The Mare in the Woods

"Th-That's Royal Flush!" Alexander thought to himself.

A tan coloured mare stumbled in the vat, as if she had just woken up from a long sleep. Alexander could see Royal pressing her hooves on the vat's glass wall. The faceless tuxedo-wearing pony pulled a lever on the side of the vat. Suddenly, the vat rose up from the floor as if it were the cover of a cake platter. Royal Flush collapsed into the stranger's hooves. He turned around, and stared directly at the closet where Alexander was hiding. Alexander slowly moved his hoof towards his coat pocket, and pulled out something in the shape of a stick. The stranger growled quietly, and then it walked out of Alex's line of sight from inside the closet.

Alexander slowly opened the closet door. He look to his left and tried to escape the closet. But as soon as he stepped out of the doorway he felt something long wrap around his waist and pulled him down. Alex panicked and clutched the stick he had pulled out of his coat pocket a moment ago. The tip of the stick opened up and a sharp needle popped out. Alex jabbed the pointed end into whatever was wrapped around his waist. He heard a something that was similar to the shriek of a banshee. He quickly looked behind him and saw the faceless pony with five (5) other long black "tentacles" behind it and Royal Flush cradled in it's hooves.

"What the hell are you!?" Alex screamed as he scrambled to his hooves.

The creature stood there, as the thunder cracked in the background.

Alex pulled out his pointed stick, "Put Royal down now!"

The creature growled again, but this time Alex heard something other than grumbles.

It was as if the creature were asking for his help. It let out a high pitched whine, like that of a hungry puppy.

"D-do you want my help?" The black pegasus asked, as he retracted his weapon.

The creature let out another growl, Alexander could hear something that was closer to pony language this time.

"C-O-M-E W-I-T-H M-E?" Alex attempted to translate what the creature was saying.

The creature nodded, turned around, and trotted over to the door. Alexander followed the stranger through the door to that led into the dark woods. The creature led Alexander around the wooden building and into a back door. Now they were in a new room, and it was as dark as the previous one before the candle was lit.

The stranger struck up a candle with one of it's tentacles. The flame revealed a giant crucifix in the middle of the room. The stranger lit the crucifix on fire, and it instantly created enough light to see the entire room. Rather than test tubes and vats in the room, there were renaissance style prisoner chains on the wall and guillotines.

"W-what..." Alexander was shocked to see all these torture device scattered around.

The creature placed Royal Flush on a metal table behind the crucifix.

"What do you need Royal Flush for? And how did you travel into our dimension?!" Alex asked loudly.

The creature turned around, and finally answered him, "You never shut up do you?"

Alex took a step back, and then pulled out his weapon, "How are you--"

"Talking? This crucifix is my means of speaking." The creature had no mouth, and didn't look like there was a mouth behind it's mask. But his voice was deep, and soothing at the same time. Which was quite strange because of the creature's behaviour earlier.

"The crucifix? I've seen lots of these, but I never thought they did anything special." The black pegasus turned to the burning crucifix.

The creature ran it's hoof through Royal's mane, "That's not an ordinary piece of wood you see in the holy churches. This is a Cupony crucifix, made from pure lovewood."

Alex raised his brow at the creature, "Cupony? Lovewood? I've never heard of either of those things."

"And I never expected you to. I can already tell your not from Cutopia, which is homeland." The creature continued to caress Royal's face.

The creature asked Alex to sit down on the other side of the table where Royal was laying.

As if it was beginning a ghost story, the creature began to tell a tale, "I am a Cupony, one of the few left in the universe. I come from Cutopia, which is the kingdom of love and happiness. It is only found above the clouds during the storm of hearts, which happens every one hundred (100) years. Now you may think that it's a paradise, and it was, until that fateful day."

"What happened?" Alexander sounded like an innocent foal listening to his grandfather's war stories.

"The king had two (2) sons, and some time later... His wife passed away. The king was so distraught, that he couldn't bear being away from his queen. He called an oracle and asked her to bring his queen back to him. The oracle agreed, but she had a one condition. The condition was that the king would have to chose one of his sons' bodies to sacrifice. The king decided to sacrifice his first-born. The oracle brought the wife back from the dead, but the queen was furious that her husband sacrificed her own child that she took her life again. The king followed his wife into the underworld, and the last living son of the noble family was left to fend for himself. Then one day the prince left Cutopia and ventured into the outer world. Some say that his maid told him a story of a world outside Cutopia, where the mortal ponies were at war but there was still love in the air. The prince was fascinated, 'how is there war and love in the same place' that's what he thought to himself. With that thought in his head, he waited for the 'Storm of Hearts' and left Cutopia." The stranger sounded as if he had been reading from an old foal's storybook.

"Let me guess, you're the Prince of Cutopia. Right?" Alex asked.

The creature replied, "No, my name is Sin Maneder. I am, or was, the brother of the King of Cutopia. The prince was my nephew. But I wasn't able to follow him, as the 'Storm of Hearts' had blown over, and the only way out of Cutopia was gone. I asked the oracle for help, and she did... For a price. It turns out the oracle had fancied me, but I was already betrothed to another. Once the oracle had found my betrothed, she attacked her. But I threw myself in front of my love, and the oracle's attack wiped away my image. Now I am merely an unpainted canvas. Unfortunately, the oracle cursed my descendants too. I came back to Cutopia to bring my family down to Equestria... But.. my love had passed away due to illness, and my own son had been corrupted by darkness. My daughter had hidden herself from the oracle, and remained as pure as a Cupony can be."

"I... I'm sorry to hear that. But... If you're the prince's uncle, the who's the prince?