Author's Note
My mood was all over the place while writing this and I think it shows. It's not amazing, but I'm not going to ignore that it exists. Enjoy.
First and Final Contact
Winter wrap-up was finished, and now the sun was shining on a balmy spring day where dandelion fluff sailed lazily through the air. They spun in whorls and spirals as the wind wheeled through Sweet Apple Acres. They spun past Applebloom and Applejack as they were working, ruffling their manes and tickling Applebloom’s nose.
“Ahh… ahhh...! Achoo!” Applebloom sneezed.
“Gesundheit,” Applejack said.
Applebloom sniffed. “Thanks, Applejack.”
They were cleaning up around the base of the trees, walking through the orchard to check each one and make sure none of them were sick or too damaged from the winter months. Those that needed some tender loving care were tended to, and any that were too sick or damaged were marked for removal. It didn’t happen often that a tree reached that point on Sweet Apple Acres, but a single sick tree could spread to others, and they were ready to take those measures. They were nothing if not good apple farmers.
Applejack scraped at the base of a tree with a hoof, checking the roots just under the soil. The roots were black, and the bark had white flakes on it. Clear signs of applerot. She took a knife and scraped a big X into it, then patted the tree with a hoof.
“Sorry, old pal. You’ve been here a while, but I’m afraid you gotta go,” Applejack said.
Applebloom bent down to look at the roots. “So, this is applerot then? How’d it get it?”
Applejack lifted her hat and scratched at her mane with the handle of the knife. “Oh, it could have been anything. Maybe some insect had it when passing through. Maybe some spores got to it last year or some droppings. It’s why we check every year, just to catch it in the early stages and remove it.”
“It can’t be cured?”
“It can be. But that would take a lot of money, a lot of time, and there’s no guarantee it would work. It’s only a chance. Poor old Bentley here hasn’t been putting out as many apples lately, anyway.” Applejack patted the trunk of the marked tree. “It’s just his time.”
Applebloom’s eyes got watery and Applejack noticed. She leaned down and picked up her younger sister and put her on her back. “Now don’t you fret none. That’s just how things go. You live as well as you can, then you just start winding down, then your time comes. Death happens to us all.”
“Even Granny Smith?”
“Hah! Even Granny Smith. But don’t worry. Granny’s been going strong for years now, and I think she’s still got quite a few left in ‘er. It’d take quite something to put her out to pasture.”
Applebloom was silent as she rode Applejack’s back all the way to the farmhouse. Granny was waiting for them with a hearty lunch, and they ate with gusto. Despite Applejack’s reassurance, though, Applebloom found herself looking around the table at her family.
Big Macintosh was robust and healthy. He was strong, bright-eyed, and animated around those he felt comfortable with. He’d recently gotten a special somepony, and that just made him seem more alive than ever. Applejack was the same, though she didn’t yet have a special somepony. She was young and vibrant, and ready to help around the farm with anything that needed doing. Even Granny Smith, despite her age, was as active as Applebloom had ever remembered her.
But Granny and Applebloom’s siblings occupied generations that were separated from each other. Bright Mac and Pear Butter, their parents, should have been there at the table with them, but they were conspicuously absent, and always had been for the entirety of Applebloom’s life.
Later on, as the sun went down outside, it was time to prepare the house for some spring cleaning. Lamps were lit about the place as they moved furniture and boxes about, preparing them for tomorrow when Granny would look through them for anything they could use, and things that needed to be disposed of.
“We’ve had these boxes about for far too long! I don’t even remember what’s in that attic anymore, and that’s just too much! It’s high time we got ridda some o’ these things! I need room to put new boxes in there!” Granny said.
Applebloom was helping Applejack open some of them to check inside. They were to find any of them that had clothes and bring those down for Granny to go through. Granny was too old to wear many of them, and Applejack hadn’t expressed an interest in dressing up at all, so any that were in good condition could be sold or given away to anypony that might want them.
Though as Applebloom opened one up to find a huge, frilly dress with puffy sleeves, she wondered who in their right mind would wear something like that.
“Yuck. What is this?” Applebloom said.
“It’s a dress, ah think. Was probably all the rage when granny was younger.” Applejack looked it over with a bemused look on her face. “Much younger.”
“Well, this box is going downstairs.” Applebloom stuffed the dress back in the box, but stopped when she heard something rattle inside the box.
She dug deeper through the yards of strange clothing until she came upon an unadorned box. She pulled it out and lifted off the top to find a strange board covered with all the letters of the alphabet, numbers from one to zero, and a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ written in the upper corners.
“Applejack, what’s this?” Applebloom asked.
Applejack turned to have a look at what Applebloom had pulled out. She screwed up her face in confusion. “Well I don’t rightly know.” She took the board out of the box to look at it, and a smaller piece with a circle of glass in the middle fell out of the box with a *clunk*. “I ain’t never seen nothin’ like this before.” She looked at the clothes in the box. “I don’t know who these even belonged to. Maybe we ended up with somepony else’s things somehow. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Applebloom picked up the thing on the floor and looked through the glass at Applejack. It made her head look bigger, and she giggled. “Can I have it, then?”
“Be my guest, Applebloom. I don’t know what you’d do with it.”
“I’m sure me and the crusaders can come up with something. It’s neat.”
“Well, I hope y’do. Enjoy it.”
They finished the housecleaning with some daylight to spare, and Applebloom took that opportunity to take her new acquisition out to the clubhouse. She found a neat corner for it and laid out the board, then lifted the magnifier to her eye to look at it.
It didn’t really work that way, so she brought it closer to the board. That seemed a bit better, but it still felt awkward. With no instructions on the box or the board on how it was meant to be used, she was at a bit of a loss, but the whole thing was well-made. The board was solid wood and the letters were carved or burned into it, and the glass in the magnifier was clean and polished. Even if it had no good use, it at least looked pretty. She was happy to have it, if for no other reason than that.
The next day, all three of the crusaders were at the clubhouse and Applebloom was showing off her new toy. Scootaloo tried to do the same thing with the magnifier as Applebloom, but Sweetie Belle was a bit more cautious.
“I think Rarity said she used one of these once when she was in school. She said it was used to talk to ghosts,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Ghosts? How would you talk to ghosts with this?” Scootaloo held the glass up to her eye and turned to look at Sweetie Belle. Her eye looked stretched out for Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle took the glass from Scootaloo’s hooves with her magic and placed it on the board, then slid it around. “Rarity said that ghosts can’t talk, but they can move things, so they move the glass on the board to spell out words or numbers and answer yes or no questions.”
“Huh. You can talk to dead ponies with it?” Applebloom asked.
“That’s what Rarity said. She said she had a sleepover with her friends and one of them brought one of these boards, then they all sat around with their hooves on it, and asked some questions. She said the ghost tried to tell her she wouldn’t end up with the colt she liked, so they stopped,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Sounds like Rarity,” Scootaloo said.
“Well that’s not useful at all! What kind of question is that? If you can talk to dead ponies, why not ask more meaningful questions, like what there is after death?” Applebloom said.
“Applebloom, it’s just a game. You can’t actually talk to dead ponies.” Sweetie Belle put her hooves on the magnifier and slid it around. “You all put your hooves on the magnifier so that one of the ponies will move it, but nopony knows who’s doing it. Rarity said she was sure it was ‘that bitch, Cinnamon Toasty’ doing it.”
“Oh…” Applebloom’s face fell.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shared a glance.
“Don’t think too much about it, Applebloom. It’s still a really pretty board, and I’m sure we can come up with something we can use it for,” Scootaloo said.
“Yeah! Like helping foals with their reading and writing!” Sweetie Belle said. “But we said we’d go watch Tender Taps at his performance, and you know he doesn’t want you to miss that.” Sweetie Belle winked.
“Just what are y’all insinuatin’?” Applebloom narrowed her eyes.
“Nothing!” Scootaloo said quickly. Then she pushed Applebloom on her way out the door.
“No, really, what are y’all imaginin’ is going on there?” Applebloom said.
“Nothing at all!” Sweetie Belle said as they walked down the ramp of the clubhouse.
None of them saw, as they made their way down the road, was the board, now alone in the clubhouse with the magnifier on it, sliding back and forth across the letters: S…H…E…O…L.
When Applebloom returned, it was alone. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had gone home because it was getting late, and that meant Applebloom got to clean up the headquarters herself. It was convenient for her because she lived there, but sometimes it would have been nice to have a little help, despite it being so out of the way for the other two.
She was in the middle of sweeping when she heard a scraping sound that was out of time with her broom strokes. She stopped and listened, but she couldn’t hear anything. She started sweeping again, and then she heard a scraping sound off-beat with her broom-stroke. She stopped, and there was nothing.
“Hello?” She said. But there was no response.
She stopped sweeping and went to pick up some of the papers strewn about and organize them, then heard a rustling sound in the middle of her organizing the papers.
She turned around in a circle with a huff. “Okay, who’s there? If’n you wanna hide in the clubhouse, you could at least help me clean up first.”
The rustling continued, but there didn’t appear to be anypony in the clubhouse but herself. There weren’t very many hiding places, so she checked them all. There was nopony behind the little lectern they had, nor anypony hiding on or under the table. Applebloom followed the sound, her ears twisting as she zeroed in on the source of the noise. She approached the corner where she had put the board, and was a little bit frightened to see that the magnifier on it was moving back and forth by itself.
“Sweetie Belle, are you doin’ this to mess with me?” Applebloom called out.
Nopony answered her.
She left it sliding back and forth and made a quick sweep of the outside of the clubhouse. She couldn’t find anypony anywhere, and although she was fast and kept her ears open, she didn’t see or hear mane nor tail of either Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle. She returned to the board to look at it as it moved.
It was unsettling that it was moving by itself, but she’d seen unicorns use telekinesis all the time. Sweetie Belle was getting better and better at magic every day, but the magnifier didn’t have the telltale glow of magic on it, showing everypony that a unicorn was manipulating the object. She’d just assumed it was Sweetie Belle because she had been the one to talk about it.
Applebloom reached out a hoof and grabbed the magnifier. It didn’t resist, and it didn’t feel like there was any sort of tugging on it. No resistance was made against her hoof at all. She pulled her hoof off it, and it started sliding again.
“Weird.” She put her hoof on it to stop it again, then removed it, then stopped it, then removed it. “Can you really talk to ghosts, then?” She asked it. To her surprise and alarm, it slid over to the ‘yes’ on the board and stopped there.
Applebloom hurriedly picked it up off the board and put it next to it. It didn’t move. She turned away and walked briskly to the door. She stopped and glanced back to see if it was moving again, but seeing it right where she left it, she nodded to herself and went back inside for dinner.
At the dinner table, Applebloom was suspiciously somber. Granny was the first to notice.
“You ain’t said a word all supper, Applebloom. What’s botherin’ ye?” Granny asked.
“I’m just a little preoccupied with… with crusader stuff,” Applebloom said.
“Well you don’t gotta shoulder it all alone. That’s what family is for,” Applejack said.
“Eeeyup!” Big Macintosh interjected.
Applebloom looked around at all of them. They were all smiles and pep and were genuinely curious about her day, but all she could really think about was what Sweetie Belle had said about the board, and how the board had behaved. She did want to ask them one question about it, though, to find out if it was true or not.
“Is it possible to talk to dead ponies?” Applebloom asked.
Granny coughed. “Uwuuuuh?”
Big Macintosh made a face.
“Now that’s quite a question,” Applejack said. “What brought this on?”
“Sweetie Belle said the board I found was used to talk to dead ponies. But she says it’s just a game used to scare ponies. If it is just a game, is there any other way to talk to dead ponies?” Applebloom said.
“Oh, Applebloom. I know what this is about, and I miss ‘em too, but you shouldn’t talk to dead ponies. I don’t know enough about magic to say there isn’t some spell that allows you to, but no matter what, they’re dead. It’s best to let ‘em rest,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, I guess so.” Applebloom picked at her meal.
Applejack put down her utensils and walked around the table to give her a hug. “You never knew ‘em, and I’m sorry, but you have us. You’re allowed to be sad, but don’t let that sadness stop you from livin’. They wouldn’t have wanted that.”
Applebloom sniffled a little, but she held the tears back. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Aw, y’ain’t got nothing to apologize for. Cry if you gotta, but keep going, promise?”
“I promise, Applejack.”
“Now finish eatin’ and get some rest. You’ll feel better in the mornin’.”
Applebloom ate her supper then retired to her room. She lay in bed staring at the ceiling for an unknown amount of time, and when she woke up, she was still staring at the same portion of the ceiling. She lay there, thinking about nothing at all until she heard Granny Smith call up from downstairs that breakfast was ready.
Applejack bumped into her in the hallway. “Woah there, Applebloom. Are you feelin’ alright?”
Applebloom nodded, but didn’t say anything else.
Breakfast was a silent affair. Applebloom was too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny exchange looks at her and then each other, and when she left the table she heard them begin to chatter behind her back.
She went out to the clubhouse and stared at the little board with the magnifier next to it.
It made her both a little sad and a little angry that the device was a fake. Applejack and Big Mac had both been able to see and talk to their parents, but Applebloom had never had that. Applejack and Big Mac were good surrogate parents for the most part, but it wasn’t quite the same, and she was jealous of them for that.
Then, here comes this thing that promised her she could talk to her mother, and it was just a toy. It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, but it did. It didn’t feel quite fair.
“Applebloom?”
It was Sweetie Belle.
“Are you okay?”
That was Scootaloo.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“I think you’re lying to us,” Sweetie Belle said.
“No, I’m doing just fine,” Applebloom insisted.
“And I’m saying no, you’re not. You know how I know? You didn’t put your bow in your mane this morning,” Sweetie Belle said.
Applebloom lifted a hoof up to her mane and patted it. Sweetie Belle was right. Her bow was not in her mane like it almost always was. It was on her bedside table where she kept it every night. She’d completely forgotten to put it in, which was probably why everypony was staring at her funny during breakfast.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Scootaloo came up and sat next to Applebloom, and they stared at the board in the corner together.
“Not really, but yeah, I guess so.”
Sweetie Belle put a hoof around Applebloom’s shoulders and hugged her close. “So, want to tell us why your forgot your bow and you’re staring at that board?” Sweetie Belle shook Applebloom lightly. “Oh, yeah! It’s called a wee-juh board! I asked Rarity about it last night.”
“Wee-juh board? That’s a stupid name,” Scootaloo said.
“I’m not the pony who named it,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I know, I’m just saying. But anyway, Applebloom. What’s got you so down this morning?”
Applebloom had almost started smiling at her friend’s antics, but when the attention came back to her, she frowned again. She sighed: “I was thinking about my parents.”
“Ohhhh,” the other two fillies said in unison.
“Applejack and Big Macintosh got to see them and talk to them before they disappeared, but I never got to. When you brought up that this board could let ponies talk to the dead, I thought maybe I could see or at least talk to my mom. But it’s just a stupid toy.” Applebloom kicked the Ouija board with a hoof.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged glances, then Sweetie Belle turned to Applebloom and patted her on the back. “Would it make you feel better if we tried anyway?”
Applebloom snorted. “Why? It’s a toy. It can’t actually communicate with the dead.”
“Maybe not, but it would give you a little peace of mind about it. Isn’t feeling like it wouldn’t work what made you upset to begin with?”
“I guess so.”
“Soooo, how do you know it doesn’t work?”
That made Applebloom remember the curious behavior it was showing last night, with the magnifier skimming back and forth across the board. It could just be some residual unicorn magic built into the toy to make it work like that and scare ponies, but it might at least be fun.
“It was… doing some funny stuff last night, yeah. Maybe we could.”
“Great! We have to do it at night, though,” Sweetie Belle said.
“W-wait! Why do we have to do it at night?” Scootaloo asked.
“Because it’s not as scary in daylight.”
“Wait, why is this supposed to be scary?”
“Scootaloo, we’re trying to talk to ghosts. Of course it’s supposed to be scary.”
“But… does it need to be? Why can’t we just use it now!” Scootaloo grabbed the magnifier and slid it quickly around the board. “A-p-p-l-e-b-l-o-o-m! There! That was a ghost message trying to talk to you! Neat, right? Hah…hah.” Scootaloo swallowed.
Sweetie Belle pulled Scootaloo aside. “Come on Scootaloo. We’re doing this for Applebloom. We all know it’s just a toy, but it’s just to make her feel better, okay? Please?”
Scootaloo gulped audibly, but nodded to Sweetie Belle.
“Great! We have business to take care of, but we’ll all meet here after work, okay? I’ll bring sleeping bags and pillows!” Sweetie Belle said.
“I’ll b-bring flashlights and lanterns. Lots of them,” Scootaloo said.
“I’ll bring snacks, I guess,” Applebloom said.
“Thanks, Applebloom. Oh, could you get Granny to make some of those delicious Apple turnovers?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Applebloom actually cracked a smile and nodded. Getting to spend a night with her friends was going to be fun, she just knew it. It was nice that they were so interested in making sure she was doing well. “Yeah, I can do that. She’s been teaching me how to make ‘em, so you might get some of my turnovers instead!”
“As long as you don’t burn them like you did with that pumpkin pie last fall. I can still smell the burnt pumpkin.” Scootaloo waved a hoof in front of her face and stuck out her tongue.
“Oh, come on, Scoots, you can not! It’s almost been a year!”
“The pie tin was melted, Applebloom! How do you melt a pie tin? It was almost impossible to tell where the tin ended and the burnt pie began!”
“I was learnin’!”
“Learning how to be a blacksmith!”
Sweetie shrieked in laughter as Applebloom tackled Scootaloo. The two wrestled for a brief time, but Applebloom was much stockier than Scootaloo and managed to brute-force the pegasus’ hoof behind her back. Scootaloo pounded a hoof against the floor of the clubhouse in surrender and Applebloom let her up.
“Are you taking wrestling classes when we’re not working? I swear I beat you more often, but I didn’t stand a chance there.”
Applebloom shook her head. “Not classes; Big Macintosh is helping me practice. He says he used to compete, but not in several years.”
“Well that was a neat trick. But anyway; does everypony know who they’re going to visit today? We’re just going to pick up cases. No unofficial helping without the rest of us there. We don’t want any mistakes this time,” Scootaloo glared at Sweetie Belle.
“How was I supposed to know it was a mouse-raising cutie mark and not a cheese-making cutie mark!?”
“Well no matter what, just remember to pick up the cases and we’ll all meet back here for the night, okay?”
They all nodded and went to work. Each one of them went to talk to ponies who were growing up and concerned about getting their cutie mark, or to talk to ponies who were confused about their cutie mark.
It happened more often than the crusaders had assumed, that somepony who had been perfectly happy doing what they assumed they were supposed to do would become disillusioned or unhappy with the direction their cutie mark had taken them. Applebloom had always assumed that once she got her cutie mark she would have no doubts about the direction her life would go. She’d expected an apple cutie mark, then she’d end up helping Applejack with the farm, and her, Applejack, and Big Macintosh would take care of the apple trees together. One big happy family.
How unexpected then, that she would be the one to break from tradition and get a cutie mark in something other than apples. She was still good at working on the farm, but to learn that it wasn’t what she was to do with her life had confused her quite a bit. Not that she didn’t enjoy her time with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, and knowing that she would end up working with them for years to come was great, but it was a little bittersweet, knowing that she was separated in such a way from Applejack.
Thinking about Applejack got Applebloom thinking about the only mother figure she’d had in her life, who was Applejack, and that got her thinking about her mother, Pear Butter, again. Emotion swelled up inside her and she had to choke back tears as she walked to her next appointment.
The little filly who answered the door was all smiles, and Applebloom was welcomed inside by a mare with a bright and warm smile. The mare sat her filly down across from Applebloom and they talked about possible directions her daughter might want to go, and how she should know if it’s something she should continue to pursue.
Applebloom assured her that if her daughter expressed an interest in it, then she should encourage it as far as the filly wanted to take it. She might not get a cutie mark in the thing she likes doing most, but the thing she gets her cutie mark in will be something she has a natural talent for. But just because something isn’t her cutie mark, doesn’t mean she can’t continue to do it.
In the end, the mare was the one who actually had the biggest epiphany. She was going to go try her hoof at roller derby, which her filly expressed a desire to try as well, and Applebloom watched with an even larger ache in her heart as the mare and filly rubbed noses with great big smiles on their faces.
She was thanked and sent on her way, and she plodded her way back toward the clubhouse. She had her notes about each one, and it wasn’t until she was almost back that she realized she had given advice without the other crusaders there. She was so distracted she had forgotten she wasn’t supposed to, but at least she’d set up an appointment for next week.
Applebloom groaned to herself at the prospect of the chewing out she was going to get from the other crusaders, especially Sweetie Belle. She flopped into the clubhouse and threw her notebook across the room. It landed next to the Ouija board, which led her to notice that it was moving on its own again.
“Now why in the hay are you doin’ that? It’s gotta be unicorn magic or somethin’, and it’s kind of annoying,” Applebloom said. She walked over intent on kicking the magnifier off the board, but she stopped when she saw what letters it was sliding over.
It was sliding back and forth continuously over the letters M–O–M.
Applebloom felt a little chill, and nervously looked around the clubhouse. There didn’t appear to be anypony there, and if there was one hiding outside, then it was performing a really tasteless joke. She didn’t think Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo would conspire to do such a thing at her expense, so she discounted them, so who could it be, then? Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon weren’t unicorns, so it couldn’t be them. Was it really the board?
Applebloom put a hoof out and touched the magnifier, and this time she felt a tug as it slid away from the O and went up to the ‘yes’ in the corner.
Applebloom jerked her hoof back. “Wait, seriously? You can read my thoughts?”
The magnifier slid in a circle, then ended up back on the ‘yes’.
“So, you know what I want. That’s why you were writing ‘mom’,” Applebloom said.
The magnifier once again slid in a circle and went back to ‘yes’.
“So, are you my mom, or are you somepony else?”
The magnifier didn’t move for a moment, then slid over to E–L–S–E.
“Well I don’t want to talk to you if you’re not my mom.”
The magnifier went to H-E-L-P.
“Help what? Help me get in contact with her?”
It slid to ‘yes’.
“How?”
H-E-L-P-M-E-H-E-L-P-Y-O-U.
“And what exactly do you want?”
F-R-E-E.
Applebloom felt a chill go down her spine. “Freedom? You know, I don’t think I want to do that. What guarantees do I have that you aren’t just pullin’ my leg and you can even get in contact with my mom?”
P-R-O-M-I-S-E.
“I don’t think I can accept a promise from a piece of wood.”
“Who’s promising things to wood?”
Applebloom jumped slightly and turned to the door. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were there, bringing in their bedding and other supplies for the sleepover. Sweetie Belle dumped her things in one corner and came over to the corner where Applebloom was staring at the Ouija board.
“Are you feeling alright, Applebloom?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I’m doing okay,” Applebloom glanced at the ouija board. “I just had a difficult talk with some of the ponies I went to meet.”
“Were they worried about not getting the ‘right’ cutie mark?” Scootaloo said from the other side of the treehouse. “That’s what most of mine wanted to talk about.”
“No, that wasn’t it. They were worried about getting stuck doing something they hate.” Applebloom didn’t add the part where she felt jealous of the filly having a mom who cared so much. It wasn’t that filly’s fault, so she shouldn’t be so resentful, but it was difficult for her to see something she wanted so close up and not be able to have it.
“So, did you try to help then and there? Is that what made it so difficult? You know we were supposed to wait,” Scootaloo said.
“I bet you did, didn’t you?” Sweetie Belle poked Applebloom in the side, and Applebloom twitched away from her hoof. “Right after telling me I shouldn’t do just that!”
“Stop that!” Applebloom smacked Sweetie Belle’s hoof and shifted away. “I did, and I apologize. But I have a meeting set up for them next week anyway.”
Sweetie Belle exchanged a look with Scootaloo and her playful expression softened. She sensed that Applebloom wasn’t in the mood for ‘playful’ at the moment and instead shifted closer and put a hoof around her.
“We’re not mad or anything. We know you were just trying to help. Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help too, okay? That’s why we brought ingredients to make smoooooores!” Sweetie Belle floated over a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, and several bars of chocolate.
Applebloom looked up at the ingredients and a corner of her mouth turned up in a smile. “That’s great, but what are we supposed to heat them on?”
“I brought a camping stove! We can set it up anywhere, even inside the treehouse, and we’ll have enough heat to cook the marshmallows, easily,” Scootaloo piped up from the other corner.
“Well, you two brought everythin’, didn’t ya?”
“We thought of it all, Applebloom. Anything to make sure you’re feeling better!” Sweetie Belle said.
Scootaloo brought the camping stove to the center of the room, and as the light faded from outside, the glow of their lantern and tiny camping stove was all that kept the clubhouse lit. They chatted and bundled themselves up against the chill of the night as they talked, ate, and laughed, and soon Applebloom seemed like her old self. She even opened up about what made her feel so down at the end of the day.
“In the end, I think it was seeing such a close relationship with the mare and her daughter that I guess… I got jealous. That jealousy made me realize what I was missing, and that just got me down.” Applebloom flopped backward onto the floor of the treehouse, licking a hoof sticky with chocolate and marshmallow.
“It’s really getting to you lately, isn’t it?” Scootaloo asked.
Applebloom just nodded. She didn’t want to admit it, but trying to bottle it up wasn’t going to be very healthy.
“Well, I know we said it’s just a toy, but we did promise to try to use the board to contact your mother. Do you still want to do that?” Sweetie Belle motioned to the board in the corner.
Applebloom sat up and looked at it. She remembered earlier how it had been speaking to her, moving all by itself. Was it really a ghost or spirit talking to her, or was it come sort of unicorn magic put into it to make it seem more “interesting” to a potential user. It would be a pretty good trick, she had to admit, if the board moved by itself and sent strange messages to the pony using it. It still made her uneasy.
“I don’t know, the whole thing seems a little… creepy,” Applebloom said.
Scootaloo jumped on Applebloom’s admission of fright, eager to prove she wasn’t the one chickening out. “You’re scared, aren’t you?” Scootaloo needled.
“I’m not scared, I just think it’s a little weird to try to talk to ghosts with a board!”
“That’s not what the word ‘creepy’ seemed to imply, Applebloom.” Scootaloo waggled a hoof in front of Applebloom’s nose.
Applebloom huffed and pushed Scootaloo’s hoof away. “I mean it doesn’t seem like the best way to talk to ghosts. Shouldn’t there be like, some magic spell for it or somethin’?”
“Earth ponies and pegasi can’t cast spells, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I know that, but, talking to ghosts with a board?” Applebloom couldn’t come up with a better reason to avoid using it, but she was still uneasy about what the board had said earlier.
“Why are you so against playing with it, then? I think it’ll be fun,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Because…” Applebloom couldn’t think up a reason that didn’t seem shallow or paint her as the scared one in this situation. Instead, she brought up what happened with it earlier. “Because it talked to me earlier!”
Both of the other crusaders looked at Applebloom in dumbfounded confusion.
“It did what?” Scootaloo said.
“It talked to me! It told me it wanted me to free it,” Applebloom said.
“Wait, you mean it actually WORKED?!” Sweetie Belle squeaked in excitement.
“No, I mean it did, but I wasn’t using it,” Applebloom said.
“So, it just worked on its own?” Sweetie Belle picked up the board and magnifier and brought them to the center of the room. She and Scootaloo bent over it, put the magnifier on the board, and shoved it around a little bit.
“It told me it could help me contact my mom, but I don’t know if I believe it.”
“Did it tell you who it was?” Scootaloo said.
“No, and I didn’t ask,” Applebloom said.
“It could have been anypony!” Sweetie Belle gushed.
“It could have been one of the original Wonderbolts!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“It could have been Starswirl the bearded!” Sweetie Belle shouted.
“It could have been Rockhoof!” Scootaloo spouted.
“It could have been Sombra,” Applebloom said.
Applebloom’s claim did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.
“Oooo, do you think Sombra would tell us more about his rule as a horrible dictator?” Scootaloo wondered.
“Why would you want to hear about that?” Applebloom asked in confusion.
“Oh, come on. Haven’t you ever been curious about Sombra’s magical abilities and such?” Sweetie Belle asked Applebloom.
“Not really. My problem is that we don’t know who it is, and we don’t know what they can do,” Applebloom said.
“Well what can they do? They’re dead!” Sweetie Belle said. “And we don’t know who it is in the first place.”
“Oh! We should ask who it is!” Scootaloo said. “Then we wouldn’t have to wonder.”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle agreed.
“No!” Applebloom said.
“Why not? Are you still scared?” Scootaloo grinned, happy to not be the one who was most frightened this time.
“No! I mean; kind of. I don’t know who it is or really what it wants. Doesn’t that concern you two?”
“Not really. It actually makes me more curious,” Sweetie Belle said. She put the magnifier on the board.
“And if it really does work, we could talk to the original Wonderbolts!” Scootaloo rubbed her hooves together. “I could tell them all about Rainbow Dash! I think they’d be so glad to hear she joined!”
“Come on, Applebloom. If it’s really working like you say, we should be able to get answers to the questions you have. It’s not like it could do anything. It’s a ghost!” Sweetie Belle said.
Applebloom didn’t really like the idea, but she wanted Scootaloo to stop bothering her, and Sweetie Belle’s excitement was infectious. She was also right. It was a ghost, what could it do? If it had the ability to do anything and was malicious, it would have done something already, right? If it had the ability to do anything, and it was nice, what was the harm in talking to it?
Applebloom sat down across from Sweetie Belle and got comfortable. “Fine, but I’m only doing it to get you guys to quit buggin’ me.”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo grinned and looked down at the board. Applebloom joined them, and they watched the magnifier for a minute. Nothing immediately happened, so Scootaloo piped up.
“How is it supposed to work, Sweetie Belle?”
“Hang on, I’m trying to remember how Rarity described it.” She bit her lip as she thought, then finally seemed to brighten up with an idea. “Oh, yeah! We put our hooves on this thing.” She put both her hooves on the magnifier and motioned for the other two to join her. Scootaloo and Applebloom put their hooves on it with her and waited for her to continue. “Then, I guess we just address our question to whatever ghost we want and wait for a response.”
“How will it respond?” Scootaloo asked.
“It’s supposed to move the magnifier to the letters to make words, or to yes or no,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Ohhhh.”
“Did you want to ask a question first, Applebloom?” Sweetie Belle asked. “We were doing this for you.”
“I’ll wait. One of you ask first.”
“I’ll go, I’ll go!” Scootaloo said. “Umm… hey ghosts, are any of you one of the original Wonderbolts?”
The three fillies waited for the board to do something. Their eyes were trained on it in anticipation. Nothing happened immediately, and as the seconds passed, Scootaloo got increasingly frustrated.
“I thought you said this thing was talking to you earlier, Applebloom. Why isn’t it doing anything now?”
“I don’t know, but the thing I was talking to earlier definitely wasn’t a Wonderbolt.”
“And how do you know?”
“How would one of the original Wonderbolts have known my mom?”
“Maybe they know your mom as a ghost. They wouldn’t need to have known her when she was a live.”
“Girls!” Sweetie Belle interjected.
The magnifier under their hooves moved slowly, sliding across the board to sit on top of the ‘no’ answer. Scootaloo was visibly disappointed.
“Aw come on. Did one of you two girls do that?”
Both of the other two shook their heads.
“I didn’t move it,” Applebloom said.
“I didn’t either,” Sweetie Belle insisted.
“Well one of you must have just to get me to stop asking.” Scootaloo looked pointedly at Applebloom.
“It wasn’t me.”
“Well, whatever. Somepony else ask it a question.”
Sweetie Belle looked thoughtful for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Hey ghosts, if you know my sister Rarity, is she really as attractive as everypony keeps saying?”
Almost immediately the magnifier began moving, and moved toward the ‘yes’ portion of the board. Sweetie Belle threw up her hooves before it got there and made a strangled noise of frustration.
“Come on, girls! You could have at least waited before pushing it there.”
Applebloom sniggered and failed to cover her mouth with a hoof in time. Sweetie Belled glared at her.
“Fine. It’s your turn to ask a question, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle said, and put her hooves back on the magnifier.
Applebloom hesitated and thought about her mother. “I don’t have a question I want to ask,” she lied.
“Yes, you do,” Sweetie Belle said. “You’re the reason we’re doing this in the first place.”
“I don’t want to!”
Scootaloo took her hooves off the magnifier. “Applebloom, what is it about all this that bothers you? Is it the ghost thing? Because I’m scared of ghosts too, but, assuming this thing is just a toy, because I still think it’s just a toy, it’s not like we’re in any danger.”
Sweetie Belle took her hooves off the magnifier and scooted closer to Applebloom. “I brought it up because I think you need to talk about it, and we’re here for you if you do, okay?”
“I know that. I’m not dumb. I’m just—” Applebloom gave an extended sigh. “—not quite ready I guess.”
Sweetie Belle smiled and moved closer, then hugged Applebloom. Scootaloo followed soon after, and Applebloom hugged both of them back.
“You’ll be okay, Applebloom. We’re here for you,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I know. Thanks, girls.”
They all shared a hug, Applebloom hugging tightest of all, until they heard a scraping noise. As one, they all looked at the source of the sound to see the Ouija board active. The magnifier was sliding across the board of its own volition, swinging to one letter after the other as it spelled out a message.
Scootaloo was the first to back away. “Ahhh! It’s real! It’s actually real! GHOSTS ARE REAL!!” She tried to run, but Sweetie Belle caught her by the tail with her magic.
“Hold on, Scootaloo. It might just be magic in the board itself. We don’t know that a ghost is doing it.”
“Oh, then are you the one doing it? Because the only thing I could see moving something without touching it is a unicorn! But I don’t see your magic aura on it, so that leaves ghosts!” Scootaloo struggled in Sweetie Belle’s grip.
“Calm down, Scootaloo. This is what it was doing before. Let’s just read the message and see what it wants. Other than looking a little creepy, it’s harmless… I think,” Applebloom said.
“You think? You don’t know?”
“All it said is a bunch of single words. I don’t know anything more than that.”
“Did you ask it what it wanted?” Sweetie Belle said.
“Yeah. It said it wanted free.”
“Free!?” Scootaloo shouted. “And this doesn’t make either one of you uncomfortable or concerned?”
“She’s got a point, Applebloom. That sounds like something bad,” Sweetie Belle added.
“Well what if it’s a good ghost that’s trapped somewhere?”
“Applebloom, good ponies don’t get imprisoned places,” Scootaloo said.
“That’s not true. What about the entire crystal empire?”
Scootaloo didn’t have a response to that, so she just folded her hooves and grumped. “I still don’t think we should trust it.”
“I’m a little wary too. Did it say it could help you talk to your mom?”
Applebloom nodded.
“Do you want to try? This is really the only thing we have. There’s nothing else I could think of to talk to ghosts.”
“So, you admit it’s ghosts!” Scootaloo shouted, still held in Sweetie Belle’s grip.
“Scootaloo, I’m trying to be encouraging.”
“I’m trying to get away from the ghosts!”
“So now you’re the scaredy-pony again?”
“One of us has to be!”
“Girls!” Applebloom yelled. The other two shut up and looked at her. “Let’s ask it some harmless questions, okay? Will you stay for that, Scootaloo? I would really like you to be here.”
Scootaloo looked upset, but she eventually nodded. “Yeah, I can stay. For you.”
Applebloom looked grateful. “Thank you.”
Sweetie Belle let go of Scootaloo, and the three gathered around the Ouija board once more. The magnifier was scooting along the board, spelling out something that none of them had bothered to read, yet.
“So, it’s saying something. I don’t know if it can hear us, but if it can, it’ll answer when we ask,” Applebloom said.
“I think it’s just repeating something to get our attention. It looks like it’s just saying ‘hello’,” Scootaloo said.
“I think it just wanted to get our attention,” Applebloom said.
“Well, it does. Go ahead and ask it something Applebloom. You were the one who wanted to stay,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Uh… hello again,” Applebloom began.
The magnifier finished another round of letters then stopped in the middle of the board.
“I think that means it knows we’re here.” Applebloom looked at her friends, then addressed the board. “So, do you remember me?”
It didn’t move, and the three started to fidget.
“Why isn’t it working anymore?” Sweetie Belle said.
“Who cares. Let’s just do something else. I didn’t want to be here,” Scootaloo said.
“Oh, come on, Scootaloo. It worked earlier without me touching it, but now there’s three of us. Maybe it can’t differentiate my thoughts and speech from yours,” Applebloom said.
The magnifier scooted in a wild pattern along the board and ended up at ‘yes’.
“See? We’re confusing it.”
“Then how did it answer that question?” Scootaloo countered.
“You saw how it moved, it had to think about it.”
Scootaloo groaned and rolled her eyes. “So, how do we fix that?”
“We’re not using it properly. Put your hooves back on the magnifier. Maybe that will help it determine who’s who,” Sweetie Belle said, and planted her hooves on the circular device. “This is how you’re supposed to use a Ouija board anyway.
Applebloom put her hooves on another section of the magnifier, followed reluctantly by Scootaloo. All three of them watched and waited for something to happen, but nothing seemed forthcoming.
“It still isn’t working.” Scootaloo glared at Sweetie Belle. “I really think this is some sort of nasty magic trick.”
“I swear I’m not doing anything!” Sweetie Belle countered.
“Girls! Just be quiet and let me ask a question,” Applebloom said.
They went silent, and both the other crusaders sat with their lips pursed shooting looks at the other. Applebloom ignored them and turned to the board again.
“Okay then, board. Who are you?” Applebloom asked.
There was nothing, then the magnifier started moving. It slid over the board to the letters in order to spell out A-B-B-A-D-O-N.
“Abba…don?” Applebloom screwed up her face in confusion. “Is that a name?”
“I guess? If it’s answering correctly. It might still be confused,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Whatever. So, the name is Abbadon. Are you a ghost?” Scootaloo demanded as she fidgeted.
It slid almost immediately to ‘no’.
“No?” Sweetie Belle sat up straight and wondered at the answer. “But this thing is only supposed to work with ghosts. If you aren’t a ghost, what are you?”
A-B-B-A-D-O-N.
“What?” Applebloom said. “That makes no sense. You can’t name yourself what you are, that’s just ridiculous.”
“I still think it’s broken,” Scootaloo muttered.
“Okay, one last question, then I’ll agree.” Sweetie Belle thought for a moment, then asked. “If you aren’t a ghost, what do you want?”
This time, the magnifier moved in a full circle around the board, then slid in diagonal lines and strange swirls as it went, until finally it stopped in the center for a moment, then once again spelled out: A-B-B-A-D-O-N.
“Okay. It’s just a joke. This makes no sense at all,” Applebloom said.
All three girls nodded and pulled their hooves away from the magnifier. Scootaloo kicked the Ouija board to the side, and they all turned back to the little campfire stove and the remaining pieces of chocolate and marshmallows. There was a *crack* from the board where Scootaloo had kicked it, and Applebloom sighed.
“Scootaloo, you didn’t have to break it. It was still pretty,” she said.
“I didn’t kick it that hard. It didn’t even hit the wall,” Scootaloo said.
“Well then…” Applebloom stopped as she saw the magnifier.
A line had appeared down the middle of the device, cutting straight through the glass. Smoke was pouring out of it and stopping halfway up to the ceiling of the tiny clubhouse. It swirled and circled into a sphere, with lightning crackling in the center. It hovered away from the wall and to the center of the room, with more smoke continuing to help it grow.
The three crusaders shuffled away to a corner together and huddled in a group. Scootaloo pushed her way behind the other two, and Applebloom sat staring at the cloud at the front.
“What’s happening?” Sweetie Belle cried.
“I don’t know! The board broke and that stuff came out!” Applebloom said.
“I told you it was a bad idea!” Scootaloo cowered at the back.
The board gave a creaking groan, then both the magnifier and the board cracked in half, and in a burst of heat and the smell of sulfur, all the lights went out in the clubhouse, and something heavy thumped to the floor.
Applebloom couldn’t see what it was in the gloom of the clubhouse, but its shadow looked big. The dim moonlight filtering in from the windows allowed her to see that the thing had wings. Big, leathery wings that fanned the awful smell it carried with it about the room. It moved, its hoofsteps weighty and impressively large.
Scootaloo whimpered.
“Wh-who are you?” Applebloom squeaked out.
A deep and gravelly voice issued forth from the creature, accompanied by more of that awful sulfur smell. “Abbadon.”
“Oh.” Sweetie Belle murmured. “That explains a lot.”
“So, what do you want now, Abbadon?” Applebloom said.
“For your wish, to come true.” Abbadon rumbled.
Something dark extended from the shadow that was Abbadon and hovered above the cowering crusaders. There was another burst of heat, and then Applebloom found herself standing outside the entrance to a massive cave. The darkness within extended deeper than the light could penetrate, and behind her extended a dark and desolate landscape in all directions. Her friends were not with her.
“What… where is this place?”
Abbadon’s voice echoed all around her. “Tartarus, where the dead and the damned spend eternity, guarded by the dread Cerberus. You are free to enter, and have permission to pass, but ‘ware the lands inside, as they will surely seek to keep you. Your parents await.”
Applebloom felt a twinge of hope at the mention of her parents. She didn’t like Abbadon, and felt deceived by his (her? It?) behavior. What was he doing in the Ouija board? Why was he helping her see her parents? How was he helping her see her parents? Were his intentions harmless? It all seemed too convenient, and she was sure something was wrong, but she couldn’t really stand up to something that seemed so powerful. She may as well visit her parents if she was given the opportunity.
She walked inside the cave mouth and peered into the darkness. “Hello?”
She heard the thundering of hoofsteps and a massive dog-beast hove into view. She remembered it from the time it attacked Ponyville. Everypony had seen it, but Fluttershy had cowed it almost instantly. It hadn’t seemed too bad then, surely it couldn’t be bad now.
Applebloom flinched as the massive beast padded up to her. It didn’t look nearly as cheerful or as happy as when Fluttershy had handled it. It glared down at her with all three heads. It leaned down and looked at her for a moment, then sniffed her. After a moment’s hesitation, it stepped to the side.
Applebloom took that as her indication to enter. She stepped past Cerberus and into the darkness. She had no idea where she was going or how long it might take to get there, but she had also just been teleported all the way across Equestria in the blink of an eye. She didn’t know what was going on.
She kept stealing a glance behind her every now and again to try to keep a measure of how far away she was from the entrance to the cave, but as she walked she stepped into a cold wind, and the next time she turned around she could see nothing. She assumed she must have passed through some barrier that kept all the creatures and other things inside Tartarus.
She couldn’t see much, but as she walked a mist began to grow around her. Idly she wondered why the dead came to such an awful sort of place. Wasn’t there something or somewhere better for dead ponies to go? Why spend an eternity is someplace so gloomy? And why set a dog to guard it, off all things? Sure, it was a big dog, but Fluttershy could just pet it and it was happy as a clam. Not to mention, hadn’t it “escaped” from Tartarus? Who was guarding it then? It all seemed a little bit contrived and kind of weak in the security aspect. Applebloom felt like she could do better with a fence.
The mist around her started to swirl and move. Applebloom could smell something on the wind. Something that was familiar, yet alien. Like a memory she had long forgotten. She also thought she had started hearing voices. Whispers in the darkness around her, and she wondered if the dead ponies or other things living here could hurt her. She had only been guaranteed access past Cerberus, nothing else had been mentioned.
Just as she thought of all the horrid things that might be living in the dark, Applebloom could suddenly see the shapes outlining the cave she was in. It was huge, with a ceiling high above dripping with stalactites, and equally huge stalagmites towering on all sides of her. She hadn’t been going down, or at least she didn’t feel like she had been, so she didn’t know when she had ended up so far below the surface. The cave she had entered wasn’t next to anything nearly so large.
She hard movement to one side, and turned quickly to look. She backed away from one stalagmite, only to bump into another. She stumbled back and forth, the hoofsteps clopping around her seeming to come from everywhere at once. Was there more than one pony in here with her, or was it just one that was incredibly quick? She didn’t know, and she was far too worried about what it might do to her to want to find out.
She started running.
There was an obvious path laid out before her, where it looked as though countless hooves had passed before she came along, and had worn the hard stone down to a smooth passage that led the way through the maze of the cave. She raced down the path until she saw a dim light at the end of it. She aimed for the light, and pushed herself faster, lungs burning and hooves hidden around her dogging her every step.
When she burst into the light, the first thing she noticed was the smell: It smelled of fresh apple blossoms in spring right as they were about to burst and turn into delicious fruit. There was another smell, similar, but not quite the same.
As her eyes adjusted, she could see laid out before her, an orchard of apples and pears, the trees mixed together to create a beautiful panoply of fruit trees in all sorts of lovely colors. Applebloom gasped in surprise and awe.
“It’s beautiful isn’t it? We can grow anything we like here.”
Applebloom’s eyes teared up before she even turned to the voice, although she had only seen pictures, the orange and tan, and that comforting voice that she felt like she half-remembered told her intuitively that it was her mother. She threw herself into the hooves of the pony in front of her. Orange and tan filled her vision and she rubbed her face into fur that smelled of sugar and flowers.
“Mom, I miss you so much! I never even knew you and I miss you!” Applebloom sobbed.
A hoof patted her on the back. “I know. We know. I’m sure your mother misses you, too.”
Applebloom’s smile faded and she jumped back from the figure. She hastily wiped her eyes clear and looked at who she had been hugging.
It was a pony, but only in that it was shaped like one. The mane was blurry and kept shifting from long, to shorter, then mid-length and back again. The thing had no face, and instead a fuzzy black slit was where the mouth should be. It was pulled back in a mocking grin, the teeth jagged white shapes that extended and shortened. The colors were the only thing that stayed the same. The trees that spread out before her were still apple and pear trees, but a closer look told her that the fruit on them kept switching between apples and pears on all the trees.
“What… what is this?” Applebloom said.
“Why, this is what you wanted. This is your mother, and her afterlife,” the faceless thing said.
“No, it isn’t. You don’t have a face! And why are you all blurry?” Applebloom accused the thing.
“Well, that’s not my fault. You don’t remember what she looked like. How old she should be, what her face looked like. You don’t have real life experiences to go by. We can’t make a proper face when we have nothing to work with.”
“What about pictures?” Applebloom asked.
“Pictures are static. Who knows how much time has passed since the photos were taken.” The thing took a few steps toward her, and Applebloom backed away, only to bump into something. She whipped around and saw another one of the things trying to be her mother. Its face was missing, and it was shifting its shape just like the other one. “Not more than your age, but you wonder to yourself: ‘How different must she look? Would I recognize her now? Would she recognize me?’ We can’t make something you want if you don’t know it yourself.”
“Well I didn’t want this!” Applebloom yelled.
“You wanted to speak to your mother. Well, here we are. Aren’t you happy?”
“This isn’t what I wanted! You’re not my mom, and I am not happy!” Applebloom stamped her hooves. “Just take me home! I should have known he was lying.
The things grinned wider at her. “But Abbadon never lies. Not once. Not ever.”
“He told me he could help me get in contact with my mom, and you’re not her.”
“Oh, but he can. We’re not her, but where do you think she is?”
Applebloom was taken aback. She didn’t want to admit it, but if her mom wasn’t there for her her entire life, then there was only one thing she could be. “She’s… dead.” Applebloom lowered her head.
“Quite right. Dead ponies go to the realm of the dead, or Sheol, where Abbadon is the lord and master.” The thing walked around her, it’s legs wobbling as it went. “But who doesn’t get into the realm of the ‘dead’, then?” It looked at Applebloom, awaiting a response.”
“Living ponies?” Applebloom said miserably.
“That’s riiiiight. You’re very alive, and you shouldn’t be here. But! All is not lost, because you can just—” The thing pointed behind Applbeloom. “—follow the path back.”
Applebloom followed its hoof. Behind her rose a long and precarious path back through the stalagmites and up the face of a cliff, through a passage of glowing moss and fungus, and back to Cerberus and outside the cave.
Being able to see the path back, when the fog from earlier had tried its best to keep her from knowing where she was going did little to comfort Applebloom. She felt like she was being taken advantage of and confused on purpose, but she didn’t know what she had that they or Abbadon might want so badly.
“Why did he even send me here if I wasn’t able to enter? He promised me I could contact my mom. I haven’t contacted her yet, so that means he lied!”
“Oh, but he didn’t. You know everything you need to know to get in contact with her, and he helped you learn all that. There’s just the final step between you and your mother.” The creature grinned at her.
Applebloom stared at it for a moment, then turned away when it became too uncomfortable to keep looking. It’s shifting features and unnatural mane were disturbing to observe for any length of time.
She knew what it was getting at. Living ponies couldn’t enter the realm of the dead, but she wouldn’t be able to leave if she got in. That would mean dying. She couldn’t do that to her living family.
“No. I’m goin’ home,” Applebloom said.
The creature bowed, and melted into the shadows. The orchard of trees was swept away in a gust of wind, and all that was left was that awful mist floating around her. The path behind her was long, but Applebloom could still see it. She sighed, looked at the mist surrounding her, and started plodding her way back.
She could see her destination, and that path to it, but as she walked, she didn’t remember it taking this long. She didn’t seem to get tired, or hungry, or thirsty, but she was sure it hadn’t taken this long to get here. Not that she really knew how much time had passed in coming or going. There was no light, just the mist floating around her at the edge of the path she was following.
Eventually she did make it something new. Applebloom remembered some of what she walked past on the way in. She remembered the giant cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites. She remembered the sounds of creatures rustling in the darkness surrounding her, but she didn’t remember climbing down the cliff she now found herself before.
From what she had seen from afar, in coming in to this place she had walked on what had seemed like a level path for most of the trip. This was steep, and dangerously narrow. How had she passed it on the way without noticing? Thinking about how much fog there had been, she wondered how she had passed it without falling!
Applebloom began the trek up the cliff. It wasn’t a steep climb. The path was very circuitous and doubled back many times, but one misstep and she would go tumbling down the entire length, and then she would really belong in this place.
Applebloom reached the top eventually, then had to walk through a field of fungus and glowing lichen. She could now see the exit just ahead of her, where Cerberus waited. She broke into a trot, and spent an inordinate amount of time running for the exit. No matter how long she ran, she never seemed to get any closer, and the vision of the exit ahead of her seemed to waver. She never stopped, she never gave up hope, and her determination never quit, until finally a light broke through and she had to stop and hold a hoof up in front of her eyes as it blinded her.
When it finally went away, Applebloom found herself at the top of a hill, surrounded by apple and pear trees, with a picnic blanket spread out before her. She was confused, until she saw her mother, with her face complete, and her fur intact, and her limbs not quivering. Next to her sat her father, who had a hoof around her mother, and Applebloom smiled, but then was confused.
“Wait, I thought I was leaving. How can I see you if I was leaving? They told me it wasn’t possible? Was everypony lying?” Applebloom said.
“Everypony except Abbadon,” her mother said, and hugged her. “Abbadon is destruction, Abbadon wants desctruction. I am sorry.”
Applebloom’s eyes widened.
Far away, Abbadon raised his hand from the smoldering corpses of the three cutie mark crusaders. He turned to look at the treehouse, and with a snap of his fingers, the camp stove tilted, broke, and spilled fuel everywhere, which quickly caught fire. Flames licked at the wood, and he watched with satisfaction as the Ouija board which had acted as his prison burned. Then he turned and left, leaving the treehouse to be destroyed.
The End.
