A small gust of wind echoed throughout the Everfree Forest on a warm, sunny day in Ponyville, the desolate leaves on the ground not inching a single bit. The leaves however, still latched to the tree, began to sway from the calming gust, making a faint shhh throughout the entire forest. A small rabbit scampered onto the dirt trail, and went into a nearby bush, causing the small branches to shake about. Not a single sound came out next from any of the scenery. It was almost as if time had stopped within the forest...
But sound began to grow, but into a different timbre... The sound wasn’t wind, or leaves... Instead, it was more of a stomping noise... It was as if something was walking up the trail...
There was a pony coming up... A mare, to be precise. She didn’t have a horn upon her head, nor any wings attached to her back... She must have been an Earth pony. The mare was blue in almost every way. Her coat was a weak shade of blue, the mane and tail of hers were darker. Her eyes were a vibrant blue as well, contemplating the different hues of her body. Her cutie mark was the only thing that wasn’t that color... Instead, it was a rolled up parchment, accompanied by a quill.
The expression that this mare had on her face was a soft smile, the calmest expression that she could show. She even seemed to enjoy taking a stroll out into the darkening woods. Though, wouldn’t she think that a forest as quiet as the Everfree be... creepy? The mare didn’t believe so, as she simply cantered her way through.
Though, as quiet as the wood might have been, there was one other being nearby... A hood camouflaged perfectly within the tree line, the inside of the hood blackened out. This figure... It was stationary in its spot, its eyes fixated on this moving mare. Suddenly, an orange aura appeared from within the hood, giving illumination to part of the blackened shadow. It seemed this figure was a unicorn, given the fact of the aura emanating from the middle of her forehead. The aura has also shown a couple strands of a orange mane, light and flimsy. However, there was an object that was also covered in the aura as well. It appeared to be a fairly large stone, about the size of half a pony’s skull, and not very light to boot. It hovered off of the ground, floating next to the hooded figure, as they looked onwards to the trotting mare going past them.
At once, the rock shot out towards the trotting mare, aiming straight at her skull. The mare, who did not see the rock coming at her so quickly, fell right into the crosshairs, the impact right above the temple. Immediately, she fell to the ground with an odd squeak, onto her side. She was beginning to see black around her vision, feeling much more faint by each passing second, before she slipped into a comatose state, barely breathing after that hit...
The hooded figure had stepped out from within the tree line, slowly trotting her way over to the unconscious mare, and bending over to her. A hoof was laid on her, to check for any pulse. Thankfully, there was one. And it was strong... normal... The figure seemed to smile through the black, the aura emanating from her head yet again. This time, it covered all of the blue mare’s body, lifting her up off of the ground, and right next to the figure.
“This... This one will be perfect...”, the hooded one spoke, which was toned as a mare’s voice... It was young, but croaky, as if she had not spoken in such a long time. She turned around and walked back towards the tree line, the floating body right behind her...
A few moments later, the unconscious mare had awoken, the black vision encasing her surroundings beginning to fade away. She seemed to be laying down on her back, the surface feeling as if it was hard as a rock. Well, ironically, it was rock. It was a giant rock surfaced within the earth, making a perfect makeshift table. “H-Huh...?”, the mare had croaked out, but immediately wincing afterwards. The pain from getting hit in the head from the rock was starting to catch up with her, into the form of throbs. It actually made it a bit difficult to focus on what was going on.
She went to move her right foreleg, but it immediately jerked back at her, causing the mare to go into a bit of panic. She tried yet again, but the same result repeated. It was like her leg was constricted by something... She craned her head to the right, her eyes immediately shooting wide at the sight. She was right! Her right foreleg WAS tied up! This wasn’t helping her panicking at all, it was only fueling it much more. That’s when she went to move her left foreleg, immediately receiving the same effect that her opposite leg had shown.
The mare gasped out, the fear coursing throughout her, and flailed wildly, trying to pull back her backlegs now. But, just like her forelegs, they were tied up as well. She was fully trapped within the ropes, tied to this rock, and no means of escaping... She gulped once, then took in a deep breath and released it out in the form of a yell.
“HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!”
She waited for a few moments, to see if there was going to be any response. A cry back, an animal scurrying nearby, anything... The only thing that she did hear, however, was the echo from her cry bouncing through all of the wood, not receiving a single response...
The mare was starting to cry a bit, the fear catching up into her mind. That’s when something did begin to rustle nearby... It was coming from a nearby bush. A dark figure had popped from it, seeming to wear a hood... The constricted mare’s head turned to the figure, glad and somewhat nervous that they were there.
“H-Hello? You, over there! Could you help?!”, she called out, only to have the hooded figure walk over towards the rock. Immediately the mare was about to thank her for even noticing her, but as soon as she opened her mouth, the hooded pony’s aura returned, targeting five long objects nearby.
Suddenly, the objects were ignited with a small flame of light. The flames might have been weak, but they did illuminate the area quite brightly. Behind the torches was a wall, with multiple tools hanging from small nails. The tools though, had some sort of odd composure to them... They looked more like picks, knives, and scissors...
Underneath the wall and also located behind the torches were little figures... It looked as though it was constructed of wood, mainly sticks... There were many forms of the figures all around them, from squirrels to rabbits and from birds to... ponies...
And finally, there, right around both of them was a large drape concealing the area, acting as a large curtain. The thing that was off about it though was the color... It seemed to be of many colors, but they were all dried, faded... There were some markings as well in some spots, but they were all different too. One was a series of hearts, formed into one larger heart. Another seemed to be an art brush, and another three pink bubbles...
The blue mare was now just taking in all of these sights, starting to enter hyperventilation. The tools and the figures aren’t what set her off. It was the drape... And it was the one thought that just wouldn’t leave her head...
The drape was... the coats of ponies...
Immediately, she shrieked out, but she was quickly silenced by the hooded mare’s hoof landing straight on her muzzle. “Hush.”, the hooded mare spoke, slowly bringing her hoof off of the mare, and returning it back to her side.
The blue mare gulped, and gave a small whimper in response. “Wh-Who are you? Where am I?”, she asked the hooded mare, about to bust out in tears yet again. However, instead of answering right away, the mare took a hoof to her head, pulling back her hood, and revealing her face for the first time to her.
Sure enough, the hooded figure was a mare by the sounds of her voice. Her coat was the faded color of burgundy, but it looked as though her skin was fading in color. Her eyes, having the near shade of the constricted mare’s coat, was failing at throwing off the popped blood vessels in her eyes. Her mane was brittle in some places, but still having a bright orange hue. And she had a horn, which would explain how she was able to create the orange auras from before.
“Now. To answer your questions...”, she started off, smiling warmly at the tied mare. “My name is Rockshire. And what is your name, dear?”
“I’m... I’m Moonbeam...”, she replied, gulping and beginning to shake a little.
“Oh, Moonbeam... What a lovely name! I think I shall just call you Mooney for short, dearie...”
“Um... O-Okay... Now... Where am I?”
“Well, you’re still here in the Everfree Forest, of course.”
“But... Why am I t-tied up?”
“Well... I don’t like it when ponies squirm...”
Immediately, this had made Moonbeam begin to cry again, starting at simple sniffling, and ascending into small sobbing. Rockshire didn’t like this... She didn’t want to see a mare like her cry before... She walked over to her, shushing her and placing one hoof on her cheek.
“Mooney... Don’t cry. I’m not going to hurt you... I just need for you to be my new model.”, she reassured, giving her a warm smile her way. Moonbeam opened her eyes, which her vision was now blurry from her tears, seeing the smile and calmed just a bit, but didn’t cease her sniffling.
“B-But... What do you mean by... squirming?”
“In order for my masterpieces to be perfect, I must need a silent and still model. Now, if you do just that, I’ll give you a surprise. Will that soothe your crying?”, Rockshire asked, as if she was the mare’s mother.
“B-But... What are you going to do? What are those things?!”, Moonbeam had asked, craning her head back to the wall of tools hung.
“Do not worry about those... Those are my tools for making my models. Now, let’s get started...”, she replied, walking over to the wall, and emanating the orange aura, levitated over a pair of large scissors. “Now... How much do you love your mane, Mooney?”
“Huh? My m-m-mane? I... WAIT! NO! DON’T CUT IT OFF! I DON’T WANT MY MANE TO BE CUT!”, Moonbeam yelled out, going back into another fit of her crying.
Rockshire seemed to scoff, walking over to Moonbeam again. “Stop crying...”, she simply told her, looking over to the bawling mare. But Moonbeam wouldn’t stop her crying... “I said stop crying!”, Rockshire repeated, hoping that it would at least cease the blubbering. And sure enough, it was working... somewhat. Moonbeam was starting to calm down, but she still held bits of sniffling here and there.
“I cannot believe a mare like you would cry so much... And here I thought you would be perfect for the model... Now, I’m just going to cut your mane a bit, okay, dear? Nothing bad about that...”
Immediately, the scissors floated up to Moonbeam’s head, guiding past her ear. The blades spread apart, and quickly came back together, the mane tuffs falling down next to Moonbeam. Each snip that was performed, Moonbeam started to feel colder, the breeze from the woods beginning to pick up. That was when she asked Rockshire the question.
“I-If I’m... your model.... why am I tied up with rope?”, she weakly asked.
“Remember what I said before? I don’t like it when ponies squirm.... and that’s not rope. You’re tied in the manes of my old models.”
That made Moonbeam’s eyes shoot wide, her head quickly shooting back to her right hoof from before. She knew that she had been tied up, but she never thought of with what. And that’s when she saw it... There were different pigments of the ‘rope’, from pink to blue, and from white to red...
Moonbeam unleashed another shriek, once again being quickly muffled by Rockshire’s hoof. “Will you be quiet?! You’re this close to meeting ‘Mrs. Not-So-Nice Mare’!”, she hissed at her, taking her hoof straight off her muzzle. Moonbeam let out a whimper, and shut her eyes.
“Better... Now, may I continue?” Without even waiting for an answer, Rockshire had went back to cutting more of her mane. At this point, it looked as though Moonbeam had received a buzzcut trim... Though, Moonbeam wasn’t in the happiest of moods. She still continued to clench her eyes shut, small tears escaping her eyelids, and right down her cheek.
But that’s when she cried out again. Rockshire had accidentally went too far into cutting Moonbeam’s mane, the sharp edges of the scissors tearing into her scalp, and ripping a wide gap into the skin. Blood had slowly began to trickle down the mare’s face, trails of it going right past her eyelids. This of course, had made Rockshire smile, grabbing a cloth close to her to wipe up the red liquid from her victim’s eyes.
Even though Moonbeam’s eyes were closed, she knew that she was bleeding from the top of her head, and as if it were her cue, went back into bawling, upsetting Rockshire yet again. She has had it with this mare’s crying and whining, and saying that she does not want to do this.
With one of her hooves, she removed the hood that she was garnished in, revealing the rest of her body. Her tail, being the same color as her mane, also seemed to be faded, and on her burgundy coat, there were dried-up blotches of red... Her cutie mark was revealed as a carving knife, but thanks to one of the red blotches, it looked as if the knife was stained in blood...
“I’ve had enough of your constant whining and blubbering! You’ve just now earned “Mrs. Not-So-Nice Mare” since you couldn’t control your little, puny outbursts!”, she exclaimed, walking back over to the wall of tools. Moonbeam, meanwhile, continued to cry out. This isn’t supposed to happen... I just wanted a walk in the Everfree Forest, and... and... I’m getting a manecut b-by this mare!, her mind spoke out, through the midst of her crying fits.
That’s when Rockshire came back over to Moonbeam, now with a large grin on her face. “Do you want something to cry about? If not, you might as well open your eyes...”, she hissed at her, the bawling Moonbeam not compiling to her at all. That had only made the grin of hers wider, hovering up one tool she had obtained from the wall: a knife. Coincidentally, it looked just like the knife that she had as her cutie mark, even having the same texture of blood on the blade and handle...
“I’ll say it one more time... If you don’t open your eyes right now, I’ll give you a reason to cry... Understand?”, she whispered at Moonbeam, cold and ominously. Thankfully, with a few sniffles, the crying mare slowly opened her eyes, immediately seeing that a trail of her blood was flowing right in front of her eye... She hated the sight of blood anywhere. It started to make her stomach churn in a negative way...
But there was another feeling that was starting to go through her... slight dizziness. This could have been caused by the blood that was beginning to deplete from her scalp, which still left a nice, clean cut across her skin. Through the multiple layers of her skin, showed glimpses of her skull, a dirty white from the blood.
“Now...”, Rockshire had started off, the knife hovering over towards Moonbeam’s chest, the blade pointing directly down. “We need to see if your insides are... healthy enough to withstand becoming my new model...”
“W-Wait, no! Stop! Don’t--”
And at that moment, the blade was slowly brought down to Moonbeam’s chest, the tip of it digging a small hole into her skin. This made Moonbeam cry out a bit in pain, already beginning to see small forms of blood seeping into her coat.
“Does this hurt you, Mooney? All you have to do is say one little word and I’ll be easy on you from here on out... If you refuse to cooperate, I’ll make sure you stay awake through all of this.”
In response, the only thing that Moonbeam could form out of her mouth was unintelligible blubbering, mainly from the sole fact that there was a small fraction of a knife in her chest, and that it was beginning to cause small blasts of pain.
“Sorry. That’s not the word.”, Rockshire hissed. With one final push, the knife slowly started to descend right down her chest, making Moonbeam shriek out in pain. Already, the blood from the crevices of her skin were seeping out in different directions, staining her coat and dripping down onto the rock below.
Moonbeam was too in shock to even divert her eyes away from the blood that streamed into her coat... She was already feeling too nauseous to begin, and now with seeing the vital liquid coming out of her in multiple places...
Her stomach couldn’t handle anymore, as her head jerked to the right. With one loud gag, she had vomited over onto the ground, the waste splattering right next to Rockshire’s legs, and releasing the foulest of smells. Of course, that would make Rockshire jump a little to avoid getting in the vicinity of the waste.
“Hey, watch where you’re puking! If you’re gonna be sick, puke on the other side!”, she scolded, beginning to concentrate back on the knife, just ending its slicing right at the middle.
Moonbeam was beginning to cry out again, but she was still feeling more and more sick from her recent nausea. All she could do at this point was make out some sort of crying moan, shutting her eyes for just a moment. And suddenly, she received a quick stab to her stomach, making her cry out again. This had came from Rockshire’s knife, whom the wielder of it didn’t look happy at all.
“What did I tell you about closing your eyes? Now, OPEN THEM BACK UP!”
Moonbeam, through another one of her pained moans, slowly her eyes back up, seeing that the knife was completely lodged into her side, right below where her flank was... It seemed to be so far in that the blade was not even visible to her teary eyes...
“S-Stop... I... It hurts...”
This plea made Rockshire stop for a second, looking over at Moonbeam with a concerned expression. “This... hurts? This honestly hurts you?”, she asked, her voice unusually serene. And all Moonbeam answered with was a simple nod, followed by a sob being choked up.
“Dear... Haven’t you learned of the phrase... “No pain, no gain”? And really... I don’t care.”
The creepy grin returned to Rockshire’s face, as the knife lodged into Moonbeam’s side suddenly shot through her stomach, another cry escaping from Moonbeam. The blade stopped on the other side, slowly pulling itself out of her, and returning back to Rockshire’s side.
Already, more blood than the cut down her chest was pouring out, falling to the rock, and onto the ground below. This also came with another ball of vomit shooting out from Moonbeam’s mouth, but onto the other side of the rock as commanded by Rockshire.
This pain just felt completely unbearable to her... Her chest and stomach felt as though it was on fire, her head chilled down in temperature... The blood was already starting to slow its streaming down her face, signaling that most of the blood that she had was now lost. This needed to stop. And fast.
That’s when Moonbeam began to struggle her way through, trying to throw all of her legs out of the rope bindings, despite pushing a little more blood out of her stomach region. But it wouldn’t work out. She was already beginning to feel weak from the blood loss to begin with. Her hooves were now starting to lose circulation from the tight-bound mane rope as well. Despite the useless struggling she was performing, this didn’t please Rockshire one bit.
The knife floated back in the air again, striking down on one single vein in her right foreleg, blood sprawling out easily from impact. Moonbeam cried out yet again, but this cry sounded a little weaker... She was already beginning to lose energy to even yell at her pains.
But Rockshire wasn’t stopping there. The blade pulled out again, hovering over to her left foreleg, repeating the same action and the same result occurring again. And it repeated yet again to her backlegs, except they both receive two stabs to the muscles, even more blood seeping out from the skin and dripping to the rock.
“There... That should keep you from squirming. Now, do you want to feel like a hero again?”, Rockshire teased, adding some sort of manic giggle to her question. All Moonbeam could respond with was a gurgle mixed with a groan... She couldn’t even focus on the current matter, already beginning to feel more and more light-headed... Her vision was also beginning to grow darker and darker...
“I said... Do you want to feel like a hero again?”, Rockshire repeated, moving closer to her face this time, and her eyes widening. The blue irises that colored them were now being ruined from red lines... Bloodshot eyes. Sadly, Moonbeam had repeated the same sound, the gurgle-groan.
“Fine... No response. Your fault.” Immediately, Rockshire went back to the wall, summoning back the aura to her horn, and directing it to three other exact knives on the wall, hovering over to her. She walked back to the pained Moonbeam, who seemed as though she was beginning to slip more and more into a deep sleep... But Rockshire wasn’t about to have that.
With all four knives pointing down at the victim, Rockshire focused on them, as they shot down back into the stab wounds on her legs, a now weakening cry by Moonbeam. And slowly, they ripped downwards towards the ties on her hooves, tearing any muscles that come in front of the blades.
“There’s your punishment for trying to be silent... Now, do you want to speak up?”
Oddly, there was some silence from Moonbeam, her body trying to release nauseous waste from her throat. But, she felt so weak, not even having any energy to breathe, that the waste just stayed stuck in her mouth, motionless, and beginning to choke her. Gagging sounds were produced from her, her face slightly turning red, which had only made Rockshire’s grin become even wider... At this point, it would honestly hurt to smile more.
“Mooney, are you okay? You seemed to be a bit... choked up.”, she teased, simply watching Moonbeam fight for her life...
That’s when Moonbeam closed her eyes, not even attempting to open them up... “HEY! I said no closing your eyes!”, Rockshire yelled out, getting up closer to her face. And Moonbeam didn’t even attempt to try to open her eyes this time. Also, her face was slowly beginning to grow into a lighter hue, losing the vibrant blue color it was once before...
Her body was also taking the same toll, slowly fading into a more depleted blue, as if the color was dipped slightly in grey... And her breathing had just stopped altogether... Has she... passed away? There was only one way to find out.
Rockshire moved even closer to the motionless Moonbeam, resting a hoof onto her neck to feel if there was any pulse left in her...
One... No beat.
Two.... No beat.
Three... No beat.
“She’s dead... How disappointing. And I was actually beginning to like her... Oh well.”
The blades had pulled out of the corpse, hovering back to Rockshire’s presence, as she had trotted right back to the wall again. Her magic started up yet again, and nearly every tool or instrument hanging from the wall had come off their placements, levitating to her. They all had surrounded her like the planets around the Sun. She went back over towards the deceased mare and sighed.
“You know, Moonbeam, I would have loved to learn much more about you. But sadly, we had to have come to these terms.” As she spoke, the multiple knives had went to work on removing the skin straight from the lower half of her body, sprawling more and more blood everywhere.
There were three different picks there with her, trying to scrape or tear off any muscle that was connected to her bones, along with sliding off any blood that was stained by it.
“You even seemed like a wonderful mare to hang around, what, with the spring in your step and the small smile wiped across your face... I would have even asked if you had a family or not. But... I rushed myself too much. And I apologize... That is the one thing I regret about this.”
The largest instrument, a metal rod with a hook attached to the end of it, was inching towards her snout, moving straight into her nostrils... Then a snap was heard, blood slowly coming right out of both of the nostrils now. That’s when the rod was coming back out, with a somewhat sizable gray chunk on the tip of the hook... It had shades of red as well, blood...
“There. Nose passage is freed up. The brain can slip out in chunks easily now...”
The rod continued to dig into her nose and pull out brain chunks, while two free knives went to cut any muscles within her eyes, separating the white spheres from their restraints and off onto the rock. That’s when a small brush had come off the wall too, beginning to sweep any chunks that have been left on the rock into a large metal bin, along with any fresh blood.
“I wondered how you would have reacted to being my assistant... Because it does become a bit difficult to continue all of this on simple magic, you know... It would be more efficient as well. With the assistant, I could make models... quicker. This is a good idea... I’m sorry that I had not thought about this sooner, Mooney... Do you forgive me? Oh, wait, I can’t ask you because you’re dead...”
One of the knives had went to slash the tied manes off of the deceased’s hooves, all of the legs falling right to the respective sides...
It wasn’t long until all of the muscles and blood was cleared from all of her bones, nothing left but a skeleton of a pony... The smell of it beginning to rot was starting to kick in as well. Rockshire accidentally took a good whiff of it, grimacing a bit. “Beginning to decompose already... That’s good. Now... about your other parts...”
The skin from was hanging on a small tree branch, the parchment and quill cutie mark still looking vibrant, even after the pony given the talent has gone away... The bucket that held her muscles and some mixes of her blood, it was off near the entrance of where the two had came in. The mane that was cut from atop Moonbeam’s head was now braided into one of the mane ropes, just to add support... And all of the tools that were used in the muscle-removing were placed neatly back on the wall, the blood still stained on the handles and the blades. She never cleaned them once, for she didn’t need a reason to.
“Let’s see... I’ll dump the meat off in the river. Then... I’ll go ahead and wash out the bin, so I can scrub the rock from the blood... Besides, if I don’t, the next victim might have a panic attack, and if they do, that just means a bigger mess... But first, it’s time to create my masterpiece.”
The skeleton that was laying on top of the rock suddenly glowed orange, from Rockshire’s magic, and that’s when the figure started moving off the rock. It looked as if the figure was coming alive. Rockshire loved this part of her creations. Before, she used to just place them over in the corner of where her work area was. But, after each and every model deteriorates, she figured that even she could have a little fun once in a while.
The skeleton began to trot to her, but extremely awkwardly, like a foal beginning to take its first steps. The skull of it has a large crack in the middle of it, showing where Rockshire had to break part of the bridge in her nose to scoop out her brain. Other than that little flaw, she did an excellent job on not damaging any of the other important bones.
“Why, it is an honor getting to meet you, Mr. Bones.”, she teased in a regal tone, slightly bowing down to the skeleton. From her magic, she had made the boney figure take a shaky bow as well, mimicking her movements, and making her break into a healthy giggle. That giggle had made it sound like she actually had some sanity left inside of her...
“Enough chit-chat. Now, strike a pose!”, she exclaimed, her horn glowing a bit brighter and directing it to the surrounding aura. Immediately, the bones of the skeleton disconnected from themselves, floating around her in some sort of orbit. She began to giggle a bit maniacally, slowly escalating into a laugh, and finally ascending to a loud cackle.
At the time she was slowly increasing in her laugh, the bones began to spin around her faster and faster... And then, every single bone had flashed a bright white, transporting from right around Rockshire to right behind the rock. And it was placed in the weirdest of poses...
The skull was placed upside down, with both of the forelegs open out to the sides, as if the figure was ready to give out a hug. It seemed to stand on one of the backlegs, the other acting as if it was about to kick something... Already, this looked like something that would come right out of a horror movie. But this didn’t scare Rockshire at all. In fact, she even seemed more giddy than scared straight.
“Perfect! It’s done! This, by far, has got to be my best creation ever!”, she exclaimed, going into another of her crazy, creepy grins.
Suddenly, she heard a twig snap off in the distance, her ears shooting up. What was going on? The snap sounded as though something was coming... Something larger than a rabbit, but smaller than a bear... Could it be another pony? She needed to find out, and quickly. It wasn’t often that she would have two victims in a single day... She needed to act, and fast.
She cantered over to her hood that she had tossed away earlier, throwing it right on her back, and adjusting it yet again. Finally, the hood was thrown across her head, making her face, blackening out her face yet again. And without a single word, she ran out of her area, past the skinned drapes and off to where the twig snapping was heard, hoping it would be another victim...
