Autumn: Next Generation

by Hazel_Hester777

Falling Down

Autumn was roaming a forest happily. She was always one to love Mother Nature. Afterall, she was named after a season of the year. She was making flower wreaths and playing in the flower field when she saw something new up ahead. It looked like an old building. Curious, she ran up to see what was in it.

The inside was run down. There were broken glass and plates everywhere. Plants climbed inside, as though trying to regain the land that was taken from it. She found a picture, but it looked rather weird. It was a picture of the Mane Six from the My Little pony show her mother made. She shrugged it off as she went up.

The upper part of the house just looked the same. There was also a hallway that was opened up to the outside. There were broken beds and doors that led to the other rooms.

Autumn was about to leave since she thought it was just her imagination when she something out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head to the direction, she saw something that shocked her. There, by the open window, standing in broad daylight, was a familiar silhouette of a pony.

She thought she was just imagining it. But then, the pony spoke a familiar tone as she tilted her head to the side.

“Lauren?”

That was enough to make her run for it. She made her way down the stairway when she saw two other figures peeking from the walls. She couldn’t catch a glimpse of who they were because by the time they realized she saw them, they hid again. The only clues: one was yellow while the other was pink.

She looked up when she heard something coming from upstairs. They sounded like the claps made from a horse’s hooves. When she looked back at the hallway again, three other figures had hidden themselves.

Autumn ran for her life. But since she ran too fast, she accidentally tripped on a plank and it made her fall, face-forward, into a wall, knocking her out unconscious.

---

Autumn woke up with a jolt when she felt a strange, wet thing in her ear. There was a tiny scream beside her before a small thud sounded off. She looked to her side to see a small filly jumped and scurried back into the walls for darkness. Several other pairs of eyes were visible and looking straight at her.

She looked down to see that she was now tied up in a chair. She saw a shadow right above her.

“Struggling is pointless” a voice rang out from above.

She looked up ahead to see a silhouette of a mare looking straight at her, hiding behind a pillar. She had icy blue eyes from what she could tell. She held a dagger close by for protection.

“I know why you’re here, and I’m not afraid of you” she spoke again after going down, but not leaving the safety of the shadows.

Autumn could tell she was actually afraid, but hiding it. She furrowed an eyebrow. The young mare then went infront of her, and out of the shadows. Now she got a good luck at what she looked like. The mare looked just like the Snowdrop from her mother’s stories. She couldn’t see the cutie mark from how she wore a brown dress. She wore a crown that resembled the Alicorn Amulet, but its gemstone was blue.

“Who are you, and how did you find me?” she sternly asked.

Autumn gaped at the young being. How was this possible? She was just a story, wasn’t she?

“Who are you, and how did you find me?” she asked again, her dagger pointed dangerously.

Autumn cleared her throat. “I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but let me say…” she then smiled. “Hello there, nice to meet you”

The mare seemed confused.

“My name’s Autumn, Autumn Faust”

The mare seemed surprised at that. “Autumn Faust? THE Autumn Faust?”

“Um…”

---

Autumn suddenly found herself on a hill top. From the position of the sun, it was sunset. Compared to their other sceneries she saw, this was practically the most calm. She looked up ahead and saw a face. It was a bit of time before she realized who it was.

“Hazel?”

It was definitely Hazel, alright. She looked a little older now and slightly taller. She looked somewhat tired from the eye bags on her. She didn’t have Hester with her, which was somewhat strange.

“You look just like your mother” she gave a warm smile.

Autumn smiled when she heard it. Hazel, Hester, and her mother Lauren were very close from what she could tell. Even thought this was just all a dream, it was nice to have a serene voice in the midst of fear. She was surely safe around her.

Both just stared at each silently, looking on to see what each would do.

“Come with me, Sweetheart, are you’ll be the new Queen that will rule us all” she offered her hand.

Autumn smiled when she heard that. This was practically what would end these nightmares. At last, some peace. She reached out for the girl’s hand, before getting an electric shock. She couldn’t pull away as she was soon surrounded by the darkness around her. The last thing she saw was the demented grin of the girl she shook hands with.

“If we’re really friends, you would’ve believed, Dervila”

---

“I’m tired, I didn’t sleep well last night” Autumn told her father. They were in a bus on the way to a campsite. Craig couldn’t help but notice she was not acting like herself today.

“Were you having bad dreams again?” he asked her with concern.

“Only one, but it’s always the same one. It keeps happening over and over. Is that normal?”

Craig sighed before taking out a small box from his pocket. It held something so dear to him that he kept it with him wherever he went. It was a way for him to ‘carry his wife with him’. Now, he had to pass it onto his daughter, and hope she would treasure it as much as he does. He took out the small necklace inside that Lauren wore. He then put it on Autumn.

“You’re fine, Autumn” he assured with a kind smile. “Now can you give me a smile?”

She did so, even though it was just faint.

It had been eight years since the incident of Lauren’s death. In that time span, Autumn had grown up with PTSD from the sorrow of losing her mother and the rage of who killed her. Lauren’s death was ruled as a murder. The murder weapon was a knife, but it had no fingerprints on it. Whoever the killer was used gloves to avoid getting caught and was currently unknown.

Autumn was never the same way after the whole incident, and Craig was also having a hard time adjusting. She was distant from her friends and somewhat antisocial. She mostly thought about her mother. At night, when asleep, she had dreams that made her think she was weird and going crazy. They involved the characters from her mother’s stories about a place called Wonderland. She had learned to grow out of it by convincing herself that it doesn’t exist and it was just a kid’s story. The dreams however, kept returning every night. They even felt real.

Craig had mourned for Lauren’s death for a long time. He soon had to find ways to help his daughter improve and help her with her social skills again. It was really concerning to see she was now numb to what made her feel so alive. He believed that Wonderland existed, and sometimes tried to show Autumn it does. She didn’t want to hear it.

Right now, it was summer break and he was taking Autumn out for a field trip. He hoped it would help her by getting in touch with nature. He decided to choose a site that they hadn’t gone to yet when Lauren was alive so she won’t be so bombarded by memories. They were going to be at the hotel assigned and a tour guide was going to show them, and several other people, around the facilities.

So far, things seemed pretty ordinary when they were shown around. Yet, Autumn couldn’t help but feel as though she were watched.

“You know, the gardens were supposed to have red roses, but they gave us the white ones” the tour guide spoke when she saw the flowers.

“They could always paint the roses red” Autumn whispered to her father.

Craig chuckled at that. “Oh, your mother would’ve loved to hear that”

Autumn smiled as she looked back at the roses. She then suddenly saw something run in the bushes at a rapid pace. She couldn’t see what it was, but its color looked lavender.

“Dad, did you see that?” she asked.

“See what?”

“Something purple was there”

“Purple?”

“Yeah”

“And over here we have the petting zoo” the tour guide spoke as she showed them the enclosure filled with several animals. There were rabbits, Guinea pigs, iguanas, sheep, goats, and more domestic animals.

“I wonder if they have horses here” Craig wondered.

“Don’t make me ride on it”

From the enclosure of where the sheep were, a blur of violet was seen before hiding again.

“There! Did you see it that time?” Autumn pointed to where it had gone.

“See what?”

“A blur of purple!”

“No need to shout. I can hear you, I’m not deaf. And no, I couldn’t see it” he apologized.

She nodded. “It’s alright”

For the rest of the day, it just consisted of sightseeing and close encounters with the attractions. Autumn smiled faintly every now and then but she wasn’t able to feel so much life. It saddened Craig to see how she was. The next day, they were taken to a small enclosure filled with some animals that were set free for roaming. It was like a mini-forest. The tour guide soon got to the center of the area, where an attraction was put.

It looked like a small house. There was a box inside with a pile of paper and stash of pens beside it.

“Here is one of our forest’s attractions. Here, we write our resolutions on a paper and drop them into this box over here. It’s a way for us to signify we intend to keep our resolutions. But we have to say our out loud each before they are dropped in. It must come from the heart. I’ll go first, as always”

She then took a slick of paper and a pen and wrote hers down before turning back to the rest of the group. “I resolve to be a great guide and assure that all I’m assigned to have the time of their lives” she then put her paper down into the box.

Autumn and Craig had gone into the line with the others. They listened to each resolution go by. She heard them all and reflected on them. Some were normal and average, but others were somewhat extraordinary. Some of them had also gone through the death of a family member and others were making promises for who were there. What would she have to resolve?

“I resolve to help my daughter grow up strong and beautiful in thought, word, and deed, just as how my wife would’ve wanted it” Craig spoke up before putting his paper in.

Finally, it was Autumn’s turn. What would she resolve for? She couldn’t promise she’d improve anytime sooner with her social life. But her mother would’ve wanted that…and something else that seemed impossible. But that worried her: Her mother believed in something impossible and died because of it. Yet, it was the only thing she had to tie her to her.

She looked at the crowd with her blank paper. “I think I…”

The others looked at her to see what she had to say.

“I think…”

Her father looked at her, expecting her words.

“I…”

She looked at the farthest corner and saw a shadow looking at her. They pulled out a clock from their dress and were pointing at it.

“I…I need a moment” she then bolted off from the group after pocketing the paper. They all stared at her as she left. Craig was watching as well, but he had a feeling about what was going on.

Autumn ran as fast as her legs could carry her to catch up with the lavender figure infront of her. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the figure was wearing a black dress. They seemed to have been gaining an upper advantage of being ahead of her because they soon revealed they had wings and took to the air. They didn’t fly so high so Autumn could still see them.

As she ran, she noticed they looked more and more familiar to her. It couldn’t have been HER, could it? She soon reached some area far from the tour areas. It was an old tree with several carvings all over it. Under it was a hole. The figure dived down and went in.

Autumn was cautious about it at first, but she had to know what was going on. Her curiosity overcame her caution and she looked inside. One hand supported where she stood while the other held onto the truck. She looked inside to see where it headed, but her hand slipped off the trunk and she fell in.

She screamed as she fell inside. The whole place was lit with candles and chandeliers that were seemingly stuck to the walls. Furniture also stuck on the walls. She was scared about where she was going to land, but it was soon answered when she landed onto a mattress at the bottom with a pomf.

She took a few moments to calm down and catch her breath before she looked around to see where she was. It was fine that she was alive, but the setting of where she was concerned her.

She was in a hallway surrounded by surrounded by several doors. She then got up from the floor and tried to tug on the doors. She tried to open every door but they wouldn’t budge. She was beginning to give up when she found that she couldn’t open any of them. Panic began to rise in her, how could she get out?

Her fears of being kidnapped were put to ease when she noticed a small key on a table nearby. She took it and began to fiddle it with every door. She tried it on the last one: a very small door. It had a symbol on the front, a red bottle of ink and a quill, beside a crown, though it looked rather worn down.

She tried it, and it opened. But when she attempted go through it, she couldn’t fit. No surprise there, you’d have to be the size of a doll to pass. She pulled back as the door closed. She was trapped and possible kidnapped, and the only way out was where she couldn’t fit.

Her gaze averted back to the table, which now had a small bottle on it. How did that get there? She tentatively approached. The bottle was filled with a purple liquid. The cap looked like a snowdrop flower, and the bottle was a sunset orange. The tag on it read only two things, “DRINK ME’. She uncapped it and smelled it. It was a bad scent, but she shrugged.

“It’s only a dream” she mused.

She drank a few gulps from it, letting out a cough right after due to its taste. She could guess it was a bit old. As she put it back on the table, she suddenly began to shrink. It was even weirder that her clothes also shrank along with her. She hurried to the door, but she forgot that it was locked again and she left the key on the table. She tried climbing, but the rails were too slippery.

From the other side of the door, several voices spoke in whispers to one another.

You’d say she’s remember this from when Mother told her about it

You brought the wrong Autumn

She’s the right Autumn, I’m certain of it.

She suddenly found a small box. Curious, she opened the box and it showed that it had a small cake inside. Its main color was lavender and there was a candy shaped like a snowdrop flower. Two words were written by the sunset-colored icing on top, ‘EAT ME’.

Knowing she had no choice, she took a nibble from the small piece, she had to admit it was rather sweet. But it was a little too sweet. When she looked around, she found out that it somehow made it grow enormous. She was big, in fact, that she was stuck in the hallway.

She’s the wrong Autumn! One voice groaned.

Give her a chance.

Autumn then looked down and took the key from the table. She then drank the potion in the bottle again, letting out several coughs. It was even worse in the second time. She then began to shrink again and hurried over to the door with the key. She then used the key on the door, and it opened for her.

She looked around her surroundings as she walked around. She descended from a small staircase of rock and saw what was inside. It was a garden that was once beautiful and well-kept, but now it was overgrowing and going off in all directions. The plants ran about everywhere even on the decorations to reclaim what was once taken from them. She followed an old, stone path and walked through what could be the main entrance.

She saw a few creatures ran about on their own. They were too far for her too see, but she could tell they weren’t normal. Then again, if this place was where she thought it was, nothing is going to be normal here.

As she reverted her attention back to the front of her view, she saw several faces that confirmed her suspicions.

They were faces she knew all too well.