Staying for the Night

Chapters

1

The sounds of the morning were absent. There were no creaks of others moving around the house, there were no yawns and moans of the other family members. It was completely silent. Not a single noise made itself known. Either they were all saving their talents for another show, or they weren't ready to draw back the curtains just yet.

There was something off about her bed. She felt like she was sleeping on a stone slab with a blanket and a pillow. Her bed was softer. It made her feel safer. What she lied on felt cold and distant.

There was something off about the whole room. Instead of that strong scent of breakfast in the morning, there was an odd stench of rot. Not the smell of a decomposing animal rotting inside the walls, but... The smell of water in a murky swamp.

Morning noises were quiet. Though they were noticeably lacking, the sounds were definitely there. Small scratching noises, the ringing in her ears, the occasional creaking of the house. Whispers of the calmness radiating through the air.

Though her mind played the horror card, she refused the temptation to jump to conclusions.

As clear as day, she listened as the quiet noises morphed into voices. Quiet whispers that tempted her to open her eyes. They said things to one another. Though they were too quiet to pick up what they were saying, the last thing one of them scared her out of her wits.

Awake.

Though she was extremely hesitant, she opened her eyes as slowly as she could, wanting a chance to close them if something was staring right back at her. Her eyes were opened wide enough to know that there wasn't anything lying in her bed with her and her eyes were adjusted to the point to know that she wasn't staring at the same wall in her room.

The bed creaked as she tried to adjust herself. It was a heavy metallic sound, like two metal bars banging against each other, scraping against each other as slowly and intimately as possible. If there was anything in the room with her, it had more than enough time to hide in the closet.

Like owning up to her own lies, turning over seemed inevitable. If she didn't, the nagging feeling inside of her wouldn't leave her alone. As she began to roll over and her blanket slowly began tucking itself underneath her body, the bed creaked even more. It creaked so much that she wore it was going to break in half. So she slowed her movements. The bed still, but it felt like it was settling. She made her eyes close to a point where they looked closed, but she could still see out of them. The white ceiling above her passed by her like a train beginning to make its journey to a faraway destination.

To her chagrin, there was something else in the room with her. It stood in front of a mirror. The creature was small, almost squirrel-like. But its colors were all wrong. It lacked the fuzz and certainly didn't look as inviting as a squirrel did. The entirety of the creature's body was colored black. Strips of white silently crossed its body like an artist erasing its work off of the creature.

The strange animal didn't stay long. Sensing that the mare was beginning to get up, it immediately left the room like it was afraid of her.

She put one hoof on the ground. She left it standing there. If there was anything under her bed, it would have been tempted to go after a little snack at the first sight of pony flesh. However, this was not the case.

A monster would have shown itself by now. She made the assumption that there wasn't anything else in the room with her. And she felt no need to prove it.

She set out on a quiet, slow endeavor to the door. She couldn't hear anything coming from the other side of the door. Either the house wasn’t inhabited by ponies or whoever lived here was out. Hoping and praying that the latter was true, she softly pushed open the door. It led to a small hallway. Besides that door, there were three other doors. They all were closed and decrepit. A small knock and those doors would be toppling over like a domino.

Looking to the right, she saw a living room. It wasn't too large, nor was it too small. The perfect size for a happy family of four. She could imagine the family sitting around a coffee table, throwing dice around and laughing all through the evening. Although the atmosphere of the room wove a nice story for the children, the furniture spun a much bleaker tale. But despite the look of it all, the bare living room could have been cozy enough for the poorest of families.

Before the living room, there was a door frame with no door in it. A small crackle and sizzle made itself more than apparent. She caught the lingering smell in the air. She expected the scent of anything in that house was going to smell the way it looks. But this smell was pleasant. The uncharacteristic stench was more than a welcomed gesture.

Hoof after quivering hoof was the moving pattern for the next little while. With each hoof that managed to land on the ground without setting off a nuclear explosion, a whole minute had to be reserved for waiting and listening. And so it went: Step, listen, step, listen, smell, step, listen.

She had made it to the open doorway after an excruciatingly long quest. The smell was overflowing her nose, and she was beyond curious to find out what was cooking in the kitchen.

Surprisingly, there was nopony there. There wasn’t even a sign that somepony had ever taken a step into the kitchen. There weren’t even signs that ponies had ever lived in this house. So far, the only things she’d seen that could prove that this house was halfway inhabitable was the bed she woke up on, and even the house itself. She’d heard of houses being deserted before they were completed, but this house seemed like it was built to be deserted.

Aside from the pancakes, that is.

The pancakes were perfectly cooked in a rusty skillet. The oven they were cooking on looked old. Not as old as the oven she had at home, but still old. There wasn’t a burn anywhere to be found on the two pancakes. Just staring at the basic breakfast food made her mouth tingle with hungry excitement like a fat pony at a buffet.

One little bite couldn’t hurt.

And no, it didn’t hurt. If anything, it made her feel a bit more alive. Suddenly, the house felt a bit more inviting. The lighting that managed to illuminate the place was a tad brighter. Perhaps it was the morning sun coming over the mountains outside.

As she thought of the outside world, the feeling of unease slowly crept in on her once again. Whoever resided in this house probably didn't like the fact that some mare just woke up the extra bedroom and ate their pancakes. She prayed to Celestia that whoever lived here wasn't the angry type. If somepony even lived here. There was plenty of evidence to support this theory. Except for the pancakes. Who made those?

She left the unfinished pancakes on the skillet. Hopefully, she wouldn't be there long enough to see the fireworks go off.

She left the kitchen the same way she arrived. The same living room area plus a stairway to freedom. Descending the stairs somehow felt like she wasn't really leaving this place. There was a distinct feeling inside of her that she would somehow still be trapped in the house

An abundance of light shone through the cracked window that the door sported around proudly like a local team jersey. Though the house was lighted fairly well, that light was brighter than ever. The mare pushed the door open as carefully as she could. The door squeaked, and she stopped moving it. She listened carefully. There wasn't a sound to be heard at all.

At her home, whenever there was a squeaky door, she shoved it open as fast as she could and the squeaking would only sound when the door was wide enough to be opened. At that point, you could walk through it and run as fast as you can to get out of there.

But since she didn't care to be seen-if this went her way she wouldn't have to be as careful-she swung the door wide open. The outside world was like a lovely feast prepared just for you. She dove right in and began cherishing the kind gesture.

But what she thought was a kind gesture wasn't well-prepared at all. The food was rotten, left in the rain to rot and decay. There was no other life. Overgrown trees and sickly skies were all the eye could see.

She hesitated. The promise of greatness was spat upon by her high expectations. An outside so vile and barren was likened to a long deceased, infertile mother. And it wasn't until a dead pony's smell struck her nostrils like a speeding bullet that the comparison might not have been entirely based off an exaggeration.

The front lawn was as dead as a door nail. The grass was lacking so much color that it seemed to have been devoid of color since its creation. It was like a blank piece of paper, crinkled up and dirty from the grime and filth of a foal's hooves, but never written upon. Rusty metal fence posts on the perimeter of the lawn prevented anypony from leaving or entering. The only exit/entrance was a small crack in between two posts that might have been wide enough for a mare in her late twenties to escape from.

The smell was getting to her. She began breathing from her mouth and stepped off of the front porch.

As soon as her hoof touched the soiled grass something seemed to awaken. The sound of buildings falling overplayed throughout the empty outside as something began stirring somewhere over the horizon.

She couldn't tell what it was. She knew it had to be huge, and she knew it had to be monstrous. Nothing else could have made a noise like that. Celestia forbid if she actually saw it up close.

She set all four hooves on the dead grass. Throwing what little caution she had to the wind, she ran off the lawn. The plan was to run. However, the ground beyond the lawn was icy hot. It hurt just to be near it. The pain seemed to dissipate the longer she stood in it, so she decided to endure the pain. This was preferable to whatever monster might have lived in that wasteland.

Her original assessment of the situation wasn’t what she expected. The ground hurt just as much. But nothing can get through life without a few rough patches. The pain wasn’t all that bad to her.

She managed to get through eight feet of the icy floor when something she didn’t want to hear came blaring for all the world to hear.

The front door of the house was forced open. It smacked against the side of the house’s wall. Hoofsteps began running to her.

The creature from the distance was approaching as well. From her peripheral vision, she saw it.

It wasn't as large as she thought. It was small, almost the size of a taxi cart that could hold four ponies at once. It was fast. One second it seemed a mile away from her, nearly out of her eyesight completely. The very next second it looked to be five-hundred feet away.

The creature slid to a stop. While trying to stop, it ripped out parts of the metal fence posts like they were crayons out of a box by a little anxious colt.

She got a good look at it.

It was bipedal. Two large feet and hands with claws that looked like they were stabbed in there. Its skin was supremely pallid gray like it had been dead for years. Its head was round, eyes lazily plopped into their sockets. White, blank eyes stared at her with blistering fury.

The monster screamed as it skidded to a screeching halt. Loose gravel rained from the sky as it acted as the monsters breaks. She shielded her eyes from the hard precipitation. As the dust settled, she lowered her hooves from her eyes to see the carnage staring directly into her eyes.

The monster began mashing its jaws at the mare with burning hatred flowing through its veins. The monster raised its hands. The mare couldn’t do anything but look up at the beast and stare.

For a second, and only a second, there was nothing. The mare had stared death right in the face, and death was more than willing to take her away at any moment.

And yet it gave her this moment. This one, tiny moment to recollect herself. Moments like this were a mystery. You never knew how long it would last, and it often would never let the moment go on. She thought about her family. She thought about the ones she loved.

The Apple family whizzed by in her thoughts. All the happy memories of playing with her older brother and little sister. The sad moments. Visiting her parent's graves as the sun mockingly shined like it was a glorious day.

The beast let the moment pass. In the blink of an eye, the beast lunged forward. She was frozen with fear.

She felt a hoof grab hold of her. With as much strength as it could muster up, it yanked Applejack back and the monster barely missed her. It gnashed its teeth angrily as its only meal retreated back to its safe haven like the coward it was.

She didn't even move. The beast made a poor attempt to go after her. The fence posts could have been easily broken down, she even saw it yank out several just trying to get to her. But the beast behaved like a coward itself.

As she was dragged away from the monster, her life seemed to come back to her. In the confusion and discord of the situation, the only thing that came to her mind was a lack thereof. Thoughts were chipped away from her psyche.

The monster pawed at the ground. Dejectedly, it left her behind the fence. Growling softly, it hung its head low and sauntered off. It entered like a roaring manticore but left like a dying sheep.

She found herself letting out all the air in her lungs. She felt a few sobs breaking through every now and again, but she managed to keep those down. Crying in front of another pony wasn't something she was comfortable doing.

Applejack sat in front of the metal fence, staring off into the nothingness. The pony that dragged her back into safety sat next to her. He was a stallion, more than likely in his very early thirties. He was a unicorn, but his horn was too small. It was like it was cut off and it grew back to that size. His mane, which desperately needed a haircut, was black and brown, which his tail managed to replicate. His skin was white, nearly to the point of blankness.

Applejack wouldn't say anything. She couldn't even let out a simple grunt. The only thing she did was breathe and blink.

"Hey... did you eat those pancakes that were in the kitchen?" the stallion asked.

Applejack nodded.

"Those were my pancakes."

2 Author's Note

Please bare with me. I haven't written anything in a while, so I'm having a hard time getting into the swing of things. I'm going to do a couple writing exercises and read a whole bunch before I continue with chapter 3.

So again, please be patient with me and bare with my lack of practice.

Have a good one
-All of the Above

2

There was a dry permanence about the bad taste in her mouth. Though it was unpleasant and could easily be rectified, she refused to wash it away. Applejack didn't want to say a word, nor did she dare to finish the partly eaten pancakes lying in front of her. That stallion sitting in across from her...

She didn't know why exactly, but she didn't trust him.

The stallion ate his pancakes in an uncomfortable silence. Not since they were outside had they even spoken to each other. The only thing resembling some kind of conversation was the stallion making a gesture that said, "More pancakes?" To which Applejack replied with a shake of her head.

Applejack wasn't sure if the stallion was keeping silent on purpose or more focused on his own food rather than her. He ate in small bites, but he didn't swallow in small amounts. Annoyingly, he used his magic to eat with a fork. His small horn glowed with a gentle beige color. The fork levitated off the table, and stabbed into the pancakes. Every time he went for another bite, his fork would hit the plate, making that annoying scraping noise that nopony liked to hear. All at once, three pieces went down his throat while three more were stuffed in his cheeks like a squirrel. She was surprised that he wasn't choking to death.

She found her eyes wandering around the quaint little kitchen. Despite the fact that it was old, dusty, and defiled beyond all belief... it somehow reminded her of home. From the wooden patterns on the walls to the lighter atmosphere, so much of it made her feel a little bit safer.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of a small cobweb situated in a corner. Normally, Applejack wouldn't stand for a cobweb anywhere in the house. Even seeing one in a place like this set her off.

As her eyes narrowed and the web came into focus, she soon found out that it wasn't a cobweb. It was a spider's web.

Not much of an improvement.

There were two bite-sized spiders. One that lied on the ground, and one that played on the web. The one on the ground had its legs bent towards its body Some of them were absent. Parts of its body, specifically its legs, looked like they were hacked off. It wasn't moving. The other spider playfully wove its web, almost like it was ignoring the other spider as best as it could.

It wasn't until the umpteenth time that his fork hit the plate that her concentration came to a screeching halt and her patience beginning to crack. Though words were plentiful and easy to find, harvesting the ripe words for a meaningful chat proved quite the challenge. A pony like Twilight would have a hard time finding such words. Bad words and insults were practically gift wrapped for her to use. Every which way her mind seemed to go, the bad plants stuck out like a broken horn. But the more she searched, the right words were coming to her. They were a chore to pick out, but they were there to use.

After a while, she had the perfect sentence to use. It was obvious that she should have asked him this quite some time ago, but pardon her if she was a built startled by a monster trying to kill her. It was a general icebreaker, the first question that ponies ask when they meet somebody new.

Before this one was organized, she had one in mind that she immediately through to the side. It was insensitive, and he probably wouldn't like it if that was the first thing she asked about.

His horn.

At first glance, Applejack didn't notice. It wasn't until she realized how short it was that she started to stare. She thought he was born with it, but then thought that it was broken off or something. Applejack has met a lot of ponies. Unicorns included. But meeting a unicorn with a broken or deformed horn was an abnormality.

Ignoring the horn, Applejack asked her question.

"What's yer name?" Applejack asked like she was ready to burst if he went for one more piece of his pancake.

His fork stopped before it dug into the pancake. He swallowed hard. She could see the food sorrowfully sliding down his throat.

"Hmm?"

"Ah asked ya what yer name is?"

"So she finally decides to speak," the stallion said, glancing towards the mare. She didn't look happy. The stallion wiped away some crumbs off his face. "Arkane Vander."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. She nearly laughed. "Are ya jokin’?"

Arkane chuckled a bit. "I wish.”

“Mom and dad weren’t the best, huh?”

Arkane thought about it for a tiny moment. “No. Not really.”

Applejack said nothing. Arkane went back to his pancakes which were about gone. If he wanted to, he could have shoved the whole thing down his throat and swallowed it in one gulp.

As he finished the plate, he let out a satisfying sigh. "How about you?"

"Applejack."

Arkane thought about it for a second. "Lovely name." He stood up. Taking over the plate to the sink, he washed it off with the water that came from the sink. Though this house was old and seemingly in the middle of nowhere, it had indoor plumbing.

That was the thing about the house. With each passing minute, the house didn't feel so abandoned. The kitchen had sunk into her subconscious like a pleasant memory. The moldy look became familiar, and it seemed a tad brighter. Perhaps the place wasn't all that bad.

"What is this place?"

"I don't know. I wanted to call it The Nothing Forest. But something just doesn't feel right about that name. I don't know how to explain it, but sounds too... Literary."

Applejack thought about it. She didn’t know what he meant.

"Do ya... Live here?"

"Well, right now I kind of do live here." Arkane shook his head. "I showed up here a few weeks ago. Went to sleep in my bed, woke up... Not in my bed. No, I can do better. Uh... I woke up staring at a wall that didn’t match mine. No, that doesn’t work either. The point is, I woke up here and I don’t know how or why.”

Again, Applejack raised an eyebrow.

Arkane sat himself back into his chair. “Anything else?”

"...How do we get out of here?"

Not bothering to look up, Arkane answered, "I... don't think we can."

"You mean there's no way out of here?"

Looking up, Arkane furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah." He said, emphasizing on the Y.

"We can't... Sneak around that monster?"

Arkane started laughing. He leaned back in his chair and nearly fell over.

"What's so funny?"

"I don't know if something hit you upside the head, but you can't be serious!" Arkane kept laughing.

"Ah am serious," she spat.

"Seriously insane."

"Ya make it sound like it’s a bad idear."

Arkane stood up. "That's an understatement."

"Doesn't mean Ah can't try." As Arkane paced around the kitchen, Applejack stared daggers at him.

"If you try, I think you might not come back here with all your limbs."

"Ah think Ah can handle just a monster," Applejack said, starting to get angry.

"I don't know how you interpreted what just happened outside, but I don't think that monster is just a monster."

"All monsters are just monsters. Doesn’t matter how many claws it has or how many teeth. What matters is that it can be taken down. I don’t know about you, but I’ve faced some mighty scary things in my time. And you know what they were?” Applejack paused to let the question sink in. “Monsters. They were just monsters with nothing to lose.”

“I don’t think you understand.” Arkane couldn’t help but grin and shake his head.

Applejack slammed her hooves on the table. “Ah don't think you understand! Ah have a hoofin’ family! Ah am not spending another second here without my family!”

Arkane stopped smiling. A stern look on his face said everything that he need to say. And yet, he repeated it.

“I’ve tried fighting that thing. With what little magic I have, I fought for my life to get out of here. And I couldn’t. It all boiled down to me being used as a bowling pin for that ball to knock over, again and again and again. I’m surprised it let me live. But here I am, hoping that you won’t make the same mistake that I made.”

Applejack didn’t buy it. She stuck by her words, and they didn’t need to be improved or retold. Applejack was going to fight that beast, and she was going to win. Arkane could be left there to die for all she cared. She was getting out of there, and that was that.

“I’m sorry, Applejack. I don’t think there’s a way out of this place. We're stuck here."

Applejack glared at him. His eyes were nearly condescending her.

Arkane let out a sigh. "I’m sorry."

Applejack felt like telling him off. But what good would that do?

There wasn't much need for her to be there in that room with him. She lost her appetite when she nearly died a little bit ago. So, she decided the best thing to do was to let her mind adjust to this new environment.

And adjusting was the last thing she wanted to do.

After breakfast, Applejack retired to her temporary room. Arkane was in the middle of eating her pancakes that she had decided against eating. He questioned where she was going, and Applejack only replied with a stern grunt and a "Mah room."

Hopefully, Arkane would have the common decency to let her be.

For what seemed like several hours, she sat on her bed staring at a wall thinking. Applejack thought and thought until her mind almost overloaded from the sheer weight of all the possible escape routes that her mind thought about. All implausible.

One idea in particular was to make a run for it. The idea was immediately tossed inside the bin because she had already proven that it wouldn’t work.

Pacing around the room, Applejack began getting frustrated. The hours of planning to get out of there was getting her nowhere. Hours wasted to come to the conclusion that everything she did wasn't going to work.

All this thinkin' ain't gettin' me nowhere.

Frustrated, Applejack threw herself onto her bed. Eyes closed and her body in an uncomfortable sleeping position. The blanket seemed to reject her body and her pillow didn't wear her head correctly. Thoughts she had were jettisoned out of her head, ricocheting off the walls and making the loudest nonexistent noise she had ever heard in her life.

Applejack yelled and threw the pillow and blanket off of her.

Ah gotta get outta here! But how?

The question wasn't answered then, and it wasn't about to be answered anytime soon.

If only she was a unicorn. She'd use her powers to get her out of there with a stomp of a hoof.

It slapped her across the face.

That bastard is a unicorn.

Applejack burst out of the room. The door slammed against the wall, issuing a loud bang that erupted throughout the entire house.

"Arkane!" she shouted.

She didn't hear anything.

"Ah am not repeatin' mahself! Ya hear?"

He still didn't answer.

Where is he?

She checked around the living room. Empty couches and cobwebs occupied the room.

"Get yer-"

She was interrupted by a loud crashing sound coming from the basement.

As quickly as she could, she raced down the stairs. The same door that she thought would let her escape was placed in such a way that made it look like it was trying to seduce her into leaving the house again. If she was going to go outside again, it would be somewhere in the Apple Orchards. There, she could stare up into the sky she was used to.

The basement was empty. There was not a single pony down there. There was a bar counter, a dusty, black couch, a smoke stained window that allowed no light inside, and some broken glass littered on the floor, and support beams holding up the ceiling. This was the darkest place in the entire house. But it wasn't complete darkness. The light from the upstairs shone through clearly enough for her to see.

Applejack quickly found the source of the crash. On the counter, there was brown glass freshly shattered by something that could be heard, but not seen. There were faint scratches coming from that general direction. Applejack thought it was the same animal she saw when she first woke up.

The scratches moved from the counter to the ceiling directly above her in no fewer than a few seconds. She jumped when she heard them, and quickly scurried forward to hopefully avoid it. The scratches migrated to her left. It was a hallway similar to the one upstairs.

Lying directly in front of the door at the end of the hallway was that same, squirrel like creature that she saw when she first woke up. It pawed and scratched on the door, hoping for something to open it up for it. It turned around and stared at Applejack. It touched the door and scurried off into a nearby room.

Does it want me to open up that door?

That thing clearly led her to the basement. It wasn't just messing with the house just to mess it. The thing knows more than it wants her to think.

Applejack walked to the door, but not before checking the other rooms for Arkane.

The first door she came across was a small, stone room with no window. There bits of broken wood stuck in there for a fireplace she has yet to see. The next room had a window that was also stained by fire. The room seemed like it was used as a bathroom. The next room was the one that the squirrel wandered into. It was empty except for a chair in the dead center of the room. It faced the wall, so she couldn't see if there was something sitting in it. She didn't need that question answered.

Before Applejack could open the door, there was something inside of her head telling her to walk away. Shaking the thought out of her head, Applejack pushed open the door.

"You need something?"

Applejack jumped. Turning around, she saw Arkane approach her with a slight disorientation in his steps. She shut the door, not seeing what was in there.

"Use yer magic to get me outta here," Applejack commanded.

Arkane blinked repeatedly. His head nodded off a few times, yawning as he struggled to keep his head straight. "Sorry, could you repeat that?"

Applejack growled. "Yer a unicorn. Can't you teleport us outta this place?"

"...Do you really think I would still be here if that worked?"

"Maybe yer just not trying hard enough. C'mon, give yer horn a jumpstart and let's try to—"

"You don't know how a unicorn horn works, do you?"

Applejack stopped herself.

"My horn is broken. Two years ago, I was running out of a cave, and I wasn't looking where I was going."

"What does that have tuh do wi—"

"Broken horn mean I can't magic good no more. Do I need to simplify my explanation more?"

"Don't treat me like a foal!"

"Then don't act like one. If I wanted to, I would have gotten myself out of here as soon as I could. I wouldn't be standing here and having this conversation at all. You'd be all alone, nobody but you and your thoughts. If there's some way out of here, then it's not going to be through me. You understand?"

Defeated, Applejack's gaze fell to the ground.

"Look... You're going to have to get used to being here for a while. Escape isn't coming soon."

Arkane sighed. He turned around, leaving Applejack to her own thoughts and the sound of her brain swirling around.

Back to the drawing board

3 Author's Note

Forgive me for taking so long with this chapter. I hit a snag in the middle of it, but recently got out of it. Hopefully this means that I'll be able to move faster.

3

That night was a sleepless one.

And the one thing that Applejack needed was a good night's rest. But it was perfectly fine. It wasn't like she was in the middle of some barren wasteland with an obnoxious unicorn who wasn't being the least bit helpful. It wasn't like molten lava rock was more comfortable and welcoming than the bed that she had to sleep on.

With every slight movement, the bed creaked horribly, as if to make Applejack supremely angry. Every time she managed to find a comfortable spot and silence had finally taken most of the battlefield, she could hear something inside the walls. Incessantly scurrying around. But only when sleep was in hoof's reach. It only ceased when Applejack was considering bucking the wall and scaring everything in there away.

Silence took one step forward and two steps back.

Applejack found herself staring out of the window most of the time.

The night sky looked so much different than the glorious painting that she was so used to seeing at night. That sky was kind and gentle. Hoof crafted to be beautiful. What was in this night sky was callous and cold. It was a bastardization of something so beautiful. There were no stars and no Moon. The only light that came from the sky was from the clouds themselves. It was like there was a very small star in each of them. While it managed to replicate the light, it just wasn't the same.

That's when the scurrying started getting louder. The scurrying migrated to Applejack's side of the room, and eventually left the room altogether. Like it was attracted by something inside the house.

Applejack got out of bed. Exiting her room, she decided to do what the animals were doing and go walk around the house. More specifically, walk around the basement. Perhaps see what was inside of that door in the basement. It wasn't like she was going to sleep at all that night, so what was the point in trying?

However, the rumbling in her stomach proved to be a much more enticing offer. So the first stop in her nightly adventures was the kitchen. Maybe there was an apple or two lying around. If not, then something else would do.

The hall outside her room shared the same darkness. Applejack was able to guide herself through it without too much trouble. Though she felt that her hooves were going to phase through the floor at times, the journey to the kitchen wasn't too difficult.

Upon arriving at the kitchen, Applejack pulled open the fridge door, discovering that there was indeed a couple fresh apples for her to enjoy. Arkane wouldn't mind if she took one or twelve apples for herself. He wouldn't mind if she disappeared into the night sky.

She sat at the table and started chowing down on her first apple. They weren't nearly as good as they were back on the farm, but they were sufficient. Strictly the most average apples she had ever eaten.

Maybe it needs a little rinsin'.

As Applejack stood up, she got a good view of the sky.

Much like the apple, it was strictly average. It was a little more soothing than what she saw earlier. Though, there was some kind of intrigue that Applejack couldn't really describe. As much as she didn't want to see it again, and as much as she didn't want to like it, Applejack couldn't help but be dragged back to it. It wasn't because it was the only thing that was interesting to look at, but it was like the pied piper. It played its night song, captivating all of the Applejacks and leading them to dance out into the night and eternally stare into nothing.

And wait for the cold, swift slice of a scythe against their necks.

As Applejack finished her last apple, a door that she never noticed before opened on its own. For a moment, the dust in the air stood completely still. Applejack’s heart stopped beating for what seemed like a whole thirty seconds. Not moving an inch, Applejack stared at the protruding door, not letting a single breath of air out of her body. Though it was anticlimactic, Arkane entered the door just a moment after opening it.

His hair was a mess. It was probably the worst case of bedhead that she had ever seen. The fact that his hair was already fairly long didn't help his case. Dirt covered his face, and his white fur was so dirty that he would need an hour long shower just to get slightly clean.

Arkane didn't seem to notice Applejack as he stumbled through the kitchen, probably going back to his room. Trying to exit the kitchen, Arkane stumbled over his own hooves, nearly collapsing to the floor. He managed to grab hold of the door frame, saving himself from unknowingly embarrassing himself.

Applejack quietly stood up from her seat, being careful not to make a sound as she tried to follow him to see exactly where he was going. Though she was certain that he was just heading to his room, she was still wide awake with nothing else that she was willing to do. Investigating that room in the basement would have to wait until morning. Arkane just seemed a tad more interesting.

Just as she nearly escaped her chair while successfully making no noise, Arkane turned his head. His tired eyes pierced into the white of her eyes like he had laser vision.

"Good to see that I'm not the only who can't sleep," Arkane said, yawning. "At least somebody can share my pain with me."

Applejack stared at him.

"That sounded awful, I apologize," he chuckled nervously. He brushed away his hair from his face. Applejack noticed his dirty, white skin. It was like he hadn't showered in weeks. He didn't smell all that bad, however. He had the familiar smell of dirt lingering on him, but it wasn't that strong.

To break the tension, Applejack spoke.

"What's keepin' you up?" Applejack asked.

Arkane hesitated before giving up his answer. "Just this house. I have a difficult time sleeping in strange places."

Applejack leaned up against a wall. "Shame."

"What's the problem with you?" Arkane asked.

"There's an animal in the wall that won't stop movin'."

Arkane sat in the seat next to her.

"Did you try opening the wall?" he asked

"...No, Ah never thought of that," Applejack said sarcastically.

"That's a good idea, you should probably do that."

Applejack gave him a tired, slightly amused looked. Arkane didn't notice, as he was extremely tired. So he just smiled, his head dipping every now and again.

Silence swept over the room like a mist. In the near darkness, Applejack rolled the apple around on the table. She and Arkane could both tell that Applejack was dodging a conversation like it was a stallion eyeing her gently from the other side of a public place.

Arkane’s head seemed to sway in and out of sleep. His head jolted as his head seemed like it was going to sleep. Perhaps if he just let his head fall to the table, he would wake himself up by giving himself a goose egg on his forehead.

“You know, take a lesson from me. Get some sleep. You’ll go a little crazy when y-you stay up past your bedtime,” Arkane said, swaying around like he was listening to a tune in his head.

“You okay ‘dere?”

“Don’t worry, everything’s clearly under control. Lightning, it’s like you think I don’t know—” Arkane jolted a little. “Applejack, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m, completely... Fine.”

Applejack stood from her seat. “Get up. Yer gettin’ some sleep.”

“But I-I’m busy. I came in for a quick break. I don’t need to go to bed, Mom. No, I just want to tell Glisten goodni—” he jolted again. “I don’t need to sleep.”

“...right. How ‘bout you take a wink ‘r two, and Ah’ll try to do the same.”

Arkane almost didn't argue. Perhaps he fell asleep in those few, short seconds, or maybe he didn’t need to respond at all. Either way, Applejack helped him back to his room.

Arkane sleepily recognized everything around him like he was as curious as a foal in a strange new environment. Applejack barely put up a fight trying to get him into his room.

His room was pitch black. Aside from the little light that shone through the open door, Applejack managed to locate the bed in the middle of the room.

She was slightly jealous. It seemed much more welcoming and comfortable than her bed. To a point, though. It still creaked something awful, and it looked just about as homey as the house itself. But he had the bigger bed. It was like his was built for two. Two ponies, sleeping in the same bed together.

It didn’t take much to our Arkane to bed. Just a tiny shove and a few soft words, and Arkane passed out on his bed. Applejack out the blankets over him and quietly left.

Closing the door as gently as she could, Applejack heard Arkane say something under his restless breath. She almost didn't hear it if it wasn’t for the silence that followed as she tried to shut his door.

“They’ll get thro—”

Arkane didn’t say anything else at all. He instantly fell asleep right there. Tossing the blanket right over him and unconsciously making himself more comfortable.

At last, Applejack shut the door. With nothing to bother her now, she found herself with plenty of time to finally explore the house.

But before Applejack could even take a single step, a loud crack erupted from outside. Nearly jumping out of her skin, Applejack stood as still as a statue. Holding her breath, she listened carefully for any more noises. What she heard was nothing. There were no sounds of animals running around, there were no chirping bugs. Everything that Applejack found familiar was silenced by the nothing that covered the entire landscape.

Applejack let her guard down. She assumed it was the monster prowling around outside, knocking something down or even tripping over itself. Applejack wondered how

The false moonlight shone through the window, projecting its light on the wall. It was the only light that Applejack had. Applejack’s hoof steps quietly echoed through the house.

Applejack’s heart quit beating when she saw a shadow limping across the wall.

Applejack backed up against the door behind her. She could hear a small jiggle coming from the same door that Arkane came through. The door creaked open, and she could hear dirt-stained hooves enter the house.

Applejack reached to open Arkane’s door but had to slow her movements when a figure lurched forward from the kitchen.

There wasn’t a face that she could see, or even a clear gender that she could detect. It had the body shape of a pony, though she doubted that it really was one. The only thing she could detect was the unwavering shadow taking up its body. A swirling vortex, seemingly sucking up all the air that it could. An infinite blackness that had no seeming end. The creature staggered around, using the walls to carry it.

It made a noise. A terrible noise that sounded like it was groaning in pain like a dog. Its head swiveled around like it wasn’t screwed on right.

Luckily, the thing didn’t notice Applejack. Hopefully, she could slip quietly into Arkane's room, and hopefully, find a way to get rid of it. Applejack prayed that she was hidden in the darkness.

The black creature lingered towards the stairs, paying no attention to Applejack. She held back her sigh of relief. Applejack crept across the floor , noticing a larger, much taller creature. Instead of lingering towards the stairs like the one before it, it instead peered down the hallway. It took a few steps towards Applejack but lingered in the hallway. It seemed to meticulously check each room before getting to Applejack.

With bated breath, Applejack waited for the creature to approach her. However, the creature stuck its head into a door straight ahead of her. There were no creatures that could see her, so with a thumping heart, Applejack reached for Arkane’s doorknob.

She jiggled it once. She jiggled it twice. She jiggled it three times, but the door would not open. Applejack’s eyes widened, suddenly terrified. She looked down the hallway. The creature was still looking around the bathroom. She silently, violently tried to open the door. But nothing was helping her. She shook the door, trying in vain to get that door open. But it wouldn’t budge.

Fear shaking her to the core, Applejack slowly looked to the hallway. She saw the tall creature staring her dead in the eye with its blackness.

The thing didn’t make a noise. Applejack shivered in her skin. Her breath was caught inside of her mouth, but Applejack held it in. Horrified but what it might do to her, Applejack only stayed silent, hoping that the thing would leave her alone.

The creature spoke. It came so suddenly that Applejack’s breath finally left her mouth. It was coarse and rapid but sounded dulcet to her.

Its voice was a whisper of glass scraping against a window pane. She could barely make out the voice that it tried to get out of its mouth but to a poor attempt.

“Wh-” was the only thing that it seemed to say. Everything else that came out of its mouth was a scratch on a chalkboard.

“Whe-ee-ee.”

Applejack tilted her head to the side.

“Whe-r-e? Where is h-he?”

It was a stallion’s voice. A pony approaching an elder status, but young enough that it was easy to think that the stallion was thirty.

“Where’s... who?” Applejack questioned, knowing who it was talking about.

“Him. Arkane,” it said, its voice coming in clearer. She still couldn’t see the creatures face.

Applejack hesitated.

“I don’t w-want to ‘urt him. I just wan’ t-to thank him.”

“Thank him for what?”

“This.”

A small flash of light appeared on the creature's face for a split second. Applejack saw its eyes. Its face was scorched by fire. The right eye was whited out by fire. Rage occupied his eyes like a grudge.

“Thank the dreck for me when he wakes up.”

4

With one last push, Arkane’s door finally closed. After locking it up as tight as she could, she stumbled around in the black silence. Hyperventilating, Applejack let every breath under lock and key escape their incarceration. She nearly fell to the ground but managed to keep herself standing.

Her breath started catching up to her. She inhaled and slowly let it out like ponies in a race. They galloped around the air, trying to locate the finish line that hid in the darkness.

As Applejack began calming down, she heard a dull snore arise from the black of the bedroom. She almost forgot that the breath belonged to Arkane, who still rested on the bed that she couldn't even see.

He also started speaking. It was silent, but Applejack almost caught a conversation between himself and nopony in particular. Like he was talking in his dreams.

What he was saying didn’t register with Applejack. In fact, she barely heard what he was saying. She was confident that even if she did, he wouldn’t have made any sense.

She continued to stare at Arkane. Without even realizing it, Applejack started to step a little closer to him in bed. Her eyes were starting to get heavy like something was trying to pull them down. Her legs were starting to wobble. This tired feeling would have felt a lot nicer if she was asleep much earlier. But the drowsiness was here to stay, and if it wasn’t properly taken care of, then Applejack was going to have some problems that morning.

Applejack climbed into the side of the bed opposite Arkane. Feeling his unusual warmth rubbing up against her, Applejack felt her eyes. Sleep entered the station much later than it was supposed to, but that hardly mattered. At least she was going to go to where she wanted to be. Asleep.

As the world came back into the clean illumination of light, Applejack’s mind, foggy and confused, switched itself back on. A light shone through the mist, illuminating a path to its destination. It chugged along, carefully analyzing the tracks ahead of it, preparing itself for any obstacle. Like the head rush or the shaky tiredness still leftover from the previous night's rest.

Recovering from a blinding change in gravity, Applejack stood, reluctantly willing to face another day like a lone soldier facing a battalion on the other side of the battlefield. The stench of blood was a mist of smell in the soldier’s nostrils, something that he had begrudgingly accepted. It made the soldier feel sick. Like that soldier, Applejack could do nothing about her situation. She almost felt sorry for herself as the morning light sharpened its weapon, glaring her dead in her eyes.

Gradually, memories of the previous night dripped into her head in a slowly, syrupy fashion. The shadows walking on the wall, the creatures wandering the house. The shadow stallion with the burns. The whited out eyes.

It was looking for Arkane; that much was apparent. “What is going on,” was a question that seemed far too obvious to ask. The creature with the burns. What did Arkane do to that thing? Was he fighting it off? What exactly was it?

If Arkane were willing to participate in Applejack’s little questionnaire, then maybe she'd be slightly more prepared for some sleepless nights that were guaranteed to come in the following days.

But to Applejack’s chagrin, Arkane wasn’t next to her. Which, in hindsight, she should have expected. That pony was as unpredictable as life itself.

The room was brighter than it was last night. The room around her looked different than she thought it would. Not so much worse than she expected, but it was in a decent gray area. It was cozy, but in a way that an old pony’s home would look. Ancient to the new-aged beholder, but to the elder, it was a photograph of what their home looked like when they were younger.

She half expected one of those things to be standing outside of her door. To her delight, there were none. The house's natural light cleansed the halls of unwanted visitors. Presumably. It may have been a coincidence that they had left when the sun came out, or maybe it was just how it was. Whatever the reason, they were gone. Applejack couldn’t have asked for a better gift.

That is until Applejack heard the familiar crackling of breakfast.

Arkane was cooking some hay bacon. He was facing away from her, and likely didn’t notice her come in. His hair was matted, no worse than when she last him.

“Glad to see you’re awake,” he said, not bothering to take a look over his shoulder.

“Y’all okay?”

“Well, you were right. I really did need the sleep. I’ve been going nuts.”

“Yeah... Ugh.” Applejack couldn’t even find the words to ask a question. A simple question, one that was more important than anything. And yet it just wasn't there.

“Last night?” Was what came out of her mouth.

“Right,” Arkane said. He grabbed a spatula and laid out a plate. He placed the haybacon on the plate, keeping two pieces for himself.

“You want an explanation, I assume.”

“A little more than want, Stumpy,” Applejack fired.

Arkane turned to face her. His haybacon fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

Applejack raised her eyebrow. “Ah called you Stumpy. Y’all want me to repeat myself?”

He looked downright shocked. It seemed like he was going to break down in tears. “Now that was just hurtful!”

“...sorr—”

“You don’t just do that to ponies you hardly know! I don’t go up to Pegasi without wings and call them walks, now do I?”

“Alright, Ah’m sorry.”

“Why would you call me that, even? It's not like-”

“Okay, okay! Ah’m sorry! Would you just explain to me what happened last night?”

Arkane kept his snarl but took in a deep breath.

“I think it would be best just to show you.”

The backyard looked as if somebody was taking care of it. Which wasn’t saying a lot.

Weeds were growing in everywhere. There were some that were starting to grow as tall as the trees themselves. Applejack felt a twinge in her hind legs. Perhaps her inner farmer was setting up some serious red flags. But, there was no point in trying to save it. It was far past the point of damnation. Any help would have been considered desecration to a corpse.

She was so lost, she didn’t even hear Arkane warn her about some hole that she was about to-

Applejack had a near heart attack as she realized that the floorboard that she thought was blow her wasn't there. Luckily, she made her hoof land on the next level, saving herself from a nasty fall onto not so sturdy wooden steps.

Exhaling, Applejack walked down the rest of the steps with a hint of caution woven into her steps. Arkane was laughing to himself quietly as Applejack prepared herself to kick him where it matters most.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh," he said over painfully obvious lies like he was a young school pony with his hoof stuck in the cookie jar.

Applejack let out an angry sigh and breathed in the leftover calm that Arkane had left alone.

“My apologies. I can’t help but laugh at a little slapstick.”

“Ah’ll slap you with a stick.”

Arkane puffed in air through his cheeks and blew it out, eliminating the smile from his face. “Ugh, okay. I’m calm, now. Wait, did you say—”

“What didja wanna show me?”

“You have to stop making me laugh first. I can barely control myself.”

Applejack couldn’t sigh hard enough.

“Alright, now I brought you here to show you something. What was it?”

Applejack nearly answered, but Arkane began tapping his skull with his hoof. “It was that... Right! Come, behind this fence.”

Arkane pointed to the wooden fence. Like everything that Applejack saw in that place, it was about as presentable as a foal with a bloody nose and dirt sneering his cheeks. Several cracks across every piece of wood, every one of which was embarrassed to call itself a fence. She was quick to notice one board missing.

“Look through the gap.”

She did as he asked.

At first, it was just more emptiness. A blank sky with an empty horizon, nothing exciting to observe.

“If you focus your eyes on one particular spot, you’ll see it.”

Again, like an obedient filly, she did as she was told. It was hard because there was nothing really to notice. But once she just stared at the empty horizon, something moved across her field of vision.

It was large, whatever it was. Steadily moving, completely out in the open, but very hard to catch with the naked eye. The more Applejack stared, the more she saw. Whatever it was, it seemed to be about the same size as herself. Maybe taller.

The shape started moving its body. It looked unnatural like it was somewhere it shouldn’t be. Applejack's eyes rejected it. She felt like she was trying to put two magnets together.

And for a moment, Applejack felt something unfamiliar. The only way she knew how to describe it was a nostalgic sense of sadness that did not feel at home in her mind. She tried to ignore it, but it somehow kept popping back in and out of her head, like it was a pest sneaking into her room even though she had taken it out and placed it back on its turf.

But there was something else about it that felt... Like home. In a way that most ponies couldn’t even think or describe, Applejack felt as if she knew the blur personally. A connection shaped itself in her mind, finally becoming something she understood.

The more that she thought about it, the more it made sense. It was a feeling of companionship. Then it morphed into something else. Friendship. Then pride. Respect. Loss. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.

The grieving process. It was something that Applejack finally understood. Emotion overtook Applejack's body as the puzzle only had a few more pieces to go until the larger picture revealed itself. Applejack’s hooves started to shake.

“You see it, don’t you?”

“Ma? Pa?”

Applejack saw the two blurs merge. Applejack could feel their distant gaze. The warm prescience of a loved one's gaze gave Applejack the one thing she had missed most about her life before. Parenthood. Of all the essential ingredients that Applejack had lacked in her life, the most important part was finally dropped off on the counter. But, that ingredient was poorer into her unfinished broth of happiness. Added to the mix, yes, but added to a dessert food that she couldn’t eat, but instead, used to remind her that she can’t break her diet.

Just as quickly as they appeared, the apparitions evanesced from Applejack’s vision. She stared in disbelief, as more and more individual blurs began cropping up.

Arkane attempted to pull her away from the fence, but her grip was as tight as iron.

“Ah have to see them!” Applejack pleaded.

“You can’t go out there. Let’s go back inside.” Arkane pulled and pulled, but the more he tried, the more she stood her ground.

“Those are my folks! I have to—”

With a strength that Applejack didn’t even realize he had, Arkane pulled around her around. Looking her straight in the eye, he said plainly, “They’re a trick.”

“A trick?”

“This place...” Arkane gestured around him. “It knows you. It knows every single detail about you, better than you, or anypony else. It knows who you care most about.”

Looking to the horizon, he shuttered. “Especially the dead ones.”

Applejack let her tears stain her face, something she had never let happen.

“It uses them against you to lure you out. What’s better bait than ponies who’ve died?”

The blur that Applejack called her parents were still there. It seemed to be pointing at her, waving and quietly hollering for her. She couldn’t tell if they were tempting her or beckoning for her.

“Let’s go inside. Please.”

Applejack said nothing. Complying, she stood herself up. She knew it was wrong, but she looked back. The blur was still there. Staring directly into her.

Following Arkane back up the stairs, she fought back more tears.