A campfire danced in the small clearing, illuminating five friends as they take a break from their journey in the shadow of a large, dilapidated building. Sitting on some logs and chatting in the ember glow. The scent of roasting marshmallows drifting through the air.
“Oh! I know!” Izzy giggled. “Let’s tell ghost stories!”
“Ghost stories, eh?” Zipp chuckled into her wing. “You’re not going to wet yourself, are you sis?”
“I have never!” Pipp scoffed at her sister. The others chuckle in amusement at the sisters’ antics. They couldn’t be more similar yet more different at the same time.
“Alright, settle down.” Hitch intervened, chewing on his marshmallow.
“But if it’s a ghost story you want. I know just the one.” Zipps wings beat across the campfire, causing it to flare up. The pegasus voice echoed as shadows danced across her face. “This is a tale based on true events. It all happened on a night, just like this. In a forest Just like-”
“Seriously, Zipp? The olden pony? That’s like waaaay beyond boring.” Pipp’s remark seems to cause the fire to return to its soft dancing form. She lifts her hooves mockingly. “WhO hAs My RuStY HoRsHoE? Pbbft.”
“Well, it’s still scary!” Zipp hisses back.
“Oh! oh! oh! I know one!” Izzy squeaks from across the campfire. “In fact! It’s about these very woods!”
“It’s not about rainbows, is it?” Sunny pokes Izzy’s side.
“Not everything has to be about rainbows, Sunny.” The unicorn giggles, taping her friends hoof away. “No. This story is about these very woods. For in these woods roams a terrible creature. One on the hunt for lost ponies!”
Izzy waves her hooves in the air. The campfire roars skywards in response, causing the embers to dance around her. “You can hear the creature galloping through the forest on nights just like this one. A creature so foul and hideous that the mere sight of it would cause ponies to go insane! If any survived the encounter…”
“So how do we know it’s hideous?” Hitch asked, unamusingly. “If nopony survives the encounter.”
“Well, I… Um… Shush you.” Izzy motions at Hitch. “Ahem. As I was saying… This creature gallops all over the forest, hunting ponies. For you see. It is searching for something. Something fresh, that needs to be replaced. For this creature is…!”
“The headless horse!” Izzy’s friends cheer in unison, before giggling amongst themselves, causing a disgruntled Izzy to slump on her seat.
“Well, that’s no fun.” She mutters to herself.
“Aww, cheer up Izzy, at least it WAS a scary story, even if it is a common one.” Pipp shoots a sly grin at her sister.
Sunny catches her breath and adjusts herself on her seat. “Well, I happen to know a scary story.”
Sunny’s friends share a look of amusement between each other, trying to suppress their grins.
“Oh, you don’t believe me?” Sunny smirks. “My story is about this very building.” A chill wind blows through the campfire, raising the fire high. Its light casting Sunny’s shadow over the old building.
“Did you know that this old building used to be an orphanage. It was a haven for fillies and colts who lost their parents to wars and dangers beyond their understanding. And here, they were protected by an old pony.” Sunny watches the faces of her friends. They appeared unamused by the tale so far. Sunny dismisses their thoughts with the wave of her hoof. “Now, I know what you’re thinking. ‘That’s hardly scary.’ But this caretaker was old. Very old. Some stories claim that the he was well over one thousand years old!”
“Well, that’s just silly. Nopony can live that long.” Zipp remarks, crossing her hooves.
“And you’re right, Zipp. But this orphanage was known for something else too.” The flames shudder in the howling wind. “The foals that resided here often went missing.”
Sunny’s friends shift their attention. “Wh-what do you mean, missing?” Izzy inquired.
“See, the caretaker here had a terrible secret. The secret to…” Sunny leaned into the fire, her jaw glowed in the red light, the shadows growing across her face caused her features to appear elongated and distorted. “Immortality.”
Zipp and Pipp unconsciously scootched closer together while Izzy raised her hooves to her mouth.
“Do you see? Can you understand what happened here? That old pony, the one who was meant to protect the foals, kidnapped them and used them for his experiments!” Sunnys voice becomes no more than a hushed whisper. “Witnesses who raided this place found an old basement covered in remains and drenched in the blood of children! There were designs and patterns strewn about the place. It revealed how this pony kept on living. He was cutting them up and grafting the pieces to his own body!”
The girls gasp in horror and disgust! Their attention completely on Sunny now, oblivious to the rest of the world.
“Oh, but this monster gets worse. With each part he used, he needed to replace it sooner. Every child lost meant another was taken that much sooner. Faster and faster, he churned through those poor children.” Sunny’s eyes glowed red in the dim light. “Until eventually, he needed something more. Something, ‘not alive’.”
“N-n-n-not al-alive?” Izzy squeaked.
“See, behind the basement was another room. A lab, full of electronics, bits of old metal and dangling corpses of children. See, the caretaker was not satisfied with his fleshy prison anymore, so he started to replace his limbs with machines. And he used the foals very blood as fuel. Constantly hungering for more, needing to be immortal, he drained their bodies, one by one. It drove many of those who discovered the place insane. If there was ever a monster, this was it.”
The girls gulp in unison.
“I know what you’re thinking, it was a long time ago. But here’s the thing.” Sunny continued. “They never found the caretaker.”
The girls squeak. Pipp and Zipp grab hold of each other, huddled in their wings. Izzy slides off her log and cowers behind it.
“They say he still wanders the halls of this very building, searching for ponies to fuel his body. If you listen closely, on a night just like this, you can hear him scrapping his metal hooves across the floorboards…”
*Schhhh… Clank!*
*Schhhh… Clank!*
*Schhhh… Clank!*
“GOTCH YA!”
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
Hitch had jumped out from behind the girls, appearing between the three of them and causing them to scream loudly into the night. Sunny and Hitch burst out laughing at their reaction, causing them to flop onto the floor.
“That wasn’t funny!” Zipp yells, pushing her sister off her.
“Oh, you should have seen your faces!” Hitch cries, gasping for breath. “That was classic.”
Sunny and Hitch wipe away their tears and sigh, giggling.
*Schhhh… Clank!*
Izzy giggles along, recovering from her scare. “That was good!”
*Schhhh… Clank!*
Hitch turns towards Sunny. “Sunny, you can stop with the sound making now, we already got them.” He grins. “Sunny?”
*Schhhh… Clank!*
The others look at Sunny. Her jaw hangs loose, eyes open wide in terror, staring straight ahead. Past her friends and into the treeline.
“Sunny?” Zipp glances round, before looking back at her friend. “You’re getting cre-”
*Schhhh… Clank!*
The group jump and huddle together, staring into the treeline. The wind howls, sending a chill though their very core, violently threatening the campfire. The girls gasp, pushing closer together. Between the flashes of dancing light, they all see it. Glowing green eyes in the tree line.
The wind howls ferociously once more, ripping the campfire apart and reducing the world to darkness…
Silence. Not a peep from the group of friends. Not a whisper from the surrounding forest…
*Schhhh… Clank!*