It had been a real shock to Applejack that the princesses could actually sense what Twilight was talking about, let alone from so far away. It was actually quite troubling when she started to think about it; a magical disturbance that only alicorns could feel, and with enough magical power that it could be detected all the way in Canterlot. With the princesses wanting all of them to investigate it but they themselves were worried about what it might be. Whatever this magic thing was, it definitely didn’t bode well.

Applejack had been able to round up most of the girls in short order and tell them to head to Twilight's Castle. Now she only needed to talk to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash had most likely gone back to sleep on a cloud somewhere after Twilight had woke her up to see if the weather had changed recently in conjunction to the disturbance. If Applejack knew anything about that darn pegasus she could be on any cloud over Ponyville, even on a good day it would probably take her a good while to finally track her down.

So, with Rainbow Dash probably going to take most of the morning to find, Applejack instead opted to head over to Fluttershy's cottage. It was a fairly good walk to the outskirts of the Everfree, and the weather was good for clearing her head. It was about an hour after sunrise, so the sun hadn't completely warmed up the air, but that was fine by Applejack. She always preferred the early morning air on her coat. It had been starting to cool down more lately since preparations for winter had started; the leaves were about to start to turn yellow and orange, and the eastern fields were ready for harvesting.

When Applejack finally got to Fluttershy's cottage, she saw that the aforementioned pegasus was watering her flowers and humming a song from the Ponytones.

“Ha’ there Fluttershy; how have you been doing?”

“Oh, hi there Applejack, i’m fine,” Fluttershy said, putting down the watering can. “What brings you out here?”

“Well, you remember when Twi was askin’ ‘bout if any of your critters had been actin’ up today?”

“Oh yes. She really confused me, talking about some magical anomaly happening in the Everfree. She kept asking if any of my animals had started hiding or if any creatures had started coming out of the forest, but nothing exciting has happened around here, fortunately. I'm sure it's just the stress of being a princess getting to her.”

“Well, about that,” Applejack said, lifting her right hoof behind her head. She had to word the news very carefully so as to not frighten the demure pegasus; the last thing she needed to do was scare the poor thing before Twilight could fully explain the situation. “Twilight was actually right about that magic thingy.”

“What?” Fluttershy gasped, eyes widening in curiosity. That was good; at least Fluttershy wasn’t panicking. Now all she needed to do was convince her to come to the castle.

“Twilight got a message from the princesses saying she should take all her friends to investigate whatever's going on in the forest. She’s getting everyone to meet her at the castle.”

“I’ll head right over. If whatever this is has got the princesses worried, it must be really important” Fluttershy said, taking off into the sky in the direction of the castle.

“Fluttershy, Ah almost forgot” Applejack called after the pegasus. “Yall are probably closer to Rainbow Dash than ah am; do you know where she might be right now?”

“Certainly,” Fluttershy stated with a nod, turning around to face AJ, “I’ll get her on my way over.”

Would you look at that, two trees with one buck. Now all she had to do was go to the castle herself, and have Twilight explain what the plan was for going after this disturbance she’s talking about.

“Alright, girls. As Applejack has probably told you, we’re heading into the Everfree to locate and figure out what is causing a particularly strong disruption to the magic in the area” Twilight started, pacing back and forth in front of a chalk board.

“At approximately 3:53 this morning I felt an extremely powerful tremor of raw mana pass through Ponyville,” Twilight explained, stopping at the left side of the chalkboard and using her magic to draw a small representation of Ponyville at its center. “Since then, the Everfree has been releasing pulses of magic that started at a dissipating oscillation intensity with a maximum displacement of eight meters, while retaining a constant period of ten seconds. The oscillations however have been reducing in maximum intensity since they began” Twilight continued, drawing a detailed depiction of the Everfree on the left side of the board, including the old castle and Zecora's hut.

“I don't think any of us understand what you're trying to say Twilight,” Rainbow Dash stated, looking at the everypony else that seemed to be the case.

“Think of it like a really loud drum that's constantly getting quieter,” Twilight clarified, turning back to the board to continue where she left off.

“Not to long ago, I received a letter from the princesses saying that they could also feel the disturbance coming from the Everfree from all the way in Canterlot,” Twilight said, drawing Canterlot at the bottom right corner. “And because of this, they have asked us to investigate it.”

“While I was out talking to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy I made some calculations on the intensity of the pulses, and accounting for dissipation of magic per meter traveled, and rate of intensity reduction from the source, I have narrowed down the area of where they are coming from to this general area” Twilight said, drawing a moderately small circle a few inches down from the old castle and much deeper into the forest.

“Now, it's probably going to take a few hours to get to that location, and since the pulses started they have diminished to half the intensity. It would be best if we left soon, because once the pulses stop I don't know what will happen. So, does anyone have any questions” Twilight finished, putting the chalk down and turning to her friends with an eager smile.

“I have one question,” Rainbow Dash groggily expressed from her seat “What do you think this weird magic wave maky thing is?”

“Well, going off what I already know and some texts that I was able to retrieve from the old castle, my best guess would be that the disturbance is coming from a significantly old and well hidden mana geyser in the forest.” Twilight answered, making her way over to her seat in front of the map.

“If you already know what this is, why are you and the princesses so worked up about it?” Pinkie Pie inquired from across the table, lifting a hoof to her temple. “And what is a mana geyser? is it like one of my candy volcanos? Oh, does mana taste like candy?”

“No, Pinkie. Mana doesn't taste like candy. Mana is what unicorns and alicorns use for magic,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes at Pinkie’s line of thinking. “And a mana geyser is a large, concentrated outpouring of mana from an unearthed crystal vein. Let me explain.” Twilight grabbed the chalkboard and chalk with her magic and pulled it closer to the group.

“Mana geysers are formed when a mana flow comes into contact with a crystal vein,” Twilight explained, flipping the board over and drawing what looked like a river coming into contact with a crystal and coming out the other side slightly smaller. “ A mana flow is kind of like a river of mana underground, but think of it more like a jet stream. Because crystals are naturally the ideal material for absorbing and storing mana, when a mana flow hits a crystal vein it weakens, and the crystals start charging; this is actually quite common”

“If it's so common, why are you so worried about this?” Rainbow Dash pushed, looking a bit sceptical and slightly annoyed.

“Well, usually one of these veins is found quickly, or somepony plants crystals in the ground with the intent of digging them up in a timely fashion. The thing is, when a crystal is exposed to so much raw mana and becomes fully charged, but continues to remain exposed, its rate of growth drastically increases, and with more crystals, more mana can be stored and absorbed,” Twilight continued, increasing the size of the crystal and lessening the flow out of the crystal. “Eventually, the crystals can completely take over the mana flow, becoming the source of magic instead of the mana flow, and force the original flow to divert or completely relocate to somewhere else in the world. However, in exceedingly rare instances, mana flows can be very close together and the crystal growth can grow to start syphoning from those flows as well, this allows a crystal vein to grow to absurd sizes. This is most likely how this geyser would have formed, but this brings me to why the princesses are worried.”

“A geyser of this size would have taken at least eight hundred years to form, and because they're so rare, with only one being found outside the School of Unorthodox Magics, geysers this size are highly sought after. Many individuals are willing to do anything to get their hands, claws, or hoofs on one, and because Ponyville is so close to the anomaly if this is an ancient geyser we might be in danger from geyser hunters. Unfortunately, that's the better of the two hypotheses I came up with.”

“Y-you m-m-m-mean i-it could be worse?” Fluttershy squeaked, having curled up in her chair

“Sadly, that’s right,” Twilight affirmed, “Unlike the Canterlot caves, which took nearly a century to deplete their magic, or the geysers found by the school, which have not reduced in the magic they have held since their discovery, the energy coming from this source is plummeting WAY faster than could reasonably be expected. My hypothesis is that something or someone is drawing on this magic. Hopefully, it’s just some peaceful creature of the Everfree feeding off the mana source, but if it isn't peaceful and has been able to retain all of the mana, even Celestia wouldn’t last three seconds in a fight against it.”

“But it could also be completely different to that, couldn’t it?” Applejack asked, putting emphasis on the last two words

“Well of course it could be something different. These are just my guesses on what’s happening based on what information I have,” Twilight explained, missing Applejack’s implied message. “The problem is I'm trying to understand what's happening now using information on events that aren't very similar. It's like trying to compare the magical aptitude and contributions to magic of Starswirl the bearded to those of Glistening Starlight. They both worked on bettering magic, but Starlight focused on magic that dealt with harnessing its power and potential, while Starswirl focused on weaving and shaping how unicorns could most efficiently interact with magic.

“Well what are we waiting for, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash proclaimed, having leapt from her seat and proceeded to hover over the map. “We’ll never know what this is if we just sit around. Also, you said we should head out before the magic thing dies out.”

“You’re right. If everyone's ready, I think we should head out” Twilight announced, looking to the girls for confirmation. They looked at each other for a few seconds, and turned back to face Twilight, nodding in unison, except for Fluttershy who just kept her head down through the exchange, trying to calm down after nearly having a full blown panic attack.

It had been almost three hours since the six friends had departed from the castle. They had passed the old castle about two hours ago, and from there turned slightly south but kept their incursion into the depths of the forest. Fluttershy had been on edge since they passed the castle, warily looking for movement from anything living. At least she had calmed down since the meeting at Twilight’s castle. Granted, the constant paranoia was disconcerting, but since they were far deeper into the forest than anypony had ever explored, everyone was on edge. Even Rainbow Dash, with her brash disregard for safety, had stopped flying and had opted to walk the rest of the way.

The only pony besides Twilight who had been able to keep from openly showing their fear was Applejack, and that was because something Twilight had said had been bothering her since they left Twilight’s castle. As the group passed an old section of wall most likely from a building before Luna was banished, Applejack picked up her pace a little, leaving the position beside Fluttershy that she had kept since they started this trek, so that she could finally get some clarification from Twilight.

“Twi, there's been something that you said in the castle just don't add up” Applejack whispered as she came alongside her friend.

“What is it Applejack? I would be glad to go over the mana geysers or why Celestia is probably worried about this anomaly again if you want.” Twilight responded. It wasn't like Applejack to keep her concerns to herself this long.

“That's not what I’m confused about, you used some fancy terms and names, but a few of them I just frankly ain't heard of them. First, you were talking about some school that's found all those big mana flows, and then you were comparing Starswirl to some pony that just don't show up in any of the history books that I read, even though you said they done had an influence as big as Starswirl. It just don’t add up.”

“Oh, that’s right. The school and it's founders aren't that well known,” Twilight said, feeling fairly embarrassed for forgetting that a good deal of what she knew wasn't shared by her friends. “Well, the School of Unorthodox Magics was founded by Glistening Starlight, the pony I was comparing to Starswirl. She was actually a student of Starswirl until she departed over academic disagreements. You see, she believed that all magic could be used for ponykind’s benefit, even magic fueled by negative emotions, or, as it's more commonly known, dark magic.”

“That don't sound very smart to me. How can dark magic be used for good?” Applejack responded.

“That's the funny thing. Their research worked out quite well. The school was able to modify how many emotions found in dark magic were channeled, and create normal spells that benefited everyone. Its quite amazing. Their most famous spell, crystal lattice resonation, is powered by greed. The same spell Rarity uses to find her gems, and the same spell used to find mana geysers.

“If they done had such a big influence on magic, why aint no-one heard of them?”

“No one really knows” Twilight sighed. It was a problem that even she hadn’t solved yet. “A few years after the school formed, they began publishing the conclusions to their research, continuously adding to the collective knowledge of magic. They just kept improving, making new discoveries, so many that nopony really remembers what spells should be attributed to them. But after Luna became Nightmare Moon the research stopped being released, and a year after Luna's banishment the school just closed down. It stopped accepting ponies, information no longer came from them, and ponies that used to be a part of it started to come back to canterlot to continue their studies. It just ceased to be. Even ponies claiming to have been members couldn’t guess why it dissolved. After that, ponies just stopped talking about it. Within a decade the school had slipped into legend, a story told to young unicorns to fuel their curiosity to learn.”

Applejack lowered her head and frowned, asking Twilight for clarification had only given her more questions, and according to Twilight no one had answers.

“Does anyone else hear that?” Rainbow Dash asked, breaking the heavy silence that had fallen over the group.

Everyone stopped, trying to hear what Rainbow Dash was referring to. The group stood still for several seconds, but no one else could make out what she meant.

“Are you sure you heard something? All I can hear is the wind in the trees” Twilight said, confused as to what Dash was talking about.

“None of you can hear that? it sounds like an animal crying” Rainbow Dash asked. “It sounds like it's over there.” Rainbow Dash pointed slightly left from the direction they had been going, into a thicker part of the woods.

Twilight thought it was odd for her friend to be hearing things like animal cries.As far as she could tell there weren’t any animals this deep in the forest, but it would probably be best to see if there was anything else around, just in case there might be a threat. Twilight started walking in the direction that Rainbow Dash pointed. It didn't take long for her to start hearing what Rainbow was talking about. High pitched whining could be heard from not too far away.

When each of the friends could finally hear the cries from the animal Fluttershy had all but abandoned her timid demeanor in favor of complete concern for the poor creature making the noises. It didn't take long to find the creature, but when they did, they were not prepared for what they saw.

In front of them, a timber wolf was sitting on the ground poking its left rear leg with its muzzle. The leg was obviously broken, and was missing several bits of wood. The other rear leg was missing, splintered sticks were all that remained of it; but the worst injury was that its right eye was totally gone leaving a hole that went most of the way thru it's head. The wood around the wound looked dead and rotten as almost every piece of wood around the hole had become black and corroded. It was as if a lightning bolt had gone straight thru the poor thing’s eye.

All of the girls were shocked. What could or would have done such a horrible thing to this animal. Granted, timber wolves were not known for their passivity, with many ponies being attacked when going into their territories, but it was well known that the wolves could be easily dealt with without injuring or killing them. Fluttershy couldn't help but feel extreme pity for the wolf. She had to go over and help it.

“Hey there fella. Do you want some help?” Fluttershy said as evenly as she could manage.

What happened next felt like a kick to every pony’s gut. When the wolf looked up at Fluttershy, the most kind hearted and loving pony in Equestria, the only thing that Fluttershy could see in its remaining eye was shear unequivocal tearor. The wolf laid completely flat and tried to make itself as small as possible, never taking its eye off Fluttershy. This animal was so scared for itself that even Fluttershy’s small and unimposing figure did nothing to dissuade the dread it felt at the prospect of losing its life. Fluttershy was shocked, no animal had been this afraid of her. Even animals that were usually wary of ponies would almost always treat her with caution, but still be welcoming of her presence. This wolf was looking at her as if she was a hungry dragon that had just found its next meal.

Everyone was taken aback by the wolf's actions. Whatever had injured this animal had decimated its once dominant attitude and made it no more agressive than a newborn bunny. Though none of the friends liked how predatory the timberwolves were, it felt terrible that one could be reduced to such a sorry state. Fluttershy didn't know how to approach this. Her best bet was to treat the wolf like she would an Abatwa.

.

“Hey, can I come over there?” Fluttershy asked with as much kindness and caring as she could muster. This didn’t seem to change the wolf's attitude as all that it did was continue to look at her from the ball it had worked itself into.

As Fluttershy slowly trotted towards the injured wolf, it began to whine again, only this time at a higher, softer pitch. When Fluttershy finally got within a hoof’s length of the wolf, she slowly laid down on her stomach in front of it. Nothing she had done so far had communicated to the injured animal that she meant it no harm, so she had to try something else. She nuzzled it.

This action took the timber wolf by surprise. At first it tried to retreat, but was unable to on account of the position it had put itself in. However, after the initial retreat the wolf welcomed the affection, leaning into the nuzzling, even closing its eye. When Fluttershy finally stopped her tenderness the wolf didn’t nearly seem as terrified as it had earlier, although it still gave off the body language that it wanted nothing to do with any of the ponies.

Now that Fluttershy had calmed down the poor thing she had to ask what had caused all this. “Could you tell me what did this to you?”

The whines that followed struck a chord deep in Applejacks heart as it reminded her of the time she had accidentally locked Winona in the barn overnight, and when she went back the next morning heard her crying and pawing at the door to get out. It made her want to gallop over to the timber wolf and hold it as close as she could.

When the cries stopped, Fluttershy turned towards the group and said, “He said that there was a large crow with one large talon and another talon that flashed a bright light and made a terrible sound. Members of his pack had found it in their territory while hunting and wanted to chase it off. They decided to gather most of the pack and use the numbers to scare it away, but when they rushed at it everything went wrong. The crow fought back and was able to take them out with little trouble. When he lost his sight, he tried to escape, but it landed one last blow that took off his right leg. He wasn't able to get far since his other leg gave out, so he’s been sitting here since then, trying to hide till his legs heal. He doesn't think his pack survived because he hasn't heard any of them come back from the fight.” Fluttershy was in tears having to relate the details of the wolf's story.

Twilight hated to ask but she had to confirm, “Did he say where the fight happened?”

“Over there, behind those cedar trees,” Fluttershy responded, pointing westward to the the trees behind the wolf.

That was what Twilight had feared. The direction where the wolf had said it was attacked was the same direction that the magical disturbance was emanating from, and, judging from what that wolf said, this crow thing was the most likely reason for the massive mana drain if it wasn't occurring naturally. If this crow had something to do with this mana anomaly, they needed to put a stop to it immediately.

“Alright girls,” Twilight began, turning to look at everyone else. “If what Fluttershy said is accurate, we need to be extremely cautious; this crow is more than likely right on the mana disruption. We need to get there immediately to make sure this isn't the worst case scenario and it's absorbed all the mana.”

Twilight looked around to see if anyone would nod or respond or show some sign that they were motivated to end this mystery. However none of her friends looked in anyway ready to go on after seeing the timber wolf. Rainbow Dash, who would usually be urging everyone to get moving, was instead watching Fluttershy’s interaction with the wolf with unwavering concentration. Applejack had lowered her hat and looked to be trying to coming to terms with the situation. Even Pinkie Pie was sitting down, her mane deflating the longer she looked at the scene before her. It was Fluttershy’s talking that snapped the group out of the depression that had enveloped them like a heavy cloth.

“You girls need to go ahead and figure out what’s going on,” Fluttershy managed to say through her tears. “I’ll stay here and look out for this guy. If you need me, you’ll know where I am.”

Twilight just nodded. It didn't feel right to leave Fluttershy behind so deep in the forest, but she knew that they needed to find out what was happening out here, and standing around looking at an injured wolf was not going to help their current situation. So Twilight turned towards the cedar trees had proceeded forward . One by one the rest of group followed her lead, heading towards possibly the most terrifying and dangerous threat they had ever faced.

In less than a minute the group saw a break in the treeline; dimm sunlight could be seen through gaps between the trees. They were about to come out of the forest. Everyone felt some joy at the prospect of exiting the forest but that feeling was quickly replaced by fear when they remembered the timber wolf they had run into and the possible danger just waiting for them.

But what greeted the five ponies was an isolated cathedral like building sitting in the middle of a dilapidated estate filed with overgrown bushes and weeds. The building was dark and ominous, with an architectural style that was similar to what had been common during the princesses’ reign a thousand years ago. The whole look of the building seemed to emanate a sense of hostility and ill intent. On each of the corners and on the middle of each side spires rose from the building with a presence that gave off the impression that they were daring anyone to approach. The architecture itself would have been more a curiosity than a source of fear would it not have been constructed from the darkest materials. The whole building was made from materials that did not leave the color black, the lightest color anyone could see was a dark grey that made up the accents of the structure. It also didn't help that a massive dead tree flanked the structure, adding an extra sense of dread. A humble stone walkways lead to and from the building and to the left and right of the building. Plants grew everywhere around the property, in planter beds, along the sides of the walkways, even between the stonework of the pathways plants stubbornly pushed up, destroying the even grade of the path and threatening to eventually undo all the hard work that had gone into making the walk. The premises seemed to be in fairly well kept, but everything about it just put Twilight on edge.The whole area was in fair condition though it looked like the individual who resided there had only been away for a few years.

“Is this what we’ve been looking for?” Rainbow Dash asked quietly, sounding less like herself and more like Fluttershy.

“I think so. This is where the disturbance is coming from,” Twilight responded. “I think we should look around and make sure it's safe here before we head into the building.”

Everyone nodded and wordlessly split into two groups. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack went towards the house,while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash headed to the right, towards a large, iron gate. Twilight didn't want to admit it, but she wanted to delay going to the building because she could not get over the feeling of unease it gave to her.

Twilight's thought that exploring the surrounding area would ease her anxiety before the group proceeded into the building were poorly conceived. As the three friends waked up the pathway to the left of the building, they could not miss the candle lit headstones that lined the left side of the walkway. The plants seemed to have overrun the entire area, popping up between the stonework, escaping their planter beds, and in general slowly destroying the area.

“Do yall see names on any of these graves?” Applejack asked, trying to sound calm, but failing to hide her nervousness.

The statement caught Twilight by surprise. She hadn't been looking too closely at the headstones, but now that she examined them none of them contained so much as a single mark.

As Twilight was examining the headstones, Rainbow Dash came over from where she had been exploring. “I think you guys should come and see this.”

“What is it, Rainbow?” Twilight asked, still looking at a headstone, trying to find some imperfection that would suggest that these graves had once had names on them.

“I think this is a cemetery. Me and Pinkie found a huge graveyard.”

“I don’t think so. None of these headstones have writing on them. I think this was supposed to be one, but never saw any burials.”

“Maybe not the ones over here, but me and Pinkie found tons of them that have been used, and...well…you have to come see this for yourself,” Rainbow Dash didn't sound like she could find the right way to say what she was thinking, like words could not describe what she had seen.

Whatever had Rainbow Dash so concerned needed to be investigated, so the three ponies decided to follow her to the other side of the premises. Once the group arrived, what stood before them was a field that looked like something out of the Canterlot palace gardens. What stood before them was a large field of white lilies. This was by far the largest area that anyone had seen dedicated to just one species of flower. What made it more odd was that the entire perimeter of the field was lined with headstones. Some had even been stacked on top of eachother.

“This is an actual graveyard. How long has this been here? Why did it just start emanating mana? Does Celesta know about this site? Why was this ever abandoned?” Twilight's head was buzzing with questions about what she was seeing,.

It didn't take long however for Twilight's manic desire to understand what was infront of her to be disrupted with Rainbow adding,“It gets weirder. I found some graves that had offerings at their bases, and Pinkie said she found some graves that were recently added. We should probably go see her.”

The four friends walked towards the right side of the massive tree to the pink mass sitting in front of the graves. When the group arrived, they saw that Pinkie's mane had mostly reinflated and she was sitting in front of two headstones with her head bowed. Twilight was wondering what made these graves so important to Pinkie that she would sit down and pay her respects. While she was looking at the headstones she got her answer. Along their bases dust and small pieces of stone sat, remains from a recent engraving. It was obvious that these graves had only just been made. The other oddity that set these headstones apart from the others was that the writing on them was much less practised and artistic compared to the graves beside them, granted the writing was in another language that Twilight couldn't read. The only explanation was that the one who had engraved these headstones was not the one who had engraved the others.

With Pinkie paying her respects, the rest of the group felt the desire to follow suit. Everypony sat down in a semicircle facing the two graves and bowed their heads. The group sat like that for several minutes. None of them knew who the grave was for. A dragon. A griffon. A pony. Whether they were rich or poor, noble or common. After they felt that they had paid an adequate amount of respect, each of them lifted their heads and got up. One at a time the friends broke the semicircle, with Pinkie being the last to stand.

After their small break to collect their thoughts, everyone seemed to have calmed down, and the fear that this place had once instilled in them significantly lessened.

“I think now would be a good time to finish our assessment here and head home,” Twilight quietly said, trying not to kill the mood. Everyone nodded. It would be nice to go back home after what they had gone through, so with Twilight leading, the group proceeded to the building at the center of the premises.

As the group trotted up the stairs, they couldn't help but notice that a gravestone right next to the door had been split in half with what appeared to be blood and pieces of meat covering the entirety of the crack. It didn't take each of the ponies long before they started to think that the headstone in front of them and the two new graves were connected.

When Twilight used her magic to grab hold of the door handle she hesitated. The group hadn’t found the large crow the wolf mentioned yet. If it was behind that door they were almost guaranteed to suffer a similar fate to the timber wolf if killed. Twilight shook her head; even if there was a risk, they had to stop whatever that thing was if it posed a threat to Equestria.

Twilight opened the door and entered into what was a surprisingly welcoming abode. Along the left side wall books were shelved and piled on desks and the floor. On the right side was a large coffin near the door, but above that, several shelves held bottles and samples of various liquids, insects, and other unknown things that were either rare or Twilight had never seen before. Further down the right wall was a lit fireplace, adding a good amount of light and heat to the small room, and next to that was what looked like a workbench with several metal tools hanging on the wall and above the table from chains. Finally, along the back of the room was a raised stone slab and second coffin behind that. The thing that made to room so strangely inviting in the first place was how much light the room had. Other than the fireplace candles had been placed on every raised platform, and every so often on the walls. This small addition seemed to make the room seem more like a home.

Everypony decided to look around the room to see what they could find out about the individual or individuals that it belonged to. Twilight obviously was drawn to the assortment of books. Unfortunately for her most of them were written in the same language as the graves, so it was fairly pointless to try to decipher them. Something that struck her as odd though was that there were a few books written in Equestrian. This made no sense to her as there didn't seem to be any consistency to the language used, with books she could read mixed in haphazardly with books she couldn't. Pinkie Pie had decided to investigate the coffin to the right of the door, but, try as she might, it showed no signs of wanting to open, so she instead opted to explore the various glass containers and their contents. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were investigating the workbench and fireplace. To Rarity. the lack of decor was disconcerting. What pony would ever choose to live in such a bare bones environment? Rainbow, however, was more interested in what was above the workbench. Hanging on chains and the wall were at least a dozen weapons, ranging from a long thin sword and a spear to a massive ax and enormous stone hammer. Whoever lived here also had a freaking wheel hanging from the ceiling. There were also several odd contraptions on the floor and bench, none of which looked like devices she had ever used or seen with most being odd metal cylinders with a hole at one end.

Eventually, everyone gravitated to the large stone slab. No one knew what it was, as it was big enough for a pony to sleep on, but being made of stone it was not likely a bed. It was also not a tomb, as it was too small for even a pony to be fit into. The most intriguing thing though was the large needle-like object that sat in the middle of a white cloth at the center of the slab.

“What do you think this thing is, Twi?” Applejack asked This room was nothing like anything she had seen before.

“I don't know, but whatever this is, the princesses will definitely want to hear about it” Twilight responded, debating in her head if she wanted to further examine the strange needle or just leave it alone. Just then, a voice interrupted the group’s tranquility.

“Didn’t anyone tell you that you should always ask before you go into someone's home?” The voice was deep and masculine, with an accent that was unmistakably Scoltish.

The group turned around to see a large, dark figure standing in the doorway. It looked like it was a kind of minotaur, but it did not possess horns or the muscular build that minotaurs were known for. On it's head was a weird hat. It was a light grey color, and came to a point in the front. The hat also had a piece of cloth that wrapped over one of the creature’s eyes. Its hands seemed to be heavily bandaged, with white cloth wrapping around both of them, but the most striking part of it's dress was what appeared to be it's suit. The suit was dark, almost entirely black with a tinge of deep purple, and a distinguishing cape. The cape seemed to be made up of hundreds of crow feathers. It hung down over the front of it's arms, giving the creature the appearance of a crow with it's wings folded. All in all, this creature was definitely intimidating.

This outfit did not affect Dash however. In fact, it only made her angry. When Dash saw this dark figure, her mind instantly recalled the dying timberwolf that they had found, and it's story about a large crow that had almost killed it. This had to be the monster that was responsible. Before anyone could react, Dash rocketed at the new creature with all her strength keeping her front legs extended in front of her so as to have the best chance of knocking it down so she could then proceed to beat it to a pulp, but what happened next brought back all the ponies’ fears.

When Rainbow Dash got within a meter of the crow thing, it took a quick step forward and to the left, raising its right hand up to catch Rainbow Dash’s throat in one fluid motion. When Rainbow’s throat met the crow’s hand, the hand clenched around down and proceeded to push back. With how fast Rainbow was going, it would take an immense force to stop her trajectory, but this thing did it like Rainbow was just a hoofball that had been thrown to it. After it had stopped Rainbow Dash the real horror began. It quickly shoved her backwards into the ground at tremendous speed. Rainbow’s back collided with the hard wooden floor with a thud that everyone could feel through the ground. Dash’s head was quick to follow the rest of her body onto the ground, and it's impact was so hard that she was knocked unconscious before she could even process the creature's counterattack. Everyone was too shocked to say anything until that same deep voice came back, this time sounding more menacing than any of the girls thought possible.

“I don't appreciate unwanted guests, especially the kind that tries to attack me. Now, are you going to behave yourselves, or am I going to have to introduce you to the floor like I did your friend?"

Author's Notes:

it finally arrives, sorry it took so long, even my editor was worried it wouldn't come out. so i hope you enjoyed it. on an additional note check out Digital Media Disk, he's been acting as my editor and if you haven't seen him before check him out he's doing a Bloodborne fic too and is also working on a second project, i think he needs some love after the crap I've put him thru.
oh ya before i forget, for those that don't know i made a new group and am going to post possibly its first story on October 1st, take from that what you will.