Dream realm 0: Parental Activity by KrishnaKarnak and Nomine

(Candy / Violet)

ghost

 

(07/12/2016)

 

 

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It was a dark and stormy night...

 

No, not really all that stormy, it was just sprinkling, but it was still bad enough to drive Violet indoors, away from the dank memes alleyways she so loved to prowl. Grumbling to herself as she slipped into the shadow of the nearest building, she wrung the water from her body, letting it flow away before heading inside.

 

Once indoors, she shook the last of the liquid from herself, casting her gaze around. For the moment, it didn't seem bright enough to cause her any issues...good. Last thing she wanted was to get trapped in a closet or under a bed tonight.

 

That was when her nose caught a delicious scent...foals. Foals who were regularly naughty, too! Oh, what luck...tonight she would eat, and eat well! All that yummy, delicious terror!

 

Pulling out her rabbit plush and giving him a snuggle, she tucked him back into her body before dissolving into her shadowed form, slithering up the stairs towards the source of that delectable scent.

 

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“Stupid thing!” Scorecard groaned, whacking the console with his hoof. “Da disc is skippin’! Dis ain’t no little music playah!”

 

He reset the system and moved back, watching the television critically. The little jingle and logo played and it went to the main menu while it attempted to read the disc. Scorecard sat down on his rump, tapping his hooves together.

 

“If dis don’t works, sis, we should do somethin’ else. Wanna wrassle?” he asked Babs, turning to look at her.

 

“Yeah, I guess we could do dat.” the pudgy filly said, giving the console a whack of her own, grumbling under her breath. “Dis dumb ting ain't workin no matter what we do ta it.”

 

Turning away and plumping her plump rump down with a bump, Babs looked at her brother. “Wrassle?”

 

Violet, meanwhile, had slipped into the room, staying hidden in her shadowed shape. Merging with the shade beneath the couch, she watched the two children, milky eyes focused on Scorecard.

 

“Mmm...yummy little colt.” she muttered to herself. “Always tasty...and a delectable morsel of filly fear...I’m going to eat well tonight.” She grinned, then settled herself in, keeping only her eyes formed out of the gloom…just to watch, of course.

 

“Yeah, wrassle!” Scorecard said with much bravado, standing up quickly and holding his forehooves out wide. “Betcha I could pin ya shoulders to the floor in a minute!’

 

The sound of approaching hooffalls alerted them to the presence of their mother, that ‘mother-hearing’ she has picking up on ‘wrestle’ very keenly.

 

“I don’t want you kids wrestling in the house! Remember last time, Babs? You broke that bookcase?” Candy reminded them, shaking a stern hoof at her foals and moving back into the kitchen.

 

“Yeah, ‘cause I suplexed ya into its!” Scorecard bragged once their mother had left, feeling rather pleased with himself. “Guess we don’t wrassle and I remain the champion!”

 

“Ah, you shut ya fat face, ya big dummy! Ain’t no faih ta get ta stay da champ when Mommy says we can’t wrassle!...But ah guess we don’t get ta test it eithah way.”

 

Under the couch, Vi was flummoxed and grumbling. Her meal was slipping away! How could she give these two naughty foals a nightmare if they weren't naughty?!

 

Looking down at her grumbling stomach, feeling the complaining phobius sleeping in there, she grimaced. Time to take matters into her own hooves…

 

Slipping out from under the couch, she spun her original body up out of the shadows, seeming to appear out of nowhere before these two.

 

“Such well-behaved little ponies! So good to listen to your Mommy!” she complimented them with a sarcastic clap, then smiled evilly. “But I bet there’s a lot you did that Mommy never caught you for, huh?” she asked, eyes narrowing at the both of them.

 

“Whoa, whoa, WHAAAT?” Scorecard exclaimed, jumping back from this ninja pony. “I… where… Babs?” He looked between his sister and the newcomer, in case she showed signs of recognition or was perhaps partly responsible for inviting this stranger. “And… uh, yeah. Duh,” he answered, trying to calm his heartrate.

 

Babs shook her head, shuddering at the sight of the freshly appeared pony coming up in front of their couch. “Ah dunno who dis filly is, Score...Hey! Who ah you an...and what’re ya doin heah?”

 

Vi giggled upon hearing that, grinning even more widely. “Oh, maybe I’ll tell you later. But for now...well, since you’ve both gotten away with stuff…”

 

She walked over to a table with a lamp on it, smiling broadly. “Since you both didn’t get punished for stuff you did do...I think it’s only fair you get punished for something you /didn’t do/.”

 

With that ominous statement, Vi hip-checked the table, knocking it and the lamp clean over onto the floor with a resounding crash. “Oops...clumsy me.”

 

Skating over the fact that her logic was fairly sound, Scorecard darted towards the table and lamp with the speed and expertise born from his many days playing soccer. Sliding along the floor on his belly, he stopped… a good foot away from the lamp as it shattered on the floor. Oh, good, now it looks like he did it! Before he could roll over and point in dire accusation at this very, VERY rude houseguest, the hooffalls from earlier returned with some mildly increased force and intensity.

 

“SCORECARD AND BAAABS!” Candy hollered, appearing in the doorway again and glaring at them both. “WHAT DID MOMMY JUST SAY, HUH? Back away from that before you cut yourself, and I want the both of you in the corners!”

 

Quick as lightning, Candy swept over towards them, ignoring this mysterious filly for reasons to be explained! Alright this narrative is getting campy. Anyway, she shooed her son away from the broken lamp, fuming. A snort of air escaped her nostrils. Scorecard leapt up, backing away, unable to speak at this indignity.

 

Frightened now, Babs pointed to the filly still standing in the glass and shards of the lamp. “B..But Mama! SHE did it! Nawt us! We listened!” she protested, hoping beyond hope that Candy would turn and see the true culprit.

 

Violet just laughed at this, coming up next to Candy and yodeling into her ear. “Yeah, stupidhead, it was me! Can’t you /see/ it was me? Can’t you /hear/ what I’m saying?”

Grinning evilly at Score and Babs, she hopped up onto Candy’s back and waited for the implications to sink in...their Mommy couldn’t see or hear this little filly.

 

The little filly who now was dancing a waltz on Candy’s back, shaking her booty at the two.

 

Scorecard’s jaws hung open with fear. She was right! Candy most definitely could not see, hear, or feel this little monster. Candy, meanwhile, was glaring at her pudgy daughter.

 

“Wow, Babs, maybe you’re not a bit too old to use the imaginary friend defense!” Candy mused with awful sarcasm, sitting down and dragging her hoof down her face.

 

Unfortunately for Scorecard, a dancing filly on top of an overly exasperated Candy looked like something out of a cartoon. Still scared, he let out a very nervous chuckle. Candy looked daggers at him.

 

“I TOLD YOU BOTH TO GET INTO THE CORNERS! MOVE!” she commanded him and his sister.

 

Babs immediately darted for the corner at that tone of voice, rankled and angry at the unfairness of it all. How dare that filly get them in trouble! “B...But Mama! She’s right theah! How can ya naht see her?!” she asked, a touch of that anger creeping into her voice.

 

Violet was just laughing and giggling at the situation...and, oddly, seemed to be coalescing some kind of black smoke out of the air, drinking it like Babs would a soda.

 

“I'm not going to listen to any more of that nonsense! Move it, young lady! You're already going first!” Candy snapped.

 

Scorecard, meanwhile, reached the other corner and stuck his face in it, feeling irritated and angry, but nervous, too. He breathed a sigh of relief, though; he wasn't going first! Then the fear returned! She's going to spank them for no good reason.

 

Babs just whined in the corner, hurt but determined. “Mama! You really can't see her? Really? Score, c’mon back me up! She's right there!” the chubby filly whined at her, getting angry now. She was NOT gonna get spanked for no reason!

 

Vi just giggled again, jumping off Candy’s back, then wincing as the glass crunched beneath her hooves. “Oh, bugger…”

 

“It's true, Mama!” Scorecard said, supporting his sister. “She's on ya noggin!”

 

“There is NOTHING and NOPONY here!” Candy roared, losing her patience now. “No talking and no moving! I need to clean up your mess…”

 

She turned to storm off, but stopped as she heard a light crinkle and cracking noise. She looked down at the glass, worried she had stepped in it. But there was no glass beneath her unblemished hooves.

 

Slightly unnerved, she looked back at her foals. Reassuring herself they were lying, she skulked off huffily to get a broom and dustpan.

 

“You’re a jerk, ya know that, ya stupid (BABS! This is a family show!)”, Babs snapped at the filly, who was currently picking her way carefully through the glass. “Ya got us in trouble fa no reason.”

 

The filly just grinned. “Well, if you hadn’t been naughty, you and your brother both, I’d have never shown up in the first place!” she said. “Not that it matters, your Mum can’t see, hear, or touch me.” Taunting done, the filly turned her attention once again to coalescing the black smoke around herself, swallowing it down and smacking her lips.

 

Scorecard scowled into the wall. Yeah, they got off with a lot Candy Mane didn't know about, but that NEVER exactly made this fair! He didn't look to see this crazy (kid show) surrounding herself with black smoke like she's hitting a hookah like a bong.

 

“Why can't Mama see you?” he asked, hoping Candy wasn't about to return.

 

“Yeah, why can’t Mama see ya?” Babs chimed in, causing her to laugh.

 

“I guess your Mama’s just a stupid sod of an adult, way too grown-up to see the likes of little old me. C’mon, you little babies, dontcha know who I am?” she taunted, dancing in the glass and making a crunch crunch sound effect before stopping with a gulp as Candy returned, broom and dustpan at the ready.

 

Candy approached the glass and stood over it, staring down at it. What in blazes…? Something was going on… regardless, she swept it up and made to throw the broken shards out.

 

“I know who ya are!” Score answered once Candy was out of earshot again. “Yer a freakin’ jerkwad!”

 

“I’m sorry...what did you just call me?” Violet said, holding a hoof to her ear.

 

“YOU’RE A FUCKIN’ JERKWAD!” Babs all but screamed in answer

 

Well, that was poorly executed on Babs’ part. Candy stomped back into the room, going straight across to her daughter. With a hard snatch, she took Babs by the ear.

 

“So it's bad enough you're getting your rump smacked first, so now you want to you that filthy tongue scrubbed out too, huh? How DARE you say something like that to your own brother, Babs! March! Bathroom!”

 

She slapped Babs’ on the right cheek to get her moving, before turning back to her son. Scorecard seemed to know she was glaring at him. He was paralyzed with fright.

 

“Sounds like Babs thinks your invisible friend idea wasn't any good! No use calling him a jerkwad, Babs, because you were both in trouble regardless!”

 

“IT WASN'T MY IDEA! MAAA, SHE'S RIGHT THERE!” Score snapped indignantly.

 

“YOU WATCH THAT TONE, YOUNG COLT!”

 

And she dragged her daughter off.

 

Babs struggled and fought as hard as she could, not crying, not yet. “MA! SHE’S RIGHT THERE! SHE’S FOLLOWING US! LOOK, MA!” she screamed, pointing.

 

For sure, Vi was indeed following them, giggling like mad at this show in front of her. “Babs’s gettin sooooaped, Bab’s gettin’ Soooaped!” she chanted, still drinking that black...well, now it looked more like goo than smoke. “Do keep it up! I’m loving this!” she taunted, then got curious. “So tell me, is your Mama a good spanker? Is she gonna roast your poor bummy?” she asked.

 

Now that this jerk was closer, Babs could easily place her accent: Trottingham. But there was something off about it still...old fashioned. Either way, she was walking right next to her now, grinning that same evil grin, so wide she could see she had tiny fangs as well as normal teeth.

 

Unfortunately for Violet, she also wasn’t watching where she was going, and bumped into a different table, setting another lamp to spinning on its base, though this one stayed unbroken and untoppled. “Ow!”

 

Candy turned and watched the lamp. It cobbled against the table as it spun, teasing tipping, but it settled. She reached forward, sighing, and straightened it up before yanking Babs Seed along. It wasn't until she reached the bathroom that she felt something was off. Babs wasn't close enough to hit the table… was she?

 

Shaking herself mentally, she pulled Babs to the sink. Reaching into the vanity, she pulled out a new box of soap. Peeling open one end, she slid out a brand new green, heavily scented bar of soap and put it in the sink. With a creak, she turned on the water.

 

“You keep that trap wide open, young lady! You don't want to make this worse, do you?”

 

Still struggling, Babs opened her mouth to protest. “Mama! It wasn’t me! It wasn’t Score! We’re innahcent!” She shouted, stamping her little hoofies and trying to thrash away, knowledge of innocence keeping her going long after a normally guilty Babs would have given up.

 

Violet, giggling like a schoolfilly, though rubbing her head, sat on the toilet, watching the whole show. “Oh, such a treat! You’re such a little brat! I’m gonna eat well tonight indeed!”

 

“Shut ya doggone mouth, ya jerkwad!” Babs snapped, looking over at the toilet. “If ah’m a brat, what’s it make you? A big mean bully, that’s what!”

 

“Babs!” Candy shouted, seriously alarmed now. “What has gotten into you?! BABS, THERE'S NOPONY THERE, THAT'S ENOUGH! Stop squirming and open your mouth!”

 

Candy picked up the slick soap after rolling it around in the sink for a few seconds, her heart racing madly. Something didn't feel right at all. Maybe she was better off threatening to deliver the soaping but stopping?

 

Violet was now going mad with giggles, and leaned up against the toilet back. “This I gotta see…” she said, smiling broadly as she watched the madness unfold before her.

 

Babs, sensing defeat, just shuddered and opened her mouth wide, ready to accept the unfair punishment her mom was going to deliver. “Nah faih...I iidn oo aahthin” she said, keeping her tongue out and her teeth covered by her lips so she didn’t have to taste the whole thing.

 

Resigned, Candy dragged the soap’s corner down along Babs’ tongue. She kept a forehoof around her daughter's torso to keep her steady. Pressing it into her mouth, she warned Babs not to spit it out.

 

“You hold that with your teeth for a bit. You better promise Mommy when she takes it out that you'll never cuss like that again, or else you'll get a good thorough soaping next time! And then a good hard hairbrushing while you hold it in your mouth!”

 

Babs whined, but obeyed, tears in her eyes at the foul taste of the soap as she carefully gripped it in her teeth, staying where she was and staring into the mirror, glaring daggers at the fuchsia filly sitting on the commode.

 

Said filly was just laughing her head off as she leaned back, but then her elbow bumped the lever, causing it to flush and her to jump up with a startled yelp as she landed in the bathtub. “What the fuck was that?!” she squeaked.

 

Candy spent the longest ten seconds of her life staring at the toilet. Tapping Babs on the cheek, she prepared to pull the soap out, not wanting to scrape the teeth. She made absolutely no comment about the toilet. Or the other lamp. Or the glass. Or the oh my Celestia, she thought, I'm going mad.

 

Violet stayed stock still, scared she may have accidentally revealed herself. If this mare started believing in spirits...she was doomed. Sucking a bit more smoke out of the air, she hunkered down and hid behind the shower curtain, taking care not to pull it.

 

Babs, meanwhile, was in purgatory, the soap in her mouth foul and nasty, even as she tried to stay stock still. Her little hoofies wiggled on the stool and her forelegs trembled as she looked at her mama, pleading with her eyes for it to end.

 

Realizing Babs never got the hint to open her mouth, Candy used her other hoof to jaws of life that bitch open. Throwing the soap into the sink and shutting off the water, she frowned down at her filly.

 

“Are you ever going to yell at your brother… or, uh, anypony else, like that again, young lady?” she asked, staring sternly at her.

 

“N..No, Mama…” she said, whining and trying to wipe the suds from her mouth, giving her the big sad soulful eyes in return to her stern gaze before looking away. Framed or not, that punishment had been a fair one.

 

Silently, Candy took Babs out of the bathroom and back into the living room. Sitting down on the couch, she pulled her daughter in between her hooves and looked into her face.

 

Scorecard looked around, seeing his sister about to get a scolding or something before she gets taken across Candy's knee, and shivered. It wasn't fair for them to be punished for nothing!

 

Babs looked her Mama in the eyes, whimpering as she waited for the worst...this was so wrong. Wrong in every way, but she couldn’t fight it. That would only make it worse...maybe they could beat up the filly, though!

 

Violet, meanwhile, had slipped back into the living room, trying to avoid making any noise. Aside from a solitary bump of her head against a door, she managed it.

 

The ear closest to the door flicked. Candy didn't want to look and see a door swinging or creaking on its own. Looking dead ahead at her terrified youngest, she tapped her on the snout.

 

“Scorecard, get over here.” Candy still had the hoof scrunching up Babs’ snout, thinking.

 

Scorecard gulped. Oh, no! Was he going to go first?! He gave a nervous titter, tail clamped so hard against his crack and belly he looked tailless. Once he reached her, she jabbed him in the snoot with a boop too.

 

“Let me make myself very clear,” Candy warned, pushing harder against their noses. “When Mommy says not to do something, then don't do it. Understood?” she asked, taking her hooves off them.

 

Scorecard nodded quickly, glancing up at her from the tops of his eyes, his face drooping down.

 

Babs nodded as well, continuing to look her Mama in the eyes as her tail moved to cover her own pudgy bummy. Was...was Mama gonna spank them together, both at once? She’d not done that…

 

Violet just tilted her head, curious now. What was going on here?

 

Scorecard was thinking along the same as his sister. That would be new… and horrifying. Not knowing when the next smack was coming, but flinching at the sound of his sister's pudgy bum getting swatted good? He gulped again. This would be awful!

 

“Go unload the dishwasher, Scorecard, and you can set the table for dinner, Babs, and then help your brother. Shoo.”

 

Scorecard would have left a colt-shaped dust cloud behind if this were a cartoon.

 

Babs darted away as well, though not quite as fast...pudge from too much fudge made it very hard for one to budge. But either way, she moved her unspanked flank to set the table and help Score with the dishwasher, relieved as all get-out that she and he escaped the spanks.

 

Violet, meanwhile, was fuming...they’d escaped! Now what was she...supposed...to...eat….the thought stopped her as she looked and grinned, seeing how out of it the mother was. “Piece of cake” she said to herself, melting back into the shadows and hiding under the couch.

 

“That's gotta be some sorta record!” Scorecard breathed on tenterhooks, loading up a stack of plates before carrying them to the end of the counter. “To escape Mama without red butts!”

 

In the living room, Candy rubbed her temples. Groaning, she fell back into the couch, staring at the ceiling.

 

“I've gone fucking bonkers…” she said in a voice low enough as to not taint the innocent ears of frolicking foals. “Barking mad.”

 

The glass… the other table! THE FUCKING FLUSH. The door! If she believed in ghosts, maybe, she'd assume they were telling the truth. Not that she wanted her kids talking to invisible spirits or demons or what have you. But she had no answers.

 

Violet grinned and settled on the couch next to her, teasingly making funny faces all over the place as Babs and Score were finishing up the dishes. “Yeah...I guess we got lucky. Maybe Mama believe in the filly now?”

 

Said Filly just stayed there, waiting for nightfall...perhaps now would be a good time for either Dad to come home or the scene to cut to nighttime.

 

Like a vicious fart through the pristine air, it cut to nighttime. Candy was in her gown, having put her children to bed. She was… a bit of a wreck. Jittery and jumpy, she eased back into the sheets and clicked off her lamp after much debating. She watched shadows dance across the ceiling from whatever light was spilling in from outside the window.

 

What she wouldn't give to have her husband with her tonight… unfortunately, Streamline was a busy service engineer, off on a job and wouldn't be back in Manehattan for several days.

 

Babs asleep, and Scorecard too, Violet was free to roam the darkened house, slipping into candy’s room with the ease of practice as the mare laid awake, watching the ceiling. Opening her jaw, she began to feed. Candy would feel a strange lethargy come over her as her fear was drained out of her, fueling and fattening up the thin filly on her chest.

 

Candy spent the night mostly awake. Now and then, she had a gradual weakness come over her. She got up and fetched a glass of juice and munched a muffin from the bread box, stopping to frown at her figure in the hallway mirror. After awhile she began suspecting that it wasn't low blood sugars causing her to feel exhausted and dizzy. There was something definitely wrong. The entire time she thought these things, she worried and fretted, afraid of this unknown. Inadvertently, surely, this would continue to bloat and feed the mysterious guest.

 

The next morning, as the sun crested the horizon and entered into Candy’s bedroom, a soft hissing sound could be heard. Growing steadily louder until it would likely wake the mare up, the sound moved to a short time of boiling, and the with a loud POP! Candy would feel a sudden weight on her chest as a fuchsia filly appeared, Violet mane disheveled and ragged, bones showing through her frame, even after the meal of fear she had received. Opening two steel-gray eyes, the filly blinked, then looked into the sun, wincing and rubbing them.

 

Then she gasped and looked at herself, wincing. “Oh bugger…” she said as the realization struck.

 

Violet would see two baggy, bloodshot magenta eyes piercing through the lines of shadow not yet eliminated by the morning sun. Two hooves sprang up from the sheets and grasped her by the forehooves. Candy panted heavily, her exhausted frame creaking like an old rocking chair as she sat bolt upright. She hadn't slept more than an hour, tops, the entire night.

 

Violet eeped and tried to pull away, her skeletal frame stronger than it had any right to be. When that proved ineffective, she gulped more, looking up into those magenta eyes with her own, steel grey and scared. She gulped, well aware she was in for it...this mare could see her, and she could touch her too.

 

With that realization, Vi just froze, hoping her skeletal appearance would inspire some pity in the mare, despite her clearly bloated belly.

 

Candy pulled her closer, bringing the filly's face within inches of her own. She looked at the horn. Then the thin, bony frame. The mane, the swollen belly, the steely eyes, everything. Then she glanced to the rump. Then back to the eyes.

 

“A… a l-little far from Canterlot, are we?!” she hissed in a vicious voice. “An invisibility spell so you could torture my children, huh?!”

 

“No! No, it’s not like that at all!” the filly protested, struggling still. “I...I’m not from Canterlot, honest!” she cried out, clearly audible throughout the place. Her accent was easy to place yet again. Trottingham, but very old fashioned. “S’truth! I swear! I meant thee no harm!” she stammered, still trying to escape. “A..And thou couldst not see me for a special reason!”

 

Candy half placed the accent, but she only ever heard old folks yammer on in it. This in no way altered the present climate.

 

“Trottingham has a school for magical fillies, huh?! What's this special reason, then?! A potion? Alchemy? WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU HERE?” she demanded.

 

Scorecard crawled out of bed, stretching and wiping his eyes. What in blazes was all that noise? He approached the wall joining his room to Babs’ and knocked softly upon it, seeing if she were awake already.

 

Babs was indeed already awake, and she crept over to her brother’s room. “It ain't me yellin...ya don't think Mama caught her, do ya?” she asked.

 

Meanwhile, the “Her” in question was gulping and scared. “Thou couldst not see me because thou art too old! Too grown up! Too mature! Thou no longer believeth in me and so to thee I doth not appear!” she yelped, blinking her eyes. Already her belly seemed to be shrinking as the sun continued to shine on her, causing her to whimper.

 

“Make sense and stop talking like a loon and TELL ME WHY YOU ARE HERE!” Candy demanded, her eyes flicking once to her nightstand and back.

 

Scorecard, meanwhile, shrugged at his sister. “I 'unno, but I hopes she did! I wanna see that brat get what's comin’, know what I'm sayin’? Let's go take a peep.”

 

Babs nodded, letting Scorecard lead the way to their Mama’s room, just in time to hear the sound of their mother struggling to hold a little filly. All delicious and nice, but the next line might just floor them and click everything into place.

 

“Thou...You couldst not...Couldn’t...see me because I doth...am…” she stammered, clearly having trouble overcoming her native accent. “I’m the Bogeymare and you’re too old!” she finally managed to get out.

 

“Oh, that makes sense!” Scorecard whispered in a satisfied moment of clarity.

 

Candy continued glaring at the intruder, holding tightly still. She wasn't yet buying this supernatural nonsense, but she knew one thing for sure.

 

“I don't care who you are, but you'll pay for breaking my lamp and scaring the crap out of my family and trying to get my foals into trouble!”

 

“We weren't actually scared…” Scorecard mumbled, but focusing his gaze on the scene about to unfold. Was what he was thinking would happen going to happen?

 

Violet eeped, shrinking in on herself, her stomach now back to its normal size...or lack thereof. Now she looked like any starving filly. Candy could even see the growing fear and dread in her eyes as she redoubled her efforts to pull away, trying to escape the fate her actions had earned her. “W..What art thou...What art thy plans for me?”

 

Babs snickered outside, whispering to Scorecard “Two bits says Mama uses the hairbrush...and speak for yourself, she got me soaped!” she said, giggling.

 

“Well, I'd imagine you could use some good food,” Candy suggested.

 

Outside, Scorecard did the whole 'AWW C'MON!’ thing, though quietly.

 

“But first you're going to get what my children would have gotten!” Candy continued, still glaring at her. “You're paying for your night of fun, young lady.”

 

Babs snickered again. “Looks like ya owe me two bits, brother.” she teased. “Double or nothin she tries ta block and gets punishment spanks?”

 

Violet, meanwhile, was grimacing. “I..I doth always look like this...I do not partake of mortal foodstuffs…” she stammered, still scared as she whimpered. “And...what...what doth thy plan to...what you wouldst have…”

 

She gasped and renewed her struggles as the realization hit her. “No! No, thou cannot! Thou wouldst not! Let me go!”

 

“Hey, dere's nothing sayin’ she's getting brushed!” Scorecard argued. “Bet she does block, though!”

 

“You can stop talking like how stupid ponies think Princess Luna does and take your medicine,” Candy snapped, kicking her legs off of the bed as she adjusted to a seated position on the edge. Throwing this thin filly over her knee, she reached for the object on the nightstand: the brush.

 

“Ah, zebra darts…” Scorecard sighed.

 

Violet struggled a little more, then whimpered. “Canst thou at least close the curtains? The sunlight burns…” she asked, coming perilously close to whining and begging.

 

Babs grinned and held out her hoof to Score. “Pay up.” she gloated.

 

“You're in no position to make demands,” Candy said, cracking the brush against her own thigh in a test swing. “You're about to be one very, very sorry little girl!”

 

“Do ya see pockets on these soccer jams?” Scorecard hissed quietly at his sis. “Now shaddap, it's starting!”

 

“Please! I beg of thee...my skin feels aflame!” Violet begged Candy, not only to delay the spanking, but with her honesty in her voice. Her tail instinctively swung down to protect her tender, thin flank cheeks. Meanwhile, her horn stayed useless, not even sparking yet.

 

Babs grinned and settled in to listen...this promised to be quite good. Mama was mad, and a Mad mama meant a sad bottom.

 

Candy slapped the tail to her back, twisting a bony hoof up to cover and pin it. Ignoring Violet's pleas, she swung the brush out, up, and then WHACKED it down firmly and soundly across the right cheek. The brush covered the thin butt-half easily.

 

“Eee!” Scorecard squeed like a filly. “It's a mad, mad, mad, mad Mama!”

 

Violet’s yelp of pain was high pitched and shrill, more like a scream than a yelp. Already that cheek was turning a dusty pink just from the first spank...this was not going to be a fun time for the filly, not at all. “H..How many?” she finally managed to stammer out, tears already forming in the corners of her eyes.

 

Babs grinned. “Heh, Score...she thinks Mama counts the spanks...this is gonna be rich.”

 

“You be quiet!” Candy scolded, cracking the heavy hairbrush across the left cheek now. “You'll get the spanking you've got coming! A GOOD HARD SPANKING, just like my foals would have gotten! That sounds about right!”

 

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!

 

“Aaah,” Scorecard sighed happily, falling to his rump and stretching out to watch and listen. “Good stuff.”

 

Violet yelped and thrashed and screamed as the brush cracked down into two tender cheeks, cheeks that had gone many long years without feeling the firm discipline of a mother’s hoof. Already turning red, her flank was burning more than any other part of her.

 

Meanwhile, around her horn was gathering the same black smoky ooze that Babs and Score had seen before...the same stuff this girl ate all the time.

 

Candy smacked again and again, alternating cheeks, her wide swings and hefty cracks slapping those sorry cheeks at sharp angles. Violet would learn that she was in the well practiced hooves of the mother of Babs Seed. All the while, she kept the forehoof pinned, allowing her legs to kick freely off the side of the bed.

 

“Looks like she's gonna eat again!” Scorecard noticed. “Is she scarin’ Mama? Dat's how booger ponies eats, right?”

 

Violet screamed and thrashed as much as she could, then her magic finally manifested, attempting to pull the curtain closed!

 

Candy's eyes flicked to the window. Yeah, no. If there was that impossibility that this was a boogeymare getting her butt tanned over her lap, she'd keep her under wraps.

 

With two heavy WHACKS across both buttcheeks to stall the spell, she leaned back, stretched out her leg, and kicked the nightstand over to the window. It pinned the open curtain between it and the wall.

 

Violet’s protests were cut short by the two heavy whacks as she threw her other hoof back to block the dreaded brush, crying openly now.

 

“I’m sorry! Please! No more!” she begged, trying to stall or end this torment. “I’ll leave! I’ll stay in the shadows where I belong! Just please stop!”

 

“When we're done, dear,” Candy reminded her sternly, grabbing the other hoof and pulling it back. Readjusting, she held both hooves crisscrossed behind Vi’s back, pressing hard on the bony limbs. “We've got lots of time yet!”

 

Candy lowered the angle of her swing, whack, whack, whack, the brush bounced up and down. She danced it across Violet's rump, keeping the writhing filly in place.

 

“I’m sorrr-oorrryyyy!” Vi screamed as the brush bounced up and down her flanks, eliciting a yelp with each spank. Her bottom growing redder and redder, the supernatural filly squirmed and writhed, trying desperately to get away from the spanks tormenting her poor flank.

 

Finally, though, she just stilled, no longer fighting it, just resigned to the pain.

 

Just because she had given in did not release her from the punishment. Candy fell into a routine, her grip against the hooves lighter, but prepared to tighten at a moment's notice. Her thigh was elevated, stretching out the thin sitspots. Occasionally, she cracked against the top of a thigh, but kept her focus on painting a nice scarlet cloud over that tush.

 

“When we're done, you can plant yourself in the corner in the living room, right across from the window!” Candy told her sternly. “When I'm satisfied you've had enough time to calm down and think, we'll come back in here and have a good long talk!”

 

Candy started laying in the cracks straight across both cheeks now, thrashing the buttcrack.

 

Outside, Scorecard was in awe. “Gooosh. It looks sooo much worse from out here, huh? I don'ts think Mama ever let me watch you gettin’ brushed! I'm always in the corner…”

 

Violet’s thrashing had finally stilled, as said, and while the more furious assault on her bottom and sitspots did garner more yelps and screams, she stayed nearly stock still, her voice having given up as well. Able only to utter half sounds. Her wailing, though...it was the wail of a banshee, almost painful to hear.

 

Finally, though, Candy would hear a hacking and coughing from her as she began trying to cough out the snot and tears that had somehow collected in her mouth.

 

Candy's spanking slowed to a more methodical pace now, seconds growing between hard smacks. Beating the drum to this slow pace, she focused on the sitspots. She rubbed the pinned forehooves softly and had long since stopped her scolding. The only sounds were whatever crying and snotting was coming from that filly… and the occasional whack of a heavy wooden hairbrush.

 

Candy counted to twenty in her head and whacked the final thwack. The hairbrush thudded as she tossed it back onto the nightstand. She held Vi closely, letting her cry on across her lap.

 

Violet sobbed and cried her eyes out, squirming on Candy’s lap as the pain grew, even after the hairbrushing stopped. Poor girl was becoming more skeletal by the second, it seemed.

 

Babs just grimaced. “Dat was almost as bad as the time you an I fought over dat game, huh?” she whispered. Not that she felt sorry for the girl, to after what she did...maybe a smidge.

 

Said girl was finally at least able to speak, though she didn’t much, preferring to continue to cry and sob, until, finally, her voice sounded out. “Please...the sun...ithurts…”

 

Candy frowned. She wrapped a hoof around her waist and hoisted her up into her chest, turning away from the window. Was this poor child sensitive or allergic to sunlight?

 

“Why does it hurt?” Candy asked, not unkindly.

 

“Man, don't reminds me!” Scorecard said, wincing. “After Mama thrashed ya goods, she came and tanned me just as bad, it felt!”

 

A sniffle and a few sobs were Candy’s only response for a minute or so, until she lifted her head. “I...I told thee...I’m the Bogeymare...the light of yon sun tis my Anathema.” she explained, trying in vain to wipe her tears from her eyes...though they were just replaced by new ones. Her nose was running as well, from all the crying.

 

Though it seemed turning away from the direct sunlight helped a bit...her shivering stilled and she seemed to start filling out again.

 

“Score...dis filly is weird, with a capital W, E, I, R, and D.” Babs whispered to her brother.

 

Candy was prepared to sigh intently at that nonsense… until she noticed the skeletal thinness begin to fill out a little before her eyes. They widened.

 

“Is that so?” she asked rhetorically, trying to process all of this information. “Do you need a facecloth for your snout?”

 

“Not much weirder den da way you and our Cus plays house!” Score teased, satisfied with the whuppin.

 

“Oh shaddap abouts dat, watch da show! Dis is gettin real good!” Babs told him, looking at the filly. The filling out had stopped, but now she only looked starved, not emaciated.

 

“I..I wouldst most appreciate that, if thou wouldst be so kind…” the filly said to Candy, still sniffling and whining at the pain. “And it is...it is true. I doth be the spirit of all foalhood terror…”

 

“Come to the bathroom,” Candy offered, squeezing her tightly and setting her on her hooves and reaching out for a forehoof. “I must admit, I am curious to learn more.”

 

For a spirit of foal terror, Candy wasn't exactly shaking in her fur. Still, she was willing to show kindness now that there was a bright, shiny bottom in the room.

 

“Ah craaap, bail!” Scorecard hissed. “Before Mama and da Boogerbrat come out!”

 

Babs booked it! Moving as quickly as she could, hurrying back to her room so as not to get in trouble.

 

Violet, meanwhile, was simply following Candy, letting her lead her by the hoof if she wanted to. “I wilt answer thy questions…” she said, rubbing her bottom with her free hoof if she could. “And...I do believe thy foals wert watching mine...penalty.” she said, looking around.

 

Babs growled when she heard that. That little squealer! How’d she KNOW?!

 

Candy heard Scorecard’s bedroom door slam with the subtlety of controlled detonation. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head.

 

“I see…” she mused amusedly. “Well, you can't necessarily begrudge them of that, could you?” she asked with a yawn, though in all fairness she would have shooed them… eventually.

 

In the bathroom, she stood Vi by the sink and let some warm water flow over the soap from the night before. In the cabinet by the toilet, she extracted a cloth.

 

“So… why my children, again?” Candy asked, quite forgetting the 'talking later’ bit.

“I...I doth dine upon fear, and naughty foals provide goodly amounts thereof…” she explained, squirming a little as Candy applied the cloth to her face. Bogeymare or not, she still acted like a foal trying to escape the cleaning. Maybe she wasn’t as old as she claimed.

 

“And...I art not upset...they didst not mean any harm, only ca...catheart...what is that word?” she asked.

 

“Catharsis, sweetheart,” Candy supplied, squeezing the cloth against Violet's snout. “Blow.”

 

Once that was done, she went on.

 

“If you eat fear… then you ate your own, pre… presumably?” Candy stifled a yawn, stretching. She was really tired.

 

“Neigh. I cannot do that...I, um...I didst, um...dine upon thy fears last night.” she confessed, still squirming against the cloth. Oddly, when she wiped away the stuff, the cloth would come back black before slowly turning its normal color again.

 

“I am sorry...I wast starving last night, and the rain drove me indoors…”

 

Candy frowned upon hearing that she was a sampler platter. Still, the punishment was over. No use complaining now. She dropped the black, lightening cloth back into the sink, staring at it.

 

“We've got potato chips, honey,” Candy explained with exasperation, folding her hooves. “If you were starving, why didn't you just bang on the door? Or were you invisible until the sun hit you this morning?”

 

“I cannot be seen by adults...only by foals.” she said. “Under the light of the sun I become visible, and tangy...tongua….” she stammers, facehoofing. “310 years old and I still doth not know simple Equestrian…”

 

“So, I'll only see you in some tangible form during the daylight?” Candy asked, opting not to scoff at the supposed age; if this little girl was over three centuries old, then Candy was the queen.

 

It would explain the archaic speech, though. And she nodded. “Unless thou comest to believe in the Spirits, such as me, I shalt be invisible to thee save within the light of the sun. And that hurts me.” she explained, whining a little. “And...even if you couldst have seen me, I doth not partake of mortal foodstuffs.” she explained. “I can...eat them...but they doth not nourish me in any manner.”

 

“So, I can see you now, I suppose? And… that's a raw deal,” she said sadly. “Is there any easy way for you to feed?”

 

“Neigh...I hath tried. Scary movies I can feed upon, but...they doth taste of disgusting things.” she explained, sighing. “I just wish I could draw the same nutrition from fake fear I can from real fear. I would dine upon it instead.”

 

Once the cleaning was done, she rubbed her own face seemingly rearranging it before it settled back into place. “Would...would it bother you if I were to clean my ears as well…”

 

Violet tilted her head. “Um..I, um...I didn’t mean that…” she said, then nodded. “But it wouldst work better…” She nodded, then reached up and pulled on her head. Harder...harder...POP! She set her head on the lip of the sink, her body stepping away. “To make it easier for thee to reach my ears.”

 

Man, that was a good fifteen seconds or so with Candy standing stock still, gawking blankly at the head. The facecloth was on the floor, having fallen from a limp grip.

 

Once she was surely calmed down enough to be sensible again, Candy backed up. With a resounding, echoing twump, she landed butt first into the bathtub.

 

“What doth be troubling thee?” her head asked, her body coming over and offering a hoof to help her out. “I told thee I am the Bogeymare...I canst take myself apart at will. In fact, I even keepeth mine to…” she started to say, then clamped her mouth shut with a sheepish blush.

 

Candy observed the extended hoof like a firearm pointed in her face. Safety off, she allowed the assistance, though she made sure to do most of the work with getting up, as not to pull that filly into the bath with her. Huh, maybe she'll offer a bath later.

 

“I-I s-see…” Candy croaked, the last morsels of hope that this all had a perfectly reasonable explanation leaking out of the proceedings and running down the drain. “You keep your what?” she continued, seeking clarification.

 

A blushing headshake was her response. “Nothing...naught of importance.” she stammered, the little fibber. Her body wasn’t really all that strong anyway, no stronger than a normal filly without the head.

 

Weirdly, there wasn’t any blood either, just a clean cut. Like this filly was a jigsaw puzzle.

 

“Are you okay? I hath heard that a fall within one's bathtub canst cause massive injury. All the more reason I doth not take them anymore.” she said, her body going to sit in the corner.

 

“I’m fine, yes,” Candy said hastily, rubbing her keister and remembering her muffin. “I'm getting as robust as my darling sister, so I’ve got padding.” She shook her head. “Just… put it back on. Pl-please…”

 

Well, at least Vi might get a snack from her fear.

 

With a quizzical look, the young filly called to her body and proceeded to quite literally pull herself back together. Once her head was reattached, and after giving it a spin to make sure it was screwed on just right...she was no Grinch, after all!...Violet nodded to Candy again.

 

“I do apologize for startling thee...I didst tell thee, however, what I doth be. Perhaps thou now believeth me a mite more than before?” she asked, letting a minor bit of snark creep into her voice.

 

“Mm,” Candy answered shortly with a grunt of assent. “I’ll clean your ears, you know… properly…”

 

Once the task had been completed, slowed a little by a sudden reluctance to touch this demon filly, Candy stood back from her and frowned.

 

“So… where do we go from here?” she asked, forgetting about the corner time she had planned.

 

“I doth not know, to be most truthful with thee…” she said, rubbing her left ear. Just like when her face was wiped, the swabs had come back black and were slowly lightening again.

 

“After all,” she continued, giving a slight glare to the older mare, “I didst expect to never even be seen by thee, let alone to have my flank beaten by thine hairbrush. Left to my own devices, I wouldst have been gone before now, belly full and on my way.” she almost, but not quite, snapped.

 

Candy narrowed her eyes. “Yes. Feeding on the pain and fear of my children being spanked for no good reason. Still, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with letting you mosey on your way without feeding you up… somehow.”

 

“I doth not feed on pain, only upon fear. And thy children doth hardly be angelic seraphim or cherubim. They themselves didst admit to me that they hadst committed misdeeds for which they were never apprehended nor suffered consequences for.” she snapped for real. “I doth not frighten the innocent. Only those deserving of a good fright as penance for their misbehaviors.”

 

“Without specifics, I wouldn’t justify punishing them, darling,” Candy said with delicacy. “And you didn’t mention how you can actually feed right now, because you look like you’re starving.” An idea hit her. “Aaactually… I’m wired now, but give me an hour, and the lack of sleep will catch up with me… and this freakin’ ordeal is going to mess with my dreams. Can you eat those?”

 

“Not...thy dreams. But if thou shouldst have a nightmare, then yes. I canst and often do dine upon the fear that those generate.” she said slowly, looking at Candy with an unknowable emotion in her eyes. “And if thou doth offer such, I would be thrice the fool not to accept.” she continued, her body growing fainter without the sunlight to force her into tangibility.

 

“Then that’s settled, I suppose… Scorecard has awful night-terrors, but if they can be beneficial to SOMEPONY, I guess it doesn’t do any harm? Celestia, that makes me feel like an awful mother…” She lost her train of thought a moment. “Just, yeah, I’m going back to sleep soon, feel free to feed, and… as long as you aren’t the source of my children’s nightmares, stop by and fill up.”

 

She nodded, her body now only halfway there as she faded away. “Then I suppose I’ll see you in your dreams.” she said, carefully rubbing her eye, then pulling it out and dipping it in the sink before putting it back in. “Sorry...it keeps sticking.” she said, before finally fading completely from view.

 

Once she was gone, Candy sat down on the edge of the bathroom. She’ll get her kids ready for school shortly, and then off to take a good nap.

 

“What the fuck is my life, even,” she mumbled, head in hoof. “A fucking boogeymare. I ask you…”

 

At that word, suddenly Candy found herself with a bar of soap stuffed into her mouth and the sound of fading laughter on the wind.