Pure horror. That was the only way to describe what was before me. A pegasus, wielding a knife, stood before me, his brown coat shining bright red with blood, as was his dark blue mane. The room was the worst part. The floor and walls were stained red, and the skins of ponies were mounted on the walls. My eyes kept darting back to the floor, covered in dark blood.
My blood.
My ears throbbed, having been cut off at the tip, and my waved brown mane and tail were strewn across the floor like straw. It sickened me, but most of all I felt powerless. I was strapped to a wall, at the mercy of this killer. I could hardly see, my glasses having been taken and smashed, the glass still stuck in my leg. My wings were strapped together. I couldn't move.
The pegasus approached me, laughing at the tears streaming down my face. He was going to hurt me again. I didn't want to be hurt more.
"Please!" I yelled. "Please, just let me go. I swear I won't tell anyone."
He laughed. "You expect me to fall for that? I'm not stupid. You'd go running to the police the moment I let you go."
"No! I swear I won't! Please," I said, as he began cutting into my right leg. "I swear on my life! Oh please, if you don't do it for anypony else, do it for-" I had an idea. "-Fluttershy."
My attacker and foalnapper looked up, and I could swear there were tears welling up in his eyes. He pulled off the straps, and let me stand up.
"I promise I won't tell anyone!" I blurted out.
"If you do, it would be very unfortunate for you," he said.
I was suddenly hit on the back of the head and knew no more.
"Will he be alright?"
"He will have a few scars and his ear tips will be permanently damaged, but his mane will grow back."
"Thank you doctor. And thank you Princess Luna, for finding him."
I opened my eyes, and everything was a sort of haze. I felt sick, and made no attempt to sit up, knowing it would just make it worse. I had a weird mask on my face, but my ears no longer hurt and I could see bandages on my cuts.
"Autumn?" a familiar soft voice said.
"Mummy?" I said.
"Autumn, my baby!" Fluttershy choked. "I thought I had lost you!"
She leaned in close for a hug, grasping me tightly as if she would never let go. I felt much too weak to move, so I didn't try to wrap my arms around her.
A starry mane came into view. A dark blue alicorn with a crown was sitting next to Fluttershy. Princess Luna.
"Ugh," I said. "Where am I?"
"You're in the Canterlot Castle Hospital," Luna said, much to my surprise. "I saw a dark shadow near my tower carrying something, and when I went to investigate, I found you. You were too injured to be taken anywhere quickly, so I contacted your mother and brought you here. You've been missing for a day."
I shivered. I didn't even want to think about what happened.
"Do you know how you got there?" the doctor asked.
"Well, I was sitting on the top of my tree watching the sunset, and I I heard a rustling and and felt a small prick in the back of my neck. I was worried, so I tried to run as fast as I could home. But I was getting slower by the second, then I started crawling, and I almost got home before I was unconscious," I explained.
"What I'm confused about," Luna continued. "Is why you were let go in the first place. Most ponies who foalnap somepony are doing it for ransom or just sick killing. This is the Nightmare who took you, so it will be the latter. You had remainders of a drug in your system, and you confirmed that, so you didn't just get lost. Do you remember anything?"
"N-no," I lied. "It's all sort of a fuzzy haze."
"And no wonder," the doctor said. "You've been drugged, and hit pretty hard on the back of your head. You've also been through some trauma your brain will try to block out."
There, the doctor was wrong. I remembered every single detail. The pain, the blood on the floor, the sick, twisted smile of my captor as he cut off the tips of my ears. And most of all, the knowledge that I would die eventually. But that one name had saved me.
"I'm sorry Miss Shy, but you will need to go home. Autumn Leaves must stay here."
"What?! I'm not leaving my child just after I've found him again!" Fluttershy said.
"I'm sorry, but you have to leave," the doctor said in a calm voice.
"No! And that's final!" Fluttershy retorted.
"Enough!" Luna yelled. "Fluttershy may stay."
"Yes, Princess," and the doctor walked out.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Fluttershy sobbed. I shifted, and she embraced me again. It felt wonderful.
"Mummy," I said. "I love you. I love you more than anything."
"I love you too, Autumn."
We got to go home soon after, and I reunited with all our friends. Everyone, especially Rarity, had been so worried about me. My "cousins" were the most worried. Apple Blossom and Flair had not taken it well that I was missing. When Rarity and Applejack came to see me, they brought those two with them.
"Autumn! Autumn!" Apple Blossom yelled. "We thought you had gone forever!"
"And it was only just when I had made a new outfit for you," said Flair, and we all laughed about this before they wrapped me in a big hug.
My little brother, Winter Snow, and big sister, Spring Flower, walked in and were shocked. They hadn't been allowed to see me for the first few days I had come back, as had everypony else, for the simple reason of I wasn't stable or better. I was covered in bandages and could hardly coherently talk when I got home.
"Autumn?" Winter said in his tiny voice. "Autumn home?"
"Yes Winter, Autumn home," Spring said gently, and they ran over and joined the hug.
I supposed I should have been happy, but I was scared. The pegasus had threatened me so I wouldn't tell anypony and of course it worked. I was seven. But he had told me what he would do if I told anypony, and that unnerved me. I couldn't be happy if that was the case.
