"Brrring. Brrring. Brrriing." The loud cry of the school whistle rings, signaling the end of class. One of the ponies, halfway between sticking three pencils up his nose, stops. The rest quickly grabs their things and head out. You wave goodbye at the other ponies, but none wave back. You sigh. Ignored again. Why does everypony treat you like you don't exist? As you reach for your books on the desk, your eye comes across a single sheet of paper that you had been drawing on. A picture of your mom. She was the only pony you felt ever listened to you, no matter what happened. Still, although she meant well, she was a bit clumsy and because of that, she made a lot of enemies. Whether it was that or because of her eyes, no one wanted to be friends with you. Somehow, they were afraid it would rub off.
Bunch of close-minded... ugh. Why does everypony have to judge her? She's just doing the best she can. It's not her fault she has those kind of eyes.
Hastily shoving the picture into your saddlebag, you head out the door. You watch as groups of fillies and colts leave, always with their friends, but you dare not approach them. The last time you did, they simply ridiculed you and threw mud at your face. You hang your head. Nopony ever wanted to talk to you, or even be seen with you. You kept trying to make friends, but they always avoided you like the plague. After a while, it felt lonesome. Just once, you wish somepony wouldn't judge you just because of your mom's appearance.
You make your way across the playground and start heading home. You kick a rock, sending it skittering across the field and sigh again. Maybe I just wasn't meant to have friends? you wonder.
As you reach the edge of the playground, a voice calls out to you, causing your ears to perk upwards.
"Hey Kid."
"Huh?" You look up, and see a strange stallion. He's waving at you to come over. You're not sure what he wants, but it seems urgent since he's waving so furiously at you. Cautiously, you walk over to him. Upon getting closer, you notice that he's wearing ragged clothing, which looks like he hasn't washed in months. His shirt is torn in the corner and has questionable stains on it. His pants looked like they had been dipped in paint, then rubbed in mud. His beard is unshaven and had patches of it missing. In addition to that, he was constantly twitching and rubbing his neck. One of his eyes was swollen pink. You have a bad feeling about him, but you couldn't put your hoof on what.
"Say Kid, want some candy?" He reaches into his pocket and pulls out some lint-covered candy. He tries to shove it in your face, but you gently push it away with a hoof. A shiver runs down your spine. You wouldn't want anything this guy would give you anyway.
"That's okay, Mister. I'm good." You didn't want to be rude, but you just wanted to get away. "Thanks anyway!" you say as you turn and start to walk away. You look behind you and notice that he is following you.
"How about a balloon then?" He reaches into his pocket again and pulls out a crusty balloon. With a few wipes of his worn sleeves, he rubs off most of the dirt. He tries to breath into it, but soon stops, having to catch his breath. Clutching his chest, he wheezes with ragged breaths. He continues hobbling towards you as you try to walk away. You start to move faster. All you want is to get away from his creep-o. There's just something... not right about him.
"Wait! I... just wait!" he shouts at you, but you ignore him. You start running, and your trot quickly turns into a full-grown canter. He keeps shouting at you, but his voice shrinks as you get further away from him. You glance behind you to see where he is, and he's lying on the ground panting.
You're not sure where he came from, but for some reason you don't want to be near him. You need help, somepony in charge. An authority figure. Miss Cheerilee is your first choice, seeing as how she's your teacher. You run towards the school building, hoping that she's still in the classroom.
You start to feel your lungs burning and a side-stitch develops in your side. Your heart pumps faster and faster, as you're trying to breath. You decide to take a break, so you look for the nearest place. You turn the corner of the school building, and spot a bush. Sneaky like a ninja, you hop inside the bush and hide.
You peek through the bushes and look around, and you notice that most of the other colts and fillies have left. You can see Miss Cheerilee through a window, but she's looking down at her desk so she wouldn't notice you if you tried waving. The strange pony has disappeared, as far as you can see.
The good news is that the door is only about twenty hooves away. If you could reach it, you can tell Miss Cheerilee about the creepy stallion. That way, you'd be safe. You take one step forward, out of the bush.
"Gotcha!" screams a voice. You feel something heavy strike you in the head, likely a blunt object, and you start to feel woozy. Head spinning, you wobble backwards. "Whoa. Careful now." The stallion catches you as you fall.
As your vision blur, you look up and notice that the stallion is smiling. He holds you up with one hoof and says, "Everything is going to be just fine." Somehow, you don't believe him.
You struggle to stay awake, but your eyes refuse to obey you. Your thoughts drift back to your mother. She'll probably be worried when you don't come home. You feel like crying out. Why is this happening? Why me? Tears form at the corner of your eyes. The last thing you whisper before you lose consciousness is the word "Mommy..."
*****
"Ugh." As your senses return to you, you try to figure out what happened. All you know is that your head is killing you and you don't know where you are. You remember being at the schoolyard and the creepy stallion and...
You jump up. You remember now. You were trying to hide, but when you tried to get a teacher, he ambushed you. Shudders roam through your body as you remember his disgusting appearance. He was way too fishy, your brain just screams "He's bad news!" to you. You rub your head and try to ignore your throbbing headache.
"Where am I?" You whisper aloud. You look around the room, but it's completely unfamiliar to you. The walls and ceiling are painted white, and so is the floor. The room is completely empty, save for a sink and a single table in the middle of the room. On the table is a pan and a sign that says "Do Not Touch."
You stop in your tracks. On the pan is the biggest, most gigantic muffin you have ever seen. A droplet of drool leaks from your lips as you imagine the creamy texture. Fluffy and soft, it appears to call out to you. "Eat me... Eat me..."
But you stop. That sign is a little concerning. Is it a warning or is it fake? You're not sure, so you sit down and just stare at the muffin. You can even see the heat rising from it. The smell wafts through your nose, it's starting to drive you crazy.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrum," your stomach rumbles. You rub your stomach, trying to ease away the hunger pains. You must have been asleep longer than you thought, if you're this hungry. You waddle a little closer. Being a few inches closer isn't a bad thing, right? You reason to yourself. Just a little bit.
You approach cautiously, quietly tiphoofing around the muffin like a tiger. You pace around it in a circle, glaring at it. It doesn't look suspicious... but you're still not sure.
After a few more minutes of waiting, with the smell grabbing your nose, you decide that it's probably not so bad.
You look both directions, and upon seeing nopony at all, you open your mouth wide. Your reasoning is that If somepony was gonna kidnap you, the least they could do was feed you, right? What would the point of poisoning you be?
Your mouth moves closer. You can almost taste that delicious, moist, tenderizing muffin. You take a deep breath and practically hover over the enormous muffin. After all, you want to eat as much as you can as fast as you can, and you need air to do it. You close your eyes.
Just like that, you thrust yourself into the muffin, face and all. You bite down, inwardly smiling as the delicious flavor runs into your mouth. You can feel the tastes coursing through your veins, a crumbly, soft gooey feeling of a perfectly baked creation of edible goodness. The tastes of which you can't describe, for it is far too holy.
Or so you think.
All of a sudden, burning flares up through your mouth and it feels like a hundred tiny needles pierced your tongue. You take a step back, fanning yourself with a hoof. You look back down at the muffin and freeze. You try not to scream as you gaze at the sight before you.
Inside the half-eaten, gigantic muffin are hundreds, no thousands, of spiders. Itty bitty baby spiders, all flowing out of the muffin like a geyser. You stick out your tongue and stare at it.
Hundreds of spiders cover your tongue like a furry sweater. Some of them have escaped from your mouth and are now crawling along your face. You try not to bite down, but it happens anyway. A burst of fluid comes out of the exploded spider, tasting like a burst of spicy pepper. You gag and try to spit them out, but more replace them.
You run over to the sink and place your mouth under the faucet. You yank the handle and wait for the cool, refreshing water to hit your lips. But nothing comes out except more spiders. You cough as more head into your body. You lean against the sink, and try to cough out as much as you can, but it's fruitless. They simply crawl back in.
Meanwhile, the flow of baby spiders from the giant muffin continues. They spread across the floor, quickly filling every corner of the room. You try to step backwards, but soon your flank hits the wall. You can't help but silently scream. You would have screamed normally if not for the fact that your mouth was already full of spiders.
The burning sensation that spread through your tongue has stopped, and has been replaced by numbness. You can feel the spiders crawling inside you, probably digging deeper so they can lay their eggs. You try to shut your eyes. To pretend that they're not real. But it doesn't help, the crawling of little feet continue. You can even feel them crawling all over your eyelids.
"No, no, no, no!" You try to choke out words, but the spiders leave you muffled. You back up against the corner, the only now-safe place in the room. The rest had been filled with spiders that were crawling all over the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. They press forward against you, and you feel as if a vice-grip is closing against your heart. All of a sudden, you feel constricted. Like you can't breath.
"Dinky? Dinky! Wake up!" You can hear a voice coming from somewhere. It sounds familiar, but you can't place who it is. You're more concerned about air at the moment than who the voice belongs to.
You try to take a deep breath, but it feels like something is preventing you from breathing, a block of some kind. Slowly, you realize that it's the spiders. They must have balled up into a hunkering mass. As you start turning blue, you fall onto the floor, clutching your throat. You think back to the sign. You berate yourself; you should have known better.
"Somepony help her! Please!" the voice continues.
Your vision starts going blurry, and you start to cry. The best you can do without breathing, anyway. Tears fill your eyeballs as you feel yourself becoming cold. After a few seconds of prolonged gasping, your eyes close.
"Hold on, Dinky. Everything's going to be okay..." You're not sure why, but you can't help but take comfort in those words. Even if you still don't know who the voice belongs to. "I promise."
Then... everything went black.
For some reason, you feel flighty, weightless. You have no feeling in any of your hooves, either. As if you're drifting through an endless void. You try to make sense of what happened, but your mind seems muddled. Like somepony had dipped your brain in pancake batter and you're having trouble remembering.
Suddenly, you feel like you're dropping through the sky. Increasing in speed, winds rushing through your fur, a heavy weight feels like it's in your gut. The feeling tightens around your chest; you're trying to breathe when...
Your eyes pop open.
Now that you're awake, you find yourself in a baby carriage. You're not sure how you got there, but you can't help but feel tense and confused. You also feel different somehow. You look down at yourself, and notice something strange.
You shrank. Now all of your hooves are tiny and short and you've regressed back into a baby. Still, you feel like you have to get out of here, so you start looking for a way out.
You try to climb the bars on the side, but they're far too large. You only make it a few hooves before falling back to the ground. What's happening? What is this? Why am I a baby? You try to climb the bars again, but you fall down and hit your head. An intense pain strikes through the back of your head and you can feel yourself tear up.
Pain. That's all you feel. You hold your head and try not to cry, but the tears come anyway. Before you can stop yourself, you start screaming, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaa."
The pain still throbbing, you curl into a ball and start sucking on your hoof. When am I going to escape from this nightmare?
"There, there. Everything's going to be okay." You look up and see a giant grey pegasus, dozens of times your size. She reaches over and scoops you in her hooves. She gently rocks you back and forth and starts humming a lullaby.
"Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird." A word comes to mind. Mom. The word calms you, and you stop crying.
"And if that mockingbird won't sing, Momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring." Your mom rubs your belly with a hoof and you try not to giggle. All of the pain has magically floated away. Instead, you feel... peaceful.
"And if that diamond ring turns brass, Momma's gonna buy you a looking glass." She pats you on the head and puts you on her shoulder. She starts rubbing your back. Satisfied, you hug her.
You feel comfortable around her and start to relax. Your shoulders slump and you grin. A warm feeling rises from your gut.
"No matter what happens, Dinky, I'll always be here for you." Your mom kisses you on the cheek. "Forever and always." You slowly nibble on your own tail. "My little muffin..."
A small giggle escapes your throat.
Bang.
A loud boom echoes through the room.
You look at your mom, her face has been frozen. She looks down as a small red hole appears on her chest. She gasps.
"Mommy!" you cry out.
She tries to hold the hoof over the hole, but red liquid keeps coming out. She stumbles forward, and falls to the ground. As she looks at you, she smiles. "I'm sorry... Dinky." She cradles you in her arms, tears running down her face. She nuzzles you on the snout with hers. She continues humming the lullaby from earlier.
"And if that looking glass gets broke, Momma's gonna buy you a billy goat." Her eyes close.
"And if that billy goat don't pull, Momma's gonna buy you a cart and bull." Her chest stops moving.
"And if that cart..." Her mouth slows to a crawl, then stops completely.
"Mom?" You poke her with a hoof, but she doesn't move.
"Mommy?" You poke her again. Nothing.
Slowly, eventually, you realize that she's not coming back. But you don't want to admit it just yet.
Pacing in a circle, you rub up against your mother's face and lie down. Her body still feels warm. You press your snout against her and sob quietly into her fur. Her body eventually grows cold, but you can't bring yourself to break away. All you can do is just sit there for what seems like eons. You promise to yourself that you'll leave eventually, but for now, you just want to make the moment last as long as you can.
*****
Whispers flutter through the air and drift into your eardrums.
"She's so clumsy. All she does is break things."
"Isn't your mom the one with the freaky eyes?"
"Eww, she looks gross. How can you stand looking at her?"
You slowly open your eyes, but there's nopony around you. You blink rapidly. You're back to normal size and your mother is gone. Was that a dream? Ugh, I can't remember. You rub your throbbing head. It aches persistently, like a drill in the back of your head. You try to shake your head to make it go away, but it just gets worse.
Doing your best to ignore your migraine, you look around. All you see is that you're laying on a table in the middle of the room. A single door lies on one end and a boarded-up window lies on the other side. You groan, and sit up. Your body feels drained, as if a dull haze is hovering over you. With a heave, you slide yourself off the table.
"You must be so embarrassed."
"Aren't you afraid of being seen with her?"
"I heard she only got a job because they felt sorry for her."
The voices continue. You look for the source of the voice, but it's as if they're coming from everywhere at once. You check the window, but no matter how hard you try to peek through, you can't see anything. With nowhere else to go, you head towards the single door at the other end of the room. You can't help but notice that your body feels heavy, as if somebody had injected Novocaine into the wrong part. Slowly but surely, you lift up hoof after hoof and stumble towards the door. Leaning on the handle, you shove it open.
A gigantic hallway greets your sight. It stretches so long that there's no end in sight. All you can see on the other end is a dark abyss. It seems like too much effort to travel all that way, so your body screams at you to rest.
As you start to nod off, another voice whispers into your ear, "Keep going. Don't give up, Dinky!"
"Wha!" Startled awake, you pause. The voice sounds familiar but you can't place it. It's as if your brain simply refuses to work. Nevertheless, you move onwards. You shuffle alongside the wall, using it as a crutch. Your eyes keep fluttering closed, but you yank them open. "Stay awake!" you scream at yourself. Meanwhile, you continue on. The whispers gradually become louder and louder.
"Why do you exist?"
"Just give up."
"Stop. Just stop."
There are lights lined up along the ceiling, flicking on and off as you make your way through the hallway. No matter how far you go, it feels like you're just going deeper into the abyss. Soon, there is nothing but darkness on either side of you. The whispers have become a bellowing drum pressing against your ears. You try to ignore the voices, but they become deafening.
"You're worthless! Nothing! Just like your mother!"
"No good... lazy..."
"You'll never have friends!"
You bat your hooves into the air, like you're trying to shake away an invisible spiderweb. "Shut up!" you cry.
"You're ugly!"
"No one likes you."
"Just give up!"
You clutch your ears. "Stop it! Stop saying bad things! Go away!"
Suddenly, silence. Nothing but an echo rings in your ears. In contrast to the thundering voices, nothing remains but silence. You blink, and realize that you've reached the end of the hallway. A door sits in front of you, begging to be opened. Trembling, you reach a hoof towards it. After taking a deep breath, you push the handle and walk through. Immediately after, you feel yourself falling.
"Ahhhh!" you scream.
Finally, you land with a thud onto a hard floor and collapse into a pile. You find yourself in another room, but this one seems different. The ceiling has a hole in it, where you fell through. All around you are rows upon rows of dolls. About half are grey pegasus dolls, and the other half are grey unicorn dolls. Upon a closer look, they seem familiar somehow.
"Is it worth it?" A deep voice emits from each of the dolls. "You don't need her."
Wobbling to your hooves, you notice that their heads are following you. You move back and forth to see if they're watching you. They are.
"All she does is ruin everything. You're better off without her."
You try not to shudder as you look at them. They simply stare back towards you, their eyes an unmoving mass of pitch black.
Every time you move, their heads slowly twist in response. As you turn around, you can feel their eyes burning holes in the back of your head. All of the dolls continue talking, "Think about it. Because of her, you don't have any friends. No one wants to even look at you. Is that what you want?"
You look around, and locate another door. Reaching for the handle, you notice it's jammed. It doesn't bulge no matter how much you push against it.
"If you want, I can give you a choice. I can take you away from her, where you can live where nopony will ever bug you again. No more teasing, no more bullying. Only... freedom."
You bang against the metal door in vain.
"You don't need her anymore. Just let her go already."
A click comes from the door and it magically unlocks. You rub the sweat off your face and push open the door.
As you slip through it, the doll echoes one last sentence, "Let her go..."
