A Shadow Came Unto Me

A Shadow Came Unto Me
Part 2: Dead Mare Walking

I couldn’t sleep. The stars were too beautiful. What? You try living underground for Faust knows how long and then seeing the majesty of Luna’s night all at once. I had to keep wiping my eyes. So sue me, I owned a book store, I can appreciate poetic beauty when I want.

Everypony else was asleep. Since the room was a giant cylinder with the cafeteria at the bottom in the middle, any cell could see most of the others from any point. When all the readers, cloppers, prayer-givers and such had finally rolled over and turned in for the night, I chanced going to my window without being noticed. You could hear a pin drop out there, aside from the occasional snore. The guards even had these little pads on so their hoofsteps wouldn’t resound across the great room and wake everypony up. Cute.

We never really look at them anymore. The stars I mean. I guess when I was out there I took a lot for granted. I can’t remember the last time I saw the sky and stopped to appreciate it like I was right then. I wiped my eyes again, smiling despite my situation. It was the little things sometimes.

I turned, looking at my ‘Welcome Home’ gifts Proto Star had gotten for me. I’d been asked what I wanted. The stallion had bragged that he could get just about anything for me, as long as it wasn’t against the rules. Everybody gets one thing for free, he’d promised. The rest would need to be traded for. Cigarettes, favors and the like were the real currency in here. I’d asked for pen and paper so I could write my thoughts. I’d received a crayon and a stack of napkins. Close enough. With just the right amount of spit you could draw something and stick it to your walls. Heh.

Reaching, I picked up my crayon (purple, if you must know) and hovered over my first page. Nice night, I wrote. I dunno why. Other than Proto Star I’d sort of been keeping to myself.

Nice Night, isn’t it?
Luna’s stars shine more brightly
If you stop to look.

Well well, lookit me. A poet and I didn’t knowit. Pfft. I smirked good-naturedly. I guess my spirits were lifted, just being able to see outside. The cool night air said it was still summer. Otherwise the bars would’ve been plain old glass. I looked down at the lawn again. No shadow mare. I’d not seen her since I’d moved in a few days ago. I dunno why I kept looking for her. But when you live in a box made of stone even hallucinations are interesting to think about and look forward to.

Then I saw it. A brief break in the light from the guard station. That wasn’t an armored pony. For obvious reasons there were no female guards, but I know a feminine shadow when I see one thank you very much. A heard a quiet hissing sound, like pouring cool water over a hot frying pan. I looked to the wall of my cell. The same spell circle from before appeared. “Oh balls,” I said aloud.

“Shut the buck up over there!” my neighbor grumped loudly. I put my hooves over my mouth, quickly retreating to my bed. A dozen or so inmates lifted their heads, peering about. It was serious taboo to make noise at night. Sleep was sacred, even to prisoners like them. I prayed nopony had seen me out of bed. Five minutes and process of elimination could get me beaten up tomorrow if I wasn’t careful. I pulled the covers over my head, panting a few times.

When I’d gathered my courage and the blanket made the air too hot, I thrust it back to peek. No shadow. I swallowed. The spell circle was still there, smoldering and quietly glowing like a dying grill coal. Grey-orange. I didn’t dare touch it.

I glanced out and down to the floor below. I saw her. She was there, standing among the tables. Oddly tall, she was. Dark fur and dark eyes. My eyes widened as she slipped from table to table, minding the board games, scattered art supplies and stacked books. Her shape seemed to slip, pass, and glide over them all. I couldn’t hear hoofsteps. Was she a ghost?! My breath caught. Was she a shadow, just like she’d said?! She passed into shadow and I lost track of her. I gripped the edge of my blanket, looking around feverishly.

A guard came by on his rounds, startling a yelp out of me. His flashlight turned and he stared at me frownily for a time. A quick sweep around my cell with the light, and he moved on. The pads on his hooves kept him silent. He must’ve thought I’d had a nightmare or something. I checked the darkness once more, but saw nopony else. I slowly laid down with a sigh… only to find her standing next to my bed.

I couldn’t scream. My lungs refused. The icy panic made me freeze up. Her eyes. There were no eyes. Just black voids. Was her fur black? Was she just a shadow?! A little whimper escaped me. Slowly, robotically, she lifted a hoof. “Shhhhhhhhhh…” she said, then… lowered it again. The motion was slow. Deliberate.

“Ah… ah…” I couldn’t make myself scream in horror. “Guh… guard…” I husked pathetically. Nopony heard. “Guard…” She leaned at me and I leaned back until the back of my head was against the cool wall. Her head turned to my napkin and crayon pile, then to the window, then back to me. Her muzzle dripped with an oily, blackened sort of substance. “Guard!” I squeaked.

“Shhhhhhhh…” she said again, slowly reaching out and touching me. The goo lined her fur like sticky ectoplasm. It was ice cold. It smeared the side of my face as she touched my cheek. I started shaking, trembling like a leaf. A line of the stuff slowly oozed up and out of her eye socket, then went down the side of her face like a black, oily tear. It dripped to the floor with a wet splat.

“F-f-f-faust…” I whimpered. She steered my head to look up and into the corner. “H-h-h-h’oh Faust…” I said softly, on the verge of wetting myself. There were cracks up in the top corner of my cell. A bit of dirt peeked through. “Wh-what is it? What’re you sh-showing me?” I begged softly. Her gooey, decayed hoof slid slowly from my cheek to my chin.

When my gaze returned to her, her teeth had morphed from their ooze-slickened nothingness to a set of wriggling earth worms. They flexed in all directions, back and forth, until she leaned and touched her muzzle to mine.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I woke up with a scream that startled the entire cell block into silence. “Easy there, new guy,” Proto Star was standing in the open doorway. I’d… slept in? The sun was streaming in my cell. I furiously scrubbed at my face. No oily goo. “You’re gonna miss breakfast. Quit freakin’ out or you’ll go hungry ‘til lunch.” he offered with a smirk.

I rolled out of bed, sweating and shaking. “N-nightmare,” I grunted a little, holding my stomach. “I-I’ll be along,” I said. “Gimmie a minute.”

“Sure thing,” he shrugged, then was away.

I looked up into the corner of my cell. Why hadn’t I noticed that before? The cracked, aged stone had mud and sod in it. The cell block must’ve been buried under a hill or something. Going to my window to feel the fresh air, I leaned back and forth. Sure enough. When I really, really pressed my face to the bars and looked to one side, I could see flecks of grass. Out of sight out of mind, prisons were, in the magical land of Equestria. I sighed, finally feeling a little better when the sun was on my face.

When I had gathered my wits (and dignity) I turned and made to head out to the great room below my cell. My hoof scuffed something and it petered across the floor. I frowned, looking down. It was black, pod-shaped, and a little dirty. I picked it up. “I don’t believe it,” I whispered softly, staring at it. It was a morning glory seed.

I glanced over at the exposed dirt in the top corner of my cell. Did I dare…? Wouldn’t the guards…? Well. The worst they could do is rip it out, really, I supposed. I sat on my bed, holding the seed between my hooves. I smiled. Such a little thing. Earth Pony instinct made me want to give it life. So, I did. I rubbed it back and forth with my hooves, so gently, letting the terra-magic flow as it always did when one of my kind wanted to grow something.

It burst with a little pop, an infantile curl of green emerging. A tiny leaf poked out and uncurled. I grinned, unable to help myself. Going and standing on the bed, I stuffed it up into the dirt in the corner. The sun would touch it in the mornings by the angle of the light, how nice was that? I put the tiny joy in my little dirt spot, covering it tenderly. Getting a mouthful of water, I watered it gently as I could. Who knew, it might grow there. I always loved morning glories. I even took some to Cobweb D… I stopped, slumping a little. Sighed.

I reached the doorway, glancing over at the wall opposite to my bed. The magic circle was gone. Of course it was. I’d been dreaming at the time. Decayed shadow mares breaking into prisons to give me flower seeds didn’t make any sense. So where had it come from? Maybe a bird lost it in the breeze, I decided, and it fell into my cell window. It was just luck. I stepped out, “You COMING?!”

“Ah!” I reeled.

“Oop, sorry,” Proto Star smirked, taking a drag from his cigarette. “I hear they’re doing hash browns today, better hop to it if you want any!” he trotted off. I wondered, not for the first time, how Proto Star seemed to know about stuff before it happened in the cell block.

Sure enough, hash browns and eggs for breakfast.

Since the daytime was sort of free-roaming in the cell block, I stuck to a table alone with some art supplies. We couldn’t have pencils, pens or anything that could be made into a weapon. So crayons and such would have to do. I wasn’t much of an artist, really, but it felt therapeutic to draw what I’d seen in my nightmares.

Had she had a horn? Wings? A long tail? I couldn’t remember. All I could focus on was the face. The dripping black slime. I decided on a portrait. I sighed over it, distressed. Nopony bothered me, thank goodness. I just didn’t want to be noticed around here, and the lack of folks talking to me felt good.

“Hey new guy! We need one more for cards, do… you… wanna… oh,” Proto Star stopped next to me. He leaned over the drawing, his smile slowly falling. “Cypher! Cypher!” He turned, shouting across the room. “CYPHER! Stop braiding that guy’s mane! Get over here!” he motioned wildly. Uh oh. I looked up to see a short, horn-rimmed glasses sort of stallion approach. He reared up when Proto Star gestured so he could see too.

“Oh boy,” he said softly, turning to study my face with a haunted expression. “Not seen her in almost a year. I was sure she was gone.” He pushed his glasses up his muzzle.

“Yah,” Proto Star said, delicately taking my artwork like it might burst into flames at any moment. “I’ll get the proper pony.”

“Hey!” I said, not bothering to get up.

“When did you see her?” Cypher wanted to know. I studied him. Archeological symbols dotted his flank in a three-part cutie mark. “What did she say?!” he demanded, growing angry at my silence.

“Who?!” I said, leaning away from him.

“The dead mare!” he lowered his voice to whisper. A few eyes flicked our way. A few ponies moved away to other activities. “The mare you drew. You saw her here, right?” Cypher wanted to know.

I slowly nodded. “Twice,” I whispered. “Once in max-sec, once here in min-sec.”

Cypher put his hooves to my shoulders, “I know you don’t know me, and I know you don’t got any reason to do what I say, but hear me out.” He leaned until we were almost muzzle to muzzle. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.

“Wh-what is it?” I whispered.

“Here we are,” Proto had come back with another stallion, a huge barrel-chested one. “Brick Boulder here has the Chronicle.” With a silent nod, the huge tattoo’d stallion surrendered a book that was bound with tape and dental floss. It was a shabby thing, kind of pathetic to look at. He grunted at Proto, who paid him a cigarette before he was away.

“We’ll add yours but you listen to me,” Cypher said softly. My drawing was brought forward, and the book flipped open. “You don’t talk to this mare,” he flipped pages, showing me black stick figures. Some of them had huge bat wings. Others had impossibly long horns on either side of its head. “You don’t look at this mare.” Crude drawings that were meant to be the magic circle I’d seen dotted the landscape on every page. “You don’t do what she says. You don’t take anything from her either.” He added my drawing to the last page. A portrait with wormy teeth, dripping with black goo.

“Who is she?” I whispered desperately. “What does she want?”

“I dunno. No one does. But it always spells trouble. More than one prisoner’s hung himself to get away from her. They say she causes accidents. Y’know. Hallucinations and things to make you kill yourself in here.” Cypher called over another random stallion, paid him five cigarettes, and the book was hidden away once more. It changed guardians every time it was brought out, it seemed. “The guards don’t believe us, they never see her. Just us prisoners.”

“Is she a… a ghost or…?”

“If only,” Cypher shook his head. “Just… just don’t have anything to do with her new guy, okay? For your own good. Don’t look at her, don’t talk to her, don’t take anything from her, don’t do nothin’.” The stallion looked about, then back at me. “Once she’s got ‘hold of you, that’s it.” The guards were studying us from their lookout station high above. Cypher coughed and was quickly away.

Proto sat down across from me, offering a rather fake looking smile like he was sitting to talk. When the guards turned away, he frowned again. “She hasn’t… given you anything, has she?” he said in all seriousness. “It’s too late by then, story goes.”

“N-no, of course not,” I said. “I’ve only seen her twice, she hasn’t given me anything.”

“Twice is twice too many,” Proto said, coughing a bit and trying to change the subject. “C’mon. Let’s introduce you to a few ponies so you’re not the hermit of min-sec, neh?” he offered a smile. I returned it, still shaken. “Get your mind off things.”

When I returned to my cell at dusk, the seed I’d planted had become a long, green strand of morning glories. It hung from the ceiling almost to the floor, covered with flowers. Morning glories don’t bloom at dusk, though. And they don’t bloom black either. “Buck… me…” I whispered, running my hooves over them. Before my eyes, the entire vine turned to ash and vanished.

End of Part 2