Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity made it to the hospital. It was much quieter now, not with the patients screaming bloody murder. Literally, screaming bloody murder.

"Well, we're here." Rarity said. "Shall we..." the mare walked forward, looking back at her friends expectantly.

Twilight sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with." The unicorn walked over to the front doors of the hospital, opened it and entered.

The building wasn't full but there were a few ponies coming in and out of the premises; doing their own thing. Visiting, coming for a check up or picking up their medications. Rainbow moved past Rarity. "Come on, let's go see this stallion."

They continued up to the second floor, passing by other ponies, doctors and nurses. In the green hallway, Twilight saw a familiar white earth mare dressed in medical scrubs. One of the doctors or nurses, she saw yesterday in the attack. "Uh, hi!" The unicorn greeted.

The mare's ears flickered and she looked up to see who it was. Twilight saw a frown flash across the mare's features. "Oh, it's you, you were here yesterday." The mare sighed. "Allow me to introduce myself, my name's Vexing and I'm a nurse here. Pleasure to meet you." Twilight could tell by the tone of her voice that that was obviously not true.

"N-nice to meet you, Vex. I'm Twilight, this is Rarity and Rainbow Dash." She gestured to both of her friends who exchanged their own introductions.

"I'm Rarity, it is a pleasure to meet you darling."

"I'm Rainbow, hey."

The nurse masked an act of condescension. "Wonderful, may I help you with something?"

Rainbow frowned at the rudeness of the nurse but held her tongue.

"We... were just looking for the... s-stallion. Y-you know... the one from yesterday?"

Vexing threw a look of confusion at them. "Why?"

"We have to ask him some questions." Rainbow interjected before Twilight could say anything.

"What type of questions?" Vexing sternly inquired.

"It's none of your business."

"Considering he's a patient of this hospital, I'd say it is my business."

Before Rainbow Dash could say anything else, Twilight interrupted them. "We just want to ask him a few questions, that's it."

"Again, what type of questions?"

"Well, we just wanted to know why he did what he did. I-I may be able to-"

"We've already spoken with him." The nurse cut her off, causing Twilight to frown.

"W-wait, you've spoken with him?"

"Well, not me but one of the doctors did."

Twilight shared a look with the others, all wearing the same frown. She turned back to the nurse. "W-what did he tell you?"

Vexing let out a bored sigh. "Look, I gotta get back to work." She began walking away with Twilight and the others following behind her. "I've wasted enough time talking with you as it is and besides..." the nurse turned back at the lavender mare. "I'm not at liberty to disclose any information."

Twilight quickly grabbed the nurse's shoulder. "B-but can I at least talk to him?"

She sighed once again. "If he gives you permission then yes but unfortunately, he's not exactly in the most stable place right now so he's not allowed to give you permission. Unless if you're-like an authority figure or something but other than that, don't bother."

"What if... w-what if I was Celestia's pupil?" Twilight suggested.

Vexing begrudgingly led the girls down a hallway, it was on the third floor. Not many ponies occupied it as much as the others, there was only two visitors on this floor. The nurse took a left, continued down the green hallway then took a right. At the end, on the left side was a brown oak door; Vexing stopped and opened it.

It was a small room but it was different than the others. The beds in this room were designed with straps, patients were tied to their beds. They didn't seem like they were against it, they weren't showing signs of resistance.

"He's over there." Vexing pointed to the right-hoof side of the room. "In the corner." Twilight looked at the stallion. He was a spruce-blue colored pegasus with a sand-colored mane, he was strapped down from his hooves all the way up to his chest. He was staring at the ceiling, eyes half-lidded. He looked to be somewhere far away, somewhere in his mind; not paying attention to his surroundings.

"What's his name?" Twilight asked, staring from the other end of the room.

"Jade Wing, please do not freak him out. I don't wanna have to deal with another mental patient today." And with that, Vexing left the room, closing the door behind her.

Twilight began walking across the room, glancing at the patients strapped down to their beds. She did not want to be here any longer than what she had to, this room was filled with literal crazy ponies.

"Are... these all the ponies that went crazy yesterday?" Rainbow inquired, looking around at them. The cyan pegasus felt sorry for these ponies, wondering what drove them to such an unhinged state.

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, yeah they are." The patients were groaning, saliva dribbling down their muzzles and muttering to themselves. Something about "it's coming-it's coming-" or "it's coming to get me".

Rarity was looking over them in sympathy. "What happened to all these ponies?" She murmured.

"We're about to find out." Rainbow said as they approached Jade Wing's bed. He didn't acknowledged their presence, his eyes stayed glued to the ceiling.

"Jade?" Twilight softly called.

They heard a gasp come from the stallion himself, his eyes found theirs. "Yes?" His voice was dry and dull as if all strength had been drained from him.

"H-hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle a-and these are my friends." Jade didn't say anything. His eyes slowly moved to Rainbow and Rarity's. There was something sinister about his expression, those unhinged eyes that he possessed. The cyan pegasus held her gaze while Rarity felt compelled by an invisible force to look away somewhere in the room. "W-we were hoping to ask a few questions?"

The stallion kept his gaze on the two other ponies for a moment longer before slowly, almost robotically returning Twilight's. "What about?"

She drew in a quick inhale before answering. "I-I was wondering if we could talk about yesterday?"

"The doctors already talked to me about that."

"Well, I was hoping if you could explain it to me... w-why you did what you did?"

The stallion let out a tired scoff. "It wasn't like I wanted to."

Twilight frowned, sharing a glance with Rarity and Rainbow before turning back at Jade. "What do you mean by that? A-are... you saying that s-somepony make you do it?"

"No, I mean... I-I didn't even know it was a stallion until a few hours ago... when the doctors came and told me about it." His gaze drifted from her to his bed sheets, possibly recalling what happened. It wasn't a stallion that he saw?

"W-what... did you think... it-the stallion was?"

He paused. "...A scarecrow," he simply answered.

With a roll of her eyes, Rainbow shook her head, murmuring something to herself.

"A scarecrow?" Twilight repeated, she didn't believe this but she listened to him nonetheless.

"Yeah." The unicorn held back a sigh, tearing her gaze away from him. Hallucinations? Most likely. Twilight was considering chopping it off as the pony being insane and just had a full psychotic breakdown. That was what she was leaning toward anyway but then again, it wasn't just him who became unstable. The other patients in the room had experienced something similar.

She only looked back at the stallion when he abruptly continued. "It's everywhere, you know? It's watching me... even you." As he said it, he stared directly at the bookmare; his eyes locked on as if he was pleading for her to listen to him. "I-it watches everyone... it watches me all the time. It never goes away... even now." His eyes trailed to a corner of the room to which she followed. With a stutter and a severe drop of bass in his voice, he said. "I-it's right there." He paused for a moment, seemingly staring at nothing. "It just... stares, like it's taunting me and it won't go away. I-it never... ever goes away..."

He seemed to be growing agitated by the second and Twilight attempted to lay a hoof on his shoulder to which only agitated him even more. "Do-don't touch me... please!"

"Look, listen to me. Whatever, you're seeing? It's not real. Nothing is there, nothing is going to hurt you. You're hallucinating."

"But it is!" The stallion was quick to rebuttal. "That's why this is happening. B-because I-I-I saw it, this is why this is happening. It's because I saw it."

As Rarity listened to the insane stallion ramble on, she was beginning to grow anxious herself but she feigned a look of boldness. Rainbow Dash didn't look like she was fazed at all by the stallion, her stern glare was locked on the stallion.

"You're gonna see him too." Jade said, staring at Twilight. "When I saw it, it just... followed until..."

"Until what?" Twilight inquired.

"W-well... I-I guess yesterday was the thing that happened."

Rainbow was the first out of the hospital, Rarity and Twilight were the last ones out. After speaking with the stallion, they moved on to the other patients and began speaking with them.

Most of them were incoherent, continuously murmuring to themselves over and over again while others talked about the same thing...

...a scarecrow.

The ones that they were actually able to speak to only lasted a few seconds before Twilight had to stop the line of questioning due to them getting too aggravated.

It was late in the afternoon. The sun was going down, it's orange glare painted across the sky. They were a few yards away from the hospital when Rainbow finally said something. "So, scarecrows are the new things to be afraid of?"

Rarity was already feeling anxious from listening to Jade Wing. She'd hoped that it he was just insane and he had some type of obsessive fear over scarecrows but that wasn't the case. When she heard the other patients talk about a scarecrow, she only denied it further; thinking to herself that they're all just psychotic. She knew deep down that that wasn't the case...

"That... doesn't make any sense though? Scarecrows aren't... sentient." Twilight said with a thoughtful frown on her face.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure wood and fabric aren't sentient." Rainbow replied.

"You don't think somepony's going around Ponyville placing scarecrows to freak everypony out, do you?"

"Well, I haven't seen any scarecrows recently. I mean, Applejack doesn't even have a scarecrow... or at least I-I don't think so." Rainbow looked off to the side, thoughtfully.

"Rarity, what do you think about this?" Twilight inquired but no answer came. She turned to her left, the elegant mare staring down at her hooves as they trotted together. "Rarity?" She called once more, giving a slightly startling the mare.

"Huh? Sorry, what did you ask?" The mare apologetically glanced at the bookmare.

"She asked what you think about all this." Rainbow clarified for Twilight.

"Oh, um-" Rarity was scared, not too scared but she felt uneasy all the same even though it sounded silly. She wouldn't be feeling uneasy if not for what happened yesterday, she probably would've just swept this whole ordeal under the rug if nopony had gotten hurt. She may have even thought that this would've been childish instead one pony was dead and plenty of others were in the hospital strapped to their beds; all the while losing their minds in the process. "I-I think that those ponies should be put in an asylum."

Twilight and Rainbow exchanged a look. "What about the scarecrow?" Twilight asked.

"M-maybe it's-" Rarity sighed. "I'm not thinking about that at the moment." Before Rainbow was able to open her mouth, she continued. "Perhaps, we should go check on Fluttershy? She didn't seem to be doing so well last time we saw her."

Twilight gasped. "Yeah, she did look more stressed than usual."

Rainbow let out a chuckle. "And that's coming from you, Twilight."

The bookmare felt her cheeks flare up in heat. "Yeah, Rarity's right. We should go see how she's doing."

"Yup, change the subject Twilight." The three of them started heading toward Fluttershy's house.

Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow made it across the cottage bridge, the water smoothly drifting under them; the sound carrying a blissful tune to their surrounding area.

Twilight walked up to the door and knocked. "Fluttershy? It's Twilight! I'm with Rarity and Rainbow!" No response came. "W-we just wanted to check up on you, see if you were okay." Still no response.

"Huh, she must not be home then." Rarity said, looking through the windows but having no luck due to them being covered by curtains.

Rainbow then came up to the door and knocked. "Fluttershy! We kn-" A loud muffled crash came from the other side of the door. They all exchanged a knowing look with one another. Rainbow knocked again. "Fluttershy, we know you're in there! Open up!"

"...C-come back later! D-doing something!" Came a soft muffled voice from the other side of the door.

"Fluttershy darling, we wanted to check if you were alright! We saw you today and you didn't seem like yourself!" Rarity replied.

"U-um... I-I-I'm fine now!"

They all heard the stutter in her voice, it wasn't hard to tell that something was going on.

"Flutteshy, we're coming in!" Rainbow began hovering in the air, readying herself to fly through the cottage.

"Wait! NO!" Fluttershy yelled and almost instantly a loud shattering crash came after.

Rainbow came bursting through the front door and found herself floored; her mouth agape, staring in shock at the sight in front of her. Soon after Twilight and Rarity came running in. Rarity let out shriek, staring wide-eyed at her friend and Twilight was in the same state as Rainbow Dash.

In front of them was a white circular wooden table tipped over, facing toward them. Blood leaked from the table like a tap that wasn't turned off properly but where the blood came from was the thing that caused everypony to grow weak. The thing that caused Rarity to shriek.

In the middle of the table, a small white furry body was pinned up against it, needles or whatever they were had been shoved into the paws. It's stomach was torn open, insides were exposed and organs dangled from the miniature body. And on the floor was the pale pegasus, her disheveled mane covering up her tear-streaked bloodshot eyes. In front of her, laid a bloody kitchen knife...

"I-I-it wa-wasn't me..." She said in between sobs.