My daddy just came home with a new fertilizer that he claims is the next innovation of farming productivity. He was jumping up and down happily as he held my mommy in a big hug. I was just waking up from mid-afternoon nap, so some of the details aren’t clear to me at the time, but my dad looked over to me and rubbed my mane in his happiness. He said that in that bag, my financial future is set in stone. I looked over to the bag and saw the label. The only detail I remember from the label is the image on the front that looked like a snake eating its own tail and it was formed in a ring. After that, I got ready for school and left after wishing my dad and mom the best. My dad looked over to me and said “Be safe.”
At school, my good friends Applebloom and Carrot Juice and I were discussing our family farms and anything new in the market. It was the middle of the day and our normal crowd of friends were home or sick today.
“So today my momma is selling some of her carrot cake and sweets. Nothing big today as per usual.” Carrot Juice munched on her lettuce.
“Yeah it's the same for me and mah family. You know, it's kinda weird how every Wednesday our families sell sweet’s, Carrot.” Applebloom started to play with her bow as she looked over to me.
“Well, we can’t say it's a coincidence. It's not like Cabbage Patch’s family has cabbage themed desserts today, now don’t ya?” Carrot asked me as I shake my head.
“Nope. Just the veggies.” I said with a soft smile as we giggled at the comment I made.
We continued to talk about our families farming week and sharing a few jokes at the expense of our family members. I started to think about the new fertilizer my dad brought back home and wondered if the girl’s knew anything about it. I bet they did since my dad said it is the “newest innovation of the farming community” and all of that jazz.
“Hey Applebloom. I got a question about fertilizers...”
“Oh no! I am not gonna reveal any Apple family secret to our plants! No way!” Applebloom made a “X” shape over her chest as she heard the first part of my question.
“No nonono! Nothing like that. I just wanted to know if you heard of this new fertilizer on the market.”
“Well, I wouldn’t do much help since my family makes our own, Cabbage. Plus, I don’t keep up with farming technology like my family does. All I do is plant and kick.” Applebloom said as she lowered her forehooves.
I looked over to Carrot about to ask her the same question, but before I got to asking her, she simply shook her head no.
“Kinda the same thing for me too, Cabby. My family could talk about their food and products, but never the material that makes them unique. I hope you understand.” Carrot said with a soft smile.
I sighed as my question about this new fertilizer went unanswered and I just went with the flow of the conversation as new questions and curiosities arose in my group. This continued all the way to our next class.
When I got home from school, I saw my dad hard at work in the cabbage fields. The grass-stained dirt is normally very brown with wetness to the earth, but this new soil gives it a pitch black tint to it. I walked over to my dad from the dirt road to see how the installation of the dirt is coming along.
“Daddy! I’m home!!” I shouted as I started to run into the cabbage field. I ran into a full gallop but immediately stopped. I looked down to the new dirt and stepped on it again to feel the earth. This dirt has a very soft touch to it. Almost fleshy soft like the skin and muscles of a pony. The dirt just felt smooth and malleable as I walked towards my father. I see my dad look at me and he has a shocked look on his face.
“Cabbage! Don’t step on the dirt! I just put it in and it hadn’t set yet. Get off Cabbage!” My father expressed in a deep country tongue with a angry face. I blushed a bit as I walked out of the dirt and onto the dirt road, subconsciously comparing the two feelings now that I have a moment.
“Sorry dad. I didn’t know.” I said as I started to walk to the house on the road. My father said something, but my mind was too focused on the sensations at the bottom of my hooves. The dirt road is a harder material that isn’t great for plant life, but the solid structure of it has similarities to a normal bed of plant dirt. The new fertilized dirt has a lubricated feel to it and it's the most comfortable on my hooves when I walked on it. The dirt road feels like I am walking across a crocodile's back for a softness comparison. The field didn’t feel sunken in, slushy, or slippery at all. The dirt is perfect.
But why does it feel...familiar
I pondered this question as I went to him and got myself cleaned up before looking for my chores for the remainder of today. Today is house chores, so I got the mop and started to clean my house's floors and hallway. I mopped the living room and the kitchen. I started to mop the hallway aimlessly because my mind was somewhere else. In my cleaning, I bumped my rump against the open closet door that I didn’t pay any attention to and saw the bag of fertilizer sitting on the closet floor opened. I held the mop in my hand as I looked at the bag curiously and started to move towards it to look at the label.
The bag has that snake eating its own tail logo I saw the first time looking at it earlier today and when I look closer the name of the fertilizer was also weird. I couldn’t properly sound it out, but the spelling is not in normal pony speak. The letters spelt out “Fohlenhaut” on the snake and the rest of the bag was a dark, earthy brown. The dim light of the isolated closet added to the limited visibility of the title as well. I looked back and forth in the hall to make sure my parents were not around. The coast is clear and I laid the mop against the wall as I took the bag of fertilizer into the much brighter hallway. I started to look at the materials in the dirt that made the ground feel so soft and velvety. I’m used to reading long syllabus and dictionaries, so I can decipher complicated nouns and adjectives much more than other fillies my age. I read over the directions line all the way down to the ingredients line and gave it a strong look. You got the basic ingredients like Potassium, Nitrogen, and chloride. The conditions to keep this in for best performance and various kinds of footnotes. I read down the ingredients in record time and I recognized most of them. So this fertilizer isn’t anything different to the one we normally buy.
“So why was dad so happy this morning..?” I asked no one as I put the fertilizer back in the closet and looked at it for a few more seconds as I went towards the bag again and dug my hoof inside of it. I felt the dirt against my hoof and curiously moved it deeper into the dirt. The more I did that, the more heat from the bag I felt, which is not natural. I have sunk my hoof down inside that my forearm has a better sense of touch to the bag’s contents. I was surprised by what I felt.
The dirt was warm and damp. Almost hot to the touch.
I took my arm out and took it to the light of the hallway. It was covered in a dark, reddish hue and the wetness was leaking down my arm. The color of the strange liquid is red like an apple and it was warm-nearly hot against my skin. I got scared and ran to the bathroom to clean myself up from the material. After my business was done, I went back to mopping.
As I continued to mop down the halls, I started to feel a bit queasy and feverish. I shook it off as it was a strange moment of weakness, but as I continued to mop all the way to the laundry room, the strange weakness only increased. I wiped my forehead to feel sweat, when I am doing the least taxing chore known to a pony. I started to feel very weak and tired all of a sudden. My head was spinning and the world around me warped in a distortion. A mirror room in a carnival is the only way to describe the weird visuals. The hallway turned into a strange twisted passage as my senses continued to spiral out of my control. My head was hurting and my tummy wasn’t feeling good. It all became too much and I fell on the floor. I looked up to see the twisting ceiling and I felt myself spinning, deeper and deeper, into an abyss of morphing reality before I became unconscious to the vertigo.
“Cabbage? Cabbage...Cabbage..?” I heard a voice that woke me from my earlier sleep.
“Huh? What?” I said as I got up off of the ground and rubbed my eyes. I take a look around to look at my surroundings and..
Its emptiness.
A deep, dark pitch of black as far as my eyes can see. I looked behind myself to only see the same deep blackness of this area. I looked down at my hoof to see it touching something, but there is no lines or texture to the blackness I am standing on. It was just… there, yet not there if that makes sense.
I started to get scared as I began to think that maybe I am not standing, but maybe falling? Or I could be somewhere that no bedtime story could ever make up. I started to think about the fertilizer I touched earlier before coming to this place, the red water coming from the damp earth, the velvety feel of the material that felt like skin, and the sickness I experienced when I left it alone. I begin to wonder what was in that dirt that made it so “special.” So dangerously special that it missed with my perception of reality. Could the dirt have been from the Everfree? The forest has ancient species that do incredible things but.. Side effects? Maybe I am thinking too much on things I don’t understand.
So what is this darkness?
I started to walk forward in the pitch black space. Not knowing if I am moving forward or backward in perspective. No sound of my hooves on a surface or feeling of moving ground.
“Anypony hear me!! I am here!!” I shouted as I started to truly grow scared as the dark area wasn’t changing with me moving. I stopped to look at nothing, hoping that some voice or being would answer me. I started to cry as I began to have dark thoughts. I don’t want to be alone anymore. I don’t want to be alone anymore. Over and over I think these thoughts as the darkness doesn’t change at all.
“You aren’t alone.” A familiar voice said to me from nowhere.
“Who's there?” I asked before a searing pain spread through my head as the continued to talk to me. I held my head tightly as the darkness without form felt thicker and the space grew claustrophobic to my senses.
“Cabbage… It's us Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.” The voices overlapped as they spoke.
“Wha..? Wh-what ar..” I said as the pain grew more intense and I gasped out loud. The head crushing pain becomes too much to handle.
“Listen. We want to say don't trust the dirt… Don’t get close to the dirt. Promise us you won’t.”
The voices aren’t making much sense to me as the sentence was beyond random. What does the dirt back in the house have to do with all of this weird stuff?
“We have to go now.” The voices said as I glanced up to look at nothing besides a strong light ripping through the darkness.
“Wait!!” I screamed as the light washed over me and the darkness disappeared.
I quickly sat up as the space disappeared and I took deep breaths.
“What..was that?” I asked no one as I looked around my surroundings and recognized my room. I looked at my little Princess Celestia clock and saw that the time is 8:34pm. I let out my last sigh of breath as I got out of my bed and began to walk towards the bedroom. After relieving myself, I decided to go downstairs and head to the barn. I wanted to see if my father was done with his chores or if he needs my help with last minute preparations. I wanted to also tell him about that dream I had too.
That dream is still at the forefront of my mind. I heard their voices Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in the dream for some reason and they told me to stay away from the fertilizer for some unexplained reason. I reached the front door and began to open it to go outside, but I didn’t go far as my mother stopped me from going any further.
“And where do you think you are going young lady?” My mom asked me with a worried look on her face.
“To see Daddy. I wanted to help him before he came back home.” I told my mom with a smile.
My mother’s next actions were weird. Instead of a look of pride, she had a look of fear. All the color was off of her face as soon as I mentioned helping my dad. I even felt the grip on her hoof get stronger as well.
“Your Daddy’s alright. Go to bed for tonight Cabbage.” My mom said very hastefully. I looked at my mom in confusion. Me not doing chores? That’s a first for her to ask.
“What? Mom don’t be silly. I want to pull my weight around here. Imma just gonna go help Dad. What’s the big deal?” I said as my innocent eyes looked into her pin needle ones. I grew a bit worried as she didn’t let go of my forearm.
“Cabbage. Please just listen to me: Go to bed and don’t worry about the barn ok?” Mom said hastily again.
“But mom-”
“DO WHAT I FUCKING SAY!” My mother yelled at me.
She yelled at me for the first time in my life.
I backed up away from her and I hit the door with my back, accidentally opening it further. I looked at my mom with tearful eyes as she cussed and yelled at me for the first time in my life. The mare who has been the angel in my eye has become a devil in just an instant. My sense of security wasn’t there anymore and I ran to the only place/person who is normal: My dad.
I turned tail and ran as hard as I could from my mom and towards the house as the reality of what she did set in. I can feel the wetness of the lawn as I made it to the fields.
Don’t touch the dirt
I stopped as I looked behind me to see my mom running after me like a bull on steroids. I had to think fast before she caught up to me. If I run through the field, then it would only take about a minute for me to reach my dad.
But..
I decided to run around the cabbage patch because I didn’t have any other options. I couldn’t get the voices of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle out of head as they kept saying no dirt this and that. I ran as fast as my small hooves could carry me to the barn, and in just 5 minutes I made it to the door.
“CABBAGE!! DON’T!!” I see my mom run as fast as she could towards me. I looked at the door and quickly opened it and went inside. I closed my eyes and ran aimlessly inside. I ran until I felt the familiar feeling of my father’s back and hugged him tightly.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Mommy yelled at me! Please make her stop!” I shouted as I felt something wet drip on my forehead and the warm back didn't move. I opened my eyes to see what was in front of me.
“Daddy..?” I said as I looked at what was above me.
Dangling on a hook in our barn was Applebloom and Carrot Juice’s bodies. The blood from their eyes and foreheads is leaking slowly.
“Applebloom...Carrot Juice…?” I wet myself as I saw my two friends hooked like a bay of hay. I backed up into my mom, who now had a crazed look on her face as she gave me a sadistic smile.
“Oh dear… Looks like another naughty filly got curious and has seen our secret. What should we do about our daughter dear?” My mom said as my Daddy slowly turned around.
I saw that he was loading something in a wood chipper. His hooves covered in more of that red liquid, but one detail stood out that made me gag. A lone white horn and orange feathers are scattered around his shank. I looked up at my dad in fear as the mulching machine roared to life and the sound of scrapping metals became the noise of the barn.
“We’ll have to discipline her permanently. There has been missing filly reports ever since I took the first two crusaders, our daughter won’t be any different. We can just sob story our way out of it.” My father said cruelly as he gave off a loud laugh as he approached me. All strength left my hooves as I felt him and my mother grab me and the machine ever growing bigger..