Story/Art:
Emily's Spooky SuitorThere was a time in Emily's youth when she had fallen in love with a handsome young fellow. He was bred from champions and known to be one of the best lovers known to horses. This infatuation with the stallion was dangerous and she knew that. There was no way she could ever have a chance at winning his heart. Not with her Halloween markings that is. What made this all even worse was the undesirable fact that the stallion was already intended to another.
Emily figured that she would either have to kill the mare he was intended to mate, or to somehow cast a spell on him and drive his
pretty little mate-to-be out of town. There were so many options the young mare could do to win her true love.
Many horses would call Emily a threat to the community for they were all afraid of her bewitching powers, but the lustful mare could care less. She knew what she wanted and she was determined to go for it. No one messes with A Murder Most Foul and gets away with it Scott-free. No one! She will win that handsome boy over and she will rule this land with an iron hoof!
Emily would follow her true love and plotted their fates. She could make it less painful for him. Much less easier to forget about that other mare and devote his whole heart to Emily if the wicked mare desired. She could make it out to be that she, Emily, was his intended and the other mare was trying to betray him. She could poison the other mare and promise her true love a safe and secure relationship.
The dark mare planned it all perfectly. She had her recipe for a dangerous toxin that would slowly and painfully kill her. The toxin will first slowly alter her appearance to look significantly older than the other mare is. After a week or so her kidneys will begin to shut down. Then her heart. The autopsy will show nothing about the toxin, just unexplained organ failure. Not that Emily cared what human doctors would think, she just found this bit of information quite interesting. Especially since humans were able to magically figure out how and why a horse turned up dying or dead.
Emily's recipe including neurotoxic acid, Hueberry berries, and a curse. She carried a cauldron in her mouth and trotted east into a forbidden forest. The acid was already in place inside the big, round, iron item. She had "accidentally" tipped some in from the cleaners area in the barn. She trotted quickly and smoothly to avoid splashing the liquid on her lovely coat. Once she found a large enough bush, she placed her cauldron on the floor and would shake the berries off the limbs and into the mixture.
Once that was done, she grabbed a big stick and would trot around her cauldron to mix the ingredients together. First the liquid was blue, then it turned purple, and finally a lustful red.
"Mors ad te genus omne neci. Pereatis atrocitate mortis. Quid vultis experimentum accipere legitime meum quoniam tu sceleratissimam perpetrarunt sententiam dolor. Die autem et mori diu. Dolorem tu olim me!" she chanted over and over again this evil Latin curse. She was determined to kill that mare and kill her brutally. She will end the mare that took her true love away and she will do so as murderously as possible.
Emily smiled when her concoction was complete. Now she just needed to mix it with water to dilute it and make it last longer and more painfully for the soon-to-be-dead mare. The appaloosa would just have to pour her poison into the evil being's trough and hide her cauldron. She would have to be careful and not allow a single soul to see her.
Emily picked up her cauldron and began to head off in the direction of the stables where the horses in the town lived. She trotted elegantly and with a purpose. The Halloween mare was in a hurry to get to the stables and to poor her poison.
Emily moved swiftly into the stables. She glanced around the mate's stall and rolled her eyes.
What a prissy thing. The stall was clean and not a piece of straw was out of place. Her troughs were clean and pristine unlike Emily's.
The Appaloosa used her right foreleg to push the bottom of her cauldron to tip it and pour it's contents. Just as she had begun to fill the trough, Emily heard voices just at the end of the stables. It was her stallion and his wretched wrench. Emily took in a deep breath. She needed to stay calm and get the job done and before she was seen. The young mare pushed a little more on her cauldron to pour the mixture a little faster. She was almost done when Emily realized that the two horses were just on the other side of the stall. The Halloween friesian quickly dumped the last remnants of her poison and quietly rushed out of the barn and off to the woods to hide her cauldron.
Emily typically kept her cauldron in a hidden grotto somewhere near the darkest edges of the forest. She figured that if she kept her items in a dark creepy spot then no one will come searching for it out of fear of the place surrounded it. Emily loved the dark and creepy places. She found it all so exhilarating.
The pretty fog mare trotted out of her hiding place and back towards the barn. She needed to make sure that the other mare met her fate. She was prepared to be the one to comfort her true love in his despair and anguish over the loss of the fragile mare. Emily would then pose as a stronger and more desirable mare to her love affair.
When she arrived, the other mare was found dead. She had been foaming at the mouth and her legs were moving with her subconscious "flight" instinct. Emily was silently celebrating the mare's death in her mind while she approached the handsome stallion.
"I am so sorry for your loss..." she approached the depressed stallion,
"Is there anything I can do for you?""Just stay with me tonight...I need some company.""Of course. Where shall I meet you tonight?" Emily asked the heart broken stud.
"Near the forest."---
Emily did as she was asked to do. She was waiting just outside the edge of the forest for her true love. He had told her that he would like to discuss a few things including his feelings about his "fiance's" death and his feelings for Emily. The mare couldn't have been any happier. She was ready to go...
Now where was he? Emily had been waiting here for what felt like hours. Why wasn't he here? The she saw a shadow. Was that him? Her heart was beating rapidly and loudly. Yes, it must be him!
That was when she heard an evil laughter and with a shrill scream she fell into darkness...
---
When Emily woke up she was a corpse. Her heart was broken and her dreams were bust. Her true love had murdered her and it was A Murder Most Foul. The stallion she had always wanted not only rejected her, but killed her out of revenge for his dead mate-to-be. How fitting. She killed and then she was killed.
For this point on, Emily vowed, she would remain her and await for her true love to set her free and if he should not show, every year she will kill a mare that is to be mated and until her true love arrives, no mare will be safe. Therefore every halloween one mare will be killed unless he comes to her and vows to remain with her for all eternity!
