Don't Look

  Twilight narrowed her eyes at the short, erect stick a couple meters away from her, a few horseshoes just idly laying around it shining in the light of Celestias' sun. She looked down at her own metal shoe on her hoof and waved her hoof around, weighing the piece of metal and figuring out how to toss it correctly.

  “Oh for goodness sake, just toss the thing already!” her colorful Pegasus friend called out in annoyance, causing the young Princess of Friendship to jump a little.

  Twilight glared back at Rainbow, “Just be patient, Rainbow.” She went right back at concentrating on the stake, making a stance as she did with the tip of her tongue poking out to the side of her mouth.

  “It’s been five whole minutes, Twi. My patient meter ran out of juice way before that.” Rainbow Dash flopped down onto her rump with a huff, “Just make the toss already.” She whined.

  Twilight rolled her eyes and looked dead straight at the mocking stick. With a light swing of her hoof, the metal shoe flew through the air, making flips as it did like a beautiful metal ballerina, its polished surface shined in the afternoon sun. Twilight’s brain desperately tried to calculate the trajectory and velocity of the horseshoe, but the thought of losing the game blinded her master level of thinking. She whispered quick silent prayers as the shining shoe flipped through the air, heading straight for the stake, hoping to herself it won’t bounce off this time around.

  By sheer luck, her prayers were answered as the horseshoe hooked itself onto the stick and spun around quite fast before it touched down on the grassy ground with a light thump.

  “Yes!” Twilight cheered and started prancing around her slack-jawed friend while chanting, “I Wiiin! I Wiiin! I Wiiin!”

  With a shake of her head, Rainbow snorted and gently frowned to the side, “Oh, Horse-apples.” She mumbled to herself.

  “Why so down, RD?” Applejack strolled on over to both mares with a little chuckle, a forest of carefully placed Apple trees right in her wake. “Yah just need to answer a few of Twi’s questions.” She suddenly laughed at Rainbows frown deepening as Twilight danced away from the two, shaking around her rump like there was no tomorrow with a dopey expression.

  “Oh, you know why exactly I’m upset, AJ.” Rainbow glared at her giggling farm pony friend, “Firstly, I lost! I hate losing! And secondly, it’s Twilight we’re talking about here! She might never stop asking questions about Pegasi autonomy and other things I don’t know! For all we know, she might do some tests on me if I don’t answer!” she threw out her hooves to the air and roared in frustration.

  Twilight giggled on over to her two friends, “Lighten up, Rainbow, and it’s Pegasi ‘Anatomy’. I don’t have that many questions, just a few things about Pegasi physic and how their body functions during stress. Does that sound so bad?” she sat down beside her friends while ruffling her feathers of her wings.

  “Uh… how many questions are we talking about?” Rainbow replied a little hesitantly and stared at her friend.

  “Six hundred eighty two, give or take a few.” Twilight waved her hoof nonchalantly with a small smile.

  Rainbow shrank down and whimpered like their shy friend Fluttershy when she’s scared with shrunken pupils. “S-six… H-h-hundred…?”

  “At least that, yes.” Twilight lightly nodded with a thoughtful expression as a small smile was plastered onto her face with all the new information she would be collecting that her books couldn’t supply her hungry mind.

  With another round of laughter and Rainbow groaning on the grassy ground, both Twilight and Applejack suddenly stopped laughing once they heard something rushing through the calm forest of White Tail. The three lone mares looked to the White Tail Woods, eyes slightly wide from fear. But once they saw a figure of a pony struggling through the dim forest while gasping for breath, all three ponies quickly stood up to their hooves as the young mare stumbled out the forest and collapsed on the ground with a thump like a bag of Potatoes being dumped on the ground.

  Twilight led her small group into a gallop towards the mystery mare. Once they got close to the gasping mare, they recoiled at the Amber skinny mare; her hooves were thin to the bone, her ribs showed, her spine dented her back and her facial bone structures stood out more than her cheeks and eyelids. The mare’s lips were cracked and dry, her red and brown mane and tail were messy and unkempt with leaves and sticks poking out and her body was covered with small cuts and bruises.

  Twilight looked at Applejack, “Applejack, can you carry her on your back?” she quickly asked. AJ nodded and Rainbow helped her to get the unconscious mare on her back. Twilight spread her wings and draped them over her friends as well as the newcomer, “This might feel a little weird.” She warned before her horn lit up and with a flash of light they were now in front of Ponyville Hospital.

  With a light shake of their heads to get rid of the spinning sensation they rushed in the building, but then Twilight heard the unconscious mare mumbling.

  “Don’t… Look… Don’t… Look… Don’t…” while she continued mumbling, Applejack and Rainbow Dash informed the nurse behind the counter about the bony mare. She continued to chant those words as the nurses quickly went to work to get the mare in stable condition.

o~~O~~o

  Hours later in the waiting room, Twilight and her friends were informed by Nurse Redheart the mystery mare will make it and just needed to rest to regain her strength.

  “She’s lucky you three found her, Princess Twilight. From what we saw in the mare, she was on her last hoof. But with plenty of sleep and rest, she’ll be fine within a few days.” The nurse said.

  The three friends sighed in relief, letting out the breaths they never knew were holding.

  “Good to know she’ll be okay.” Twilight said and composed herself, “Will she be awake anytime soon?” she asked.

  “Probably by tomorrow morning, Princess Twilight.” Twilight mentally flinched but held her expression, “Are you thinking of visiting her?” said the nurse.

  “Yes. I want to know how and why she was in the White Tail Woods in such condition. Is that okay?” she asked.

  “For a couple of hours, yes, but no more than that, Princess. She needs her rest.” Redheart answered with a little bow of her head.

  “Of course, I understand. I’ll see you in the morning.” Twilight answered and motioned her head to her friends to ‘get going’ with a small smile.

  Once they were out, the sun was starting to set under the distant mountains, painting the land and clouds in yellows, oranges and reds like the trees of autumn.

  Applejack turned to her friends, “Ah’m heading back tah mah barn, now. Yah comin’ along, RD?” she asked.

  “Eh, why not.” Rainbow shrugged.

  “Okay. I’ll see you both around.” Twilight said and started going down a path to get to her castle home. “Goodnight, you two!” she yelled back.

  “Night!” both mares yelled back in unison with a wave as they started their own way home.

  Twilight silently strode through the quiet streets, greeting a few fellow ponies that still lingered around in the hour. She stopped herself on a small bridge and looked up at the evening sky in thought.

  “Don’t look…” she whispered to herself and searched the clouds to try and find any answers in them. The thought of a young mare suddenly coming out of the forest in a bony state disturbed her greatly, and thought of why the mare, a few years younger than herself, would be in the forest in the first place. Was she scared of something that would cause her to flee into the forest seeking for safe haven? Most likely, but what is she scared of? There are plenty of things to be fearful for; Manticores, Hydras, Cockatrice, Basilisk, Dragons and so on. But why the forest of all places and not a town where there’s safety in numbers? The forest is where you find most of these dangerous creatures in the first place. Maybe a rogue pony? That would explain why she would flee into the forest to hide. But her mind keeps going back to what the mare said in her unconscious state.

  “Don’t look.”

  The phrase itself led her to think of a Cockatrice or a Basilisk, which use their gaze to either turn their prey to stone or petrify them. But the same thing keeps coming up that they live in their natural habitat, the forest, the worst place to be in on the wrong place and the time if those are to show up.

  With a shake of her head, Twilight continued to trot to her home as the crystalline castle was in sight. She’ll get her answers tomorrow morning when the mystery mare wakes.

  She reaches the steps to her new home and nodded to her guards, both stallions nodding back, they lit their horns and opened the doors for her. She casually trots into her sparkly clean home and started briskly going to her new public library to read. Going up the steps and greeting a few castle maids in the halls of her library, she opened the door to her study room at the far end of her library and smiled at the small green baby dragon snoozing away in his still intact basket near her desk.

  “Hoo!”

  Twilight jumps at the sudden sound and looked up to one of her bookshelf to see Owlicious staring down at her.

  She smiles at her night companion as she quietly trotted on over to her desk, “Good evening, Owlicious.” She greeted and sat down onto her chair.

  “Hoo!” he replied.

  She nodded at him with a small smile and looked out her window placed right in front of her work desk and watched the last bit of her old mentor’s sun ever so slowly set behind the mountains.

  The sight before her sent her back to her past as a small filly playing with her Smarty Pants doll in Celestia’s Royal garden. Her doll was set on her back as she galloped around the open ground giggling and laughing merrily. She trips over with a yelp and rolled around with little grunts. She flopped down with a thump and groaned as parts of her body felt light aching pain.

  “Oh dear, Twilight, are you okay?” Princess Celestia briskly trotted on over to her young student lying on the grassy ground. Twilight sits herself up and rubbed her head as her mind spun like a boomerang. Celestia leaned her head down to the young filly and gently nuzzled the back of Twilight’s head, slowly melting away the headache from Twilight’s mind. The young filly smiled and giggled at Celestia’s affection, turned her head around and nuzzled her teacher back on her muzzle. Celestia made a throaty giggle and rested down right behind her young student and leaned in, “Are you okay, Twilight?” she whispered.

  Twilight nodded with a happy smile and with a perk of her ears, she started frantically looking around and with a gasp, she stumbled up to her hooves and galloped over to her Smarty Pants doll just laying on the ground and once she picked it up with her short hooves, she gasped once more as the doll’s left button eye hung loosely on one thread.

  “Smarty Pants! No!” she cried out and hugged her doll desperately.

  “What’s wrong, Twilight?” Celestia asked as she reached her sniffling student.

  Twilight sniffled, “Smarty Pants is hurt.” She showed the doll to her teacher with teary eyes and quivering lips.

  “Oh dear.” Celestia said and looked a little closer at the doll with squinting eyes. With a smile she looked back at Twilight, “We can make Smarty Pants a lot better, Twilight.” She stood up to her hooves and helps the filly up and gently placed the doll on Twilight’s back as well. She lightly nudged her head for her young student as Twilight wiped her tears away with a few sniffles, “Come along, Twilight. Let’s go back in to fix him right up.” She chirped happily, making Twilight bring back her smile and started scurrying after her teacher.

  With a giggle Twilight breathed in and out at the happy past and looked out the window once more to see Luna’s Moon and stars were now out on display to all of Equestria to observe. She hops out of her chair while still looking out the window, but then look up at Owlicious.

  “Wanna join me?” she asked as she started trotting on over to her glass doors to her balcony. With a ‘hoot’ Owlicious flapped his wings and flew down over to his owner and perched himself onto her back.

  Twilight opened up the double glass doors and trotted out onto her balcony and took a deep breath of the cool night air. With a sigh, she opened her eyes and looked up at the lit night sky and started silently naming Luna’s constellations.

  Just as she would finish naming the last few images of star art, a sudden gust of ice cold wind struck her head on. She gasped with eyes wide from shock and took a few shaky steps back to try and calm herself down, but when she took her second gasp of air, all of the candles in her study were out, darkening the whole area around her with an eerie silence.

  Once she calmed herself from the sudden cold and brought back her petrified hooves to the land of the living, she turned around to get back in to relit the candles and lamps and bundle up her shivering assistant Spike to keep him warm. But she was stopped in her tracks by what sounded like a distant faint howl of a creature.

  She slowly turned to the moonlit land and moved closer to the ledge to get a better look at the dark forest. A moment later, there was another slightly more louder howl of a wolf or a dog, but this howl sounded more like a blood curdling cry mixed with a two toned demonic voice, sending ice cold chills down her spin and running her blood cold.

  Something about that howl was wrong, very wrong. It sounded like a wolf or a Timber Wolf, but the howl carried a sense of even more danger and fear then what a regular howl would sound. This was no regular howl of a common canine roaming the forest; it was the most demonic sound of a dying animal she ever heard in her life and she heard many chilling howls and screeches throughout her life in Ponyville.

  She gulped with some sweat going down her brow and started thinking of just going in to try and forget about the chilling howl with the shaking Owl clinging close to her back. But just as she was backing up, a light from the ground caught her attention. She looked down from the ledge and saw one of her guards patrolling the grounds with a lit horn. Just as she was looking up to just go in, she saw a strange shadowy figure just in the tree line facing her castle or possibly herself or the guard at ground level. The figure just stood there, and when she means stood, she means it stood stock still like a statue on its hind legs like a Minotaur or a young Dragon. It wasn’t very tall, just at least about her height with a thin body frame, and that’s where the details ended; it was just too dark for her to see more clearly at the shadowy figure.

  Fearing for herself loyal guard, she decided to inform him.

  “G-guard!?” she stuttered out.

  The guard stopped right under her balcony and looked up towards her, “Yes, your highness!?” he replied with a gruff voice.

  “Shine your light over there!” she pointed, but once she looked back at the location where the figure stood it was gone. She took a quick scan of the area to see if it ran off to somewhere nearby, but nothing moved. The guard shined his light over, but there was nothing that stood there, just undergrowth and trees bare of any living animal.

  “Nothing over there, Princess. Don’t worry about anything.” He called out to her and continued his patrolling.

  Twilight couldn’t believe what just happened. There was a black figure standing within the tree line just a moment ago, but now there was not a trace of said figure anymore. It baffled and scared her mind to no end.

  “H-hoo!”

  “Oh! Sure, l-let’s go back in.” Twilight replied to her owl as he quickly nodded in agreement and she quickly got back into her study, closed her doors shut and started lighting the candles and oil lamps with a lit match stick. Once she was finished, she quickly draped all of her windows and glass doors out of paranoia, her body still feeling the effects of adrenalin caused by her fear response. She started pacing around the room with Owlicious still sticking close to her neck in fear.

  Her mind raced a thousand meters a second, trying to figure out what just happened to her. Was she hallucinating? That would be the likely answer, but then why was Owlicious so scared? He heard those same spine chilling howls as well as the strange figure in the forest.

  “Okay-okay.” She started looking around the room while taking deep steady breaths. She then looked at her desk and smiled, “Oh yes! I should prepare a letter for Princess Celestia about the incident.” She said to herself and quickly sat down on her chair, levitated over a parchment for the letter, dipped her quill into the ink jar and started quickly writing about the new situation that happened near the White Tail Woods.

  As Twilight did her own business in her study, the patrolling stallion quietly trotted around the new Castle of Friendship. A veteran, he knew what to do and what to look for while in patrol duty. He’s been at this for a couple of hours now, his hooves ached but not nearly enough to stop him from doing his duty.

  As he rounded a corner he was somewhat surprised to see light mist lingering close to the grassy ground. He looked around the open area with a frown and tried his best to see through the darkness of the nearby Everfree Forest and a few homes in the distance to see any suspicious activities, but none were found. With a mental nod, he continued his patrol till his horn suddenly just went out like a candle. He looked up at his horn in confusion and gently tapped his horn with his hoof.

  “What the hay?” he whispered and started concentrating to bring back his magic and not a tiny spark as even lit. Suddenly he felt something dripping from his upper lip. He reached up and wiped his nose with his hoof and when looked his white coat was stained red with warm blood. As confusion led to worry for his inability to use magic and his blood flowing without end, he decided to turn back and let somepony else cover for his duty till he knows what’s wrong with him.

  But then he froze in his tracks, just one hoof hanging in the air as a deathly growl emanated from behind him, sending chills throughout his body and running his blood dead cold as his mind tried to calm down the overwhelming fear building up inside him.

  In hesitation, he slowly and shakily looked back to see a large wolf or a dog of some sort just standing there taking quiet mighty breaths, disturbing the mist just below it. Its coat was darker then the shadows of the Everfree itself, its blood red eyes glowed in the dark and pierced right into his soul, striking immense amounts of fear and terror and it stood just as tall as he was and he’s a few inches taller than his new Princess.

  He knew he was staring straight at the embodiment of terror itself, the messenger of misfortune, the harbinger of death… the hound of Tartarus came for him this night.