Conflicting Love

Applejack was currently working on the orchard attempting to buck as many apples as she could when she noticed a figure walking towards her in the distance. They were too far away for her to make out who it was so she walked a little bit towards them and saw that it was Applebloom. Tears of joy and happiness rolled out of her eyes as she ran towards her younger sister giving her a massive bear hug. “Applebloom you’re alright”

She expected her little sister to return the hug but instead she simply pushed Applejack away while giving her a glare that could take on Fluttershy’s infamous Stare any day. “Why would you care if I’m alright or not? You think I’m a freak remember”

Applejack was torn. “Applebloom, I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I would do anything to make it up to you”

Applebloom let out a laugh that sounded strangely metallic. “Sorry? You’re sorry? That’s the best you’ve got after you ripped my heart into millions of pieces? If you were really sorry than you would have tried to stop me when I left”

“Applebloom, I… I really am sorry for everything. I’ve been hating myself ever since you left. I haven’t been working well, I haven’t gotten any sleep, and I haven’t even spoken to any of my friends since except for Pinkie Pie once”

“Good, now you know exactly how I felt when you abandoned me” Applebloom said coldly with the same metallic voice that now was filled with anger and venom.

“Applebloom… please” Applejack reached a hoof out but Applebloom backed away instantly turning around and running as fast as she could. For a moment Applejack stood frozen in pain but forced herself to start running after Applebloom. She would not make the same mistake twice. She followed Applebloom for what seemed like years until she reached a cave on the side of a hill inside of the Everfree Forest. Something seemed wrong with the cave but Applejack wasn’t sure what it was. The cave seemed to be emitting a strange feeling from it one of which Applejack had never felt before. It was similar to Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Queen Chrysalis’s presences but this felt even more evil than any of them combined. For a while she stood frozen in fear of the strange feeling until she saw Applebloom in sight looking back at her.

“What’s the matter sis? Scared? I thought you said you would do anything to make up for what you did” With that Applebloom ran further into the cave leaving Applejack behind. For a while Applejack stood still trying to figure out what kind of presence this was. It felt ancient yet more evil than anything she had ever met. Slowly she moved her hoofs and ran into the cave after her little sister determined. She wasn’t going to lose her. Not again.

After a few minutes of going down numerous tunnels following Applebloom she wound up in a dead end. She was now in what looked like an ancient temple room of some kind. All around her there were pictures carved into the walls of a monster destroying cities and devouring souls out of ponies. To say that she was creeped out and disgusted would be an understatement. She also saw torches lined up between each carving and noticed at the end of the room Applebloom was standing next to what looked like a gold coffin. Curiosity won over her as she walked over to the coffin that seemed to be giving off the same essence that she felt earlier. Once she reached it she noticed Applebloom was not looking at her with a hateful glare before looking back towards the coffin and then looking towards words inscribed on the side of it. Applejack tried to read the words as best as she could but they were in some strange language that she could not understand.

“Read it” Applebloom demanded.

“I… I can’t”

Then I guess you won’t be able to have your little sister back. A menacing voice came from Applebloom’s mouth that was completely different from her own. This voice had the same metallic sound but also had malice and death in it. It truly frightened Applejack to the core. She looked back at the words but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t figure out what the words were saying. “Applebloom… I’m so sorry”

She looked back to her little sister and backed away in fear seeing Applebloom’s eyes. They were now pure blood red with a hint of flame inside of them. Prove you’re sorry then by releasing me. Only then can you have your sister back, The voice was now coming from the coffin itself which only brought more fear into Applejack.

“What are you?”

I am known by many names, none of which will take away the fear you hold. If you don’t release me then you will pay the ultimate price.

As soon as these words were spoken she heard a sizzling sound. She turned and saw Applebloom slowly melting in front of her until she was just a puddle of blood. Applejack wanted to simply puke at what she was now seeing but couldn’t take her eyes away from the spot where sister had just been.

If you do not release me then she will suffer much more than this.

Applejack could no longer stay put as she turned and began running as fast as she could away from the coffin until she heard the menacing voice call out to her once again.

Leaving so soon? Don’t you want your parting gift?

Applejack slowly stopped and turned her head back to see Applebloom running towards her. But she didn’t look the same. She had no eyes in her sockets and her skin looked old and rotten while blood slowly dripped from her mouth as she ran towards her. Applebloom jumped on top of Applejack knocking her down to the ground scraping her back on the sharp rocks that were scattered on the floor. “Applebloom?”

The monster didn’t seem to understand or it just didn’t care as it bared its teeth and began to slowly eat away at Applejack.

4 days 15 hours 38 minutes 8 seconds

Applejack woke up with a loud scream that probably was heard in Manehattan. What kind of nightmare was that? Applejack tried her best to slow down her rapid breathing but couldn’t get the images out of her head from what had just happened.

Big Mac had apparently heard his sister scream as he came bursting into her room with a worried look on his face. “AJ are you alright? What happened?”

Applejack was still hyperventilating which caused Big Mac to run over and try to calm her down. Slowly she finally began to stop her fast breathing long enough to let out a few tears. “What happened sis?”

Applejack looked simply traumatized at the moment so he wasn’t sure if she even would have the strength to speak. Eventually she calmed down enough to say words but only a few at a time. “I just… had a really… bad dream is all… I’m fine”

“You don’t look fine to me. You looked like you had just seen a ghost” Big Mac said annoyed that his sister continued to lie to him like this when something was clearly bothering her.

“I’m just going to go into Ponyville and go hang out with the others alright?” Applejack said without waiting for a response from her older brother as she walked out of the room with the same face.

Big Mac was extremely worried. First Applebloom had a terrifying nightmare, then the very next day she disappeared, and now Applejack seemed to be having nightmares too. Was she going to disappear soon just like Applebloom? “What is going on sis?”

The walk to the library seemed to take forever but that was fine for Applejack as it gave her time to think about the nightmare that she had. What was that monster? How did that thing know me and what did it want with me? It said that it wanted me to release it but release it from what? The more she thought about the nightmare the more frustrated and afraid Applejack became. Maybe Twilight has some kind of book that knows about this monster and maybe a book about those words on that coffin that the monster continued to demand me to say even though I couldn’t read it. Applejack shuddered thinking about what it had done to Applebloom in the nightmare. Would it actually do that to her? Could it actually do that?! Applejack almost started to hyperventilate again just thinking about it again but stopped herself as she saw the library in sight.

As soon as she got to the library she knocked on the door waiting for the bookworm to open the door but was instead greeted by her assistant. “Oh hey Applejack. What brings you here?” Spike asked surprised to see Applejack considering almost no one had seen her for the past few days.

“I just wanted to look for some books is all. Is Twilight there?” Applejack asked looking behind Spike into the library.

“Yeah but she’s busy downstairs working on something. I can help you get some books if you want” Spike offered.

“Thanks Spike, I won’t take long at all”

“So what kind of books are you looking for?”

“Well I need some books about different languages preferably ancient ones. And I also might need a book about monsters” Applejack explained frantically looking through the books leaving Spike with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Okay, what do you need those kinds of books for?” The dragon asked curious.

“Honestly even I’m not sure but I just have a really bad feeling from some dream I had and those books could be helpful”

Once again the baby dragon was left with a confused look but shrugged it off and looked through the books trying to find whatever Applejack might be looking for. After a while of searching the two could only find one book but it didn’t seem to be helpful as Applejack went through every page looking for something as she flipped through the pages frantically.

“Latin… French… German… ugh why the hay can’t I find what those bucking words mean?” Applejack said angrily as she threw the book at the wall.

Apparently Twilight had heard the book hit the wall because as soon as it hit the floor she came running upstairs to see what had happened. “Applejack? What’s going on in here and why did you throw a book? Are you okay?”

“Sorry Twi I’m just really stressed right now and I’m trying to figure out what some words mean from a dream I had earlier and that book didn’t have anything about it. Each book I’ve looked through hasn’t helped me whatsoever and I’m just really irritated. Plus the fact that my little sister has been missing for 4 days 17 hours 3 minutes and 28 seconds isn’t exactly helping. How do you think I’m doing?” Applejack asked quickly but with frustration in her voice.

“Well you sound really stressed, do you want to talk about it?” Twilight asked trying not to run in fear of Applejack’s possible breakdown.

Applejack started to calm down as she gave Twilight an apologetic look, “I’m sorry Twi, I haven’t gotten much sleep in the past few days and the dream I had last night didn’t exactly help me at all.” Applejack began to explain about the cave and the coffin but left out Applebloom not wanting to tell Twilight about what had happened between her and Applebloom.

For a while Twilight was silent as she thought of what the monster could be or what the words were. “I’m sorry Applejack but I’ve don’t think that I’ve ever heard of anything quite like that.” Twilight said.

Applejack let out a sigh of disappointment. Great, even Twilight doesn’t have any idea what it could mean. Maybe the princess might know something about it. “Thanks anyway Twi, I really appreciate it”

“No problem Applejack that’s what friends are for. But what exactly do you think caused the dream? How did you find the cave in your dream? Was it just there or did somepony bring you there?” Twilight asked curious to possibly learn something.

Applejack was silent for a while debating on what she should do. If I tell the truth then she’ll know about what happened to Applebloom but I don’t want to have to lie to my friends. “I’d rather not say Twilight. It’s just a bit too personal”

“Okay I understand. But these dreams seem really strange. I’ve never heard of any creature like the one you told me about. I’ve heard about lots of different beings like Gargoyles and Basilisks, but I’ve never heard of anything that had anything to do with a gold coffin. I’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia and see if she has any idea on what it could be. You should go home and rest for a while; we’ll tell you if we learn anything”

With that Spike quickly wrote down everything into a letter and used his magic dragon breath to send the letter to the princess. “Thanks Twilight, I just hope that I was just having a crazy dream”

“You’re welcome, now you should probably go home and rest. You’ve been really stressed lately”

Applejack wanted to argue saying that she was fine so that she could stay and learn if the princess knew what her dream could be about but a yawn escaped her before she could say anything. “Alright fine.” Applejack headed off to the barn but was stopped by the sound of Spike burping out a letter.

Spike opened the letter and read it quickly. “Princess Celestia says that she wants everypony to go to Canterlot right away”