Insanity

“Is it just me or does the path seem to be getting longer?” Quill asked.

“Hmm, we should have passed the castle by now.” I replied.

“Why don’t you fly up and check?”

“Not a bad idea, but I have the strangest feeling that we’re being watched,” I said turning away from Quill. “I don’t know about you, but I think the best the best course of action is to stay togeth-“

“STRYKER! HELP!”

I whipped around and found myself in the grip of some sort of tentacle squeezing the life out of me.

“AGH!”

I awoke screaming the next morning, the memories of the night before still tormenting me. I took a few steadying breathes, trying to still my racing heart. I needed to figure out what had happened, if Quill was alive and what that thing from the night before was, and there was only one pony I could think of who could help; Twilight. But first, I needed a few items. I went to the closet and threw the doors open, only to be buried under the mountain of junk that had accumulated in the closet over the years. Luckily, both of the items I needed (a flash light and a video camera) were sitting on the top of the pile. I grabbed them and, after extricating myself from the mess, I grabbed my saddlebag and tossed my flashlight and camera in. I then went out the door and wound up nose to nose with yet another monstrosity. It was tall, almost as tall as one of the alicorn princesses, minus Twilight of course. It also had a head that seemed way to big for its body and the appearance of wearing a suit. I jumped back in fright and made an impressive impression of Fluttershy.

“Oops, didn’t mean to scare you.”

The creature in front of me shimmered, and then blinked out of existence. In its place stood Princess Twilight, the very pony I needed to see.

“Ahh, Princess, its just you,” I said getting up. “I thought you might have been something I saw last night. Speaking of which, might I borrow a bit of your time?”

“Well, I am on a break, so I suppose. What can I do for you? And please, call me Twilight.” She replied with a smile.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts. “I need your help, but I need you to promise me two things; you can’t repeat anything I’m about to tell you to unless absolutely necessary.”

“Alright, and the second thing?”

“That you will at least try to believe what I’m about to tell you, believe me, I wouldn’t believe me if it hadn’t happened.”

“Ok, I promise to try to believe you”

I took a few steadying breathes and then described everything as best I could, I even made a duplicate of the note Quill had picked up. Twilight just listened, and watched as I paced and talked, her face revealing none of her emotions.

“…and that’s why I need your help. There’s nopony else in all of Ponyville with your amount of knowledge.”

Twilight began pacing, back and forth, mulling it over.

“As you said, I know quite a bit, but nothing you said rings any bells, not even the note. I’m afraid can’t help you with any of my knowledge. But that doesn’t mean I won’t help you. What you described about when you were running matched up with some flashes I saw last week when I conducted my tracking spell to find Scootaloo. I think its quite likely that whatever took Quill took her as well.”

“So, where do we start?” I asked.

Twilight smiled “We start with your introduction; you were so focused on getting my help that you neglected to introduce yourself.”

“Oh, right. My name is Stryker, Sonic Stryker.”