> Miss Cotton Candy > by Stelsun Darkstar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Rarity and The Strange Mare > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was almost nighttime and it was raining. A perfect time to sit down at home, and relax in your own room. But that wasn't the case for little Rarity. The filly was lost, somewhere in the Everfree Forest, at the wrong time. She was trotting around, looking for the exit from this horrible, scary forest. But as she was trotting and galloping, the rain continued to pour even more and the darkness around her continued to grow. The poor filly was imagining all sorts of bad things that could happend to her. Getting eaten by timberwolves, turned into stone by a cockatrice or getting mauled or poisoned by a manticore. Every bad option was worse on it's own. After another minute of trotting into the complete darkness, Rarity tripped on a weirdly shaped small rock and rolled down a very steep hill. The unicorn was screaming for help as she tried to grasp some root with her teeth, hooves or her magic. But she failed and fell on her back into once again, complete darkness. The filly was covered in scratches and small bruises, and her mane was all messy from the roll and fall. With tears in her eyes, the filly murmured, "Hm, stupid rock!" then she sat down and started crying. Rarity didn't think much, before crying, because her loud cries attracted some carnivours animals around her. The small unicorn stopped crying once she heard the footsteps of a four-legged big creature, probably a gray wolf or a timber wolf. This scared the silver filly, and with with a small, dramatic scream, she galloped away from the place where she fell. At the moment, she stopped caring about the place being pitch black and just continued running, with the hopes of not getting eaten by the wolves. After probably a whole minute of just running, Rarity got pretty tired and stopped to catch her breath. She was exhausted. The filly then trotted a bit more and sat on a stump, to take a break from the seemingly endless trot. "I hope that mom and dad are searching for me.." Rarity thought, "I doubt it that they'll just forget about me if i'm lost in here!" An hour passed, and Rarity was still sitting on the old stump. Suddenly, she felt the chilling breeze, traveling down her silver fur and violet mane and tail. Her scratches felt a little colder, because of the wind, which made her shiver a bit. "Maybe i should move around.." The silver filly thought again. She got away from the stump and trotted away. But then the filly began to notice that it was getting less and less darker, the more she was walking. Probably she was getting close to home? This little thought faded away from her mind when Rarity heard someone humming from far away. Curious, Rarity followed the humming. While the silver unicorn was walking towards the mysterious sound, she could hear weird words and sentences, said by the cold breeze. "Do not go there.." "It's scary!" "She's going to kill you, like she did with me..!" But Rarity wasn't able to listen to those weird voices, and continued walking towards the humming. She thought that whoever was humming, a pony or not, maybe they could help her get out of the forest. Her hoovesteps echoed together with the weird voices carried by the air. The scraches all over her dusty, silvery body itched like hell, but Rarity had to continue and find the source of the humming. No matter the cost, and possibly the risk. "Uh, where is that humming coming from?!" Rarity thought to herself, as she looked around the forest. But the only thing she could see was only the twisted trees and vines. "There's gotta be someone that is making this humming noise!" Then the filly gasped. She noticed someone in the distance, in the more darker parts of the woods. That 'someone' had the body figure of a mare, an adult mare to be exact. And her neck looked incredibly long, even by pony standarts. But despite all those phisical traits, Rarity saw that the humming was coming from this exact mare and so she approached her with no hesitation. "Do not go near her!" "Go away.." "She's going to kill you!" But despite what the weird voices were saying, Rarity continued on trotting foward with a determined expression. "Um, excuse me, miss?" Rarity asked when she got close enough to the mare. Then, the sky cleared and that darker place where both mares were, lightened a bit. Rarity now was able to see the mare's face, which looked.. rather disturbingly unreal and unfamiliar. Her coat's fur was short and very pale, her hooves were dirty, covered in dust and mud, her body was impossibly skinny and her face.. it was the same as a centaur's head, but with only one unicorn horn, and only a few strikes of silver hair that was moving from the still chiling breeze. And her arms that were connected below her head, one of them, specificly her left arm was missing, only leaving a scar from stitchmarks. Rarity's eyes looked shocked, like she was seeing a living corpse. A living corpse that wasn't moving. And it didn't look like it was breathing at all. After looking at the mare's unusual body for two whole minutes, Rarity finally shook her head and tried on talking with the strange mare. "Miss, excuse me?" The filly then waved her left hoove, trying to catch the mare's attention, but to no success. The strange mare was just staring blankly at the woods, with her dead, cold and glowing in the dark eyes. Rarity decided to continue, "I.. i'm kinda lost, in here.." Suddenly, the filly noticed how the mare was slowly turning her face towards her, "Can.. can you..?" Rarity was begining to feel nervous, "Can you help me on finding my way home, miss..?" ... At first there was akward silence. "Would you like some cotton candy?" Rarity made a confused "Huh?" when she heard the mare's question. The mare then asked again, "Would you like some cotton candy, missy?" "I.. i guess..?" And just like that, Rarity noticed that the mare was holding an already done cotton candy in her right hand, which looked incredibly skinny and sick. At first, the filly hesitated on taking the candy from the mare, but she took it from her from her anyway, in fear of making her angry about keeping it in her hand. "Do you like it?" "..." Rarity tried the cotton candy, "Yeah, it's.." She took another bite from the candy, "..surprisingly good for being made in a creepy and disgusting forest. Oh, no offence!" The mare didn't flinch from the filly's comment about the quality of the place where her cotton candy was made. She just continued on staring at her with those unblinking eyes. "It's no trouble, little filly." When Rarity finished up her cotton candy, she carefully placed the stick that was left on the ground. The cotton candy mare was still staring at her. "That.. was some really good cotton candy, miss!" Said the filly, "But i would love to know, if you know the way back to Ponyville? I would really use some information, miss! My family is probably worrying sick about me!" The mare didn't give her an answer, just another, "Would you like two more cotton candy's?" Rarity looked surprised at that answer. "I- What?!" She shouted at the mare, "No! I don't want more of your cotton candy, miss! All i want is directions to my home!! If you don't know the directions, why don't you just tell me?!" The mare kept silent and the unicorn filly continued looking at her with now tearing up eyes. ... Rarity sat down. The cotton candy mare still looked at her. Then the filly felt something. She slowly looked up and gasped from slight surprise. The mare was patting her mane. It looked really weird to the filly that now the mare was moving her right upper limb, for something surprisingly good. "And why are you trying to calm me right after you didn't answer my question..?" Rarity asked while quietly sobbing. The mare, of course, didn't say anything again. "Why.. are you always so.. silent?" "If you ppromise me that you'll keep quiet, i'll take you right to your home." Rarity's eyes sparkled from pure joy. She nodded, got up and began following the mare, who was already pretty far away from her. The filly felt a bit akward, sence the mare didn't give her a small warning that she's going to walk away and to follow her, but that akward feeling washed away pretty soon. "We are here, little missy." "Huh? Oh, we are..?" Rarity really felt like they were walking only for ten seconds and already found the exit from the forest. "How.. long have we been walking, exactly?" The mare was silent, yet again. She was just.. staring. "Alright..?" Rarity then sighed. "I'll take that as twenty minutes then!" Then out of nowhere, the mare pat the filly's mane again and slowly turned her head a bit to the right side. "Oh.. oh yeah, that's my house!" The mare got her hand off of the filly's mane, which the little pony took as a sign to walk away, sence the mare still wasn't saying anything. But before she could go any near the doorknob, the mare suddenly called. "I want you to take these, young missy!" When Rarity turned around, she could see that the strange mare was now holding two sticks of cotton candy in one hand. She didn't hear the sound of activating magic or anything, the candy's just appeared out of thin air. Rarity then trotted back to the mare, and took both candy's with her. "For your mom and dad." The mare said. Rarity couldn't help but just, smile. "Thank you." Then, after a single blink of an eye, the mysterious mare just disappeared. Rarity didn't think much of this, and went to her house, so she can tell her probably worrying parents that she's alright. "A what mare now?" Rarity's father asked after his daughter told him the whole story. "Well, i don't know, dad, but she was pretty unsettling when i first saw her.." "Hey, at least this mare friend of yours gave me and your mom those cotton candy's as a gift, right?" "Yeah, she did."