Twilight decides to build a statue garden and fill it with sculptures of various mythical beasts, including a long-forgotten creature called a ziz. Little does she know that an actual ziz still lives in Equestria, and he's never seen his own image. He travels to Ponyville to look upon Twilight's statue, frightening everypony except for her. The two intellectuals soon realize they've much to learn from one another and form a friendship, much to the chagrin of the villagers. When the time approaches for the beast's semiannual meal, the ponies fear that they might be on the menu, and encourage Twilight to take drastic measures to rid the town of her new "friend"...

A ponified retelling/adaptation of Frank R. Stockton's The Griffin and the Minor Canon, one of my absolute favorite short stories. All credit goes to Stockton for the basic plot of the story; I just spruced it up a bit and threw in some pastel horses. Couldn't use an actual griffin, since MLP already has those, so I decided to adapt an equally awe-inspiring ruler of the sky: the Ziz, described as the king of all birds who quells the battle between Behemoth and Leviathan... sound familiar, Pokémon fans?
I also changed the statue's placement from a church to a garden, since the ponies don't seem to have much in the way of organized religion.

I hope you all enjoy my first-ever Nightmare Night story! While it's not particularly scary or grim, the original tale has sort of a gloomy atmosphere over it, especially towards the end, and I tried to capture that in my retelling; not to mention, Stockton first published the story in October, 1885.

The Griffin and the Minor Canon is a story I really love, and watching the 2002 animated adaptation done by the West Virginia PBS (I'm The Mountaineer Brony for a reason) inspired me to retell it and share it with the fandom I love. It's a great tale, one that really deserves more attention, so if you like my adaptation, I encourage you to seek out Stockton's original story.

Cover art done by my friend Alex "Kirbachu" Everett. He's pretty awesome!