"You are of no more use to me."
"NO, PLEASE!!!!!!STOP!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhh”
"One little two little three little dead ponies, four little five little six little dead ponies, seven little eight little nine little dead ponies and so many more will die!!”
Shut up shut up shutupshutupshutp.....SHUTTHEHELLUP!!! The voices stopped and, with a clearer mind, Clairsentience realized where she was. The distinct wing beats and warm blood trickling down her legs also reminded her why she was running, her loose blind fold bounced on her chest. The wing beats got closer, catching up to her even though she was galloping at full speed. "Crap, this isn't working!" If I try to hide the blood-trail will give me away, I can't out run them for much longer, and if I 'play dead' they'll kill me. Dammit! What do I do? She came across a gorge with a thin rickety bridge spanning the distance. She quickly galloped to the other side a trap already forming in her mind.
The captain of the hunting squad narrowed his eyes as he flew. That damned witch has to be here somewhere. He then located his prey, a small gray-blue Pegasus with a red-violet mane. He landed, thinking to himself just how much fun his job was. The witch, barely able to stand, was on the other side of the bridge glaring defiantly at him, but she had given up already. He could see it in her eyes. He signaled the others to move in for the kill. Two of his four subordinates hovered over the gorge on his left the other two on his right while he walked over the bridge. When he got to the middle though the bridge snapped and he fell. He gracefully opened his wings and flew back up after falling a short distance. “Did you really think you could kill me that easily?” he mocked her. In response she merely took out a needle that was hidden in her mane and threw it directly at him. He dogged it so that it barely scratched his leg enough to make it bleed. He let out a thunderous laugh, taunting her. He didn't see it, but all of his subordinates did. She was calm, smiling even, as she watched his blood drop through the air and into the gorge. He stopped, noticing his squads’ silence. He looked at the witch, and what he saw there terrified him. Or rather what he didn't see, there was no fear in her eyes. She was as good as dead, cornered be Equestrias' finest assassins. Yet she looked as though she had already won.
Then came the roar. It was loud enough to deafen anypony and it was coming from directly below them. Him and the smarter ones in the squad were trying to get to the witch when the massive thing came up and ate them all in one snap of its giant maw. Only he survived it, the thing only took his left wing. He fell to the ground in front of the witch and shakily stood.
Thanks to the immense pain from his missing wing that was all he could do. The witch walked up to him and ever so gently pushed him into the gorge. He tried to fly, but merely ended up spiraling towards the creature at the bottom of the gorge. He looked up and the last thing he saw was the witch’s’ blood red eyes smiling down at his as he fell to his death.
Clairsentience's pursuers were dead. She trembled remembering fragments of their lives. You see, young Clara here has a very odd power. Just by looking at you, she relives all of your past darknesses. Whether it be as small as shoplifting or something more along the lines of murder, she relives it all, through the eyes if the one who did it. The reverse of that is also true. If you have been stolen from or tortured she relives that as well.
Given that she wasn't being chased anymore Clara took a look at her surroundings. It looks to be a forest, old, and probably cursed. She walked away from the gorge and into the thick woods. The leaves canceled out the moon and created horrifying images on the tree trunks. But she had seen too much horror in her life to be scared, so she walked on unaffected, but soon collapsed. Huh the adrenalin must be wearing off. Almost immediately afterwards she fell into unconsciousness within the dangers of Everfree forest.
Chapter 1: The beast of Everfree forest
Fluttershy is well known to be a very light sleeper. So when she heard the tremendous growl that came from the forest she woke up to make sure that all of her animals were fine, only to find that one of them was missing! Please don't let them be hurt. She galloped into the forest in the direction where the growl came from. She soon found her lost animal friend but also a young looking mare with horrible wounds. The animal wasn't hurt, thankfully, so she let him go after a short scolding and put the injured mare on her back. She started her long trek back to town and the hospital.
I haven't seen wounds like this in quite a while. I wonder how it happened? They don't look animal inflicted, but she wouldn't do it to herself. So ... how? She thought to her self as she cantered through Ponyville, moving as fast as she dared to with a severely injured mare of her back. She was on her way to the local hospital because, even though her house was quite well equipped for medical emergencies, this mare had three broken ribs, parts of her wings were snapped, there were several long gashes down her flank and legs, and her breathing was unnervingly shallow. A pony this injured needs a real hospital instead of a room in her house.
When she walked into the hospital lounge, slightly out of breath, she quickly went up to the assistance desk and showed the pony behind the counter the mare on her back. The nurses pupils shrank to pinpricks upon seeing the injuries on the mares’ body and she screamed for the doctors. Soon after a doctor came running into the lobby about to shout something at the nurse. Until he saw the condition that the mare on Fluttershys back was in. Once he did he quickly relieved Fluttershy of her cargo and took the mare to an operating room. I wonder if she’ll make it? She thought.
The next morning Twilight went down to the hospital to see if there were any doctors or nurses there willing to answer her questions about pony anatomy. But instead she found Fluttershy in the waiting room. “Fluttershy what are you doing here?” the confused pony questioned her friend. The yellow pegasus looked up as Twilight walked over. “Oh Twilight. I found an injured pony with out in the forest last night and brought her here. They said that I couldn't stay the night, so I came back today to check in on her, but I can't see her because the anesthetic from the surgery hasn't worn off yet." Oh so there's a new pony in town... wait surgery!?! I hope it wasn't too bad. She was about to say something when a nurse walked over to them. "Miss, that mare that you brought in is awake now. If you'd like to see her then please follow me." Without another word the nurse turned around and started walking away. Fluttershy practically jumped off the chair she was sitting on to follow her. Twilight caught up to the nurse. "Would it be alright if I came too?" She asked the nurse who nodded in return.
When Twilight entered the room she was quite surprised. Not by the mares small size or how many wounds she had, of course. Twilight had been in a hospital before and seen much worse. No the reason for her surprise was something else entirely. It was a the blind fold that she was wearing, it looked more for decoration than any medical purpose she could think of. The mare moved her head in their direction. "Is someone there?" She asked with mild curiosity. Surprisingly enough it was Fluttershy who answered her. "Um, y-yes. My name is Fluttershy. I'm the one who brought you here. My friend Twilight is here too." Why didn't she mention the nurse? Twilight looked around to find that the nurse had left without her noticing. The mare smiled at Fluttershy. "Thank you very much. My name is Clairsentience, though most ponies call me Clara. Now, Fluttershy was it? I wanted to know something. Why did you save me?" Twilight's jaw nearly hit the ground at that. Once she composed herself a bit she said " Why would you ask her something like that? She saved your life, shouldn't you be the least bit grateful? Besides, Flutters here is the element of kindness. I'm sure she would have done it for anypony." Twilight looked over to her before mentioned friend, only to be surprised for the second time that day. Even though she had just given Fluttershy the type of praise that she would usually blush at, now Fluttershy just looked ... sad. A short sentence brought her attention back to Clara. "Oh you must be Twilight." She mused "I'm sorry for not recognizing your title before, Fluttershy, and I'm not trying to be ungrateful. The only reason I asked was because where I'm from ponies can be quite ... Cruel to one another. Though I'm guessing that's not the case here. Speaking of which, Where exactly is 'here'?" "Your in Ponyville." Twilight said, trying to take control of this conversation, only to have it fall from her grasp the moment a nurse walked in. "Excuse me Miss Clair ... Clairsen..." Clara interrupted her with "Just Clara is fine. What can I do for you?" The nurse held out a piece of paper to her before realizing her mistake. "Well Miss Clara, how will you be paying?"
That single question caused Clara's smile to disappear. "I'm sorry but I don't have any money or any insurance. Is there some way I could pay it off?" Before the shocked, and obviously new, nurse could recover Twilight spoke up. "Don't worry I'll pay for her." The nurse let out a breath ad walked away after handing the unicorn a sheet of paper. "Twilight." Clara said "Is there any way that I could repay you then? Call it old fashioned, but I feel like I need to help sompony when they hep me." Twilight thought for a moment Well I could always use a pony as my assistant. "You can help me and my friends out by doing odd jobs here and there. After some time your debt will have been payed off and you won't have to help us anymore. How does that sound?" Clara's smile returned to her face. "It sounds wonderful. I'll start as soon as I get out. But where will I live?" At this Fluttershy rejoined the conversation. "Well considering how long you'll be staying here. You might want to get a permanent house. There is one that I know of but It's quite a ways away from town. It's been empty for a very long time now. I'm sure nopony would mind if you just moved right in. Also I've been wondering. Um... how did you get those injuries?" When did Fluttershy get so bold? Twilight wondered. "Well you see, it was something in the forest, but after the beast hurt me, I got rid of it at the gorge. Unfortunately the damage had already been done by then, and here we are."
Twilight and Fluttershy left soon afterwards. Little did they know the creature that this mare brought with her wasn't gone. No he was merely in waiting, waiting for his injuries to heal, waiting for her to slip up. Then he would strike.
Chapter 2: In the library
Hello it's the author again. I just want to credit my editor, co-conspirator, and the person who did the cover art for this. ShaeSinclair! Without her this story would be a mess. Also the will be a lot of set up before we get to the real secrets, but there will be other things happening. And now to the story!
The house that Clara was residing in was quite large and barren. It had two stories, five bedrooms, a basement, a library, and was made completely out of wood. Clara had just sat down to write down all of the darknesses she had seen over the years of having this curse, as she did in every new town she went to. Why did she do this? For some reason or another it quieted the voices in her head to prevent her from going insane. Let's see, there was that teacher pedophile... The sex slave trader... That bunch of orphans that made another orphan commit suicide... Hmm...
She had only just began when she heard a knock on the door. After grabbing her blind fold off the table and tying it over her eyes, she answered her guest. "Hello, who is it?" She asked even though she knew exactly who it was. After all, if you show that your too smart, people start asking questions. "Hello Clara! It's me, Twilight." The cheerful purple pony responded. "I came over to get you. You'll be working at my library first." I must be getting better at predicting pony's movements. Clara thought silently.
"Oh Twilight, about that. Do you have any idea about how long I'll be working for you?" Clara asked, then was interrupted by a wave of pain jabbing violently at her skull.
Blood slid down the wall towards the fresh corpse lying on the ground. "SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!!!" A hoarse voice bellowed. Tears joined the blood and liquified brain matter in a slowly forming pool around his lovers body. Clara shook her head to clear the graphic image. Damn it's getting worse. She thought, her pain subsiding. "-so you'll be working with a different one of my friends every day. we should probably get going. hey Clara are you alright?" Twilight finished with a worried tone in her voice. And I just missed what she was saying. Damned fragments. Clara frowned. "Don't worry Twilight, it's just a small headache. Now lets get going."
As they walked down the road to Ponyville, Clara was trying to remember all she knew about her new employer since she had studied each of the ponies thoroughly once she knew that she would be residing in the cheery town. Twilight Sparkle: Unicorn. Element of Magic. Student of Celestia. Notorious bookworm. living arrangement: Library/tree. Living companions: Spike. Very attached to friends and family. Treats books like children. Very inquisitive. Persistent. Intelligent. "Um, Clara? I was wondering. Why do you wear that blindfold?" Twilight asked. And too socially awkward to care. Clara rolled her eyes under her blindfold. "Well Twilight, I can't see. And it was a gift." Well Twilight, I refuse to see. And this is so i won't have to see the horrible things that you might have done. At the silence that followed Clara smiled and said "Don't worry. I'm not that sensitive about it. Is there anything else you want to ask me about? I'd be more than willing to answer you." Better to get this out of the way sooner rather than later. "Well, actually, yes." Twilight said as the pair walked into the outskirts of Ponyville. "I was wondering. where was your home before you got here?"
"In truth, I have been traveling ever since I was a small filly. So I never had a permanent home... Well, I did have a home once, but it's long gone now..." Clara finished in a sad voice.
"But, why do you travel? It must be hard considering your eyes and all." Twilight persisted.
"The same reason anypony does anything, because I want to." because I need to. "It's my passion!" I wonder, how many lies I'm going to tell this pony? Clara said, feeling bad for lying to the unicorn.
"Is that what your cutie mark means? Because I've never seen an eye on a red wavy sun before." Twilight asked her voice slightly fainter than before.
"Your staring at my cutie mark, aren't you?" Clara paused. "Oh well, no, that's not what it means. It means that anything that lives will flourish when I'm near. See, the sun means life. I haven't figured out the rest of it yet, but I'm sure that's what it means. A sun means life, red means evil, an eye means Sight. It means that I can See the evil in all of life.
"Well, one can't misinterpret their own cutie mark. I'm sure you'll figure it out. On to another topic, what are your hobbies?" Twilight said as the pair came upon her house.
"How about instead you tell me what I'll be doing for the foreseeable future." Clara said walking into the house, where she ran into a small purple and green dragon. "HEY!" The creature said in an offended tone. "Watch where you're going next time!"
Spike picked himself up off the ground and took a good look at the pony who nearly trampled him. "What are you bli..." He noticed the cloth that covered the pony's eyes. After a brief moments pause to take it all in, Spike began to help the poor mare off the ground. "I-I'm so sorry about that. I didn't know. Ah...um... I'm Spike, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Clara. It's a pleasure to meet you too, Spike." she said picking her self up off the ground. "Forgive me for saying this, but I've never heard a pony that sounds like you before. Where are you from?" Spike was slightly confused by the question, but then he realized She doesn't know I'm a dragon! He almost smacked himself for not telling her. "You've got it wrong. I'm a dragon, not a pony." he explained as Twilight walked past Clara and further into the library that was her home. "Well now that you know everypony here, let's get down to business." Twilight said a little impatiently. "Clara, Spike there will be instructing you on what to do. I'll be in the room. Do not bother me."
Clara turned to spike. "So, is she always like that? And which room is 'the' room?"
"She's only like this when she's in the middle of an experiment, and the room she was talking about is the one through the door that's next to the kitchen. But never go in there." He shuddered. "Unless you want to deal with Twilight when she finds out."
"All right, I can respect that. No going in the room next to the kitchen. Pardon my rudeness, but, why are you in Ponyville?" Clara asked while slowly walking around the main room.
"It's a bit of a long story... So, the first thng we'll be doing is reorganize the book shelves." The small reptile said while walking over to the closest book shelf.
"Reorganize it? Any particular reasoning behind this?" The mare questioned, acting like she was examining the books.
"Well, they always end up out if order for some reason. And Twi hates that. Oh, wait, your blind so you won't be able to see the titles..." Spike realized.
Clara laughed in response. "Don't worry , I can help in other ways, like flying up to the top shelves, since you probably can't reach those. Then I can bring them down here and you can tell me where to put them. How does that sound?"
Spike considered her proposition for a few seconds before replying. "But, wouldn't you run into things?" He wouldn't want her getting hurt.
Clara shook her head sending her long mane everywhere. "No, Im very aware of what's around me." Somehow she must have known how confused he was. "It means that I know where stuff is if I'm close to it without hitting it. But I have to fly rather slow to register where the thing is." She clarified.
" Yeah." Spike nodded "I think that could work." Getting to those top shelves without twi's magic would be a big problem. The rather small gray-blue Peguses pony then unfurled her wings and took off, hovering for a second before quickly raising into the air. She then hovered once more before slowly going towards the shelf, picking out a book and quickly flying back down to where spike was to show him the title. She then put the book in its place and started towards the next one for Spike to identify.
It went on like this for quite a while, but soon Clara got faster and in a short time the upper shelves were done. All that remained now were the lower shelves. "Thanks for your help Clara. It would have taken alot longer by my self." Spike said to the Pegasus.
"Right." Was all Clara said in return as she came back down from her final trip up. She landed, panting slightly, and winced when she shut her wings. That's right, she was in surgery a few weeks back. All this flying around must have taken a lot out of her. "Alright Clara, how about you take a break while I do the rest of this?"
The mare shook her head again. "No. I was brought here to work so I can pay off my debt. I'm not going to put my responsibilities on you while I rest, although now that the upper levels are done I'd most likely get in the way more than help... Is there anything other than reorganization that I can do?"
"Don't you want to rest for even a second?"
"No. I gave twilight my word that I would work for her and her friends until my debt was payed back. Call me old fashioned but when I make a promise I intend to keep it."
"Alright then... Let's see... What can a blind mare do? You think that you can dust the house?" Spike asked.
"Sure, but aren't you getting hungry? We've been working for hours. I know Im hungry. Why dont I make us dinner?"
Clara didn't sound like she's joking. "You can cook?" Spike said, astonished. How can a blind mare cook? He questioned silently.
"Yeah. I've been told that I'm pretty good, too... Just don't come in the kitchen." Clara said in a slightly worried tone.
Not long after the sounds and smells of wonderful cooking filled the house. I'd better go tell her that dragons eat gems. Spike thought, tempted by the intoxicating smell. He walked over to the closed door, but before he even touched it he heard Twilights voice from down stairs. "Oh, Spike! Could you come down here for a moment?" The unicorn called. Oh no. He broke out in a cold sweat. "B-But Twilight, we have a guest!" He responded, trembling . "Please not again." The little dragon whispered to himself. It had been months since their last 'session', and he thought that Twilight had done everything she wanted. "You know, you're right!" She said, breaking him from his thoughts. "Could you bring her down here instead?" Spike was frozen for a moment. Part of him was happy that it wasn't him anymore, but the larger part was scared for Clara. But if he didnt do as Twilight said, she would punish him again. "Sorry Clara." he whispered and walked into the kitchen. What he saw there surprised him to say the least. Clara was standing in front of a boiling soup pot with her blindfold down around her neck.
She heard the clunk of something falling over. Spike whispered her name. Clara quickly closed her eyes and faced him. "Yes, Spike?" Lie, lie I need a lie! Um, my blindfold gets itchy sometimes so I take it off? No, then I wouldn't have opened my eyes. Um, my eyelids were sticking together? No no one would buy that one. I just like to sometimes? Yes, it's vague and slightly embarrassing. He won't question it. The Pegasus pony thought, frantically trying to come up with an excuse.
"Clara, you're not blind are you?"
It's amazing how many creatures guess the truth. "Of course I am silly. Why in Equrestia would I lie about something like that?"
"Then why did you have your blindfold off?" Spike questioned.
"Oh it's just an old habit from back when I wasn't used to it. I didn't want to seem weird so I told you not to come in so you wouldn't find out." Clara said, growing nervous. "So why are you in here?"
"Oh, well Twilight wants to see you in the room."
Sounds like bad news. Best to avoid it.
"Oh Spike, I'd love to, but unfortunately I need to get back and tend to my own house before the day is out. I was planning on finishing this then leaving, but considering the time, would you mind taking over?"
"Sure." The dragon said then paused. "How do you know what time it is?"
That's an easy one. "I have a very accurate internal clock." Clara said with a smile, then turned to walk out the door.
Twilight was walking up the flight of staires that connected her secret work room to the rest of the house. What is taking that useless lizard so long? She thought with a frown, then got to the main room just in time to see her new plaything walking away from her house through the window. "Spike!" She yelled angrily. The baby dragon was at her side in moments. "Why is Clara leaving?" She said without even looking at him.
"S-She said that she needed to tend to her own house." The glare Twilight gave him was second only to the Stare. "But I did find something out!"
Intrigued, she stopped glaring at him and said "What?"
"She wasn't wearing her blindfold! In the kitchen she was cooking without her blindfold on! She said that it was an old habit but I thought that you should know."
Well now that's intriguing. Next she'll be at Fluttershys. I'll just send spike to tail her and see if he can find anything else out. A smile slowly spread across her face. Oh yes this will be fun.