To See Nothing, but Feel Something.

To See Nothing, but Feel Something

For the next two months, until the end of April, the stranger worked every day and most nights. He stopped occasionally to take walks, but only at twilight. He always kept his face and hoof covered when Mrs. Hall brought him his food or when he went outdoors. He ignored greetings from villagers on those walks and seemed to enjoy frightening the colts and filly's who teased him.

         On several occasions, he even talked to himself behind locked doors and went into rages, smashing furniture and equipment. When Mrs. Hall complained about her ruined furnishings, he paid her for the damage and always added something extra. Even so, Mr. Hall asked his wife to get rid of the stranger repeatedly, but each time, she reminded him, "This time of year we don't have many paying guests. I'll wait until the summer business starts."

         During his three months in Ponyville, the stranger became a regular topic of conversation among the villagers. Questions about him were answered by Mrs. Hall with explanations such as, "He's an important scientist working on some very secret experiments for Canterlot," or "He had an accident which scarred his face and hoofs, and since he's a very sensitive gentlecolt, he doesn't care to be seen in public." Many of the townspony, however, preferred Trixie's explanation that the stranger was a criminal trying to hide from the royal guards by wrapping himself up in bandages.

          Others didn't waste too much time on the stranger and simply decided he was a harmless lunatic. One pony in Ponyville was most curious about the stranger, and his name was John Cuss. He happened to be one of the village doctors. He was intrigued by the stories of the "thousands" of bottles in the strangers room, and he wanted to seem them. When he finally came up with a good reason for calling upon the stranger, which was to request a donation to the Ponyville Nurse Fund, Dr. Cuss made his way to the Prancing Pony Inn.

         Mrs. Hall led the doctor up the stairs and waited as he knocked upon the door. A low voice muttered something in reply. Assuming that the reply was permission to enter, the doctor opened the door and went inside. Mrs. Hall, however, didn't move from the hallway after Dr. Cuss had closed the door behind him. She was much too curious to leave, so she stood there for ten minutes. But all she heard was the murmur of voices. Suddenly, a cry of surprise made her jump back. It was followed by the rapid shuffling of hoofs and a bark of laughter.

         The door burst open, and Dr. Cuss came galloping through it, his eyes staring back into the room and his face a deadly white. He almost knocked Mrs. Hall over as he rushed down the stairs and disappeared out the front door. Mrs. Hall heard the stranger laughing wildly as he slammed the bedroom door shut. Meanwhile, Dr. Cuss had fled to the home of Rarity, the village fashion designer. She was a friend of his, and when she came by the hospital, he would often flirt with her. So, in a way, he considered her a close friend.

         He burst into her shop and gasped, "I think I've lost my mind! Do I look insane?" The startled unicorn looked up from a dress she was sowing and asked, "Insane? What are you raving about, Dr. Cuss? Be a Darling and do explain."

         "It's that stranger at the inn," said the doctor breathlessly. "I've just had the most frightening experience with him. I went to call on him to get a donation to the Nurse Fund. When I opened the door to his room, he immediately stuck his hoofs into his pockets and slumped down into his chair. All the while I was talking about the Nurse Fund, I kept staring at the bottles and powders and chemicals and test tubes everywhere. Then I asked him, point-blank,  'Are you working on a secret project?'

         "In between sneezes and sniffles from a nasty cold he got, he snapped at me, 'If you must know, yes! I had searched years and finally found the answer-the formula I needed for--; Never mind what for. All the ingredients were written on a piece of paper on my lab table when all of a sudden a breeze carried it towards the fireplace. As it was being carried up the chimney, I rushed to reach out my foreleg to grab it, like this-' "And he reached out his foreleg as if to show me how he had  made a grab for the paper, but there was no hoof; just an empty sleeve! My first thought was he had an artificial foreleg and had taken it off. But then I began to wonder why, if he had no foreleg, what was keeping his sleeve up and open as he showed me how he reached... No, there was nothing in that sleeve. I could look right into it, clear through to the elbow. He saw me staring and-"

         Dr. Cuss just paused there for a moment and put his hoof to his mouth. "Yes, yes, go on." Rarity asked, rather intrigued with the latest gossip. "That's all. He never said a word. He just glared at me as he put his sleeve back in his pockets and returned to his story of the paper that had blown up the chimney. But I wasn't about to let it go.

" 'How can you move an empty sleeve?' I asked him. "With that, he stood up and walked towards me until he was only inches away from my face. I don't mind telling you that having his bandaged face and his eerie glasses so close to my face sent shivers thoughout my body. Then his voice came at me menacingly, 'Did you say it was an empty sleeve?'

'Yes, I did.' I replied.

         "Then he slowly pulled his sleeve out of his coat and raised it as if he was about to show it to me again. It was a strange feeling, seeing an empty sleeve coming at me like that. Then suddenly, something touched me. It felt like a hoof was pressing against my chest!" Rarity began to laugh as lady-like as she possibly could.

         "Don't laugh! There was nothing there!" shrieked Dr. Cuss in a panic. "I swear it!" Rarity shook her head sadly as she looked at the doctor and wondered if the young gentlecolt was beginning to imagine things. "Rarity, please believe me!" pleaded Dr. Cuss. "I even swung my foreleg at him and struck his sleeve. It felt like I was hitting a foreleg, but there wasn't anything there! I felt something, but I saw nothing! Nothing, I tell you! Nothing! It was if there was a ghost inside those clothes!"