Cemetery Adventure

Edith had been wandering for a good long while by now, and had found herself heading towards one of the larger but relatively unused pastures. Though as she truly got closer, she noticed it had received a transformation for the Halloween celebration just like so much of the stables had.

The gate was wide open, and arch established as an entryway for it. At the top of the arch, Edith just could make out the word 'Cemetery' in some sort of fancy writing.

Confused, the mare moved into the pasture, taking in the long rows of stones that had been laid out in various shapes and sizes. What in the world was this?

She approached one, finding it to simply read 'RIP'. With that being no help, she took a look at several more stones only to find them with similarly unhelpful statements. One read 'Here lies someone' but that was just flat out confusing.

Some didn't even say anything! Seriously, who put a random stone and didn't put anything on it? Or they just had a symbol like a skull or wispy creature that only had eyes.

This cemetery thing was weird and confusing. With a huff and hoping to find something less confusing, the blue roan mare left the entry area and started making her way deeper into the cemetery, ears swiveling around to try and pick up any hint of what the purpose of this area might be or what it might have in store for her.

She noticed as it went she could hear a soft hum, the sound of a machine running quietly, and it was starting to get a bit cooler, but that wasn't much help for anything so she kept on walking.

Surely there had to be something of interest, and less confusion, in this cemetery?

It had certainly gotten colder in this part of the, likely fake, cemetery, Edith mused. She could still hear the quiet hum of humans' machines, though considering they were well-hidden from sight the mare supposed she was probably supposed to ignore them.

Perhaps they were what was making this area colder? Reasonable, she decided with a nod to herself, tail swishing as she noticed something add on one of the nearby stones.

She moved over to it, still miffed it merely read 'RIP' instead of anything helpful, and sniffed at the odd coating on it. It was a white-blue color she associated with the frost that came in the winter, but it wasn't winter yet and it wasn't cold enough for frost to be forming either, despite the oddly cool temperature currently around her.

So what was this? She sniffed it again, but could only smell the growingly familiar smell of whatever humans made Halloween decorations out of. Was this not-frost part of the decorations then?

She frowned at it, head tilted. It had to be, right? It was the only thing that made sense! So the humans had decided to put fake frost on their weird stones?

She huffed a little. Humans were so odd sometimes! She moved along, noticing now that there were more stones with fake frost on them and they were quickly gaining more as she continued. Eventually, it was even on the grass beside the little trail she was following!

So the humans must have really liked putting this fake frost out there.

Edith would admit, it did give the whole area a colder feeling, even if the temperature was merely cool and not truly cold.

Her tail swished and she smiled, quite enjoying the quiet walk. Plus, it was always fun to see what shapes you could see in frost, and this fake frost was no different in that aspect.

Edith wasn't too sure how long she'd been wandering through the fake frost-covered stones when she spotted a glowing light in the far distance.

She paused, ears pricking forward as she stared at the distant light. It was surrounded by something... A gazebo, maybe? Her tail swished, and she took a few steps towards it before she paused.

Should she really go that way? After all, what if it was a trap?!

She rolled her eyes at herself. Now she was just being silly. Everything about Halloween so far had been fake. Sure, there had been moments where the humans had scared her, but that was the point of those things and they weren't harmful! Even if there was some sort of scary surprise waiting for her, Edith doubted it would hurt her at all.

Nerves settled, the blue roan mare nodded to herself and trotted towards the light, curiosity growing as she got closer. The light was soft, bright compared to the rest of the cemetery that was only lit by the light of the moon and stars, and warm.

As she got closer, she realized it wasn't the kind of light she was used to, from the little bulbs on posts or in the ceiling.

No, this light was odd. It hung outside the gazebo, but it wasn't just shining... The light was in some sort of container, and the light itself seemed to be fire.

She'd heard humans mention these before... What were they called? She thought hard for a moment, perking up as it came to her. Lanterns!

This was some sort of lantern! She cautiously eyed the glass, not wanting to risk setting the fire free. Though oddly enough, it didn't flicker and move like she would have expected it to, instead staying perfectly still and stationary.

Odd, she decided.

Edith turned away from the lantern and carefully made her way onto the gazebo. It seemed surprisingly normal, for being surrounded by confusing stones and fake frost.

At least until she looked up, curious why the humans had put the light outside instead of inside the makeshift shelter.

She let out a startled whinny as she processed what was hanging above her head, ears laying back against her head in alarm. There was a thick covering of spider webs on the ceiling, with more crisscrossing over them in a chaotic fashion that showed it had been way, way too long since someone had done anything about it.

While parts of the webs seemed abandoned, there were plenty that had perfectly still spiders perched on them and simply waiting for something to happen.

The mare would be lying if she said there wasn't a bit of horror in her at just how many spider webs there were. Why had the humans allowed this to happen?!

Then she noticed something in the corner, half hidden by the webs that crisscrossed in front of it. There was a massive, fuzzy spider perched across three or four of the webs, unblinking eyes staring down at her.

Nope. Nope on so many different levels.

Edith took several steps backward, watching the massive thing in case it decided to come after her. Luckily, it gave no inclination of even moving, much to the mare's relief.

She got out of the gazebo in a hurry, looking around and spotting a building in the distance. It definitely hadn't been here before Halloween, so it was probably part of this cemetery decoration, but as long as it didn't have giant spiders that was fine.

With a last glance at the gazebo to ensure the spiders weren't coming after her, Edith set off at a canter for the building, happily leaving the spiders and lantern behind.

Edith was more than a little happy when she glanced over her shoulder as she neared the makeshift building to find the gazebo far behind her and no sign of spiders anywhere near her.

Alright, good, she could relax about that at least.

Nodding to herself, the blue roan mare turned to eye the building in front of her. Despite the fact it had to have been put up recently, and was likely only temporary, it looked old and rundown. Her tail swished as she studied it. Old, but sturdy, she decided and carefully stepped through the open doorway.

The light was beyond dim inside, only provided through cracks in the roof that allowed in some of the outside moonlight, but still enough to see by after she took a few moments to allow her eyes to adjust.

Her tail swished as she eased her way further inside, eying the alcoves in the walls with strange boxes. They were long and not too tall, likely some sort of container she thought.

As she came to a sort of center room, there was one of the boxes laid out in the middle of the floor, as if it had just been left there for no particular reason.

Curious, she stepped closer and sniffed at it. Just wood, she decided, painted black with a white skull on one end.

What was this even for? A human could probably lay down in it, she mused, but if it was some sort of odd human sleeping spot why would it have a lid? Very odd indeed...

She nudged it with one of her hooves, listening to the echo-y sound of a hollow inside. She looked but couldn't find a way to open it. Maybe this was actually a fake container to look like a real container, so it didn't open?

That seemed reasonable.

Nodding to herself, Edith left the weird container to continue exploring.

Edith had been wandering through the strange building for a while when a low groaning noise caught her attention. Still surrounded by alcoves with the odd fake containers, she veered down a hallway to follow the noise.

At the very least, she could make sure no one was hurt before continuing on her way. If someone was hurt, it would be pretty bad if she left them here since it didn't seem many had come out to the fake cemetery, let alone this far into it.

She called out a greeting, but only received another groan in return. Her tail swished, pace quickening a bit in concern.

Then she found the source.

The man was green, wearing a torn suit, and part of his face was missing entirely. He let out another groan as she stepped close, making her hesitate.

What was even wrong with him? Her nostrils flared, trying to smell if he was sick or something. Wait, that wasn't a human smell!

She snorted, offended as she realized he was a fake human that made noises.

That didn't explain why on earth he was green and looked moments away from falling apart, but at least she didn't need to figure out if she could even help him.

Her tail swished, and she turned to leave only to see another fake human. This one was also green, though she was missing her entire left arm and was draped across a container that had been pulled halfway out of its alcove and was staring absently at the ceiling.

Weird. They were weird. What were they even supposed to be?

Just in case, Edith smelled this second falling-apart human to ensure she was fake, and when the mare had determined that it was she set off the way she'd come.

Halloween was fun, but really some of the decorations were confusing, Edith concluded.