It's cold tonight. Shivering, I try to close my window, but it's already latched. I turn to my other window and find a solid wall. A little note is taped to it: "Get well soon! —Derpy"

Who is that?

I crawl back into bed and pull three blankets over my head. Somewhere below me, a machine whirs and a stallion laughs in triumph. My legs twitch, and I fall back asleep.

"I'm sorry..."

I strain to understand the mare as she repeats herself again. I'm in a cafe in a small town...Ponyville. I'm in a cafe in Ponyville, and I'm hungry. She must be taking my order.

"Can I have some hay fries?"

She gives me a weird look and says something else. I apologize again and leave.

The woods have never been this thick before. The trees leer at me from all sides, and my illumination spell casts weird shadows against the grass. The harder I strain, the dimmer my horn becomes, until I may as well be carrying a tealight candle. I don't know where to go, so I take a step back and bump into something. I turn around and see him towering over me.

Most ponies don't wear bow ties, but the doctor does. I watch it as he talks. He says something about time, and I ask him if time goes back forever. He tells me that I'm not thinking about time right, and I tell him to answer my question.

A gray mare walks in on our conversation. She has a blonde mane and a bubble cutie mark. I think we've met.

"Are you feeling better?" she asks.

I shrug. "Is there any reason I wouldn't be?"

She and the doctor share a look.

"Uhm..." She doesn't know what to say.

"Shadow Lock, do you—" The doctor falters. "Do you know who I am right now?"

I frown, then: "You're my landlord."

He sighs.

Twilight Sparkle opens my door, but I don't think she knocked. She steps cautiously, as if she's walking through an unmarked bog. She asks me how I'm doing, and I tell her I don't know why people have been asking me that. She tells me they're worried about me, and she pauses to read the four notes taped to my wall. She says that Derpy came to see her, and I ask if that's the gray mare who lives with the doctor. It is. I ask why she cares so much about me, and Twilight can't respond.

"We're all worried, you know," Twilight says. "When we left, we didn't think..."

I ask her what happened to me, but just comments that I'm a good wizard. I ask her if that has anything to do with what happened to me. She doesn't respond. After a few moments of silence, she tells me that Derpy and Doctor Hooves are good ponies, and she wishes me well. As she leaves, I notice that she set a book on my nightstand. I throw it at the door, and it falls to the floor with a heavy thud.

His eyes are gray, like inky milk. His body oozes darkness that closes in on me, creeping towards my eyes and nose. He asks me if this is what I was so afraid of. I say, "Yes."

I lie in bed, listening to ponies talk about me in a nearby room. Derpy doesn't want to send me away. Outside my window, the snake-charmer dips below the western horizon. Dawn is coming; I should get up.

I buy a few more blankets, ones that were imported from the Crystal Empire. As I put my bits on the counter, I wonder how I make money.

Derpy asks to read my book with me. The doctor asks if I want to go to a hospital. I tell him I'm fine, and Derpy asks to read my book with me. I tell her okay, and she seems happy. Why hasn't she been this happy up until now? Is it my fault?

The Princess dispels the shadowy figure and lands in front of me.

"Other ponies need my help," she says. "I won't be able to visit you every time anymore."

She hasn't been from the beginning, but I don't tell her that.

I tape another note to my wall. It tells me to go to Sugarcube Corner for cupcakes if I'm feeling down.

Twilight's book is about a stallion who climbs to the top of Mount Canterlot to avoid burdening the ponies in his life. He thinks he's doing them a service, but from his vantage point, he can see how miserable his friends are, and how much they miss him. He cries. He wants to go back down to them, but his tears and the cold have frozen him to the rock. He cries more, and his tears ultimately become the snow atop the mountain, with him still buried somewhere beneath. When a blizzard comes in, it's the weight of his sorrow crashing back down upon him.

I'm crying. Derpy hugs me.

A spring of life finds its way into me, and I take a train to Manehattan. The sounds, the sights...it's all so much. How can anypony stand it? I wander the streets, keeping a weary distance from any bookshops I see, until something catches my eye. Of all things, it's a book. I can't make out the title, but the author's name is the headline. Stygian. I lean over to look inside the store, and I see him doing a signing. We lock eyes, and an intense feeling of recognition comes over me. My chest tightens, my breath quickens, and I hurry back home.

It's so cold. How is it so cold? Even this mound of blankets can't keep it away. I think I'll lie here for a while. Yes. It's far too cold to get up.

Author's Note

This story features Shadow Lock from Friendship is Magic #51-53.