Applebloom was finishing brushing her teeth and getting ready to go to bed. She had spent the whole day trying with no success to get her cutie make with her two best friends. This afternoon they had tried to get their cello playing cutie marks today and the end result was a three broken cello bows and one very angry gray mare. She had spent the rest of the day with her friends working on the farm to pay her back for the bows. She hopped down from the stool that she used to reach the sink in the bathroom, then headed off to her room to get some rest. As she got into bed, she saw a shadow flicker across her bedroom floor. She looked around but there was nopony to be seen, so with a shrug and a yawn she jumped into bed and dozed in the warm comfort of her sheets. Her limbs were all tired and her eyes were heavy, she yawned one more cute little o whilst falling off to sleep.
Then not three seconds after she fell asleep there was a knock at her door. She was jarred awake by the sound, she called for the knocker to come in but the door was silent and a stark silence covered the room with an ominous presence. Drowsily she got up rubbing her eyes to go to the door to her room and open it, but there was nopony on the other side. Thinking that this might be some silly prank laid out by her sister and Pinky Pie she dragged her hooves over to Applejack’s room. The door to the room was slightly ajar; she walked up to it and opened it, expecting to find her sister laying on her bed trying to fake sleep. But to her surprise she was not there. All she found was a cold messy bed and an empty room. But the most disturbing thing was that Applejacks hat was still hanging on the bed post of the bed.
Feeling a bit more awake do to the panic that had awakened in her mind, she trotted over to Big Mac’s room hoping to find him still in bed. But to her dismay it was the same as her sister’s room. A cold messy bed and Big Mac’s work harness hanging on its mount on the wall. With panic truly setting in now and cold fear gripping her heart she ran down the hallway in the silent house down to Granny Smith’s room. She threw open the door and looked inside the room praying that the oldest and most dear member of the Apple family was still there. But this was not the case, this room however showed signs of a slight struggle. The bedside lamp had fallen to the floor and broke and a few photos of old apple family members hand fallen from the wall. Then she saw leading away from the bed that there were little droplets of what looked like blood on the floor. The droplets made a trail the lead out of the room and down the stairs. Applebloom was riding the line between terror and the curiosity of a little filly finding something unexpected. She stared down into the darkness of the stairwell and the listened for sounds in the house. Everything was silent, the silence pressed in on her and the darkness seemed to grow darker the longer she stood there looking down. So then she started making her way down the stairs. The first plank of the stairwell that her hoof touched seemed to scream with a resounding wail. Applebloom jumped back and in doing so she lost her footing. Wailing and crying she tumbled down the stairs into the dark house. She landed with a thump at the bottom.
She was now surrounded by complete blackness. The dark was all consuming and the only sound that was made in the house was coming from her as she hid her face and tried to stifle her terrified sobbing. She rained herself back in and swallowed hard, while wiping the tears away she got up and started feeling her way toward the kitchen. As she entered the room her hoof came across something furry. It felt like a mane, when she brushed passed it going to the corner she finally found what she was looking for. As she flicked the light switch on the horrors that the darkness had been hiding came to life. The furry hair she had brushed passed on her way into the room was her sister’s tail. Applebloom screamed in terror as she ran out of the room and away from her sister’s lifeless body that was hanging from the ceiling fan by her own trick rope. As she ran into the other room she tripped and fell over the form of Big Mac. He was in the center of the living room on his side. For one insane second Applebloom thought that he was sleeping, but as her eyes looked over his body in fear she found his eyes. They were rolled back in fear and still had the remnants of extreme terror in them. She could no longer take it. While running out of the house she looked to the old barn. There were two figures standing outside it, one had the old rickety look of Granny Smith and the other was tall and lanky as she looked upon him she saw Granny fall over. Somehow Applebloom knew that she would never get up after this fall and she would never see her crazy Grandmother ever again. She could take it no longer. She headed for the front gate as fast as she could, her eyes spilling tears and her legs pushing her faster than she had ever gone before. Fear was chasing her, fear of her family's killer. She took a look back at the farm as she ran through the gate and saw the pale pony one last time. This time she could see one thing that disturbed her above all others. This pony had no face.
She ran and she ran and she ran. I felt like an eternity for her. She would not look behind her for fear of seeing him again and she could only think about her family. Here hooves took her to the place she thought would be the safest at the time, the library. She ponded on the door and took a fearful look behind her, but the faceless monster was nowhere to be seen. Finally the door opened to reveal the kind face of Twilight Sparkle and before she could she could ask anything of her, Applebloom pushed her out of the way and slammed the door shut. She was safe. As soon as she realised this she broke into tears. The loss of her family was horrid and raw, like a gaping wound that had festered was rotting. What she had seen had broken her. Twilight asked many questions but she got no answers from the little filly crying in front of her. The next day after a sleepless night Twilight, at a loss of what to do took Applebloom to the hospital. The doctors told her that she was suffering from extreme shook. The effects they said, could be permanent.
A few hours later found Twilight at Sweet Apple Acres where she found the bodies of the three members of the Apple family. An investigation was launched but there was no evidence found and the only witness would be mute for a long while.
The nights came and day’s passed and still no word came from Applebloom’s lips, her eyes developed large bags under them from not sleeping at night and little during the day. The filly’s friends came but still there was no word from her mouth till that day. It was one night when Twilight had wanted to stay with the young mare. She was sitting reading a Daring Do adventure to her as the night became deeper and deeper. Then she spoke.
“Slenderpony.”
Then Applebloom felt herself falling slowly back to her pillow. Her eyes closed and opened at the same time. She was back in her room at the farmhouse. The fear started to crawl up the back of her throat. But the fear was not enough to keep Applebloom under the covers for long. Soon she jumped out of bed and ran to her brother’s room. He was sound asleep just as he had been all the nights before.
“Nothing but a dream she whispered to herself, nothing but a dream.”
But, unnoticed by Applebloom a dark figure stood outside the farm house looking up to the window of the little filly’s room as she came in and got into bed once more.
