An Apple Sleep Experiment

The orchard was as eerie as the Everfree forest to the three little fillies shuffling along one of the many paths. Apple Bloom led her friends deeper into its fields with single-minded determination. For a short time after her sister’s hospitalization, Apple Bloom had believed Granny Smith when she claimed that her sister still wasn’t well enough to be visited. However, when weeks passed with no word, the crusaders had demanded to see Applejack at the hospital, only to be turned away by the staff each time. Every new doctor and nurse they had seen gave the fillies a different explanation for the denial of their visit before hastily ushering them out the door. Soon after, rumors and whispers of disappearances around Ponyville had surfaced. Miss Cheerilee addressed the confusion and the panic by insisting that ponies were falling ill from heat stroke and were sent to the hospital for recovery. Apple Bloom didn’t buy it, especially when an unspoken increase in security could be seen around Ponyville. Fillies like the crusaders were no longer permitted to be outside their homes past sunset, as ordered by Princess Twilight herself. With every new lie told, Apple Bloom’s patience wore thin and her temper flared. She knew if she were to get any answers she would have to find them herself.

Ponies were so distracted by the unchanging heat of the day and the panic of the night that it wasn’t too difficult for the three fillies to stage their escape. They had arranged a harmless playdate at Fluttershy’s cottage, reaffirming that such a thing would brighten their spirits. They knew that Fluttershy had spread herself thin caring for the animals suffering under the heat and might be the only pony they could evade. Though she was hesitant, Fluttershy agreed, hoping it would convey the point that things weren’t as hopeless as ponies feared.

The night had begun innocently enough, playing games with Fluttershy and her animals with forced laughter and smiles. When the time came to sleep, Fluttershy was no fool. She posted her bear friend at their door as an informal guard. The crusaders were told this was just a precaution to keep them safe, but they knew it was to prevent them from sneaking out at night as they had before. What she didn’t count on, however, was Harry the bear’s distracting appetite and how easily he could be persuaded away from his post by the scent of honey. Sweetie Belle held a delectable jar outside the window with her magic and Scootaloo flapped her little wings to send the scent his way. Within minutes, the crusaders had evaded Fluttershy’s security and were alone in the darkness again.

“It’s too hot… I wanna go back” Sweetie Belle whined, magiking a leaf from a tree branch nearby to fan her as she walked. Scootaloo reared up on her hind legs and flapped her wings rapidly, causing a little breeze for her friend. “Thanks,” Sweetie Belle said heaving a grateful sigh.

“We can’t go back! Do you know how much trouble we’re gonna be in?” Apple Bloom chimed, standing next to Sweetie Belle to enjoy the breeze before Scootaloo flopped back onto the ground in fatigue.

“Well then what are we doing here anyway?” Scootaloo muttered.

“Ah told you! Big Mac said there’s a bunch of tools missin’ from the barn, and just yesterday Ah heard him tell Granny that he found one of ‘em in the west orchard.” Apple Bloom said confidently.

“But what does that have to do with Applejack?” Scootaloo asked.

“Don’t ya see? Only Applejack and Big Mac knew where they kept the tools and there was nothin’ else wrong with the barn-- checked it myself!”

“But… if she went to the barn… why not just go home?” Sweetie belle asked.

“Well… Granny said there was somethin’ wrong with Applejack’s… mind… like she didn’t know who she was and who other ponies were either, and that’s why she had to stay in the hospital for so long. Maybe… maybe she just got confused and tried to get back to work on the trees and got… lost...”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged worried glances. Hearing Apple Bloom tell the story to them now didn’t seem quite as exhilarating as it did when they were planning to go out on their own. Neither of the little fillies had the heart to tell Apple Bloom her ideas were a long-shot at best, and missing tools didn’t explain the other pony disappearances. From a lack of response, Apple Bloom continued:

“Ah just wanna see if we can find something in the west orchard that maybe mah brother didn’t see… he was a might tired from the heat when he found that ole rake, and he didn’t think he was gonna come back again for a little while. Ah can’t just let Applejack get more lost!”

“What if WE get lost?” Sweetie Belle asked in a hushed tone.

“Don’t worry, Ah know where ah’m goin!” Apple Bloom insisted, pressing onwards and faking a look of certainty.

“What’s that awful smell?” Scootaloo chimed in, covering her nose with her front hoof, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom following suit.

“Eiw! It smells like… like…” Sweetie Belle trailed off.

“Like that time we found that dead skunk next to the clubhouse” Scootaloo finished.

“G-girls?” Apple Bloom stammered, stopping dead in her tracks. “Does… does that look like dried blood to you?”

She pointed to a dead patch of grass stained with crimson hoofsteps that led further into the orchard.

“I-I think it’s time to go back now.” Sweetie Belle muttered in fear.

“Look! It’s Rainbow Dash’s saddle bag!” Scootaloo said, bounding after it alongside her friends. “Maybe she’s still here! A-and maybe she found something, a clue to--” She paused, gasping in terror when she lifted the saddlebag off the ground only to find it had been resting in a fresh pool of blood.

“Let’s go back! Please!” Sweetie Belle cried in terror, her eyes watering and legs trembling.

“L-listen… do you girls hear that?” Apple Bloom whispered, causing the other two to fall silent. The three fillies strained to hear the sounds of garbled cries coming from somewhere in the direction of the bloody hoof prints.

“RAINBOW DASH!” Scootaloo screamed, abandoning all logic and racin g alongside the blood trail in a blind panic.

“Scootaloo wait!” Apple Bloom protested, she and Sweetie Belle weren’t too far behind.

All three fillies came to a grinding halt when a wounded Rainbow Dash sped backwards through the air landing with a crash into the trunk of an apple tree. Rainbow’s face was badly beaten and blood oozed from her lips. Her left eye was swollen shut and her legs and torso were marred with hoofprint bruises to indicate she had been beaten and bucked. Clasped in her right hoof was a strange looking needle filled with a white shimmering substance.

Somewhere in the opposite direction, the assailant was laughing and shouting

“Ah won’t EVER go back! And nothin’ you pathetic ponies do or say can make me...”

“A-Applejack! It’s Applejack!” Apple Bloom finally muttered, choking on her words as her mind tried desperately to understand what it was seeing. At the sound, Rainbow Dash’s head spun around making eye contact with the three cowering fillies. Seeing them there gave Rainbow a surge of adrenaline, she leapt from the tree she had crashed into, moments before a hoof-held spade spun and stuck into the trunk.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Rainbow screamed in anger, pushing all three fillies with her head in the direction she wanted them to go. “RUN!”

The crusaders didn’t need to be told twice, they ran from the carnage as fast as their little hooves could take them. That is, except Apple Bloom. Still shocked from the sound of her sister’s voice, she deviated from the others and doubled back after Applejack.

“SHIT!” Rainbow screamed, heading back for the foolish filly and biting down hard on her tail before running again.

“NO! ITS APPLEJACK! AH HEARD HER!”

“Stop… squirming…” Rainbow muttered angrily with the filly’s tail still clasped in her mouth. It wasn’t long before she caught up to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle whose little hooves could only move so fast. Rainbow charged ahead, pushing her way through a mass of fallen branches to make way for the other crusaders. Once on the other side, Sweetie Belle tripped over a large fallen mass and tumbled a few feet away from it. When she opened her eyes she let out an ear piercing scream, that mass was none other than Princess Twilight herself, her head laying in a fresh pool of blood.

Rainbow’s head turned sharply around to shout something at the fillies inadvertently tossing Apple Bloom in the process. However, before she could say a word, Applejack sprang from the same thicket of branches, kicked off the ground with her front hooves and bucked Rainbow Dash clean in the jaw. Rainbow skid across the ground but made no sound aside from a garbled intake of breath. The lower half of Rainbow’s jaw had completely dislocated and now hung by the skin exposing the carnage of her snout.

The crusaders ducked behind one of the trees and fell deadly silent. Not a single one of them could understand what they were seeing.

Applejack had created an orchard graveyard of all their friends from Ponyville. The missing tools were the means for their deaths and still stuck out of their mangle remains. It was nearly impossible to tell who was who anymore with the carnage of one pony’s death seeping into another’s. Too traumatized to move to safety they could only watch as the pony once known as Applejack descended upon Rainbow Dash, her next prey.

In the light, the crusaders could see the monster Applejack had become. Her right front hoof had a chunk of flesh missing and was oozing a sickening green puss while the fur underneath was blackened and long dead. Her back legs having once been broken now looked strong with bones set incorrectly causing her stance to widen and her left back hoof to drag along behind her. Her fur was marred by all manner of scars and matted with twigs, blood, and pieces of hair and fur that were not her own. Most disturbing of all, Applejack’s eyes had completely clouded over with the exception of two dark black pupils staring straight into Rainbow Dash without a hint of sanity or mercy.

“Ah told ya… Ah don’t want yer fuckin’ cure.” Applejack said, spitting on Rainbow Dash who fought against choking on her own blood.

‘Cure…’

Apple Bloom looked up from where she had landed, searching frantically for the needle that had been flung from Rainbow’s grasp at the same moment she had. Dazed and still in shock, it took a moment for Apple Bloom to focus her eyes and concentrate on nothing but finding that needle.

“You think there’s anything left in here to cure, Rainbow?” Applejack taunted, leaning in close. “Do you still believe you’re savin’ me?”

Rainbow’s eyes darted from Applejack to spy Apple Bloom creeping towards the needle which was sticking up out of a pile of dead pony debri.

Applejack chuckled to herself. It swelled in her chest, until she laughed madly in Rainbow’s face. “Didn’t ya know Rainbow? Ah am the thing you fear most! Ah am the madness crawlin’ around under yer skin, squirming… writhing around inside just waitin’ to get free…”

Apple Bloom’s face lost all color, she pried the needle from the debri, having to pull it out of the eye-socket of another one of Applejack’s victims.

“AH AM THE INEVITABLE! AH AM THE HARBINGER OF FEAR AND THE MESSENGER OF TRUTH YOU SILENCE WITH HOPE…”

Rainbow Dash made conscious effort not to look at Apple Bloom and instead writhed around on the ground to keep Applejack’s attention on her. Applejack took the bait, stamping her hoof hard on Rainbow’s back and leaned down close to her ear.

“And that truth… is that in the end, there ain’t nothin’ at all… ‘cept me”

Apple Bloom waited until she was within range, then charged at her sister from behind, needle held high in hoof. She pierced it into Applejack’s flank and plunged the liquid into her bloodstream. Almost as if on reflex, Applejack reared her hind legs in the air and bucked Apple Bloom hard into the nearby tree.

Snap!