A.K. Yearling awakes to find herself in the house of a pony who saved her life during a blizzard. But not everything is as it seems. Can Yearling survive this encounter with her number one fan?
"Trapped in this nightmare,/I wish I'd wake,/As my whole life begins to shake,/Four walls surround me,/An empty gaze,/I can't find my way out of this maze." -Anthrax, 'Madhouse'
After being caught in a blizzard, A.K. Yearling awakes in a strange cabin. She had been saved by a pony who claims to be her biggest fan. But something seems to be wrong here. The cabin, the circumstances of her injury, the pony who claimed to save her, all of it seems off. Will Yearling be able to survive the encounter with her number one fan?
She opened her eyes to a ceiling she had never seen before. She was confused as she tried to raise her head up to look around. However, her pounding head stopped her doing so. It was as if some unseen force was weighing down her body.
With her head resting against the pillow, she started to investigate her surroundings. She knew she was on some sort of bedroom, filled with furniture she would expect to see at her grandmother’s home. Resting on top of the nearby dresser were little knick-knacks that gave her an unsettled feeling. The flickering candles near them didn’t help them look more unnerving. Turning her head, she saw a window. Through the portal, she saw frost and snow on the other side. Slowly, things were returning to her. However, her thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the sole door.
“Oh, goody, you’re awake!” the mare who opened the door said as she entered. Her coat was white save her grey hooves. Her mane and tail were a seafoam color.
“Who are you? Wh-What’s going on?” the bed-ridden pony asked, her head still pounding in protest.
“It’s okay, Ms. Yearling, I’m here to help,” the pony answered as she arrived at the bedside. “Oh my Celestia, who would have thought that I would have the A.K. Yearling in my own home! It gives me goosebumps.”
“Who are you?” Yearling asked again, this time, her voice was more stern.
The white pony gave a smile to Yearling. It was a smile that seemed to have some sort of sinister motive behind it. “Me?” she started speaking, her words sounding a bit too cheerful, “Why, I’m your biggest fan! My name is Snow Script and I’ve loved your work ever since I can remember. I love your Daring Do stories. Just so much.”
Yearling gave a small smile to her fan, “Well, it’s always nice to meet a fan. But why am I in your home?” She tried to sit up in the bed, but her body was still feeling too heavy for anything like that.
“Oh, let me help you with that!” Snow Script insisted as she trotted out of the room quickly and returned with more pillows. “Just like back at the hospital!” she mused as she helped Yearling up and placed all the pillows below her, allowing Yearling to sit up in bed.
Yearling, still directing her attention at the mare, asked again, “Thank you, but can you please answer me: why am I here?”
“Well, you took quite a nasty spill out there in the snow storm,” Snow pointed to the window, “if it wasn’t for me coming across you….well, I would shutter to think of what would happen if Equestria lost it’s famed author of the Daring Do series!” She raised her hooves up to her face, looking as if she was about to cry at the thought.
“Snow storm?” Yearling asked herself
Snow Script jumped back to her former emotion, the unsettling cheeriness, “But that’s okay! I found you out there and brought you in and I’m here to nurse you back to perfect health! Your leg and wing will be as good as new!”
“Leg?” the brown-coated mare asked as she looked down at where she thought her leg was. Right on the bedspread, her legs were resting in front of her, the left limb bound together with a splint next to it. She looked at her leg in horror. How did it get broken in such a way? Just what happened? “M-My leg! What the buck happened to it?”
“Now now, no need for such language. It’s not going to heal any better with such a filthy mouth,” her words were both scolding and jolly. A combination that Yearling didn’t like.
Yearling paid no mind to Snow’s words. She looked at both of her wings, finding that the left one was bandaged up. Yearling tried to move it, but to no avail; the bandages were wrapped too well. “What happened to me out there? How did you find me? Just exactly what happened?” Yearling was becoming more animated, as if she was fighting back against the numbness of her body.
Snow still had that smile on her face, “You should just try to relax, Ms. Yearling. I’ll bring you lunch shortly. You did say like fresh baked bread, correct?” Snow Script started walking trot back to the door.
“Ms. Snow Script, I need to go a hospital, please!” Yearling started to beg.
“If don’t settled down, Ms. Yearling, I will have to sedate you again, and you won’t get your painkillers with your applesauce,” she turned to speak. “Besides, the snow storm is making travel completely impossible on all the roads. But the second the roads open up, they promised that they would send a crew to come retrieve you.”
Painkillers. That would explain why her body was heavy: the painkillers were numbing every single one of her senses. Yearling couldn’t feel anything from her hooves to the tip of her ears. “Okay,” Yearling calmed down.
At the doorframe, Snow Script smiled, “Good to see my patient listening to the doctor’s orders! Don’t worry, I am a trained nurse, and quite a good cook if I do say so myself. You have nothing to worry about, Ms. Yearling, just let me nurse you back to health!” With that, she disappeared beyond the door.
Yearling leaned back on the pillows, partly in defeat and partly because her body refused to allow her to move. She let out a sigh and took a better look of her new quarters for the time being. It was certainly a mountain cottage, complete with the log walls and the hint of pine incense mixed with the burning candle in the air. Across the room was an old roll-top desk with some sort of typewriter, an old one she hadn’t seen in years. The last item in the room was a large bookcase, filled to the brim with literature. It did make her happy to see the books, but it bothered her just a little that she recognized every single Daring Do book she had ever written, including reprints.
Taking a calming deep breath, Yearling spoke to herself, convincing herself of everything, “She wants to help, and she did say she used to be a nurse, so that should help. It’s all going to be okay. I mean, how bad could this be?”
Yearling woke up. She looked around her surroundings, having to remind herself of the previous events. The blizzard, the injury, the broken leg and wing, and of course, her carepony. The smell of the vanilla candle gave her an unsettled feeling and the affects of the painkillers still made her body feel too heavy to move, much less trot.
“Oh good, your awake,” Snow Script said as she trotted in next to the bed. Her face had a smile on it just as Yearling remembered. Something seemed off.
“Yeah, I’m up,” the pegasus rubbed her eyes in an effort to wake her up more.
“Since you’re here, I do have a question for you, if you don’t mind, Ms. Yearling,” the white mare looked eager to ask.
With a yawn, Yearling nodded, “Sure, ask away. Not like I’m going anywhere.” She looked at her immobile leg. It was as if the fracture was mocking her.
“Well,” Snow Script started, “it’s just that we haven’t seen Daring Do for quite some time. I was almost worried about you forgot about her. She is my favorite character after all. The action, the adventure, the thrills, the mystery. Oh, to just live one day in her horseshoes would be just marvelous.” Snow happily muse about her love of the character as she swayed back and forth.
Yearling gave a small smile, “She….heh, is quite an action-packed character, isn’t she?”
Snow looked directly at the author with a large smile on her face, one that got under Yearling’s skin, “Oh, very much so! I just don’t how you came up with such a great character! The way you write her, she just leaps off the page! How did you do it?”
“Oh, heh,” Yearling gave a little chuckle, “I have my ways.”
Snow Script seemed a bit unsatisfied with the answer, but she still kept a smile on her face. “I understand, an author has to keep their secrets while making the magic, correct?”
Yearling simply nodded.
There was an eerie silence in the room for a moment before Snow Script asked yet another question, “I do have more question to ask of you, Ms. Yearling; when are you going to bring back the wondrous Daring Do? All of Equestria is waiting for her triumphant return to the pages.”
This question did somewhat caught Yearling off guard. She looked right back into Snow Script’s deep blue eyes, who stared right back into Yearling’s maroon eyes. “Well, you can’t rush authors, Snow Script. Writing is a process that can sometimes take months or years to finish. I remember one of my novels took close to two years from beginning to finish.”
“But we’re waiting for her to swing back into action!”
“Actually, I was on my way back to Vanhoover in this snow storm to deliver my rough manuscript to my editor. I have a new novel already in the works,” Yearling stated, “I was trying to keep it a secret for a while and give it as a pleasant surprise to everypony.”
“A new manuscript?” Snow Script pulled a stack of papers out of seemingly nowhere and dropped them on the bed, right on top of Yearling’s broken leg “You mean this?”
Yearling stared at the papers in disbelief, “My manuscript. I thought I lost it when I blacked out.” She was overjoyed to see it again, so much that she didn’t even care that her leg was hurting from the papers.
“It’s rubbish.”
She looked up to counter the statement but saw that Snow Script’s cheery disposition was nothing but a distant memory. Instead, she was staring daggers at Yearling as if that alone would get her message across. “You….You read my manuscript?”
“Yes….and it’s absolutely appalling! How could you write something so….so tiddlywinks!”
“Excuse me?” Yearling didn’t understand what she was trying to say.
“You heard me!” She raised her voice and her eyes reflected her passionate anger, “I won’t let you have this piece of cockadoodie taint the glorious name that is Daring Do! I refuse to let this work go up on that bookshelf!” She pointed to the bookcase across the room. As Yearling thought, it was full of books she had written.
Yearling looked at Snow and the indignation on her face. She spoke calmly “Snow Script, this is just a rough draft of the new novel. You can’t judge it solely on how it is right now. That would like be judging a tree by looking at the seed it was and not the tree it will become.”
“I’m not going to be taking any sassafras from you!” The words fell on deaf ears.
“I assure you, it will be much more polished up before it gets published,” Yearling insisted.
“No. It won’t.”
Before she could ask what Snow meant by that, Yearling watched in horror as Snow Script take the manuscript and raised it a mere inches away from the vanilla candle. She let it hover there, almost as if she was taunting her. Her expression was dead serious.
“I figured it out. I figured out what you true purpose is. It’s to help you write a better novel. Maybe that’s my special talent….helping others,” Snow Script slowly lowered the manuscript down to the flickering candle.
“No, please don’t!” Yearling begged. She tried to struggle, but her body was still too heavy. The best she could do was reach in vain toward the papers, but it was all for naught.
The flames caught on to the pages, slowly burning the newest work of A.K. Yearling. She couldn’t speak or breathe as she watched the papers burn. It was as if someone had set her soul on fire and were gleefully watching it burn away.
“It’s okay, Ms. Yearling, no pony will have to know of your failing. It will just be our little secret,” the unsettling smile returned to Snow Script’s lips, appearing as if it had never left. She threw the burning manuscript away into the nearby metal waste bin.
Dumbfounded, Yearling continued to watch the papers turn to ash. All the work, all the effort, gone.
“Can’t you see that you’re lost without me.” Snow used her hooves to force Yearling to look at her, “If not for me helping, you wouldn’t be here, writing a much better novel.” She released her head and started to trot away toward the doorframe.
“Wait, are you saying I’m here because of you?
Stopping at the door, Snow Script had a sinister smile on her face and in her voice, “Now now, focus your attention on your writing. Together, we’re going to be writing the best selling Daring Do novel ever!” She slammed the door behind her.
Two days had past since Yearling had been found bedridden in the care of her self-proclaimed ‘number one fan’. For the author, it was absolute agony. Imprisoned by the four walls, she found nothing of comfort save the brief moments she could get sleep. However, he would awake to the throbbing pains in her leg and wing. She tried everything she could to make the experience more bearable, but the only beacon of hope that she had was when Snow Script would bring her codeine painkillers. Yearling hated them, but she was becoming more dependant on the drug.
“How is my favorite patient?” Snow Script asked cheerfully as she carried in a tray of food into the small bedroom.
“Fantastic,” Yearling bitterly spoke, obviously lying about her condition.
Snow Script either didn’t pick up on the lie or simply didn’t care, “That’s wonderful to hear, Ms. Yearling! May I call you by your first name?”
“I rather you didn’t.”
The disturbing smile didn’t leave Snow’s face, “Of course. We should keep our relationship professional. Doctor and patient professionalism, right?”
Yearling didn’t say anything, but simply glared.
“Well, I’m here with your lunch,” Snow said as she set the tray gently infront of Yearling. The meal consisted of a carefully prepared sandwich with a small pile of chips and a glass of water. The item that Yearling was looking for was in a small paper cup next to the glass: two pills. “I made it with extra care, just for you!”
Again, she was silent as she took the pills.
“So, how did you like using my typewriter? It’s just like the one you used to write all of your stories! A Regal Saber typewriter. Durable, portable, and very reliable! I got it after I read that you use it all the time,” Snow was musing.
The brown pegasus didn’t speak. She looked closely at the food and water before, inspecting it for any possible tampering.
Snow Script continued, “I’ve always wanted to be a writer just like you, so I even modeled by workspace after yours as well! I know it’s not exactly perfect, but I tried my best. Didn’t you just love working over there?” She motioned to the other side of the room where the typewriter sat.
“Yeah, I always wanted to visit the other side of the room,” Yearling sarcastically said before she took a small bite of the sandwich. She was hungry enough at this point to not care anymore.
The smile lessened as Snow continued, “But I do have to ask, why aren’t you writing.”
“I’m….in too much pain at the moment. Could I get some more painkillers?” Yearling pointed to the paper cup that held the medicine.
“I’d be happy to,” Snow happily said as she took the paper cup from the tray. She turned around and started to trot to the door, but stopped herself “But, there is something I want to bring up first.”
Yearling felt a chill ruin down her spine at the addendum to her statement.
“You see, I started to read your newer manuscript, which you just typed out, and I am liking it. I really am,” Snow said with a smile on her face. Her voice was calming and bright like Celestia’s sun on a spring morning. “But there are some issues I see, and I want you to start over, from scratch.”
“Huh? Why do you want me to start over? I’m writing the new novel, just like you asked,” Yearling spoke up.
“Yes, you are. But I want you to start over,” she echoed. She paused for a moment before she continued to speak, “Do you know why I love Daring Do? Because she is everything I wish I could be. Bold, adventurous, courageous. For years….I saw her world. Saw her escapades through her eyes. Every single time a new book was released, I would excitedly rush to the book store to be the first pony to read it. I felt like I had a purpose. Like Daring Do needed me to help her. And just by reading her books and following her exploits, I was helping her. Thanks to her, I grew to love literature, I grew to love her, and I grew to love you, Ms. Yearling.” With a whiplash of volume, Snow’s voice went from sweet to enraged, “And as your number one fan, I have to make sure you don’t fall into horrible writing tropes!”
The sudden change in tone, Yearling tried to reply, “But Snow….”
She was quickly shut of, “No buts! There is absolutely no excuse for this! You cannot simply have the first few chapters of the novel be nothing but a dream! It’s just terrible authorship! And that goes double for your previous attempt! If a villain claims that they will rather die than be brought to justice, then prove it! Don’t just have the cockadoodie villain run away vowing revenge!”
Yearling was silent as Snow continued to shout at her. Finally, she spoke, “I….do admit that it was a poor choice….for both of them.”
“Then you shall do it again, correct?” her voice was still tense and furious.
The pegasus simply nodded.
The happy disposition returned with gusto to Snow’s face. “Wonderful! That makes me so happy to hear. So, I’ll just leave you to your work, Ms. Yearling. But, before I do,” she trailed off as she moved the tray of food off of the bed and moved it aside.
“What are you doing?”
Snow started humming to herself, “Don’t want to create a mess.” Her words seemed ominous.
She trotted toward the closet, opening it up. Yearling was unable to see what was inside the closet from her bedridden position, but she did see what Snow Script had retrieved: a sledgehammer.
“W-What are you doing?” Yearling asked in horror as Snow started to inch closer.
Her voice was still joyful as it always had been, “I’m just going to give you some encouragement.”
Yearling tried to move from the bed but it was all for naught, her body was still affected by the drugs. It was heavy and unresponsive to her brain’s commands. It wouldn’t have mattered at that point, as Snow Script was already towering over bedside. She stared down at the brown pegasus below her with a sinister grin. She raised the hammer up above her head.
“This will only hurt for a moment.”
In a flash, the hammer fell and made contact with Yearling’s lower left leg. If there was an audible sound of the bone breaking, neither pony heard it over Yearling’s scream of pain. The vibrations of the hammer shocked throughout her body. She continued to scream and swear at the top of her lungs, tears starting to form in her eyes. The impact site showed not blood, but it was bruised and it was apparent the leg bones were no longer in one piece.
Snow Script looked down at Yearling who was writhing in pain. She had a peaceful smile on her face, “I love you so much, Ms. Yearling. You certainly are a treasure.”
Yearling continued to moan in pain.
Taking the hammer back to the closet, she closed the doors and made her way to the hallway door, “I’ll be back later to deliver your dinner!”
“You’re a monster,” Yearling gathered enough strength to bitterly speak at Snow Script.
Placing her hoof on the door, Snow Script said one last thing before leaving, “Also, for your information, those pills you just had? They were just placebo. If you wish to have the real painkillers, I expect to see some results, Missus Mare.”
The typewriter clicked away in the room. Yearling was typing at a sluggish rate, but she was making progress on the new novel. Every so often, she would pause to moan in pain at her injured legs. The codeine painkillers were working, but it didn’t alleviate all of the pain, and it was driving Yearling insane. And the codeine was also another problem; she was becoming more and more dependant on the painkillers. Sure, they would make her body feel weighed down like a ton of bricks, but she didn’t care; they were the only beacon of light that the author had in the dark nightmare she was trapped in.
Yearling paused her typing. She looked at the typewriter and the papers all over the desk. It was a mess, like her real workspace back home. She found it a bit amusing and would of smiled if she was reminded of her legs throbbing in pain. Turning her attention to the broken legs that daggled below her, she could tell her body was trying to heal itself but it was doing so incorrectly. She needed medical attention. She needed to get out of this house.
“Knock knock!” A perky voice called out.
Yearling quickly turned her attention back to the typewriter, “Yes, what is it?” Her words were cold.
Snow Script entered the room. Her face still had the contented look upon her face. Yearling had grown to hate and fear it. “I’m just here delivering your lunch. Today’s special is minestrone soup with a wheat roll, bon appétit!” Snow placed the tray on a somewhat empty area of the desk.
Yearling looked down at the tray set before her. There was a bowl of soup, a roll with a stick of butter nearby, a spoon for the soup, a knife for to spread the butter, a glass of water, and a small paper cup with pills inside. Just as she had hoped, her painkillers arrived.
“How is your progress going, Ms. Yearling? I do hope my aromatherapy candles are helping you concentrate.”
Turning to a small stack of papers, Yearling spoke, “Here’s what I have so far. It’s a little over halfway done. I still got a bit of ways to go.” Her words were tired and exhausted.
“Ooo! May I take a sneak peek?” Snow asked as she inched over toward the desk little by little.
“No, you can’t do that!” Yearling bit back, her words finding some energy. She placed a hoof over the stack.
Snow seemed to be sad at the reaction. “Aww, but why not?” her words sounded like a little filly who was told they could not go outside to play with her friends.
“Because….” she trailed off, “I’m still working some things out. It’s a work in progress. You can’t rush these sort of things.”
“Oh, and you don’t want me to see it until it’s done, right?” Snow became excitable again.
Yearling bitterly answered, “Yeah, sure.”
Jumping up and down, Snow Script clapped her hooves together, “Oh, wonderful! Just absolutely wonderful! I’m so excited!”
While Snow was cheering, Yearling took the moment to take the painkillers. Washing it down, she felt like it was the real thing this time around. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“And just think, if it wasn’t for me keeping you here for this past week, you wouldn’t be able to get all of this wonderful feedback about your work and you wouldn’t be so driven to write!” Snow Script commented with a smile on her face.
Yearling thought for a moment. Had it really been a week since she arrived? The days were blending together, she couldn’t tell what time it was if it weren’t for the three meals that Snow Script would deliver to her daily. The falling snow outside the window didn’t help Yearling place the time of day either. Light would come in, but the position of Celestia’s sun would still be hidden by the thick clouds.
“A week….” she repeated weakly, thinking of how long she had been trapped within that room.
“That’s right, a whole week! But we will be here as long as it takes for you to write that perfect novel!” Snow answered.
“I’ve been….here a whole week….” Yearling said weakly before turning toward Snow and raising her voice, “You’ve kept me trapped here against my will for a whole week!”
Snow’s smile didn’t fade, “I wouldn’t say ‘trapped’, that’s such an ugly word. I prefer the word ‘detained’. It makes it sounds like you have been here kept here at a suggestion an nothing sinister.” The tone of her voice didn’t match the darkness behind the words.
“You’re a monster!” Yearling shouted out. Through her gritted teeth, she added on, “You are nothing more than a horrific fiend!”
“Now now, that’s not how you speak to someone who has been nursing you back to health,” her voice still sounded sweet and innocent.
Yearling was dumbfounded at her statement, “Are….Are you kidding me? You broke my freaking leg with a sledgehammer!”
“Because I wanted to give you motivation to write,” Snow mused, “and it worked, did it not?”
She looked up right into Snow’s eyes, “You are nothing short of a demon with your savagery. You are an utter monster.”
Snow gave a stern warning with her cheery voice, “Careful, you don’t want to do something naughty, now would you?”
Yearling spat right at Snow’s face. It landed on her right cheek.
Raising a hoof up, Snow wiped the saliva off of her face. Her smile was still there, but it was more sinister than previously. “Now, why did you have to go and do that, Ms. Yearling? We were having such a lovely time.”
Snow Script calmly grabbed the knife from the tray. She inspected the knife calmly as she spoke, “I’m going to do something. Something that will allow us both to remember this lovely experience for the rest of our lives.” Before Yearling could ask what she was talking about, she used her free hoof to grab on to Yearling’s right ear. “Now hold still, I don’t want to hurt you,” she said placing the knife up against the skin of Yearling’s ear.
Yearling’s voice dropped in terror, “What are you doing?”
Calmly, Snow pushed the knife against the ear. Then she started the move the blade back and forth. A searing pain went through Yearling’s body. The blade was cutting through the skin, the tissue, and the cartilage of the ear. Blood started to pour out of from the wound, same with the screams of pain and horror from Yearling.
“It’s okay, I’m almost done,” Snow spoke in a peaceful and soothing manner. The smile was still on her face.
Yearling shouted out in agony, swearing and begging for Snow to stop. However, her pleads failed as her caretaker was humming a happy tune as she continued to drive the knife through her ear. The pain was unbearable for the author.
After what seemed like eternity, Snow had finally cut through the section of ear she had set out to cut off. The section was about two inches in size, consisting of mostly the top part of her ear.
“My word, that is quite a lot of blood,” Snow commented, looking
“You….demon….you aren’t a pony….you’re nothing more….than an angel of death….” The author tried to shout, but all she could muster was a small statement.
“And now I must cauterize.” She ignored the insults against her. Instead, she raised the same knife she just used to cut through the ear up to one of the candles. Quickly, the metal grew hot.
“Why….” Yearling said through her painful moans.
“I wanted a small memento of our time together, and you have one too!” Snow pulled the knife away from the flame. It was glowing red. “Okay, now hold still, this may sting a little.”
She lowered the flat surface of the knife to the open wound. There was a slight sound of the hot metal closing the wound. It was lost over the sound of Yearling’s painful cry. The wound was closed up and the bleeding stopped, however it seemed that Snow left the heated metal against Yearling longer than needed for her own pleasure. Finally, she removed it.
“There, that should stop the bleeding!”
Yearling was gasping for air after the ordeal. She slowly raised a hoof up to ear, lightly touching the newly cauterized ear. Lowering her hoof, she saw it was bloody. She then saw there was her blood on her, the papers, the desk, the knife, and even on Snow Script herself. Yearling was at a loss for words.
“Let me get a towel so you can clean up and get to work. Until then, you should eat. Your soup must be getting cold!” Snow said happily as she left the room with both the bloody knife and the piece of Yearling’s amputated ear.
Her body was heavy. The painkillers were making her sluggish and making simple tasks next to impossible to complete. Hitting the keys on the typewriter hurt. Yearling didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help it; she was becoming more and more dependant on the medications. She was addicted to the codeine. Wounded, imprisoned, and hooked upon the medication. Yearling hated it. She hated everything that was happening to her. Her body was numb. The days have been blurred, her judgment impaired, and her body abuse. At this point, she knew she was fighting just to stay alive; she had to act.
The candle flickered as Yearling placed the final paper in the stack. It was over, she had finished the work. While her body was heavy, her mind pounding, and her soul exhausted, she has finished what was requested of her captor. Yearling looked at the stack of papers. This manuscript was something she had poured what little energy she had into, but was it enough to appease Snow Script? The thought alone sent a shiver down Yearling’s back. The aromatherapy candle was giving off a faint scent; almost enough to calm the pegasus, but it was not enough. Yearling knew what Snow was capable of and she feared what may happen next.
Yearling called out, “Snow Script.” Her voice sounded tired, almost as if it was done with everything.
As if she had been waiting outside the door, Snow appeared. The smile was on her face, the same smile she had when she had repeatedly abused Yearling. “What is it, Ms. Yearling?”
As much as Yearling wanted to shout or swear at Snow, she didn’t. “I’m finished.”
Snow’s face lit up, “What?”
“I’m finished with the newest novel. Just as you asked.”
With a jolt of energy, Snow began skipping around the room and then over toward the desk where Yearling was seated. “Oh, happy day! This is absolutely wonderful! I could just sing from the mountaintops! Is it everything I ever wanted?”
“I sure hope so,” Yearling said with a bit of bitterness in her voice. Her expression was deadpan as she picked up the stack.
Snow carefully reached out to grab the manuscript, “I get to….be the first living soul to experience the newest adventure of Daring Do….”
Yearling quickly pulled it away from the pony’s reach. She looked at her, “Before, you read this, I want to ask you something.”
“Of course, what is it?” Snow looked as if she was about to burst if she didn’t get her hooves on the papers.
“Now that I wrote this, all of this just for you, are you going to let me go to a hospital?” Yearling’s voice was that of a parent lecturing a filly.
“I’m going to let you go, of course. I did promise to take care of you.” The words were sincere and the smile earnest. Yearling could tell Snow Script was lying right to her face. Her cheerful smile was hiding the sinister intentions and the evil within.
“Promise?”
“Yes yes, now may I please read it?” Snow reached out for the stack of papers.
Yearling stared straight into Snow’s deep blue eyes. “All of Daring Do’s newest and greatest adventure is right here in these pages. Where does she go next? What evil does she encounter? Will she survive? It’s all here.”
Slowly, Snow Script reached for the papers.
Pulling the paper away from her, Yearling hovered it over the candle’s flame.
“Ms. Yearling, no! Be careful!” Snow Script’s face was one of sheer terror.
The brown pegasus watched the dread overcome the pony. If she wasn’t so angry at her, perhaps she would have shown sympathy. After all, she was just a passionate fan. A demented fan with a sickness, but a passionate fan. But any sympathy and compassion Yearling had for Snow Script had been eroded as the savior turned into an angel of death.
“You are a beast. No better than a savage criminal. You’ve trapped me here for far too long. And now the tables are turned, aren’t they?” Yearling gritted her teeth, slowly lowering the pages toward the flame. The white sheets started to heat up and slowly turn black. It didn’t take long for the pages to burn on their own. “Now Equestria will never know what happened.”
“No! Ms. Yearling, you can’t!” Snow begged.
“Why not?,” Yearling threw the burning manuscript on the floor at the pony’s hooves, “I’ve learned it from you.”
Snow’s horror transformed into fury within an instant. She lunged at Yearling, wildly thrashing her hooves in hopes to strike the pony. Each attempted did land on Yearling, but she seemed to be able to bear or block it in some way or form. “How could you? How dare you?” she shouted at the top of her lungs, “How can you do this to me?” Quickly, she tried to stomp out the flames, only getting some.
Yearling, who had been bearing the attacks, kicked Snow back with one of her limbs. Snow was hit back and allowed for Yearling to try and stand on her hind legs. However, her legs were unable to support her body, and she fell back down in her seat.
Back on her hooves, Snow Script glared at Yearling. She repeated herself, “How can you do this to me, Ms. Yearling, after all I did for you? I saved you, I fed you, I nursed you back to health. We were going to be together forever….” Tears started to form in her eyes, but her words were angry, “but I guess you are no better than the rest of them. I guess….I’m just going to have to make sure you never leave.”
Snow leaped at Yearling again. In a single, sudden move, the pegasus grabbed the typewriter and with all of her strength hurled it at Snow Script. The typewriter made contact and struck the pony against her head. Her body fell down to the floor and appeared to be lifeless.
With it all appearing to be over, Yearling looked around the room as she panted. Blood was coming from Snow’s head, right where the typewriter hit. She then looked to see that the manuscript was still burning on the carpet. If it were to keep burning, it surely would take the house.
Carefully, Yearling got down on the floor and dragged herself along the floor. Her hind limbs were unable to support her weight, and she knew better than to trot in her medicated state.
With a sigh, Yearling looked over Snow’s facedown body, “You tried to break me, you held me captive, and you were clearly had some deep issues. But despite all of that….I feel that perhaps we could have been friends under better circumstances.”
A hoof moved from the white pony and gripped onto one of Yearling’s front legs. The head raised up, revealing a face that Yearling had never seen. It was some otherworldly rage. Blood was running down over half of the face, drenching both her coat and the carpet below her.
Yearling was at a lost for words, “H-How in Equetria….”
“I’m going to kill you….you bitch!” the body howled. The voice might have been coming from Snow Script’s body, but it sounded like nothing that could ever come from her.
She broke her hoof free from Snow, quickly pulling herself away from the white pony. Yearling felt one of her hooves get hot. She looked down to see the still flaming manuscript. While it hurt her, she grabbed the pages and went back up to Snow.
Pushing her down, Yearling pinned Snow Script to the floor. She shouted as the pony struggled below her, “You want the new novel so bad? Here! Eat it! Eat all of it until you choke!” Yearling started to shove the pages into Snow’s mouth. A few of the pages were still burning, scorching both Yearling and Snow Script.
The white mare tried to speak, but her words were muffled by the burning papers in her mouth. Her struggling was becoming weaker.
Yearling continued the act, “What was that? I can’t hear you!” Finally, Snow’s body fell lifeless once again.
The flames were all extinguished and Yearling was all but exhausted. Almost all of her life was gone from her body. She barely had enough energy to roll over off from Snow’s body and on to the floor.
“I have to get help….I have to get out of this bedlam,” Yearling told herself. She breathed heavily, trying to get air in her body as fast as she could. “I need to get help….”
Rolling onto her stomach, Yearling started to crawl to the door. At the threshold, she felt something tug on her left hind leg. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Snow Script was still alive and still moving. The bottom of her face was burnt and the blood seemed to stain just about every part of her body from her mane to her hooves.
“I’m not done with you! I’m not done with you!” she shrieked loudly at the top of her lungs.
Using every bit of strength that she had, Yearling bucked Snow away and crawled faster through the door. She quickly pulled herself through the hallway. She didn’t know if she was being followed, but Yearling didn’t take the chance to check. She pulled herself through the first door she found and closed it behind her. Her prayers were answered, there was a lock to the door. She quickly locked it and leaned against the door, using all her weight to keep the door shut.
A huge force hit the door, trying to break in. It was more than enough to knock Yearling down from her defensive position, but not enough to open the door. There was a loud angry screech that Yearling couldn’t make out. She didn’t want to figure it out, her heart was pounding to loudly for her to listen to anything. The thuds against the door continued, but the door still held.
Suddenly, it became quiet. Yearling was panting and weighed her options. She didn’t want to open the door to find her captor waiting for her. But, she realized where she was; the bathroom. Without a second thought, she raided the medicine cabinet. Quickly, she found the pills she was looking for. She opened the container and swallowed all of the codeine that she could.
Yearling passed out, her body drained of any and all energy.
“My head is a little fuzzy, but I remember a trooper finding me and helping me get to a hospital,” Yearling explained, seeming exhausted from just telling her story. “The doctor told me that my hind legs were fractured pretty badly and I would have been dead if I waited any longer.”
“By Celestia, I’m glad you’re alright.”
Yearling let a small chuckle out, “You’re just saying that as my publicist.”
“What? Goodness, no! I was worried about you, Yearling! I had a massive search going on for you when you didn’t show up in Manehatten“ he explained.
“Well, I’m here now,” Yearling said looking down at the restaurant table in front of her. She then looked back up at her publicist, “I’m just happy that nightmare is over and things are starting to return to normal. My wing is finally recovering, but I’m sure I’m going to be stuck with a limp for the rest of my life. Guess that pony will still be haunting me.”
The blue coated stallion looked at her, “Well, how about you write about your experience?”
“Excuse me?” Yearling raised an eyebrow.
“Think about it. A non-fiction book about your ordeal; talking about your nasty spill, being held captive, the torture, all of it. I think it has the promise of being a best seller,” he explained, taking a sip of his water.
Yearling quickly shook her head, “No. Not going to happen. There is no way I want to relive all of that. If all I have to remember that is a limp and a small chip of my ear missing, I’m fine with that. Though I’m still wrestling with the codeine addiction I developed.” She shook at the thought of how she had become dependent on the painkillers. It was taking a while, but she was kicking the habit.
“By the way,” the stallion started, “You didn’t tell me what happened to that pony?”
A chill ran up Yearling’s spine at the memory, “The trooper told me that before he found me hiding in the bathroom, he followed the trail of blood outside. Apparently that pony dragged herself out to her shed before finally dying of her injuries. Her hooves….were on a chainsaw….”
The publicist gasped, “Sweet Celestia….”
“I’m just glad it’s over. I just wanna forget all of this happened,” Yearling said. She paused, and shivered again at the thought of Snow Script, “She might be gone….but I still can’t feel safe….“
“It’s alright, Yearling. It’s over, and I’ll make sure nothing like that ever happens again,” the blue pony assured.
Yearling was silent. Even being in a public restaurant didn’t make her feel comfortable. She was still shaking as a mixture of her paranoia and her codeine withdrawal.
A waitress approached the table, “Are you ready to order?”
“Oh, yes. I would like the house special please,” the stallion said.
She wrote the order upon her notepad, “Excellent choice, and for you ma’am?”
The pegasus looked up at the waitress and her face turned pale. The mare’s coat was snow white and the mane looked uncannily familiar. Yearling blinked in disbelief. Her eyes even started to trick her, showing her Snow Script’s bloody and burnt face briefly.
The waitress’ voice brought Yearling back to reality, “Excuse me for asking, but aren’t you A.K. Yearling, the author of Daring Do?”
She nodded, “Yes….I am.”
“I know you get this a lot but, I’m your number one fan.”