“You should leave town.”
Berry Punch looked at Cheerilee with almost familial concern. The two had met in the village pub, as they often did on the weekends. They were sat at the bar; the rest of the place was nearly empty, with only a few lonely ponies spread about the various tables.
Cheerilee observed her gin and tonic. “You know I can’t. I need to be there for the foals.” She looked back at Berry. “But you and Ruby should leave. It isn’t safe for her here.”
“I bought train tickets to Van Hoover yesterday. We’re going to go stay with my sister until all this blows over.” She took a gulp from her stein. “We leave two days from now.”
“Have you told Ruby yet?”
Berry took another drink, draining the last of it. She motioned to the bartender for another.
“Not yet.”
“What about Nightmare Night?” Cheerilee asked.
“I’m not letting her leave the house after dark. I won’t be opening the door for anypony, either.”
Cheerilee took a sip of her drink. “That’s what the other parents have said, too; I’ve been trying to convince the children that it’s for their own safety, but they can’t help but be disappointed.”
“It just about broke my heart, the look on Pinchy’s face when I told her.” She took her refilled mug into her hooves and stared into the amber liquid. “But it’s too dangerous. The thought of losing her… I don’t know what I would do.”
Cheerilee laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “It’ll be fine. You’ll be safe in Van Hoover, and soon enough they’ll catch whoever or whatever is responsible, and life will go back to normal.”
Berry smiled. “You’re right.” She looked at the wall clock behind the bar. “I’d better get going; I told Noteworthy I’d be back before eight.” She downed the rest of her drink, and dropped a few bits on the counter.
“Take care, stay safe!”
“You too!”
The lock turned over with a heavy *thunk*. Berry withdrew the key and pulled open her door, stepping in from the fading daylight. She was greeted almost immediately by her neighbor, walking into the hall from the living room.
“Ah, Berry, you’re back!”
“Hey, Noteworthy. Thanks for looking after Pinchy tonight.” Normally she would have asked Sparkler, her usual go-to foalsitter, but she had been one of the first to—
“It was no problem at all,” Noteworthy said. “She was an angel. Oh, and she’s waiting in her bed for you to tuck her in.”
“Got it.” The two switched places, Berry moving towards the interior of the house and Noteworthy stepping through the door. “You take care, now!”
“I will. Goodnight!”
“Goodnight!”
Shutting the door and making sure to turn the deadbolt, Berry made her way up the stairs to the second floor of their little home. Walking down to the end of the hall, she reached Pinchy’s room, door open and lights on.
“Mama!” her beloved daughter greeted her as she entered the room. And she smiled, that special smile.
Pinchy’s smile.
That was the smile that had kept Berry going after Pinchy’s father had left, the smile that had kept her from losing herself in the bottom of a bottle. Just looking at it reassured Berry, brought her a peace and happiness she couldn’t quite describe. As if everything, everywhere, was perfect, and all was right with the world.
Berry smiled back. “Hey, Pinchy. Ready for bed?”
“Uh-huh!”
Crossing over to the room, she made sure Ruby’s window was securely fastened before closing the curtains, obscuring the view of the backyard and of the old oak tree that grew there. Satisfied, she walked over to her daughter’s bedside. Grabbing the quilt in her mouth, she pulled the covers up and over Pinchy’s diminutive frame, before straightening them with her hooves.
“Mama?” Pinchy asked hesitantly.
“Yes?”
“Do we really have to skip Nightmare Night tomorrow?”
She sighed. “Honey, I know you’re disappointed, but it’s important.”
“’Cause ponies keep getting lost?” she replied, her eyes innocent and curious.
Berry tensed up at this. “…Who told you that?”
“Some of the older ponies at school were talking about it.”
She sighed again. “Yes, it’s because of that.”
“But that’s silly!” Pinchy exclaimed, voice filled with childish confidence. “I’d never get lost here! I know Ponyville like the back of my hoof!” She stuck her hoof out, as if for demonstration.
Berry couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m sure you’re right, honey. But just to be safe, I need you to listen to me, okay?”
Ruby pouted a little, but nodded anyway.
“There’s a good girl,” Berry said. She gave her daughter a quick kiss on the forehead. “Goodnight, Pinchy. I love you.”
“I love you too, Mama!”
She turned out the lights.
The following day had passed without incident. Berry had walked Ruby to the schoolhouse in the morning, and had gone to walk her home in the afternoon. The two had spent the rest of the day together, Berry doing her best to make up for missing out on the holiday. Pinchy smiled and laughed like normal, but Berry could tell she was still disappointed.
Finally, the sun had set; the two had returned home and had dinner (green bean casserole, Pinchy’s favorite), and soon enough it was time for bed. She had tucked her daughter in as she always did, then gone to bed herself.
Mama, help me! Help—
Berry shot awake, her heart thudding in her chest. She had had the nightmare again, the same one she’d been having ever since the first pony had disappeared. The one where Pinchy—
She slipped out of bed, and, on silent hooves, made her way down the hall to her daughter’s room. She knew it was silly, that it had just been a bad dream, but she had to make sure, if only to calm her nerves. Quietly, she peeked inside.
Moonlight streamed in through the open window, past gently billowing curtains; it fell upon rumpled sheets and an abandoned bed.
Berry screamed. Running over to the window, she stuck her head through it and out into the night, searching frantically for her daughter. “Pinchy?! PINCHY?!”
No response, nor any sign of her in the backyard.
Now hysterical, Berry galloped back down the hall, nearly tripping over her own hooves on the way down the stairs. Violently shoving the front door open, she dashed out into the moonlit street.
“PINCHY?!” she cried out into the night. “PINCHY, WHERE ARE YOU?!”
She looked one way down the street, then the other, straining to hear over the sound of her own panicked breathing.
Nothing.
Tears streamed down her face; she blinked them back between gasps of air. “Oh no… No no nononononononoNO! PINCHY!”
She galloped left down the street towards the center of town; in her panic, she did not notice her neighbor’s door as she passed, ajar and swaying slightly in the breeze.
Running as fast as she could, the mare shot through the streets and alleys of Ponyville, frantically calling for her daughter. Her flight soon carried her to the town’s center, atypically devoid of ponies despite the holiday. Now directionless, Berry began to turn in circles, looking for some indication that her daughter had taken one of the streets around her.
“PINCHY!” she yelled, “PINCHY, WHERE ARE YOU!?”
“B-Berry?! Is that you?”
The sudden voice startled Berry; whipping around, she found Ditzy Doo flying towards her. As she drew closer, Berry could see that she was visibly shaking, tears pouring from her mismatched eyes.
“Ditzy?! What are you doing out here?”
The pegasus landed roughly in front of her, choking back sobs as she spoke. “D-Dinky, she’s… she’s… I just went to c-check on her, a-and she wasn’t…” She grabbed Berry’s shoulders in her hooves. “Please, have you seen her?!”
Berry shook her head. “Pinchy’s gone too!”
This caused the mare to break into another round of tears. “No! I- I can’t lose another one!”
Berry wanted to comfort the shaking pegasus, but there was no time. “Ditzy, I’ll keep searching. You fly to the castle and get tell Princess Twilight what’s going on. Where have you already looked?”
She sniffled. “Almost all of the east side of town, and Faust lane.”
“Good, that’s a great help. Now, go!"
Wiping the tears from her eyes, Ditzy took off in the direction of the castle. Berry turned the other way, towards the west side of town. Picking the street closest to her, she began her frantic search anew. She ran, and ran, and ran, calling out for her daughter and for Dinky, tearing her way through the town.
But adrenaline could only carry her so far. Gasping for air, lungs and legs burning, she could no longer take the strain; she fell, landing hard on her left forehoof. She attempted to stand, to continue her search, but her body refused. With no other option left, she broke down, her tears dampening the dirt below her as she sobbed in despair.
Hee Hee!
Berry’s ears twitched. It had been faint but…
Ha Ha!
Laughter. It was just barely audible, but she had heard it. It had come from Berry’s left; blinking away tears, she looked over and discovered a side street that hadn’t been visible from further back down the road.
Struggling, she forced herself to her hooves; pain shot through her hoof as she put pressure on it, eliciting a whimper from the mare. Leaning against the side of one of the buildings for support, she slowly limped her way into the alley.
As she moved forwards, the sounds of merriment grew louder. Up ahead, Berry could see that the alley ended in a right turn; a faint light spilled out from around the corner, interrupted every so often as something moved past the source.
Berry continued to drag herself forwards until she reached the turn. Bracing herself for the worst, she slowly looked around the corner.
There, hidden at the end of the alley was a group of foals, laughing and playing quietly by the light of a firefly lantern. They appeared to be crowding around something, though Berry couldn’t make out what it was.
She tried to say something, but her throat was sore and raw from yelling. Instead, she staggered forwards, trying to spot Pinchy in the crowd. Catching a glimpse of pink-purple mane in the center of the group, she pushed her way into the mob, nudging aside foals and fillies in her way; the children stared at her oddly as she intruded upon their congregation, but said nothing. It wasn’t long before she had reached the middle, the focus of their attentions becoming clear at last.
Berry fell to her rump, unable to comprehend the grizzly scene before her.
There, sitting in a pool of blood, lay the corpse of her neighbor.
The pony’s blue barrel had been crudely hacked open; his organs and intestines glistened in the lamplight. As she watched, one of the colts— Rumble, Berry’s mind numbly supplied— dipped his muzzle into the bloody cavity and began chewing on Noteworthy’s innards. After a moment, he pulled his head back, muzzle covered in blood, teeth still clamped down on the end of a fleshy tube. With a yank, the intestine ripped apart, snapping back like a rubber band and splashing gore across his grinning face.
To his right, little Dinky Doo was sawing at the stallion’s thigh with a blood-spattered kitchen knife. With a grunt of effort from the filly, the knife ripped through the last piece of skin and muscle, severing meat from corpse and taking the Noteworthy’s eighth-note mark with it. Panting from the exertion, she picked up the hunk of flesh in her magic, brought it up to her face, and took a big bite out of one of the heads of the note before passing it on to a thin colt Berry didn’t know the name of. He too ate a piece, and then the meat was passed on to the next pony. Dinky, meanwhile, hopped over Noteworthy’s chest and began cutting into the other flank.
And there straddling the stallion’s neck was Ruby Pinch, the half-eaten form of what could have been a heart cradled in her hooves. She looked up at her mother, her muzzle coated with blood and viscera.
“Mama!” she cried happily, her teeth stained red.
And she smiled, that special smile.
Pinchy’s smile.
