Chapters Mary stumbled through the forest, cussing under her breath about the situation, “stupid bloody Merchant.” She swore as she thought about how she got into this mess.
Mary Thorps had been so excited to be going to PortCon that year but, when she found out that Jonathan *Jonny* Sims The writer and main character of her favorite horror podcast series The Magnus Archives would be attending that year.
As soon as Mary had gotten to the convention center she immediately ran to the celebrity section to try and get an autograph from Jonathan Sims.
“How much for the book?” Mary asked not caring if she came across as rude.
Luckily the merchant didn’t seem to mind as he answered her saying “ how much are you willing to pay for it?”
“ $50-$60 is as high as I’m willing to go.” Mary replied,
“What if I throw in a guest for Mr. spider, The Book Of The Trapped and Ex Altiora?” The merchant replied,
“ $200-$250 but no higher as otherwise I wouldn’t have enough money to pay for transit home.” Mary replied,
“Fair enough and you know what just because this has been some fun haggling I will let you pick one item for free my treat.” The merchant said with a slight grin on his face,
“You sure these all seem pretty valuable.” Mary said,
“Oh I thank you for noticing the craftsmanship but yes I’m sure.” The merchant said,
So Mary paid the merchant and began to walk away, tucked away The book of the Trapped, Ex Altiora, and A guest for Mr. spider in her backpack that she had underneath her cloak while she clipped The BoneTurner’s Tale onto her belt, and clipped a pair of rather ornate pruning shears to an empty clip on the other side of her belt, no sooner had she done this that she fell unconscious but, when people ran over to see if she was OK no one saw anything except for a small pile of dirt.
And that about brings us back to the present where Mary is now running through a forest trying to find a way out while cursing up a storm as large wooden wolves chase after her, Mary thinks quickly ‘ what can I do to lose these things’ because Mary was 90% sure that these creatures weren’t wolves even if they looked visually similar, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about these creatures she could feel it well funnily enough in her bones, all 412 of them, Mary mentally stowed away the fact that she had double the amount of bones that any human should ever have, as a thought to freak out about later.
For now having double the amount of joints was very useful to have as she could take much sharper turns than her pursuers. As she finally reached a forest clearing as she noticed that over the last week that these beasts of timber would never stray too far into the sunlight, and when one had it was not a pretty sight.
As Mary caught her breath and took a mental stock of herself she noticed two very important things one she still had her backpack which was good and two she was twice the height she knows she had been for all of her life mentally storing that thought away to freak out about later she took tally of the supplies in her backpack, some granola, the other books she’s gotten from that merchant, her pruning shears, an extra set of clothes, A large set of butchering tools, and approximately 364 tiny bones from what creature she couldn’t figure out.
what she did know is that she had no idea what to do, but, then got an idea that she really hoped it worked, Mary began to carve the largest bone she could find from her backpack which seemed to be the femur bone of some sort of canine.
Several hours later Mary had finally finished the flute she had been carving and really hope to high hell that this was going to work, she began to play first slowly and softly but then faster and faster as she did so she noticed the Earth around her began to move as bones of long dead creatures began to claw and drag their way out of the ground flesh starting to grow over their bones, but no skin, and blood starting to flow through their newly forming hearts, as Mary continue to play the song of blood and Bones and Flesh.
Now with an impromptu army in case wooden beast wanted to attack her at night.
After she had finished carving all of the talisman she began to place them around the perimeter of the clearing, first by taking a small hole and dropping one of the talismans in before covering the whole thing with dirt once again she repeated this process over and over and over again until all the perimeter of the clearing was covered with tiny freshly sealed holes each with the talisman sitting waiting for one of the beast to just try to get inside.
Then Mary just burned time going about living her life here in this clearing for uncountable years, and began to tend a slowly growing garden, before the strangest thing happened, A creature appeared (One she would learn was of a species called a pony) and started talking.
Author's Note
For those of you who can guess what entities Mary here is the avatar of, I mean other than The Flesh
Celestia doesn't know why she didn’t bring a weapon with her when she first got reports of this place but something told her that if she had she would never have been able to see let alone find this place at all. so she opened her mouth and did the only thing she could do, she spoke.
“hello? Is somepony there?” Celestia said,
no sooner had she spoke, then did the mass at the center twitch and start moving, the figure was tall, and possessed an odd Beauty, from its long thin rusty red hair, to its two piercing blood red eyes, as it moved, out from under its scarlet cloak two long ruddy colored hands came with a pair of pruning shears in one of them, “Come help me tend the garden.” It said with a garbled voice like someone trying to speak well choking chunks of meat. “Then we can talk.” Slowly walking towards a small of part of what Celestia now recognized from old mare’s tales as the only living Flesh garden ever to exist, The Mortal Garden.
After working quietly for several hours next to The BoneTurner who she had learned was named Mary Hoppworth.
“So that I am not a danger to everyone else, The Last and Greatest Feast, is coming and there is much work to be done but I do not wish to harm anyone before the work has commenced.” Mary said, still tending to a Bone Rose.
“What do you mean The Last and Greatest Feast?” Celestia inquired,
“That is some thing for which your ears are not ready to hear.” Mary said as she tended to a Gristlebloom Orchid. “ but enough about that we both know you are a very busy mare, Celestia, and The Falling Titan is quite fond of you so I have been refraining from adding you to my Garden, but, my patience is only so much, and you would make such a beautiful display.” Mary purred, her voice gentle and quick like a fillet knife, as she carted her fingers through Celestia’s mane, idly picking out small grey worms, well muttering, about how Celestia wasn’t their’s or her’s to claim, roughly flicking them out of The Garden.
“Celestia please give my regards to Luna, I do-so wish she would come visit sooner rather than later,” Mary said sighing as she retook her place of prominence in the center of her garden, “but, 100 years or thousand years, it doesn’t matter, I can wait.” Mary muttered before going still, and blending into her garden seamlessly,
Celestia left shaking her head at Mary’s last words to her, as she and Luna were both unicorns, and as long as a unicorn could live for, they couldn’t live longer than five hundred years let alone thousands of them as Mary insinuated, What Celestia didn’t know was that in about a month her and her sister would be ascended to become alicorns, do the tiny fact that Harmony had decided to make the sisters its champions, Celestia and Luna inadvertently attract the attention of a draconequis (a chaos spirit) by the name of Discord.
And so Celestia and Luna armed to the teeth with weapons, dressed in heavy plate completely unconsciously walk all the way around Mary Clearing without ever even realizing it, Mary quietly chuckling to herself about how ridiculous the two sisters look as they are affected by the passive suggestion aura that make it impossible for anything with even minor affiliations to The Slaughter, unable to even detect let alone find her home here in The Everfree,
Years passed, the two sisters build a small kingdom in the Everfree, all the while Mary waited. Luna had her little rebellion, and was sealed away for a thousand years, and The BoneTurner waited, tending to her garden just as she had sense time immemorial, and she waited, and eventually Luna, now going by the silly moniker of Nightmare Moon finally broke free, from her imprisonment, coincidentally appearing right inside of The Mortal Garden, and she yelled
“What is this place?!”
“There is absolutely no reason why you should be yelling, My Dear Little Luna, you are in The Mortal Garden, I am so very excited to be able to finally meet you, Mr. Pitch always says good things about you, but, I just had to meet you myself.” The BoneTurner said as she a pause in tending to her garden, and turning her full attention to Luna, smiling widely.
Luna scrambled away from The BoneTurner, as she saw that The BoneTurner a few too many Teeth in they smile, many of them seeming as though them didn’t even originally belong to they to begin with in the first place.
“Who in Bucking Tartarus are you?!” Luna half yelled at The BoneTurner, eliciting a chuckle from The BoneTurner.
“You can call me, Miss. Thorp, or Mary if you prefer to call me anything at all, Little Moon. Now let’s talk. Miss Invictus.” Mary said cheerfully. “I do have so many things to teach you about our patrons and your new….. responsibilities.”
Author's Note
Those of you who don’t know the entities in The Magnus Archives
The Entities Or The Things That Are Fear
The Flesh
The Spiral
The End
The Slaughter
The Stranger
The Hunt
The Web
The Vast-The Falling Titan
The Buried
The Eye
The Dark- Mr. Pitch
The Desolation
The Corruption
The Lonely
The Extinction
Nightmare Moon tried to run, but she didn’t get even two steps before she was restrained by the thorns of a bone rose.
“Thank you Young Miss Ivy,” Mis Thorps said, offhandedly stroking the plant , which seemed to preen at the attention, and begin to give off the sound of quietly clicking from its boney petals, as if to say your welcome, Miz. Thorps,
“Please calm down little shade, I am not going to harm you, unless you try to harm me or my garden .” Mis Thorps rasped out through blood stained teeth, before coming with what would have on any other face been interpreted as a smile, but with how many teeth were are shown looked more like a grimace, “As a matter of fact I want to help you little shade, so here is what we are going to do.
“Why?” Moon asked, “Why am I So Important to you, Why are you being so nice to me?”
Thorps paused and told a moment to think, and just for a moment the whole garden was still, before singer of mallow turned and only for A moment smiled, truly smiled with teeth red as a blood moon and said “because I am bored in the garden and it can tend to itself for a little while so I want to play a game of chance with The Goddess of THE DARK and Night herself, if you will allow me to?”
"And? What's in it for me?" Luna asked,
the Singer of Marrow paused in thought for a moment, before replying, "Information, on what you're getting yourself into out there?" gesturing to out past the edge of Her Garden, "Or maybe my cooperation?" now gesturing To herself, “Or perhaps you would like to speak with someone you long thought lost to you?” gesturing to a book bound in cord made with various patches of Skin covered with writing that seemed to writhe like snakes and oozed an air of final inevitability,
Luna took a couple steps away from that book, Something about it felt wrong, a wrongness that seemed to seep to the very core of her being. After settling a healthy distance away from the book of skin, Luna replied, “It depends on what sort of information you have?”
The Turner smiled, Or her version of a smile, All teeth stretching from ear to ear, “So you are willing to play My game?” she crowed,
“Yes” Luna responded
“Game is simple stop the elements of harmony, The win condition for you is that you succeed in this endeavor, the win condition for me is if you fail, that's all, the only another rule is no physical harm to any of the bearers of the elements.” The Keeper of Bones Grinned,
Author's Note
I am aware of how short this chapter is trust me it’s for a good reason
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Plants of The mortal garden ill-iterations I find in tumbler
