In the middle of the great land of Equestria, lies Canterlot City, it's majestic capital, built into Mt. Canterhorn, as a show of might. Below, connected by a railway that leaves a cavern at the base of the heaven-reaching rock, was a quaint town, built next to a dangerous forest.
This town, was known as Ponyville. It's a name that makes sense, when you think of its inhabitants being mostly ponies. The town was made of many thatch roofed buildings, with some buildings that looked slightly different, giving the town some variation to its architecture.
There was a lone creature wandering the path towards town. It was a pony, wearing a grey cloak, that seemed to be made out of long grey fur over its black coat, also hiding its tail from view. The face was obscured both by the hood of the cloak, and a white mask that you could only see black eyeholes, with shining white pupils. On its back was a cracked pointed club-like weapon.
A sigh could be heard from the pony as it continued wandering on, it's eyes fixated on the town in front of it. It had little idea why it was here, following the vague pull that led it to where it needed to be. These 'Pale Tendrils' as the creature liked to call this pull, had never once truly led it astray, so it saw no reason not to follow it now. Continuing down the road to town, the figure seemed to take in the world before it.
Its been too long, the creature thought to itself, Too long since I last saw civilisation. As it came upon the town and entered. It was met with many curious stares. Many were curious, although most were cautious. However, there did seem to be one gaze it felt that came to it with nothing but unbridled joy. That last one caused some worry to the creature, as it started to tense, but quickly decided that such an action would do it no good.
Remain calm and the worst will not come to pass Was all the creature thought, visibly relaxing. It continued further into town, on its search for a specific building. An inn shall do nicely, the creature reasoned with itself before moving to the building. This building had three floors, looked to be made of some form of gravel brick, supported by wood. The roof was made of thatch, like most the rest of the town's buildings.
Opening the door to the establishment, the creature wandered in. Where there was once a joyous racket and jovial conversation, now there was silence, as the entire population of the room gazed upon the strange wanderer. It ambled its way up to the bar/desk at the back.
"I was hoping you'd have a room free?" Questioned the androgynous voice of the wanderer. The stallion on the other side merely grunted, before saying 5 bits for a night. The creature gave it the amount required, producing the small golden coins from somewhere within its cloak.
"Many thanks" it said after taking the key and hearing the directions, before taking off to a door to the side. It passed through the portal into a short stairwell. After moving up the stairs within, it came out into a corridor at perpendicular to the stairs. This corridor had a small carpet running along its wooden length and flat stone walls, painted a brighter colour. Windows aligned certain parts, but the creature ignored them in favour of a door.
This door was as unassuming as the rest of them, made of a dark wood, with a simple metal 6 placed upon it, marking the number of the door. The creature took great care inserting a key, which also had a six on it, and placing it within the door, unlocking it. After moving through the fourth door within this building, it quickly locked the door behind it.
The room was dark, as the lights had not been turned on, but the creature didn't care for this. Instead, it moved to the curtains, opening them to let light flare into the room from the sun. The room had a bed in the middle of the wall which was connected to the other side of the entrance door. There was a door next to the bed, most probably a bathroom. A simple desk lay opposite the bed, and the far wall from the entrance housed a large window.
The creature laid its weapon next to the window, and went to rest on the foot of the bed. Taking off the mask and coat, it's true form was revealed. It was that of an average pony, and though the face was mareish, it was difficult to tell whether the pony was a stallion or a mare. It's coat was a pitch black, and its mane a white that seemed to glow with a luminosity. It's tail shared the same trait, except for the twin black streaks down both side. It's cutie mark, a luminous white circle with a black swirling dot filling the middle.
The most remarkable thing about this pony, however, were the eyes. The Iris were black, though that wasn't strange. The pupils were a radiant white, glowing with a soft intensity. These eyes merely stared into the blankness of the opposing wall, before noticing something propped up on the desk. It was a simple pink envelope, addressed to "The Strange Wandering Thing". Obviously intrigued by the invasive object, the pony moved to pick it up. The envelope merely requested its presence at a 'Sugarcube Corner' as soon as they were able. The contents were far more bizarre than that, but that was the gist of the message.
Curious, the pony decided to humour the letter. It could also have something to do with why the Pale Tendrils led it to this town.
Redonning it's attire and weapon, the creature decided to leave for the town. Locking the door to its room, it returned back down to the main room. No-one seemed to pay any mind to it anymore, and it merely nodded to the presumed owner of the establishment before leaving.
After re-entering the streets of Ponyville, the creature noticed how the noise inside the inn suddenly stopped. This made the creature wary, as it also noticed the normal hubbub of a town had gone deathly still as well. It felt the Pale Tendrils dragging it towards a certain building.
The building looked like a bakers house. It also appeared to be made out of food, though the creature highly doubted it. The windows seemed to be an impenetrable darkness, and it was unable to see within the building. The Pale Tendrils were definitely pulling it inside, but it was not stupid enough enough to enter a place blindly.
Siren the creature thought, as the dots disappeared from its eyes, presumably from closing them. An imperceptible wave of sound echoed out, it's eerie timbre heard only to the creature. Through this sound, it realised there was a large mass of living life within. Deciding that this was what the town was vacant for, and based on the letter in its room, it was most likely a welcome party of some kind. Deciding there was no harm in humouring the ponies within, the creature walked up to the door and opened it, stepping inside.
The room was pitch black, which was a little unnerving, but the creature was used to such environments. Just as it was about to do something about the oppressive darkness, the lights flicked on, revealing a large gathering of many ponies, a large banner saying welcome, and an assortment of foods, drinks and games.
"SURPRISE!" Shouted a pink pony directly in its face. "Well? Did I surprise ya? Did I?" She continued on. Her mane seemed goofy, her blue eyes jubilant, her wide smile unnerving. But the creature had seen worse. Now decided it was only here for whatever the tendrils demanded of it, it just pushed past the pink pony, further into the room,not noticing the pink pony seemed to deflate at the silence.
"W-w-well, they aren't very talkative! But this is a PARTY! SO LET'S GET PARTYING!" The pink pony said, feeling slightly unnerved by the lack of reaction from the strange pony. The Dj hit the tracks and the rest of the ponies seemed to start to engage in various a activities. The creature merely sat in the corner of the room, content with the small cake slice it had picked up along the way.
The pink pony, seemingly annoyed at this 'Party Pooper' attitude, stormed over to it with a smile on her face, fully intent on getting it swinging to the music and enjoying itself.
"HI! My names Pinkie Pie! I see you like cake! Well I love cake too! What's your favourite!? Why do you wear that mask and cloak?! What's that thing you are carrying round?!" She asked within the span of a couple of seconds. The creature made no motion to respond, or that it even computed anything she had said.
"Hey, come on...don't be a party pooper...I just wanna be your friend...I'm sure everypony else does too! Do sent that sound fun?!" Pinkie questioned the creature, starting to deflate with every second it continued to ignore her.
"You know, it's rude to ignore somepony when they are talking to you. The least you can do is give us your name. I'm Twilight Sparkle by the way." Came a second voice from a purple mix between a Pegasus and unicorn, with blue hair with a purple and pink strip, and violet eyes. The creature just sighed.
"You want to know my name? Fine..." was what it said. The next words made everyone who heard them shiver for some supernatural, instinctual reason.
"My name is Hollow."
