Cotton in the Wind

The summer air felt unusually humid, as the white cotton floated by, sprig by sprig, like ballerinas clad in white, dancing to season's wind.

You make your way to the edge of the dense, lush forest, on the outskirts of the town. A simple dirt path to guide your way, you swallow your doubts and head forward. The forest here seems uncontrollable, and untamed, as if nature claimed this realm for itself. Trees, blooming in white, almost giving the impression of a winter wonderland, with the white cotton blowing through the woods.

It wasn't far until you could smell the scent of burnt wood and stone, you turn your head and see a broken, dilapidated fence on the offside of the trail. You walk closer, and push back some brush, to which your stomach sinks like a lead balloon.

A rubbled mess of wood and stone, some burnt and scorched, carefully arrainged to form a makeshift door, while other pieces of wild brush, and jagged rock, poking in every which way direction to make some sembelance of a home.

You get an odd feeling in the pit of your stomach, as if something terrible permiated the ground that you stood upon. A chill ran down your spine, right to your toes, as you slowly walk towards past the fence.

The ground smelled of ash and soot, and there for as much wildlife you saw on the trail, not even a mosquito seemed to want to buzz around this unholy ground.

You feel your muscles tense as you reach toward the dilapitated door, and your nerves relaying an alarm that you knew all too well.

You were in terrible danger.

You shut your eyes, and open the broken door.

The door creaked as loudly as it did open slowly, sunlight slowly leaking into the makeshift home, giving some light to your situation.

You swallow your anticipating fears, and call out into the dimly lit home.

"Hello?"

You hear a rustling of objects, but no one replied. You take a single step in, and the smell of mold, soot, and dust overtakes you, resulting in a coughing fit.

"Cough.....cough...Hello? Is anyone home?"

The sounds of objects rustling became even more intense, fueling your panic slightly. You quickly find footing, as you start taking slow steps. The light leaking through the ceiling, giving you little light, however wonderful and blessed in its presence.

You look around, and see some burned objects, a couple of photographs, a few trophies, a single rusty horseshoe for whatever reason and suddenly, you see a pair of eyes looking back at you from a cabinet.

You freeze slightly, but find courage to look closer to it.

Upon further inspection, its just a burned doll, with half of its face and mane burned off. Creepy, but definately not horrifying.

Suddenly you hear a clanging of rock, leaf, and metal behind you, you quickly drop the doll in fear and nearly release your bladder in fear.

You slowly turn around and see a mangy cat hissing at you in anger.

"Whew.....just a cat."

You turn back around and are suddenly met with a horribly burnt face, with boils that leaked pus and other bodily flem pressed up against yours. The eyes half covered in sores and and carbuncles rotated uncontrollably in their lidless sockets.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?"

You fall right unto your back suddenly knocking over several photos and pieces of rock everywhere in the cottage. You quickly bring your arms up to defend yourself, but suddenly your ears are met with a howl of agony.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! MOTHER WILL BE FURIOUS!"

You drop your arms and see a skeletal thin pony, quickly grabbing the photographs and setting them back to their original position.

"M-mother?"

"MOTHER IS FURIOUS! AREN'T YOU MOTHER?"

There was no reply just the sound of emptiness and panicked breathing from both you, and the abomination in front of you.

" Excuse me Ma'am...but there's no one here but us..."

"MA'AM?" you suddenly feel a stinging lash against your chest.

"MA'AM? DO I LOOK LIKE A MA'AM TO YOU MISTER?"

You feel continous lashes against your stomach as flesh ripped with every swing. You can't even see anything past its face, what with its cloak around its body.

"I'm...sorry sir... My mistake."

The lashes stop, and he glares at you intensily.

"Who are you stranger?"

You get up slightly, but feel the branch at your throat, as if you were being told to remain still.

"I'm Mr Anon E. Mousse, the local school teacher..."

"LIAR!"

You felt a lash against your chest, as you cry out in pain.

"MOTHER IS THE SCHOOL TEACHER. NOW LET'S TRY AGAIN."

You feel lashes against your chest over and over again.

"WHO. ARE. YOU?"

You look around the room and see an old picture of an old woman, and a little colt. Your eyes dart around, and you see chains hanging off of the walls, attached to a highseat. You see a teddy bear with one eye missing and covered in soot, and then you stare back at your attacker, and your heart stops momentarily.

There's no way, did Skyline and the other parents know about this? Is this....her son?

"I know your mother!" You blurt out.

The lashings cease.

"You...know mother?" he slowly hisses at you.

"Yeah... I work with her, I'm her assistant."

"MOTHER IS THAT TRUE?" He cries out. There was still no response.

"Yeah, your mother sent me to check up on you. We haven't met yet, I'm Mr Anon E Mousse, and you are...?"

"....Frankly..." he begins

"Frankly?" you respond

"Frankly Cougar." He mutters.

"Well, Mr Frankly, I wanted to know if your mother was home."

"OF COURSE SHE IS! CAN'T YOU SEE HER?" He spits at you, covering you in pus and spittle.

You look around and see nothing but decaying mess.

"Could you maybe call her out maybe Frankly?"

He sighs deeply, and stomps over to a corner with a curtain draped over it. He rips it off and your face falls in complete horror.

"SHE'S RIGHT HERE! MOTHER IS ALWAYS HERE! ISN'T THAT RIGHT MOTHER?"

Frankly bends over and kisses the skinless burnt hoof of his mother, Ms Iron Trap, whose decaying, burnt, and hideless body sat decomposing on an equally burnt, decaying and hideless chair in the corner.

You couldn't help but dry heave slightly at the sight and smell of Ms Iron Trap.

"What's that Mother? You don't know this man?" Frankly whispers to his corpse of a mother.

"You want me to want Mother?" He looks in shock.

"But Mother, I can't..."

"Yes of course I do Mother..."

"Very well then. Mother is always right."

Frankly trots over to you with a horrible look upon his face, his eyes glazing over with a look of horror.

"MOTHER IS ALWAYS RIGHT."

Your heart sinks and you cover your face in fear.

This is it man.

Game over.

You open your eyes as you feel a strange sensation against your face...like saliva, pus, blood, and phlegm messily conglomerating over your face. You look down and your eyes open wide in shock.

Frankly was voraciousally embracing his lips with yours.

You yank your head back quickly as you slap his face with full force. The blow against his open burned skin burst open several of his pus carbuncles, as he howled out in pain.

"W-what the fuck are you doing?" You scream at him.

"MOTHER SAYS YOUR DIRTY."

He looks back at you furiousally.

"THIS IS WHAT DIRTY COLTS GET."

He slams his hooves against your wrists as he wiggles his loins above your chest.

"MOTHER SAYS THIS IS HOW DIRTY COLTS GET CLEAN!"

He begins straddling you and you feel cracked dry flesh beating against your suit, fluids dripping and soaking, whether it be seminal, blood, bile, pus or a combination of all the aforementioned.

"FRANKLY STOP!" You scream out.

"I CAN'T, MOTHER WILL BE FURIOUS!"

"YOUR MOTHER IS DEAD!"

He stops dry humping you, and glances at you.

"Your mother is dead Frankly, can't you see that?" You point back to the rotting burnt corpse of Ms Iron Trap.

"You don't need to be afraid of her anymore. She can't hurt you anymore."

"MOTHER NEVER HURT ME! MOTHER LOVED ME!"

Frankly slapped you across the face with the iron branch.

"JUST LIKE SHE LOVED ALL THE GIRLS AT SCHOOL!"

You take each repetitive blow to the face.

"I WASN'T A PERFECT LITTLE GIRL LIKE THEM, BUT MOTHER LOVED ME, JUST LIKE SHE LOVED THEM!"

With every blow, you could understand more and more of the heartbreaking situation.

"AND BESIDES...."

Frankly dismounts from you, and hobbles over to a burnt cabinet.

You get up slowly, and find a smooth rock, just like the one at the creek when you consoled Fluttershy. You quickly pocketed it, and tried getting to your knees.

Frankly pulled off his mantle, and revealed his naked, burnt body, dripping with pus, and blood. My god, every step for him must have been agony.

"MOTHER'S NOT DEAD."

He pulls something out of a box, and begins slipping it on, hoof by hoof, then over his head.

He turns back to you, wearing his mothers skin over his lack of.

"MOTHER'S ALWAYS BEEN HERE!"

He brandishes the Iron Branch and screams at the top of his lungs running toward you. This time, you can read his eyes behind the flaps of eyelids of his mother, his intentions were that of murder.

You quickly pull out the smooth stone and jab it into Frankly's eye.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!YOU HURT MOTHER!" He begins swiping furiously in toward you.

"YOU. HURT. MOTHER!!!"

You dodge every swing, and kick him in the chest, your shoes clearly making a fleshy "Sqlourch" sound at impact.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT BURNSSSSS US! IT BURNS US!" He screams in agony.

In the single moment of freedom, you quickly get to your feet and run for the door. You feel a lashing against your ankle and you collapse in pain. You suddenly feel the wet, slick sticky honches on the sides of your face, as he laid on top of your back.

"MOTHER JUST WANTS TO LOVE YOU ANON!" Frankly screamed as he began dry humping your backside, leaving a trail of yellow and red fluid.

You quickly reach for something, anything to save you from this horrible fate.

You see a jagged, burnt log jutting out from the door, you close your eyes, and reach out for it.

Success! You grasp the end of the log, and you hold it in your hands. You quickly jut it upwards, and you feel Frankly stop for a moment.

You look up and feel blood, saliva and pus drip on your forehead, you see the burnt log stuck in Frankly chin, through his muzzle.

He looks down at you through his mothers eyesockets, and removes it painfully. He tossed the burnt log aside, as his tongue fell through the wound you gave him.

"That wasn't very nice." He hissed at you.

You quickly grab at his cloak and rip it off off of him, and crawl frantically to get away.

You throw your leg right through the front door, and jump into the front yard.

You get up, breathing heavily, knowing that the victory was only temporary, because he'll just come out and finish the job.

You look back at the open door, as Frankly looks back at you.

The silence between the two of you was like an eerie eye of a maelstorm, where two mighty squalls fought between one another.

"Well, Frankly? Aren't you coming to get me?"

Frankly stands silently at the door frame.

"I... can't leave the house." He mutters.

"Mother will be angry."

You look down at your hand, and see you had the hide of Ms Iron Trap in your possession. How disgusting... wait....

"FRANKLY! THIS IS YOUR MOTHER!" you yell at him, moving the hide as if it was talking.

"MOTHER? YES WHAT IS IT?" He states his eyes growing large.

"I'M GOING AWAY FRANKLY. I'M SORRY FOR WHAT I DID TO YOU." You continue, in your falsetto voice.

"MOTHER, ITS OKAY, I LOVE YOU MOTHER, PLEASE DON'T GO. I NEED YOU."

Frankly starts putting the door back together, and panicking breathing.

"SEE MOTHER? EVERYTHING IS GOOD, JUST LIKE YOU ASKED! JUST LIKE YOU ALWAYS WANTED MOTHER!" He nervousally stated.

"No, I'm sorry Frankly, it took me until now to realize it." You walk closer to Frankly, whose eyes were fixated on his mothers skin.

"But you were perfect exactly the way you were... and I had no right to think so otherwise."

You get on your knees, and embrace Frankly.

"I am truly sorry Frankly." You drop the falsetto, and embrace him.

He wraps his hooves around you, and begins crying tears coagulating with pus and blood.

"It's okay Mother... I forgive you." He whimpers.

You pull back and look at Frankly, "She is ready to move on Frankly."

"I know Mr Anon. Go ahead, do it."

You pull out a lighter, and flick it on.

"Are you ready to move on?" You say lifting Ms Iron Trap's hide toward the flame.

"I don't know, Mother is all I've ever known. Please... Mr Anon, let me do this. For her and my sake."

You give him the lighter, and he lights the hide aflame.

You suddenly feel a kick to your stomach, knocking you back, you see Frankly wrap himself in the burning mantle, and run back into the decaying house.

"FRANKLY! DON'T! YOU'LL BURN ALIVE" You cry out, as the fire began spreading to the walls and ceilings of the dilapidated shelter

He turns around and for the first time in a long time, smiles at you.

"I, Frankly, Don't give a damn." He said as he slammed the door in your face.

Smoke began rising, tarring the cotton white sky with dreadful black.

You turn back, and before you know it, you can't help but feel tears running down your face, both from the smoke and from the tragedy of Frankly Cougar, and his abusive Mother, Iron Trap.

You throw your hands into your pockets as you walk back to the forest path. You hear the sound of fiery collapse behind you, and your tears begin falling even harder.

You look up at the sky and see white cotton blowing in the breeze, alongside bits of stained black cotton, each twirling with one another, as if knowing that they were the same, but never could be.