Penumbra: Friendship Is Horror

Prologue

“Where is she? We’re all here, already,” groaned Rainbow Dash as she impatiently hovered back and forth in the living room of the Apple family’s house.

It was getting late in the evening, evident by the last rays of the warm summer sun disappearing into the horizon, making way for the myriad of stars to come out. It was also fairly clear from how quiet the place was, that the Apple family had retired to their bedrooms, all of them with the exception of Applejack.

“She’s still upstairs, Dashie. You gotta give her a minute to tuck in Applebloom,” chirped Pinkie as she examined the photos displayed on the mantle, some of them photographed by her.

“Still, she came over to my house being all moody, and then she told me to meet her here tonight for some big announcement!” Rainbow flailed her arms in exasperation, though her complaint fell on deaf ears.

“She went to all of us like that, Rainbow,” said Twilight. “Did anypony else notice the dark rims under her eyes? I don’t think she slept a lot last night.”

“Yeah, she looked awfully tired,” mumbled Fluttershy. “The poor girl must have dealt with something really bad.”

Silence took over the room as the five ponies went deep into thought about what possible reasons Applejack had for behaving so strangely. Why had she asked all of her close friends to come out to her house late in the evening, and doing so without even giving a hint to why they just had to come? It was all very strange to them, but discussing it didn’t bring them any closer to the truth. It all came down to what Applejack was willing to share.

“Thanks y’all,” said Applejack as she walked down the stairs, yawning promptly after. “Ah’ know Ah’ haven’t given y’all much reason ta come here. But, Ah’ got some strange news yesterday.”

“Whatever the matter is, we’re all here to support you. Isn’t that right girls?” asked Rarity from her comfortable spot on the couch, glancing between each and every one of them as they gave off a resounding ‘mhm’ and a nod.

“That means a lot ta me.” Applejack smiled warmly from the centered stage which was the middle of the living room. “Ah’… Ah’ got a letter from mah’ parents.”

From under her hat she pulled out not just a single letter, but a whole package of letters, enough to make up a whole book if just bounded properly. She allowed most of them to drop onto the floor, but held onto the only sheet of paper she saw as being very important.

“Your parents? I thought they were, you know…” said Twilight in a sheepish tone, rather uncomfortable with bringing up such a delicate topic.

“Ah’ thought so as well, Twilight. But, Ah’ recognizes my dad’s writing from the letters Ah’ got saved away upstairs. This was definitely made by him and it’s filled with.. weird things.”

“Well… what does it say?!” exclaimed Rainbow, floating closer to Applejack so she could spy on the content of the letter.

“Ta sum it up… Mah’ parents were basically doin’ some kind of expedition up north, some kind of research thing. Ah’ can’t figure out what even half of the pages actually say, but the few papers with just Equestrian tells me this was going to be delivered if something happened to them.”

“Wait really?” asked Pinkie as she leaned in a bit too close to Applejack to read the letter, taking a deep breath before continuing. “But, if it was first going to be delivered if something happened to them, does that mean they’ve been alive and well for years? Could it be they worked on some super-secret Equestrian government project that nopony is allowed to know about, and something went horribly wrong and with their last action they got this stuff sent to you?”

“Erhm, Ah’ don’t know, Pinkie… It could be that it was always sittin’ in a post office with a deadline left on it, to be delivered on a certain date unless they came to change it.” Applejack sighed deeply while staring down at the paper resting in her hoof.

“I can take a look at the ‘strange papers’, if you want me to, Applejack,” said Twilight as she placed a hoof reassuringly on Applejack’s shoulder. “And what do you think you’ll do with the information you’ve got now?”

“Ah’ really don’t know about that, Twilight…” Her words were as hesitant as the look in her eyes.

“Could you tell us a bit more about what actually happened to them, dear?” asked Rarity while having joined Twilight at Applejack’s side.

“It says they were stationed at some kind of outpost far beyond the Crystal Mountains, there’s even a map with a red dot marking the area it’s supposedly at. It also says they did some work there, but nothing about what it actually was…” She sighed once more before putting away the letter. “Ah’ even tried to talk to Granny about this. She didn’t know anything at all.”

“I’m sure I can find out some answers from the letters. Just give me a few minutes to examine them.” Twilight beamed confidently as she picked up the papers on the floor with her magic.

“Why don’t we just go there?” asked Rainbow with a smirk. “We’ve been all the way up to the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Mountains aren’t that far from there. We could totally make it up to wherever your parents were working.”

“There’s one more thing, Dash.” Applejack paused for a second, her eyes wandering from the suspenseful expressions of all her friends as she searched for the right way of phrasing things. “Mah’ parents told me in the letter to not go up there… to not search for them. The letter basically says to burn it all.”

“Oh come on!” groaned Dash while falling backwards onto the couch where Rarity had just been sitting.

“I don’t mean to be nosey, but, is there any reason for them to write such things?” asked Rarity with a raised brow. “I mean, they must have a good reason to tell you not to go there, and why in Equestria would they want you to burn these papers?”

“Nope, there ain’t no reason in the letter. None that Ah’ can find at least,” sighed Applejack.

“Maybe Pinkie’s government theory makes a bit of sense. I’ve read articles and stories about ponies experimenting on other ponies with magic for, who knows what reasons… I’ve always dismissed these rumors, but I’ve even heard that Princess Celestia was behind something like that once a thousand years ago. It was said that she did it to find out ways to keep Equestria protected while Luna was banished. Maybe she did really do forbidden research back then, and still is now… No, that would be ridiculous” chuckled Twilight awkwardly.

“Hah! I told you!” giggled Pinkie. “You girls should really listen to me more often. I don’t just pull these thoughts out of thin air you know. I think long and hard about stuff before I say them. Though, them doing stuff all the way up there makes me wonder what they would be doing. Isn’t it really really reeeaaally cold north of the Crystal Mountains?”

“It definitely is, Pinkie. Whatever is up there, it wasn’t meant to be randomly discovered by anypony… it does raise a lot of questions, Applejack.” A slight frown formed on Twilight’s face as she dared to ask the question, “Do you have any idea what your parents might have been doing, besides running the farm here?”

“Ah’ don’t know!” groaned Applejack while taking a step away from her friends who were crowding in on her from every side. “Ah’ thought my parents were just normal farmers, like mah’ brother and me…”

“Erhm… This all sounds really scary… Maybe we should just forget about this and not go up there if they told us not to,” mumbled Fluttershy.

“Fat chance, we have to go check it out. This is like an adventure and a mystery all in one. It’s like something taken straight out of a Daring Do book,” beamed Rainbow.

It took a little while before Twilight joined back into the conversation as she had begun to intensely study the notes filled to the brim with foreign writing, which, by the look of her face, was far beyond any writing she knew of.

“I think they might have been linguistics experts, or maybe they were archaeologists. These letters with strange writing on them, I think they’re of some ancient language dating back before pony history… Whatever they’ve found up there could be groundbreaking in our understanding of pony history!” Twilight changed from slightly worried to very excited in just a moment’s notice.

“Ah’ think you hurt yer brain, Twilight. No way mah’ parents were experts on any of those things.” Applejack waved a hoof dismissively. “If they did anythin’ up there, it must have been apple related. Maybe they were in charge of the food…”

“That could also be true, Applejack. But,” paused Twilight as she reexamined the papers. “How did they get their hooves on papers like these? I imagine whoever wrote these would have wanted to keep them safe. This is part of a major discovery, and if it was meant to be secret, nopony would just let it lie around for the ponies handling food to take it.”

“Twilight’s right!” exclaimed Pinkie with narrowed eyes, now wearing her Sherlock hat and bubble-pipe that seemed to appear out of nowhere. “From all I can see, and understand, there’s no way your parents could get this stuff unless they were either helped or did the work themselves.”

“Right… as Pinkie and Twilight said, isn’t there just a possibility that you perhaps didn’t know your parents as well as you thought you did, hm?” asked Rarity as she walked up to Applejack’s side once more.

“Ah’… Well… Ah’ can’t say for sure how they got the papers. But Ah’ know mah’ parents! Ah’ loved them with all mah’ heart. How couldn’t Ah’ have noticed somethin’ like this?” huffed Applejack, rolling her eyes before looking away in annoyance. “Ah’ would have noticed it…”

“Applejack, are you sure you know all they did back then? I mean, erhm, you were really young when they disappeared…” mumbled Fluttershy. “It’s just… I remember you telling us what happened to them. Maybe their trip to the big Vanhoover Apple Convention wasn’t actually a trip to there?”

“Yeah! It could have been a cover for their secret agent lives,” added Rainbow while she landed in front of Applejack. “You were still a little filly when they disappeared, no way you would have noticed them going to a secret base. They would just have told you they left for apple things.”

“They did leave an awful lot for things… But that doesn’t prove a thing!” grumbled Applejack, a bit reluctant to connect the dots. “It doesn’t explain why they didn’t come back from the trip! They were in an accident on their way home…”

“I can’t say for sure, Applejack. But, it’s very likely that if something like secret experiments went on, everypony involved would have a cover up story if something really bad happened to them up there… There’s really only one way we can find out if any of this is true or not.” Twilight sighed deeply before looking over at Rainbow who was already grinning widely as she knew what was to come. “We’ll have to go up there to find out the truth for ourselves.”

“YES!” cheered Rainbow before subduing her smile to pull Applejack into a side hug. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound excited about this…”

“It’s okay, Dash.” Applejack smiled back weakly. “Ah’ know ya don’t mean any offense. It’s been many years since it happened, and although the wounds never fully healed, Ah’ can handle yer excitement for an adventure.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t?” whimpered Fluttershy. “I mean, they told us not to, right?”

“Oh, Fluttershy, there’s no reason to be nervous about this,” said Rarity with a comforting smile on her face. “What’s the worst that could happen? We’ll get a little cold, maybe a bit damp, but overall we’re more than ready for an adventure like this. We’ve stood up to the greatest dangers Equestria has to offer, and we’ve done so multiple times. No need for you to be scared of this, dear.”

“Well… maybe…” mumbled Fluttershy while smiling sheepishly at Rarity.

“Well, Ah’ guess it’s settled then… We’re going beyond the Crystal Mountains to find out the truth about what happened to mah’ parents!”