Return to Sunny Town
Chapter 1: “Nightmares”
Quiet.
Everything around her was quiet, still. The only aspect that made things more eerie was the fact that she was lost somewhere in the Everfree Forest, wandering aimlessly through a ruined village within its depths: Sunny Town—or what was left of it as she silently cantered through the overgrown weeds, trying desperately to find a way out of here. The only source of illumination came from the moon, which hung high up in the night sky. It wasn’t much in terms of lighting a way for her, but it was better than nothing.
She couldn’t fully determine how she came upon Sunny Town in the first place, whether it was by chance or some other force of nature. She vaguely remembered getting curious and following that mysterious pony she spotted in the trees. She regretted that decision. She regretted ever leaving Twilight. And now, all she wanted was to leave this place and go home.
It was much easier said than done.
Brushing her scarlet mane from in front of her eyes, young Applebloom glanced around her, praying to Celestia that she might be able to find signs of someone, anyone, that would help her search for a way out of town. The rundown houses and stores around her didn’t help in this matter, but instead served to increase the already rising anxiety that she was already enduring. This place had to be almost uninhabitable.
Suddenly it felt like the ground underneath her hooves was shaking. Tremors were felt all around as if a small earthquake was rampaging. It wasn’t enough to make her lose balance, though. Then, in front of her eyes, she saw a hoof, black and decomposing, shoot out from the ground. What followed horrified her. It was a pony. At least that’s what she thought at first glance. It staggered, swaying lazily as it stood on its hooves. She could see parts of its bone from the flesh that slid from its body, but the main part about this “pony” that caught Applebloom’s attention were its eyes, glowing blood red as it gestured towards her.
“The curse had befallen her this very night,” it said in a demonic voice.
Applebloom got a more careful look at it, before recognising who it was. “Three-Leaf…? Is that you?”
“She had the mark; she had to go.” Three-Leaf took its steps forward, lurching as it attempted to grab the young earth pony in front of her.
Applebloom backed away, wanting nothing more than to put as much distance in-between her and it as she possibly could. This pony, or whatever it was, wasn’t Three-Leaf. At least not the Three-Leaf she met when she first arrived.
Her first instinct that came to mind was to escape as far as she could. She backed away, until she bumped into something behind her. She looked to see what it was, and much to her horror, there stood another one. It gazed down at her, its eyes piercing into her soul as she felt her sanity slowly being drained.
Applebloom’s eyes snapped open as she sat up in her bed, panting heavily and sweat dripping from her red mane. It was another bad dream, the fifth one this week about Sunny Town. At first glance, it seemed like another peaceful happy-go-lucky town. It reminded her greatly reminded her of Ponyville, from how things were run to the friendly atmosphere that lingered around the area. The townsponies welcomed her with open hooves.
What was strange, though, was that none of the inhabitants had cutie marks. In fact, they hadn’t the slightest clue as to what a cutie mark was. But what would really scar Applebloom for life were the terrifying events that took place after she left that cabin near its outskirts. The skeletons, zombified ponies rising up from the ground, their decaying bodies, rotting flesh sliding from their bones; it was nothing a filly should ever see, and she wished she could unsee it all.
She buried her face in her hooves, crying silently at the huge medley of horrible images that plagued her mind.
“You okay, Sugarcube?” Applebloom, still a bit shaky from the dream, jumped at the sound of another pony’s voice. She began to calm down at seeing Applejack standing in the doorway. As the orange mare entered the room, Applebloom saw a quick flash before her sister’s coat turned dark gray and her eyes began glowing red. The hallucination only lasted a few seconds before it ended.
Applebloom shook her head. “I had that dream again. I can’t get it outta m’ah head.” She saw quick flashes of the demonic ponies, which was enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand. “Everyth’n that happened over at Sunny Town was so unreal. I can’t believe what happened there.”
Applejack trotted to her sister’s bedside. “You’ve been talk’n about that Sunny Town place for weeks now. Maybe it’s time to start think’n that everyth’n you thought you saw was all in your head.”
“All in m’ah—?” Applebloom shook her head at that. “No, no, everyth’n I saw that day actually happened. It was all real!”
Applejack sighed. She loved her sister, but sometimes the filly could get out of hand on a few things. This was one of them. “Listen to yourself, Applebloom. Zombie ponies? A ghost town? Curses? Don’t you think those things are a bit far fetch, hun? And that filly you said the townsfolk’d murdered. If Sunny Town was that much of a paradise, why in Equestria would they consider murder’n a filly? No pony in their right minds would think of do’n such a thing.”
Seeing a disheartened look on Applebloom’s face, Applejack decided best to end the subject. “Look, we can talk about this later, alright? Right now, you need to get some sleep.”
With that said, Applebloom trotted out of the bedroom, bidding her sister good night before closing the door behind her. Applebloom wanted nothing more than to take Applejack’s word for it and go back to sleep, forget everything that happened, but now she could not. She had the events of Sunny Town still etched in her brain. Each time she would close her eyes, she’d see a zombie pony in front of her.
She sighed quietly. This would be a long night for her.
Applebloom lifted her head up from her desk, bags lining underneath her eyes and red mane a horrible tangled mess, after being prodded in her side for about fifteen times. She turned to see Scootaloo sitting in the desk beside hers.
“You okay, Applebloom?” she asked.
Applebloom shook her head. “No, Scoots, I’m not. It’s these darn nightmares I’ve been have’n. They’ve been go’n on every night since me and Twilight got back from the Everfree Forest. And now, I don’t know how to make ‘em stop.”
“Well you have to think of something,” said Sweetie Belle. She was sitting in the desk behind Scootaloo. “This is the fourth time you’ve fallen asleep today. Me and Scootaloo can’t keep covering for you.”
Applebloom yawned. She could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness again. “I know, girls, but I can’t help it. I think it’s even get’n worse.”
“Okay, class,” Cheerilee interrupted their conversation, bringing their attention to the front. “Today we’re going to be continuing our talk about the many ancient myths and legends of Equestria.”
Other than Applebloom, Diamond Tiara looked tired as well. The only word she could think of when regarding this subject was, “Boring.”
“Now,” Cheerilee continued, “Today we’ll be discussing about a peculiar village in the Everfree Forest known as Sunny Town.” Applebloom’s ears perked up after hearing the name. “Stories say that the town was founded roughly a century ago, just before the founding of Ponyville. It was said to be created by a pony named Grey Hoof.”
“Uh, Miss Cheerilee?” Applebloom raised her hoof until she was chosen. “Do you think we can talk about someth’n other than Sunny Town?”
“Like what?” asked Cheerilee.
Applebloom tried to think of a random subject for her to use—so far, anything to get away from Sunny Town would be relevant. “How about we talk about humans again? They seemed interest’n.”
“We’ve talked about humans for two weeks, Applebloom. I’m really getting tired of that myth,” Snips whined, an obvious hint of annoyance detected in his voice.
The entire class was more or less in agreement. Applebloom shrunk in her seat as her teacher continued with the story. “Anyway, much of Sunny Town’s population consisted of earth ponies without cutie marks. In fact, the story says that, for some reason, those ponies have never heard of a cutie mark.”
“It’s a town for blank-flanks, by blank-flanks,” Diamond Tiara muttered to Silver Spoon, who was sitting beside her. The two snickered at the joke. Applebloom, on the other hand, glared in their direction. She knew it was directed towards her and her friends.
“However,” Cheerilee continued, “Because they never heard of it, they believed a pony’s cutie mark to be a curse, instead of something that represented their special talent…” Immediately, Diamond’s and Silver Spoon’s expressions changed. “Any pony who lived in Sunny Town who had a cutie mark—along with all those who assisted them—was murdered almost instantly and their bodies burned out in the forest. The first of these recorded cases was about a filly named Ruby.”
The name had struck a nerve in Applebloom. She remembered Ruby too well. The ghostly pony helped her escape Sunny Town and the Everfree Forest alive. “Her cutie mark was a magnifying glass,” said Cheerilee, “but when she was discovered, they burnt her in a fireplace in a log cabin just on the outskirts of town.”
So that was the skeleton I saw? Applebloom thought. She looked to see the horrified expressions on Silver Spoon’s and Diamond Tiara’s face. Theirs matched the other colts and fillies in the class. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the two. If they had been in Sunny Town, they would’ve been killed, as well. Just like Ruby…
After another lecture about Equestrian history, the school bell rung, signaling the day to end. The class rushed outside into the open sunlight. The warm spring air washed over Applebloom as she made her way out of the school alongside Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, but this did little to ease her conscience—or help to wake her up a little. The poor filly was still exhausted from having to try and stay up through the lesson, and Cheerilee calling her name out on occasions did not help to make things better, either.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle noticed Applebloom’s worsening condition. They saw that her eyes were getting redder, and she was yawning deeper with each time. She staggered to the point where she stumbled over her own hooves. “Applebloom, me and Sweetie Belle were thinking,” said Scootaloo; “you seemed really on edge after Miss Cheerilee mentioned Sunny Town. Is there something wrong?”
Applebloom shook her head rapidly, almost fast enough to make it fall off. “Oh, no. Nope. Noth’n’s wrong.” She started laughing hysterically. “It’s jus’ that these nightmares haven’t given me a decent chance to sleep in over two weeks, and I’m go’n completely insane from it, but aside from that little mishap, I seem to be do’n jus’ fine, thank you! Why do you ask?” Applebloom’s face was mere inches from Scootaloo, who’d recoiled from the sudden outburst.
“Uh, no reason…” The expression on Scootaloo’s face was a combination of confusion, nervousness, and worriedness for her friend.
Applebloom sighed in contempt. “Ah’m sorry, girls. It’s just that almost every time Ah close m’ah eyes and try ta sleep, Ah keep havin’ these nightmares about Sunny Town. Ah didn’t mean to put you through all this.”
“It’s okay.” Scootaloo placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Maybe we can get you some help.”
“I say we go visit Twilight,” said Sweetie Belle. “Maybe she has books on this sort of stuff. And maybe we can read a little more about that Sunny Town myth. In the meantime, I think Applebloom should go home and at least try to get some rest.”
“That’s a great idea!” exclaimed Scootaloo, her tiny wings flapping. “You hear that, Applebloom?” She and Sweetie Belle saw that Applebloom was lying on the ground, eyes closed and snoring.
“Ah’m really worried about her, Twi,” Applejack said, pacing across the floor of the library. “Applebloom hasn’t been able to sleep for two weeks without having another nightmare about that Sunny Town place. When Ah was a filly, my parents always told me Sunny Town was a myth.”
“Maybe she hit her head or something while in Everfree,” said Twilight. She had a book levitating in front of her. “She could’ve just imagined everything in her head.”
“But that doesn’t explain why she’s been havin’ nightmares. If it were all in her head, shouldn’t it have been over by now?”
“Probably.” Twilight flipped a few pages in the book. “Sometimes affects can last for weeks, months at a time.”
Applejack’s eyes widened. “Months? She can’t keep goin’ on like this fer months! She can barely hold on fer a few days!”
“I know. I just feel awful about this,” said Twilight, her voice growing sorrowful.
Applejack placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Don’t beat yerself up, Twilight. It’s not …entirely your fault.”
“It kinda is,” said Rainbow Dash. She received a glare from Applejack. “What? She did let her go into the Everfree Forest. A lot of weird stuff happens in there – especially stuff that we don’t know about.”
The front door of the library opened and Sweetie Belle hurried inside. “Hurry up, Scootaloo!” she called out the door.
The orange pegasus filly came in through the door a few moments later, dragging a sleeping Applebloom by the tail. “It would be nice if you could give me some help, Sweetie Belle.”
“What happened to her,” asked Twilight.
Scootaloo dragged Applebloom further into the library before letting go of her tail, and replied, “She fell asleep at the schoolhouse. She kept mentioning something about a place town called Sunny Town. Miss Cheerlie told us that it was an old Equestrian legend that took place a century ago.”
“Twilight, you don’t happen to have any books on myths and legends, do you?” asked Sweetie Bell.
“I think so. Let me check.” Twilight trotted over to a bookshelf and used her magic to levitate a book off the shelf. It was titled, Myths, Legends, and All Rumours in Equestria.
She placed it down on the table. Sweetie Belle opened the book and began flipping through the pages, passing chapters about many of the mythical things of Equestria until she finally reached a specific page about Sunny Town. “Here it is!” She began reading. “Most of it is the stuff Miss Cheerlie mentioned in class today.”
“Is there anything she didn’t mention?” asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle read on until she reached a particular paragraph in the chapter. It had a picture of a darkened, zombie-like pony on the page. “It says here that there was a curse placed upon the town after they had murdered that pony named Ruby.”
“What was the curse about?” asked Rainbow.
“After they murdered Ruby,” Sweetie Belle continued, “the town was destroyed by a mysterious blizzard that killed off most of the population, followed by a landslide that finished everypony off. During the day, Sunny Town seems like a normal village inhabited by care-free earth ponies; but every night for the rest of eternity, the dead ponies will rise from the ground and haunt the remains of their once beloved town as punishment for their acts. Anypony with a cutie mark that enters the cursed town at this time will be trapped and ‘never seen again’ while those without cutie marks become part of the Sunny Town community . . . forever – never able to return to the ‘real world’ again.”
“Sounds ominous,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Doesn’t it?” replied Sweetie Belle, closing the book.
“But it’s just a myth,” said Applejack. “Do y’all really believe that ponies would make a town out in the Everfree Forest?”
“It does seem strange,” Twilight said, placing the book back on the shelf. “But so far, everything Applebloom experienced has been extremely accurate, and I don’t think she ever knew about the Sunny Town myth until we went into the Everfree Forest. Usually when a pony tries to start a myth, they leave out very important details explaining how it all happened. Applebloom’s been explaining everything to us – and even through it may seem unbelievable, she’s given us more in-depth detail that any other pony could ever have. Nearly all of what she told us these past few weeks have also been said in the book.”
“So you think she’s tellin’ the truth?” asked Applejack.
Twilight shrugged. “She could be, but I’m not entirely sure. Maybe we should ask her some questions about it when she wakes up. She could help us shed some light on this.”
“Maybe yer right. In the meantime, Ah’m takin’ her home. She’s gonna need a peaceful sleep fer once.” Applejack hoisted Applebloom onto her back and started for the door. “Ah’ll see ya’ll tomorrow.”
