Silent Ponyville: Inferno

by TheDovahshy

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Sad, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 6199

When Applejack returns home from Canterlot, she finds the town deserted and covered in a thick fog.

Written with permission form Jake-Heritagu.

Applejack returns from Canterlot after having gone there to raise money to help rebuild Ponyville after a fire rages through the town. Upon returning home, she finds the town abandoned and covered in a thick fog, and ventured into town.
This is my first fanfiction, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Published 2012-04-18 18:34:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-21 16:18:46 UTC

I: Fog Soaked Mesmerism

Chapter 1

“Thank ya kindly, ma’am” Applejack said as the well dressed Canterlot mare paid for her apples and left. She had nearly sold all of her goods that she brought with her to Canterlot, all that remained was three red delicious apples and an apple fritter. She was in the town square, where many local farmers showed up to sell their crops. The sun was starting to set, signaling to Applejack that she would have to pack up and head back to her hotel room soon. ‘Ah’l stay another ten minutes, I reckin’, she thought to herself, starting to succumb to the fatigue of the previous week. After ten minutes, she sighed and started to pack up when a well dressed stallion with a white coat and blue mane walked up.

“Packing up for the day, I see”, the stallion said, startling Applejack and causing her to jump and yelp. Turning around, she recognized him as Fancypants, who she had met a few months ago when she and her friends had visited Canterlot. “Oh, I do so apologize, I had no intention of frightening you”, he said.

“Oh, it’s nuthin’, Ah’m just a bit tired, is all”, Applejack proclaimed, with a slight grin under her bloodshot eyes. She had dark rings under her eyes, brought on by exhaustion. “Can ah help you to anything, sir? Ah don’t have much left, just these few apples and a fritter”, she said and pointed at them.

“I think I shall take them all, they look delicious”, he said, while pulling some bits from his pocket and handing them over to Applejack.

“Thank ya kindly, sir”, Applejack said as she handed over the treats. She then noticed that Fancypants had paid her double what he owed. “Excuse me sir, here’s yer change”, she told him as she handed the coins back.

“Oh, I couldn’t take that back”, Fancypants exclaimed, refusing the bits. “After all, it’s the least I could do; consider it a donation to help rebuild Ponyville. Now, have a good evening, madam, and best of luck in your future endeavors”, he says as he takes his food and walks away, towards home.

“Thank ya very, very much, sir! Ah sure appreciate it!”, Applejack calls out to him before packing her few things up, and trotting back to her hotel. Tonight she would hopefully be able to get some sleep, and she definitely needed it; she hadn’t received a good night’s rest in a week.

As she turned the corner onto the street that her hotel was on, it occurred to her that the street was entirely deserted. ‘Well this is just plum strange’, Applejack was taken aback; the streets of Canterlot were usually packed at all times of the day, even the dead of night. As strange as it was, she only had a couple more blocks to go until she arrived at the Ponyday Inn.

When she was a block away from the hotel, Applejack noticed something strange in the distance. Farther down the block she saw what appeared to be a large stallion standing in the middle of the street. What struck her as odd was that in the distance, the stallion’s eyes looked as though they were glowing red, and he appeared to be smoking. Applejack blinked, and it was gone, although she could have swore that she saw some smoke lingering in the air in the distance.

“Must have just been a daydream, ah guess. Ah really need to get some sleep”, Applejack stumbled into the hotel, growing more weary with each second. She headed up the grand staircase in the lobby, going up towards the third floor.

The staircase in the lobby was gargantuan, upscale, and made of the finest mahogany wood available. The staircase was made of two parts, the first headed straight back towards the wall from the center of the lobby, to a platform that lead to two separate staircases, one to the east and one to the west, leading to the two wings of the hotel. The lobby itself was grand and regal, with off-white and golden vertical stripes on the walls. The walls were adorned with large paintings; the largest was a portrait of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, above the first leg of the grand staircase.

As Applejack walked towards the second floor staircase to head to the third floor, at the end of the west wing, the hotel suddenly changed. She blinked and opened her eyes, and the regal appearance of the hotel was now replaced with a run down, abandoned, and flooded hotel. The wallpaper was flaking off the walls, the floor had broken and fallen down in many areas, and the floor was drenched.

“What in the hay?! What’s going on here?!”, Applejack stumbled backwards in fear and confusion. Water was dripping down the halls, and she noticed that the temperature was dropping rapidly. Applejack noticed black smoke coming from a doorframe about twenty feet in front of her; she hobbled forward, still slowly succumbing to the effects of exhaustion. As she arrived at the door, every instinct was telling her to run, but something was compelling her to continue forward, and soon she was in front of the door to room 213, with smoke still piling out from the door.

“…-ill me”, Applejack heard a loud whisper come from behind the door. After a slight moment of hesitation, she began to slowly open to door to the room. Smoke poured into the hallway, causing her to cough constantly, and clouding her vision enough, that it took her a few seconds to notice the flames headed straight towards her. The orange pony screamed and closed her eyes, while raising up a leg to shield her face, but nothing came.

Applejack opened her eyes, and the hotel was as it normally was, and she was standing just outside the door to her room, room 312. Applejack blinked and looked around; there was nothing out of the ordinary now. It was simply as though nothing had happened; that she had dreamed it all, again. If there was ever a sign that the lack of sleep was getting to her, this was it.

Applejack went inside, and slipped her pack off. She headed over to the ice box in the room and took a bottle of hard apple cider. ‘Celestia known ah ain’t much of a drinker, but if there were a time and place for it, may as well be now’ she thought to herself as she opened the bottle before swiftly drinking the bottle in one go.

“At least ah get to go back home tomorrow.”, Applejack headed over to the bed and got in. Tomorrow she would finally be heading back to Ponyville, and she could hopefully get some decent rest. She solemnly thought of home, family, and her friends, as she slowly fell into what would be a uneasy sleep.

The fire was spreading through the orchard around her. Applejack was sprinting towards the Apple Acres house; she had to beat the spreading fire, had to warn her family to get out. She ran over the hill, and her heart sank at the sight before her: Apple Acres manor was ablaze.

She ran to the front door, only to find it locked. She reared back to kick the door in, but then she heard the terrible creaking noise. She looked up, and saw that the roof was starting to cave in as the flames burned and weakened the wood. Applejack cried out as the building crumbled in on itself, but quickly turned and ran towards town. She would have time for mourning later.

She ran to town, seeing no end to the fire, trees burning all around her as she ran along the path. She ran into town only to find it lit up in flames.

“Ah need to help as many people get out of town as I can”, Applejack began running into buildings, helping to escort ponies out and tell them to get to safety or help more ponies. After clearing out a few houses, and starting to feel the effects of smoke inhalation, she ran towards the hospital to try and aid in the evacuation of the sick. When she was a few blocks away, she noticed something odd about the hospital. The hospital seemed to be covered in ice, which was starting to spread across the ground.

The ice met the fire, which caused it to melt, and put out the fire at the same time. Applejack found herself stuck in the growing pool of water, with the raging wildfire on one side of her, and a sea of ice and snow on the other.

She had to get out of this spot, so she ran towards the ice, hoping to get away from the water and fire. As she ran across the ice, it began to crack under her feet, and soon went out under her, dropping her into an abyss, as she yelled out in fright.

After falling for what seemed like an eternity Applejack slammed into the ground. Disoriented and injured, though nowhere near as much as she should have been from such a fall, she began to take in her surroundings. She was standing in a large, open area, with only the light of the stars and moon up above to light her world. She floor she was standing on was crystalline, as though she were standing on a floor of diamond floating in space.

Applejack saw a large emerald lying off in the distance, so she walked towards it. As she neared the dazzling green gem, a wall of diamond dropped down in front of her, blocking off the path, and causing her to jump. She heard a familiar, refined voice behind her. She turned around and saw…

“NO!” Applejack woke suddenly, heart racing from the nightmare she had awoken from. She looked around and realized it had just been a dream, and that she was still in the Ponyday Inn. Light poured in from the window, signaling to her she had finally slept a whole night. It had been a restless and uneasy night of sleep, but it was sleep she desperately needed.

Applejack sighed as she got up out of bed and began packing her things. It had been the same nightmare that had kept her from getting any good sleep for the past week, but it felt different this time. It was more vivid; it felt real, almost like a vision. It had been getting more intense each night, with the dream progressing to a farther moment each time.

Applejack packed her things in her bag, and then headed downstairs. In the second floor hallway of the west wing, she headed towards the grand staircase when she felt a chill and thought she heard a whispering. She stopped, feeling the temperature dropping, and looked at the door she stopped in front of. The room number was 213, and from the top of the doorframe, she saw smoke coming out of the room. She stood there, glued to the door, her mind becoming blank with fear. The whispering was becoming louder, though she couldn’t make out the words.

“Excuse me, are you alright?” a voice called out beside Applejack, causing her to jump. she looked at where the voice originated from and saw a yellow mare with a horn and a blue mane. She had a symbol of a paintbrush on her flank, indicating that she must surely be a painter. “Oh, I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Aw, it’s no trouble, really. Ah’m just tired is all, haven’t got much sleep these past few days” , Applejack smiled, showing that all was fine to the yellow unicorn before her. “Ah just thought I heard something comin’ from inside that there room”, Applejack said as she pointed towards room 213.

“OK, well I hope I didn’t cause you any bother”, the unicorn stated. “I was just coming back from a showcase of my work, and saw you staring at the door, and I thought I should just make sure you were alright”, she explained.

“Ah appreciate it, ah shouldn’t be wastin’ mah time staring a door anyhow”, applejack said, smiling again to show the sincerity of what she was saying. “Ah need to head back home today, and ah got a long ways tah go.”

As Applejack started walking towards the lobby, the unicorn noticed her apple cutie mark. “Hey, do you happen to work at that apple farm in Ponyville? I used to live there as a fillie before my family moved to Manehattan”, the unicorn explained.

“Yup, ah sure do”, Applejack beamed at the unicorn before her. “Matter a’ fact, ah was up here sellin’ some apples in town square the past few days”, she frowned momentarily, not wanting to talk about the reason she was selling her apples up in the city of Canterlot. “Speakin’ a’which, I oughtta be headin’ back home soon, ah got a ways tah go, heh.”

“Alright, well it was nice to meet you. If I ever end up back in Ponyville, I’ll stop by and say ‘hi’”, the yellow unicorn smiled as she watched Applejack walk to the staircase for a few seconds before turning back around and heading to her hotel room.

Applejack went downstairs and checked out of her room, paying what she owed for her stay, before heading off to her complimentary breakfast in the buffet. She noticed, and grinned with some pride as she noticed, that the apples from the buffet had come from Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack ate her breakfast in silence, looking at the other ponies. She had a couple of apples, a carrot, and a strawberry and tulip salad. Nobody else there was from Ponyville, at least as far as she could tell. She finished her breakfast and then headed out of the hotel and began walking home.

Normally she would have taken the train, but it wasn’t an option today, because of how badly the train station in Ponyville was damaged. The walk back to Ponyville would take all day at the shortest, though most likely a day and a half. Applejack sighed as she thought of the train station and the trek that lay before her. On the other hand, the hike would hopefully be a relaxing one, and would give her some much needed time to herself.

Her trek had turned out to be as peaceful as she could have hoped for. There weren’t very many ponies on the road that connected Canterlot and Ponyville. Most of the ponies she saw were pegasi flying high in the sky, seemingly free of any care in the world. There were times when Applejack envied pegasi; she had always wondered what it would be like to fly, creating a near infinite amount of places to go, adding a huge sense of verticality to the world. Rainbow Dash constantly made it seem like one of the best gifts you could be born with, being able to travel almost anywhere you wanted, quickly, with no need for trains.

After a few hours, she couldn’t see anypony on the road or in the sky. It was sunny, somewhat cloudy, and cool. It was around lunch time, Applejack guessed, judging by her growling stomach. She stopped, and sat by the side of the road, under a tree, and got a couple of apples out from her bag. While she ate, she enjoyed the tranquility; the only sounds that could be heard were the chirping of birds and the wind rustling the branches and leaves of the trees.

She finished her apples, but instead of getting up and continuing her trek towards Ponyville, she just sat there under the tree and enjoyed the serenity of the nature surrounding her. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy, and she knew she’d be asleep soon, and she was thankful. A place as peaceful as this would surely lead to some good rest. She noticed it was becoming cloudier, and thought of how nice the birdsong sounded as she drifted off to sleep.

Applejack knocked on the door to Rarity’s boutique, feeling anxious about the conversation that was about to take place. It was a weekend, so the boutique was closed.

“Yes? Who is it?”, Rarity opened the door to the boutique, and saw Applejack standing at the door, smiling nervously. “Oh, uh, hello Applejack, umm, come on in”, Rarity returned the nervous smile with one of her own. “What brings you here today, darling?”

“Well, uh, ah wanted to talk to you about last night, Rarity”, Applejack gave Rarity a serious look.

“Oh, umm, yes. Well, there is no need to mention it, heh. We simply had a little too much cider”, Rarity smiled nervously again, her heart beginning to race. “We can simply continue on as if nothing at all had happened, darling” rarity paced around anxiously, not sure of what she expected, or wanted for that matter, from this conversation.

“Well, um …oh boy, ahm not quite sure how t’say this”, Applejack stumbled on her words, looking for the right thing to say.”Well, the simplest way to put it is, it wasn’t just the cider. Ah guess what ah mean is, ahd like that kiss to be more than just a drunken mistake, ya know?”, she blushed, looking at Rarity, who was also beginning to blush.

Rarity was silent for a moment, intensely thinking the situation through, before finally responding, “Yes, I know what you mean. It’s just, what will we tell our families, our friends? How will they react? I mean, my mother always goes on about me finding a nice stallion to settle down with and having foals.”

“They’ll understand, sugarpie, they love us for who we are. This won’t affect anythin’”, Applejack placed a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “Besides, Ah’ve noticed the way ya look at me”, she said winking at Rarity, easing the tension between the two of them somewhat.

“Oh alright, I’ll give it a shot”, Rarity smiled at Applejack, who returned her smile with a small peck on the cheek, causing Rarity to blush yet again. “If you’re not busy today, perhaps we could go to the park, darling?”

“That’d be mighty wonderful, sugarcube”, Applejack beamed at Rarity. The two of them turned to the door, and left the boutique, and headed to the park, as the world filled with light and became colder.

Applejack woke from her dream, shivering, her eyes still closed. Despite the sudden cold, she felt wonderful. It had been a nice deep rest, and she dreamed of one of her fondest memories at that. Applejack opened her eyes, and noticed it was overcast now. ‘That’s strange. Them pegasi usually keep the roads clear, ‘specially during the day. Somepony must be slacking’, she thought as she got her things and started heading towards Ponyville again.

She continued walking towards Ponyville for the next couple of hours. And hour into her walk something dawned on her. ‘Ah haven’t seen anypony for hours, and ah haven’t heard any birds or animals of any kind since ah woke up. Mighty odd’, yet she continued walking to Ponyville.

About an hour later, the weather changed from merely overcast to foggy. The fog was light at first, but grew more intense as time grew on, seemingly confirming her suspicion that some pegasi were slacking off. Eventually, Applejack finally arrived to a sign on the side of the road, somewhat rusted, and covered in plant growth, which again, struck her as highly odd. The sign said ‘Welcome to Ponyville’, and Applejack felt a bit of relief. She was finally back home, and could hopefully get some rest, which she certainly deserved. She walked to the bridge, and headed into the fog filled town.

II: Suspiria De Profundis

Chapter 2

Applejack slowly crossed the bridge into Ponyville, only able to see a few meters in front of her due to the dense mist that had overtaken the town. Halfway across the bridge, it started snowing. ‘What in tarnation? It’s colder than it oughtta be, but it sure as hay ain’t cold enough for snow’, she frowned, confused by the peculiar act of nature. Staring at the falling specks, she noticed that they weren’t white, as snow should be, but grey. ‘Wait just a second, this here ain’t snow; it’s ash!’ she mused in her mind as to where the ash could be coming from, but could think of no answers.

By now Applejack could truly sense that something was wrong. She wasn’t about to turn back, though; if something in town was wrong, she was going to find out what and fix it. She also noticed the smell of smoke lingering in the air. She finished crossing the bridge and noticed something on the ground in the middle of the road in front of her. It was a charred newspaper, almost completely burned, except for a front page story, although even some burn marks covered some of the story, which read:

Inferno Rages Through Ponyville

By G-------ms

Last night a fire blazed through the town of Ponyville leaving destruction in its wake. The fire left ----nies dead, a-----------y in critical condition in the hospital. Two ponies have been missing since the fire, and parties are still out searching for them.

The fire came from the direction o----------------------------rfree Forest, though the causes currently remain unknown. The fire then spread across the town, engulfing nearly every structure in flame, as the fire continued to spread.

The inferno raged for almost an hour before Rainbow Dash managed to rally the pegasi in town to put out the fire with rainclouds. It is thanks to the pegasi’s quick reaction that the loss of life wasn’t larger. Rainbow Dash could not be reached for comment.

Among the dead are the ------------------ as well as

The rest of the newspaper was charred, rendering it unreadable. She put the paper down and continued her walk into town. She soon saw the faint outline of a building through the blinding fog, and trotted towards it. As she got closer, she realized that the building was still run down and burnt, the walls blackened and charred, the windows broken, and the roof caved in.

Applejack was about to move on across the street when she heard a whimper come from the building. She walked around to the front door of the decayed building and entered, and found a green unicorn sitting in the corner, staring off into space.

“Hello? Are ya’ll alright, there?” Applejack asked while slowly walking forward. The green unicorn didn’t budge, continuing to stare off into oblivion. Applejack then noticed her cutie mark, a lyre, causing her to recognize the catatonic unicorn in front of her. “Lyra? What’s wrong, sugarcube?” Lyra jumped slightly.

“Oh, um, I, uh…I’m sorry, I was just resting”, Lyra giggled nervously, eyes darting all over the place. “Uhh, what, um, what are you doing here?”, she asked, finally looking at Applejack.

“Ah’ve just come back from Canterlot. What’s happened ‘roun here?”, she asked the cowering green unicorn with curiosity. “This place is’n even worse shape than when ah left”, the words stung as they left her mouth.

“Nu-n-nowhere s-s-sa-safe….”, her whimpering was becoming quieter and more disconnected. “B-b-big one g-gets you in light, other one in d-d-da-dark. F-feeds on…”, she slowly stopped talking altogether, and just stared off, catatonic.

Disturbed, yet wanting to help, Applejack decided the best course of action was to head across the street to Sugar Cube Corner. She walked across the road, the ash starting to pile up on the ground, and soon she could see the bakery that housed her friend Pinkie Pie, though the sight only brought on more dismay. Through the fog, she saw the building burnt and blackened, still smoking. The walls facing toward her on the second floor were gone, letting her see into Pinkie’s room, which was also blackened and desolate.

She entered the bakery and looked around. The inside of Sugar Cube Corner did not look as tarnished as the outside. The room wasn’t burnt, but items were strewn all over the place. The other thing she noticed was that it looked like nopony had been in here for years, there was a thick layer of dust covering everything, and dozens of spider webs adorned the various corners of the room.

“Hello? Is there anypony here?” she asked, a sense of fear becoming noticeable in her voice. There was no reply. She decided to look around, try and find anything that might give her a clue as to what was going on. She looked out of the only window still intact, and saw her reflection, when she noticed a large shape coming towards her in the reflection. She quickly spun around in shock, only to find nothing there.

She sat down and tried to calm herself. ‘T’weren’t nothin’. Just calm down now, y’hear?’ she thought, as her heart began to slow. As her breathing slowed and silenced, she heard a noise coming from upstairs. It sounded Pinkie Pie’s phonograph giving out static. She slowly made her way upstairs. Creak. Each step she took up the staircase emitted a loud creak, which dragged the ascent to a seemingly endless trudge for her.

She reached the top of the stairs, and began down the hallway. When she reached the first door, she opened it to find a dark room full of furniture and odd tidbits piled on top each other, a musky smell escaping the doorway. The static wasn’t coming from this room, so Applejack turned to leave. As she started to walk further down the hall a bright light appeared in the room. She walked back in and found a lantern, wondering what caused it to light up suddenly, and she began to feel even more uneasy.

She took the lantern, knowing it could come in handy, despite the eerie circumstances in which she obtained it, and then proceeded down the hall. She reached the door to Pinkie’s room, and noticed long claw marks all over the door, as well as a busted spot, with the wood broken out towards her. By now every fiber of her body was screaming at her to turn and run as fast she could and escape, yet she seemed to be pulled forward by some otherworldly force. She pushed open the door and stepped inside.

Despite her previous view into the room, pinkie’s room was now remarkably untouched, save for the missing wall that looked into the fog covered streets of Ponyville and the large portion of the roof that was gone. Applejack was never often in this room, but the furniture still was where it had always been. There was an armoire to the left of the door, the bed on the wall to the far left, near the door to the bathroom, and a small table on the wall to the right, in the corner, near the missing wall. On the table she found the source of the static: a small, portable radio. She walked over to the table, noticing a soft cool breeze coming from outside, rustling her coat and mane. She picked it up and noticed something else on the table where the radio had been. It was a small, turquoise pentagonal tablet with the image of a dog carved into one side and a cat on the other. She felt that it might be important, though she couldn’t explain how, so she put it in her bag, then turned her attention back to the radio.

She fiddled with the on/off switch, yet not matter how many times she switched it, the static continued. She figured the switch was broken, then moved on to manipulating the volume knob. She turned the knob to the left, but the noise remained constant. She turned the knob right and the volume still did not fluctuate at all, continuing to scream static. She turned the knob back to around where it originally was, then turned the radio over and checked the battery hatch. She removed the cover to find that there were no batteries inside. Shivers ran through her body when she noticed that the static was starting to roar through the speakers even louder than before.

Fear was beginning to well up inside her, and the radio blared louder and louder. She just barely heard a creek behind her through the roar. She turned around and froze, cold washing over body. On the other side of the room the armoire’s doors were open. There were neatly folded bed sheets at the bottom, with a sack of flour on top. The armoire began to shake, become increasingly violent. The sack of flour was thrown to the ground as something began to emerge from between the folded bed sheets. The sheets parted as the head of the creature began wriggling through into the room.

The head was pony like, but warped, with skin stretched over where the left eye should have been, as well as over the right side of the mouth. Its skin was charred black, and a ball of smoke filled the one eyehole. It continued to slither out of the armoire, head striking the floor and letting out a hollow moan. When the legs had finally freed themselves, the creature stood up, fully showing its imposing stature. It was very much like a pony, but stood upright on its hind legs, which were distorted and bent at unnatural angles, and the front legs were wrapped around and seemingly grafted onto the charred torso. The shoulders, or rather what remained of them, were very wide, while the neck flopped from side to side.

The creature continued to advance on Applejack, who remained frozen in place with a mixture of shock and fear. When it had nearly reached her position, it reared its body back before striking with its head in an overhead arc towards her. She was finally able to move, barely dodging the creatures lunge. She reared her hind legs back and struck it in the shoulder, though it only reoriented itself, showing no signs of pain. The creature swung towards her, and it caught hold of her tied up mane. Grasping at her, it swung towards the hole in the hole in the wall, launching her into the street below.

Her right rear leg struck the ground first, sending a wave of pain throughout her body as she collapsed into the street. As she started to get up, a light siren started in the distance. The static from the radio was fading out, and she noticed the monster that had attacked her was stumbling its way back inside of Sugar Cube Corner. She spotted the radio on the ground by the bakery, and ran over and grabbed it, then placed it in her pack. The siren continued to wail in the distance, and the grey smoke was beginning to turn orange, and the smell of acrid smoke began to fill her nostrils. She looked in the direction that the orange, billowing smoke was coming from, and noticed it was coming from over the hills, towards Sweet Apple Acres.

“Oh Celestia, no!” she cried, as she began to race towards her home. It was not long until static started hissing form the radio again, and she slowed down to a brisk walk. A dull throbbing pain was pulsating throughout her hind leg, and was spreading fast. She sighed; she would definitely have to mend it up soon, which didn’t seem likely. As she passed one of the houses, barely visible in the thick, orange haze, she heard a familiar sound.

“Kill me”, a raspy, high pitched voice whined. “Help me…” Applejack noticed that the voice seemed to be coming out of the radio as well, penetrating through the static. Accompanying the voice was the sound of labored breathing and wheezing. The voice continued, and she noticed a thick roll of black smoke lurch out from the side of a building. The smoke hung close to the ground, and was slowly moving towards her. AS the fear began surging through her again, she sprinted even faster towards her farm, soon leaving the town and coming to the road that led to her destination.

She ran for what seemed to her to be an eternity, though in reality was only a couple of minutes, her radio now perfectly silent, when she was forced to make a grinding halt. The road, and indeed the surrounding world, ended in a cliff that dropped off into oblivion.

“What’n tarnation?” was all she could mutter at the sight of the newfound edge of the world. After thinking for a few seconds, she leapt over the fence to her right, and began making her way through the orchard, around the drop-off of the cliff. As she went further into the orchard, the smoke began to grow thicker, and the trees more dense. Every few moments going further, she thought she heard steps behind her, trying to match her own, but never saw anything as she looked back. She continued on at a quicker pace until she found a clearing in the orchard. There was a small hill in the middle of the circular clearing, with a wall of trees making any more progress unlikely. She climbed to the top of the hill to try and get a better view of the area, but as she reached the top, she found a hole that went straight down.

Seeing no other way forward, applejack pushed her trepidation aside and began to descend into the gaping maw of infinite blackness beneath her. As she plummeted into the abyss the sounds of fire overhead grew louder, and soon as she looked up, she saw flames lick the mouth of the hole as the inferno blazed in the clearing above, causing her to grow increasingly hot. She climbed further down for what seemed like an eternity before the ladder stopped; the hole above now appeared to be nothing more than a twinkling star on a moonless night. Defeated, she was about to climb back up when she heard a cracking, and the legs of the ladder near the top of the hole broke, releasing her into the crevasse of unfathomable calignosity. She blacked out.

Rarity was headed towards Sweet Apple Acres to spend yet another blissful day with that beautiful orange mare with a soft, silky blonde mane. For the past few months since she had accepted her feelings for Applejack, she was filled with a near constant feeling of bliss. Just as Applejack had said, the other ponies in town were supporting of their new relationship, much as they were for Lyra and Bonbon, as Rarity had learned soon after that day.

She arrived at the front of the Apple family home and knocked on the front door. There was no answer. She knocked again, and soon heard a slow shuffling come to the door. The door opened to reveal a sickly looking Big Macintosh.

“Hello, Big Macintosh”, she said with a smile, politely avoiding any mention of how languid he was. “Is Applejack around, by any chance?” she asked as the anticipation continued to well up within her.

There was a slight pause before he answered with his trademark “eenope”, though his voice sounded thinner and strained. Rarity’s face darkened with disappointment briefly before replying, though unable to hide the frustration in her voice.

“Oh, well, I see. Is she out in the orchard, perhaps?” she asked

“eeyup. Western patch today.” he answered.

“Thank you very much, Big Macintosh, take care!” she replied, ending the conversation to head off towards the western part of the apple orchard. Big Macintosh closed the door and headed back to his bed to get some rest. Rarity was becoming disheartened, she was almost certain that Applejack had forgotten what today was.

It was a year ago today that Applejack had knocked on the door to her boutique one night after drinking a large amount of cider; a year of almost pure joy and delight for the both of them, spending constant time with each other, truly learning each other’s small quirks, and the various things that made them click. Despite how different they both were, they complemented each other near perfectly; if any two mares were meant to be together, it was the two of them. Rarity marched on, fuming and tearing up; she was going to give Applejack a piece of her mind.

Author's Note

I apologize for the extremely long delay in getting this chapter up, this past year has been stressful to say the least, not to mention a computer crash which deleted the original chapter 2 and 3 before i published them. Lesson learned in backing up files in multiple locations i guess. Anyway, things are going all right for me now, should be able to get another chapter out in about a month or so, I promise there wont be another ridiculous delay.