Chapter 1: The woods
"Hello, Who's there?"
Willow cried out, but no answer followed. The shadows of the trees soon started to grow eery, starting to envelop Willow in an almost tentacular grip.
Not wanting to become one with the forests' shadows, she started cantering in the direction that seemed best, this continued for about 5 minutes until she
could hear what appeared to be her own heartbeat starting to pick up, as if whatever followed her into the woods had found her again, and had began to continue
its pursuit. With no possible sense of direction, Willow ambled her way to an old ruin.
"Wait, there are no ruins in Everfree besides the old palace!" It had become clear that wherever Willow was, she wasn't in everfree anymore, or maybe not even in Equestria anymore.
The ruin was akin to a red tower, but with no obvious seams, entrances or remarkable features besides one, another note. Willow quickly grabbed the note, hoping for answers,
but what she saw sent a chill down her spine. The image was similar to the crude pony drawing she had found earlier, but this time there were features added to the landscape around the faceless pony, mainly trees, and a tower, the tower she was now standing in front of. The sound of a heartbeat came again, but this time Willow knew that it wasn't hers. The origin of the sound was right behind her. She swallowed, and turned around, but it was as if she had stood up too quickly because static started to cloud her vision, she could make out one detail though; one of a pony, dressed in formal wear, but lacking any form of facial feature, it started to edge closer. Willow began to think that the shadows were playing tricks on her vision because it was as if tentacles began to sprout from the pony, that is, if it could be even considered a pony. Willow began to feel encompassed by fear itself, she quickly ran away from the creature, darting between the trees in the hopes of escaping it. When she again felt confident that it was gone, she stopped and realised she was in the middle of what appeared to be a stone circle, the central stone yielded another note.
Willow nervously took the note in hoof, feeling that the notes may be key to her very survival. The note did not have a sketch as such like the others, but was simply emblazoned with the words 'No'.
As she finished looking at the page her vision began to fade into static again, this time Willow knew that whatever was chasing her was causing this, so she could use this to warn herself of its proximity, of which was becoming likely. Willow felt that the creature had picked up pace, as if it was now actively hunting for her, or at the very least the pages, "What do you want, the pages?!" Willow cried out, but instantly began to regret it as a gust of wind blew past her and her vision began to not only fade to static, but fade completely, as if the creature was sapping from her consciousness. This soon became obvious as Willow began to feel dizzy, and was overcome with a feeling of tiredness.
She began to fight against the fatigue, which soon became a losing battle. She eventually managed to force herself to break into a run, away from the creature. More notes began to show themselves, some depicting the same pony,
but with changes to the background, showing similarities to where Willow was standing as she read the notes, other said 'Help me' in large, scrawled letters. Willow was in full sprint now, eventually taking cover in another ruin, a building with tight corridors, Willow knew that she had to get out of this nightmare soon, but was soon distracted by another page.
She began to examine it, and her heart stopped, her spine became cold and her eyes glazed
with gear. This picture was different from the rest, This picture was an over-the-shoulder view of the faceless pony, facing a filly with their back turned from the creature, reading a piece of paper. The identity of this filly was obvious,
Willow dropped the page and succumbed to the exhaustion that had been plaguing her, and her vision faded to black, with the faceless pony being the last thing she saw.
Willow was not heard from again. Little to no information was given as to what had given her the idea to venture into the woods that night,
but it was obvious that something, was now loose in Equestria...
Chapter 2: The Asylum
One week after Willows disappearance.
The news of Willows disappearance had stirred up the community of Ponyville to the point that some brave souls had ventured into Everfree to search for Willow, never to be return, all except one.
This Pony, called Stardust, had survived the physical torment, but the same could not be said for his mind. He was left a near babbling mess, eventually condemned to an asylum so as not to corrupt the perfect image of Ponyville.
“Stardust, you have a visitor”
The disheveled mess in the corner of the room didn’t look like much, but it was the closest thing to hope that Red, Willows father, had to finding his daughter.
“I’d be careful what you say around Star here, he’s a little violent at the best of times.”
On that note, the nurse left the room, leaving Red alone with Stardust.
“Okay, I’m gonna ask you a few questions about what you saw out the...”
As the last word began to come out of Red’s mouth, Stardust cocked his head.
“No safety, only concealment. Always watches, no eyes.”
Stardust had obviously lost all sanity during his time in the woods, but what was he talking about?
“Look, I understand that you went through quite the ordeal, I just need you to tell me what happened when you went to find my daughter.”
On this note, Stardust stopped his crazed yammerings and perked up.
“Willow is your daughter?
She isn’t your daughter any more, she is taken, along with all the other overzealous adventurer-wannabes that went after her. hoping for a taste of the limelight, but all they found was a note, then another, until they were chased down by, by...”
Stardust fell to the floor, obviously trapped in his own imagination, Red knew he was a lost cause, but what if there was some sense to his words, what if his daughter...
No, Those thoughts are best left buried until all other possibilities are gone, Red turned to leave, but was stopped as Stardust began to speak again.
“Don’t let it get me...”
Stardust curled up into a ball, whimpering, whatever it is, it wasn’t going to get in here just for one insane pony, the asylum was locked up tighter than Tartarus and had better guards to boot. Red closed the door as he left to find that he had possibly gone through the wrong door, the sight he saw before him was not what he walked out of to get into Stardust's cell. This area of the asylum was run down to the point of looking destroyed, and was empty of all signs of life. A piercing sound cut a hole through the dreary silence; Stardust screaming.
Red re-opened the door he had just that second closed, to find that Stardust was being attacked, no, ‘consumed’ by something, something not pony.
Red watched in horror as Stardust started to practically disappear into darkness before his eyes.The deranged pony managed to work up enough energy to scream ‘RUN’ before being consumed by the darkness that was swallowing the room, and on that note Red turned tail and did as instructed.
When Red was confident that he’d run far enough way to just take a glance over his shoulder, he finally saw the creature properly.The thing that had taken Stardust now had a solid shape, that of a plain white pony, and dressed up as if it were going to a canterlot ball, it turned to glare at Red, but one prominent feature, or rather missing feature, was that the creature lacked eyes of any kind, this just spurred Red into a more frenzied dash to get away.
After about the third loop of the area, Red began to realise that this wasn’t the same Asylum he had been in a few minutes prior, mostly for the reason that strange tools were dotted around that couldn’t possibly be used by ponies. A scrap of paper on the nearby wall caught Reds eye; Red snatched it off the wall and began to read it.
‘NO ONE survives...’
‘Well, dung, that must have been aimed at Stardust...’
It suddenly clicked in Reds mind that whatever Stardust had said must be true, and therefore the note he had just picked up may have sealed his own fate;
Red began to feel that something was behind him, practically peering over his shoulder, Red bolted towards the door, hoping to stay one hoof ahead of whatever it was that took Stardust, and most likely his daughter.
darting round a corner, Red was sure that he had outrun whatever it was that was chasing him, two notes were in this area, one in the same hoofwriting as before, saying ‘out of sight; not out of mind’, the other in another, more deranged handwriting, as if it had been written by someone who was in the asylum, or more likely had been in the asylum.
‘It came from the forest, and now it’s come for you.’
These words went through Reds head, but weren’t mentally spoken in his own voice, but rather Stardusts voice, as if Stardust was right behind him.
Red turned around and was face-to-face with the White pony, tentacles of shadow protruding from its back, they began to ensnare Red in darkness, the image of the pony began to flash in front of Reds eyes, until suddenly unconsciousness took over.
‘It appears that you and him are closer than you think.’
Prologue
It was a dark yet almost tranquil night in Everfree forest, but what was to transpire that night was anything but peaceful.
A young filly, by the name of Willow, had been dared to spend a night in Everfree forest alone; armed only with her torch, she set off along the path which she had been told to never take a hoof onto. As she walked deeper into the woods, she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck start to stand on end, as if someone, something was watching her, this spurred her into a mad dash to get away from whatever may be chasing her. As she felt confident that she had outrun her pursuer, she stopped to glance around to see if she had truly done so. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed something out of place, a note crudely stuck to a tree.
Out of curiosity, she took the note off the tree and instantly felt a wave of regret wash over her, the image on the note was a sketch of a pony, but appeared to be unfinished because the image lacked any form of facial features. That last detail, or lack of detail rather, was what convinced her that, dare or not, she was not going to spend another moment in the woods, at least not that night. As she turned to trace her steps she noticed the path she had taken had seemingly vanished, with no way to find her way home, a feeling of hopelessness overcame her, knowing that she had to continue on at the very least, she soon shook this off, but then realised she was very far from being completely alone in the woods...
