Something Sweet To Bite: Candy Mare Goes to Hell

The sun rode fat and low on the horizon, orange as a swollen pumpkin ripe for the reaping. As the blazing orb dipped lower against the hazy skyline, the glow deepened to a bloody hue that washed the fields in rays of scarlet.

As the earth pony stood and wiped her brow, she knew the day's work was done. Soon it would be time for supper.

It was normal for her to spend most of her daylight hours helping to bring in the crops at harvest time, but as her mind tried to stretch back and judge just how long she had labored, she found it hard to recall a time she hadn't been working the fields. Had she skipped lunch? Perhaps breakfast too? That might explain the gnawing hollow where her stomach should be. The offending organ grumbled so hard that the vibrations shivered up her spine, snapping and popping in her inner ear.

However long she had been working, the farm pony had certainly worked up a hearty appetite.

The mare was used to going without by now though. She had lived only in 'lean times' as her elders would refer to them. Even at the best of times most of their crops were not theirs to keep, so going hungry was a common occurrence. These past few years certainly had not been the best of times, with the land withering and its usual bounty dwindling along with it.

It was strange though, as the now crimson disc of the sun slipped ever faster behind the hills, that she was the only pony out in the fields for as far as her eyes could see. It wouldn't be a surprise if her mother was already back home, preparing dinner. But where then was her father? It wasn't like him to slack off on his chores... Had he perhaps gone home ahead of her as well?

"Daddy?" Why was there this ache in her chest as she called out to him? "Daddy!? Where are you!?"

There was no reply but the sigh of autumnal winds whispering through the dry stalks as dusk settled in and the onrush of night loomed across the eastern sky. The young mare suddenly felt very alone. There was no sound of birds, not even the familiar caw of thieving crows out to steal their own share of the Earth Pony's bounty. Despite this, there was also a sensation that she was not as alone as she thought she was. The filly felt the pressure of eyes weighing down on her, the same way a hare might feel the gaze of an owl roosting in the trees or a hawk soaring on high, just before the dive and the talons sank in.

The promise of swift and silent death seemed to radiate from all around her.

"Maybe he's in the barn?" the farm pony thought aloud, to try and break the smothering silence and oppressive atmosphere that had settled over her. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to check..."

As she made her way across the field to the old wooden barn the last glimmering rays of sunset slipped away like the last grains of sand in an hourglass and the world entered that soft hour of twilight that you only get just after dusk and just before dawn.

Everything was faded to a soft blue, like her father's old denim overalls. In the gathering gloom, the filly couldn't help but miss the absent chirp of crickets and the shrill calls of tree frogs. How she longed to hear the soft songs of night creatures awakening to the evening. She shivered as the feeling of being watched intensified, and quickened her pace to a trot as she left the fields behind and the barn filled her field of view.

"Daddy, are you there?" she called again, hoping to hear her father's reassuring voice. "I'm sure mum has gotten dinner ready for us by now. Shouldn't we be heading home? It has grown awfully late."

Again there was no reply, only the lonesome sound of the night breeze whistling through the bare, skeletal limbs of nearby trees, picked clean already of their dead and dried leaves. The farm pony was starting to fret in earnest now.

Had her father gone to fetch more firewood? The nights had been bitterly cold lately. They'd taken to keeping the stove burning cherry-red hot to try and compensate, and still they spent the long dark hours shivering beneath piles of dusty old blankets and quilts. Their sleep was haunted by strange dreams of ghostly stallions galloping through the sky, cold as ice and clear as glass...

'Windigoes', her father would whisper to her mother, when he thought their daughter couldn't hear.

'Quiet', her mother would admonish, unafraid of their child overhearing the word, but terrified that speaking the cursed name of such creatures might draw their attention.

The young mare felt a shudder go down her spine that had nothing to do with her aching belly as she went around the side of the barn.

No, the wood pile was high, perhaps higher than it had any right to be. It was silly to think her father would be out gathering wood this close to nightfall anyway. She didn't know what she had been thinking.

Night was settling in for real now, inky black and moonless. Looking up, the filly couldn't see any shimmer of starlight, nor even a single sparkle in the stark sky. From horizon to horizon, there was nothing but a canopy of endless emptiness.

As the increasingly frightened mare made her way back towards the front of the barn, she could just barely make out a thick fog rolling in from the fields. It wasn't unusual to have patches of fog and mist in the morning this time of year, but it was strange for it to roll in at dusk. Perhaps some pegasus was playing a prank on the tiny farm? If the fog was thick enough, that might explain the dearth of animal noises and even the absence of the stars up above. Low and clinging clouds like these had a tendency to obscure and distort sound as well as light.

Why then did the little pony suddenly hear something like a girlish giggle clear as crystal, high and sharp, just on the edge of her hearing?

Why then, if it were just a trick of the fog, did she suddenly feel her heart jump into her throat?

"Easy now. Steady on girl..." the young mare whispered. "You're just agitating yourself, that's all. It's been a long day, you're starving, your suppers probably already cold, and you're more than ready to go home. There's nothing that's here in the dark of night that wasn't here in the light of day. Keep calm, and carry on."

She fervently wanted to trust in those words, but as the fog grew thicker it felt like the walls of the world were crushing in around her. The farm pony hurried to the front of the barn and decided that rather than taking the short walk home she would instead duck into the wooden shelter for a moment, just to make sure her father wasn't inside and somehow hadn't heard her calling for him.

It wasn't that she was running or hiding from anything after all, it would simply be a waste to come all this way and not make sure her father was not here.

As she drew close to the open barn doors she couldn't help but marvel at their size. Indeed, she couldn't help but marvel at just how large the barn seemed to be. It was old and broken down, grey wood clearly showed through peeling paint that might have been red once upon a time, but even so it was much taller and wider than she remembered it being. Since when had their poor farm been able to afford such an outstanding out-building as this enormous thing?

The doorway yawned wide, like the mouth of some gigantic beast awakening from a deep slumber. The mental imagery was almost enough to make the young mare have second thoughts about going inside, until she noticed the soft flicker of lamp light coming from within. This was the first sign that she had seen of any other living creature being around, and she quickly moved towards the light hoping to find somepony - anypony, at this point, that might be able to explain what was going on.

Upon entering the barn, the doors suddenly slammed shut behind her.

Startled, the earth pony whirled at the sound, but saw no one and nothing that might account for the barn doors closing. Perhaps the wind had just blown the old doors closed? As heavy as they looked, it seemed unlikely, but the farm pony decided it was the only explanation she felt like pondering in the sudden gloom of the cavernous barn. Although, it really wasn't that gloomy. Once again, a lantern flickered from further within. In fact it was not just one, but a score of lanterns that blazed into life! Their fitful light illuminated the rusty farm equipment and bales of old hay, casting shadows that shifted and danced across the walls.

The filly had no time to ponder how the lanterns had flared up as their light spilled out over an even more bizarre sight. All around the barn row after row of low benches had been set up with what looked like trays of bright red and green apples dipped in some sticky brown substance. Not only did they not grow apples on their farm, but they certainly were never so blessed with wealth that they might dip any of their produce so wantonly in delicious smelling caramel! The scent reminded her of the vacant space in her stomach, and the odious organ growled its displeasure once more as her mouth watered with the anticipation of biting into one of the still steaming candied fruits.

Outside the wind suddenly picked up, whistling through the gaps in the barn's wooden walls.

There was that giggling noise again, closer now, and the farm pony thought she could also hear a single word whispered low and menacing...

"...hungry..."

As the wind grew more violent the lantern light faded out and, for a moment, died. The musty room was plunged into an even more profound darkness than what had gathered outside.

The filly felt her heart leap again as it pounded in her chest. Her every instinct screamed for her to run! Just to run far and fast and to not under any circumstances look back! But as she panicked she lost track of the door. She risked running into the rows of benches and pitching herself over along with the caramel coated apples. That wouldn't be any help at all in her getting her bearings so, as much as it pained her, she held her instincts in check and slowly made her way towards what she thought was the nearest wall with one hoof out in front of her waving back and forth as she felt along the floor blindly.

As suddenly as it had gone, the light returned, the flames of the lanterns whooshing back even hotter and brighter than before!

The rush of relief that the filly felt was instantly strangled by a wave of horror as disgust and revulsion filled the pony at what the light revealed. The many glistening red 'fruits' lined up steaming on the low tables in the barn weren't apples at all, but rather they were something meaty and pulsing with unnatural life. Thick vermilion liquid throbbed from the quivering tubes that jutted out of the dripping caramel surface, drenching the low tables in red.

'Hearts!' she realized 'Still beating beneath a sugary coating of caramel!'

As the convulsing muscles spurted even more blood from the severed veins and arteries, the puddle of blood began to spread towards the farm pony's hooves, causing her to instinctively back away. The filly screamed, unable to hold back her horror at the gory scene spread before her. The stench of rotting flesh and the coppery tang of foul blood threatened to overwhelm her senses. Bizarrely the putrid stench only made her hunger grow, adding a layer of confusion to the already surreal situation.

"No! Please no!" the mare moaned as the pool of viscera grew closer. She had to get out! She had to go now, now, now!

Scrambling for the door, the little pony screamed afresh as the lanterns began to burst one by one. The glass shattered and exploded outwards in a cloud of shards as the flames erupted from inside and licked hungrily at the old wood and dry straw. If the horrible sound of hundreds of beating disembodied hearts wasn't enough to drive the filly mad with fright, then the roar of the barn suddenly awash in flames certainly did the job! Her hooves pawed at the doors, but she realized far too late that she was locked in!

She was trapped!

"A nightmare! This must be a nightmare!" her hooves chipped and splintered from the force of her blows as she hammered at the thick wooden doors. "Wake up! Wake up, me!"

As she struggled and strained to try and force the old timbers to give in under the pressure of her tiny body, she heard the insane giggle of a little girl bubble up all around her. There were words too, clear as day, though they came in a mocking singsong voice. "Nightmare Night, what a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!"

It sounded like some sort of nursery rhyme, but the words were meaningless nonsense, though the malice behind them came through bright and clear. The filly struggled all the harder against the nightmare she suddenly found herself trapped in, desperate to find some way to escape.

Was it her frenzied terror or the greedy flames that finally made the barn doors give way?

It was impossible to say for sure, but the young mare didn't care which as she shot forth into the night, cracked hooves thundering beneath her as she galloped out of the living nightmare...

And into Hell!

The fields as far as she could see were gone.

There was nothing but smoke that boiled up all around a suddenly vast, fire-lit horizon. The ground beneath her hooves was slick and metallic, black as sin and blazing hot to boot. It too seemed to stretch around the horizon. What truly arrested her attention, however, was not this dramatic change to the landscape but the sea of boiling hot lava that glowed malignantly far below in a caldera, upon the edge of which she suddenly found herself precariously perched. She teetered unsteadily, as the metal 'ground' was steeply sloped on all sides. The little pony's overwhelmed mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing, but it was all so insane she could barely wrap her thoughts around it, until at last her brain spat out the word 'cauldron' as if from thin air.

A cauldron!

That was what it was!

A monumental cauldron, the size of which boggled the young mare's mind.

Boundlessly large, its depths roiled not with liquid hot magma as she first thought, but instead with a thick treacly brown substance that bubbled and hissed as though it were at a rapid boil. The sweet scent of caramel drifted once again to the farm pony's nose and battered through her addled senses, until she finally realized that what she was looking at was a sea of molten sugar! How such a thing had come to replace her warm and familiar fields, she could not say, but there was no denying the evidence of her eyes. Feeling her burnt and bleeding hooves start to slip towards the seething sweets bellow, the earth pony clambered backwards as quick as she dared, trying to push herself back up the slick sides of the massive metal cook pot.

The earth pony turned to try and grab hold of the edge to pull herself free, and she might have succeeded, had she not at that moment looked up into the most terrifying face she had ever seen!

An enormous head loomed out of the billowing smoke, adorned with three horrible faces each more hideous than the last! Its six eyes were wide and wild, swirled with pink and blue madness. The needle thin teeth in each of its three maws were arrayed in predatory grins that displayed a knowing and gleeful cruelty. The rest of the titanic creatures monstrous features were a mad mish-mashed mess of exposed muscle, dripping flesh, and rotted bone that was alive with writhing worms and skittering insects.

"GIVE US SOMETHING SWEET TO BITE!" the hideous face boomed, forcing the filly to cover her ears. As she did, the farm pony lost her grip, and fell backwards and down into the cauldron.

There was a brief moment, as she hung motionless in mid-air before she rapidly receded away from the repulsive visage, that the faces looked almost familiar. But there was no time for the filly to truly process what she had seen, as her body hit the scalding surface of the lake of caramel with a gloopy splash, and slipped with a noisome plop into the burning slimy depths.

The earth pony struggled, kicked and thrashed, even as she felt her skin bubble and slough off in the hot sticky sweetness that stuck to her like glue. The stench of her own broiling flesh assaulted her nostrils, overwhelming the cloying stink of candy that sizzled as she was forced to inhale lungfuls of the syrupy gunk. As her eyelids burned off in the heat and her exposed eyeballs were coated in sweet sludge, the last sight burned into her retinas was that horrid, smiling, face, grinning down at her suffering.

She gasped weakly through the pain. "I'm begging you, please wake me up!" before she finally drowned.