.
It was quiet in Petunia Paleo's house. The only sounds came from upstairs, faint bickering of intentionally hushed voices. The pony with the axe that had just entered moved in complete silence, dragging its bloodied weapon behind on the wooden floor of the living room. Petunia Paleo covered her mouth with both forehooves. One yelp, one sound of fear or tension, and she would receive more than a scolding as the consequence for her lack of restraint. From where she was sitting, Petunia could see the killer clearly, albeit it was impossible for him to see her.
The axe murderer, searching for new victims to decapitate, stalked stolidly past the sofa and a TV that showed nothing but static. Petunia bit her lips for added security. Everything would work out if she just stayed quiet. It were only a few minutes anymore until everything would be over. A few minutes more and then her parents would not be able to scold her for her misdeed anymore. Everything would be over soon and then she could relax.
Petunia observed the killer's movements. He stopped in front of the staircase, looking upwards. For his prey. The killer stood there for a few seconds, staring, then he set himself into motion again and put a hoof down on the stairs, beginning to ascend on them to do what he came for. The filly who intensely watched him from her unseen position gulped. She shivered. Her eyes widened. Her mouth under her hooves was twisted into a wicked smile, formed from fascination and terror alike. Her heartbeat increased with every step by the axe murderer as she watched him coming for his last victims. Then, as he was at the middle of the staircase, one of the hushed voices from above turned into a loud, upset shout.
“But I said no! Petunia is too young for this!” the female voice, courtesy of her mother, burst forth.
Petunia jumped up from her spot, the yelp she had suppressed for so long finally breaking free. Now it was over. She was done for. Her immersion was broken and her punishment would be severe.
Angry, the startled filly detracted her eyes from the flickering TV in front of her and flashed a glare up the stairs. Why did her mother have to shout like that? It was already bad enough that she had to force herself to turn off the volume, now she would not even see the end of the movie, as her parents would undoubtedly come down looking to check why she had just yelped like that. It wasn't fair!
Petunia reached for the remote control on the armrest to her right, not leaving the stairs out of her vision. She aimed it at the TV, prepared to switch channels if she saw just as much as a hoof of her parents on the stairs.
On the TV, the killer left the staircase and turned to a corridor of doors. He lifted his axe and a distorted grin that revealed crooked, rotten teeth – a sight horrifying enough to give the audience chills all the way down their spines – played around his lips as he moved towards one slightly opened door and the light that shone into the corridor through its crack. But Petunia could not pay attention to this anymore. She was looking over her right shoulder, eyes locked on the staircase, and anxiously awaited the arrival of her parents with their questions about what she had just watched a moment ago. Petunia did not even dare to peek at the screen from the corner of her eyes. “I bet this movie would be even more exciting if I could hear the background music of it.....” she wailed in her thoughts and this was the only attention she could afford giving the horror movie at the moment.
The conversation upstairs had calmed down, only hushed whispers finding their ways into Petunia's ears again now. None of her parents seemed to descend the stairs, but Petunia waited. Just in case. Only scraps of the heated talk could be heard by Petunia now, each time when either her mother or her father raised their voice again for a moment.
“.....already seven.....”
“.....not enough.....”
“I know, but.....”
“..... miss it?”
“No.”
“.....foalsitter.”
“..... all busy.”
“.....Rainbow Dash?”
“.....pay her more.....”
“..... will come.”
“Rainbow Dash.....”
“.....Wonderbolts duty.....”
“.....more important.....”
“.....won't come.”
“.....Petunia.....”
“.....too young to stay alone.”
Petunia scrunched up her nose. She turned away from the staircase in disgust and refocused her attention on the movie again, the remote control now hanging limp in her right hoof. On the TV, a sandy-colored mare with a brown, curly mane dragged herself down the stairs, her right hindleg marred with a nasty flesh wound that soaked the stairs in blood. Her eyes were pleading to stay alive and from the frantic movements her lips formed, Petunia could tell that she was begging the killer to leave her alone. Only her exact words remained a mystery for Petunia. Above her, the voices of her parents became louder again.
“.....listen.....”
“.....my pearl.”
“.....unique opportunity.....”
“.....can't miss.....”
“.....forever regret.....”
“.....happen again.”
“Maybe.....”
“.....few years.....”
“.....exactly know.....”
“Countess Coloratura.....”
“.....busy schedule.....”
“.....to Ponyville.....”
“.....wait years.....”
“But.....”
“Petunia.....”
“.....young.....”
“.....one night.....”
“.....possibly happen.....”
“.....short time?”
“.....miss this.....”
“.....few hours.....”
“..... mostly spend sleeping.....”
“Fine.....”
“.....this one time.....”
“.....exception.....”
“.....won't do this again.”
Then the bickering and murmuring stopped abruptly. Petunia did not notice the sudden absence of words, her mind was fully engulfed by the horror movie again. On the TV screen, the panicked mare was running over a moonlit, grassy field. Behind her, the killer lifted a heavy rock and threw it. It hit the mare right on the back of her head. Her mouth forming a shriek, she stumbled and collapsed between the blades of grass. Seizing the advantage, the killer stalked closer with quick steps. As he lifted the axe above his head with both forehooves, the mare under him whimpering and pressing her hooves down on the leaking wound on her head, Petunia leaned in and moved her head closer to the TV. Her face showed a creepy sensation for what would happen next.....
“Petunia!” the voice of her mother shouted from the stairs. “What are you watching down there?”
Now it was Petunia who shrieked. She jumped up again, startled once more, and instantly gripped the remote control tighter, then pointed it at the screen and hit one of the number buttons. A flock of colorful sheep dancing on a sunny, grassy meadow surrounded by trees, their mouths silently moving, appeared on the screen. Petunia hit the button with the green plus sign and a cheesy, happy song filled the living room. She casually leaned back against the sofa, dropping the remote control between the cushions, and set up a smile. A fake laugh left her mouth as she pretended to be delighted over the cartoon.
Her parents came down the stairs, both of them fully clothed. Her mother was wearing a fancy blouse and a skirt, with a necklace to accentuate her attire, and her face had been carefully painted with lipstick and eyeliner. Her father looked more casual, but he also wore his finest clothes that he pulled out for special occasions only.
“Petunia, what were you watching?” her mother asked again, a twitchy, nervous concern on her face.
“Just a cartoon!” Petunia avoided looking at her mother, attention focused on the silliness the TV showed, but she was flashing a bright smile while she responded.
“Really?” her mother questioned. She slightly bit her lip and turned at the TV like there was a confirmation for her suspicion. “Were you really not watching one of those movies?”
“No, I really wasn't! Just 'Happy Sheep Friends'!” Petunia spoke, then turned at her mother. She gave her a cute, reassuring smile, her eyes partially covered by her bulging cheeks.
“Are you sure?” The nervousness of her mother seemed to increase, judging by her face. “Why did you shriek then?”
“From joy, of course!” The smile in Petunia's face remained unfaltered, giving no trace or evidence for the lie she just spoke.
“But.....”
“Leave it be, my pearl,” Petunia's father intervened. “It's almost eight, we'll be late to the concert if we don't leave now.”
“You are right.....” Petunia's mother conceded, an expression of dread building on her face.
“Leaving? What are you leaving for?” Petunia asked with sugary innocence. Her smile grew wider and she pulled her hindlegs up onto the sofa and crawled towards her parents. Propping her forehooves onto the armrest of the sofa, Petunia looked at them with excitement.
“Oh, well, I am sorry, Petunia, but mommy and daddy need to leave you alone in the house tonight.” There was a certain amount of unease in her voice.
“Alone? Here in the house? All by myself?” Petunia's eyes grew wide.
“Yes,” her father responded. He crouched down and got on eye level with his daughter. “See, mommy and daddy want to see Countess Coloratura's concert here in Ponyville tonight. And we couldn't get a foalsitter for you, they are all busy this weekend, but Countess Coloratura never performed a concert in Ponyville before and she might never do that again. So if we miss tonight.....” He trailed off, with equal parts of dread and guilt visible on his face. “Will you be okay with this, Petunia?”
Petunia had listened attentively, but now everything broke out of her at once. “Oh, of course!” she chirped, her smile turning into a grin. “I mean..... I will be fine. Just go and have fun tonight!” She tried to mask her excitement, but couldn't remove the grin from her face.
“That's a relief!” her father shouted, not any less excited now. “You are a brave girl, Petunia!” He lifted a hoof and ruffled through Petunia's mane, making her giggle.
“But you won't watch any horror movies tonight while we're gone, okay, Petunia?” her mother asked anxiously. “You know these movies aren't good for you.”
“I won't!” Petunia chirped, not wasting a second to respond. Her grin became a little bigger, though.
Her mother and her father looked at each other. They exchanged glances of doubt for a few seconds before Petunia's mother looked down at her daughter again. “Promise it,” she spoke, more strict now.
“I promise!” Petunia instantly shouted back. “No horror movies, I will just watch cartoons all night!”
“Okay..... But not all night. Be in bed at ten.” She placed a hoof on Petunia's shoulder.
“I will! Don't worry, I am going to bed at the same time as every night!” To underline her words, Petunia let herself fall onto the sofa and curled up there, pretending to sleep. She stayed like this for a moment, then flopped onto her belly, looked up to her parents and grinned.
“Okay. We know you'll do fine, it's just for one night. Daddy and I will be back at twelve, Petunia.” Her mother leaned down and gave Petunia a tight hug.
As she had released the hug and stepped away, her father did the same thing. “Keep the front door and the back door locked. You know where the keys are, but only go out if there's an emergency.”
“Um-hm!” Petunia nodded at his neck, her nose rubbing over it by the movement.
Her father let go of her, as well, and stepped at this wife's side. The two parents looked at their daughter, a bit of nervous concern in their eyes, but eager anticipation for what was to come for them dominated their expressions now. Quicker than Petunia expected, they pulled their eyes away from her and motioned for the door. Arrived there, they turned around again.
“Goodbye, Petunia,” her father spoke. “We'll be back before you know it.”
Petunia had turned around in the meantime and looked at her parents over the back wall of the sofa, barely more than her head visible from their perspective. Her forehooves laid leisurely on the back wall. She lifted one of them and waved at her parents. “Bye, mommy! Bye, daddy! I love you!” she shouted cheerfully.
“Bye, Petunia.” Her mother smiled back at her. “I love you, too.”
“Love you, Petunia!” her father added, now speaking with a slight hurry in his voice. He took the keys out of his pocket and turned at the door, proceeding to unlock it. The stallion pulled it open and a stiff, cold breeze found its way into the living room. It brought Petunia's mane into disarrary and the filly shivered. It was a cold evening today, so close to the beginning of Autumn.
Her parents stepped outside. In the doorframe, they turned around one last time. “Bye, Petunia!” they shouted together and waved.
“Bye!” Petunia waved back enthusiastically, not stopping until her parents had closed the door. Petunia heard the key being inserted into the lock and turned around, once, then a second time. Only faintly, she could now hear the hoofsteps of her parents who trotted away from the house. Petunia left her spot on the sofa and trotted up to the window that was right from the door. She could see her parents motioning down the street in the light that the street lamps cast on them. She watched them until they had vanished from her sight. Petunia trotted away from the window and stopped in the middle of the room, from where she could see the TV that still showed the silly sheep cartoon. “Free!” she shouted, flinging her hooves into the air, then she zipped to the left and into the kitchen.
Now there was one more movie for her to watch, an unexpected, lucky occurrence. She had about ten minutes until the movie started. Petunia opened the fridge and took out a plate with leftover pizza from the day before. Pineapples and cheese. She popped the plate with the large slices into the microwave and turned it on. At the back of the kitchen stood a small wooden stool. Petunia hurried to it and quickly grabbed it, then carried it to the counter. She climbed on it. It was just big enough to allow her to reach the handles of the upper boards. Petunia opened one of them with haste, slipped a hoof into it and pulled out a bag of popcorn. A glass bowl stood next to it, which she took as well. Down below again, Petunia ripped the popcorn bag open and filled the snack into the bowl. She turned around and casually tossed the empty bag into the bin next to the fridge.”Strike!” she shouted. “That's a bone nopony's going to find anymore!” Petunia squealed and grinned at the bin. She hopped down the stool, twirled around herself in ecstatic happiness and lifted the bowl off the counter. Standing on her hindlegs, forehooves clasped around the bowl, she quickly made her way to the living room. The stool remained at the counter unused, but Petunia did not care about putting it back into its corner, the movie that was about to start counted more now.
As she went through the door to the living room, Petunia was greeted by a cold, stiff breeze. In the doorframe, Petunia stopped. Her eyes had fallen on something to her right that shouldn't be possible. The front door was opened wide. The cold wind from outside freely found entrance into the living room. The magazines on the table fluttered in it. Petunia shivered again, by the drop of temperature and because of a slight feeling of fear that built up in her chest. “Mom? Dad?” she moved her eyes across the living room, searching for a sign of an unexpected return of her parents, but she was alone. Petunia scrunched her face and she turned back at the front door, giving it a cautious look. She kept her eyes locked on it for a few seconds as she carried the bowl with popcorn to the table in front of the sofa, then turned away from it for a moment to put the bowl down. Her eyes quickly returned to it afterwards and Petunia went around the sofa and, gulping, approached the front door and took a peek outside.
The wind was howling all of a sudden. She could hear it sweeping around the house, rattling at the shutters. To her right, the door creaked, slightly moved by the wind. Dense fog was crawling over the ground, Petunia could not see the street under it. Echoes of hooves clopping on stone came from somewhere in front of her, but she could not identify their origin. Quiet piano music from one of the surrounding houses was sounding through the night all of a sudden.
Petunia wrapped her forehooves around her chest and rose to greater height. “Hello?” she called out into the windy night. “Mom? Dad? Are you coming back?” Her voice was squeaking much more than usual now.
There was no answer. Petunia bit her lower lip, fear intensifying in her eyes. She retreated backwards into the house, slowly, her eyes not leaving the street out of their sight. Petunia motioned backwards like this, constantly staring at the opening, until she had arrived at a door at the opposite side of the living room. She yelped as her flank bumped into it. A small box hung on the wall left of it, just at the height of her hooves if she got up on her hindlegs, and Petunia opened it blindly, still not looking away from the front door. Her forehooves fumbled out a set of keys. She put them into her mouth, got back down on all four of her hooves and crept back to the front door.
Once more, she did a peek outside. Everything was the same, until she heard a crash coming from above her. Petunia twitched and looked up. It was akin to the sound of the window shutter of her parents' bedroom, but she did not dare to go further outside to make sure that's what it was. On the small part of the lower roof she could see from her position, a raven suddenly appeared. It gave Petunia an intense stare for a second, then crowed at her and took flight. Petunia watched its black silhouette glide through the street in front of her, the light posts illuminating its plumage.
Petunia swallowed, then retreated backwards again, at a faster pace now. She slammed the front door shut and inserted the keys. Pressing herself against the door, she turned the keys twice. Petunia turned around, leaned her back at the door and breathed a sigh of relief. “Just the right thing for a horror movie night,” she assured herself. The eager smile from earlier returned into her face.
Petunia got away from the door. She returned to the door next to the small box that stored the spare keys, opened it and switched on the lights in the corridor behind it. She began trotting through it, past the bare, ocherous walls and towards another door. A small window was inserted at the top of this door, hidden behind a frame of black steel bars that was attached to the wood around it. Petunia jumped up and grabbed the frame with her forehooves. Her back hooves were pressed against the door. She looked between the bars, but saw only darkness behind the house. On the floor again, she turned the doorknob. As the door remained closed, Petunia breathed out in relief a second time. She returned through the short corridor, switched off the lights, closed the door and put the spare keys back from where she took them. Then she went back into the kitchen.
The microwave was turned off, the pizza ready. Suddenly reminded on how much time had passed, a terror of a different kind appeared in Petunia's eyes. She rushed to the fridge, pulled it open and grabbed three cans of Sparkle Cola. They were the cheap kind, with an extra high amount of sugar and the winking face of the princess on them, but for some reason, her parents were less worried about what Petunia consumed, than what she saw on TV, and allowed her this unhealthy indulgence. In a rush, Petunia was in the living room and placed the cans next to the bowl, in another rush, she returned back into the kitchen. That the screen was suddenly showing only static anymore was something she didn't notice in her hurry.
In the kitchen, Petunia took the plate with the pizza slices out of the microwave. Leaving the door of the microwave open, she carried the plate out of the kitchen and finally sat down onto the sofa. Petunia sighed, smiling. She reached for one of the cans, but then froze before her hoof could touch it, noticing the static of the TV now.
“Oh, no!” Petunia squeaked in panic. “Please don't be broken tonight!” She retreated back onto the sofa and frantically searched for the remote control between the cushions. As she had found it, she lifted it up triumphantly, then sharply pointed it at the screen. Petunia's teeth rattled as she pushed the button and attempted to switch back to the channel with the horror movies.
To her delight, it worked. The screen flickered a little as she pushed the button, it turned a dark red for a second, then the desired channel appeared on it.
Petunia leaned back and put the remote control down onto the sofa again. “Mom and dad really need to buy a new one,” she chirped, now feeling at ease. Her horror evening could begin.
While she leaned forward again and reached for her can a second time, white and crooked letters appeared on the TV screen. They became drenched in blood a second later.
.
.
.
THE NIGHT OF PREHISTORIC DEVILS
.
.
.
Petunia swallowed, from excitement this time, while she opened her can. Her hooves shivered as she took a first sip. She grabbed a slice of pizza and leaned back again, watching the opening scene of the movie that showed a group of tourists, as well as a class of young fillies and colts, being guided through a museum full of prehistoric exhibits. A wide smile was on Petunia's face as, unbeknownst to the museum visitors, some of the old skeletons let their eyes glow and one of them turned their head at them. Very soon, Petunia's surroundings had disappeared in favor of the events on the screen.....
A blood-curdling scream filled the living room around Petunia, as the last victim of the prehistoric devils she had watched for the past two hours, a young filly hiding inside a bathroom stall, found her demise at the claws of the demonic beast. The movie zoomed in on the horror-stricken, terrified face of the screaming filly, before the screen went black. The title of the movie was shown again, then the credits began to roll, accompanied by a dark, somber music that was played on deep instruments.
Petunia chewed the popcorn in her mouth very slowly, as she stared at the credits with an expression of reverence and awe in her eyes. Her eyeballs were almost entirely filled out by her grown pupils, her eyes widely opened. Petunia remained silent. No part of her body moved, except for her chewing mouth, until the credits were over and a commercial replaced them.
Petunia reached for the remote control next to her and turned off the TV. She took the last opened can into her hooves and leaned against the back of the sofa, inching her flank forward a little and bringing herself into a comfortable, lazy position of slumping. She lifted the can to her mouth to sip from the remaining content, smiling and with satisfied, half-lidded eyes.
“And nopony survived, that's how a great horror movie should be!” Petunia squealed as her can was empty. Her cheeks were red and she felt hot from excitement. She put the can down on the table and rose from the sofa. The bowl was nearly devoid of popcorn now. On the plate next to it, only crumbs were left of the pizza and the untidy look was completed by the three empty sparkle cola cans, the one in the middle being squashed.
Feeling that her body had gotten stiff from sitting so long without moving, Petunia stretched it between the sofa and the table and bent her legs a few times. As she was done with the exercise, she picked the last few popcorn pieces out of the bowl. “The Night of Prehistoric Devils” had been the last horror movie on TV for tonight and so, Petunia made her way towards the staircase, leaving the mess on the table behind as it was.
The light switch for the living room was right next to the stairs. Petunia pushed the switch and became swallowed by darkness. An eerie feeling spread out over her body. She felt something on her back. Somepony was staring at her..... The thought caused her to reflexively turn around and scan the darkness for an intruder. The open front door from a few hours ago entered her mind again. It was too dark to see anything, but instead of switching the lights on again, Petunia turned back at the staircase, driven by a desire to get away from here and to enter the safety of the second floor. She stuck the popcorn she was holding into her mouth and set up a brave face, then began ascending the stairs with quick steps. She had to go up the dark stairs after turning off the light in the living room every night and, normally, it wasn't a problem for Petunia. But watching a horror movie changes things.
The feeling in her neck, of being watched, increased as she went up. In the middle of the staircase, it had transformed into the expectation to be grabbed and pulled down the staircase by something she could not see. Petunia's arrival on the second floor made her feel better and turning on the lights replaced both feelings with a very slight tinge of discomfort.
Petunia stopped for a moment. She did a scrutinizing look down the stairs, then let her eyes wander over the second floor. The corridor up here was spacious. The staircase and the wooden railing around it divided it into two sections. On the left side, a little farther back from the stairs and after a rather long wall, was her parents' bedroom. Behind it was Petunia's room. The right side of the corridor had a bathroom, an extra toilet, a guest room and a small closet. As she felt sure to be alone up here, Petunia followed the left side of the corridor to her room. She reached it and opened the door. The light flared up as she instantly tapped the switch. Only then she turned off the light in the corridor, with a switch that was thankfully right next to the door of her bedroom. Petunia slipped inside and pulled the door close behind her.
Inside, Petunia's remaining discomfort evaporated. Never before had she felt unsafe in her own room and this was something even a horror movie couldn't change. The tension in her muscles eased. From the door, she could see her computer on the desk and the sight caused a feeling of sensation to rise in the young filly. Watching the movie was good, but not good enough for Petunia. Now it was time to browse the web for some horror stories. Her parents wouldn't be home for another couple hours and she would hear them easy enough once they entered the house. That the window in her bedroom didn't face the street was in her favor, as well.
Arrived at her desk, Petunia rose up and placed her forehooves on the arm rest of her desk chair, getting ready to climb in. She looked to the right before she did, at the top of the shelf that stood next to her bed, and her eyes rested on the ponysaurus skull that stood there. Petunia smiled at the skull, cheeks bulging. Since she had gotten her cutie mark a week ago, she had been digging for bones all across Ponyville. But this skull, that she found on the day the Cutie Mark Crusaders helped with making her parents understand what her cutie mark means, would always remain special for her.
Petunia looked at her skull for a few seconds longer, then she redirected her attention at her computer. She climbed into her desk chair and pushed the button at the top of her computer, then flopped into a comfortable position. As she watched the boot process on the screen, waiting until she could begin, Petunia suddenly felt inexplicably tired and exhausted. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, but fought the sleep. It wasn't the first time she stayed up late without her parents' knowledge. In fact, she regularly went past her bedtime on the weekends, either reading horror stories on her computer with the lights turned off or a book in her bed with the help of a flashlight. There was no particular reason for her to be so tired and tonight wasn't the right moment to sleep just yet. She shook her head and reached down into a drawer of her desk. Petunia pulled out a plastic bottle with a blue liquid inside, its label saying “Manticore ROAR”. As she had taken a large sip from the energy drink, she felt more awake. Psyched up to read a few good tales of horror, Petunia put her bottle next to her keyboard and leaned in on the screen.
Petunia reached for the big, flat-shaped computer mouse and pulled up a hidden file on the desktop that showed a pig in two different shades of blue as its icon. She left-clicked on it and a moment later, the Waterpig browser got opened. The tab loaded for a few seconds, then a black and crimson-colored webpage appeared. “Welcome to the Realm of Horror” the headline of the page said, on top of a background that showed the greyed out photograph of a graveyard. The headline was framed by small gifs of scuffling zombies that looked into opposing directions. Under the headline was a short introduction text by the administrator that explained visitors what the page was about and how to navigate through it. The introduction was signed with “Cemetery Filly”. A bar with links to various subpages, their names written in a crimson-red color, was right underneath it.
Petunia left-clicked on the link “Cryptozoological Stories” and a new page got opened. The navigation bar was at the top, directly under the headline, now and the introduction text had disappeared. In its place was a smaller headline, with the picture of a scary creature that looked like a crossbreed between a pony and a dragon. It had a black coat and leathery, brown dragon wings were growing out of its back. It's mouth and nose were of a longitudinal shape and its face showed a frightening viciousness that was supposed to get everypony in the mood for the stories in this section. Under the headline of the subpage was a long list of stories, in the same crimson-red font as the text on the rest of the webpage. Some links had “NEW” written next to the story titles and each one had a publication date on the far right. Petunia let the mouse glide over the titles, then clicked on the third from the top. She took another sip from her energy drink, then began to read the tale that had opened in front of her.
It didn't take a minute until Petunia's surroundings had disappeared, filtered out by her mind as she entered the world of the story with it. Her eyes were greedily lapping up the words, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. It was a long story, something that was greatly cherished by Petunia. Only the long stories allowed her to get really lost in them and to forget everything around her. The only other things besides the words that she perceived were an occasional, dry sting in her throat and how she reached for the bottle and drank from it like in trance. Petunia was somewhere else now.
A sting of a different kind, in her eyes, caused Petunia to leave this other world again. She was only halfway through the story, but fatigue was kicking in. Petunia's eyes checked the time in the lower right corner of her screen. The clock there showed 11:20 PM. She had been reading for an hour. Time for a break.
Petunia took the bottle into her hooves and turned her chair at the window. The glass reflected the light and showed a mirror image of the room, including herself. She looked a little worn. Her eyelids were lower than usual, something she hadn't noticed, and there were traces of bags under her eyes. She was looking more tired than she felt. But as long as her mind could keep going with the story, she would not sleep, Petunia decided. She rolled in her chair to the door, pushed the light switch and rolled back to the window.
Now she could look outside. The house next to hers was bathed into a xanthous light by a street lamp in front of it. The light became dimmer the farther back the house reached, until there was only unfathomable darkness anymore, where the backyard of the house had to be. Petunia rested her eyes on this darkness to relax them.
Minutes passed. Petunia's eyes began to feel more at ease again and the energy drink she sipped from gave her new endurance once more. She looked back into the direction of the street lamp, to the middle of the house. Shadows gathered there, little obscure shapes that weren't completely reached by the light of the lamp anymore. Petunia pondered what these things were, things she could have easily identified by day, but the night made it harder and she hadn't particularly memorized all the things she could see from her window. Then one of the shadows moved all of a sudden.
Petunia's heart constricted a little. She calmed down again as her mind grasped that one of the shadows was another pony. A stallion, she assumed, as the pony was bigger than a mare and rather bulky. The stallion lifted his head and suddenly, Petunia felt watched. She could not make out his eyes, so she wasn't able to tell what he was looking at, but Petunia felt like he was staring at her. Shivering, she rolled away from the video again and back at her computer. The light in her room stayed off as she searched for the line where she had stopped reading. Petunia continued. She kept the half-empty bottle in her lap this time, grasping it with both hooves.
The story went into more exciting directions and reached its climax, but Petunia had trouble to focus on it now. Every few sentences, her eyes wandered to the right and she had to redirect them onto the text, both to prevent herself from losing the thread of the story and to avoid looking at the stallion. But her curiosity won in the end, so she stopped reading and looked away from the screen, taking a careful peek out of the window.
The stallion was still standing there. His head still looking up. There was no doubt anymore, the stallion was staring at her. Terrified, Petunia looked away again. Once more, she tried to distract herself with the story, but the stallion didn't leave her mind. He couldn't be there forever, though. And maybe there was a harmless explanation for it. Looking into another pony's window wasn't illegal and not necessarily wrong. Maybe he saw something in her room that interested him, maybe he could even see her ponysaurus skull from down there..... She had never checked how much insight there was into her bedroom if she looked up at her window. But these reassuring thoughts didn't manage to calm Petunia. At least, she could hope that he was gone by now. But, as she looked out her window again, he still stood there, a staring, unmoving silhouette. A shadow that steadily watched her. Then, something else happened.
Purple fire began to spread out around something on the ground, a rectangular-shaped object. The head of the stallion was glowing purple. The object got lifted into the air and as it was hovering above the stallion's head, Petunia could see that it was a white cardboard sign. The text that was written on it filled her heart up with fear and let it sink down her chest.
DON'T LOOK THERE AGAIN!
Petunia's breath became stronger. A thousand thoughts descended on her mind at the same time. Her imagination kicked in. It didn't take long for her mind to count one and one together. “Have I seen something I shouldn't have?” she spoke loudly into the room.
Petunia turned away from the window and looked up at her pony skull. At least, where she suspected it to be, in the near complete darkness of her room whose only light source was the computer screen now. “Can you protect me?” she squeaked in fear. The skull didn't respond, of course. Petunia looked back at the window.
The sign still hovered above the stallion's head. For a moment, as she pondered her options, the thought of going outside and asking the stallion what he wanted brushed her. But she instantly discarded this idea. “That's what everypony in the movies does before they die,” she whispered to herself. Petunia decided for something else instead.
As she had gotten off her desk chair and was taking a last look at the stallion, the sign he held in his magic was suddenly ripped out of the air and flung to the side, the stallion's aura vanishing around it. Almost at the same time, the stallion seemed to get pushed back by something. His horn stopped glowing.
This unexplainable sight scared Petunia even more. She gave her skull another look, then quickly looked away from it and scurried out her bedroom without closing the door behind her. She switched on the light in the corridor and fled into the bathroom, where she locked herself inside.
Petunia got away from the door, moved to the lavatory and splashed some cold water into her face. She tried to remain calm the best she could, but one thought was constantly circulating inside her head. She was familiar with horror, had read countless stories with the same basic premise. “You have seen too much.” was what the text on the stallion's sign meant. And what could she have seen? This was clear to her, as well. She had spent the past week with digging all over Ponyville and around it, dreaming about making more prehistoric discoveries. She had found new bones, single bones, not a complete body. And none of these bones she had found in the past week seemed to be bones of a pony. But.....
Petunia swallowed. There was one hole she could not dig all the way to the end, not far away from her house, albeit in the other direction that she couldn't see from her bedroom. All she got was a glimpse of a white bone fragment that stuck out of the dirt, before her mother called her home for dinner. This was yesterday. Petunia's entire body became cold as her mind put all the pieces into place.
She couldn't stay locked in the bathroom forever. If she was still there once her parents returned, they would question what she did in there for that long. And if she told them the truth, they would explain it with her imagination and probably suspect she watched the movies they forbad her to watch. She couldn't take this risk. But regardless of that, Petunia did not dare to leave the bathroom and to get back into her room again for a good, long while. Half an hour passed, spent by her with cowering in fear on the toilet lid, her thoughts racing around the all too real possibility of being the target of a murderer.
Eventually, Petunia finally gathered the courage to get up from her seat and to approach the bathroom door. It had to be past midnight by now, her parents had to come home any moment now, she estimated. The concert couldn't take that long, after all, and they said they would be back by midnight. She couldn't be seen by them in here.
With shaking hooves, Petunia touched the small, metallic lever and turned it around. She slowly pulled the door open and looked out through the crack. As she could see that nopony was standing there, she squeezed herself through the barely opened door. The corridor looked the same as always, Petunia could confirm as she looked around in anxiety. Petunia sneaked, carefully, through the corridor. The complete silence around her eased Petunia into feeling relatively safe. It was when she moved past the wooden railing, at the backside of the staircase, that this silence got interrupted and a loud stomp let her eardrums vibrate. Then another stomp followed. Something heavy moved up the staircase and Petunia stood frozen in fear and watched. A bony beast came into appearance. Its head was massive and round and it extended to the front as a flatter, beak-shaped part. A ribcage, that rested on four, thick leg bones and was an indicator for it that the beast, when it was still alive and its body more than just bones, had to be very muscular and strong, entered Petunia's vision. The head of the undead monstrum turned around at her, a red light glowing in its empty eye sockets. When a distorted and long-stretched, bird-like screech left its mouth, Petunia's state of shock dissipated. Petunia started to scream. She jumped up, ran for her bedroom and slammed the door shut as soon as she was inside. Petunia pressed her back against the door, thick tears running down her anguished face. The stomping of the undead skeleton could still be heard through the wood of her door as it made its way up the remaining stair treads. Yanking her head to the side, Petunia could catch a glimpse of her ponysaurus skull that stood at the right side of her shelf. “Please help me!” she cried out.
Instantly, the stomping became louder. Like the monstrum had just leaped in front of her door. Yet there was no impact to be heard. Petunia sobbed loudly. “No, no, no.....” Petunia cried louder and louder. “Please go away and return into the movie.” She felt her legs becoming weak. They began to wobble and she had to use all her willpower to remain standing so she could try to prevent the undead beast from entering her room and coming for her.
After a while, the sounds stopped. Petunia didn't notice their absence at first, over her loud, scared cries. As her mind entered the state of comfort that such a crying fit brings with it, she finally realized that the sounds weren't there anymore. Feeling relief rise in her chest, Petunia sniffed. She sank to the floor, pulled up her hindlegs and cried some more, hiding her face in them. Her sobs filled the room for a few more minutes, then she unsteadily rose up.
Petunia staggered through her room and aimed straight for her bed. She cast a glance out the window and saw that the stallion was gone now. For a few seconds, Petunia just stared at the spot where she had seen him, recalled how he stood there, how he had lifted the sign..... She shook her head and began to climb into her bed. Then the undead monster she had seen and heard appeared in front of her inner eye. Petunia stopped, shivered and remained in that position for a few seconds. She turned her head at the window again and scanned the space thoroughly. Then, finally, teetered away from her bed, pressed the light switch and returned to it. In her bed, she immediately slipped under the covers. Lying on her left side, Petunia pressed her hooves against her chest through her blanket, crumpling it. She looked up at her skull again, pleading. New tears were forming in her eyes. After a few seconds, Petunia whimpered. She looked down again. In one corner of her bed stood a green brontosaurus plushie, which she now took and clasped against her chest. She nuzzled her nose into it and whimpered some more, until the crying had carried her away into sleep.....
*CRACK*
Petunia awoke from a world of darkness as a loud sound interrupted her sleep. Her eyes shot open and she instantly found herself wide awake. The neon numbers on her bedside clock showed 01:00 AM. She had slept for less than an hour.
Invigorated by the expectation that her parents had returned, Petunia wriggled herself out of her blanket and left her bed. Clasping the brontosaurus plushie tightly against her chest with one hoof, she went out of her bedroom. The lights were still on, but no sounds came from her parents' bedroom. Petunia went down the stairs. The living room was dark. And it was cold there. As she tapped the light switch, Petunia found out why.
The front door was open again. “Mom?” she asked, looking around. “Dad?” But there was nopony else than her in the living room and nopony answered. “Mommy? Daddy?” Petunia asked again, her voice becoming more of a whimper.
No answer. Petunia began to feel uneasy again. Where were her parents? She already wanted to get the spare keys to close the door and lock it another time, as she noticed that something was different on the living room table. The empty Sparkle Cola cans weren't on it anymore, they were lying in front of the TV. And the glass bowl for her popcorn was smashed. Were it stood were nothing but tiny, blue shards anymore. Somepony, or something, had shattered it with precise accuracy and knocked down the broken parts of it into tiny fragments. Without a closer inspection, they almost looked like blue dust. The white plate next to the bowl was broken in half exactly in the middle. It was a perfect cut.
Petunia began shaking and clasped the plushie even tighter. The appearance of the undead dinosaur skeleton was something that she, now that she could think clearer again, shrugged off as a product of her imagination that had been created by both the movie and the stallion who had threatened her. But that stallion and the destruction on the table were real. Petunia didn't need more than this to assess that something was very wrong in her house tonight. She had to leave the house and find her parents. They said she should only leave the house if there was an emergency and all these events definitely were an emergency. She was scared to death and needed her parents' comfort. There was no way she would wait until they finally returned.
Petunia turned around to make her way to the front door. Then the lamp in the middle of the living room burst and a shower of electric sparks rained down, the last thing that illuminated the room before everything became completely dark. Petunia screamed again and ran for the front door. But her hooves didn't carry her far. She stopped dead in her tracks as a big figure blocked the exit, the stallion that she saw from her window! Petunia twirled around and hasted for the spare key box on the wall. She ripped them out, opened the door and galloped through the corridor. Driven by all her fear, she slammed the key into the hole, but it didn't go inside. The keyhole was blocked. Petunia tried it again, but to no avail. She looked through the keyhole, to see if something had gotten stuck in it, but it was completely free and she could see the nightly darkness outside. In her panic, Petunia dropped her brontosaurus plushie and jumped up to the steel frame and grabbed it. She looked outside, checking if there was anything that did this. And then wished she hadn't. The skeleton monster materialized out of thin air. It looked directly at her and brought its face close to the little window, where it let its eyes glow and emanated its piercing screech. Petunia screeched, as well. She jumped down again and stumbled backwards in terror.
Her retreat was stopped as she bumped into something soft. She screamed another time, then felt grabbed by strong hooves. “You come outside with me now,” the voice of the stallion who had watched her spoke. Petunia struggled against his grasp, but couldn't escape. He took the keys she was holding, pressed a hoof down on her mouth and pulled her with him.
Outside, left of the front door, he suddenly let go of Petunia and positioned himself in front of her. Too scared to speak or scream, Petunia looked up at the towering, grey stallion. He was wearing a brown cloak. It was adorned with strange symbols that Petunia had never seen before.
“I need you,” the stallion spoke after a few seconds.
Petunia gasped in fear. “No..... please,” she squeaked.
“Listen now. There is something you have to do for me,” the deep voice of the stallion bellowed down on her. He pulled out a large, leathery pouch. It was surrounded at the edges by a green glow.
“N-No..... Please don't take me with you,” Petunia pleaded. “I haven't seen anything, I promise!”
He ignored her plea. “I want that you get back inside the house, take the skull you have sitting on your shelf there and bring it to me.”
Petunia's whole body was shaking. “W-Will you let me go if I give it to you?”
“I won't hurt you. Just get inside and bring me the skull.” The stallion intensified his stare at her. His eyes were dark and strict.
“O-Okay.....” Petunia trotted backwards, not leaving the stallion out of her sight, until she was at the front door. Fearful and confused, Petunia ran into the house, up the stairs and into her bedroom like the stallion had told her. She climbed up on her shelf, almost falling down while she did as her shaking hooves failed to grab the boards. Petunia took her skull into one hoof, pressed it against her and jumped down from the shelf. Her landing was accompanied by a thunderous bang. A crack appeared on the wooden floor and dug itself all the way to the window. Only now, Petunia noticed that her skull suddenly felt much heavier than the last time she lifted it up. It stroke her as odd, but Petunia took no time to think about it. She held her skull close and ran back to the stallion, still shaking all the way.
“Good,” the stallion spoke. “Now be a nice girl and give it to me.”
Petunia nodded, tears in the corner of her eyes, and hoofed him her ponysaurus skull.
As he was about to put the skull into the bag with the green glow, the eye sockets of the skull flared up in a red color all of a sudden and its mouth began to move. A demonic voice spoke. “Fool. Thou really think that your mechanisms can contain me forever.” It sounded like it came from deep within a throat that did not exist anymore. The voice erupted into sinister and mocking laughter that continued until the skull had fully disappeared inside the bag and it got closed above it.
The stallion put the bag on his back. “Thank you. Now go back into your house and don't tell anypony what you have seen tonight.” He hoofed Petunia the keys for the house.
Under her coat, Petunia's face had become completely white. The words her skull had spoken repeated themselves in her head. Her mouth was open, but she couldn't say a word. Petunia only nodded and silently took the keys, then she turned around and slowly trotted back to the front door. As she was about to enter, the stallion called out to her one last time.
“Be more mindful of your digging in the future, young filly.”
Petunia stopped and nodded, without turning around. Then she headed inside and closed the door behind her. As she had locked it, she leaned against it with a relieved sigh. She had lost one of her most important possessions tonight and she was still confused over what had just happened. But Petunia could not fight the sudden feeling that her life had been in great danger and that this stranger had saved her.
Petunia closed her eyes and took a few, deep breaths. As she opened them again and went to put back the spare keys, a small, red glow came out of her eyeballs.
“Fool. Thou really think that your mechanisms can contain me forever,” the voice of the demonic skull kept speaking inside her head.
.
Author's Note
If you enjoyed this story, please consider becoming my patron or buy me a coffee:
https://www.patreon.com/fluttercheer
https://ko-fi.com/fluttercheer
