Jeff the Killer

-Ponyville

"WhywhyWHY??" Twilight, in her crazed state, ranted mercilessly. For the past half hour. "WHY DIDN'T THE PRINCESS RESPOND TO MY LETTERRR??"

Twilight shifted nervously by herself, looking not too different from when Pinkie first tasted coffee and asked to sit still. (It was declared by Princess Celestia herself as a physical impossiblity, by the way. In the end, Discord almost got free again and powerful magic needed to be used to restrain her until the caffine effects wore off.) Her mane was a mess and her eyes showed fear, as if she was minutes away from being excecuted in the most horrible way possible.

She paced back and forth in the library, as she was doing so ever since she had sent the letter to Canterlot (via dragon) several hours ago.

What if something has happened to the princess? Twilight worried miserably. Princess Celestia always sends a reply right away! Maybe something is wrong with Spike? He has been eating a lot of ice cream lately... I should see the effects ic-

"Twilight!" Spike yelled from accross the library, knocking Twilight out of her stupor and unknowingly saving himself from being a test subject. "Your dinner is getting cold!"

"O-Okay, Spike!" Twilight replied, exhausted. Twilight slugged into the kitchen, still shaking a little, where a plate full of spagetti and hay was waiting for her on the table.

"Oooh, oh well." Twilight sighed, relaxing considerably. She still looked like she was attacked by a demonic spirit, but at least the shaking stopped.

She sits down in front of the table and levitates a fork over her spagetti.  "Spike IS right." She reassures herself. "I am probably thinking too much about it. Poor Fluttershy waited almost an hour yesterday with me while we waited for the princess to reply, but left when she needed to feed her animals. Unlike silly me," Twilight emphasized with a pause and a facehoof, "Thats all I can worry about. I should really focus on my responsibilities instead of festering over one late letter!"

Twilight relaxes and looks at her plate. She spins a few strands of spagetti in her fork but stops before lifting it in her mouth, realizing something.

What about the creature Fluttershy mentioned?! While we were waiting for the princess to respond to my letter I completely forgot that a dangerous new animal is lurking near Ponyville! How could I neglect the issue this far?

 You know what? Its all the princess's fault! If somepony is hurt, it is because she didn't respond to the letter in time. Tommorow we will look for the beast and capture it, forget about Princess Celestia!

Twilight quickly changes back from crazed and annoyed to worried, And it is obvious that the creature is probably very dangerous.  Fluttershy lives near the Everfree, and an animal that dangerous could easily kill her!

__________

Meanwhile, Spike passed by the kitchen to see Twilight staring at a wall with her left eye twitching and a dangerous look on her face. Spike decided the best way to  go about the situation was to back away slowly...

___________

Fluttershy is too innocent to understand that there are animals out there that might be too dangerous to interact with alone! Twilight thought. I really hope this isn't one of those situations...

A long pause of pondering ensues, in which the spagetti and hay has officially become cold.

I should have went with her, Twilight decides anxiously, completely oblivious to the status of her meal. I should see if she is alright. She could have been attacked again while all I was worried about was Princess Celestia's letter!!

Twilight lunges off her chair and topples over, hitting her head. "Ah!" She yelps. Twilight rubs her sore rump, clearly not in the mood. "What the hay!"

She levitates the chair off the ground and sets it upright, before calling for her roommate/assistant.

"SPIKE!" Twilight yells, "I'm going out! I just need to check on Fluttershy! Please look over the library while I am gone, okay?"

All she hears is a grumble from the other side of the library, but considering the situation, that was more than good enough for her. She exits the library, to see the sun was setting.

The princess had time to set the Sun but didn't respond to my letter? Twilight felt anger and confusion boil, but only enough to portray slight annoyance. Twilight can't be upset with her mentor for long, she always has her reasons. Even if those reasons literally cause her to fall sick from worry.

Ignoring her prevailing negative thought, Twilight galloped through Ponyville, approaching the corner of the Everfree and her yellow friend's cottage.

She did not see anything out of the ordinary or worth looking over on her way through Ponyville. Everything was as it always was. No weird animals roaming, Derpy delivering mail while narrowly avoiding a tree, The market filled with ponies buying goods.

  Actually, the market square was congested with more ponies than usual. She looks ahead to see ponies on line to buy strawberries, an unusual sight considering it being an import almost exclusively from Westberry, all the way in Itony. These berries often bring up as much business as the Apple Family's Annual Cider sales.

    They say strawberries can help heal all wounds and disease, but most customers just buy the strawberries because of their taste. After all, most ponies and one dragon would agree apples make horrible ice cream.

Twilight, oogling the berries, momentarily considered stopping to buy strawberries for Spike and herself, but immediately repremanded herself.

"No! Bad Twilight!" Twilight hissed under her breathe. "Fluttershy is more important right now!"

She gallops faster, away from the growing group of ponies and approaches the cottage. As the cottage came into view, she came to notice something that disturbed her. The cottage was normally surrounded my many birds and other small critters, yet she was unable to spot a single sign of them in the area. She did not see a single bird, bunny, or butterfly in sight as she usually  spotted when Twilight visited. Suspicious, instead of going directly towards the door, she gets to the back of the cottage to the pens.

As Twilight reaches visual of the pens, she sighs in relief as she sees all the chickens, pigs, and the lion still in their pens. Twilight noticed, though, that every single animal there seemed to either hide from her or watch her every move. It was very unusual for Fluttershy's animals to do that, and the knowledge of it gave Twilight shivers. Each animal that dared to look at her had fear in their eyes, some even... pleading?

   The chickens were all huddled in their respected coops and the pigs just seem to act more jumpy to any movement she made. The lion, which was normally lazily loafing around or asleep, was growling at Twilght.

Weirdly enough, though, the growling didnt seem too threatening, it was more like a very, very deep purr. Yet, Twilight had a strange hunch the lion seemed to be trying.. to tell her something. To warn her.

Ignoring the lion, which the lion noticed and started to growl angrily, Twilight always wondered why Fluttershy had a large lion in the first place. They only ate meat, and a lot of it. She always wonders, if she loves animals, why take care of one that eats them? What does she feed the lion? Where is Fluttershy right now?

Twilight examined the lion once more, to see it now laying down with its back turned to her. It now seemed disinterested and angry, as if she offended it.

Twilight found that kind of funny, but at the same time ominous. Lions don't normally act that way, do they? Twilight wondered. On the other hand, maybe this lion is retar- has some screws loose! Twilight corrected, blushing furiously.

That would make a lot more sense on why Fluttershy is taking care of it even though its an apex carnivore. At least its not a three legged manticore...

"um.. H-Hi Twilight."

"eek!?" Twilight, startled, turns around to see a confused and worried Fluttershy behind her.

"Oh, its only you, Fluttershy." Twilight's demeanor suddenly turned serious, almost frowning. "I was wondering, did you notice anything strange lately?"

Fluttershy, shocked at the nature of the question, recovered quickly and began staring downward, refusing to make eye contact with the purple mare. She fiddled with her front hooves, muttering, "No, Twilight. I didn't notice anything weird lately. Thank you for asking, though."

Fluttershy looks up at Twilight, waiting to see how she would react. Twilight, upon hearing this, felt her earlier twitch start to come back.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight moaned. "Its obvious that something is going on! I can't be imagining... all this!"

"Um.. Twilight?" Fluttershy murmured, interrupting her rant. "A-Are you okay? You dont look very good. I mean your m-mane... and your shivering and.." Fluttershy quiets, now hiding behind her mane.

"Uggggh!" Twilight raged. "Im alright!! Nevermind! Where is Rainbow Dash?! RAINBOW DASH! GET YOUR FLANK OVER HERE!"

Twilight runs off, leaving behind a bewildered and frightened pegasus.

__________

-Everfree Forest

Pain. Something that was all too familiar.

And despiced.

Jeff moaned, and struggled to get up. His newfound headache causes him to cringe. He gnarled and violently shook his head.

"Where are you..." He whispered in the cold night, accompanied by a dangerously low growl. Jeff took a look around, to only become more aggravated.

He couldn't see through the fog very far, but could just scantily hear steps being taken. The creature ran away.

They always run. Jeff thought with slight playfulness, cracking a smile for just a moment before returning to a scowl as his head pounds. All they are doing is prolonging their suffering. *Living is a curse*.

He tried to get up, but felt more stinging pain coming from all over his body, mostly his chest.

He felt as his many broken and fractured ribs poking at his insides, causing agonizing pain.

The red one...

Jeff hissed maliciously, rage boiling. If his rage was liquid mercury, the plantlife around him would be dying off right now.

It must live nearby, I can sense it. That freak horse deserves to feel pain before he dies. Jeff ruthlessly decides. He calms from raging anger to simmering resolve. But I am not that unforgiving that I would forget about him. I swear, I won't. Everyone. Everyone will have their turn.

With a scowl, making his face even more terrifying than usual, he starts to walk, or grovel, out of the fog.

He was getting hungry again. Hunger... I almost forgot. Doesn't it seem that I have been eating a lot less lately? Whatever. Tommorow... Tommorow I will have to make another visit to that cottage.

__________

-Ponyville

The moon was out, yet Twilight still did not get back. Spike, all alone in the big library, started to wonder. Unlike Twilight, Spike doesn't worry over trivial things like this.

"I guess something came up." Spike thought aloud, simply shrugging the worry off.

Spike just continued with his guilty pleasure as he was alone in the library; lighting things on fire.

Spike is a closet pyromaniac, often using his dragon breathe to create his magical flames. He has been able to hide his secret very easily from Twilight, only because he would be strict to only use his dragon flames to burn instead of regular ones. His dragon flames dont leave ashes or smoke, plus if he ever lights something on fire with it, he can say it was a burping accident, as using real fire would require him to explain why he made one in the first place. Not that he will have to worry about ever setting the library on fire. One would figure Twilight is plenty smart enough to fireproof her place of living when rooming with a fire breathing dragon like himself.

He wouldn't dare burn any of Twilight's books, anyway. Especially recently, considering she is always a bit crazy and overreactant for at least once a month over something that a lot of the time isn't very important anyway. Spike just shrugs it off, and takes out a piece of paper he found in the trash. With a puff of green fire, the paper smothered to nothing in a matter of seconds.

  Every so often, Spike would read a book about dragons he finds in the library to learn more about himself. He learned a lot about dragons this way, like their natural fascination with fire or their extremely long lifespans. One time, he even read an ancient book made by dragons that said dragons normally learn how to breathe fire before they learn how to walk!

Naturally, Spike didn't think much about his hobby, its a dragon thing.

Spike would never let Twilight find out, though. Even though she lets him send her letters to the princess, that is probably the limit to what he would normally be allowed to burn. It would be funny, though, if everything he burned ended up being sent to the princess. That would be impossible, though. He chuckles to himself with the thought, imagining trash falling on the princess every few minutes during an important meeting, or whatever princesses do.

As minutes pass, Spike realized to his annoyance he was starting to get sleepy. It was already late into the night, seriously? Where in Equestria is Twilight?

He looks out the window once more, hoping to see Twilight galloping to the library. All he saw, though, was empty streets and a full moon. Nothing unusual here.

Spike walks up to his bed, getting ready to sleep. He slouches into his bed, getting comfortable. He settled in, falling asleep......

A shiver, and Spike woke up, suddenly alert. He couldn't have been sleeping for more than a few minutes!  What was THAT? Spike thought with ideas already poking into his brain. A-A scream...

"Twilight?!"

Spike ran towards the window again, scanning with his eyes the perimeter ahead. It was even darker than several minutes ago. Just when his worst fears were taking over, he sees a pony a few yards away, approaching the library. The path was too dark to see clearly, but it was obvious that the figure was a pony, about the same size as Twilight.

"Twilight!" Spike shouted, now running out the door towards the pony. he blindly latches on to her, but the response he got wasn't what he was expecting.

A hard kick in the gut.