He had just finished eating, and he was ready for another day of watching. He had no idea how he got here but he was doing just fine. He was a little shocked to find out the inhabitants of these parts were horses and that some could fly and some could do magic and that they could all talk. But, food was food. He had been living off of small forest animals until he found his first proper meal. It was no fun if the things you ate didn't scream with a look of terror in their eyes. That's what gave it flavor. He set out his tools in front of him and pondered what his name was. He had long since forgotten and made a game of guessing what it was. Alan, Richard, Mark? None of them rang a bell. He then tried to remember the last time he slept. Two weeks ago? A month? He didn't care. The longer he stayed up the more fun he could have.
He observed his tools in front of him. A machete (he thought it rather cliche but it worked), a button knife, a filet knife, a carving knife, a potatoe peeler, and a twelve gauge shotgun with twenty shells (just in case). Over in his duffel bag were more tools. A sledge hammer, a railroad spike, a normal hammer, a box of nails, and a branding iron with the letter X as the design. He only played with his food if he saw it fit. Usually if they squirmed or tried to get away from him is when he would do it.
He never discriminated his food. Young or old, sick or healthy. It didn't matter. Just because they thought they were special in any way, they thought they had the right to escape darkness. He showed them that they were very wrong. When he was done cleaning his tools he decided to go say hello to his new friends.
"Hello Sandy." He said to a light brown pony, who was the previous owner of a hour glass tattoo on his flank. "hello Bubbles."
He said to a grey pegasus that had, well, bubbles. "And hello to you Harpy." He said to his newest friend. They gave him the usual slack-jawed, half-lidded eye response. "Lovely weather we're having this morning." No response. He sighed. He would half to get more friends soon. He was running out of rope. He was always with his friends though. He observed the colorful tattoos at his belt. He could only guess that they were a sort of brand. Things to depict what the pony did in life. The only one he could understand out of the three was Harpy's. She obviously was in the music industry. The other two just didn't make sense. He would also have to leave soon or the others might find him. Police always spoiled the fun. He frowned at the thought. He had been captured before by a town sheriff. What was his name? Simmons. That was it. It was pure luck that the sheriff hit a pothole and lost control of the cruiser or he might have not escaped.
He sighed again. He hadn't been noticed yet but the time would come. That is when he would have to move almost every night. But he was used to it. He hadn't learned much about this new source, but he didn't trust their ability to fly and do magic. He would have to find away around this. He picked up a set of binoculars and headed for town.
It was an ordinary day of resorting at the library for Twilight Sparkle. She was in the zone. Besides magic, this was her element. A single row of books was flying in front of her, allowing her to see what books to put where and what books she wanted to read again. She was so focused on her work that she couldn't hear knocking at her door. "Twilight! We need you out here now!" The shouting broke her focus and all the books dropped to the floor. She muttered under her breath. "Coming!" She replied. She carefully maneuvered around the mess of literature until she got to the door. She opened it to reveal a familiar cyan pegasus staring at her impatiently. "What is it Rainbow?" She asked annoyed "Can't you see that I'm kind of busy?"
""Forget your stupid books we have more important stuff to attend to. Zecora said she found something pretty bad at the edge of the Everfree."
"Whatever it is I'm sure it can wait. There's tons of bad stuff in that forest."
"I'm sure it's pretty bad if it was enough to get Zecora to stop rhyming."
"What?"
"She kept going on about a demon in the forest. I don't know anymore than that, but she's at Rarity's boutique with the others. Let's go!" At the the two ponies set off together.
Rarity was sitting in the parlor of Carousel Boutique holding the hoof of Zecora, trying to calm her down. "Zecora it's all right. Nothing is going to hurt you."
"It's coming it's coming it's coming," the zebra had been rambling on about something she saw in the forest. What ever it was had messed her up pretty badly. The door to the parlor. opened to reveal Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "What's going on?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know. I found her in town like this." Rarity replied.
Twilight walked over to Zecora. In a soft voice she asked, "Hey, what happened?"
"It's coming for us. It won't stop. It hides in the woods."
'What's hiding?" Zecora looked at Twilight.
"I will show you." She got up and headed for the door.
They had been walking around the edge of the Everfree for about an hour now and Twilight was seriously beginning to wonder if her friend had gone crazy. "Zecora. Where are you taking us?" She asked.
"We are almost there." Twilight sighed and continued walking.
Twilight then began to notice a smell. It was dull at first, but then it grew more potent the further they got. Zecora stopped walking. "There," she said. "Just beyond the trees."
"Are you coming with us?" Twilight asked. Zecora shook her head. "Alright." She said with confidence. "Let's go girls." She pushed through the brush.
The smell hit her like a train. It was an awful smell. Like rotten eggs stewing in a skunks den. What made the smell was even worse. Dried blood covered the rocks and tress. Bones littered the ground. But the worst part was in the trees. Three ponies, hung by nooses in the branches. Their bottom halves were missing. Their eyes, hollow sockets. Skin was decaying to reveal paper-white bone. And they were each a different kind of pony. One pegasus, one unicorn, and one earth pony. Twilight heard something make a thumping noise behind her. She turned to see that Fluttershy had fainted and the others looked as if they would do the same. "W-what happened here?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Who would do this?" In all of their adventures they had never seen anything like this.
Twilight gathered her wits and cleared her throat. "Girls." They looked at her. "We have to find out who did this. Rainbow, Applejack." The two snapped to attention. "You go get the gaurd. Pinkie, Rarity. You two take Fluttershy and Zecora back to Carousel Boutique. I'm going to write to Celestia to see if she has any Idea of what's going on. Let's go!" With that the party set off. Not knowing the danger that they were facing.
Lyra Heartstrings was just putting the finishing touches on her most recent notes on the study of humans. She was alone since her roomate Bon Bon was on vacation with family and decided that it was the perfect time to study her favorite subject. She had always believed humans existed, but nobody believed her. She yawned and rubbed her eyes as she put her notes back on the bookshelf. Thunder clapped outside as rain pounded against the windows. "Why did the pegasi have a storm scheduled for tonight?" She asked aloud. She yawned again and headed to her room. Once in bed she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Lyra woke to the sound of glass breaking downstairs. Someone's breaking in! She thought. She got out of bed as quietly as she could and grabbed a candle. She lit it with her magic and slowly began to head downstairs. Once on the ground floor she could hear rain coming in from the kitchen. She grabbed a lamp from the nearby table and headed for the kitchen. She entered the room and saw a dark figure in the corner. "He-hello?" She asked it. It stood up and she couldn't believe her eyes. It was a human. She stood there with her mouth agape staring at the thing she had so long sought out for. It walked over and looked down at her. it took the lamp from her now weakened magical grasp an set it down on the counter. It then came back and squatted in front of her.
It held up its thumb, middle, and pointer finger and licked them. Why did it do that? Lyra thought. Something also looked strange about its teeth but it closed its mouth to fast for her see clearly. It held up its fingers to the candle, and pinched out the flame.
The human then slammed her against the wall holding her mouth shut. "Shhh." She heard it say. she then heard something flick. Lightning flashed and in that one instant she could see what was wrong with its teeth as it smiled. They were crudely carved into points. She also saw that with one hand it held her against the wall. In the other it held a knife, sharp enough to split a hair. Her heart began to race, She tried to scream but couldn't. Something sharp and cold slid across her throat. Warmth and pain trickled down her neck Darkness crept in. Blacker than the night already surrounding her. She closed her eyes, for the last time.
