Don't Look

  In the early morning just as Celestias’ sun was looming over the horizon, a blood curdling scream echoed out throughout the crystal castle. Startled awake, Twilight accidentally rolled off her bed with a loud yelp and a thump. Spike jumped out of his basket panting like a mad dragon, his eyes wide in terror as the sound of a pony screaming still freshly echoed in his mind.

  “T-Twilight?” he stuttered as his little body shook in fear. He backed up to his caretakers’ bed and looked over the top to only find an empty bed. “Twilight!?” he started to panic as loud rustling and grunting started sounding out. He backed away from the bed and screamed while shielding his eyes as a horrible creature popped out from behind the bed. “Aaaaahh!”

  “Spike! It’s me, Twilight!” The mare wiggled out of her covers and kicked off the blanket with a grunt and quickly trotted around the bed to get to her assistant. Spike scurried over to her and hugged her barrel tightly as small dots of tears threatened to shed down his cheeks. Twilight wrapped her hooves and wings around her little assistant and gently shushed him with sisterly care.

  A moment later, the door to her bedchamber was suddenly opened and a group of guards poured in searching the rooms’ every nook and cranny while one of them trotted over to her and Spike.

  “Are you okay, Your Highness?” he asked and made a quick bow to her.

  She nodded, “Yes, thank you.” She looked around her room and watched the guards, “What’s going on?’ she asked as she covered Spikes’ ears.

  “A maid found our second in command right outside of the castle. We believe he passed away last night, Princess.” He answered as Twilight covered her mouth in shock.

  “Clear!” a guard shouted as they all poured out Twilights’ room hastily.

  Twilight looked down at her confused assistant and motioned her head towards the rolled up parchment on her desk, “Spike, can you send that letter to Princess Celestia, please?” she asked with a smile.

  He quickly nodded and scurried over to her desk and grabbed the letter. With a mighty breath, he blew green fire onto his hand holding the letter itself, turning the parchment into floating sparkling ashes and whisked out the opened window.

  Twilight nodded to him, “Thank you, Spike, now stay here with Owlicious till I get back, okay?” she got up and moved on over to her door and looked back to see him saluting at her with a serious, yet adorable expression.

  As Twilight and her escort got out of the castle doors she was led to round the castle to see a group of guards standing at attention in a large circle with Pegasus guards flying around overhead with searching eyes as well as Unicorns and Earth pony guards searching the ground closely. Two guards saluted at Twilight and stepped aside to reveal the body of the stallion lying on the ground with a mare in a lab coat standing beside it, examining the body carefully without physical contact. Twilight cringed for a brief moment, collected herself with a few breaths, and advanced towards the center of the circle of guards.

  “Good morning, Doctor Vessel.” She greeted with a forced smile, doing her best not to look at the body itself.

  The tan colored Unicorn jumped a little and looked back at Twilight while adjusting her small glasses and quickly brushed her dark brown mane to compose herself in front of the new royal.

  “G-good morning, y-your highness!” she smiled nervously with a perk of her ears she quickly bowed down, dropping her glasses onto the grassy ground in the process.

  Twilight looked down at the nervous mare. She knew the mare since she was the castle personal Doctor and they met a couple of times to get a physical, but each time she was always a nervous wreck. Twilight lightly shook her head and motioned for the mare to stand up with her hoof.

  “Please stand, Miss Vessel.” Twilight said and took looked at the body behind the mare nervously like was a dangerous animal. “Remember what we talked about.” she said.

  “Oh… sorry, Miss S-Sparkle” the mares’ cheeks turned a light shade of pink and nervously adjusted her coat as well as levitating her glasses back up to her muzzle from the ground, “I-I forgot.”

  “So…” Twilight pointed at the lying body, “What happened to him?” she asked.

  Vessel perked up and quickly turned to the body before them with thoughtful expression, “Well, there are no visible wounds inflicted upon the stallion.” She trotted closer and leaned down in front of the head where dried blood covered both its nose and mouth as well as quite amount on the grass with a few red splotches nearby. “Quite a bit of blood pouring out of its mouth and nose, so the wound might be internal.” She then looked at the stained grass nearby, “But the stains are telling something else.” She said and went over to where the first drops of dried blood coated the grass, Twilight following in her wake.

  “Any guesses to what happened?” she asked.

  “It looks like he drowned in his own blood.” Vessel answered and quickly went back over to the stallion, the Doctors’ guess sent chills down Twilight’s body, the thought of drowning in your own blood disturbing her.

  “Found any evidence to what might have caused the death?” Twilight asked once more and trotted over to look at the stallion more closely and reeled back in shock.

  “N-What’s the matter?” the Doctor asked in concern.

  “I… I-I…” Twilight found it hard to speak as she recognized the stallion from last night, flashbacks of the previous night bombarding her of the strange figure, the bone chilling howl, the sense of danger as well as the stallion. “I… s-saw…” she blurred out.

  The Doctor quickly went by her side and gently settled Twilight down, “Deep breaths, Miss Sparkle… deep breaths.” she said and with a quick nod from Twilight, the young Alicorn started taking slow deep breaths to calm her nerves.

“I… I saw him l-last night…” She stuttered out shakily.

  “Really?” the Doctor said, her eyes widening in surprise, “What did you see?” she asked.

  “U-um…” Twilight started massaging her head with a strained expression, “I w-went out to my balcony with Owl… Owlicious for some f-fresh air and to stargaze, b-but a sudden ice cold wind just… blew past me and put out all the candles i-in my room.” She shivers as she started remembering more clearly, “Then, before I could go back in I… I heard a howl of some animal in the Everfree, twice. The first sounded like a regular distant wolf howling to the moon, almost inaudible to a point of silent whisper, b-but the second… i-it… it sounded so much closer, probably just a hundred or more yards away from the castle ground.” Twilight stopped for a moment to collect herself, the gentle caressing on her back helped calm her nerves. “The howl itself sound so… it sounded like poor dying, tortured animal, it was so unbearable to hear.” She then rubbed her face to clear her mind, “Right after I heard the howl, I-I saw him right below me with his horn lit. Just when I was getting back in, I saw a pitch black figure just standing right in the tree line like… it was just staring at us, not evening making a move.”

  “What did it look like?” Vessel asked as she continued to caress her Princess.

  “Well… it stood on its hind legs. P-probably not much taller than I am, and that’s about it, i-it just stood there for some time before I warned the guard. After I warned him it was gone without a trace just like it just ‘poof’ed out of existence.” She finished.

  “Can you show us where it went?” Vessel asked as a Unicorn guard stood by them.

  With a shaky nod and a flick of her horn she teleported the two and herself right under her balcony. With a quick look around of the area she managed to find where the figure stood in the forest and gave her a shiver once she figured out with some local plant life to compare for the figure that stood before them, it was as tall as she was. She shakily stood on the ground, “I-it was right h-here…” she picks up a stick from the ground and levitated it up to the tip of her scalp, “and th-this tall.”

  “Thank you, Princess.” The guard marked the ground right under Twilight with a green glow by using his magic and froze the small twig in midair. A few more guards then came over to them and started making a thorough search of the area. Vessel nodded at the guards and went on over to Twilight with a small smile and started leading her around the castle in a casual pace, “Um… Miss Sparkle.” She gained her attention, “If I want to figure out what happened to our Loyal Guard, I need to make an autopsy but I can’t do it properly with the equipment I have in the castle.” They round a corner to be met with the circling guards, “And the closest place that has the proper equipment are at the Ponyville Hospital, so… if you don’t mind at least.” They stop at the guards, Vessel pawing at the grassy ground nervously.

  Twilight smiled at her, “I’m sure the castle will do okay without its Doctor for a couple of days, Miss Vessel. You have my permission to go.” She said.

  Vessel shortly bows her head, “Thank you, Miss Sparkle. I should be done within a couple of days.” She thanked her.

  “Don’t mention it.” Twilight gently waved her hoof, “But we should cover up the body as we go there, we don’t want anypony to see the… ‘past on’ Guard.” She added and looked sadly at the laying body.

  “Of course.” With a little bow; the mare teleported somewhere else and came back in a flash of light with a large white blanket in her mouth. Using her magic, she spread out the bed cover midair, quietly went over to the stallion, carefully took off his helmet and closed his eyes in an eternal sleep. With that done she backs away and gently lays the white fabric down, covering up the body fully but quickly stains as the blood seeps in the end of the head area.

  A guard then galloped up to them with a cart in tow, a tarp covering up the top like a shield to cover the body from the eyes of the world. Vessel then carefully levitated the body to the air with the blanket still on, though Twilight was greatly unsettled seeing blood still quickly dripping down onto the grass like a leaking hose. Two Pegasus guards open up the tarp with their wings and Vessel gently laid the body down like it was a sleeping foal.

  Twilight faced Vessel and motioned for her to follow her back inside, “Do you need anything before we go?” she asked as they begin to go up the short stairway to the castle entrance as the two guards opened the crystalline doors for them.

  “Not much really, Miss Sparkle. The local Hospital has all the equipment and items I need to use to Document and dissect the pony, although I have a few items I like to bring along.” She answered as they casually trotted through the halls.

  “Okay. You go back up and wait for me at the entrance. I’m going to send a letter to Princess Celestia about the incident and I’m going to check up on the mystery mare I and two of my friends found stumbling out of the White Tail Woods.” They started to split but Vessel stopped her.

  “Oh Really!?” she said with a big smile on her face but quickly composed herself with a blush, “Um… really? I-if you don’t mind at least, Miss Sparkle…” she nervously rubbed her foreleg with the other and turned her gaze down to the floor.

  Twilight smiled with a gentle giggle, “Of course I’ll share my notes with you, Doctor Vessel. Don’t worry.” Vessel smiled at her as Twilight nodded once to her before going off to her bedchambers slash study room.

  A moment later Twilight arrived to her room and opened the double doors to see Spike tidying up the room with a little maid outfit and holding a feather duster to dust off the various items and furniture in the room. She wanted to laugh-oh she wanted to laugh… so she did while rolling around the floor and clenching her sides as tears formed.

  The sudden outburst of laughter caused the young dragon to jump, startled by his surrogate sister and turned red as an apple, more specifically, Big Mac. He stiffened and scrunched up his face as Twilight continued to cackle on the floor like a mad mare while pounding the floor with her hoof. Inky smoke started to rise out of his nose.

  “It’s not that funny…” he mumbled angrily and frowned down at the floor, trying to crack the solid crystal floor with the sheer power of his glare as Twilight continued to laugh.

  Twilights’ laughter died down as she rolled onto her stomach and took deep breaths to calm down while still having a large grin plastered onto her face. She slowly got up and trotted over to her red-faced-embarrassed baby dragon and nuzzled him as well as wrapping a hoof around him in a close embrace.

  She giggled; “I’m sorry, Spike, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.” She sat down and hugged Spike a little harder to her barrel, “It was just unexpected.” She looked down at the blushing dragon and nuzzled his nose, enticing a small smile to form on him. “No hard feelings?” she whispered.

  Spikes’ smile grew a little, “No hard feelings.” He replied.

  Twilight pecked him on the forehead and let him go over to her desk, levitating a parchment on the empty surface and dipped her quill in the small jar of ink, preparing yet another letter.

  Dear, Princess Celestia.

  Another incident has occurred just before you rose the sun. One of my maids in my castle has found a body of a Royal Guard right outside the castle grounds.

  Twilight stopped for a moment to think, nibbling on the end of the feather with her pursed lips in thought.

  A scream woke Spike and I from our sleep and I went to go check the body of the guard, who I saw the previous night, was now just laying on the ground on his side with dried blood leaking out of his nose and mouth.

  Doctor Vessel (the castle doctor), and I will take the body to the Ponyville Hospital the moment I send you this letter, she will conduct an autopsy on the body to figure out what the cause of death was, while I will be checking on the mare Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and I found in the White Tail Woods. If the mare is well enough, I’ll be conducting an interview with her of why she stumbled out of the forest alone.

  If you want me to send the reports on the investigations of both the mystery mare and the death of the guard, I’ll more than happy to pass on copies to you.

  Your fellow Princess and Friend,

  Twilight Sparkle.

  She finished, rolled up the parchment then sealed it with her own emblem and new purple ribbon with a lavender stripe going along the middle. She turned to her assistant cleaning the room and still wearing the small maid outfit. With a suppressed giggle she went on over to him with the letter levitating beside her.

  “Spike?” she said, gaining his attention and showing him the rolled up parchment, “Can you send this to Princess Celestia?” she asked.

  With a nod, he grabbed the letter from her and blew out his green fire onto the letter itself, turning it to sparkling ashes and blew away through the open window.

  “Thank you, Spike.” She quickly levitates out her saddlebag and fills it up with extra parchments and a spar quill and ink jar. “I’ll be out in the Ponyville Hospital all morning, but I’ll be back for lunch. If anypony needs me tell them I’m there, okay?” she strapped the bag on and ruffled her feathers.

  “Okay, Twilight.” he replied as he climbed up a ladder to reach the hard place of her book shelf as Owlicious quietly slept at the very top with his feathers fluffed out.

  “See you later!” Twilight called out as she left.

  When Twilight and Doctor Vessel came to the Hospital with the cart pulled by a guard, the Doctors and Nurses were a little uneasy to why they had a cart with them, but the answer they got caused a few gasps from the nurses. Twilight informed them to keep this quiet till they know what happened to the stallion and assure them Doctor Vessel will be doing the autopsy. With the introductions done the guard pulled the cart around the back of the Hospital to hide it from the eyes of the public, Vessel following behind him.

  Twilight then asked Nurse Redheart if the mystery mare was doing okay. The nurse then wore a strained thoughtful expression before she nudged her head to let Twilight follow her down the hall. Twilight quickly trotted over to her as the nurse leaned her head closer to her.

  “She’s awake but…” she whispered, “She had a panic attack the moment she woke up when she saw where she was and a nurse quickly went out to get help to calm her down. Her vitals are stabilizing gradually but she’s a bit on edge, jumpy and paranoid so no sudden movements. It’ll help to be a little quiet as well.” She said to Twilight as they continued going through the halls with Doctors and Nurses passing by, nodding at the two mares with smiles and grunts.

  “I’ll do my best.” Twilight replied as they reached the closed door to the Hospitals’ lucky patient. Both mares could hear some pony murmuring in a hushed and caring tone. Redheart raised a hoof and lightly knocked on the door.

  “Who is it!?~” a mare replied with a sweet tone.

  “It’s Redheart with a special guest~” the nurse replied with a same sweet tone, causing Twilight to look at her weirdly. Once the mare noticed Twilight staring at her, she chuckled nervously with light blush going across her muzzle, “Um… it’s our way of speaking to one another around the building. Kind of like a secret code to one another to let them know what type of information they’ll be receiving before we show them.” She pawed at the floor with her blush growing.

  “Oh! Well… that’s quite interesting.” Twilight said.

  “Come on in!” the mare inside said.

  Nurse Redheart opened the door and stepped in first to gesture Twilight in. Twilight nodded at her and looked at the patients’ bed and only to be surprised by the fact that she wasn’t on her bed with all the equipment left there with no use. She looked around a little and found another nurse seated in the other corner of the room behind a somewhat draped bed with her back turned to them and quietly speaking to something, or some pony in this case.

  Twilight unleashed her saddlebag from her and levitated it onto the nearest bed and quietly trotted over to the speaking mare. She stopped herself a good two metres away and clopped the floor to gain her attention. The nurse looked back and was surprised to see their youngest Princess in front of her.

  “Oh… I didn’t know it was you Princess.” She said and got up to bow but was stopped by Twilight waving her hoof and lightly shaking her head.

  “Twilight is just fine, thank you.” She said back with a small smile.

  “Oh! Um…” she looked back and smiled at the patient, “I know you don’t want to meet anymore ponies, but this is one of three ponies that saved you.” She whispered kindly, “Do you want to say ‘Hi’?” she asked with a hopeful smile.

  The silence was, to Twilights’ point, unnerving as well as bringing back the feeling of danger from the previous night, sending chills up her spin. After a while the nurse looked back at her with a gentle nod.

  Twilight quietly and slowly trotted over to her and looked around the draped bed to see a skinny mare hugging a white pillow closely while she lightly rocked to and fro on the floor. Twilight then sat down beside the nurse with a small smile.

  “Hello.” She greeted quietly.

  The bandaged mare looked up at her with her eyes and suddenly stopped rocking, staying still as a statue. She just stared at her, eyes locked onto her own pair like predator or a petrified prey.

  After a long, nerve racking moment, the mare just looked back down at the floor and tightened her grip on the pillow.

  Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat, “Um… what’s your name?” she asked.

  After waiting for five minutes for an answer she decided to introduce herself.

  She gestured to herself, “My name is Twilight-”

  “Sparkle. The fourth Princess of Equestria, the youngest of the four and the Princess of Friendship. Grew up to be Princess Celestias’ protégée after a magical accident in the Hall of Magic, turning her parents into plants, growing the infant baby dragon into a full grown adult and levitating the judges after a Sonic Rainboom startled you. You were enrolled into school, also known as Celestias’ School for Gifted Unicorns to train and control your magical potential…” the mare stopped and looked up with her eyes at the shocked Twilight with a blank stare, “Good morning Princess Twilight Sparkle…” she greeted in a monotone voice and looked back down at the floor, going back into her own little world like nothing happened while nuzzling into the pillow like a filly to her favorite doll.

  Twilight and Redheart stared at the skinny mare with hanging mouths and eyes bulging out like they just seen Fluttershy kick a puppy right in front of them. The other nurse then closed their mouths for them and patted their heads to get them back.

  “Now, now, it’s not nice to stare at somepony like that.” She said and gently wiped their lips with a tissue paper.