“Wooohie, boy that was a tough day’s work.” I said aloud after I finished hauling the last box of strawberries onto a wooden cart.
“Ya bet it was.” Replied the other workpony “Ya’ll have a good night ya hear!”
“Oh and say hello to the Mrs. for me, Mr. Redberry.” He added turning around.
“Will do.” I half chuckled.
And with that, he was off to town, his cart, crammed full of sweet berries and other vine ripened treats, hitched to his back.
There we go, an honest day of pickin’ and shippin’ berries. Ah, time to finally get home to my wife n’ kids. And to my wife’s home cookin’, she was makin’ sweet cherry pie tonight. My mouth watered at the thought of her delicious cherry pie. Cherrie had won prizes with that pie of hers.
The walk to my farmhouse only took me a couple a’ minutes. The work pony had come almost all the way to the farm to pick up the shipments. I stopped right outside the front gate to admire the farm. Ah, my little plot of heaven, here near the borders of Equestria. The Redberry farm looked mighty beautiful in the orange light of the sunset. But the only thing better then coming home after a hard days work was coming home to a hot dinner and family.
My little colts would be so happy to see me and tell me about their day at school. I pictured my unicorn twins running to me yelling “daddy” their gray, unmarked flanks in the air as they tackled me and tried to wrestle me. They looked just like me really, the had the same color coat, the same brown mane, but they had horns on their heads, a trait they got from their mother. The thought of seeing them pushed me on to the house. So I opened the gate to my farm, passed it, and locked it shut. Nopony would be coming or going ‘till tomorrow so I figured we might as well stay locked up for the night. Then I trotted over to the front door of my house, tired from work but not completely exhausted, and opened it. Home sweet home.
I drew a deep breath and smelled the wonderful smell of stew. The smell mixed with the sweet smell of cherry pie made my stomach growl. “Im HOOOOMME!!!” I hollered, extending the word ‘home’ so that my kids could hear it in their room. I heard a loud thud come from the back of the house where the kids’ room was, followed by the furious sound of hoofsteps. In my anticipation, a content smile formed on my mouth as I waited for my kids to come jump into my embrace.
There they came, my two little colts Ellis and Wheaty. They sprinted into my embrace, almost knocking over some furniture.
“Daddy, daddy, daddy, YOUR HOME!” Oh they sounded so excited to see me. It made my heart swell. I stroked their short, soft little manes with my hooves.
“Well you look happy, dear.” The voice came from my beautiful smiling Unicorn wife who walked out of the door to the kitchen. She really was beautiful, with her pale pink coat, long red mane and tail that had a hint of gold in it. She had nice flanks (and I do mean nice), which held her cutie mark, a little cherry tree. Her soft face was complimented by two sky blue eyes and graced by a red purebred unicorn horn, which hardly imposed. We were both starting to age a bit, but she still looked as beautiful as the day I met her.
And I thought how lucky I was to have her as my wife. A rough lookin’ earth stallion like me. I prided myself on how it used to make all my friends jealous back in the day. Hah who knew that I, John Redberry, would have the best lookin’ wife of all my friends.
“That’s cause it’s cherry pie night.” I laughed, “You know I love your cherry pie.” True it was strange for me to be this happy, I was usually a more stoic pony, but I just got caught up in the moment.
She blushed a little and shot me a dirty smile. I knew what she was thinking. Then she remembered that the foals were still hugging me so she tilted her head, trying to point at them with her horn.
“Boys, its time to eat, would you be dears and set the table for us?” Cherrie asked our children.
They did as they were told. They ran into the dining room where they began pulling out eating utensils.
Cherrie walked over to me and we shared a brief but passionate kiss. She smelled of cherries. It was a delicious smell that made me even hungrier.
“How was your day honey?” Cherrie asked curiously.
“Long,” I said, “but good, I’m just happy to see you.”
She shot a big smile at me. “Well I’m glad to hear ya had a good’n.”
We walked next to each other to the dining room, where the colts were. They had just finished setting up the table.
The boys and I sat down at the table while Cherrie went into the kitchen. She came back out a moment later levitating the stew pot out of the kitchen. Before long each of us had a bowl of bean n’ veggie stew sitting in front of us.
After giving thanks to our dear princesses I took a spoonful of stew and pushed it into my mouth. As I had expected, it tasted even better then it smelled. Boy Cherrie sure could cook a good meal.
After several spoonfuls of bean stew I looked over at my colts, who were sitting at the end of the table opposite me. They were enjoying the meal just as much as I was.
I opened my mouth to speak. “So, boys, what did y’all learn at school today.”
Ellis was the first to speak, having just swallowed his last bite of food.
“Oh nothing, Ms. Jubilee wasn’t here today so we had a substitute.” He said
“Oh? Where was she today.” I said acting interested.
“She said she was going to visit her cousin in Ponyville.”
“Oh so anything happen today?”
This time Wheaty cut in, “You bet!” He said loudly, casting a devious look at his twin brother, who returned the look with one of contempt.
“Oh really, what happened?” I asked amused by their coltish innocence. I looked over at Cherrie and she looked just as amused as I did.
“Ellie has a crush on the subswmf.” He was cut off when Ellis levitated a napkin into his brother’s mouth.
“DO NOT!” protested Ellis
“DO TOO!”
They repeated that argument for bit, then I chimed in. “So tell me about this substitute you had, she sounds like an interesting young mare.” I bit my lip so to prevent a chuckle.
“I don’t have a crush ON ANYPONY!” Ellis yelled
My boys were so adorable I hardly was able to sound serious when I told Ellis to use his inside voice.
All Ellis wanted to do was change the subject, “Can we have pie now?” He said trying to get us to forget about his supposed crush on Ms. whoever.
I looked again at Cherrie who was watching our colts intently, her whole face in a smile. Again she appeared to share the same feelings about how adorable they were. Then she looked at me and saw that I was looking at her.
“Oh yes, the pie.” She said after a second.
She got up from the table to fetch the delicious dessert.
My mouth was watering again. I was already almost full from the stew, but the thought of her famous cherry pie was enough to make the princesses themselves sing. Oh the flakey crust, the delicious cherry fillin’ uh god that sounded sooo good…
Then she re-entered the room levitating the pie above her head and that shut everypony up. The three of us watched intently as she cut the pie with a knife, and lift a piece of it onto each of our plates. In only minutes, the pie Cherrie made was consumed.
My sweet Celestia that pie was buckin’ good. Each of us sat there after we finished the pie resting our bellies and then a bit later Cherrie took the boys to get ready for bed.
I took a moment to step out on the porch and get some fresh night air. I inhaled deeply letting the cool night air fill my lungs. This week was one of the many perfect ones. At this point in my life, I realized with pride, I had been living many stallions’ dreams. I had a wife (a darn fine one at that), and she loved me as much as I loved her. We had two beautiful foals, and we planned on having another soon. Our farm, my farm, which had been in my family for countless generations, was profiting exceedingly well. We were on no shortage of money.
And life had been like this since we married. I remembered that after we married, I decided that it was best to pick back up the family farm. The demand for the various sweet berries hadn’t declined in the past few years, and it didn’t look like it would in the future. I was indeed content with life.
I went back inside. It was time for bed and Cherrie would probably just be getting in bed as well. I walked into the bedroom but Cherrie wasn’t there yet. I could hear her in the other room saying goodnight to the boys, her voice soft and kind. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought she was the Mother of Equestria.
I slipped into bed. The covers were warm and inviting. The bed beckoned me to fall asleep. I tried to keep my eyes open so I could say good night to my beautiful wife but it was just too comfortable and I soon lost consciousness.
***
I woke up in the middle of the night to my wife nudging me on the shoulder. Even in this state I could remember what that nudge meant. We WERE planning on having another foal. I rolled over and smiled as my face met hers. She was already smiling.
“The foals should be asleep now.” She whispered putting a forehoof around me. I took the hint. I rolled over on her and stared into her eyes. I was starting to wake up and get excited. I leaned my head in and kissed her.
We enjoyed each other’s company for a bit.
Then…. Then...
Then there was crying, it came from Ellis and Wheaty’s room.
Our alone time was interrupted. I got out of bed, “I’ll go check on them this time.” I told my wife.
I probably should have been more annoyed by having to check on my children instead of enjoying my wife’s company, but I was already in too good of a mood. And she could still be awake when I got back, so I figured we would pick up where we left off.
I trotted lazily over towards the crying. Pushing the door to my kids’ room open made the noise louder. They were screaming at the top of their lungs now. I guess I must have startled them coming into the room.
“BOYS, BOYS it’s alright… it’s only me” This managed to calm their screaming a bit so that they were just sobbing and shaking in their beds.
“What’s wrong, what happened boys?” I asked them trying to sound patient.
Still shaking, Ellis and Wheaty slowly pointed at the window that rested between their beds. The window looked over the back end of the farm, not that anypony could tell, as it was pitch black outside.
“What? There’s nothing there.” I said straining my eyes to find something in the darkness.
“But daddy,” said Wheaty, his voice trembling, “there’s a woman out there.”
“Would ya like daddy to take a look and show you that there’s nopony there?” I asked them. Boy did they sure have wild imaginations
So I pretended like I was going to walk around the house. Of course I had no reason to go out there, so I just headed for the front door, leaving them tucked in their beds. I was just going to stand in front of the front door for a minute and then come back and say that I didn’t see anything.
I stepped into the living room, turning on the ceiling light. Woah, the front door was wide open. That made my stomach flop. I know for a fact that I closed and locked that door. This piqued my curiosity, so I decided to go check the front of the house. Maybe there really was somepony out there. I started feeling protective of my family.
I walked out onto the porch.
“Hello!” I shouted “Anypony out here?”
No answer.
I wasn’t about to circle the house; it was black out side, making it dangerous to walk around the house. And it was mighty creepy too.
“Who are you looking for?” said a demonic voice coming from behind me. My heart stopped, I jumped in the air and faced the house.
I looked into the blank white eyes of a grape colored unicorn mare. She was levitating, a reddish glow circling her body. Who was this? what was wrong with her eyes? And most importantly, why was she in my house?
“WHO ARE YOU; GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE.” I demanded strongly
She ignored my demand, instead she spoke, without moving her mouth, “MMM I can smell magic, who has the magic. Could it be you?” She said, her demonic voice sending chills down my mane. Oh my Celestia, were those tentacles poking out of her back?! They were… five black, leathery tentacles sprouted out of her back.
Then she teleported close to me with out so much as a sound or poof of magic. I was terrified. No I was paralyzed with fear.
With her standing as close as she was, I could smell death on her. It made me gag.
Then she spoke in her hideous demonic voice again. “USELESS, you have no magic!”
I tried to scream but I couldn’t, her tentacles were already grabbing me, holding my mouth shut. What was she going to do?
She pinned me to the wall with her tentacles
And then the rest of my family came into the room, probably wandering where I was, or what the strange noises were.
There was screaming, which was partially stifled when two tentacles, including the one covering my mouth shot through the body of Cherrie. She stopped screaming instantly…
...
…Chuh... Chuh... Cherrie…
Time seemed to stop in that moment.
“There’s the magic,” said the evil purple mare sounding satisfied.
DAMN YOU! I became full of rage, forgetting my fear. I bucked and bucked and bucked… until I finally managed to wrench myself out of the tentacles’ grip.
“RUN, go, your window, NOW!” I yelled at my colts, which were staring at something they couldn’t comprehend.
They turned and ran for their bedroom window.
After seeing them run, I hurled myself at the monster knocking her off balance. I was ready to rip her… its head off its shoulders. But then it grabbed me with its magical force. It began to squeeze the life out of me. The pain shooting through me caused me to scream.
My life, I could see everything… It was… so… warm… I could just sleep.