I had been hiding for hours, or at least I thought it had been hours. The door remained closed and only now had I worked up the courage to open it. I’m not sure what I expected to find on the other side: a monster, Pinkie Pie, or vicious timberwolves.

There was nothing in my room. As the door inched open I couldn’t help but laugh softly. My room was still my room, and there was nothing out of place. Looking down at my legs I checked where the ropes had bruised my skin. The lines seemed faded, almost imaginary, and when I poked at them I realized how silly I was being.

Pinkie Pie hadn’t baked me and killed me, it was ridiculous. I must have had a nightmare—an incredibly real and frightening one, but a dream none the less.

To confirm that it was safe I looked around my room. I went to my saddlebags and started pulling my school supplies out. Pencils, a new notebook, a ruler, my Rainbow Dash wig, and a few other odds and ends. My homework was there too, revealing the date was Friday. Assuming I had no more nightmares I could go to bed and sleep in.

First I had to put a nagging suspicion to rest. It was nearly one in the morning but I had to make sure my parents were here. In the nightmare everything had gone wrong when I found them missing, so to be absolutely certain I had to poke my head in their room.

My bedroom door opened with a soft creak and I trotted over to my parent’s room. When I opened their door, I found their bed empty. A pit formed in my stomach as I realized they really weren’t here, yet part of me still refused to believe it was more than coincidence.

There was a heavy fog outside. In my nightmare, it had been a clear night. Therefore, it must have been a dream. I headed back into my room, closing the door and putting a flower vase in front of it. If anything came in, it’d knock over and wake me up.

When I crawled into bed I immediately realized how uncomfortable it had become. The covers weren’t warm, the pillow had lumps in it, and I just wasn’t tired. Then there was the fog outside the window. Ponyville rarely got fog, the weather team didn’t allow it very often. It was a hazard to other pegasi that were flying.

I moaned, realizing I just didn’t feel right in my own home. My first thought was Sweetie Belle, and spending the night with her. Remembering the dream, I wasn’t sure that was wise. Still, it was getting to the point that I could no longer lie to myself. Something was definitely going on.

My saddlebag was emptied from earlier so I packed a couple snacks in it, and left my house. I waited on the front porch and felt my fur getting cold and damp from the fog. It was blanketing the town yet given my short height, I could see twenty or so feet in front of myself. The fog was much thinner near the ground.

The town was just as quiet as in my dream and I was already regretting my decision to leave the room. I could hear a pegasus flying around in the air. “Hello?” I shouted. There was no response, save another howl in the distance.

The trip to Rarity’s boutique was short, though I found myself hesitating outside. This was my moment of truth: either I believe it was a dream and go in, or that it was real and avoid the living mannequins.

As I stood there debating whether it was safe to go in, I heard a timberwolf howl in the distance. Glancing over at the source of the sound, I noticed something strange painted onto the side of Rarity’s house.

After walking closer I had to rub my eyes and make sure I wasn’t seeing things. There was a bright red symbol painted on the side of her house. It was a square—I could see that clearly—yet somehow it had no corners. The lines were straight, yet curved. They danced around in the dim moonlight and were giving me a headache.

“Sarcinatrix.”

This was the same voice from earlier. It seemed to speak directly to me, yet I did not hear it: it was inside of me, a part of me. I knew the word, and the very meaning of it seemed to dance around on my tongue, yet eluded me. I would need the help of a much smarter pony to solve this mystery.

There was one pony I knew could likely fix everything: Twilight. She had Dash’s help on most occasions that she saved the world, but when it came to symbols like this odd one, Twilight was the clear winner.

Not wanting to stay outside any longer than necessary, I jogged over to Twilight’s library. Thankfully all appeared normal, and knowing what heavy sleepers Spike and her were, I let myself in.

Once the door clicked shut behind me I walked into the atrium of the library. My hair was standing on end as I smelled a hint of copper in the air. Why didn’t I just stay in bed?

As I looked around my eyes began to adjust. Faded red light was illuminating the room, and I saw movement near the wall. “Twilight?” I walked over and froze in front of the mass.

Attached to the wall was a large organ, slowly contracting. I knew what it was—a heart—yet it wasn’t possible for this to exist. It was large enough to fit a stallion inside, and veins pulsed as they carried blood to and from it. The veins ran along the walls like tree branches, and for the first time I realized the walls weren’t wood. They were a much softer pink, darkened by the poor lighting.

I seemed to stand in the middle of a pony and not a tree. Turning around, I ran to the door to get out. Where there had once been an exit, there was now nothing but flesh and muscle.

It’s a dream;this is another dream.

My breathing was getting too fast, so I focused on calming myself. A large warm mass hit my back causing me to scream and jump backward. I looked back and saw my backside covered in blood. Across the room was a window which hadn’t vanished yet.

Dream or not, I didn’t want to be here anymore. As I ran to the window, the walls began bleeding. Veins were rupturing and the room was slowly filling with blood. I saw something that looked like a lung, and a purple-green growth on a wall that could be Spike for all I know.

My agenda didn’t include waiting to find out. I hit the window running at full speed. It shattered and I felt something catch my back left leg. The ground came up fast, knocking the wind out of me.

I waited for a few minutes on the ground to catch my breath. My leg was burning, and I noticed it had been cut deeply by the gash. I also noticed another of the symbols painted on the library. It was like the letter “M”, only it danced in the breeze like leaves. The oak the library had been built inside of now resembled a weeping willow. The long branches rustled in the wind, just like the symbol on the wall, yet there was no breeze.

“Theurgus.”

Again the symbol seemed to speak to me, though its meaning was still unclear. I had the feeling it must have something to do with the odd things happening, perhaps even the cause of it all. I had to get somewhere safer until morning.

My house would be the safest place to go. I’d left the house around one in the morning; soon the sun would come up and it’d be safe to find somepony and figure out what was going on. Worst case scenario, I’d do what I did when Discord or Trixie took over and just hide in my room until somepony saved the day.

It wasn’t glorious or heroic, but it was the best an unimportant filly like myself could do when faced with situations like that. I was no Element of Harmony, and I wouldn’t be figuring this mess out on my own.

When I got to my hooves I realized my left rear leg was badly hurt. It would need bandages and probably some rubbing alcohol to keep it from getting infected. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but had to get home and take care of the wound.

Hobbling down the street, I tried to keep weight off that leg. I began to get the feeling I was being watched, and looked behind me. There was a trail of blood leading back towards the library. Another howl filled the freezing air, closer than the earlier howling. Somewhere out there the wolves were enjoying the moonlight, hopefully far from Ponyville.

A park bench appeared in the fog and I climbed up on it and sat down. I wished I had brought something other than snacks in my saddlebags—something to help bandage my leg. There wasn’t much time to spare, but I was hungry. I took out an apple and greedily devoured it. As soon as it was done, I got down and started heading back home.

My house was just across the street from me when I felt that urge to look over my shoulder again. Something about how quiet it was—how the wolves had stopped howling—made me feel as if I had to sprint to my house now.

I began to run for the door off pure instinct—something bad was coming. Not even halfway across the street I felt a huge weight land on my back. The sudden impact had caused my injured leg to hit the ground hard, and something snapped. I screamed loudly as the pain in my leg amplified.

A large wooden claw swatted me onto my back. I saw the glowing green eyes of a timberwolf and knew I was dead meat. It had probably smelled the blood and now it had me pinned on my back.

I kicked it as hard as I could with my good legs, and one of its claws slipped. It slid along my belly, cutting it open. I felt warmth spilling out of me onto the ground and looked into those green eyes with utter fear.

The jaws of the timberwolf closed down around my neck. The fangs pierced me and it became hard to breathe. My entire body felt like it had been plunged into an icy river, and I began to convulse.

This was it. Not a pony in sight, no words uttered, just death. I could feel it scratch at me, slicing ribbons of flesh off, while its jaws dug ever deeper into my neck. Cold and sharp were the only things I felt. Warmth was a distant memory, as were the faces of my friends. My only remaining memory were of those two glowing eyes, staring down into mine.

“Illa exanimis perire non potest.”

Something warm pumped inside me. It was painful and foreign at first to feel blood in my veins. When I felt the slightly-itchy and fuzzy blanket around me, I pulled it in tightly against myself.

Before I even opened my eyes, I knew I was back in my room. When I stole a quick glance, my suspicions were confirmed. I must have fallen asleep and had another nightmare. Looking at the clock I realized it was ten o’clock, but I had gone back to bed at one.

It took several minutes before I had the courage to let go of the blanket. Inching it down I looked at my forelegs, the faintest of lines visible on it. When it lowered past my belly, I saw three parallel lines beneath the fur. It looked like I’d been scratched by Winona—or dare I even think it, a timberwolf.

My left hind leg felt like it had fallen asleep, and was beginning to tingle. As the painful pricks signaled its return of sensation, I saw a larger mark where the glass had cut it.

There was a mirror I used if I needed to get dressed or put saddlebags on. I got out of bed and went over to my door, knocking some books off the desk next to it in front of the door. For the first time I wished ponies had locks on their doors, as a small pile of books would do little to keep monsters out.

I went to the vanity mirror afraid of what I might see. Things had quickly become far too real to just be a dream. When I reached the mirror and tilted my head up, I saw rows of evenly spaced teeth marks in my neck.

A pain shot down my spine as I recalled my death to the timberwolf. It had bitten me, scratched me, and caught me due to the gash on my leg. They were all there—like scars several years old.

It was impossible that I had died twice, yet I had the fading marks to prove it.

Turning to get back in bed I noticed my school supplies spread out in the corner. I remembered putting them there, but expected them to be back in the saddlebag. Everything seemed to reset when I died and woke up, but somehow they had stayed out.

My mind raced to figure out what was going on, but two symbols stood out in my mind. I grabbed a pencil and my notebook and drew the symbols I had found on Rarity and Twilight’s houses.

I labeled my crude drawings Sarcinatrix and Theurgus. It felt wrong to write them down, as if they were unnatural or unholy. Yet I did not believe in such silly things, I just knew they had something to do with what was wrong. If, for some reason, I wasn’t able to stay in my room all night until help came, I might be able to figure out what they mean.

This time I wouldn’t leave my room. I’d be safe here. The minutes slowly turned to hours as I sat in my bed unable to sleep. I wasn’t interested in figuring this out for myself, not anymore.

Tap tap tap.

“Gah!” I screamed. Looking over at the window revealed Rainbow Dash hovering outside of it. “Dash!”

I ran over to the window and unlatched it, lifting it up. “Hey, Squirt, you okay?”

“Oh, Dash, I’m so glad to see you!” I climbed up onto the windowsill and hugged her. “Somethings horribly wrong! Everypony is gone, and Pinkie baked me into food, and a timberwolf ate me!”

“Calm down, it’s just a bad dream. Come on, I’ll take you for a flight and drop you off at my house. You’ll be safe there,” Dash stated.

“Okay, but promise you’ll find my parents, and everypony else?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Dash replied.

“Thanks.” I jumped onto her back and wrapped my forelegs around her neck. She wasted no time flying towards her house.

As she flew I could see the fog bank below me. It was shaped like a “V”, rolling in on Ponyville from two sides. The only place the fog wasn’t approaching from was the Everfree. The dense, low clouds would block off escape from any other direction.

Some of Dash’s hair was blown by the wind into my eyes. I blinked and pushed the hair out of the way, catching a glimpse of something grey. Her mane was out of the way and when I looked down, I realized we seemed awfully high.

“Hey, Dash, I didn’t realize your house was this high up,” I said.

“I had to move it higher for you, Squirt. Every pegasus filly needs to leave the nest sooner or later.”

“Huh, what nest?”

“It’s important that a cloud house isn’t too close to the ground. I tried to warn them, but they wouldn’t listen.”

I clung to her tighter, growing uneasy. “Told who?”

“Thunderlane. He didn’t take Rumble high enough. Now Rumble is dead.”

“What?!”

I tried not to look down, instead trying to focus on Dash’s ears. That was when I realized her mane was gone. As we passed through a cloud, her skin seemed to vanish like dust in a breeze.

“You’re not Dash! What are you?!” I screamed.

“I am Dash, I failed the test. But you’ll do better, you’d never fail your flight test. You’re my little sister and I taught you everything I know.”

“What do you me—GAHH!”

Dash tossed me off like a loose scarf, letting the wind catch me as I fell towards the ground. I began to buzz, beating my wings as fast as possible, and trying to get right side up. While tumbling through the air I couldn’t even tell which way up was.

Everything was spinning until I finally spread my legs out and let my wings rest from the exertion. Somehow I began to slow my spinning down, until I could see the ground below rising up to meet me.

I knew I had seconds left to learn to fly before it was too late. I began to beat my wings more slowly, hoping that somehow I’d learn in seconds what had eluded me for years. It was so difficult to stay calm, and I seemed to be increasing in speed.

Of all the emotions racing through me, laughter was the one that won out. I looked down and could see the apples on the trees below me.

“Xysticus” the voice whispered.

Laughing even louder, I replied to the voice. “What good will that do me? I’m going to beat the shit out of the ground!”

SPLAT!

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long to write, I plan to release more the closer we get to halloween (and the more cool things I think of.)