> Annie Mae
>  by A. Tuesday
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Dinner-time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annie Mae
Written by the_scarlet_mare-a-thonner

The metal grinds into her coat as she pushes her arms as far forward as they could go. All of her muscles, focused on one idea – breaking the chain from the ground. Seriously now – it was only dirt, wasn’t it? It’d give way, eventually.
“You can try all you wants, missy,” says the gray colt rocking unsteadily on his wooden porch, not too far from her location, “But that chain right there is attached to the ground by magic – ain’t no way ya getting outta that one by breakin’ outta it.”
Colgate huffs, and lowers her arms. It probably wasn’t any use to try with her legs, either. Another set of chains begins to rattle insanely next to her. The blue unicorn looks to her companion, also shackled to the ground, who is shaking the chains wildly.
“No!” screams Berry Punch, “No – no – no!”
“Berry, we aren’t getting out of this by hyperventilating about it,” retorts Colgate matter-of-factly.
With eyes of pure fury, Punch looks to her closest friend. “Shut the buck up, ‘Gate! Nopony needs to hear your smartass remarks! ESPECIALLY not now.”
“I’m being completely serious. Breathing like that won’t get us out of this.”
“NOTHING WILL!”
The old coot on the porch simply laughs. “Oh, y’all are givin’ me a laugh! Ho daddy – I might even cry a little bit when Tabitha comes to dinner. I ain’t never seen two ponies argue so much – better than my stories on the radio!”
Colgate shakes her head. How did it come to this, again?
She looks down to the bubbling Froggy Bottom Bog, and even at this hour of night you could easily see that it was a murky brown, teeming with life. Good and bad. ‘Gate always semi-enjoyed nature, but if she ever gets out of this, she’s never going anywhere near the forest. Ever.
“You know,” says the hillbilly, “It ain’t usually like Annie Mae to keep me waitin’ this long – she usually comes right to dinner. ‘Specially when I have it fresh.”
“What in Celestia’s name is wrong with you, you old colt?” asks Berry derisively, “Chaining up random ponies so – chaining up any ponies to the ground so they can be – they can be – eaten?” She ends this with a question, in part due to continuing the statement, but also because she doesn’t know what exactly is going to be eating. She could think of many different animals that would love to have a pony for dinner – which one was it going to be, though?
While Berry contemplates her death, Colgate tries to think of a way out of being eaten alive. Think, think. Straining against the chain is no use, these things are magically bonded – MAGICALLY bonded – 
Of course! The answer was so simple. 
Colgate squeezes her eyes shut, and concentrates on the chain. The tip of her horn begins to glow, and the unicorn can feel the chains loosening up.
“…blue ‘un over there….free-range…”
She tries not to think about what the coot behind all of this is saying. She needs to get this undone, and then matters can be handled. He was weak – Colgate could almost certainly take him on, then –
Pain shoots through her face as something rams against her cheek. Concentration broke, and the feeling seems to pulsate in that area. What the hell - ?
Cringing at the pain, she looks up just in time to see a massive, burly stallion, who seems to be the old coot’s relative of some sort, probably his son, stomp his hoof into her face.
The pain is immense and is felt quickly. Tears come to ‘Gate’s eyes as she feels the full effect of the stomp. Something trickles down her smashed, broken nose. The unicorn didn’t even have to look to know it was blood.
“No!” yelled Berry Punch from behind the brute, “Don’t you do that!”
With eyes still squeezed shut, Colgate hears the hillbilly say, “Eh, Samson? Shut that purple one up, too, why don’t ya.”
The brute turns and Colgate can hear the thump of the brute’s hoof hitting Punch’s face. Colgate’s companion screams out in horrible pain.
Using this as a distraction, Colgates focuses her magic on the brute. She can’t do much, the pain is too great to concentrate – but she gets just enough in to watch the brute tip and fall over, unexpectedly.
Yes! Now that the threat’s out of the way, she might actually be able to do something with the chains. That old coot wasn’t going to be much of a threat – she had known that by the way he just sat and rocked on the chair, and didn’t actually do any physical work. He is frail; Colgate knows it.
As Berry Punch sobs to herself to the side, the brute begins to shake off the falling, and the hillbilly yells, “Get up! She’s usin’ her magic again! Break off her horn!”, Colgate feels the shackles loosening.
With a pop!, the back right shackle exits the ground and falls to the ground with a soft thump. Yes! 1 down, 3 to go. Berry lets out another sob as another shackle, the one for Colgate’s front left hoof, comes undone. Halfway there.
Pressure forms on her horn, and it isn’t from the magic. The unicorn is too scared to look, but as she opens her eyes slightly, the pressure turns to straight pain and intensifies. The large brute, Samson, pushes down her horn with his hoof. He smiles as he puts more weight on it.
“Arrggh!” grunts Colgate. The pain is unbearable. There’s no way she could do any magic, or even think under these circumstances. He was literally going to break her horn off. Somewhere, in the far-off distance, the old coot laughed. 
“NO! STOP!” exclaims Berry, “LET HER GO! DON’T DO THIS!”
The creaks from the rocking chair get fainter and fainter as the hillbilly laughs again. “Like I said before, better than mah stories!”
Colgate, in blind anger and haste, kicks out with her free hooves in general directions. One of them hits their mark – she feels her back hoof kick the brute with a good amount of force.
Bad idea. In pain, wincing, Samson leans more, putting a ton of weight on his hoof, and Colgate’s horn.
“ARRGGH!” screams Colgate. She could feel the fibers of her horn bending and threatening to snap now. He really meant it. He was going to break off her horn. Blackness began to envelope her as a crack! is heard, letting everypony and everything around know the inside of her horn had officially broken.
Suddenly, a deep rumble from the bog sounds. The bog makes enogh noises as is, but this one – it’s not natural, per se.
Pressure retreats from Colgate’s horn, and the pain lessens only a bit. Still wincing, she opens her eyes to see the brute has stopped and is now fully looking towards the bog. Everything in the general area of the ramshackle cabin has ceased movement, just staring into the heart of Froggy Bottom Bog.
The rumble gets louder, turns into growling. Bubbles appear on the surface.
The old coot chuckles. “Samson! Git up on the porch! Annie Mae’s finally heard the dinner bell, and ya wouldn’ wanna be a part o’ the pickins she’s divin’ into tonight, would ya?” 
Colgate had been feeling a bit of nervousness, but mostly annoyance throughout this entire night. She had had a feeling something wasn’t going to go right tonight in the Bog – but no, Berry Punch continued to pressure ‘Gate into going out here. It was for her own good, Berry had said. So much for listening to her.
Colgate didn’t fear the coot, even when she awoke to find herself magically chained to the ground, to be fed to some unknown being the old coot continuously dubbed as Annie Mae. She figured he was insane or something. 
And, she and Berry were supposed to meet up with Cheerilee once they were done in the Bog. Cheerilee would’ve sensed something was wrong and came to find them.
But she hasn’t. Not yet. 
Colgate, who usually was calm in these kind of situations, feels fear for the first time as the shape begins to emerge from the water.
A snake – no, two snakes – three? – no, four snake-like heads travel out of the water as if led by a charmer, all attached to one arm-less body with two massive legs. A hydra appears out of the bog, and stands, looking every which way, each head flashing their forked tongues in different ways.
All four head roared simultaneously into the night.
Colgate shrieks, surprising herself.
Berry attempts to shriek, but just can’t. She’s too hoarse, and there’s nothing to describe this.
The hillbilly cackles harshly. “Well, well, well – seems Annie Mae brightened up a bit.” Yelling out, “Hey, Annie! I gots din-din fer ya!”
The hydra heads look down, and spot the two ponies. One flicks out its tongue, and Colgate associates it with licking its lips.
The mare begins to struggle fruitlessly with the chains. The headaches, broken nose, and broken horn aren’t helping. She tries to use magic – but that only causes excruciating pain to her horn, unbearable to even the toughest of ponies. No magic here.
Colgate continues shaking wildly, as Berry Punch remains motionless, petrified in fear. Taking notice of her earth pony companion, she shouts, “Berry! Try shaking out!”
‘Gate is met with no other response than the heckling of the old coot. The hydra steps forward, his two steps creating almost an earthquake at its footprint.
It unleashes a horrible roar, loud enough to probably wake somepony up in Canterlot, and shoots its heads towards the ground.
Colgate, seeing the impending danger, shakes wildly in her chains, and the end head of the hydra crashes into the ground where Colgate’s body was only moments ago. She looks over to Berry, just in time to see her motionless body be impaled by the hydra’s head.
Colgate watches in horror as the hydra’s bloody head retreats and another one begins to pull Berry into the halves started by the first. It succeeds, eating Berry’s lower half while the upper half is still alive. The original finishes her off, diving in and crashing into Gate’s friend’s body, then taking her into its mouth, swallowing her whole.
Colgate turns and vomits on the ground. Tears can’t even form at this point, only vomit. 
A searing pain cuts through her back as another hydra head makes a second attempt at Colgate, just grazing her. The unicorn doesn’t even have the energy to cringe anymore, but hears her other chain snapped. Something went right. Thank Celestia.
She fights through the pain, now located all over her body, and including the migraine from the broken horn she’s suffering from, and manages to stand up. The gray-coated hillbilly, who had been maniacally cackling on his rocking chair the entire time, now said, “Eh, what the - ? She lived? Samson, Annie Mae hasn’t eaten yet! Get her dinner back!”
The brute looks quickly at Colgate, then to the hydra, and begins to charge ‘Gate. 
She doesn’t have too much time. Noticing one of the heads beginning to strike, Colgate stands her ground, but readies herself as if she were going to fight Samson. 
As Samson leaps for the blue, broken, and bruised pony, she jumps out of the way – the brute lands on her chain, and the hydra head strikes Samson’s back, separating him in two. The upper half twitches a bit before another hydra head eats it. 
Colgate pulls on her chain. Instead of any tautness, the chain comes with ease to her hooves No struggle at all.
She is free. Finally, she’s free.
Limping horribly, and feeling every jolt of pain, Colgate hobbles out the area as fast as she can. The old coot takes notice.
“Annie Mae!” he hollers, “Your din-dins gettin’ ‘way! Go on – git ‘er!”
Upon hearing this, Colgate hobbles faster, only to have the pain intensify and expand. “Arrgh!” she exclaims, and, unable to take it anymore, collapses in the shade of an evergreen tree. She feels the rumble caused by Annie Mae’s step, and turns around to accept her fate as blackness closes in.
To her surprise, she watches as only one of the hydra-heads sees her. The other three are focused on the old coot’s house. The hillbilly attempts to lead it away by shaking his hooves towards the unicorn, but to apparent no avail. The last head faces the coot, and the monster stampedes the house.
The structure caves in and is demolished almost immediately. A sudden ringing in Colgate’s ears, probably from the mini-quake, prevents her from hearing anything. The porch ceiling falls on the old coot, pinning him to the ground. 
She watches as he struggles and appears to cry out in pain.
The hydra moves in for the kill, and the heads snap to the old coot’s position, rumbling around, ripping, tearing, and goring the old hillbilly. One of them lifts their heads from the feeding frenzy – in his mouth is a bloodstained hat, and what looks like hair from his mane. The head greedily devours it.
Once the hydra is finished with its meal, it picks its heads up, looks to the sky, and roars – sending every animal in the woods away, and creating a sound so large you can almost see the sound ripples.
With that, the creature pauses, and turns around, and slowly marches back into the bog. The murky water bubbles as it steps in, and before long the entire thing is underwater again, back home where it belongs.
Colgate, seeing the imminent danger is gone, scans her surroundings from her position on the floor. A house ripped apart, bits and pieces of ponies everywhere – including two massive bloodstains, one right near her and on her from Samson, and another over by a broken set of chains, where Berry Punch was.
She surveys the damage to herself – the blood that had been dripping from her broken nose has stopped, leaving a red trail down her front. Her horn still hurt like crazy, and so did her back and side. She was a wreck.
Blackness threatened to close in again. This time, Colgate let it.
But, just as the darkness envelopes her, she hears hoofsteps crack on twigs. The unicorn’s eyes snap open, ready to face the incoming danger.
But no – a maroon earth pony with pink hair steps out from the forest. Cheerilee. Finally, she had arrived.
And she looks panicked. She gallops to Colgate’s side and leans down. “Oh, Celestia, Gate!” she cries, “What happened to you?”
“Long story,” mumbles Colgate, “Hospital first.”
“Ok, ok, no problem.” Cheerliee leans down, and scoops up Colgate, cringing herself whenever ‘Gate cries out in pain. With her friend successfully on her back, Cheerilee begins to slowly walk out of the forest.
Once more, Colgate begins to black out. Before she does, however, Cheerilee speaks. 
“My goodness, Colgate – I thought you and Berry Punch were just visiting your grandfather.”
‘Gate thinks of the house, and the gray pony that had cackled as he watched both she and Berry Punch suffer. “We did, we did – but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten along well with him.”
And with that, Colgate fades into unconsciousness.