Caramel
If Caramel never had to see another apple again in his life, it would be too soon. Everyday he worked at Sweet Apple Acres his distaste for the red fruit only grew stronger, the only reason he still worked at the godforsaken place was because he didn't mind looking at the apples on Applejack's flank. Caramel was far away from that flank at the moment, off helping Mac fix a fencepost on the Southern edge of Sweet Apple Acres where the farm met the Everfree Forest. Caramel closed his eyes and shook his head as he thought about it; he hated working over by the Everfree forest. While Celestia's sun was shining bright over Equestria a blizzard had formed over the Everfree, and brought with it a cold wind that swept over Sweet Apple Acres.
"Hey Mac! Do you think we could call it early today?" the shivering farmhand called, already knowing the answer, "We're already pretty far ahead of schedule."
"Eenope," replied Mac in his sickeningly slow drawl, "We can get half of tomorrow's work done before sundown if we hurry, I reckon."
Typical, thought Caramel, I don't even think he's noticed the cold.
Caramel sat back on his haunches as he waited for more orders from Big Mac. It had become similar to clockwork by this point, the Apple family would set out a list of chores that would need to be done within a day and the work would be divided accordingly. Granny Smith would be in charge of whatever work needed to be done around the house. Applebloom would get all of the little chores that she could get done after getting home from school, tasks she couldn't possibly mess up even with her friends help. Applebloom still managed to make mistakes though, with her friends Sweetie Belle and... the orange one. That might be their special talents actually, breaking things. Applejack would be in charge of any sales or financing that would need to take place, and would also buck trees when she wasn't off with her friends saving Equestria. Sadly, Equestria needed saving quite often, as it was a ridiculously dangerous place apparently.
Caramel scowled and scuffed one of his forehooves in the dirt, this would leave Mac and Caramel with the brunt of the farm's heavy labor. The problem with this for Caramel was that he wasn't nearly as strong as the large draft horse, and therefore spent a fair share of his day simply fetching tools and making simple repairs just so Mac could do his job without having to run off to do small errands. Half the time, Caramel wound up fetching the wrong tools or simply putting a quick fix on things that wouldn't hold in the long run. Caramel knew this made Mac angry. Mac wanted to work as slowly as possible, always making sure everything was done right the first time. Which didn't happen if Mac had to constantly wait for Caramel to fetch the right tools or if Mac had to stop his work and make sure that Caramel didn't cut any corners on repairs.
That was Caramel's problem with Mac, everything had to last forever with him. A fallen fence post couldn't just be lifted up and pushed back into its little hole in the ground with Mac. Oh no, it had to be taken out and inspected first to see if the wood was in good condition. If the wood was deemed suitable then it fine, Mac would dig a new hole in the ground for it and put it back in. If the wood wasn't up to Mac's standards? Then holy buck, time to start a whole damn carpentry project. It wasn't as if Caramel hated spending an hour or so running back and forth between the tool sheds and the fence fetching carpentry tools, or when he would help Mac cut wood to make a new post every time the damn fence broke, it's just that Mac was awful company the whole time. Caramel was sure that the life-long farmer only learned how to speak just so he could scold farmhands and tell them off when they mucked things up. Mac never spoke more then a few words or so unless he was telling Caramel what to do.
"Hey Caramel, for the third time stop daydreaming and go grab me some two by fours," Mac commanded, pulling the hired help out of his revelry, "There's some spares in the Southern orchard's shed."
"Yeah okay," the farmhand took a second to think about how to get to the Southern shed on the shortest possible path, "The two by fours are on the bottom rack right?"
"Eeyup," was Mac's only reply.
Caramel turned and began to walk down towards the Southern shed, keeping the Everfree to his left the whole way. As the wind from the forest swept across his frame, Caramel thought about the menacing Forest that he had heard tales about as a foal. How manticores from the forest would swoop into town and gobble up stallions and steal away mares for their own pleasure. How Hydras would decorate their homes with the bones of ponies. How if he didn't eat his bucking vegetables like a good little foal, two legged beasts would break into his house and eat Caramel's whole family. How the same beasts enslaved ancient Earth Ponies and forced them to carry the beasts upon their backs.
Caramel had told that unicorn musician Lyra about the last story; turns out she didn't find it half as interesting as he thought she would've. He had heard that she had received a mythology degree at some fancy Canterlot University, and he had thought that talking about some old ponies tale might be a good way to strike up a conversation with her at Pinkie Pie's last party. In a shocking turn of events, it turned out that Lyra didn't give a single magical buck about the creatures and she was tired of everyone bringing them up around her. Maybe it just went to show that just because a mare sat funny didn't mean she was into weird things.
That was beside the point though, what Caramel thought about now was the fact that nobody seemed to give a buck about how dangerous the forest was anymore. Ever since the Elements of Harmony went into the forest and didn't get instantly murdered, everyone and their mother seemed to be taking their vacations in the forest. Caramel preferred it back when it was only monsters and that creepy zebra spent time in the forest, it made life simpler. Now Caramel didn't have a problem with Zecora, he didn't have a problem with any mare that had nice eyes in the front and a flank in the back. Maybe if she didn't speak so weird and live in the middle of Ponyville's local forest of death he would've tried making a move. Now might not be the best time in all honesty, he kind of had a thing going on with Bon Bon, he didn't think she'd be okay with that kind of thing.
Damn it.
His thoughts continued to drift to the mares in town and their respective flanks as he walked. It was a pleasant distraction from the cold. Now that he thought about it, Caramel was definitely a flank-stallion. Sure, some stallions went for wingspan or horn length; Pokey Pierce loved forelegs now that he thought about it. Regardless, Caramel loved flanks, and there was nothing anypony could do to change that. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted, he heard three screams coming from the edge of the forest. Caramel jumped a little when the Cutie Mark Crusaders ran out of the foliage.
"Help! Help!" Applebloom screamed as she sprinted towards Caramel. The three fillies, none of whom were wearing any winter clothing, all gathered around Caramel and began shouting at the cold and weary stallion.
"Now calm down girls," Caramel speaking down at the foals with a higher-than-average volume, "Applebloom, you tell me what just happened to you three."
"There's monsters in the forest!" yelled Applebloom the moment Caramel finished speaking.
Monsters in the Everfree? Caramel closed his eyes and shook his head with slight annoyance, No shit.
"There was a bunch of big scary monsters in there! Go do something!" shouted the little orange one; Caramel could never actually remember her name.
"Nuh-uh Scootaloo," Sweetie Belle chimed in, "there was only one!'
"How would you know? You didn't look! You were too busy running away! What if a whole bunch came out while you weren't looking?" the little pegasus chimed in.
"Okay calm down you three," Caramel started before Sweetie Belle could chime in, "I'll go check on the big scary monsters, you three go put on something warm and head over to your clubhouse."
"But Caramel!" whined Applebloom whilst putting on her best show of pouting, "Shouldn't we get help? Like the town guards?"
"Rainbow Dash?" suggested the little pegasus.
"Fetlock Holmes?" squeaked Sweetie Belle.
"The Royal Guards?" Applebloom said.
The Crusaders then all turned to one another before they looked at Caramel in unison.
"Princess Cel-"
"Rainbow Dash?" the pegasus filly suggested again. Applebloom facehoofed.
"Scootaloo, y'already said that," Applebloom put a forehoof on her friend's side.
"Scoots, about Rainbow Dash, me and Sweetie have been talking," Applebloom glanced over to her unicorn friend.
Sweetie Belle let out a deep sigh and averted her eyes from her friend, "You have an addiction Scootaloo. We want to help you, but you need to want to help yourself first." Applebloom then drew Scootaloo's attention once more to speak.
"An' we know this because the movies said so."
Scootaloo merely looked between her two friends and smiled, "Eh, I don't really see what's wrong with it," and with that Scootaloo's friends just looked at each other and shrugged, accepting the Rainbow Dash fan-filly's response.
Seriously?
"Fine, go get help," Caramel let out, interrupting the Crusader's intervention before it began again, "Go get Big Macintosh, and I'll check up on these 'monsters'."
"Okay Caramel," replied Applebloom, "While you go scout for the big scary monsters, we'll go get Big Mac just in case somepony needs to fight 'em off! Girls, y'all know what this means?"
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MESSENGERS! YAY!"
Caramel closed his eyes and shook his head once more as he watched the three run off to find Big Mac instead of go do quite literally anything else.
Damn it, thought Caramel, Now I actually have to go do something about this.
As much as he wanted to just ignore the Cutie Mark Crusaders' words, Caramel knew that if he didn't at least humor them and venture a suitable distance into the forest, he would be chewed out by Mac for not taking the threat of monsters seriously.
Cursing his luck, Caramel climbed over the fence and took his first steps into the forest he had heard so much about as a foal, he focused his thoughts to his surroundings as the trees above swallowed up the sunlight around him. The wind seemed to get stronger as he stepped into the forest, they whipped around his face forcing him to narrow his eyes and lean his head forward. Caramel darted his eyes from side to side as he hastily scanned the brush around him, looking for whatever these so called "big scary monsters" may be. Caramel noted a distinct lack of animals in the area of his immediate surroundings.
I probably should've asked what the monster looked like, Caramel thought as he crept deeper into the forest, Just remember the facts Caramel, monsters mostly come out at night.
Mostly.
After going what he judged to be far enough into the forest Caramel began to turn around slowly, making sure to stay alert lest he be swooped up and turned into decorations for some forest dweller's home. As the young stallion began to make his way back, he heard a slight noise coming from behind the nearby bushes, just loud enough to be heard over the wind. Caramel hesitated.
It’s probably nothing, Caramel reassured himself, just some squirrels or something running around.
Caramel began to make his way towards the source of the noise, taking care to focus on his steps and avoid making noise and drawing the attention of any predator that may be skulking about in the blind spots of his notice. Caramel shivered slightly and maneuvered himself around the edge of a gnarled tree to get a better view of the source of the noise.
As he peered out around his cover, Caramel saw the culprit, a small brown rabbit that had gotten its foot caught in between some roots in the ground. It struggled to remove itself from its trappings with an obvious sense of panic.
Caramel sighed as he noticed the small creature and began to walk over to the trapped animal. When he got within a forelegs length of the rabbit, he closed his eyes and shook his head at his own apprehension.
"Seriously?" Caramel said to the rabbit, "You live your whole life in this forest and you can't avoid getting stuck?"
After rubbing his hooves together for warmth, Caramel moved a sharp rock just out of the way as he tried to pull one of the twisted roots up enough to free the rabbit. After several attempts, he found that the roots clung firmly to the ground. Caramel then grabbed the root hard with both hooves and pulled harder as the rabbit continued to writhe and squeak in terror.
"Calm down, I'm trying to help you out here," Caramel shivered again as the cold winds grew stronger.
Caramel closed his eyes and shook his head at the rabbit. As he did this, he felt a splatter of warm liquid on his face, a sharp contrast from the biting cold.
"Did you just spit on me you bucking animal!" Caramel shouted wiping his face dry, "Stupid bucking rabbit!"
When Caramel opened his eyes though, he was not met with the frightened rabbit's squeaks and panic. Instead, he saw it convulsing and writhing as it's blood poured out of its neck and onto his hooves and the roots that held it in place. As he moved his eyes upward, he saw the rabbit's face was merely staring at him blankly through dull eyes as its body twitched around a new protrusion that had entered its neck.
Caramel lifted his eyes as he followed the length of the blade that had taken the rabbits life. The weapon was long and white, and a visible layer of frosted air billowed off it as if it was made of some sort of cursed ice. The twisted appendage that held the blade was cracked and frozen, more resembling some sort of five legged spider attached to a foreleg than a hoof. It didn't have forelegs though; it stood on only two legs. Its arm was nearly hairless, with the small amount of fur on its arm tipped in sharp white frost. Its body was bare save a frozen tattered cloth covering its loins and the frost that spread around its body like some sort of frozen moss on a dying tree. Its chest stood still, as if it needed no air to sustain itself. Its head was narrow and ugly, topped with a small mop of white fur that blew around in the frigid wind.The worst was its face though, small, round, and tipped by a sharp nose, striking into Caramel's very soul with its cold, blue eyes.
Caramel's breath hitched, this was it. This was one of the old beasts of legend that was used to scare foals before they went to sleep at night.
This was the end of his life.
Caramel whimpered weakly as the beast drew its blade from the dead animal slowly. Its movements were slow but deliberate, as if it were merely going about the inevitable, making sure to do its killing right and clean. Caramel felt a chill crawl down his spine as what appeared to be a smile cracked across the creature's face. The beast laughed a sharp lifeless laugh as it turned and stalked away slowly, ice sprouting upon the ground like white crystalline flowers where it walked.
The beast never once turned back to look upon its earlier kill, nor at the pony it had left behind.
The cold winds began to recede as Caramel sat and shook on the ground for what felt like a lifetime. Once he began to regain feeling throughout his body, he began to splatter the ground around himself with the contents of his stomach. He shuddered violently with each heave, but he didn't question why the beast had left him there alive.
After Caramel had emptied himself upon the ground, he tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened. He had just encountered an old mare's tale long thought to be nonexistent, a cruel evil monster that enslaved ponies. He had witnessed the murder of a rabbit as he had been trying to help it. Yet though the monster had plenty of opportunities to take his life, Caramel had lived.
Thank the sun! I won't complain about Big Mac anymore! I'll visit my parents more often! I'll donate bits to the filly scouts! Just don't make me have to see that... that thing ever again. Caramel thanked the old spirit of the sun for his fortune.
Caramel heard shouting in the distance and his heart warmed; the Crusaders must have gotten help.
Caramel began to rise to his hooves, his breaths shuddering the whole time. His mouth still burned with the putrid taste of vomit, and his legs shrieked in protest as he tried to flex life back into them. As he rose, his hindlegs gave out beneath him, still reeling from shock.
Caramel lifted his head and tried to shout, but instead wound up dry heaving as his empty stomach still tried to make him vomit.
Damn it, I can't talk.
As he opened his mouth to try and call out for help again, he felt a sharp pain bite into his neck, and his cries came gurgling out of his mouth in a flow of coppery liquid. Caramel couldn't understand what was happening. He collapsed onto his back and looked down at himself, trying to see what was happening.
Standing atop his chest and consuming his vision he saw was the mangled rabbit from earlier, blood still pulsing out slowly from the gaping hole in its neck. The rabbit's head dangled from it's shoulders as there was too little left of it's neck to support its weight. The rabbit began drawing its arm back from his neck, it carried a sharp rock coated in Caramel's blood. Caramel hardly noticed the rock that was drawing his life out of his neck though, and the distant shouting became a white noise in the back of his mind.
All Caramel could focus on as he drew his last, wet choking breaths was the cold blue eyes of the rabbit that had risen from the dead before him.
Then everything went cold.