Hollow Insides
Autumn Hearth, a dark caramel unicorn with an auburn mane, was trotting down the pathway leading to her home. She was beginning to feel the exhaustion brought upon her by this year’s festivities, believing that this Nightmare Night had been the best and most fun she’d ever experienced. Although, to be fair, it was her favorite holiday, even more than Hearths Warming, so that was a biased claim coming from her.
Admittedly, during her youth, she, along with her pegasus friend Grapevine, honestly preferred going the spooky route. It had been a foalish game between them that they played for as long as she could remember. Every year they tried to outdo each other on who could be scarier, play more carnival games, get more candy, and stay up later. It was a whole event for the pair. In fact, there was even that one year when they had begged their parents for Nightmare Night costumes for a Hearth's Warming gift.
Sadly, Autumn Hearth had long grown out of those activities, while Grapevine still had yet to do so. Instead, she now participated in orchestrating them for the young ones, sharing why she enjoyed the holiday rather than keeping it all to herself. But that didn’t stop her from occasionally organizing a few more ominous side performances for the older age groups. If only to scratch that old itch for nostalgic reasons.
It had been a few years back when the unicorn had decided to take it down a notch and make her costumes more casual and conservative. On the other hoof, her friend continued to indulge in the frightful spirits of the holiday to almost unhealthy proportions.
As if to reflect her change in outlook, Autumn decided to be a good witch, not an evil, old, warty one. Her outfit was made from a black cocktail dress, the signature pointy hat, a broom accessory, and simple makeup.
Strangely she hadn’t seen her friend at all this evening, which made her worry a bit. But, then again, she wouldn’t put it past him that the scare he had planned for this year was utterly avoiding her to appear absent at his favorite time of year.
One time he had gone missing the day before Nightmare Night and two days later was found stuck at the bottom of an old dried-up well. He had intended to use it for practice on a prank, but the rope snapped, and he ended up in pretty rough shape. So if that were the case, she would get back at him and not worry for her friend… until it became applicable to do so.
Autumn’s thoughts were interrupted when she failed to see the muddy puddle. It flawlessly blent in with the inky darkness and she nearly twisted her ankle when she stepped into it.
“Dang it.” Autumn cursed under her breath, feeling the dirty water soak into her costume. “Hopefully it doesn’t leave some kind of stain, now I’m glad I decided not to go with a white dress.” At that moment, a crow in a nearby tree seemed to laugh at her predicament, inclining her to answer with a smirk. “Let’s see how hard you laugh after I turn you into a funny hat.”
Autumn stood on her hind legs and waved her forehooves over her head. “Tongue of toads and dragon claws. Change into headwear the one who caws!” She waved her hoof towards the bird causing it to fly away into the forest in fear, much like the foals had done when doing similar fake spells earlier that evening. These days it was moments like those that made her smile. Even if she’d toned it down over the years she still loved this holiday, and already couldn’t wait for the fun it would bring the next year.
Coming up to her porch, Autumn got a tingling sensation in the back of her mind that something was off. It was the feeling that everyone should listen to but never do on the pretense that it was an overblown sense of danger when in the end, nothing happened. Then again, that was something she was conditioned to as one of her and Grapevine’s signature Nightmare Night contests involved annual scare pranks. But this was somehow different. It felt strange, and dangerous.
Autumn unlocked her door and opened it before stepping inside. A blast of warm air washed over her as she entered, something more than a little unusual. It wasn’t like her to allow it to get this warm in her home. Then a thought came to her mind. Grapevine must have been hiding in her house all night to jump scare her when she returned. So predictable of him.
While she anticipated for that to happen, Autumn closed the door and lit the candles with magic to brighten her home. With how sweltering hot it was in her home it was a wonder the wax hadn't melted into puddles. Once she placed her broom next to the umbrella stand, Autumn headed to the lounge area to beat back the fire and cool it down.
A chill draft in the oven-like heat blew across the back of her neck, making the hairs stand on end. Putting her hoof on that area of her neck, Autumn turned in the direction it came from, and she saw a broken pane of glass and an open window. That was upsetting. If Grapevine had done that just to increase the sense of danger, he was going to pay every last bit for repairing the damages.
As Autumn moved to clean up the broken shards, she heard the shuffling of hooves behind her. Whipping around to look, she saw movement at the top of the stairs, which she hadn’t expected, causing her to just about jump out of her skin. A dark hooded figure silently stood at the top, staring down at her in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable.
“Good job, Grapevine, you got me.” Autumn applauded sarcastically while trying to fight back her fear. Her friend always had a knack for sneaking behind others, even when he wasn’t trying. “Now, if you don’t promise to pay me to replace the window you broke, I will tie your wings into a knot.”
“Grapevine. Is that my name?”
No, it wasn’t.
How did Autumn know that? Because she had heard every possible distortion he’s ever made of his voice to know it wasn’t him. It was too light and silky and it also wasn’t helping that it didn’t sound like it was all there. Whoever this was, was a real home invader.
With a stuttering stifled yelp, her heart launched to her throat as the true feeling of terror exploded within Autumn. Then, with her magic, she summoned the broom into her grip and wielded it like she would during her spear lessons.
“D-d-don’t come any closer, or so help me, I will shove this broom so far up your flank that it will be mistaken for a mustache!” Her heart was drumming in her ears and her hooves trembled from the rush of adrenaline, but she knew that staying calm could determine an outcome of life or death.
The intruder didn’t make any sudden moves, nor did they seem intimidated by her somewhat empty threat and pitiful weapon of choice. Being Nightmare Night, the unicorn imagined and half expected them to dart at her at an incredible speed before gleefully beating her to a bloody pulp or something. But instead, they just stood there as the seconds turned to a minute. The longer nothing happened, the more Autumn’s anxiety rose. “What are you doing in my house? Who are you!?”
Another uneventful moment passed before the intruder spoke. “Smokestack.”
“Okay, Smokestack, what are you doing in my house?!” Autumn backed up a bit, bracing herself for whatever might come next. She didn’t know anyone in this edge of the neighborhood by that name, and this part of town was a very tight-knit community.
“Your house. I saw a smokestack on the roof. That means there’s a fireplace inside. I don’t like the cold.” The stranger’s hood tilted slightly to the right as if perplexed. “You called me Smokestack. Is that my name?”
Slowly Autumn Hearth began to relax as her fear gradually turned into concern. “Hey dude, are you feeling alright? You sound like you’re having trouble thinking straight.”
“I was thinking. There isn’t any more firewood by the hearth. I came upstairs to look for some. I don’t like the cold.” This time around it sounded to Autumn that the cold was a tangible thing that was to be feared and it almost seemed to be working on her.
This guy might need a doctor. And he better not have used any of my furniture to heat up the place. Autumn thought to herself before giving the stallion specific instructions, hoping he’d understand and follow them. “Come downstairs slowly and—” immediately as she gave the order, the invader walked down at a natural pace which was too fast for Autumn’s liking.
“I said slowly. STOP!” Autumn now had her back pressed up against the far wall of her kitchen. Thankfully the intruder had done as she asked and was now standing still at the foot of the stairs.
Autumn risked using her magic to yank back his hood. She muffled a scream while her heart lurched the moment she saw his face in the better lighting. It both impressed and terrified her.
His head was mostly yellow, but his snout shifted violently to a bright shade of red. Thick, coarse thread bound the two parts together. She thought she saw a green ear poking out from under his scraggly black mane. Even his eyes—one orange, the other light purple—didn't sit quite right in his skull.
It has to be a mask. There's no way that's really his face. If Grapevine saw this, he'd be drooling all over how incredibly realistic it is.
Despite the reassurance, Autumn still gulped in fear before she spoke. “Take your mask off,” she demanded. Something clearly wasn’t right with this stallion, and if he needed medical attention, she was willing to extend help wherever it was needed.
“Mask? You don’t look like me.” It wasn't until he spoke that she noticed his lower jaw was a deep blue, again held together with the thick threads. “Am I the different one?” He didn’t make any attempt to remove the mask. What was most impressive was when they spoke, everything moved as it would a natural face. Maybe it was a high-quality makeup job? No, the parts were barely out of alignment in a way that no two features quite lined up properly. No amount of makeup could be that detailed, so it had to be a mask… or some crazy form of transformation magic.
“Yes, you’re wearing a mask. Show me… I would like to see your face, please.” Autumn was about to make another demand but felt that a more pacifistic approach might yield better results. The stallion hadn’t shown any hostility so far… minus the breaking and entering, but Autumn still kept her guard up in case he made a move.
This time the stallion sat down, brought his hoof to his face, and began halfheartedly struggling to remove the mask. After only a moment of trying, he stopped. “It’s tight. Feels stuck. Can’t get off.”
“Okay, I’m going to put this broom down and help you.” Slowly the mare placed the broom off to the side. Before approaching the stallion, she made another warning. “Try anything funny, and I’ll knock your block off.”
“I won’t laugh,” He said, removing his hooves from his masked face, which seemed to be almost no different than before he started pulling on it as though he never even tried.
“N-no, tha-that’s not… just hold still.” After understanding the misconception he was interpreting her threat to be, the mare wasn’t as worried that he would do anything to her.
Autumn gripped about where the mask started and pulled. One tug was enough to tell her he wasn’t lying. “Goodnight, did you accidentally sew this to your face?” She continued to pull, feeling it start to come loose. “How did you… even… get… this… ahh!”
She fell backward and almost landed under her table. “There we g—” it was at that moment Autumn knew she screwed up.
Looking at the patchwork stallion, she couldn’t help but notice that where a head should be was instead a neck stump. Autumn immediately looked at what she was holding just as the head itself said, “Something doesn’t feel quite right,” moments before she fainted on the spot.
Autumn was aroused by a pounding in her head. She wasn’t suffering from a headache. Someone was just loudly beating on her door. Picking herself off the floor, she made her way to answer. Why was she on the floor again? “I’m coming. I’m coming! Hold your horseradishes.”
Without giving it a second thought, Autumn Hearth opened the door to be greeted by an unexpected howl cleaving through the silence of the peaceful night. A wooden creature paced menacingly outside, looking at her as it would with any helpless prey with its glowing green eyes. “Eh?”
It swiped and growled at the unicorn, then stood on its haunches before it barked at her, but Autumn still had yet to react to the beast. Finally, it sat down and pulled off a mask, revealing a dark orange stallion with a black mane looking at her in disbelief. “Holy crap. You didn’t even flinch! Had I been a real timber wolf, you would have been getting cleaned off the walls for days.”
Finally getting a grip on reality, Autumn responded, “Oh, hey Grapevine. Right, yes, okay, this was your annual Nightmare Night fright? That’s impressive.” Autumn meant every word she said though she didn’t show it aside from behaving a little bit jittery. It was one of the most detailed outfits she’d ever seen, even from Grapevine. Except for… No, it had to have been a dream… right? But that didn't explain…
“I don’t want it to be impressive. I wanted it to be scary.” Grapevine complained, interrupting his friends’ train of thought. “I spent so long getting it to look as authentic as possible. But, unfortunately, my first attempt got ruined when I found out that some of the wood in the nether regions was infested with fire ants. So it took me twice as long to completely rebuild my costume all over because I needed to inspect every piece… and pay a visit to Nurse Tourniquet.” He tried to mumble that last part while looking a little red in the snout.
“I can’t believe how you just said that with a straight face,” Autumn said with a straight face, albeit a bit groggy. “But don’t get the wrong idea. It’s terrifying under the right circumstances. It’s just, there was this… Uh… tonight’s been a little….” the mare gave an exhausted sigh.
“You alright? You seem a little blah, or maybe ugh. Did something happen?”
“I don’t think I want to know.”
Cocking an eyebrow, Grapevine asked with concern, “What’s that even supposed to mean? If something happened to you, wouldn’t you know about it?” That’s when he noticed how much heat was pouring out through Autumn's door. “I’ve never known you to have it that warm inside your house. So what’s going on?”
There wasn’t any point hiding it from him. If what Autumn experienced had indeed happened, Nightmare or not, who better to figure this out than the one still overly obsessed with such things. “Yeah, that would probably be the intruder’s doing.” She said while rubbing the spot between her eyes.
That was when Grapevine saw shadowy movement from a different room behind his friend, making him tense up. “Someone broke in?” He said, lowering his voice to barely a whisper. “I think they’re still here, don’t worry, I’ll scare them out.” putting his mask back on, he pushed past Autumn and got into character.
“It’s not as bad as you think, but… it’s complicated.” Autumn told her friend, but he had already found his target and was snarling as intimidatingly as he could at them. Sighing, she walked up to Grapevine and looked into the lounge area to see the intruder facing the fireplace, but his eyes, those same unsettling eyes, were turned towards them. Thus it fell to her to distribute the introduction.
“This is Grapevine. Grapevine, say hello to mister intruder.” The costumed pegasus did so by giving a warning lunge mixed with a bark.
“I see. That’s the name of your pet.” Giving a half baked inspection without turning his head, which seemed strange even for him. But, the patchwork stallion continued, “I was expecting to see more.” That’s when he turned to face them. But, unfortunately, he apparently still didn’t have his head on properly, resulting in it falling to the floor… not that this stopped him from talking. “Did you harvest him already?”
Grapevine whined, yipping as a frightened puppy would and hid behind Autumn, leaving her to try and fix the plethora of mostly explainable misconceptions. “You’re a real hero, you know that?”
“H-h-hi-his he-ad. I-i-i-it…”
“Already got past that part, get over it you wimp. That’s why your costume was so ineffective to me.” Then, with a tense grin, Autumn addressed the other stallion and brought him up to speed. “He’s not actually a living piece of foliage. He’s just impulsive and incredibly dense right now.”
Taken aback, Grapevine yanked his mask off and countered by saying. “How can you be so calm about this? In case you haven’t noticed, his head is separated from his body and is still talking!”
“Yeah, yeah, that would be my fault. Keep an eye on him while I grab my sewing supplies.” Autumn said in a tired manner turning away, leaving Grapevine to struggle between whether to focus on his friend or the other guy, specifically his head which was still staring at him.
“I don’t think she’s okay, but I guess if she’s not worried….” Grapevine slapped his cheeks and swallowed his fears, deciding to roll with it like Autumn was doing. Just before he entered the room, what he just heard his friend say finally clicked. “Wonder how much I should hold back on trying to scare her after this. Assuming I can even remotely scare her at all after this.” The pegasus shuttered at the thought, liking where his head currently was.
When Autumn returned, Grapevine had a few things he wanted to ask. “So first question, outside of the obvious: how exactly is it your fault that his head came off?”
Picking the head up off the floor with her magic, Autumn answered briefly and to the point. “I thought it was a mask. When I told him to take it off so I could see his face, he said it was stuck, so I tried to help him.” She placed the head back on and threaded the needle. “Stay still while I fix you.”
“Okay, fair enough. Second question: what in Tartarus is he!?”
The shout earned a glare from Autumn. “How should I know? He broke into my house, and I threatened to shove the bristly end of a broom up his butt, then I popped his head off. End of story.”
“My mask doesn’t want to stay.” the patchwork stallion said, his head once again fallen to the floor, yet that seemed to be a non issue for him.
“I’m taking care of that. Just give me some time.” Then Autumn proceeded to lessen the grotesqueness of the task by repeatedly thinking, Just think of him as a prop, just think of him as a prop, just think of him as a prop.
“And I thought I was the scary one,” Grapevine said, giving another shudder at the sight before him of Autumn picking up the still blinking head and slowly stitching its neck back to the headless body.
“Don’t test me right now. And as we both know, I was always the scarier one.”
In no mood to argue, Grapevine continued. “On to question number three: is that your end table in the fireplace?”
Halfway through finishing her task, Autumn paused to check and see if he was telling the truth, which he was. “That was my grandmother’s… It’s fine, I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about. I can buy another one. Won’t have a shred of cherished memories connected to it but, haha, who cares anymore?” Sighing her worries… and possibly psychosis away, she went back to sewing the head in place.
“Now I have a question for you,” Autumn said, finishing another stitch. “For someone who bathes regularly with the spooky scary ghouls and goblins, how come you don’t know anything about him? And by the way, how did you manage to get the eyes on your mask to glow like that?”
“All I do is read about them, okay? As awesome as it would be, I don’t live it like I’m a vampire slayer part-time.” Grapevine said in his defense. “As for the glowing, they’re just a couple of fireflies I managed to catch.” He spread the eye holes in his mask slightly to reveal a couple of small jars that indeed contained living fireflies. “Anyway, this is literally the first supernatural creature I’ve ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on. And to be honest, I don’t know how to react. I’m just glad that he doesn’t want to eat our brains.”
“That’s a zombie, and if he were to be compared to any literary monster, it would have to be Frankensteed’s monster.”
“I’m a monster?”
“No, you’re not.” Autumn calmly reassured him, lightly tapping his shoulder. “The monster we’re talking about doesn’t exist.”
“While we’re on the subject, I have a theory about that.” Grapevine said, making himself comfortable in spite of the circumstance. “Zombies, Frankensteed’s monster, even mummies, how are they different besides the way they died? Why can’t mummies be hungry for brains or Fankensteed try to cause curses? They all died and then came back to life.”
A noise coming from the direction of the door interrupted the conversation. It sounded like knocking, but it was rapid and relatively quiet. “For the love of… what is it now, friends of yours? Haha, let's invite them in, why don’t we? Hay, how about we throw a freaking party!” Looking at the clock, Autumn knew it was too late for even the late-night Nightmare Nighters as she put down her stitching tools.
When Autumn reached the door, she threw it open, startling the unicorn mare on the other side, who was caught hastily pocketing the lock pick they had just managed to unjam from the keyhole. “H-hi. Hello. Um, I did knock.”
“If you were going to break in, you could have at least gone through the window like your friend, the other guy.” Heaving a heavy breath, Autumn didn’t stop there. “The way I see it, right now, you have two options. Option A, you voluntarily come in of your own free will, or B, I drag you in by force. For the record, I know how to make my basement soundproof in a pinch. Hehehe, I’ll start with the ankles.”
The strange pony’s eyes shrank at the not well concealed threat and immediately decided to choose free will.
“Go-good to know. I’m Lucid Vision, by the way,” She made a move to come through the door but froze mid-step. “Oh my gosh.” Autumn heard a menacing snarl from behind and knew exactly what was going on. “There’s a timber wolf in your house? That is so cool! How did you tame it? Wait, let me get my notebook.”
Breaking character, Grapevine waved his front hooves around in disbelief, then tore off the mask and pouted. “Are you kidding me!? Does nobody care about the amount of effort I put into making this thing?!”
“Oh, it’s just a costume,” Lucid said, putting her notebook back and somehow sounding more disappointed than Grapevine felt. “That’s a letdown.”
“I have feelings too you know.”
“Not anymore, you don’t,” Autumn told him while stepping to the side to let in their uninvited guest. She then turned to the darkness outside and shouted, “If anypony else wishes to break in and join the party, this is your last chance!” When there was no response, she slammed the door closed, slightly wishing she would just wake up and this insane event would end.
“So… When you say ‘the other guy’...?” Lucid started to say but was cut short by Autumn.
“You’re not the first one tonight to break in. I don’t know if he’s yours, but if that’s the case, you have much explaining to do… along with a window and table to replace.” Autumn passive-aggressively pushed past Lucid and Grapevine, making her way back to begin sewing once again.
When Lucid entered the room, a look of relief instantly spread across her face, “Oh, I’m so happy that I… What are you doing?”
Looking as apathetic as anyone would in their own home, Autumn didn’t hesitate to answer. “Ah-ha, so he is yours. I’m putting his head back on straight. Unfortunately, there was a minor misunderstanding that resulted in it being removed.” As she was just about finished with stitching all the way around, she couldn’t help but notice that the stallion now seemed to be a bit tenser than before.
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ve got some apple cider that I can heat up, and we can discuss the story behind what exactly this guy is, along with why exactly he decided to break into my house.” Autumn made the final knot and snipped the excess thread.
“So, you saw then... what he is?” Lucid sounded skittish like she needed to hightail it out of there as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Clearing her throat, she added, “I think that it would be best if you just forgot you ever—”
Autumn punched the closest wall, cracking it under her hoof. She slowly turned to glare daggers at Lucid. “You are going to sit down and start talking.”
A fire poker menacingly levitated from its stand and slowly twirled mid-air until the pointy end was plunged into the flames. “Otherwise, if you don’t, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth, snap your horn off, shove it down your ungrateful throat and bury you alive.” The shadows bent towards the fireplace, stretching in impossible ways to make strange patterns all across the room. The heat also seemed to amplify despite how warm it already was.
The unicorn removed the poker from the fire, now glowing a bright red at the tip, and pointed it inches from Lucid’s face. Autumn’s auburn hair floated upward in an unfelt torrent of wind. Her eyes, now pitch black, intensified the light and dark contrasting against her dark caramel coat.
When she spoke again, her voice became increasingly distorted. “Then, once I’m done dancing on your grave, I will devote the following year to mastering the forbidden dark arts of Necromancy and Black Magic. And I will henceforth use that knowledge throughout the remainder of my life to repeat the events of your demise over and over and over as an annual tradition!”
The out-of-control unicorn sharply inhaled, and in the twinkling of an eye, everything returned to normal, aside from the poker. “Are you thirsty? I’m outright parched.” Autumn said with a triggered, twitching grin before impaling the red hot piece of metal a good three inches into the stonework of her fireplace and left for the kitchen. Her eye still twitching the message ‘somepony is going to die tonight’ in Morris code.
Lucid Vision, looking more pale than a ghost, cautiously turned towards Grapevine, who was also cowering and in her embrace. The two ponies quickly separated, and she asked in a quiet whisper, not risking being out of Autumn’s hearing range, “Is she always like this?”
Knowing his friend was still in earshot, Grapevine said the most intelligent thing he had said since the night began. “Only when she’s like this.”
Lucid and Grapevine both focused on the patchwork stallion. At some point, he had put his hoof into the flames and was now contently looking at it burning.
Autumn saw this when she returned and used a throw blanket in her magic to extinguish the blazing hoof. But, already having her fair share of surprises, she didn’t question how the alabaster hoof wasn’t burnt black to the bone when she removed the blanket. Instead, she would make it one of the first things she asked Lucid Vision about.
Levitating a glass over to both Grapevine and Lucid Vision, Autumn made a move to pour the hot cider. “I can pour my own drink if that’s alright with you.” Lucid took over the pitcher with her magic and poured the beverage for everyone. “You seem rather tense, and I have a slight feeling that I owe you an explanation.”
Grapevine immediately downed his drink while Autumn, along with Lucid Vision, took the opposite approach and sipped hers. “You do and I’m all ears. So start talking.” Something about this drink tasted unusual, so Autumn took another deeper sip to see if she could locate the irregularity.
This brought a sly grin to Lucid’s face as she started to talk, “Let me start at the very beginning.” She then slowly drank again, consuming the rest of the liquid in her cup. “Have you ever had a wish you would do anything to fulfill?”
There was a crash as Grapevine dropped the pitcher. He was pouring himself another glass, but he looked unbalanced. “A... Autumn?” That was when Grapevine tumbled to the floor unconscious.
First the window, then it was the table now she needed a new pitcher. Autumn Hearth got up to see what was wrong, ready to scold him if this was a poorly placed prank, but the room suddenly began to spin.
Had Lucid just drugged them? That would explain the strange taste, but she was drinking from the same batch as everyone else that Autumn had made herself. When did...? She poured her drink first. Whatever drug it was must have somehow been slipped in after Lucid poured her own glass. It had to have happened through teleportation, right? That was the most logical conclusion she could think of.
In no time, Autumn was on the ground like her friend, her vision tunneling as she saw flickering lights dancing in her sight like sparks, and her consciousness was fading rapidly. She barely heard Lucid when she spoke again, sounding like it was at the other end of a tunnel. “It looks like mine is just about in its final stage of completion.”
Once again, Autumn experienced the feeling of coming to. But, this time, it came with a headache as she slowly began to awaken.
Trying to move, the unicorn found that she was tied to something, most likely a table of sorts. However, it didn’t feel like an ordinary one. She was on her stomach, and her limbs were naturally conformed around smaller offshoots from the main surface.
She didn’t like this.
Her head felt literally and metaphorically like it was in a vice, thanks to the throbbing in her skull. Moving her limbs, she quickly determined that her legs were strapped down with leather bindings, as was her torso. After winning the struggle to open her eyes, she noticed how chilly the air was. It was cold enough to cause her skin to form goosebumps and her breath to barely begin showing. Taking in her surroundings, she knew this was in an underground cave, and next to another table littered with shiny surgical tools, no more than ten paces away, stood Lucid Vision.
“Oh, good! You’re awake,” she said, looking at her captive. This was happening too fast for Autumn to register. Her breathing increased as she leaned her entire body away from the unicorn. “You probably have a bit of a headache. And I’m sure your throat is a bit dry, an unfortunate side effect from the sedative that I used. My apologies.”
Autumn tried activating her magic, but that proved useless as she couldn’t feel any energy flowing through her. As Lucid came closer, Autumn shifted herself as far from the unicorn as she could, reaching the mobile limit her restraints allowed.
“Where are we? Where’s Grapevine?” She couldn’t suppress the nervous trembling in her voice, her previous rage and confidence long burned out, but that was currently the least of her worries.
Lucid Vision brought her hoof up to Autumn’s cheek. “This is a very magical place. One that will help me change the entire view of the world as you know it.”
By a far wall of the cave, an unmistakable multicolored stallion stood ramrod straight, unmoving like a marble statue. Autumn suddenly filled in the gaps as her blood turned to ice. She had been brought here to be chopped into pieces and used in some sick-minded experiment.
Autumn felt her hair brushed aside to expose her forehead and Lucid began stroking Autumn’s horn as her eyes began welling up with tears, “Look, I-I-I’m sorry for all the things I said. That was just me being frustrated. I tend t-to lash out when… I-I-I’d ne-ever actually go through… please spare me! I haven’t done anything to you!” She sobbed while pulling as hard as she could, hoping to be lucky enough to break free, but it was all in vain.
“Your horn has such a beautiful spiral. Has anyone ever told you that?” Lucid said, unfazed by Autumn’s whimpering pleas. Her magic activated, and a few tools moved into Autumn’s peripheral view.
“What are you doing?! NO!!” Autumn wailed, thrashing with all her strength, knowing it would do little more than hurt herself and postpone the seemingly inevitable. “Please! I’ll do whatever you want, just stop!”
“The more you struggle, the longer this will take,” Lucid calmly informed, her eyes showing a hint of the madness they hid. “But if you insist on doing anything for me…” she teased the notion, making Autumn unsure if she was telling the truth or doing it to get a reaction from her.
Autumn wasn’t about to become her emotional pleasure toy. Rather than blindly beg for her life, she had to let Lucid know she had a part in her end of the deal. “Yes. Freedom and safety in exchange for giving you what you want.” If it turned out to be too much to ask, Autumn readied herself to endure any amount of torture she could potentially be dragged through.
“Well, in that case,” Lucid rotated the table, dragging the legs on the cave floor. She then pointed to a natural pool that was out of sight until now. Light beamed down on it from an unseen hole. “See that body of water over there? All I need you to do is go to the water’s edge, read a little something, then you’re free as a bird.”
That sounded too easy. “What’s the catch?” try as she might, Autumn couldn’t hide the fact of how afraid she still was.
“No strings. If you follow my instructions and cooperate, we will both get what we want.” Once again, Lucid was caressing Autumns’ horn as though it were a prized possession before leaning in and whispered, “I’ll even erase this moment from your memory. How does that sound?”
She then went back to an average volume as she stepped between Autumn and the pool of water, “That way, it’ll be like this never even happened. But first, I need to make sure my numbers aren’t crossed. Although it’ll require the removal of this magic suppressor from your horn, so promise to hold still, please. Remember, follow my instructions, and you’ll walk free, unharmed. Just don’t try anything funny.”
“What are you going to do after you take off the suppressor?” Autumn didn’t like how easy the price of her freedom sounded. Why would it merit her needing to be strapped to a table?
“You ask a lot of questions, don’t you? It doesn’t matter. You won’t remember any of this. I’m just taking a few last-minute measurements on how perfect your horn spiral is.” Lucid said as Autumn felt one of the tools remove the suppressor. She then saw a light emitting from above her head and a tuning fork positioned itself close to her horn that soon started humming.
“This instrument is used to measure the natural resonating frequency of magic coming from your horn.” Lucid informed Autumn as if she didn’t already know. “I'm also analyzing your horn’s level of translucency and its inner development. You know, I read a thesis recently about how genetics could be linked with how powerful unicorn magic is determined by the growth of the spiral.”
The light faded out, and Lucid replaced the tuning fork with a pair of calipers as she started measuring from the base, slowly working her way up each segment. “And with a horn like this, your offspring are sure to have a natural affinity to magic. I’ll be done in less than a minute now if you cooperate. It’s your choice.”
Autumn hated everything that was happening. She instinctively wanted to squirm and wiggle at each touch of the tool as the metal lightly scraped against her horn. She then realized that must be what the table was for, to prevent Lucid’s hostages from retaliating against her as she appraised the body part of interest.
Something else didn’t make sense. “You said we’ll both get what we want, and obviously you want my horn, but I said I wanted freedom and safety. That includes keeping all of me, especially my horn.”
“You’ll understand soon enough. I’m also going to ask your pegasus friend the same thing I am of you… after he comes to.” Lucid said, not answering Autumn’s question.
Lucid continued using a calming voice. “Just need another ten seconds… nine… eight… seven… … six… hold your breath please, you’re shaking too much…”
Autumn inhaled, scrunched her eyes, and gritted her teeth. “That’s it, good. Five… four… three… easy does it… two… and done. See, just like going to the doctor’s office.”
Exhaling, Autumn took this opportunity to relax a little. “And wouldn’t you know it, I even have a sucker for your good behavior.” The candy was forcefully pushed into Autumn’s mouth, which she immediately tried to spit out before the flavor could reach her tongue. She had no intention of being drugged again.
Around the same time, the unicorn’s restraints were loosened, and her mobility returned. “Eh, it’s your loss,” Lucid said as she watched Autumn continue spitting and then start to wipe her tongue on the ground. “Anyway, just go to the water, read this, and that will seal the deal we’ve made.”
Once Autumn was finished ridding her mouth from the taste of possibly poisoned candy, she looked at Lucid. Her captor was now standing between her and an unconscious Grapevine. He was strapped to two crossing beams that had been jury-rigged together as there was only one noticeable table. His wings were forced to stay unfurled as though Lucid was going to measure them like her horn.
A parchment was levitating close enough for her to grab, but the scalpel next to Grapevine’s throat was more concerning. The way Lucid Vision was innocently smiling cut Autumn to the core and would undoubtedly haunt her to the grave. “Remember, as long as you do as I told you to, you’ll be safe, and so will your friend here.”
This behavior was way beyond unacceptable. Autumn didn’t know why reciting a few words in front of a pool of water was important enough to take the life of another, but it was to this psychopath. With trembling breath, she hesitantly took the paper and slowly approached the water’s edge. “Make sure you’re close enough to see your reflection!”
Autumn was hoping to avoid that. She would have felt safer the farther away from the water she was, but for her friend’s sake, she was given little choice. It seemed to take forever before Autumn finally reached the water. Once she did, she cleared her throat, looked at the paper, and read it aloud, her tongue stuttering over the words.
“And into her o-own reflection she stared…” That compelled the unicorn to look at her reflection briefly. “Y-yearning for one whose re-reflection she shared….” Autumn looked back at Grapevine, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time she’d see him. Lucid hummed as she meticulously analyzed his flight feathers, measuring each individual one. “A-and solemnly sweared, n-not to be scared….” Yeah, right, that ship had not only sailed but long since disappeared over the horizon.
Wiping the cold sweat from her brow, Autumn finished the last line of script. “At the pro-prospect of being… doubly mared?” The moment she uttered the last word, a figure emerged from the water, causing the unicorn to reel back. What was more terrifying, though, was that the figure was her.
Autumn was at a loss for words. How was she looking at herself? What kind of magic was this? The unicorn heard the activation of a spell, and before she had time to respond, a sword cleaved off the head of the double. “That’s the only part I need for the moment. I wouldn’t want to get you two mixed up,” She heard Lucid say, also laughing in the background of her awareness. Autumn was too preoccupied looking at the decapitated version of herself, still standing in front of her, wondering why it was hardly bleeding at all.
Another spell was cast, and it struck the headless horse, causing it to lift off the ground and puff up to the point where it looked like it would pop. But, instead, it imploded, and a trail of dark caramel light streaked to the center of the pond and vanished.
Looking at the head on the ground, Autumn became overwhelmed with nausea as the bile churned in her guts. How could she not? She had just witnessed herself getting decapitated without remorse by a lunatic. What’s more, is that it was still moving. Then, it unexpectedly spoke two words that added weight to the eerie environment right before it was whisked away by Lucid Vision’s magic.
“…It’s… cold….”
I don’t like the cold. It was one of the first things Autumn heard from the patchwork stallion. But, seeing how he was being constructed, she now felt like she understood what that meant. Lucid noticed how Autumn was handling this situation and gave her words to help comfort her distress. “It’s not that bad. I mean, if you think about it, it wasn’t even a real pony.”
“You’re sick.” Autumn spat at the deranged unicorn. Once those words were said, the already tense atmosphere made an even darker turn.
Lucid Vision put down her tools and slowly turned to walk up to Autumn. It didn’t take a genius to know she was fuming under that flat placid expression. “I have what I need from you. You are no longer of any use to me, cretin. So watch. Your. Tongue.”
Autumn suddenly felt smaller than a dust speck as every spell she knew about vanished from her mind. Any one of them might have had some use right now, but she couldn’t remember a single one. Magic wasn’t the one responsible for her forgetfulness. It was fear. The fear of what this cold-hearted unicorn before her was capable of.
Usually, Autumn was on the giving end of this verbal abuse. But when she did it, everyone knew it was out of frustration as she never would go through with half the things she said. And she never had to worry about any kind of retaliation beyond a yell or hurtful word. Lucid Vision most likely kept her promises and went through with whatever horrible thing she came up with.
But if she kept promises, that meant Autumn’s insurance would hopefully pay off. “Yo-you can’t hurt m-me,” her voice was shaking worse than when she was reciting the duplication spell. “You p-promised that y-you’d…” she swallowed in hopes that her stuttering would lessen. “That you’d set me free unharmed a-and you still have to uphold your end of the bargain.”
“Yes, I did,” Lucid said, with no change in her expression. “I also promised to wipe your memory. But I didn’t promise to take you straight back to your house or what memories I would wipe. Like, for example, the deal we made?” It was now Autumn knew where this was going.
“Perhaps I should just dump the two of you outside of the cave system we’re in after the memory wipe? That way, you find yourselves lost in the middle of an unfamiliar, hostile territory. Having no knowledge of how you got there or which way to go, or maybe even who you are.” Lucid’s face hardened, seeming to only be scratching the surface of all the cruel and potential acts she could get away with.
“I also happen to know a great deal of healing spells. So, unharmed, I could make you. After I have a bit more fun with you for a little longer.” The scalpel from earlier levitated its way up to brush against Autumn’s cheek as tears once again stung the corners of her eyes.
A chill ran down Autumn’s spine as Lucid Vision gave a twisted grin at the pitiful sight before her, “And because of the memory wipe, you wouldn’t even remember the joy I expressed all while—” The crack of calcite contacting cranium echoed in the cavern. Lucid Vision fell to the ground as Grapevine stood behind her, huffing in rage.
“Batter! Out!” He threw the broken stalagmite to the ground and turned his attention to Autumn, concern creeping into his voice. “Are you okay?”
“Grapevine, I could kiss you right now!... But you didn’t hear that from me.” Autumn said, feeling her cheeks grow warm. “How did you free yourself?”
The pegasus puffed his chest out and gave a boastful laugh. “Ha, ha, ha. Rudimentary, my dear Autumn. You see, Pegasi naturally have a lighter bone density reducing their overall body weight to aid in their ability to fly. That also happens to make them more flexible than any of the other pony races.”
Autumn furrowed her brow in disapproval of Grapevine’s rather smug attitude. “It’s ‘elementary,’ and don’t make me strap you back in there and leave!”
Cutting to the chase, Grapevine wrapped up his explanation. “She had my bindings tightened according to my costume. So all I had to do was slip out of it. Gah!” His face twisted with pain as he gripped his right shoulder.
“What happened?! What’s wrong?” Autumn said, rushing to Grapevine’s side, greatly concerned for his condition.
“Uh, I might have dislocated my shoulder in the escape process.” He gave another pained grunt as he avoided putting it on the ground, though still tried to look confident with a smile.
Autumn glanced at it and then looked back at his face. “It looks fine to me.”
Scoffing at what he just heard, Grapevine disagreed, “You can’t tell if it’s dislocated or not by just—” *pop*… “… OW!” His delayed shout echoed through the cave, along with his shoulder being popped back into place thanks to Autumn.
“Sorry, I needed you to be distracted. I heard somewhere that it helps to reduce the pain or something of that nature. Feel any better?”
“No. But I can limp on it now.”
It came as a surprise when Autumn pecked his cheek. The unicorn looked equally surprised at the gesture she gave, her face going bright red. “Tell anyone I did that, I’ll gouge your eyes out with my horn, and I intend to repeatedly miss!”
“You can do that any time,” Grapevine said with a goofy, whimsical grin earning him a smack across the face. The pegasus shook his head to regain his senses, “I blacked out for a moment. Did something happen?”
“Nothing… worth mentioning,” Autumn answered, her cheeks still a little rosy while indirectly looking at him and kicking her hoof into the ground. “But you’re a real hero, you know that?”
“There’s no time. We need to leave. Now!” Grapevine grabbed Autumn to leave as quickly as possible. However, to his surprise, his friend put on the brakes.
“Wait!” Autumn didn’t think their escape would be as easy as Grapevine was making it out to be.
“For what, Hearths Warming Eve!?”
Autumn shook her head, eyeing their still concussed captor. “No, just think about it. Lucid Vision knows where I live. Even if we do get out, she won’t stop until she finishes what she started with us. We need to put an end to this, but if we go to the authorities, she’ll most definitely have told them her own version of the story.”
Grapevine couldn’t argue with his friend’s reasoning. “Okay, fine. I saw a book, probably a journal, on a table not far from where I was tied up. Let’s just grab it and go!” As he hobbled to get the book, Autumn followed and asked him something he didn’t consider.
“Is it fact or fiction?” A simple question, but one that made all the difference.
“How am I supposed to know!?” Grapevine said, snatching the book off the table.
“My point exactly. We need something more concrete than just a simple piece of literature.”
“I already hate the idea, but we don’t have the time or luxury to argue.” Grapevine could see where she was leading the conversation, “Grab patchy and let’s get our sorry rumps out of here before we get into serious trouble!”
Before she could offer a retort, Autumn felt the magic suppressor get slapped back on her horn as both she and her friend were viciously strangled by Lucid’s magical aura around their necks. “That. You. Are.”
The two ponies were relentlessly forced to the ground and dragged across the hard, jagged cave floor, badly scraping their skin. Finally, they stopped at the foot of the infuriated unicorn who had blood trickling from the recent head injury. “I am utterly speechless. How dare you treat me like this! I held no intention of harming either of you. But now, I am… cross doesn’t even come close… far beyond peeved!” Lucid gave a hard kick to Grapevine’s gut making his eyes bulge with pain.
“I have put up with your rebellious attitude for long enough!” Lucid Vision eyed the two suffocating ponies, constricting her hold tighter on their throats as she considered what to do with them next, unaffected by the blood pooling in her right eye. “I think you need to be taught a lesson.” She cast another spell, aiming it at the copied head, sending it back to the pool.
Grabbing the scalpel once more, Lucid slowly lifted Autumn off the ground and lightly brushed the blade’s edge against her horn around its base. In a twisted way, she somehow seemed pleased by the desperate sputtering gasps her hostages were making.
Lucid then spat venom at her prisoners with malice dripping off every word as she positioned the scalpel, ready to make a cut. “I’m going to get my horn and my wings! But I’m not going to tear them off of some cheap clone!” Autumn could just make out the sensation of soft-jawed vice grip pliers clapping onto her horn and started pulling. “I’ll just take them straight from the—”
“No…”
For a brief moment, Lucid Vision resembled a fish with her bugged-out eyes and flapping jaw. Then, she turned to her creation and began to chew him out. “Did you just backtalk me? Me!? The one who gave you life!?”
“More…”
Lucid gave an exasperated groan. “Yes, you’ll get more parts after I’m finished harvesting them off of—”
“No…”
“What now?!” Lucid snapped, the head trauma doing little to improve her mood.
“More… No… More. No more. No More!!” The stallion hurled a rock at Lucid striking her on the forehead. This disrupted the spells cast on Autumn and Grapevine, and they started coughing as fresh air returned to their lungs. Autumn did not hesitate to start removing the magic suppressor and pliers from her horn while she still had the opportunity.
Lucid straightened herself just in time to see the stallion charging at her. She tried to cast another spell, but her head was still spinning from the multiple skull strikes, causing it to backfire. Ramming into the unicorn, Lucid Vision flew into the air and landed on her back, getting the wind knocked out of her lungs. Once the dust settled, the unicorn only had the time to register a looming figure over her before her own creation brought a melon-sized rock down on her face.
“No! More! No! More! No! More! No! More!” With every word, he smashed the rock down with all his strength. Lucid’s body and limbs convulsed and twitched for less than a minute before going limp and stopped moving entirely. But the stallion continued, not seeming to care, as the wet, gory sounds echoed through the cave.
Autumn shivered, not because of the cold. Never, in her whole life, did she think she would witness such a grotesque death of another in such a fashion. Each time she watched the rock brought down on Lucids’ face, the unicorn heard the wet smack of the rock impacting brain matter and the snapping noise from skull fragments.
Of course, the unicorn couldn’t watch, but it was even harder to look away. So she was both grateful and startled when Grapevine got her attention. “Okay, the mad scientist isn’t an issue anymore. We should leave now and forget this ever happened.”
Forget? How could he even comprehend the lies he was spewing? Autumn could see it in his eyes. There was no way in a million years he would ever get over what they were seeing. But, more importantly, Autumn couldn’t leave things as they were. She needed to do something to calm down the raging stallion. “This needs to stop. I’m not leaving him here. Not like this.” That was the moment an idea began to take form.
“If you want to die, be my guest. I’m out of here. You can meet up with me later.” Grapevine started to leave, but the remnants of the costume he was wearing were grabbed by Autumn’s magic, “What are you doing?”
“I promise to help you make another one next year. And, I’ll even make a matching one to join you like old times.” Autumn put every piece of wood she could grab into a pile and ignited it.
Grapevine looked at the offer, looking conflicted and a bit offended. “Are you… but that’s… not even… Fine.” He muttered, grabbing some wood with her.
“No! More! No! More! No!... warm. It’s warm.” The stallion stopped his vengeful onslaught and turned to face the orange glow. In that moment, Autumn could see the foal-like mentality the stallion had and immediately wanted to extend her help to him.
“Yes, it is. Mmm, nice and warm.” Autumn’s plan was working much better than she had expected it to. “You don’t like the cold, right? How about you come and sit by me next to the warm fire,” she said, waving her hoof to coax the stallion towards her.
“Goodbye… old friend,” Grapevine said, saluting the crackling pile of timber as a lone tear ran down his face.
Autumn rolled her eyes at the foalish display. “Didn’t you say you were leaving?”
“I panicked okay, I was actually gonna leave you,” Grapevine muttered, taking a seat next to her.
“It’s warm. It’s warm. It’s warm.” The stallion slowly made his way towards the flames leaving behind a trail of bloody hoofprints. The closer he got, the more Grapevine inched away.
“It’s warm.” The stallion sat next to the fire and reached towards it. “It’s warm. It’s warm. It’s…” He stopped looking at the fire and saw his blood-soaked hoof. “It… It h-hurts.” Despite the tears now rolling down his cheeks, his face did not show the agony expressed in each word. “It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.”
Autumn didn’t know what to do. Up until this point, she’d just been winging it, but there had to be something more she could do. Seeing him in the state he was in now was unbearable.
It was a long shot, but perhaps something in the journal they swiped could have a clue on how to help. Flipping through the pages, it revealed a plan of conquering the business and political world called ‘Operation High Water’ involving an army of alicorn clones.
Although it wasn’t directly mentioned, the basic idea was charging outrageous prices for easy immortality. Lucid would construct her ‘perfect’ Alicorn body, perform a soul swap and duplicate herself. All in all, it was the ravings of a power-hungry mad pony, but it could have worked had there not been any intervention.
Amidst the many notes and possible options, one spell seemed useful. It was a high-ranking experimental mess, but the concept seemed to be exactly what Autumn hoped to find. Bracing herself for the gargantuan of a headache bonus it was bound to come with, she began to cast the spell.
A magic circle surrounded the hollow stallion and his flesh began making a squishing noise as it joined together changing into one color. Then came the mother of all migraines, a splitting headache that felt like somepony was carving out the inside of her skull. Still, Autumn was already halfway through the spell and only needed to hold it for a bit more to complete the transformation.
“Autumn, what are you doing?” Grapevine said, not knowing what was going through his friend’s mind.
“Almost… come… Ah!” The unicorn jerked her head back as though it was struck by an unseen force. However, it was the stray spark of energy erupting from her horn that was the primary cause, also resulting in the end of the spell.
Putting her hoof to her forehead Autumn looked at it, seeing a mix of blood and sweat. But she was more concerned about the stallion. “Are you okay… High Water?”
He was silent now, but still staring into the flames. “You called me High Water, Is that my name?”
Autumn thought giving him a name was the least that she could do for him. He deserved that much. “Yes, your name is High Water. How do you feel?”
“I… feel.” Turning his limbs in examination, the stitches that once haphazardly held him together were gone. The different colored patches of fur across his body had changed, and he was now a light ocean blue with a mane tapering from blue to white and shining ocean green eyes. Most notably, all the scars, stitchings, and any hint of his previous patchwork self were gone.
The now identified High Water looked at Autumn, his face no longer grotesque in any way, and a smile of wonder forming on his face. “I feel… warm.”