“Rarity?”

Fluttershy opened the door. “Oh… you’re still sleeping.” She sighed. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

Fluttershy sat down to the unconsious body of Rarity. The only indications she was still alive were the slight rise and fall of her chest, and the beeping of the heart rate monitor next to her bed.

“I still think that green hospital gown clashes terribly with your coat.” Fluttershy said. Then she squeaked. “Not that it’s your fault! I’m so sorry!”

The heart rate monitor went Beep. Beep. Beep.

Fluttershy giggled. “You’re right, I’m being silly.” She paused. “Sweetie Belle’s okay. She’s still over at my place. She misses you.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Fluttershy nodded. “All of the girls miss you. In fact, everyone in Ponyville. You were vain, and dramatic, but that’s what we loved about you, Rarity.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“I… I finally worked up the courage to take down the decorations yesterday.” Fluttershy smiled weakly. “You know, those decorations in the baby room? The ones which caused me to burst into tears whenever I looked at them? I finally took them down.” She blinked tears out of her eyes. “Aren’t… aren’t you proud of me?”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Why, Rarity.” Fluttershy said, an accusatory tinge edging into her voice. “Why did you leave us? Why did you go into this coma? Why can’t the doctors figure out what’s wrong with you? Why?”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Fluttershy sighed once more, and stood up. “Sorry. I shouldn’t lose my temper like that.” She mumbled. She began to shuffle to the door. “I’ll come back to see you tomorrow… like I have every day.”

At the doorframe, Fluttershy paused, and looked back, smiling.

Then she saw the black mass on Rarity’s chest, its single eye staring at her.

Fluttershy blinked, and the thing was gone. She shook her head, and walked out of the room.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

XXXXXXXX

“Hello, Twilight.” Fluttershy said as she walked into the library.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight cried, leaping over and hugging her friend. “It’s been so long since I’ve really seen you! I only ever see you when you’re going to see Rarity-“

“Twilight, I need to talk to you.” Fluttershy cut her off flatly. Her eyes were dull, but Twilight just barely saw a flicker of desperation.

“Sure thing.” Twilight said, telling it was something serious. “Let’s go to my room; privacy, and all that.”

The two walked up the stairs and into Twilight’s room. “Spike, be a dear and go downstairs to help anyone that comes in, will you?”

A little blob, wrapped in purple-checked blankets, slowly walked past them and down the stairs. Fluttershy could hear poor Spike sobbing underneath.

Twilight sighed. “Poor little guy. He still hasn’t gotten over what happened to Rarity. He was one of the ones who took the news the hardest, but you know that.” Fluttershy followed Twilight to the table in the center of the room, and the two sat down. “So, what can I do for you, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, a teakettle and teacup popping into existence on the table.

Fluttershy didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she idly questioned, “Since when have you been able to teleport inanimate objects?”

“During the time you’ve been shut in all this last month.” Twilight said. “I’ve been practicing with my magic to take my mind off the situation with Rarity, and I’ve gotten even better at it.”

“It’s even possible for you to get better at magic?” Fluttershy joked. The two laughed, and for just a moment, the room seemed brighter, more like how it was before this all started. Then Fluttershy’s face fell.

“Twilight… I’ve been hallucinating.”

Twilight blinked. “Come again?” She questioned.

Fluttershy inhaled deeply. “About a month ago, In the middle of the night, I woke up. At the foot of my bed, I saw… that thing.”

“What thing?”

“You know…” Fluttershy shivered. “THAT thing. You remember.”

“The thing that killed the doctors?” Twilight asked, her eyes wide. “How could I forget? So you saw the thing at the foot of your bed?”

“Yeah…” Fluttershy replied. “Then when I blinked, it was gone. And that was just the first time.”

“It’s happened since?” Twilight questioned.

“Almost every day.” Fluttershy nodded. “Just today, I saw it lying on top of Rarity when I went to visit her. And Twilight… that black thing… it’s getting bigger.”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“When I first saw it, at the foot of my bed that night, it was only about the size of one of Applejack’s pigs. It’s been getting bigger since… by now, it’s the size of Harry the bear.”

“Jeez, that doesn’t sound good…” Twilight said, thinking. “It’s good that you came to me about this, Fluttershy; I’ll get to the bottom of this. This could be hallucinations, but something in my gut tells me – and this is just a presumption - that this is the monster trying to contact you via your subconscious.”

“So… It’s sending me messages?”

“Exactly.” Twilight walked to the nearby bookshelf and began to peruse the titles. “Fluttershy… Has the creature ever said anything to you, in these hallucinations?”

“No, it’s always just stared at me… with that eye…” Fluttershy shivered. Then she put a hoof to her chin. “Well, actually… now that I think about it… it said something on that very first night, but it was only gibberish.”

“Can you remember what it said? Even the smallest amount of detail could help us figure out what’s going on here.” Twilight said.

“All right, but I’m not sure if I can pronounce it…” Fluttershy then made a strangled, guttural noise, a little like she was being choked:

“ ‘fhalma.”

Twilight paused. “I think I actually know that.” She said, levitating a brown book off of the shelf. She opened it, and flipped a few pages. “Yes, as I suspected.” She said, turning. She looked over her shoulder at Fluttershy.

“Have you ever heard of Lovepen?”

“Lovepen?” Fluttershy asked. “Was he someone who wrote romance novels?”

Twilight gave a short bark of laughter. “No; his name’s a bit of a misnomer. He was a writer, certainly, but he sure didn’t write love stories. No, Lovepen was a horror writer. His works are rather obscure, but they’re some of the most influential horror novels of the past century.”

“Interesting, but what does this have to do with me?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m getting to that.” Twilight stated, walking over. She still levitated the brown book with her magic, and set it on the table in front of Fluttershy.

Fluttershy read the title, written in faded letters on the cover. “The collected works of the… necker-nomicon?”

“Necronomicon, Fluttershy.” Twilight corrected. “You see, Lovepen wrote many different works of horror, but the Necronomicon was one of his most famous. However, the actual Necronomicon was lost long ago; it was the only copy, so nobody ever truly knew what it said. A few pages have been recovered over the years from various corners of Equus – don’t ask me how they found them - but the Necronomicon itself was never recovered.”

“And so this is a compilation of the pages recovered from this… Necronomicon?” Fluttershy asked.

“Indeed. One page, though, I think you’d find particularly interesting.” Twilight flipped some pages with her magic, and stopped on one. “Look here.” She said, pointing to a line with her hoof.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “But…  but that’s impossible. You said he wrote fiction!”

“I thought he did, too, Fluttershy. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what’s going on here. What I am sure of, though, is that Lovepen’s works hold the key to this mystery monster, one way or another.” Twilight stated.

“Come on.” Twilight continued. “I’m certain there are more books downstairs relating to Lovepen.” Fluttershy followed her down the stairs. The book was left on the table behind them, still open to the page, the words Twilight had pointed at still glinting in the book.

‘fhalma: mother

Next Chapter: 3: Oh Pinkie Pie, You so Silly! Estimated time remaining: 13 Minutes