Author's Note

My name is Fireflower and this is my first My Little Pony fanfic that goes beyond the typical oneshots I had made from before and using canon characters as human beings instead of their normal forms; however, this is nonetheless a Mature fanfic so future chapters will deal with heavy subject matter unsuitable for those under eighteen, easily offended, and/or quickly nauseated.

As always, My Little Pony, or rather Friendship Is Magic, including its settings and characters belong to Lauren Faust and Hasbro; however, this concept of my fanfic belongs to me so I will say this line one time only: please do not steal this story or I will sue.

Lastly, let me also say that I hope you enjoy this chapter now and stay tuned for future chapters later on.

Nyctalopia

Darkness was the only way of how the small world works, let alone the real world to say the very least; as a matter of fact, the small world is indeed the real world and vice versa too nonetheless. The jet black void was all that could be seen but not heard, felt, tasted, or smelled; yet, it can be also sensed as well anyways, devoid of even a modicum of light bearing any hue whatsoever to permeate through its entirety. For a moment, it had seemed that all was completely lost, its mere fate already sealed and set in stone to say the least before the very beginning; nothing else was going to even change that in the slightly.

“Hah!” a loud gasp was emitted from there, creating an anomaly that gave such a darkness some semblance of life whatsoever: a suddenly new voice being nothing more than ragged panting and wheezing from between intervals; before long, the haphazard breathing had quieted itself down into stabilization. In its place was the shuffling about in a somewhat reckless abandon, each and every move making contact with the small dimensional boundaries surrounding the whole time no less. Next were the sounds of kicking and slapping being muffled and muted upon contact within, perhaps every decibel from the very noise pollution just greatly reduced almost completely no less. Then, there had appeared to be fabric finding itself brushed up against it all, the jet black void being but a witness to such many things from inside itself; without warning, footfalls began tapping onto the floor, its surface being a whole different story compared to the walls closing in on the owner’s minimalist movement already. All that had remained was a faint snuffle from the occupant, a small snort or two notwithstanding as the oxygen gotten sucked into its nostrils gently. Suddenly, a loud plop made itself known, resounding against the hard floor surface as the silent voice metamorphosed into a wail, ghastly as it were but rather interrupted by the choking fluids within the larynx whatsoever.

A diagonal path made its way known, another joining it to keep the lachrymose tenant company: small beams of light peered from the windowsill, a gateway that was high like a kite in the very sky. Speaking of which, the firmament’s color had also contributed to the very darkness itself as well, creating a diminutive glimpse of the external surroundings that were beyond the four walls where the occupant resided. The crescent resided in there as well too being the source of illumination that had just broken away from the circumnavigating clouds along with the starry seas once obscured by them no less. The cluster of brightness gave it some bit worthy of color: a patch of dark blue stood up to contrast against the darkness as if it were the only color so far that gave it a bastion of visibility for the individual. Touching the floor, it had revealed its surface to be that of a patch of white tainted by the vocal majority of darkness, its circle bearing a square tile glistened and gleamed out of all the others surrounding it no less. If one were to look inside of the segments of photons closely, it would become perhaps possible to see magnificent mysteries ready to be solved already by both philosophers and scientists alike.

Soon, a shadow appeared from within the jet black void, obscuring the moonlight in an instant without even a care in the whole wide world: it had the shape of a hand and its skin possessed the color and texture of terracotta; slowly, its owner quickly trudged towards the light in a moment. A set of golden locks had made its way from the very darkness, reflecting the very light that had peered from the clouds that had obscured the skyward treasures from about as they reached to the nape of the neck. Turning around to face them all at once had revealed but a pair of jade orbs circling about the pupils, brows furrowed into slanted inclines forming that of an edgy and downward concave. The observer’s face was feminine, possessing a complexion where a set of bright freckles studded the moisten cheeks, a stark contrast to the rest of the skin as beads of liquid were trailing from the short but noticeable eyelashes above them. Draped over the rest of the body was a simple white thick gown, its length managing to cover both arms and reach over past the kneecaps completely. Aside from the hands within possession was a pair of bare feet making themselves known as they brushed up against the walls around her in little time whatsoever, possessing the same tone as the face and upper limbs no less to say the least. Putting them altogether, her identity was none other than Applejack herself.

Standing back up again, the blonde climbed towards the window to find a sheet of metal overlaying the scenery, palms clutching onward towards dear life as her eyes began to scan in the details provided by the crystalline nighttime sky. For starters, beneath the blue sky to forever the green grass blows in the wind dancing freely about as the atmosphere remained potent in ambiguity with excess pressure. In the distance was but a large river flowing throughout the open fields, its contents matching the color of the heavens above as they were copying the visage of it all directly but not in its entirety. Furthest away were a small set of houses within in every shape and size whatsoever, some of which that even had some lights left on at this very moment in time. Within close range was a fence with a small height and being of rather minimal fortification in its very wake to say the least, having the same texture as that of the surface she had been holding onto all at once. What made the female focus more intensely than ever before were a patch of trees standing up tall and proud upon the fertile soil in various heights and widths imaginable.

Soon, the metal sheet found itself free from Applejack's tight grip, forcing the captor to drop to the floor once again this time with feeling as she fell from the windowsill no less. Crawling in the dark about the very floor, the female had then surrounded the light within a few minutes time to say the least and began to look over the spot with but a weary gaze in these jade eyes. Nestling her very golden head against it, a pair of hands traveled from her collarbone to the lower torso as she sniffled silently again, eyes becoming flooded without warning whatsoever. Shutting them all away, Applejack coughed and choked between intervals before wiping away the streams of tears in a flash, staying solely in place without even a shred of motivation to change arrangements suffice to say. Aside from the beams of light as the blonde's natural guide the warmth also kept the tenant company even though such eyes were now seeing darkness, the same color matching that of the void from long before. Sure enough, the sounds of a silent snore struck the small space within seconds already as she started to sleep away in sadness, shutting out all of the sights that were now surrounding her so simplistically.

For the time being whatsoever, it’d seemed that Applejack was alone to say the least, or so she believes already since that this space felt to be enough for the occupancy of one person. As she was started to get her forty winks, a new voice had appeared within close hearing range as it started to speak up, “what are you doing here?”

“Who’s there…?” the female yawned in surprise, woke up whimpering in a flash, “who are you?!”

“What are you doing here?” a reply was heard already, blatantly ignoring the questions that the blonde herself had asked just earlier no less.

At this moment in time, Applejack felt the jade eyes flew open in its entirety with new emotions inside them all; pain and sorrow quickly replaced by fear and fury no less, “ah am trying to get some sleep here!”

“No…” the other voice growled back in return slowly, defying the female’s answer to no end, “what you’re doing is nothing.”

“What about it?!” the blonde snarled back in return to say the very least, now sitting upwardly to find the darkness still encroaching the space.

Slowly, Applejack heard an answer in a small amount of time being used without either fear or fury whatsoever, “what about it? You think the world owes you that; you think I owe you that?”

“This isn’t about the world here at all, consarn it!” she countered, striking a fist into the basic tile no less, “Ah mean ya show up in the middle of the naiht in mah room no less without a semblance of a warning and all ya asking is what Ah am doing here despait mah reply as if it were a bunch of horse apples? Who the hay do ya think ya are, saying such things to me?”

“The only thing keeping you going; now, what are you doing…?” the second voice spoke back in a full beat or two, answering the blonde tersely in an instant but slowly.

Slouching backwards towards the wall, Applejack started to give out a reply, “to be honest, maybe ya have a point there: Ah am doing nothing but only because there is nothing around here that could be used to pass the time; come to think of it, Ah remember it was lights out long ago but now Ah can’t see what time is it now.”

“I see then; when life is defined by a single course of action, it changes the concept of time itself…” a chuckle escaped from the void already, indifferent to her earlier statement no less, “now it seems that even you have forgotten it so fast…”

“Say what…?” the blonde had now choked out without so much of an effort inside her choice of tone to say the least.

Just when it had truly seemed that things would perhaps go so quietly like they were long before, the other voice began to speak once more, this time with feeling, “long ago you used to be kind and strong, always willing to speak the facts as much as you are willing to face them; what I see here is you wasting away in a ten by ten in your own tears looking on beyond to find the same houses and trees within the very distance, separated by the same fields of grass as they themselves are divided by a stream of water. The same thing here and there all over again every night going on for who knows how long lamenting to yourself about how every single thing you had was taken away: home, peace, family; not once did you even considered trying to get them all back nor get something a few times better than you had before. Speaking of which, you even had your sister within your grasp once more but you had nowhere else to go so to speak; I mean if those people hadn’t stopped you in time, then she would have already perished already at your hands instead of theirs.”

“Don’t ya ever talk about her in such a way again…!” Applejack soon snapped back in a flash, her fury now overwhelming her as if the jade around her pupils started to burn bright into a fire red, “she’s got nothing to do with this whatsoever and you know that.”

“Oh, quite the contrary to say the least, madame…” a laugh echoed in defiance, reverberating throughout the female’s eardrum as the owner winced in a sharp pain.

Rubbing and digging into her ear, the blonde found nothing worth of relevance or discovery and said, “what is that supposed to mean?!”

“Think about it, will you?” the other voice began to answer in the very slightest to say the very least, “I did say that I am the only thing keeping you so whatever or rather whoever made want to cling to your life was none other than your sister no less. The moment you had awoke to find her gone, you had cried and cried to no end about how you failed to keep your promise to your beloved mother and father on how you were going to protect her from the scum of the earth that did her harm. Sure you did try to stop them but they fought back and took you for a ride in ways so horrible that it made you wish that you were thrown into a shallow grave six feet under rather than live another day alone and defenseless within the very wreckage of your so–called ‘home sweet home’ no less. At that point, you even attempted to make sure that you would end up six foot under soon as you gotten into the mood to concoct a desperate attempt to wash away the stains they had left behind on and inside you no less before ending it all. If it hadn’t been for your arm being broken at the time, then you surely would have gotten your wish or so you have believed to say the least; even so, what would you think would have happened next if you had succeed?”

“Well, at least now, Ah can go in peace knowing that she is safe, from this war, from these fiends, and from me as well no less…” Applejack shot back in a whimper, staring into the light that had ricocheted off the tiles earlier as another stream of fluid escape the corner of both eyes.

As the splash appeared wet onto the very tile below the blonde no less, it too was overlooked by the harsh rebuttal, “and what about him too; have you thought long and hard about what are you going to do with him while you are at it?”

“Yes, Ah have…” she answered slowly and steadily suffice to say, “at least one of my friends will be able to look after him, giving all the love and tenderness that he rightfully deserves, more than Ah could give him no less…”

“And what do you deserve…?” the other voice asked in return to say the least, rendering the entire room to be devoid of any sound whatsoever.

At that very moment in time, a dead silence now filled the dry air as the two speakers in question had remained still even though they have both proven to be possessing no clear form of opposition whatsoever keeping them in check and at bay.

Another splash was heard, as Applejack wiped away her eyes in an instant and snuffled slowly, “maybe perhaps Ah deserve to die and rot instead…”

“And yet you survived after all this time to say the least each time, proving yourself to be a lot more stronger than you have actually believed long ago…” a response made its way throughout the room, “as a matter of fact, after all the horrible things that had to happen to you, do you honestly believe that you deserve to die and rot?”

“Well, Ah…” the blonde soon choked out, breathing a bit slowly to take in the air provided to her already.

When she couldn’t continue onward with what had begun, the other voice decided to finish the job by picking up where it had been left off long ago, “look at yourself: you have people who think that you didn’t deserve what had happen, people who had been forced onto a similar path such as yourself and they are still alive right now, wanting you to see this crisis through and come out of there alive. After all, your parents would have wanted you to live on and have a better life than they had and even your sister would be saying the same things too to say the least; speaking of which, where would she be if you hadn’t come along at all?”

“Perhaps, if it weren’t for me, then… then…” Applejack stuttered for a full bit of time whatsoever before finding the strength to go on, “then Ah would have anything else to live for at all.”

“Exactly…!” a terse reply was echoed, bearing no emotion contorting into ill will of any form or fashion to say the least.

Staring at the light again, the blonde now felt her tanned hand become illuminated in a mere instant upon contact; as she stared into the palm and her five fingers, the facial concave shifted direction within minutes contorting her distress into a feeling of hope as she started whispering, “maybe it’s time Ah hit the hay already tonight; need my strength come tomorrow morning.”

Without a change in texture, she had finally felt herself collapse back onto the very floor once more, currently free of any doubt or dread that just plagued her presence since she awoke to purity long before. Arms resting beneath the blonde tresses soon now acted as a pillow made to order as Applejack quickly began to shut away her very eyes once again, darkness now within her very line of sight once again. Now, it had seemed that the new voice had gone away from her at once, restore what little peace and order that had once filled the room without a need for either intruder to steal, to kill, and/or to destroy. The night was a perfect time for her to do so, its light and shadows providing only but dark yet brighten scenery worthy of spelling out such an advice that would have been given out already otherwise; of course, such inactivity helped fill in the blanks as she snored silently once again, solely on the virtues of a reflex so to speak. As such, the slumbering blonde had taken no time whatsoever to even hesitate on that simple matter at hand.