Non-Purple Twilight Zone
Dan's Comments
DISCLAIMER: My Little Pony is the property of Hasbro, Inc.
This journal was located in Hollow Shades by Princess Twilight Sparkle and her team several days after the disappearance of the entire town's population.
This entry was added later, when it went from notes on a training exercise to a warning to those who come after: 'I thought I should introduce myself to anyone who discovers this.
I suspect my nonchalance will disturb some, but I do things like this for a living. The weird, the strange and the unusual are my bread and butter. But I'm also expensive, so when the government wanted me to train some of their agents, I did my best. To say that the special forces 'operators' were less than receptive, is a story for another time. One group was extremely interested, the pararescue squads, as they are more likely to encounter such incidents without forewarning. So began the training, and this was supposed to be the culmination. A 'live' exercise into one of the safe, spooky areas, a woods where you literally can't see 80 spans and can't see the sun. The trees seem to absorb light and sound. Nothing supernatural, but definitely disorienting when your own shout disappears within moments.'
Note from TS, the above is in perfect Equestrian written on the inside of the front cover rather than on the pages, below is rendered in an alien language but enough of a 'Rosetta Stone' was contained here in to decipher the text. Must recommend to their Highnesses that some important markers of high durability be made with all the planet's languages.
06/35/11-7
Encountered the town after walking through the woods. Do not know when the GPS went out, but it's gone, can't detect the satellites with magic, although this place thrums with it. Do hope this isn't an elaborate practical joke. The entire town looks like a 'quaint' English village out of a medieval movie. If the inhabitants were Munchkins. The place looks normal, except being 1/3 scale. My 8.5 span frame is going to have to crawl through those doors. Warrant Officer Farqua disturbed by the bright coloring of the surroundings. More evidence of practical joke.
TS: 'span' and 1/3 scale, estimate span as 8 inches. No comment on GPS, English or Munchkins.
06/35/13-5
Completed a survey of the village. No evidence of panicked evacuation. Authenticity is high: food in general store, books in library, and small wagons and carts in car ports. No evidence of draft animals or vehicles. Note, the people are obsessed with horses. Pictures in every home of small horses in costumes. Like painting of dogs playing poker. WO suggests these are the inhabitants. Conclusion, someone went to great effort to make that the obvious observation. Note, electricity still working, but no generator can be found, so place is wired up to a grid. Haven't seen sun through the gray haze, which is strange considering it was a bright sunny day when we left. Technology is eclectic. Rail line, but burns on ties assumes coal-burning, but no telephones. Small arcade with video games, but no home-based electronics: radios, TVs, computers.
The silence is getting to the WO, I remind her that this is part of the training. Encountering the unknown, share that this is a joke on me and a test of her, and we should treat it as serious.
06/35/19-8
Wolves. Note, wolves are not native to the WO's home world. Their howls are from a distance, and they are not the typical call and reply. These seem like very good impersonations by people who don't understand the howling is a social interaction.
TS: Timberwolves don't act like that. Possible different species? Dogs howl in call and reply, wolves based on dogs perhaps?
06/36/04-3
Restless night, bunked out inside a house the size of a puptent. WO snores. Food, then further investigation.
06/36/06-4
Horse obsession increasing. Foundation of several building and sidewalks have horse footprints. Some are more like pranks, some more official. Someone went to a lot of effort here, continue the investigation. GPS still out, no evidence of wolves approaching the town. Have been setting wards to serve as defense and tripwires, so if being followed will detect it.
TS: There was no evidence of wards when we arrived.
06/36/10-3
Lunch, and a movie, this place has a cinema, more horse obsession romances, dramas, and action movies. Unicorns, pegasi and ponies. WO laughed at the torrid romcom of typical tangle of A likes B, but B likes C, etc. and none of them will spit it out. If this IS a training site, they did a good job, everything is normal, but off kilter. Exactly what you need to put trainees off their stride. But the radios and GPS both being out, and no surveillance I can find worries me. What happens in a real emergency, how do you terminate the exercise and send help in?
TS: Good questions, what did happen to the populace? Appears they left, and not in a 'pick up what you can and run' manner. Our own investigations corroborate the written observations.
06/36/14-2
Located the hospital. It had a morgue. There's detail-oriented, and there's just plain creepy. The body was a pony, no horn or wings. Death was likely consequence of old age, it looks aged, in ways a person would visually recognize: liver spots, callouses where the glasses would rest, hearing aid as part of the possessions, loose, wrinkled skin and false teeth. No patients were in the hospital, and again no signs of a struggle or a forced evacuation. Everything is neat and tidy, but everyone just left. The WO wasn't happy with me handling the corpse. The X-rays indicate a normal skeleton. Another anomaly, advanced fluoroscope X-rays, rather than film. Search of the place revealed no blood bank. Drug storage, but in an alien tongue, so don't use until needed.
TS: Corpse of one Twinkle Tree found, Earth pony, records indicate death at aged 105 years, natural causes. Perhaps the last peaceful death here.
06/36/19-4
Wolves again, much closer. Both I and the WO are armed, but no way to replace the bullets. Magic sweep locates nothing, no wards triggered. Sky still cloud-covered so no moon or stars. Won't let on, but this may not be an exercise.
06/37/04-2
Bunked out in City Hall, large auditorium, cleared the chairs away, good to be inside and able to stand up. Defensible. Told the WO this exercise is over, we're retracing our steps and getting out of here. There's being a good soldier, and there's returning home with the intel. We aren't running away. We're doing our job. This needs a lot more than two people. I'm remembering that Captain Kirk usually was the second ship to face the beasty. The first always got munched.
RD: Who the heck is Captain Kirk?
06/37/10-1
The path back dead-ends in a rock face. Our tracks lead right up to it. I don't remember rock face when we walked in, would have been obvious. I unpack my full 'shaman pack' and do a full analysis on the rock face. Nothing. There's something on the other side, 16 kilospans away, but no evidence of a gate, no teleport matrix, nothing. How we got from there to here is a mystery. Fortunately this alien word has a breathable atmosphere, nonpoisonous food, and a comfortable temperature range.
The WO wants to go back to the town. I think she's been rattled by this discovery that we're off the beaten track farther than we initially thought. I agree. I need to cast some major magic, and that's better done inside, with the proper ingredients.
TS: Can't work out the location, there're no mountains or canyons within a day's march with 2 miles or more of rock. Hypothesis, they were not in Equestria when this occurred. Something moved the entire town and them, then put it back.
06/37/16-5
Now I'm as rattled as the WO. The spell didn't work. Which is a physical impossibility. What I tried to contact exists in every world I've traveled to and every world I've ever heard of. To be unable to even get a 'busy signal' is impossible: Not just inconceivable, but completely impossible. Trying to contact two similarly widely available allies, and an additional acquaintance who'd dearly love to have me owe a favor all ended in failure. It is not possible that the town was removed from the equine's world and moved to a shielded null-space. There would be evidence of the displacement, unless they knew it was coming, carefully put everything away and left. We must now consider that we are separated from anything approaching the normal multiverse.
The WO takes this stoically, she's had tough training and much of what I've told her may be gibberish to her. Also, I haven't given up. Adults deal with failures all the time, a set back isn't going to send one into a 'my life is over' death spiral. As long as I'm confident she thinks I can lead us out of here.
TS: Note changing from clipped phrasing to proper, complete sentences. Author may not be aware of how the situation was affecting him.
06/37/19-0
I'm awake, but there's no wolf howls. I take a walk around and check the security we set up. Nothing has bothered it. I also note that I haven't dreamed since I got here. I generally don't remember the details of my dreams, but I do remember doing it. Not here. I return to get some sleep after a while.
TS: Sent a letter to Princess Luna asking about dream activities in the past two weeks. Response is disturbing: There were no dreams from the town and no nightmares. Equine or alien. I should have seen this as a concurn. I will be very vigilant over you and your team.
The misspelling in as fastidious a speller as Princess Luna indicates the depths of her concern.
06/38/04-2
I would have preferred the howls. The WO found the marks on the City Hall's main doors. Something had nearly clawed through them. Without tripping any of the wards I'd set up, and without making a racket loud enough to wake the dead.
A wolf large enough to have made those marks would be as tall as a three-story building, at the shoulder. Our five story-tall city hall, it could have crushed the entire building without trouble, so what was stopping it?
TS: Timberwolves can become that big. But not this far from Everfree, and they wouldn't stop at clawing down the door. Judging from size, shape and direction of the claw marks, an Ursa Minor or dragon could have, but why stop at quietly making claw marks? And they would have tripped most wards, so would normal wildlife, which is why we don't bother with them. Took casts of claw marks, and forwarded them to Canterlot for study.
RD: Speaking of clipped versus complete, is this getting to you, Egghead?
06/38/06-8
This place has a library, and a map collection. I'm guessing that the marquee of the building is 'location' Library. One of the sets of marking on the map matches the 'location' so I'm guessing that we know where we are. There's a rail line that leads to another town. Assuming that this whole world isn't empty, we can walk to the next town and possibly negotiate or get some help.
TS: The spur line leads to the main Canterlot line.
06/38/18-6
If someone were to come up with a list of all the things that could go wrong on a trip, I would've checked them off against what happened to us.
1.) The bridge over a gorge being out was expected, and I have magic enough to fly.
2.) The noisy but unseen critters pacing us through the forest, we have weapons and combat magic.
3.) The hail was unexpected, as was the WO getting clonked badly enough I had to abort and head back to the hospital. As an aside, what possessed her to remove her helmet when it was pouring rain?
4.) That I couldn't just teleport back is a bit concerning. It's as if the various locations are separate and so point-to-point travel is not possible.
We're back where we started, except the WO has a concussion. So we're a bit stuck. This time we're at the hospital, and with windows all around, and having to keep awake to periodically awaken the WO due to her concussion, I may finally get a look at what's been wandering around out there.
I'm not worried about going mad from the revelation. I've seen too many deeply horrifying things in my life to be bothered by seeing one more. I joke with the WO that she'll be fully trained when we get her back home.
TS: The rail line crosses small streams, but no gorge. Why didn't the abundant wildlife trip the wards in town?
06/39/04-1
I didn't hear them. The claw marks on the City Hall doors were worrying. Something marked every window on the top floor. The scratches weren't deep, but they covered the windows to such an extent that they were fogged. I did not inform the WO, nor were the other floors marked. Just the one we were occupying.
The obvious question is, if it could claw deeply into the doors of the City Hall, they should have been able to carve right through the windows. But they didn't. While I know the tactics, and had suffered under them, the WO had not, and it will be necessary to break this to her carefully. For whatever reason, they will not press into an area we control. They will panic us and trick us into charging into their position of strength.
Fear is a greater enemy than the force that inflicts it.
TS: There are no marks on the hospital windows, from the inside looking out, or the outside looking in. If narrator cannot be relied on, can his judgements be trusted?
TS addendum: one of our Engineers reports hospital windows were replaced, those now in place are new, not 30-years-old as they should be. What kind of monster goes to the trouble of replacing windows?
06/39/08-1
The discussion with the WO was . . . illuminating. We had relocated to the town library. While translation spells were useful, we'd have to at least partially learn the language in order to learn about what besieged us. I don't normally condone studying for the sake of studying when your life is on the line, but some investigations require a trip to the library or equivalent, just don't get lost amid all the books[1]. Local folklore is not a good language primer, but I suspected we had less time than we would have hoped.
The WO's conversation showed this to be true. She admitted that she had started hearing voices. When I didn't simply laugh at her, she opened up. She explained that the voices were telling her how little she was worth, and how unfair it was that she was afraid and I wasn't. How jealous she should be of all my 'advantages.' I replied that the training was to correct that. I apologized that she was expecting Ghoulies and Ghosties 101, and instead was getting a graduate-level lab practical. I also reminded her that comparing yourself to someone is only useful as a goad to improve, but there will always be those better trained or more talented. Being better than who you are today should be the goal, not better than some other person outside yourself.
We started going over the folklore books, and I began questioning if the WO was afraid of darkness or being trapped? She was and had good reason. Her brothers had locked her in a closet and made animal noises and scratches at the door. That explains the pattern, she was the target, not general mayhem. The tricky thing about childhood fears, they have to be dealt with as if the person were the age they were when they were inflicted, not their current age. So we took some time to give her a 'father-daughter' talk about what happened. She cried a little, not because she was weak, but because the emotional trauma was that of a four-year-old. All this is old hat to me, but it's all new to her, and very disorienting. She promised to tell me if our opponent changed tactics. I reminded her that for the duration there shouldn't be you and I, just us, because separating out people is the first part of the enemy's plan. She accepted this.
[1] Rainbow Dash added in the margin: 'Hey Twi, you see that? I like this guy.'
TS: Jealousy and fear? Nightmare Moon! But the other powers, not Nightmare's style, unless she's found another host.
06/39/10-8
I missed it. The WO is dead. She hung herself. The word 'Sorry' carved in her palm with her own fingernails.
TS: Town searched, no alien corpse found.
06/39/14-2
What did I miss? I thought I'd dealt with the immediate problem, and given the WO a shoulder to cry on as needed. Maybe that was - STOP IT. Whatever chinks in the WO's mental armor the enemy found, mine has always been guilt, that in hindsight I beat myself up over not seeing the 'obvious' solution, a solution easily discoverable with all the information later at my disposal. Indulging in that now will only get me killed. Research, and I need to ramp up the nasty, showing this thing I can hurt it back. Predators and scavengers aren't 'cowards' for picking on the weakest prey. They are doing what's smart and sensible. 'Playing with your food' is the province of those with the reserves to have that luxury, so not being fun anymore is the other part or, luring it into a position to counterattack.
I put the WO's body in the morgue, and seal the door. I really don't want a reanimated corpse coming at me from behind. And I set out some wards with a great deal more bite to them. I didn't use these before for fear of someone tripping them, now it's just the two of us.
TS: No wards were found on entry, but the corpse of an alien was. Questioned those who searched the morgue earlier, they were too afraid to go in there. They've been dispatched with all samples back to Canterlot. Coroner's estimate was corpse had been dead about three months. Odd, considering that we only lost contact with the town a week ago. Corpse kept in refrigeration, until appropriate funerary customs can be determined. Autopsy/necropsy is contraindicated, despite what we could learn.
All talk of zomponies and mummy aliens harshly dealt with by AJ and Fluttershy.
06/39/19-8
Now it's after me. And it knows I am after it. Dreamt for the first time, and all the blandishments were there: women, money, power, all good, but then it had to add vengeance. I took my vengeance all right. Dreams are malleable things, I'm guessing on similar strengths, but attention goes to me. Must be a quantum being, because seeing it harmed it worse than my other tricks. True Sight can be scarring when looking at something like that, but never considered its offensive capabilities.
Theory, this null-pocket is its armor. It needs to feed on something 'regular' beings have, but it will be damaged by being seen. So hopefully, the town's people and the WO took the edge off its hunger, and I'm dessert, because if it is still starving, and the others were just appetizers, I have a serious fight on my hand.
TS: Research this 'True Sight', we may need it against this creature.
07/01/08-2
Fog. It surrounds the town and walking into it just means walking back into town at a different location. No matter how straight my path, I wind up at some point approaching the town again, and the return points are random.
Theory: it cut me off from the forest. Was something in there capable of harming it, or was this just to limit the field?
Problem: if it can manipulate the area, but cannot simply overwhelm me, what are the limits of its power? Is the fog a manifestation of its shell, or has it eaten me and the fog is its stomach?
07/01/11-6
Fire. A quick burst of heat burned off all the fog that was creeping into the town. And that evidently hurt it terribly. The scream went on for some time. And I traveled the rail line, without the WO I made good time. The rail line now encircles the town rather than going anywhere. That was a big mistake. Iron, especially iron grounded to the earth, is a powerful defense against spirits. Adding wards to it gave me a line against which it cannot pass without uprooting the rails, but now it can't touch them. For a creature used to brute force and terror tactics, it will have to find another way. Now it becomes a race. Can I devise a weapon first, or can it bypass my defenses? I've also shown a glimpse of my real power. Will it assume the effort was easily within my capability, or will it assume I've made a Herculean effort and can't reestablish the wards at a later time? The wards are light and heat based, so they should work. I mistakenly used unaligned wards before, and it was able to bypass them.
Apothecary and camera shop, let us see who is the more powerful.
TS: Fire is light, heat, purification, would Celestia's sun and the Elements have a similar effect? 'Apothecary and camera shop' there is one of each in town, but what does one have to do with the other, and what weapons are there? The chemicals?
07/02/18-9
Long delay, but I'm ready. The rails have been glowing dull red all morning. It's trying to get in. Odd that it would attack force to force, but maybe it's trying to frighten me. I've done just that trick myself, melting a door or blockage bit by bit rather than blasting through. I also realized that I should have considered the WO got worse when she rested/slept, dreams, that is where it is strongest, and most vulnerable. A field I have much experience in.
TS: If this thing attacks in dreams, how did Princess Luna not see it? Did it take the town 'elsewhere' when it attacked? Have sent a missive to Luna about this passage. Sent Rainbow to look for fog, and Fluttershy to survey the tracks. No damage to the ties, and no fog. Illusion, alternate reality, delusion? I wish I knew.
07/03/00-0
Midnight, the detonation in the track line equals barrier breeched, also symbolism or power cycle waxes and wanes with time? Don't know. It's inside, hunting. But so am I. I got a glimpse of it when I activated the second set of wards inside the first. 'I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me.'
07/03/10-4
Second barrier breeched, as it fought its way out. The True Sight is my best weapon, everything else just confuses and pains it. Also certain geometric patterns are blocks as effective as walls to matter beings, but none of the traditional ones. It seems the homes of the ponies are of a particular shape due to its repulsive effect. As more angular, blocky forms predominate, the defense is weakened and even lost. The north end of town is a no-go zone, while the rest of the town is free range.
I'll see if the homes are dream defenses as well. The city hall carries the geometries, the hospital's top floor does, the rest of the downtown does not.
TS: No battle evidence now clear, the use of seeing was primary weapon. Moved the team to the City Hall from the camp in the school gym. The geometric patterns forwarded to the Princesses, Ponyville and Canterlot safe, Manehatten in danger.
Applejack asked about her home, since it lacks the features he discussed. I noted that the apple trees have many of the features in abundance, good thinking AJ, forested parks as defense. But where was it? Over the forest, rather than in it?
07/04/02-3
Finally found it in the library. It's a Grogar, and its weaknesses are bright light and being seen. It must have taken the town in the darkness, and mentally convinced the populace to head out and look for it in the woods.
TS: I sent Rainbow and Fluttershy out to search the woods. They report a fog forming that resists their cloud shaping skills. Added several guard pegasi, no luck, the fog now surrounds us. I've told everypony to report any mental voices. Since the writer wrote, something he did had an effect, but did he win?
07/04/06-3
It never tried the dreams or it couldn't reach me. Points for me. I've finished processing the film from the cameras I had scattered all over town, I wonder what it thought the camera shutter tripwire wards were for. I haven't looked at the photos, which would alert it that I had them.
I had the prints up to dry (hurray darkroom skills) when it called. Not a mental voice, a sound, like the howling, but modulated to the native tongue. It struggled, but finally pieced together enough from the WO's contact to say in my own language that it was willing to let me go, let me return home, if I left immediately.
Trap? Or has it realized I'm not prey, and the trap needs to be reset. I asked to take the WO's body, denied. Yes, it needs to clear the trap for others.
TS: the fog has endomed the town, teleportation is blocked as are letters to and from the Princesses. It was us it sensed and let a potential ally go, so we would not be warned. How many others have been so affected? Not here, but with other disappearances: a lonely house or inn on a road, and those who enter never live to leave, until it had grown powerful enough to take over a whole town? Why the change? Grown to new form, driven out of previous hunting ground, or needs resources to spawn? If we get out of this, I'll need to study Grogar and what our history has on it.
The fog is getting worse, something ominous can be sensed by all, but nothing can be seen. I apologized to the others that I lead them here. Rainbow started laughing, wholly inappropriate, until she explained and hooved over the package.
Back Cover note:
Included is the formula to apply to camera filters to give them True Sight, temporarily. Pass out the pictures, but don't look at them until everyone who can, can look at one. Looking at a photo of a Grogar taken with True Sight will have a similar effect to looking at the actual creature.
If you have found and read this missive, the WO's funerary beliefs are for cremation and a marker, the text from the dog tags, metal tags on the chain around her neck, should provide the inscription. Please curb your curiosity to noninvasive investigations of her corpse, she deserves that much, as she died in the line of duty defending your people and hers. I'm going to take the Grogar at its word that I can escape its clutches, if the offer is a lie, at least I'll get close enough to do it a mischief. If it is a lie and I still can, I'll return here to support your operations.
Good luck and Godspeed.
RD: Too bad we don't know the best picture, we should let Fluttershy Stare at that one.
Twilight set the book aside and looked at Cheerilee's class. "It worked," she said, "And it proves that even if you never met someone face-to-face, they can still be your friend."
The kids murmured their approval. Twilight was glad they didn't ask about the 'battle' She never wanted to remember the scream as they turned over the photos, and Fluttershy stared at her photo. It would take time to get over that, and what happened to the town in the aftermath.