Chapters "Whoo Wee! Sweet Celestia! That was quite a day out there!" Applejack said with a hearty sigh as she bucked her door open, the experience nowhere near as bad as the tree bucking she did through the day. The summer was fast approaching it's end; While still green the trees were slowly but surely losing their life in the leaves, the apples couldn't get any bigger or redder if you inflated or painted them, and she and her little sister had only felt it a bit, but they definitely felt a chill in the air of the seasonal change. Applejack kicked her boots off too tired even to hit the showers; the smell of tree bark and her own femme muskiness not all that offensive to her, in fact many a stallion out in the fields that day turned their heads; not away from her but to her and her scent, of a mix of hard working farmer girl and the beautiful feminine charmer she is.
She liked to get flirty with the field hooves when they gave her attention; a flip of her golden mane, or a little more sway in her hips and flanks then needed when she trotted, just enough to make them squirm. Even when she did she would always end her playfulness with a teasing quip of "Keep yer eyes on the apples in the trees and bushels fellas, not mah flanks...or your fired." She never MEANT to fire them colts will be colts after all, but she wanted a stallion. Hopefully a few years of hard work and playing hard to get, would give them all enough incentive to be stallions. Not that the attention didn't turn her young self on a bit.
Applejack took a small book from her the drawer in the desk under the window; it was a little apple golden book with one word on the cover, Diary. For all her exterior as a tough as nails; take names and kick plots girl, with a heart of gold if you got past her thick outer shell. Applejack had this side of her that still wanted to feel more like say; her friend Rarity, in touch with her femininity, and even she needed someone to confide her thoughts and feelings to. Looking around the top of her desk she got her jar of ink open, took her quill ready and started writing, she began to feel like a little school filly again.
"Late summer's are always mah favorite time a the year; the crops are just about ready and the real fun of harvesting and getting the food stocks ready for winter right around the corner, Rainbow has asked me for the fiftieth time if it's cider season yet, It's good to be alive sometimes.' She sucked the tip of her pen a bit to get it dipped in the ink and her thoughts together. 'Not everything is dandy bout it though, it seems to keep getting dark sooner and sooner as the days go by." as she wrote this it indeed did seem to suddenly get a bit darker in her room; she turned her head to the clock on her desk.
"Only ten to five? Bit soon to turn control over to Luna isn't it princess?" She asked to only herself as she lit a match to light a beeswax candle, the fizzle and soft glow giving her a decent amount of light; she had gas lights but prefered to save the gas for the winter. She looked around and noticed that even with her candles the room seemed to be getting so dark; the shadows of the darkness outside enveloping all but the very edge of her candles. Normally there would be some moon or starlight out to quell the dark but for some reason there didn't seem to be any. It just seemed to get too dark to read let alone right properly even with her whole box of bees waxes lit.
She didn't see outside her window; over the ground to the whittred and unhealthy trees of the farm. These where the trees that had been set aside as a reserve for those pesky vampire fruit bats. Not that where a problem now that they had their own patch of the farm to themselves; as one perched himself on a branch ready to drain the juice from one of the few they let grow to be nice and healthy too munch on, the bat let out a harsh screech as the branch he was on shook and wobbled before steadying itself to adjust to the added weight of two strangers on the branch with him.
"So tell me again why I had to put on this black outfit Master Keith?"one of the occupants in the branch asked another. They both had a bipedal stance on the branch; and both where clad in jet black garb that just barely blended into the dark of the looming night that surrounded them, the illusion broken only by a symbol patch on roughly where their left shoulders where.
"Naruto I told you, please don't call me "master" I'm your friend remember?" Danny Keith said to the static animation of the manga/anime character. It had been something of a while since He'd started making them; a colorful collection of the beloved (and in some cases not so beloved) characters and creations he'd known from his old life so long ago. Static animation had endowed them all with the histories and stories the original creators had made for them, as well as the sense of self awareness that made them all the more independent to serve and live alongside the boy who gave them life, some might say that lacked creativity, when all he'd been doing is just copying what he had seen on television and other places, but in his mind it's one thing to be creative and make new and unique ideas, but it's no less creative to take the creations that came before by others and putting them in new and different scenarios with others like (and not so like) them.
The two of them sat on the branches in black outfits; as opposed to the orange one that Naruto's original creator had seen fit to give him. Naruto himself was surrounded by a light green glow, the hallmark to all static animations be they simple motions or fully independent creations. Having been made from an old toy; He had a slight "plasticity" to how he looked and moved, his joints gave slight creaking sounds like those of a fresh out the box plastic ones, that didn't mean the creation was stiff and jerky in it's movements on the tree beside his creator, but rather that the new form took some getting used too.
"I was thinking we need something more "tactical" for what it is we are about to do old friend." he said this as he took one of the heavily dessicated apples from the branch in one hand, and a long, thin but very strong and very sharp needle. "just one final ingredient, and IT will be ready." He said this as he poked the needle past the skin and made the sour acrid smelling juice travel down the syringe into the tube where it merged with an equally foul green substance. What he had in there was a recipe that few Equestrians knew of; it was a brew cooked up to cause nothing but dismay; cowardice, and fear to whoever it was exposed too.
"What are we doing here exactly Dan?" Naruto asked lowering himself off the branch with the silence of the ninja he'd been created as. Danny gave a soft chuckle at being asked this as the liquid in the syringe began to turn bright orange; the same glowing orange as the coat of its intended target. He only pursed his lips and shushed his companion in nighttime strife. The both of them then made their way over the orchard fence and up to the house; not once taking their eyes off the bedroom window, waiting for AppleJack to go to sleep.
"Damn it; this moonlight always ruins everything." Danny said as they both got bathed in the silver glow of the moon's beaming light. Before it had come out; if one had looked outside to the area around sweet apple acres; they'd have found it difficult to see much because of the darkness. The way it just seemed to swallow up all the light and make the once cheery and vibrant world of ponydom seem a lot less warm and inviting. Instead without light; it seemed foreboding and treacherous; like any number of vile creatures could be lurking about hidden in the shadows, waiting to strike at the unsuspecting equine daring...or foolish enough to dare venture out into the ebony embrace of the dark.
That changed with the light of the moon; as it hovered above far beyond any creature's reach, it cast its own variation of the sunlight on everything, casting all but the deepest shadows away and giving everything back a calming and divine beauty. invariably taking away the psychological connection of night's all-encompassing darkness to the fear of the unknown; all that vulnerability and danger for your survival is gone; wiped away by the light of Luna's moon. Criminals, animals, and all the countless dangers that NORMALLY can be concealed by darkness; mean nothing under the protection of that perfect princess.
"I won't let her stop us." Danny said to his creation as they slowly opened the window on the first floor; before slipping in after the other; Danny reached into a bag he had tied to the belt of his outfit, and when he pulled his hand back, he brought it to his lips and blew a cloud of black dust from his hand. This dust floated in the air a bit before it seemed to block the moonlight from casting its protective glow on the house and even a bit of the farm itself, thus allowing that eerie unsettling of the pure dark to return. "Heh, heh, heh." He chuckled as he slid into the house silently.
Like two master thieves, they made their way through the shadowy halls of the Apple family farm house. Up the stairs without even a shadow cast on the walls, as almost the entire house was cloaked in shadowy darkness. they stood before AppleJack's bedroom door; with an ear to ear smile spreading the the boy's lips they opened it and entered. The door didn't make a single sound as they did.
Applejack herself lay sound asleep in her bed, her mane and tail free from the red bands that she usually wore along with her stetson to keep them in check. In spite of everything; her eyes were closed in a purely relaxed state, and she dreamt soundly with a smile on her muzzle. she gave off tiny snores and happy coos as she slept, indications that the mare was having a very pleasant dream.
Danny silently slipped a black glove onto his hand; it was a most unusual glove, the backs of the fingers had tiny straps and buckles on them, ones that he slipped the plastic tubes of four syringes into and locked into place, each one gave off the faint glow of the oozing orange liquid inside. He then had his "assistant" hand him the four long needle tips; thin as mosquito pinchers, and just as unnoticable to a heavy sleeper. Finally he placed a cloth hat on his head; a small burlap bag over his head, with two holes cut for his eyes. The resemblance to a certian someone wasn't lost on the boy, but that was all part of the fun." It was like Halloween (he refused to call it by the wretched Equestrian name) had come early.
Somehow he made his fingers snap and the Naruto that had been standing beside him almost instantly shrank back down in size and became silent and immobile, he was a toy yet again. "Sorry old friend, but this is something I prefer to do on my own." he thought in his head as he hovered over the golden mare, as she soundly slept. A devious smile spread across his lips as he made the metal tips clink and scratch against each other. "Where to begin?" He thought as he ran the cold metal tips over her soft warm coat; Applejack shuddered slightly at his touch but didn't wake.
His lips pursed back behind the mask; they began to water a bit as if he was admiring a succulent apple, meant to be savored and eaten with the air of a connoisseur, while Applejack let out soft gasps and shivers as the cold needles ran lower over her body, she parted her lips just a bit as the tips went down past her flanks, right over her telltale cutie marks. "perfect." He said.
"More handsome, keep going." Is what Applejack muttered in her sleep, smiling devilishly. Her words made the nocturnal intruder blush a bit, because in her little dream she was being caressed by some imaginary lover.
"Dreams have a nasty habit of going bad when you're not looking." he whispered over her as he softly kissed her cutie mark, before plunging a needle each into the three apples that made it up. With a flex of the knuckles; the syringes injected AppleJack with the potent orange fear poison, not meant to kill, but not a very pleasant thing to go through either. As it coursed through her; a small tangle of glowing golden strings hovered over her head. Seeing this; The boy smiled under his mask and pulled out a pair of long rusty scissors with a slight angle to their tip, surgical scissors.
He placed the wicked looking instrument between the web of stings that made up the sleeping mare's dream, and cut them. With a single metallic snip, the went limp and fell away; turning a rancid black and the look on AppleJack's face went from content happiness, to pure and simple fear and dismay.
"Sweet dreams." Danny said with an sickly sweet feigned innocence as he slid out the window into the night.
Rotten! Every single Apple in the orchid was Rotten! Applejack ran and galloped from bushel to bushel of the bucked apples; desperately trying to find one batch just one, that wasn't wrinkled, foul smelling, or sour and rotten. The eyes of Big Mac, Granny and harshest of all little Apple Bloom on her. With mixed gestures of shame, disappointment, and sadness.
"Young missy! I really expected better of you!" Granny harshly snapped at her granddaughter in an almost un-Granny like manner. "The livelihood of the Apple family gone to hades in a handbasket and it's all yer fault!" She snapped as Applejack desperately inspected a bushel of red delicious that had melted into desiccated, moldy husks of their former selves. All Black and wrinkled up the little juice left as sour as the lovechild of cry foals and WAR MUZZLES candies.
"Why'd you let us down sis?" Applebloom asked giving her big sad eyes that could turn even the coldest hearts warm. the little filly held one of the rotten apples in her hoof and threw it away in disgust as her stomach rumbled in hunger "Why?"
"Now hold on everypony, I...I didn't mean for this to happen, I...I tried."
"That's not gonna do us any good when all of Ponyville starves this winter AJ." Big Mac; the gentle giant of few words, solemnly said with a shameful shake of his head. he bucked a particularly bad batch of golden delicious ones over and from their skins; a bunch of ugly white slimy worms broke through the skins and crawled across the dirt toward the frightened Applejack.
"No, NO! git away from me ya parasites!" She screamed at the top of her voices as she backed into a tree, it shook as from its bark much like with the apple worms, swarms of ugly bluish grey wood beetles poked their heads from the trees; their pincers snapping and biting as the trees came tumbling down, eaten clean of everything they could ever provide. The once proud and fruitful Acres of Sweet Apple Acres; reduced to a desolate field of decay! Applejack buried her muzzle in her hooves, as swirling darkness and bleak emptiness surrounded her, as it did she could almost hear a distant almost other worldly voice in her ear.
"You lose! now the fear takes you!" it called in her ears as there was a rushing sensation like sickness; then a falling one, She screamed....
She was still screaming as the sun finally broke through her window. With a start and fright; Applejack bolted to her window almost on a reflex and threw it open, gasping and breathing hard and heavily as she looked out at her orchid, Fresh. Every apple was ripe; fresh, and safe. No wood beetles eating the bark of her trees dry, or worms infesting them and rotting them to the core. Applejack was greatly relevied if only still shook up. "It was just a bad dream." She said to herself.
"Mornin AJ!" Her brother called from bellow outside; a happy smile on his face, as he hauled a cart of plump juicy red, green and golden apples to the silo. His hoof waving at her happily as he hauled. "Hey AJ? you ok sis?" he called up to her from the ground "y'all aint looking too good this mornin." he said up to her trotting off.
Applejack trotted into her bathroom and looked into her mirror; that nightmare did a number on her. Her mane was bedraggled and frizzy; sticking her tongue out revealed it to be dry and her breath was quite unpleasant as it fogged up the mirror, Applejack's eyes where puffy a bit, and red with unsightly bags formed just under them. "Uhhhh Celestia I'm a mess!" She grumbled to herself and began rummaging for something to hopefully get rid of her "unsightly condition." In her rush; she didn't notice that on her left cutie mark, the apples had tiny pinpricks in the fur that made them up, and this pin pricks slowly leaked small streams of blood from the tiny cuts, blood that didn't seem to want to dry up and from wounds that didn't seem to want to close up.
After her little..."experience," Applejack thought she'd be better off selling apples in town at the market as opposed to bucking them that day. "Probably why I had the bad dream in the first place Apple bloom." She said to her little sister as they made their way to the marketplace, hitched to appropriate sized carts of red and golden delicious apples. "I've been working a bit too hard and I just need to take easy, but we still got a business to uphold so what better way to combine both than with a market day right?" Even as she said this to Applebloom; the younger sibling couldn't help but notice how..."exhausted" Applejack looked.
While most of the sleeplessness she had when she woke up had gone down the bathroom sink; she still had a tinge of redness to her eyes, the bags where still (albeit less so) noticeable, her mane, while somewhat restored still had the air of being unmanageable, and every few paces down the road she kept on letting out long drawn yawns. "AJ, I'm really worried about you."
"Aww pony feathers! I'm not lettin one little nightscare get in the way of mah duty so keep your trap shut about it!" She snapped at her and almost immediately regretted doing so. as She gave her sister her saddest eyes and asked.
"Why did you have to be so mean about it, I"m only tryin to help." she said a tear in her eye.
"Oh I'm sorry applebloom, I guess maybe ah do need a day off if the sleeplessness is making me snap at you, but let's just say mah dream made me really consider the the good of the farm...you understand?" She asked bringing the little filly in for a hug to comfort her and make up for the yelling.
"I guess so," She said setting up her smaller cart into a stand to sell from. "Just take care of yourself ok?"
"I know sis, and I will I promise." as the day went by, Applejack began to notice how it seemed like a lot of Ponyville didn't look up to the day from a bad night. Ball-bearing left Colgate's dental office clutching an ice bag to his swollen jaw. Applejack caught some of their conversation on the matter.
"I said sorry BB, I thought I had given you novocaine before I started your root canal." She said yawing hard and shaking her head to concentrate.
"Yeah well Ya sure id good a ob with the rill to realize ya bucked it up." the construction pony said with with a lisp of his swollen cheeks. Aww doesn't matter anyway, I'm gonna call off a ob we had planned today anyway, I'm too tired for this today. he finished and stormed off in a huff only briefly stopping by Applejack's stand for a moment. "you got any applesauce Ms?" he asked before grabbing his cheek and howling a bit in pain.
"Sorry just apples today sir." She said with a compassionate understanding, almost as if she knew why this had happened.
"Uhhh, I had the most awful dream last night, A dreamt a gust of wind blew me off the girders of my site, and I landed on a bunch of rebars, and just to add insult to injury, the cement mixer dumped on me as I was...well...you know." he said running a hoof over his throat. "took it as a warning not to go into work today...a not very subtle hint to not work today."
"Really?" Applejack asked...but he had already left. The first pony to buy from her a few hours later was Lyra, although like her she looked a bit under the weather. her mane unkempt; her eyes puffy, and she even twitched at the slightest breeze. "Lyra? are you feeling ok?"
"AHH NO! GET AWAY FROM ME VILE THINGS!" She screamed at the top of her voice almost in a trance. "Oh, I'm sorry, I..."
"Had a terrible dream last night?" Applejack finished for the minty green mare.
"Yes, how in Celestia's name did you know?" She asked with a tilt of her head and an inquisitive flick of her tail.
"Isn't it obvious?...look at me Ly" Applejack replied wiping some of the cover up of her face to reveal the tiredness underneath.
"Well buck me running, you two?" She asked getting a simple nod as a reply. "Oh goddess alive; I had this terrible dream that these strange white things like a couple of eyeless crabs in this empty black void wrapped themselves around my neck and no matter how hard I screamed no sound came out. Horrible things they were, I hope I never see them again as long as I live." She finished with a cold shudder.
"Lyra? just before you woke up; did a voice happen to say "You lose, now Fear takes you?"
"There was a voice, only it said, "and at the end of fear...the void." like this creepy distorted voice that I also never want to hear in my life." The green mare shuddered again and trotted off in a huff. All day ponies went by her stand and while not all of them were open to sharing their dreams, the ones that did, told of them all meeting some terrible fate. Either seeing horrible ways to go, or the livelihoods of their talents going to ruin. Like when Cheerilee spoke of every single one of her student's failing so badly, not only her but also themselves; every test score was a solid F but they didn't even seem to notice because they all appeared illiterate and brain dead.
"No offense Applebloom; I'm sorry, I don't think any less of you ponies no matter what some dream says."
"None taken Ms. Cheerilee. none at all." Applebloom said giving her teacher a comforting little hug.
"Applebloom, I think Princess Luna's due for a little questioning when the day is through." Applejack said with a stern adjustment of her hat and a hearty cow mare spit on the ground. "Run along and play little sis, I can handle the stand on mah own." She said ruffling her sister's mane as she went off to find the rest of the CMC.
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A quick laugh at their expense, followed by Karma.
The tree branch gave a slight quiver, but thankfully didn't break. Danny Keith stood perched on The branch of a large oak; his eye peering through the lense of a golden telescope, the scope itself had a special "inner eye" enchantment. Meaning its vision could span across vast horizons and grant the observer a view of almost anything going on in Equestria; in addition it also allowed him to "hear" any conversations the telescope picked up, in a sense the boy was watching a rather delightful TV show about these pastel ponies.
"heheh who in their right mind would want to watch a show like that if you ask me." The sinister sandman said under his breath as he adjusted the lenses and got a nice view of a grey mare with a frizzy and unkempt mane. (no doubt due to a bad dream) The mare held a Cello in her hocks and hoof and was desperately trying to strum the tune "those endearing young charms." the telescope allowing him to hear her frantic cries of dismay.
"Get it right! Practice gotta practice! or mother will tan my hide!" As she strummed and plucked the strings only to constantly botch the melody. surprisingly Danny couldn't help but be find the situation oddly familiar ; unlike that instance however the boy wasn't cruel or sadistic to where he rigged the cello to explode, after all how do you rig strings to a bomb inconspicuously? the mare finally got the tune she wanted as she ran the bow over the cello strings "Ah wait I think I got it! yes!" she cried happily, but just as the notes reached their pinnacle (much like in that old cartoon the situation had an uncanny resemblance to) the bowstring snapped and hit hit her square in the face; and the strings on her cell snapped playing the final few chords, ding do ding da ding.
As difficult as it may be to believe given how the portrait of the little Daniel Keith is, you must understand that he was and isn't an unrepentantly evil little child. He wasn't directly dream-walking into the nightmares he was giving the ponies; so he had no idea just how frightening they could be, for all he knew they were your run of the mill nightmares, the kind you get where you're forced to make your way home naked without any understanding how you got away from home nude in the first place, or that your teeth kept falling out of your mouth and you had no idea why, either out of feeling helpless and hopeless, or you really needed to change your dental hygiene habits.
If anything he saw all this as some kind of "game," with rules and ways to play it with the ponies. Thier rules were simple, and if he ever broke the rules, he would feel a lot of guilt and remorse over it. Danny had a mixed morality of his own; first and foremost was that no matter what happens, he refused to be a killer. Another one of his own personal mantras in this "dark, little game," was to not hurt others to a point so bad it makes them suffer, that included straight up torturing somepony else or continuing to attack the other "players" if they ask him to stop. it was a very strange and somewhat conflicting code of morals the boy followed; but at least he had them.
"Ok enough admiration of my own handiwork, time to get baAAAAAACCK!" He let out a loud yell as the branch he was on snapped and Danny found himself plunging at least twenty feet to the ground, although the tree itself was the average oak height of eighty two feet, Danny had the foresight not to climb that high for good reason. Branches smacking him as he fell, fall just barely broken by the grass. In spite of the princesses granting him an exponentially long life; they didn't take away every limitation from him, the one he would have gladly had taken away was the one coursing through his body then and there, pain. The pain had shot through most of his body; his arms and chest where aching and it hurt to breathe, his head was pounding and he could practically feel the blood rushing through his ears. He slowly put his legs to the ground and prepared for the worst...sore, not even fractured.
"Uhh lucky me." He said while digging around in his shoulder bag to make sure his supplies and "friends" where there. "Hmmmm; Naruto toy, Rocket Raccoon plush, drawing of Mr. fox," (remember it brings drawing to life too) "everything seems to be in ordeeer!" He screeched as he drew his hand back after taking another injury. He carefully reached back in and drew out his trusty Bowie knife, the one that caused the trouble. This knife was very different than the one it had originally been meant to be., for it had been robbed of its ability to cleave and draw blood. Keeping in with his promise to be as "less lethal" in his approach as possible; but not one to shy away from a good blade, Danny had placed special enchantments on all the edged weapons he'd found in those ruins of his home back in the white space.
These enchantments made it so that the blades of these weapons; whenever they pass through living flesh, they don't "cut" you in a traditional sense, but rather they pass through you and do a different kind of damage. say you're a pony and the sinister looking bowie just "sliced" you in the left fore haunch shoulder; you don't bleed and none of your tissue has been severed, but for some reason you can't seem to move that limb at all! It's locked up and frozen; paralyzed, and the same can happen to your other limbs, or if the blade goes through your lungs the wind gets knocked out of you, but that blade can be stabbed right through your pony heart and it will never be able to outright "kill" you. Well not outright, but there is one way it can still kill. IF HE ever say went that far; the blades used by Danny Keith could only cause temporary paralysis when they go through something, but what if a blade was stabbed in somepony and he just up and left it in there?
Well their whole body would be in a state of permanent total paralysis; as long as it's left in a vital organ like their hearts, the poor Equestrian is left unable to limb aimlessly back to town, or even move their hoof to pull it out. Here's the kicker; your systems aren't frozen in stasis; just your limbs are, while you lay there helpless on the ground, exposed to the elements, the wild animals, the thirst and hunger of your body burning off energy while you lay there. You can pretty much see where I'm going with this, and why it wouldn't be a pretty sight. If the boy ever WANTED to go that far I mean.
.
He put the tattered brown hat back on his head; adjusted the bag over his shoulder and checked to make sure nothing was broken. "OWWW! Still very sore and hurts to walk, but I guess that's just it, I'll have to walk it all off." Danny was so preoccupied with assessing the situation, that he didn't notice a red rubber ball bouncing and squeaking toward him. When he did, he picked it up and examined it it curiously. someone had to have throw it this way but who'd?...
"Hey mister?" A soft, little girlish voice asked the older boy from behind. "Can I get mah ball back please?" He turned and looked to see a tiny little filly, with a cream colored coat and apple red hair. She had her mane playfully held up with a red ribbon, the boy would have found it almost...cute...if he wasn't a boy.
"You mean this thing?" He asked the tiny creature before him, holding it out to her with a pleased smile on his face, hoping with everything that she couldn't see through his disguise hopefully pass of as a scarecrow, maybe.
"Yeah, that's mine and I'd like it back if you'd be so kind." She said glaring at him almost, suspiciously.
"Of course of course, how could I be so rude, you can have your toy back little girl." He said in an almost mockingly so, sickly sweet demeanor. As he casually tossed it back to the little redheaded filly with a chuckle.
"Hey mister?" she asked bouncing her ball of her flanks playfully, her attitude having been softened by getting her toy back. "I've been meaning to ask."
"Yes?" Danny replied reaching into his bag, his fingers almost, on their own accord wrapping around the long smooth plastic of the syringe tube. 'What? Why am I reaching for this? I swore not to...' He said internally.
"What in blue blazes are ya'll supposed to be mister? Don't look like any pony I've ever seen." She said eyeing the strange creature up inquisitively. The boy felt his face sweat a bit as he struggled with his hand inside the bag, trying to get it to put the syringe of goblin fear poison down but he couldn't help but feel a deep growing urge to take it and plunge it right at the tiny; helpless, little filly in front of him. Just to shut her up and giver her something to really be afraid off.
"Why I'm, a scarecrow missy. A perky chipper scarecrow given life by miss Twilight's magic." He said gritting his teeth suppressing the urge to gag on the bile burning a hole in his throat.
"Hey that's Princess Twilight to you Mr. Scarecrow, mah big sister said she's a big tough Allicorn now."
"Did she now?" He asked gasping a bit as he curled his finger up hard around something in his bag.
"Yeah....hey are you ok mister?" Applebloom asked noticing how the strange thing (that she KNEW was no scarecrow) was doubled over holding his tummy like he had eaten one too many bad apples. He let out soft gasps as he drew his hand from the bag around his shoulder.
"Come here Miss?..." He paused snapping his fingers trying to recall if he knew her name.
"Applebloom." She replied still on her guard.
"Applebloom, I'm got a little something for such a sweet little filly like you." He said his hand now out fully and his composure somewhat restored.
"Sorry Mister, but mah Granny Smith always said not take things from strangers." She said about to turn on her hooves and walk away.
"Very wise of your Gram Gram Applebloom Very wise." A very vaguely familiar memory seemed to be speaking on the boy's behalf now. "You are little Applebloom, and I am Danny the dancing scarecrow." He said doing a little jig for the little filly, which honestly made the little one laugh in amusement. "Now that we know each other, will you accept what I have for you?" He said twirling his fingers of his free hand over the closed one, the filly almost didn't notice him doing so.
"Well...I...I guess so, I mean I guess It couldn't hurt...."
He opened his palm softly revealing a little folded origami swan, one of the most difficult and intricate sculptures in origami to master. "For you little filly." he said holding it out for her to take, "but this isn't all." He said with a little chuckle as he waved his other hand over the sculpture, making the head turn a bit and the wings softly flap as the tiny paper bird took off and landed softly on the little filly's nose, making her giggle and laugh happily.
"Wow thank you mister. you mean ah can keep this nifty thing all myself?" she asked chasing the little fluttry paper around like that time she once tried looking if she had a cutie mark there.
"Sure, it's all yours Applebloom....I guess I better be going then." He said adjusting his coat and hat before walking away.
"Wait!.....ummm don't you wanna stay and play some more? Maybe get some lunch with me?" The little red maned filly asked sofly giving her big sad puppy eye to the slightly older boy.
"I can't" Was all he could say.
"Why not?" She asked right back nudging his side like a cat begging to be scratched or petted.
"I...I don't think your sister would want me hanging around here much." He said frowning a bit,
"Now what makes you say that?" She asked as they both heard the sound of hooves clattering loudly as Applejack herself galloped over to them, a lot of anger blazing her gaze, directed to the boy near her sister.
"Stop! Applebloom! Get away from him!" She shouted and reared up on her back hooves while flailing her fore hooves at him meaningly snorting and growling for him to back off.
"Sis? what are you?" The little filly asked confused.
"Get behind me Applebloom, that little varmints nothin but trouble, I know what you did to everypony in town and their sleep you little....bastard!" Applejack shouted the word with every intent on making it hurt him as much or even more so than just a good bucking kick from her hooves. and it worked, her words cut like a knife to the kid's heart. even though he'd lived a far longer life than most living beings be they human or pony, such an insult still had a devastating effect hearing it aimed at him with such fiery desire to make it sting.
"I hate you!" He yelled at her and took off into the trees again, Applejack stomped her hoof angrily and was just about to chase after him, but she was stopped by her sister holding her back.
"Applebloom! What the buck do you think you're doing!?" She asked struggling to break free.
"He was my new friend AJ, why'd you have to be so mean to him?" She asked crying a bit.
"Friend?! Applebloom that boy is nothing but a good fer nuttin little hell-raiser, look at what he did to me!" She turned to her side and showed the little filly her cutie marks; the apples on them still had the deep puncture wounds where his needle of goblin fear/nightmare poison had been injected into her. "I don't Ya'll to go anywhere near that boy, do you understand me Applebloom?!" She yelled her nose inches from her sisters almost..angrily.
"Okay sis," The little filly said softly about to cry with confusion over how to feel. "I understand."
