Sitting on her bed, Dinky stared out the window. It was a windy autumn day. Despite the wind, the trees outside were begging to be climbed, birds were singing, and she was bored and restless.
She didn't actually have any friends she could go out and play with any more. Dinky had had one at one point, but he'd stopped showing up to school one day, and nopony else had really wanted to make friends with her. Still, that was no reason to stay inside. She could go out and find something fun to do all by herself!
She turned to the open doorway. "Mommy! I'm gonna go out and play, okay?"
"That's fine, dear," her mommy replied. "Do you have your hat and coat on?"
"Yes, mommy."
"Don't forget your scarf. It looks chilly out."
Dinky hunted around her room, and eventually spotted it lying underneath her pillow. She wasn't quite able to do magic yet, so she just yanked the scarf out with her teeth and wrapped it around her neck.
"Okay, I've got it, mommy."
"How about your saddlebags? And a snack, in case you or your friends get hungry?"
Dinky felt a little guilty, but mommy seemed happy to think she still had friends, so Dinky had never quite corrected her. She already had her saddlebags on, and on a quick look inside, she saw that she still had two raspberry muffins from this morning tucked away.
"Yes, mommy."
"Good. Now, just stay safe when you're outside. Make sure you have your hat, coat, and things before coming home, and don't go too close to the Everfree Forest. There are dangerous creatures in there that might see a little filly as a good snack."
"Yes, mommy."
"Oh, and don't talk to strangers, and make sure you are home before dark."
"Okay, mommy."
Dinky left her room and headed towards the front door.
"I love you, Dinky."
"I love you too, mommy."
With that, Dinky went outside, closing the door behind her. The chill of the autumn day hit her, making her glad of her scarf and coat. The wind played with strands of her mane and tail, but this was soon forgotten as the wind caused leaves to dance around merrily in front of her. Spotting a pretty orange leaf, she started chasing it as it meandered around in the sky.
After several failed attempts at catching it, an orange and black butterfly happened by, and her chase proceeded anew. She rapidly lost track of where she was and the time in her pursuit of leaves, butterflies, birds, and anything else that caught her eye.
Eventually, she pounced and caught the latest leaf she had been chasing under her front hooves. She stood there proudly for a moment, the wind blowing through her pale yellow mane.
Wait a moment. What had happened to the hat she had been wearing?
Dinky turned her head back and forth, looking around, hoping it was lying on the ground somewhere close to her. She could easily have knocked it off somewhere. But if she had, it was nowhere nearby.
For that matter, where was she? In her running and chasing, she'd gone a long way from anywhere she was familiar with.
That wasn't the most important matter, of course. She had lost her hat. Mommy had told her to make sure she didn't lose it and she had. She'd be in all sorts of trouble if she came home without it!
Dinky started to slowly retrace her steps as best she could. She still had her coat, but she found herself shivering anyway.
So she searched high and low for the missing hat, in bushes and brambles, and getting all sorts of unpleasant things caught in her fur. Eventually she did find where her hat had gone. The wind must have caught it and run away with it, because it was snagged on one high branch of an old dead tree high up on the top of a hill.
Below the hill, the forest looked wild and overgrown. She must be somewhere on the edge of the Everfree Forest, right where she wasn't supposed to go.
Well, she'd leave the forest alone - once she had her hat back. She dragged herself up the hill to the tree, and thumped it a few times with her hind legs. The tree shook, her legs ached a little, and the hat wouldn't budge. It was time for more extreme measures.
Dinky approached the tree trunk with trepidation and looked up. It was a long long way to get to her hat. She wrapped her legs around the tree and started slowly climbing up the trunk. Her coat was getting covered with tree bark and dirt and twigs, and she winced when she heard a rip, but she continued up in her single-minded pursuit of her hat.
Eventually she got up to the branch her hat was hanging on. She started inching along the branch towards it, ignoring the way it was shaking and creaking warningly. Once she was close enough, she snatched for her hat.
As she did so, it finally worked its way loose and fell down out of her reach. The sudden movement, however, was the last straw for the branch, and as she slumped in defeat, it gave way under her with a crack.
Screaming in terror as she fell, Dinky clutched at the only thing near her that she could reach. Given that that was the falling branch, this didn't help much. She fell to the ground below and tumbled down the hill the tree had been on. As she rolled, she hit rocks and scraped against thorns and twigs before she eventually came to a halt, battered and bruised all over.
For a few minutes she just lay there sobbing, then she slowly pulled herself up from off the ground. She didn't think anything had been broken, but one of her hind legs was throbbing a bit, and it didn't feel like she'd be able to run on it. Given that she was now in the Everfree Forest, this could be a very bad thing.
Dinky was standing in a clearing in the forest, and near the edge of the clearing she could see a hat, the same hat that had caused her so much trouble. She probably should just walk over and pick it up, then get out of the forest as fast as her hoof would let her.
It was already getting dark, and it was kinda scary out here. She could swear she saw movement in the shadows, and even what looked like a pair of eyes. She trembled, trying to will up the courage to move.
As she finally stepped forward, a dark form moved towards her from the shadows and stood there, her hat right under it. She involuntarily made a little eeping sound, sure it was a monster come to eat her.
Then she took a second look and realised it was a pony. He was a large stallion, with a blazing orangish-red coat of fur, sleek and glistening, with small beady eyes and a long slender snout. Looking her over from head to tail in a way that made her very uncomfortable, he sniffed at the air.
Her first inclination was to turn tail and run. Something seemed very wrong. But her hat was sitting right between his front hooves, and with the way her leg felt, she didn't think she'd be able to anyway.
"Um, sir?" she finally said, a bit reluctantly. "Can I have my hat back, please?"
He looked down at the hat, and then back at her. "And what brings you out into the forest, little filly?"
"I lost my hat." She pointed at the hat between his legs, as if to emphasise that it was hers. "Now that I found it, I was going to take it back home with me to my mommy."
And she really, really hoped it would happen that way.
"Oh no." He shook his head, yellow mane flying in all directions. "That won't do. That won't do at all. There are dangerous creatures all around. You'd be eaten long before you ever reached your home."
He chuckled, as if at some private joke. Something bothered her about his mouth when he laughed, but it was getting dark, and he had it closed before she could take a good look, anyway.
"I have to go home." Dinky stamped one hoof. "My mommy wanted me home before dark!"
"It already is dark, dear, and she'd hate to have you come home looking like that." He flashed an unpleasant smile at her. "Suppose I wrote a note? Come with me, little filly. I'll get you nice and clean, and then we can have dinner."
This was probably a bad idea, but she'd really like to get out of the forest, and mommy would be a lot less worried with a note and her not looking like she had the entire forest in her coat and fur. She was also more than a little afraid to go back through the forest. At least she'd have somepony with her, even if he was kinda creepy.
A growl from in the woods decided her.
"Um, okay, I guess," she told him. "Thanks, mister."
"It is entirely my pleasure, my dear. Follow me." To her surprise, after he picked up her hat, he proceeded further into the forest.
"You live in there?" She looked ahead of them nervously. "What about the dangerous creatures you mentioned?"
He glanced back at her. "They won't bother me, dear. Just stay close."
The strange stallion slunk through the forest in a meandering path, going back and forth. Dinky could have sworn she was being watched from all sides. They took so many turns that she'd long lost track of where they were, and would never be able to find her way back.
"Are we almost there?" she asked tentatively, after they had been walking for a while. She'd already been worn out from earlier, and now she was getting pretty tired.
"Patience, little filly," he said. "Just a few more minutes."
Sure enough, before too long, she found herself in front of a crumbling castle. It almost seemed like it would qualify as a ruin, but he was headed right for it, so maybe it just needed to be fixed up a bit.
Dinky did have to wonder how many castles there were inside the forest. Her spirits grew a bit brighter at the prospect of getting to explore an old castle. There was even a motto over the door. It looked like it said 'Be bold, be bold'. There was something else after that, but she couldn't quite make it out.
The stallion walked up to the iron door under the motto, and pulled it open slowly. It creaked loudly, and he waved her inside. It was pretty dark inside, too, but there were torches lit on the wall every so often. One guttered and blew out, but the stallion was too busy closing the door, locking it, and putting some bolts in place to notice. Maybe he wanted to make sure to keep the monsters out.
"Come, my dear, let's get you squeaky clean," he said. "Follow me, and don't wander off. Not everything in this castle is safe for little fillies."
As she walked along the torchlit hall, the lights flickered and made strange shadows. She peered at the various doorways and hallways curiously, but they were pretty dark. It seemed like the the only spots with lit torches were the ones they were in.
Soon enough they came to a wall with a metal chute in it. Before she could protest, he dropped her hat in it. She heard a whumping sound as it fell. The stallion turned back to her.
"Your coat and scarf are all dirty, and you won't need them for dinner. Pass them to me, and they'll be taken care of."
Oh, was that some sort of laundry chute?
Dinky walked by his site, reluctantly removed her coat and scarf, and passed them to the stallion. He dropped them in the same chute he had dropped her scarf, with the same sounds as they fell.
She shivered, standing there. This castle was awfully cold with her coat on.
"Now, just come along, lamb," he said as he walked behind her. "We can get you a nice warm bath, and then it will be time for a lovely dinner."
He nudged her rump, making her jump with surprise. That was rude!
He'd even taken a good sniff under her tail. Dinky wrinkled her nose with irritation. What a weird stallion!
She took off in the direction she'd been shoved, maybe a bit faster then she'd meant to. Behind her, the stallion licked his lips and followed her.
At least this hallway was well lit, even if nothing else in this castle seemed to be. Taking a sniff or two of the air herself, she noticed it smelled a little funny ahead. She couldn't quite place the smell. The stallion followed her, and as the came to a wooden door, he pushed it open.
Dinky entered the room, and found what wasn't really a bathroom in the sense she normally saw, but more like a room for nothing but bathing. There was a larger wooden tub here, and it was full of water.
The whole area smelled faintly of rotten eggs and something else not quite identifiable. Next to the tub were some shelves with a few roughly folded brown towels that had been shoved on them.
"Well? Go ahead and scrub yourself off now, little filly. Get yourself nice and clean," the stallion encouraged from behind her. He lowered her head as if to nudge her ahead, and she quickly darted forward. She wasn't about to have a repeat of last time!
Dropping her saddlebags by the wooden tub, she plunged right in the tub.
The water was, indeed, pretty hot, which was nice after the cold of the hall. It was also bubbling every so often, and it seemed like that was where the rotten egg smell came from, though she wasn't sure about the other smell.
Plenty of time to figure out what that was later, though. She grabbed a nasty-smelling bar of soap from the side of the tub and started soaping herself up with it. Rudely, the stallion hadn't left, and was watching her intently as she bathed. Well, maybe he'd get bored.
She wasn't sure what could be so interesting about a filly taking a bath, anyway. Putting the soap down, she grabbed a scrub brush. It was kinda weird, really. It seemed homemade, and had rough bristles with a white, smooth handle, and a tassel at the end made of some sort of brown hair.
Dinky started scrubbing herself off all over with the brush. As she scrubbed off her back, then her belly, and between her legs, the stallion just sat there, occasionally licking his lips. He had mentioned it was around dinnertime. Maybe he was hungry.
"I've got raspberry muffins in my saddlebags," she offered. "You can have one if you'd like."
The stallion chuckled. "I wouldn't want to spoil my appetite. Perhaps for dessert."
Dinky was just about done with her bath, so she supposed dinner would come soon enough. She finished scrubbing herself off, shampooed her mane and hair, and then scrubbed herself off.
She stepped out of the bath, shivering, leaving a wet puddle under her. Pulling a towel off the shelf, she vigorously toweled herself off, finishing as the stallion approached her again.
"I'm done with my bath!" she announced. "Is it dinnertime yet?"
Dropping her towel on the floor, she noticed something laying on the ground by the shelf she'd pulled it from. Dinky looked closer to see what it was.
"Indeed, you are looking quite delectable," she heard. "I do believe it is, in fact, now dinnertime."
It was a tail! Lying there on the floor was a full, brown-colored pony's tail. There was even a piece of bone on one end of it. Given its size, it looked like it was from another filly or colt her age. Her eyes grew wide.
With his last words in mind, he sprang for the door past him, and barely made it, as he pounced on the spot she'd been standing. Dinky pulled the door open frantically and ran, abandoning her saddlebags, and trying to ignore her protesting leg.
"You can't run forever, tasty little filly!" she heard him call out behind her. "A quick game of hide and seek will make my dinner even more enjoyable!"
She ran down the hall as fast as her legs would take her. Her injured one was actually feeling a bit better after the soak in the tub. At least she was clean now. Though, thinking back to the bath, she had a horrible thought.
That tassel at the end of the brush had been the same color as the tail she'd spotted. And that white handle… She'd just cleaned herself with a scrub brush made from pieces of some other pony! Dinky choked down a wave of nausea.
"Oh, come now, don't make it that easy for me," she heard the stallion say behind her. "Running in a straight line is boring for a master of the hunt such as myself. At least try to make it difficult."
She dodged down a side passage. How dumb could she be? She'd just been following the hall where the lit torches were, making it perfectly obvious where she was. Dinky bolted into one of the dark passages, then through a door, and then another.
It was so dark in this room that she could barely see, but she could make out a large bed. A tapestry of some sort was hung on a wall, and there was a small fur rug in front of her that she thought was green, from the little light in here.
Green and brown. The pieces were all fitting together in her head. The one colt she'd been friends with had a forest-green coat and brown mane and tail, and he'd vanished one day. The rumours around town were that he had moved. But she was pretty sure he'd actually ended up here.
Hearing a sudden noise, she quickly hid behind the tapestry. A dark shape appeared at the entrance, sniffed at the air, looked around, and laughed unpleasantly.
"Oh, very clever, little morsel," he said. "But didn't you know tapestries are a bad place to hide? They tend to leave an obvious bulge."
As he headed towards the tapestry she was behind, she darted right under his legs, and right back the way she'd come.
"Good trick, lamb. But that'll only work on me once."
Once might be all she needed, though. Dinky ran straight down the hall as fast as she could go. Her leg was hurting, and she heard hoofsteps behind her, but she managed to get back to the door she'd come in through.
The heavy, bolted iron door.
She struggled with the bolt, which didn't want to move. Dinky heard steps approaching. She looked, despite herself, and the stallion, that horrible stallion was right behind her.
"You've led me a merry chase, but it ends here. Goodbye, little filly."
Light glinted off his rows of sharp, jagged teeth, and he suddenly looked huge, wild, and untamed. His eyes gleamed yellow, a cruel smile on his face as he leapt.
For miles around, there was nopony around to hear her screams.
Author's Note
You know, I like listening to folk songs and reading fairy tales, and in an awful lot of them, the main character comes to a bad end. I decided to try my hand at writing one. Note that I do actually like Dinky, btw. Sometimes you do bad things to characters you like...
The verse at the top is from a old folk song called Reynardine. The lyrics are here, or you can hear it sung by Fairport Convention here. You can even read up on its history here if you want. (Oh, and note to the mods; it's public domain at this point, so it's not copyrighted.)
The title is from a poem by Robert Frost.
And if you're tracking down references in here, you might be interested in the story of Mr. Fox.
