they were unconscious. As he got closer, his heart almost stopped.
The body was that of a young woman, late teens or early twenties. He could only tell by her hair and what remained of her face. The victim had multiple slash wounds against her torso, her face, and head. Judging by the size of the wounds, it couldn’t have been a mountain lion or bobcat, but something bigger, maybe a bear. But bears weren’t sighed here very often and they usually didn’t come out at night. Whatever it was, the thing had been vicious and judging by the blood left behind, it didn’t happen too long ago.
“Shit,” Fuzz groaned. It seemed as if his day wasn’t over after all. He would have to go back and call it in. Still, he had to be on guard, since the creature responsible was probably still around. Just as it seemed tonight couldn’t get any weirder, the unthinkable happened.
Just as he was about to head back, a flash of green light lit up the entire forest, but only for a moment. Shaking his head to clear his eyes, Fuzz saw a faint glow nearby. Despite his subconscious telling him to get out of there, he went forward towards the light. As he got closer, the light got brighter and it appeared to be behind a thick row of trees. Once he got through them, he stopped and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Fuzz was a science fiction nerd, whether he liked to admit it or not, but what he was seeing could only come from said science fiction movies. There was a literal tear in space, giving off the same green aura he saw before. It looked to be about five feet long. This wasn’t a hallucination nor was it some sort of projection.
As he got closer, all he could hear was a low humming, coming from the tear itself. Once he was in front of it, curiosity got the best of him and he started to put his hand forward. Mere inches away, he stopped, hesitating on whether this was a good idea.
Suddenly, something came out of the tear and grabbed his wrist. Something big and with claws, big enough to pull him through completely. He had no time to yell or call out. He was gone in mere seconds as the tear suddenly disappeared. And just like that, the forest was quiet again.
Present Day
It was a hot June day, the day after the incident over at Crystal Prep. It was warm enough that Cheeerilee had to keep the air conditioner on most of the day, much to her annoyance. She went to her desktop in her room and signed on to Boom, a video call app. When she saw the two people she needed to talk to online, she sent both of them a video chat invite.
It didn’t take long for both of them to join and suddenly Cranky Doodle’s and Redheart’s camera feeds showed up on her screen. “Hey Cranky, Red,” Cheerilee said. “Sorry I wasn’t able to talk to you two sooner.”
“This is about yesterday, right?” Cranky asked.
“Yeah…or at least what’s been going on the past week.”
“It’s been almost thirty years…you don’t really think…?” Redheart asked.
“It’s possible,” Cheerilee said, frowning. “I know we agreed long ago not to bring it up again but…if our students are now getting involved with this, don’t they have a right to know?”
“I was under the impression it was ‘Equestrian magic’ again,” Cranky said.
“Maybe recently, but back in ’87? Maybe there’s similarities, but I think that was something else…maybe something worse…”
“So what do we do now?” Redheart asked.
“For now, let’s just wait…if this whole thing has been taken care of, we don’t have to say anything. But if not…” Cheerilee looked away.
Cranky chuckled. “It’ll be junior year all over again, huh?”
“Yeah…just like junior year.”