Moonlight Terror

Twilight lie on her back at the base of a tree, waving the feather she gathered at the scene of Doctor Whooves’ death in her face, thinking if she should even bother to investigate any further.

It did not even seem like any pony even cared about what happened on that night. “Four ponies died and no one even cares?!” Twilight asked herself, wondering why no pony was even bothering to investigate, or even ask any pony what happened.

Gossip about the incident had died down, so Twilight had nothing to go on, except the one pony who she knew had survived, completely oblivious to Leeroy’s survival. She wanted to investigate this deeper, to know exactly what was going on.

Word had it that Hoops was locked up in Cloudsdale Insane Asylum, this was just a rumour, but one of the few rumours about the incident that were left.

Twilight thought long and hard and decided to give Hoops a surprise visit to see if he could still talk about it. Twilight had heard that Hoops had almost lost his mind completely, and that he spent the rest of his days locked up in a straightjacket, rambling about the unfortunate incident.

Twilight did not know where the Cloudsdale Asylum was, so she decided to go to the pony who knows the great pegasus city best, Rainbow Dash. “As long as she isn’t still hung over.” Twilight giggled to herself, remembering the inebriated state she was in the last time they had met.

Twilight approached the impressive house in the sky, “RAINBOW DASH!” Twilight yelled in an effort to get Rainbow Dash’s attention.

Rainbow Dash peered out of her window, looking much happier and not at all hung over, “Hang on a sec!” Rainbow Dash yelled back, still recovering from a long sleep.

Rainbow Dash eventually flew down to greet the violet unicorn, “What can I do for ya Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked, her face lit up with a cheeky grin.

“I need you to take me to Cloudsdale Insane Asylum.” Rainbow Dash’s smile was soon erased from her face.

“You want me to take you where?” Asked Rainbow Dash, her voice confused, a little bit puzzled at the request made by Twilight.

“I said I want you to take me to Cloudsdale Insane Asylum,” Twilight retold Dash her request, this time looking at the pegasus with a face of seriousness, “Unless you’re afraid?” Twilight teased Dash, knowing that would get a response.

“WHAT?!” Dash responded, she never likes it when some pony says she is afraid, “Of course I’m not afraid, who do you take me for? Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash did not intend to make fun of Fluttershy, only use her as an example due to how she is afraid of almost everything.

“So you’ll take me?” Twilight’s face lit up at the thought of getting her own way.

“Fine I’ll take you,” Rainbow Dash sounded like she was going against her will, that Asylum had always given her the creeps.

The unicorn and pegasus decided to walk to Cloudsdale as Twilight was in no way capable of flying, despite knowing a flight spell as it would tire her out too much for the job at hand.

“So why do you even want to go to the asylum?” Rainbow Dash did not know anyone who could have been linked to Twilight that was in the asylum.

“You remember that incident on Cloudsdale a couple weeks back?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, as it happens I do.” Rainbow Dash knew of it, but she had only heard the rumours, it never interested her.

“Well rumour has it one of those pegasi had survived,” Twilight informed Dash, “And rumour also had it he lost his mind, ended up in the psycho ward.” Twilight thought to herself, it could not have been an easy ride for the pegasus.

“Who do they say it is?” Twilight had peaked Rainbow Dash’s interest on the matter.

“They say it’s a pegasus named Hoops.” Twilight had no idea about the history between Rainbow Dash and Hoops, the cyan pegasus was not one to tell of her past, at least not the negatives.

“Ugh, I hate that guy.” Rainbow Dash suddenly remembered all the tough times Hoops and his minions had put her through.

“Why? I heard he was such a sweet pegasus.” Twilight did not know whether to trust what she had heard through rumours or whether to trust the words of Rainbow Dash.

“Let’s just say that we never saw eye to eye and that he loved to pick on any pony with a rainbow coloured mane.” Twilight knew what Dash meant, after all she is the only pony to have a mane that was so colourful.

Twilight felt sorry for Dash, but there was nothing she could do to help her with her past troubles.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were directly underneath Cloudsdale. “I never have seen Cloudsdale like this.” Twilight looked directly up, putting a little bit of strain in her neck.

“I guess I’ll see you up there.” Rainbow Dash took off, flying upwards towards a cloud road that led to the Asylum.

Twilight concentrated as she cast a spell upon herself that allowed her to walk amongst the pegasi atop the clouds, she never really did see what the big deal is with living on a giant cloud. After she cast the spell she concentrated on how high she would need to teleport.

In a flash of bright light Twilight appeared right above the clouds, her hooves a foot off the cloud surface. “EEP!” Twilight let out a high pitched squeal as she instinctively closed her eyes as she fell softly onto the cloud.

Rainbow Dash laughed at Twilight, being a pegasus she never understood why Twilight was so nervous about stepping onto a cloud.

Twilight looked down to make sure she was standing firmly on all four hooves. She smiled with an embarrassed look on her face as she looked at Rainbow Dash, knowing how much of a fool she must have looked to the pegasus.

“Well the Asylum is just down this road,” Dash seemed to be in a hurry, “You’ll know when you get there when you see a big creepy house. Hehe.” Rainbow dash let out a nervous laugh as she tried to fly away.

Twilight grabbed the end of Dash’s tail with her magic. Rainbow Dash crashed into the ground as Twilight slammed her back onto the ground with more force than she thought she used.

“HEY!” Rainbow Dash was not pleased, “What was that for?!” Dash looked at Twilight with a face like thunder.

“Sorry,” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash sincerely, “But where exactly do you think you’re going?” Twilight did not understand why Rainbow Dash was in such a hurry to get away, after all it was the weekend.

“That place gives me the creeps,” Rainbow Dash tried to explain, “Ever since I was a little filly and I used to fly over it for practice, it’s just plain creepy.” Rainbow Dash looked into the distance to find the place of her nightmares.

“Well I certainly can’t go there on my own.” Twilight looked at Dash with big gleaming eyes, trying to get her to feel sympathetic for her.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “Fine!” Dash said in a huff, clearly going against her own will. No matter what her say on the matter was. “I’ll go, but I AM NOT going inside.” Rainbow Dash made it clear about what it would take for her to accompany Twilight.

Twilight’s face lit up with a blinding smile, she loved it when she got what she wanted, which was very nearly all the time.

As the duo approached the Asylum Twilight could see why the place gave Rainbow nightmares. The building was run down; it almost looked like it tilted to one side. It was covered in moss and ivy; it looked like it would crumble to the ground if you so much as leaned on it.

There was a gate that was half open that led into the courtyard, a rainbow fountain was in the middle of a circular cloud road. “Can I go now?” Rainbow Dash asked, eager to get out of there.

“If you could wait out here that would be nice.” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, not wanting her to leave her all by herself in such a rundown area.

Twilight opened the front door hesitantly, the door creaking as it opened slowly, some pony really should have put oil on the hinges.

As the unicorn slowly walked inside, the interior of the building was a lot brighter, yellow walls with small red flowers painted on the skirting of those bright yellow walls. Attending a counter across the room from Twilight sat a very distressed looking pegasi, staring into space.

The pegasus looked down at Twilight, confused as to how exactly a pony who was not gifted with pegasus wings could walk on the cloud tops. “Can I help you?” Said the pegasus, who had a blank look and her voice could not have sounded any less enthusiastic.

“I have heard you have a patient that goes by the name of Hoops?” Twilight asked politely and enthusiastically, not allowing the receptionist in front of her intimidate her.

The pegasus suddenly snapped to attention at the mention of Hoops, as though mentioning that name was banned and could never be mentioned. “Yes,” The pegasus looked sad and sympathetic, “I never have seen such a tragic case.” Twilight felt sorry for the pegasus, working in these sort of conditions must have been a drain on her attitude.

The pegasus suddenly looked at Twilight with a stern look, “If you are intending on visiting him you must wait here for a moment,” Twilight listened to every word the pegasus said, she was clearly in no joking mood, “And when you are talking to him, try not to agitate or frighten the poor thing.” The pegasus almost looked to sympathise with Hoops.

Twilight just nodded and sat down, reading the latest gossip magazine with the headline ‘Trixie revealed!’ “Nothing but drivel yet again.” Twilight mumbled to herself as she put the magazine down and slumped in a chair.

Ten minutes later another pegasus walked in to the room, “You here to see Hoops?” He asked with a stern voice, staring coldly at Twilight.

“Yes.” Twilight responded reluctantly as there was no other pony in sight, the closest pony was Rainbow Dash, and she probably ran home.

“Come with me.” The pegasus started walking straight away, Twilight had to move fast just to keep up with the pegasus.

“I’m sorry if this place intimidates you,” The pegasus broke the awkward silence as they walked down a dark corridor, “But this place never really gets any pony so the mayor of Cloudsdale never really took care of this place, Hoops is the first pony we have had so we never really took care of the place either.” He explained to Twilight, apologising for the state the asylum was in.

Twilight didn’t respond, but was anxious at seeing Hoops for the first time, especially in his current state.

“Well here he is,” The pegasus unlocked a steel door, “Just don’t do anything to get him started, we still don’t know how he’ll respond.” The pegasus whispered as he backed away.

Twilight entered the room as the pegasus closed and locked the door behind her. She squinted as she saw something huddled in the corner of the room, shaking and mumbling. “Hey there,” The frightened mess turned to look at Twilight, silent and anxious. “Hoops, is it?” Twilight was being as delicate as possible with her words, trying not to impose on the frightened pegasus.

“Y… You know my n… name?” Hoops stuttered, clearly traumatised by whatever it is that put him in this state.

“Yes, my name’s Twilight.” Twilight pointed at herself, smiling as she did, trying to get him on her side. “I have some questions for you.” Twilight was not asking, she wanted answers, one way or another.

“D… di… did they s… send you I… in here?” Hoops was suspicious, the ponies who ran the asylum had tried asking him what had happened, but they didn’t get anything out of him.

“No no. Think of me as a friend.” Twilight was trying her best to be friendly and not turn this into an awkward encounter.

“O… okay.”

“Now tell me, what exactly happened on the night you started acting like this.” Twilight put it as delicately as she could.

“N… nothing. We were a… all fooling around an… an then the others d… ditched me.” Hoops responded, believing every word he was saying.

Twilight was not convinced, she pulled out a feather from her mane and showed it to Hoops, “Perhaps this will refresh your memory?”

Hoops’ face sunk, “W… We were playing with this animal an… and we heard someone stalking us.” Hoops seemed to be less nervous now, “I asked Dumb-bell to keep it quiet, and he d… did.”

Twilight still wasn’t convinced, “Are you sure? Are you sure that it wasn’t some other pony that you were telling him to keep quiet?” Twilight was remaining calm, not wanting to frighten Hoops.

“Well, we sent the animal to s… see what it was that was stalking us. T… then it just stopped making a noise, so we went to see what happened.”

“What happened next?” Twilight was pushing Hoops for answers.

“Whatever it was, it was big, vicious and it killed it,” Twilight noticed that Hoops had stopped stuttering. “It killed the animal, that thing killed the animal.” Hoops began to cry, “Oh Celestia, oh Celestia, it was Leeroy. That thing killed Lee… Leeroy!” He was stuttering on the words as he gasped for air as he cried.

“I didn’t want h… him to die…” Twilight looked at him, feeling bad for bringing this up. Hoops looked up at Twilight with hatred spelt across his face. “Why did you make me remember that?” Hoops wanted to repress that memory forever, no matter what it meant.

“I’m sorry, I’ll leave you alone now.” Twilight did not want to put Hoops through anymore distress than he was already in. She walked to the door and knocked on it twice, the door opened as she looked back at Hoops who was crying quietly in the corner as he remembered the ordeal.

Twilight left the asylum, she saw Rainbow Dash staring idly at the fountain. “Hey Dash,” Twilight called her over, “You ready to go?”

“I’ve been ready to leave ever since we got here.” Rainbow Dash was eager to leave. “So…” Dash wanted to address the elephant in the room, “How is he?”

“You don’t wanna know.” Twilight felt sad after what just happened, she took one quick look back as she and Rainbow Dash began walking back to Ponyville.