Applebloom awakes with a start. The sun is just peering over the horizon. She always loves the sunrise. At Sweet Apple Acres, the hills and apple trees in the distance frame everything perfectly. She smiles at the warm feeling of the sunlight on her bed. She doesn't have her usual chores to do this morning, so she had planned to sleep in, but something else had awoken her. She looks around the room and notices Winona staring at her.

"Hey girl? What is it?"

Winona stares a few moments more, then turns around and heads toward the door.

"Seriously? This early? You have to pee already?"

Applebloom grumbles about the coldness of the outside this time of morning, grabs her bow, and follows Winona outside.

"Please girl, make this quick. I wanna go back to bed."

Winona walks outside. She doesn't sniff. She walks toward the fence and then makes a break for it. She begins digging underneath it.

"Winona! Bad girl! You know better than to dig under there!"

Applebloom runs and tries to catch up to her, but Winona succeeds in her digging and crawls under the fence.

"Winona, come back here!"

Applebloom opens the fence and charges after her.

"Winona? What are you doing?"

Winona continues to run full speed toward the Everfree Forest. Applebloom tries her best to keep up, but her little legs grow tired.

"Winona, wait up, will ya?"

Applebloom runs up to the top of a hill in time to see her go into the forest.

"You trying ta tell me something, girl?"

She slows down her pace and walks slowly into the forest. "Alright Applebloom, you can do this. Ya need ta get Winona back. I'm sure she just got excited is all." She takes a breath and begins walking.

The rooster crows bright and early. Applejack's eyes slowly lift. She rubs the drool off her face with her hoof.

"Welp," she says. "Guess it's 'bout time I got some breakfast going."

She mumbles as she walks down the hallway past her sister's open door. Her eyes glance by the empty bed.

"Hunh, sister's up already? That don't happen often. Wonder what that filly's up ta?"

She creaks down the steps toward the kitchen. "Hey Applebloom!" She calls out. "Did ya get breakfast already? Whatcha hungry for?"

She hears no response, but Fluttershy groggily looks up. "Oh, what time is it, Applejack?"

Applejack points to the sun. "Sunrise," she pauses for a moment before adding, "Sorry ta wake ya. Have ya seen Applebloom? I just can't imagine where that filly has run off to."

Fluttershy stretches out a little. "Oh, no, I'm sure though that wherever she is, she's behaving herself and everything is just..."

AJ yawns. "Just what?"

Fluttershy's eyes dilate and tremble. Her mouth drops and quivers. "AJ...I...I'm sorry. Oh. I'm so, so sorry."

"What is it? What are ya on about?"

Fluttershy points to the open kennel. "I'm sorry AJ. I stayed here all night, but I fell asleep. She must have gotten out when she was gone."

AJ's face turns pale. "We got ta find Applebloom!"

Applejack charges out the door with Fluttershy trailing a little behind her. She sees the gate to the pen outdoors. She sees the hole where Winona dug. "I'm coming, Applebloom," she says. "Jest gotta find ya." AJ sees a fresh set of hoof-prints and paw-prints heading straight in one direction.

"Fluttershy, look at these tracks! Do you realize where they lead?"

Fluttershy looks for a second, then looks up. "No. Not there! Not the forest...Anything but that."

"We have to find her now. I'm not about to let what happened to Pinkie happen to her."

Fluttershy nods to Applejack and together they race to the forest.

Applebloom shakes as she watches the trees sway in the forest. She remembers the last time she was here with Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell, how she had mocked the forest. At the time, she had only faced a Cockatrice, and Fluttershy had stepped in to protect her. Now she is alone, and she has never felt that way more in her life.

"Winona?" Her voice is greeted by emptiness and the occasional sounds of the woods. "Come here, girl." Applebloom tries not to let her voice quiver as she speaks. She tries to hold her ground and stand confident, but more and more she shakes as she walks. She isn't as naive as she was the last time she was here. She knows exactly the sort of creatures that lurk here, none of them pleasant. Most of them terrifying.

"Winona!" She hollers out, "Where in the hay have you gone off to? Aw gee, sis is going to kill me if I can't get Winona back." An idea bounces off the tip of her head. "Hey wait a minute, I wonder if Zecora is nearby? Maybe she could help me look for her!"

All at once she hears something. It is so distant that her ears barely pick up on it. She hears the distant sound of barking and howling.

"Winona!" The word bursts out of her. She charges with all her heart and all her might toward the sound and then something makes her slow her pace.

As she approaches she hears the sound the animal is making. She hears how wild it sounds, almost as though it is a pain. She knows that she has to go this way to find out what Winona is doing, but as she slowly gets closer she begins to wonder. What if it's not Winona? What if it's timberwolves, or something worse? As she approaches even closer and hears the despairing sound of the animal a different fear comes to mind. What if the animal is Winona? By the time she is close enough to the animal she's not sure she even wants to know anymore. She comes to the source of the sound, a clearing in the forest. There is a large tree in the middle of the clearing and a small hill next to the tree. Winona is barking at the tree, more specifically at the hill beside it. She's barking wildly, ferociously. The hair on her back stands straight up. Her teeth are bared and her eyes wild. She just keeps barking and barking, until she sees Applebloom. Then she stops.

Winona now is digging at the hill. For a few moments, Applebloom's fear turns into curiosity. "What the hay are you doing out here girl? We shouldn't be out here. Winona simply ignores her and keeps digging.

Eventually she finds something. "What is that?"

She watches with a kind of morbid curiosity as Winona frantically digs away at the hill. The more Winona digs the more Applebloom realizes that something is buried there. The more she digs, the more Applebloom's face fades from curiosity to terror. She can see what is under the hill now: a partially decomposing body. The skin is long gone but the muscles are still there, discolored on the body. The figure is too decomposed to really tell who it might have been but she can tell it is a pony. Apple Bloom takes a few steps back. She feels a shudder through her body and then when she can't control it anymore she screams at full volume. She runs. She runs back the way she came, screaming all the way. Winona begins to bark again, even more wildly than before.

Applebloom runs as hard as he can until she can't run anymore but she keeps pushing herself. Her chest is on fire, but she can't stop, not until she runs into something.

"No! No no no! Don't hurt me please! Please I didn't want to know! Please don't hurt me I just want to go home." Tears pour down her face.

"Sugarcube? Thank Celestia I found you! Applebloom, I was so worried." She cradles Applebloom in her hooves. "What's Wrong sis? What happened?" Nothing comes out of Applebloom's mouth that makes any sense. She points in the direction of Winona and the barking.

"Fluttershy," Applejack says, "Stay with Applebloom. I need to know what's over there. What that bark is all about."

"Applejack? Are you-"

"Yes I'm sure Fluttershy. She needs somepony right now, and I need to make sure that we're safe." She walks toward the bark.

Winona's bark has turned loud and raspy. She has been barking so loudly and so hard for such a while now that her throat is going out, yet she keeps barking. She howls like a banshee. Applejack gets close enough to see her now and suddenly again Winona stops and returns to digging up the remains of the pony in the mound.

"What in the? Where did you? Is that? I think I'm gonna be sick."

She dry heaves, her whole body shaking , though nothing quite comes up. The stench is overpowering. She holds her hooves to her face. She takes a few steps to look closer. The body is decayed enough to be unidentifiable. She can tell it was at least relatively recent because it is still decomposing.

Winona is quiet and she simply stares at the body entranced. Then a soft hum begins. At first Applejack can barely hear it but then it gets louder and louder and louder. She feels her whole body vibrating with the hum.

Winona goes berserk. She moves in an agitated fashion, not attacking Applejack, but thrashing about as though she's in pain. She runs back and charges full speed, ramming her own head into the tree. She does it again and again, over and over. Applejack tries to stop her, tries to get in her way and slow her down.

"Winona! No girl. Stop, stop!"

Finally, Winona runs full speed and charges head first into the tree one last time. She briefly yelps and then she stops moving. AJ runs over to her. "Winona! Winona!"

Winona lies there unmoving. Her chest does not rise or fall. Tears flow down Applejack's cheeks. She cradles her. "It's alright girl," she says "Everything's going to be okay. You're okay now."

Applejack presses her ear hard against Winona's chest praying for any sign of life. There's no heartbeat. There is no breath. Blood seeps out of her nose. AJ can tell Winona is not coming back from this. She is gone. AJ doesn't know what to think. All she can think about is making sure her sister is safe and getting away from this wretched place. She heaves back hard tears. She trudges wearily back the way she came. She makes her way back to Fluttershy and Applebloom who are still clutching each other in fear.

"What happened?" Fluttershy says. "Where is Winona?"

"Winona is gone," Applejack says.

"What do you mean Winona is gone?" Applebloom bursts out. "We've got to find her! We got to go get her!"

Applebloom runs in the direction of the clearing and Applejack catches her.

"Now Applebloom, I'm only going to say this one more time. Winona is gone. I want you to make me a promise. I don't want you to ever bring her up again. She's gone, that's all there is to it and we're going home."

"I'm not promising that!" Applebloom says. "Ya got to be crazy if you think I'm doing that. There's no way we can give up on her."

"I said she's gone and we're going home now." Applejack says. "End of story. You're coming home if I have to drag you."

"Applejack? I don't understand. What happened?" Applejack says nothing and walks away. Applebloom cries. She's confused. She's never seen Applejack like this. She cries the whole way back. Applejack is silent. When Applebloom gets back to the house, she runs up to her room, slams the door and returns her sister's silence.

"What's wrong Applejack?" Fluttershy says. "Why don't you want to look for Winona now? Did something happen? What can I do to help you?"

"There ain't nothing you can do to help, Fluttershy. She's gone and she's not coming back. Just do me a favor and don't go looking for her. I wish I could unsee what I saw."

Fluttershy's face drops at the implication.

Suddenly the door to the Apple family house swings open. It's Spike and he's out of breath.

"Hey everypony, I've got fantastic news!"

Spike looks at the faces of the ponies around him. He sees the open kennel.

"Hey," He says. "Where's Winona?"

Fluttershy quickly hushes him.

He looks confused for a moment and then shrugs. "Well anyway, it's important. You'll never guess who just came back to Twilight's palace."

Author's Note

Day 3 Canterlot should not be too much longer everybody.