Redback Spino

Redback Spino, publishing as fimoman on deviantArt, is an artist and fan fiction writer. Many of his short stories are inspired by and strongly resemble specific works of H.P. Lovecraft.

The Statement of Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle is found unconscious in front of a cave entrance on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. She can't remember what happened, and every time her friends try to find out, she gets extremely agitated and shouts something about Rainbow Dash and how she doesn't know what happened to her. Weeks go by and Rainbow Dash never turns up. Her friends eventually get Zecora to make a potion that is supposed to make Twilight remember. It does.

She recounts how she found the location of a cave on an old map which. Her curiosity was piqued when she noticed that the cave had not been mapped out, unlike all other locations. Rainbow Dash agreed to help her take a look and convinced Twilight to explore the cave first, on her own, outfitted only with a makeshift walkie-talkie.

After a while, Rainbow told her that she has found something wondrous and strange. Her tone then grew more frantic as she begged Twilight to cause an avalanche and seal off the mouth of the cave. Twilight had no intention of leaving her friend behind, but Rainbow implored her to close up the cave and run away, before it was too late. Her tone frightened Twilight to the core, and she finally did as asked.

Fluttershy interrupts, remarking on an inconcistency: she was the one who found Twilight, and at that point, the cave was not sealed up. That prompts Twilight to stammer in shock, and finish her tale. The last thing she heard before she passed out was a voice coming from her headset. It was not Rainbow Dash's voice, or any voice fitting for a pony. The voice called out to her: "You fool! Rainbow Dash is DEAD!"

The Strange Music of Octavia
This story based on a tale by H.P. Lovecraft is narrated in the first person and presented as the recollection of the narrator some time after these events take place: A university student of few means has found a new apartment in a run-down part of Canterlot: Rue d'Lune (a grammatically incorrect rendition of "Moon Street" in French, matching a similar error in Lovecraft's original). Every night, he hears strange music emanating from the apartment on the floor above, and eventually he meets his musically-inclined neighbour: Octavia, a former opera singer who one day suddenly stopped singing and now makes her money playing the cello at the occasional function. After some trepidation, Octavia is willing to let the narrator listen in while she rehearses, but the music she plays when he is present is never as unusual as the music she plays at night.

Octavia grows agitated whenever the narrator tries to get her to explain, and eventually stops allowing him in. The narrator can't help himself, however, and keeps standing guard in front of her door every night, listening to the strange sounds she produces. One night, the performance grows particularly frantic, and the narrator knocks on the door, afraid that Octavia might have had a seizure. To his surprise, she opens the door and lets him in. An indescribable sound emanates from an open window usually covered by heavy drapes. Taking no note of the narrator, Octavia resumes playing her discordant melody, as if responding to - or countering - the music from outside.

A strange wind starts to course through the apartment, picking up in strength until it tears the drapes from their fasteners. The window turns out to be no ordinary window at all, overlooking a strange, otherworldly blackness instead of the Canterlot skyline. Far off within the void, the narrator can see a shape approaching. He tries to get Octavia to leave, but she is gripped by madness and refuses to stop playing. So the narrator flees without her, down the stairs, past his apartment, out the door and away from Rue d'Lune. As soon as he clears a small canal separating that street from another, his house, and with it the entire street, vanishes. When he turns around, it has been replaced by a perfectly normal-looking and comparatively busy Canterlot street. The narrator informs the reader that he never saw the house, or Octavia, again.

Other stories

 * Ever Watching (complete): As of July 24, 2012, his only story on Equestria Daily. A take on the Slender Man meme.
 * DownFall (complete): Ponified adaptation of The Fall. Was briefly accepted by Equestria Daily, but then pulled.