The Countdown Has Begun/ The Doctor’s Peril/ The Scarecrow
The Doctor smiled warmly as he walked along the long winding narrow streets of Ponyville, it had been a very long time since he had come here to relax, and what a relief it was, it was Nightmare Night (AKA Halloween) and he saw that as usual everypony was dressed up in their favorite something or the other.
It was very nice and refreshing, finally, no more monsters to fight, no world dooming destruction, he should have known better that something was going to happen on tonight of all nights, oh well. He decided to pay a visit to a long old-time friend of his, an old companion that had been on many, many adventures and journeys with him, he went up to the door of his old friend’s house and knocked waiting for the gray coated, golden-yellow haired mare to come out.
A smiling mail-mare opened the door and her smile brought some more joy to the Doctor’s heart, anything she did could bring joy to him, “DOCTOR! You’re back again! It sure had been a long time my old friend,” she said warmly.
“Indeed, it has, it feels so good to be back home my dear miss Derpy.”
“Well welcome back home Doctor, it’s nice to have you back here again.”
“I can never resist a good old-fashioned holiday,” he said.
“Well hopefully nothing world ending will happen tonight,” he said.
“Indeed, I hope not,” he said glancing around a bit to see only regular normal decorations and no suspicious, strange, odd, unusual, or odd costumes.
“Well whatever happens I’m sure we can all have fun together as a family, Dinky! Daddy’s here! Come on out and greet him and show him your costume!”
A giggle and squeal came from upstairs as a rumble and roar of hooves trampling downstairs rapidly, “DADDY! You’re back! I’m so glad to see you!”
The Doctor grinned and laughed as Dinky rammed into him and he rubbed her head scratching it wildly, “Hey kiddo! It’s so nice to see you again! Have you grown up?” he asked standing back up again to examine her costume.
“Well I have grown up, but what do you think about my costume?”
“A bit odd and unconventional,” he said staring at the Dalek costume.
“I wanted it to be special and unique and Daleks sounded so fun!”
“Alright, just don’t go around killing anypony else, okay?”
“Yeah, sure thing daddy, anything you say!” Dinky said.
“Be a good girl and stay safe, alright?”
“Alright Daddy! But do you want to join us for some candy?”
“Sure, why not? After all, it’s about time I get to see the town again.”
“YEAH! Did you hear mommy! Daddy’s coming with us!”
“Yes, I know, I heard, and I am very glad for that,” Derpy said.
The Doctor went along with Derpy (who was dressed as a lion) and Dinky around many houses getting a lot of candy and then they decided to go to the local town festival fair where games, activities, treats, and more. Personally, the Doctor was looking forward to the costume contest, but he had an uneasy feeling, it was almost like he was being watched, but nothing seemed out of place, nothing unusual, different, odd, or strange, just the fair amount of decorations, but there were a lot of jack-o-lanterns, a whole lot of jack-lanterns jack-o-lanterns. That was a bit unusual, but he didn’t have time to ponder that because then a disaster happened, “THE HORROR! THE HORROR! Of all the worst possible things to happen this is the absolute worst thing to happen!” a very familiar white coated and fashionably purple tailed mare cried out in hopeless despair.
“Rarity, what’s ever the matter?” Hoity Toity asked her.
“We don’t have a fourth judge for the fashion contest now that they cancelled due to a series of unfortunate events, and you know how well Applejack went over, but I don’t know anypony with a reasonable fashion sense, I’m afraid if we can’t find somepony else then we’ll simply have to cancel and that would be a disaster, and we can’t cancel because the contest is part of our traditions!”
“Wow, that sounds terrible Doc,” Derpy said.
“It does, but I think I can help them,” he said slowly walking up to the group, “Excuse me,” he said politely as the heads of all three of them turned around, “I couldn’t help but to overhear your conversation and I believe I might be able to help, as a traveler of not only this world but many others I have seen many fashion trends and styles, even if you don’t believe me I think I should be a very fine and acceptable replacement and I know when to keep my tongue.”
Rarity looked at him carefully as Photo Finish glared at him, “Ay! You have good confidence, strong voice, nice constitution, bold statements! I see you have courage, me like! Yes! You seem good and strong, what do you think?”
“I think he seems like a gentleman of fine repute by that bow-tie of his, nice design, I like bow-ties,” Hoity Toity said with a very warm smile.
“Well thank you!” The Doctor said beaming brightly right back at them.
Rarity was still carefully glancing at him but then she sighed, “Yes, I suppose so, and the majority rules, you can be our fourth judge my dear good sir.
But, before we begin, may I please have your name?”
“Ah, you may call me the Doctor, just the Doctor, nothing more or less.”
“As you say, but thank you for volunteering Doctor, the show is saved!”
“Indeed,” he said glancing around nervously as Rarity noticed.
“Is something the matter darling?” she asked politely.
“In my line of work when things are quiet that tends to be a very bad thing and I always am ready and prepared for danger, I expect things to go wrong, always.”
“Interesting, well, there’s no need to worry here,” she said.
“If you say so,” he said following the group.
They took him over by a panel directly facing a stage that would showcase the many random various costumes, first up was the cutie mark crusaders with Scootaloo was in a chicken costume (the author wishes to inform you that he regrets nothing, and if you’re going to hate this then please do so in the comments you little mother-) next up on the list was Apple Bloom in a Sunflower costume, and then finally Sweetie Belle was in a punk rock costume. And then there was Diamond Tiara in a princess costume, Silver Spoon in a different princess costume, then Pipsqueak was dressed as a pirate, Featherweight was dressed as a Wonderbolt, Twilight was dressed as Starswirl the wizard, again, Rarity had her own unique design, Derpy was dressed as a muffin and the Doctor awarded a perfect score for her and Dinky (obviously), and then there was also Miss Cheerilee dressed as a queen bumblebee, there was Rainbow Dash dressed in her Wonderbolt uniform (which technically did count as a costume), then there was Big Mac as a knight in shining armor, then there was Spike… as a dragon… again (SERIOUSLY what were the WRITERS EVERN THINKING WITH THAT CHOICE! *chucks some stuff out the window*), then there was also Applejack dressed in a cowboy (or rather cowgirl) costume. Then there was Pinkie Pie, who was dressed as a red and white brick wall with the number four painted in black, but the costume was torn and broken in half and then she explained that it represented her ability to break any kind of walls (clever girl…), then there was Zecora as a witch/enchantress, the mayor was dressed up as a mail-mare, and then there was Maud… as a rock (Okay, seriously, who wrote this stuff? Wait? I did? Huh, well screw me then). Then there were many more ponies with random various costumes, but some notable ones included Lyra and Bonbon with a twin suit matching piece set costume (#LyraBon-Forever, #Love), and a shark, eagle, dolphin, bear, robot, and the last one of the night was a jack-o-lantern headed, straw-filled, scarecrow pony figure which the Doctor found slightly suspicious.
The judges talked to themselves and eventually came to their final choices.
“Everypony, we have our winners, for being most unique and creative we must award this to Dinky Hooves,” Rarity said as a polite clapping went up and the Doctor beamed brightly and cheered loudly, “Yes, thank you, but please, save your cheering and clapping for the end, next for being most classical we award that to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, the best twin piece costume was Lyra and Bonbon, the best representation of a costume goes to Pipsqueak for staying in character, and for most realistic, we would award that to the scarecrow pony, but they refused to state their names or anything else so we can't and therefore we have chosen Rainbow Dash who could have had two awards, but we felt that her costume was actually more realistic than a representation because she is actually a Wonderbolt now and representations are meant to be of past and old things not commonly found or done today, unlike realistic costumes. Now then, contestants please come up here and get your rewards, but to all of you, great costumes, you truly worked hard on yours, and I’m sure you would all get a reward if we had enough time and resources, even for Twilight, who I feel the award would be most historically accurate,” another pony from the crowd coughed under her breath for the next words, “Not that anypony really cares,” then Rarity ignored this rude comment and smiled and continued, “And I’m sure her friends and family will support her choice and unique costume, anyhow thank you everypony for this very fun night and exciting games and activities, prizes, and treats, this festival fair would be nothing without the continual support of everypony in this community, we’re so close we’re practically family! Anyhow, I wish to thank Photo Finish and Hoity Toity personally for being judges today, they didn’t have anything to do and wanted to get some inspiration for more traditional spooky and creepy costume lines, darker themes and trends and all, there’s still some apple cider left for anypony that wants it and plenty of apple pie and other various random tasty treats, and for our contest winners, you get an extra special something of your choice, and let’s all remember that tonight is not only a celebration of victory over evil, but the return of our lovely princess Luna, and I’m sure she’s looking down at all of us right now with a beaming smile as we play through her night. Anyhow, that’s all for now, thank you for your support and love, stay safe and have fun, and goodnight!”
Everypony then cheered and clapped, all except for the scarecrow jack-o-lantern which the doctor had many nicknames like the jack-crow, the scarecrow-lantern, the scare-o-jack-lantern, but he decided for short he would call it Jack.
Jack stared silently right at the judges, or more specifically the Doctor, and as it stared at him with its empty eyes the Doctor felt very nervous and uneasy, almost scared, then, ever so slowly, it started to walk forward towards the Doctor.
“Uh, hello there? Do you have a problem? Is there something you want to ask us? We won’t do autographs you know, and if you have a problem with the winners all decisions are final, we can’t change them even if we wanted to.”
Jack just kept walking to them very slowly, “Sir, if you don’t answer us we can’t help, and if you get any closer we’ll have to use force to remove you…”
Jack didn’t stop and Rarity sighed and tried to cast a stun spell on him, but it failed and she looked in horror and shock at it, “No! That’s impossible! How? Why? Who are you? What are you? What do you want?”
Suddenly Jack’s empty lifeless head lit up with a bright yellow glare, something more intense than they had seen when he went on stage, then slowly, it raised a hoof, or rather clawed straw hand at the Doctor, “We want him, we have no issue with your kind and nor do I have an issue with your contest you foolish ponies…”
The Doctor blinked with surprise and shock, of all the trillions of life forms he had ever encountered before this truly was a new and unique one to him.
“Me? What do you want with me?” he asked.
“We want your power and knowledge, and our master greatly wishes to speak with you, Doctor, you will come with us willing or be taken by force, but we will not hesitate to use any and all means within our powers to take you, including harming the ponies you protect and love, do you understand?”
“Yes, I do, but may I ask who your master is first?”
“No, you may not ask that, our orders were to only capture you at any and all means possible, nothing more or less, now come with us or else…”
The Doctor nodded his head and stood up and walked over to the creature, “Yes, alright, but before you go I just have one thing I’d like to ask…”
“Must I repeat myself?”
“What are you exactly?” he asked, but it remained silent, “Very well then, you leave me no choice,” he said kicking the head right off the body and quickly tearing the cloak away to reveal a robotic body underneath the straw.
“HOW DARE YOU! YOU WILL SUFFER!”
“How are you speaking?” the Doctor asked as the body suddenly took a swing at him despite having no head, “How are you still moving?”
“SILENCE! We will not answer your questions!”
“Then I won’t come with you, and I don’t care how large your army is, you can’t beat me, I am the Doctor, and I will protect this planet and these ponies at any and all possible means, do you understand?” he asked with a sarcastic smile.
“We do, but you just made a grave error,” Jack said with a smile as suddenly every jack-o-lantern and scarecrow started to take a life of its own now.
“How are you doing that? Who’s your master? What are you?”
“We refuse to answer your questions until you come with us.”
“Well I want my answers now,” the Doctor said running into a nearby barn and locking the doors and setting the head down and then he proceeded to look inside the head and see nothing, then he cracked the “skull” open to reveal nothing lining the inside or outside, “Most curious and highly unusual…”
“That is the last straw Doctor, give yourself up right now.”
“You have no power over me, I think you should tell me who and what you are first, I can’t promise you I will go to your master, but please, just give me answers, I want to know, I want to learn, I want to understand,”
Jack sighed, and then suddenly a bright green tiny little fairy the size of about three inches, “My name is Nyyth (said as Nith), I am a Coreluxian Sprite, our species has the unique ability to control any inanimate object, but no living bodies or minds, some exceptions like trees and nature do apply, we can manipulate our voices and we can turn ourselves invisible, with these abilities we go virtually anywhere unchallenged because very few know of us, we like to keep ourselves hidden, we only attack when we must, but we love practical jokes and we are masters of tricks and illusions, the master we speak of is an old enemy of yours who accidentally discovered us and kidnapped our king, and in exchange for his freedom and our secrecy we agreed to take you to him”
“Well then, great! I surrender! I’ll willing come with you, but not as a slave, but as your guest, and better yet, I’ll help you get back your king, because if there’s anything I know about my enemies, they don’t usually tend to keep their word.”
“Yes, we know, but we saw no other choice, and thank you, we’re sorry for frightening you and threatening the safety of the ones you love.”
“It’s okay, you just wanted to protect your own kind, I understand,”
“Thank you,” Nyyth said smiling warmly at him as she procured a yellow and green ring and grabbed his hoof and suddenly they were in a transport ship.
“Tell me, do you need fuel for this thing?”
“Nope! We control it with our minds, great, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” the Doctor said casually as they lurched forward to a much larger space station, they docked in it and Nyyth gestured to the doors calmly.
“He is waiting inside, I hope you can beat him, good luck Doctor,”
“Thank you Nyyth, but can you not help me out here?” he asked with a very warm smile hoping she would say yes, but she didn’t.
“No, he has nothing inorganic, and he’s naked,” she said
“Well, alright, nice to know I suppose, thank you,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” she said back with a very warm smile.
The Doctor walked in and soon discovered a squid-like creature standing at the deck smiling out at outer space, “Ezra Darian Benjamin Krayt, I should have known it was you, what other creature has body parts that are completely organic and can capture almost anything with an eye for the invisible?”
“I can only think of one, two, maybe three or four others,”
“Indeed, but why now? Huh? Why here?”
“Because you have grown weak, and the sprites were easy to take advantage of, after all, how can you escape a trap made up of one’s own mind?”
“Are you trying to be clever here and reference myself?”
“I am merely stating facts here Doctor, you tortured me and left me for dead.”
“You were trying to take over a galaxy and torture everyone!”
“All I ever wanted was power, control, and money, is that too much to ask?”
“When it comes at the cost and expense of others, yes, it does!”
“Even now you lie, even now you are still weak.”
“Love is not weakness, and I won’t make the same mistake I did last time, I gave you mercy, I believes in you, but you have proven me wrong.”
“Exactly, if you were strong you would have already killed me, but you see, here’s the thing Doctor, I have already won this game, if you kill me you only will prove me wrong about you being weak, but give me exactly what I want, a rage filled angry Doctor, a warrior, and if you spare me then you are no wiser than last time and have become weak and ignorant, face it, you can’t win this.”
“Exactly, and I know you will have measures ready so I can’t use the sprites, clever, but I already know how to turn the tables, I don’t want to, but I will.”
“Even if you do that I will in some way win.”
“Very well then, you leave me no choice,” the Doctor said pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the emergency self-destruct button.
“There, now you have fifteen minutes to live, if you stay you’ll die, but your honor would be greater than if you came with me and became a coward, you could try to take revenge on me, but I would only stop you, now you must make the choice, but I’m going to take the sprite king and leave, you do as you wish.
But know this, a great warrior should understand when to quit and give up, which battles to fight, and when it is okay to give mercy and accept it too.”
“Maybe, but even so, I refuse to accept your help, I would rather die a thousand deaths before accepting your help Doctor, I hope you die and rot in Tartarus.”
“Doubtful, but as you wish,” the Doctor said calmly walking and retrieving the king and then quickly escaping back with him and Nyyth before the ship exploded, and as they flew back down they saw the bright red colors explode briefly and then be extinguished by the vacuum of space in an instant.
“Pretty and deadly, like so many things,” the Doctor quietly remarked.
They got back down to the surface and Nyyth thanked the Doctor for his help and said he could come visit anytime he wanted to, and he said he would, and then they waved goodbye and flew back up out of the world.
“I’ll miss them, but honestly I expected this to be a lot harder,” he said.
“Well don’t worry, I’m just glad you’re safe Doc,” Derpy said.
“Yeah, for now,” he said with a very warm smile, but deep down inside he knew that one day he would have to face the sad awful truth and tell her his name right before his last final day, his death day, even after all these years he still feared, he feared losing, feared losing the war, losing the ones he loved, and dying too, but he never showed his weaknesses, he always had to remain strong, and he put on a brave face, a smile, and tried to ignore this fact with jokes and just being random, odd, and crazy and eccentric, “Yes, well, do you want to go home and pillage the candy? I think we need a little bit of sugar after all of this.”
“Alright, Doc, anything you say,” Derpy said with a very warm smile.
“YEAH! Daddy is the best! He’s the best dad in the world!”
The Doctor chuckled, “Try the best daddy in the universe Dinky,”
Derpy grinned and lightly punched him on the shoulder, “Ouch, what was that for?” he asked with a very sly grin as they slowly started to walk back home.
“Don’t get too ambitious now,” she said.
“I’m just stating a fact! I literally save worlds, name one other dad that does that!”
Derpy grinned, she was stumped and gave no answer and then laughed, and then so did the Doctor too, and they got back home, but right before they entered the Doctor looked around nervously one last time, he still felt like he was being watched, but he knew for a fact there were no more sprites around anymore.
“Are you coming in or not? It’s a cold night out there after all,” Derpy said.
“I’m coming,” he said walking up the steps, getting inside and swiftly locking the door trying to ignore his feelings, but he wasn’t wrong, somewhere in the fields of a pumpkin patch critters stirred, it was a very cold and quiet night, which was very weird and strange since usually it was hot or warm, but not anymore.
A farmer walked out to his field and sighed, the pumpkins would not go to waste, but he felt uneasy, like he was being watched, a chill went down his spine and he looked around his field nervously but saw nopony there, he sighed and leaned against the post holding his scarecrow, a truly terrifying and magnificent work of art, he doubted its effectiveness at first, but no crow had even come close within 100 stone throws of his field, it had the typical straw filling, and old dusty brown patch farmer’s hat, by the rest was different, yes, it had blue overall jeans and typical farmer clothes, with a bit more black, but that smile, that face, those eyes, it looked almost real, but the scarecrow was really cheap, actually, it was free, the owner said that it only gave him bad luck and drove customers away and wished to be rid of it, and farmer Smith was glad to take it away from him.
He sighed and got back up as a light breeze swayed through the trees, winter might be tough this year, hard to say, he took a few steps forward and noticed a snapping sound, he quickly turned around but still saw nopony there, he scratched his head in confusion as the wind picked up almost blowing away his old dusty brown farmer’s hat, but he held onto it for dear life, he then noticed something he hadn’t before, the ropes holding up his scarecrow were frayed and now had split, but that didn’t make sense, they were new ropes, oh well, maybe it was just a youngling trying to scare him and have some fun, he hated that, but so long as they didn’t do anything to his crop then he should be just fine.
“If anypony is in my field you better get out now before I call the authorities!” he shouted, but got no response, maybe in his old age he was starting to hear and see things and lose his mind, he sighed again and started to walk home only to hear another snap, he turned around and saw nopony there, but saw another rope snapped, what the hell? And even more disturbing, the scarecrow’s smile was starting to get more realistic and scarier by the minute, the wind picked up some more as he slowly started to back away in fear trying to reason with himself, there was no way that thing was alive, no way it could hurt him, it was just his imagination, he kept his eyes on it and the wind moved its arms to make it look like it was waving at him, but then its smile got wider and more evil and its hands became sharp and clawed, and then he realized that this might not be in his imagination, he screamed out loud and ran to his farm and quickly locked all the doors and windows nervously glancing outside at his thick fields, thank goodness he got to his farm fast and didn’t trip, stumble, or fall like an idiot, he chuckled nervously hoping that this was all in his imagination as his racing beating heart started to slow down. He waited a few minutes and saw no movement outside, but there was no way he was going out right now, oh no.
But then he noticed something even more disturbing, the house was oddly and strangely very empty and quiet, even at this late of an hour his wife should still be up, but she was not to be seen anywhere, “Honey? Hello? Are you home?”
No answer or response came and he started to get slightly nervous and worried, why were all the lights off? Why was it so cold and dark? So empty and silent? Something was wrong, and he quickly went into his garage and grabbed an axe, and the light inside was his only source of illumination as he grabbed a flashlight and turned it on struggling to get the batteries in but barely managing to do so, he shone it around the room and thought he saw a shadow of a scarecrow, but quickly dismissed it as his imagination. He got out of the garage and locked the door though, just in case… and then he slowly started to walk upstairs avoiding the third top step which always cracked and creaked under his weight, he carefully wielded the axe with just one hoof moving towards his own room since he and his wife slept together, they had a good and happy marriage after all, he shined his light forward nervously and pushed the door open with great fear.
He was greeted by the smell that something was rotting and had died here, it tasted salty and rusty, filth and grime hit his senses and he gagged, but he slowly started to move forward, he took a few nervous steps inside the room and what he was made him go into so much shock he dropped what he had on him.
There, sitting in his bed, was his wife in her normal blue and white apron cotton clothes, typical farm wear, and all was fine with her, except for the fact that she had an entire colony and swarm of maggots eating away her cold lifeless dead corpse from the inside out, her legs, her arms, her chest, no part was spared, the bed and floors were wet with blood and the floors were sticky and he was grossed out by this, but this was not the worst part, oh no, the worst parts were the jack-o-lantern head forced on the head of his wife with a very creepy smile and it was stuffed with straw, and her body was stuffed with straw too, his heart was racing and beating with fear, he was long past the nervous point anymore and was at pure terror and shock, but the worst part was the message written on the walls and mirror and a note in his wife’s blood, and it was just two simple small little words that haunted him to his very heart, soul, and mind.
You’re next.
He screamed out loud and thought he saw the head of his wife turn to him and give him an eerie smile, he had to get out of his house, and his farm, he ran back downstairs and quickly struggled to get the doors open to no avail, and the a chill went up his spine again as he heard slow thundering steps shuffling out of his room upstairs and heard the unmistakable sound of the creak of one of the top steps, and he dared not turn back for fear of what he would see, and he cursed himself, he couldn’t open the door, he had made it hard to enter and not easy to exit, otherwise it wouldn’t be good security, would it?
He tried the windows to no avail and heard the slow shuffling steps, it was like the creature, the monster, knew that he had no chance of escape and was taking its time to toy with him, to increase his fear and put him off his game, but even so he wasn’t off yet, and he cursed himself again, he wished he had his axe to cut through the door, but he didn’t, but there was one thing he could do, he ran back to the door and started to buck it, this might give him more time…
The steps continued downstairs and he wondered if this creature could move any faster or not, but he honestly didn’t want to find out.
Buck! Creak, crack! Bang! Creak, crack…
These were the sounds that the door and shuffling hoofsteps made. He kept putting as much force as he could into the door and he smiled as he started to hear it crack and groan, his heart was still pounding furiously inside his chest, but now he at least had hope, he gave it a few more powerful kicks, and it was almost there, the steps of the monster were slowly creeping towards him and he could tell it had gotten downstairs, it toon it a few minutes, and if he didn’t buck the door down soon… desperately he gave a few more powerful kicks and the most powerful one was when he though he heard breathing of the creature and that was the kick that completely destroyed the door, and he smiled and quickly ran outside laughing, victory and escape never felt so good before, and even if the creature did start to chase after him he had a huge advantage now, there was no possible way it could catch up with him now, he laughed crazily and loudly, he was going to go to the mayor’s office and hide there, it didn’t matter whether or not they believed him so long as he was safe and away from that thing, he wanted to be far away as possible and never see that damn thing again.
Sadly, this was not to be so as he accidentally stumbled over a root of a tree that he knew wasn't there before, he knew the fields like the very back of his hoof, and now things were starting to change and he didn’t like it at all whatsoever.
He cursed himself again and quickly got up only to discover he was bleeding, oh well, he would just have to heal and fix that later on, no time to stop now…
He continued to move albeit a little bit more slowly now, but then suddenly, out of nowhere, a tree landed on him directly on his back legs, he screamed in agony in pain and grunted and groaned and screamed even more when he finally managed to pull out his legs and he whimpered nervously with fear, great, now how was he going to run? And why had that tree fallen in the first place? Sure, it was old, but not that old, but then he remembered the shopkeeper’s warning about bad luck, maybe he was actually right and onto something there.
He slowly limped forward unable to do a running speed anymore as he grunted and groaned with pain, all he needed to do was to get to the road and go to town, that’s all he needed to do, and then he would be safe, and then he would be fine.
He never made it to the road, he struggled to move forward limping and got near the edge of his field, but then suddenly his back cracked and gave out and he looked and saw a huge rock had fallen on him, and then just right before he lost consciousness completely he saw the rock and the smiling face of his scarecrow and he knew once and for all that this was not in his mind or imagination as he grunted and groaned with pain and slowly started to close his eyes for the very last time taking one moment to finally say goodbye to this cruel cold world.
Three days later ponies started to notice his disappearance, or rather his absence instead, one week later they started an investigation, but nothing was found, no weapons, nothing, all they could find were the bloody bodies stuffed with straw and forced to wear jack-o-lanterns on their heads as the maggots slowly ate away their cold lifeless bodies, they found the broken tree and reasoned that the strong winds must have knocked it over due to its old age, they surmised that it must have fallen on him and the killer used the advantage of his broken legs to knock him out with a rock, but no prints or hair was found, only blood and straw and what remained of the bodies, they noticed the scarecrow and saw new fresh rope bindings to it and were slightly disturbed by it, but paid it no mind, although they did find it rather curious and odd why the scarecrow seemed to have bloody sharp clawed hands with blood splattered all over its face and clothes, maybe the killer wanted to clean up, if so, they did it lazily, but again, no prints were found and they reasoned that whatever the killer’s reason for killing was, they must be crazy, and trying to send a message, of what kind, they didn’t know, all they could do was to wait and see if he would reveal their true intentions or not.
They closed up the case about a week later finding no hard proof or evidence of any kind whatsoever, no prints, and no leads or suspects either, and then it went cold, since the farmer had no children they asked around and found out that he had no nearby family, and they found them, but they said to sell the farm off and give the money to them, the government did so, and the land was sold to a very nice old king and generous farmer, but as for the scarecrow, nopony wanted that, even the buyer of the farm didn’t want it claiming that he could never get rid of the blood stains and it would be too much work and effort to clean it up, and he would have his hooves full with the house itself (but at least he got it for a bargain 25% off price though). There was no record of it being purchased, but there were also no records of it being stolen either, eventually though a pony who had once actually owned the thing stepped forward and said it belonged to him and that he had given it away for free because it only ever gave him bad luck.
Seeing as nopony else wanted it they gladly gave it back to him and he looked sad on the way out, but when he was in secret he slowly started to smile and ever so carefully started to clean the clothes and rags of the scarecrow carefully setting the parts aside to dry as needed, once he used his own unique and special recipe to clean off the clothes he moved on to the next parts of the process.
Next, he slowly started to stitch back together the scarecrow making it look old and new at the same time, rustic, dusty, a bit worn down, perfect…
Then once he was done stitching it back together and cleaning it off he put the clothes back on and sealed it up with the last stitch and right amount of straw.
But in the process, he had gathered things not commonly, typically, or usually seen inside a scarecrow, he pulled out two hearts, four eyes and kidneys, two brains, a pair of lungs, and many more organs and hundreds of bones ranging in various shape, and he put the organs in special jars and containers and set the bones aside, and many hours later he had cleaned the bones off completely and sighed sadly to himself, the parts were not suitable, not yet…
“I’m sorry my son, you did well, you’re still so strong, and I miss you, but we don’t have enough parts or lives yet, you know what the ritual says we have to do, what we must do, I know that you don’t want to do it, neither do I, but we must, I know we keep telling ourselves one more, and hope seems so very far away, but one day, soon, we will be together again, this is the only way that will work, the best way, the only way, I know other ponies might think I’m crazy, maybe even misguided, but they wouldn’t understand, besides, it’s not like you’re killing anypony really important, that really would make us crazy, no, we go after the weak and old, we do them a mercy, and in return we will get what we want, I’m sorry that I lost you, but I did what I had to do, the only thing I could do, I know this is only a half-life you live right now, a cursed life, dark magic fuels you, it fuels your anger, your hate, your fury and wrath, but I know that deep down you still have love inside you, that’s why you bring me good luck, not bad, I don’t like lying to other ponies, but I have to, because I love you, I really do, and I want you back with me, everything I do is because I love you, and everything you do is to show me how much you love me, and I’m so proud of you, I miss you so much, I want to see your smiling face again, to hug you, to kiss you, to feel your soft skin again, I want you to hear your voice again and say that you love me, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I won't make the same mistakes as I did last time, and this time, I won’t lose you again, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe and sound, do you understand?”
No response came from inside the dark and dim corner of the room, and the rest of the shop was going to be very brightly lit for business soon, but, in the dark, no voice or sound came, not even breathing, but a slow golden-yellow light from the pumpkin head and a wide smile from the scarecrow as its thumb was pointed upwards indicating a yes and that it did understand before the hand went limp and remained motionless as the shopkeeper slowly smiled and nodded.
“Good, that’s very good, now then, hold still please, I’m going to open shop up again, you be a good boy now, do you hear me?” he asked going away and then slowly opening up shop and business was like usual as always, slow.
But, he had a few more customers than usual.
He wondered if anypony was going to take the scarecrow, but few asked and none wanted it, but then, at the very end of the day a farmer came in.
“What can I do for you Applejack?” he asked with a very warm smile.
“We need a new hoe and we need a scarecrow,” she said.
He smiled back warmly at her, “Yes, of course, for the first item, I can help you, and as for the second,” he said pausing to consider his options, the spell required the blood and body parts of many ponies, or rather very strong magic, and what better magic was there than the very element of Honesty herself?
Yes, it was evil, cruel, but he wanted his son back more than anything else, even if it weakened the safety of Equestria, besides, what was the worst that could happen? A lot, maybe he shouldn’t sell her the scarecrow, but he didn’t know how soon another might come to take it, besides, the spell required thirteen bodies, and so far they had only killed seven, and the main six could be a very powerful addition, or not, but then he remembered that she only represented the Element, and she would die one day and she would have to be replaced, he would be doing Equestria a favor by making them realize a sad truth, besides, one element gone today wouldn’t destroy Equestria, yet…
“As for the second one, yes, I can help you, I have a very old dusty scarecrow, he’s a bit dusty and scary, might even scare Apple Bloom, you best take a look at him first though,” he said smiling and taking her back-store to reveal the scarecrow in all its wonderful, brilliant, creepy and disturbing glory.
“Well, what do you think about him?” he asked with a smile.
“He’s old, and dusty, but plenty scary, how much?”
“For the element of Honesty? Free of charge,” he said with a very warm smile.
“Well gee, thanks mister, you’re a mighty nice fellow, but tell me, does the scarecrow have a name or what?” she asked him casually.
“Oh, he does, I named him Mortimer after my own dearly departed son, the Brown family hasn’t been the same without him,” he said.
“Oh, well sorry to hear that Mister Morpheus,” Applejack said tipping her hat.
“Ah, don’t be sorry, it happened a long time ago, but I would do anything at all, anything to see him again, hold him, hear his voice, touch his skin, and have him here with me again, family is the most important thing after all, right?”
“Yeah, I reckon so, that and friendship,” she said with a very warm smile back at him paying him for the hoe as he smiled on the inside.
Friendship won’t save you from my plan or getting my son back, he thought to himself, “Yes, indeed, well, have a good day and stay safe, good luck!”
“Thank you, mister!” Applejack said smiling at him and taking a quick casual glance at the scarecrow and she through she saw it give a wider grin than usual, but decided it was just the trick of the lights and shadows creating an illusion, and as she left with the scarecrow in toe Morpheus smiled to himself.
“Good luck my son, I trust I’ll see you again soon enough…”
Applejack couldn't hear this because he whispered it to himself, but the scarecrow knew what he was saying, and unseen by Applejack’s eyes it gave one last final slow creepy smile as it was towed away by its next and latest victim…