Life is an Illusion

Why are you here? I thought I told you to leave me alone!

Oh, you want to know who I am. Why am I here? Where do I live? How did I become the way I am? What am I? When did I get involved with the Bakers?

Well... Since I have nowhere else to go. I might as well tell you. I will not expect you to sympathize with me, laugh at me or even call me a monster for what I'm about to tell you.

My name is Apple Snow. Yes, I'm part of the Apple Family... Well, I used to be. It's a little complicated. My so-called friends call me Snow or Snowie. It's ironic, because I was born without the sense of eyesight. That's right, I'm blind. Like the young Pegasus filly Snowdrop of winter legends. And I was born in the summer. I know, because I remember the summer heat.

I've been here since the time I learned to control my own actions and talk. This hellhole of an asylum. Those careless... Imbecilic... Incompetent... Apathic... Doctors... They call me crazy, but who is really crazy? There's no such thing as sane or normal in Equestria and beyond.

I was born part of the immediate Apple Family. My mother was Applejack's father's sister, so that makes me Big McIntosh, Applejack and Apple Bloom's paternal first cousin. I remember my mother's name was Honey Crisp. I never knew my father, because he vanished before I was conceived.

My mother died a few weeks after I was born, so I never got to her either. Just her name. My grandmother, Granny Smith, took care of me since then.

However, most of my family blamed me for my mother's death. Even Big McIntosh, who was there when she died. It also doesn't help that I even look like a freak.

From what the doctors and my family told me, I am an Earth Pony, but I was born with traits that makes me look like a demon, or a mutant. My fur coat is a snowy white. My hooves and nails are black. My mane is a charcoal grey color. And my eyes are a pale green color with pale grey pupils, to indicate my blindness. I have dark rings around my eyes, because I have trouble sleeping. Or I cry myself to sleep every night. Either one works. Nopony cares anyway.

Like my cousins, Apple Bloom and Babs Seed, I'm a Blank Flank. Can't say I'm suprised. Being in an asylum all my life, how am I supposed to the discover my talent or destiny? It's just hopeless.

My freakish traits make me think my father was a Unicorn or a Kirin (Dragon-Pony hybrid). My tail is thick, prehensile and leonine. My hooves are cloven. My mane ran down my spine to the tip of my tail for the tuff. My fangs were smaller compared to the average Earth Pony's, but larger than a Unicorns.

It's not just my appearance that sent me to the asylum. It's my mental sanity. I was born with unique abilities compared to an Earth Pony.

As far as I can remember, I have been hearing voices. Voices of the dead and voices of events that were going to happen within the next day to the next week. My inherent Earth Pony magic has evolved that I'm able to feel vibrations in the earth, through my hooves. With this sensitivity, I'm also able to sense the emotions and hear the most deepest thoughts of other Ponies. Like a blind empath if you will.

This is what sent me to the asylum when I turned 4 years old.

That's who and what I am. My name is Apple Snow and I am a freak!

As for how I became so cold and lonely? Ask my family. Or better yet, ask all of Ponyville. They'll tell you why I prefer to be alone. I can't explain it myself, because I don't truthfully know and I sincerely don't care anymore.

How I get involved with the infamous Bakers of SugarCube Corner? That's a story.

It turned out my number came up. Pinkamena Pie visited me in the asylum, claiming she was a close friend of mine. We are friends, but that's only because during the return of Nightmare Moon, I turned out to be the Spirit Representation of a long-lost Element of Harmony; Wisdom.

She gave me a special gift which was a cupcake. Turns out the cupcake was drugged with a sleeping drug. When I woke up, I was no longer in my asylum cell, but inside a cold cellar which I recognised as the basement of SugarCube Corner. I remember the smell of baking ovens and damp concrete. Pinkie revealed herself and told me what plans she had for me; Making pastries out of my organs and muscles.

Ditzy and my cousin Apple Bloom were with her. What surprised them was that I wasn't begging for my life. If there was a way Pinkie could kill me, she should do it. I don't care about my life anymore. No one cares about me. I bet nopony knows I'm not in the asylum. I'm nopony.

Pinkie somehow admired that about me. She said the moment she looked at me, she saw something different about me. Something familiar, yet also unique.

She decided to let me go and asked me if I had any special talents. I told her, apart from my abilities of premonition, empathic hearing and vibration sensitivity, I have a nack for making special teas and drinks. One time, in the asylum, a schizophrenic inmate was bullying me about my fur and blindness. I can still remember his insults and nicknames. 'Circus Freak'. 'Snow Blind'.

I couldn't take it anymore. He deserved to die. So I gave him a special orange juice as a peace offering. What he didn't know was that I poisoned the juice with a certain undetectable root; Jarin Root.

Jarin Root is a very rare and poisonous root of an otherwise rare and harmless plant. It disolves quickly in any liquid, and has no detectable taste of smell. How does it kill? It starts by disolving the stomach lining, then works its way with eating away at the blood cells and muscle tissue. The victim dies in depending how strong they are against the root. Some by food poisoning. Some by stroke. Some by cardiac arrest. Most just drop dead.

He drank the juice, continued to bully me, then started feeling unwell. He died the next morning. The doctors reported his death as a stroke, but I knew better. I've never felt more at peace or happy.

I can make harmless drinks as well. There was this nice doctor that treated the inmates with kindness and empathy. She didn't stay long, because she was moving up to better asylums. Arkhoof Asylum I think. As a farewell gift, I gave her a recepie for her favorite cinnamon cider tea. I swear she had a crush on me, because she used to tell me I had the most softest and beautiful hands.

Ditzy and Apple Bloom loved my story and begged Pinkie to let me live. Pinkie agreed on two conditions; She wanted me to join her family of insane bakers that turn Ponies into delicious pastries, and not to tell a soul of this.

I agreed without hesitation. Besides nopony will belive me if I told them. I've been in the asylum since I was 4 years old. Everypony thinks I'm either insane in the membrane or like Screw Loose, not in my right state of mind.

So, there you have it. That's who I am and how I became a member of the Bakers Family. And I can't wait to see who I get to make into pastries, when it's my turn. If there's one sane about me, it's that I love insanity and what it does to Ponies.

After all... Life maybe a party, but it's also an illusion.