"Applejack!" a distant yet familiar voice shouted "I, uh, I'm asking you something! Please! You're scaring me."
The young farm mare strongly shook her head to the sides, returning to the world of the living. The first thing her emerald eyes noticed was the face of a worried and curious Fluttershy, which made her mind rewind so she could remember everything that had happened that day. She had spent all the afternoon helping her friend to collect a huge number of strange flowers she had never seen before in her life. Those flowers, according to Fluttershy, secreted a bright liquid substance of curative properties which, after being applied at least 3 times a day for a whole week, would allow the left hind leg of Angel to heal quickly and without any secondary pain. That is as long as that mischievous bunny did not move around that much during the healing process. The problem, however, relied on the fact that those flowers could only be obtained in the depths of the Everfree Forest, and nopony should enter in that nightmarish place without any kind of company, no matter how expert in wildlife he or she could be, and since Rarity was currently working in the creation of a new clothing line, Rainbow Dash had gone to Cloudsdale to see the Wonderbolts do their breathtaking stunts in an important event that would last until the end of the night and Pinkie Pie was busy preparing an order of nothing more nor nothing less than 550 peach cupcakes for a very bulky, gluttonous and demanding unicorn called Green Wallet, Applejack was the only pony available to give Fluttershy a hoof for such a dangerous and risky task.
And there they were, slowly making their way back to Ponyville, with the earth pony pulling a small yet heavy cart that carried all the flowers they had managed to collect enclosed in jars, while the pegasus was walking at the same pace as the first one so she could avoid leaving the other behind. The sun had already disappeared in the horizon for half an hour, as if it had opted to go to bed early. The moon, displaying its already famous and well-known figure of the mare in the Moon, was emitting a peculiar and not at all nice blood red light.
“Huh?” Applejack asked, taking those nasty thoughts from her mind at the same time. “Oh, sorry, Fluttershy. Ah think Ah got a little distracted. It's been a very lon' day."
"No problem" Fluttershy was quick to reply, a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry I yelled at you that loud. It's just... You've been standing there for 5 minutes and I was starting to worry. Are you alright?"
"Yeah" the orange furred mare sighed, scratching her head with a hoof, avoiding her hat fell to the ground with the other one. “It’s nothing, sugarcube. It’s jest that Ah was thinking about Granny Smith. She wasn't very happy when Ah told her that Ah would help you findin' these weird-lookin' flowers. She's always been afraid of what could happen to me if I'd ever enter the Everfree Forest alone. That's why she's never allowed us to come here since we were little, neither Big Mac, nor Applebloom nor me. After all, many ponies have gotten lost in 'ere over the years, ya know."
“Oh my!” the pegasus exclaimed shocked, trying to hide her face with her long, pale, light grayish rose mane. “I'm very, very sorry! Had I known I would get you in trouble with Granny Smith, I would've asked someone else! If only Doctor Fauna wasn' t on vacation...”
“Hey, It's not yer fault, sugarcube” Applejack hurried to say, trying to comfort her ashamed friend. “Ah knew what I was doin' when Ah decided to disobey her. Plus, ya know how stubborn Ah can be sometimes when it comes to helpin' mah friends. Now, what do ya say if we put these flowers inside yer cottage so we can consider this day as concluded? Mah body tells me it's time to hit the bed.”
“Sounds good to me, I guess” Fluttershy slowly replied with a weak smile, starting the way back to Ponyville once more. “Follow me. This way.”
As they kept walking, Applejack couldn't help but feel that they were being stalked. It had been quite a while since all the noises and sounds made by the animals nearby had stopped abruptly, leaving the Everfree Forest in complete silence, except of course for the sound of the cart's wooden wheels when rolling and the echo produced every time her and Fluttershy's hooves made contact with the ground. There was something unnatural and completely out of place in that silence. It felt as if the entire Forest was watching them and judging them with its invisible eyes, and neither the reddish light the moon was emitting nor the lack of any stars in the dark blue sky was helping her to feel less uncomfortable. In fact, she remembered seeing a pack of timberwolves pass nearby them without stopping a few minutes ago, as if they were being chased by something.
“What could a timberwolf be afraid of? What in tarnation is goin' on in this darn forest?” she thought.
In the end, she came to the conclusion that she was worrying too much, and the best thing she could do in a situation like that was not to think too much about it and enjoy the hike. Once again, her mind began to wander, going back to her filly days. She started remembering about those summer afternoons when her father, Bright Mac, played with her to hide-and-seek in the orchard; those charming and delightful songs her mother would sing while playing her guitar to help her fall asleep whenever she had woken up because of some horrible nightmare; that beautiful day when Apple Bloom was born; that unforgettable Hearth's Warming Eve when Winona became part of the Apple family as a kind gift from Granny Smith; that painful, rainy day when she, Big Mac and Apple Bloom had to prepare themselves for their parents' funeral; and lastly, that nostalgic talent show in Camp Friendship from many, many years ago.
“Rara…” she muttered unconsciously with great melancholy.
A sudden yellow hoof strongly pressing her chest made her stop in her tracks, taking her away from her thoughts once again. And once again, the culprit was none other than Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy! What are ya…?” she began slightly pissed off, but couldn’t finish due to another hoof being fiercely put on her mouth.
“Ap-Applejack” the pegasus babbled, shivering in fear without removing her right forehoof from the farm mare's face. “D-Don't move. There's….There's something there.”
Applejack was ready to ask what was going on when her eyes detected and understood what Fluttershy was talking about: the big bushes up ahead were all shaking at the same time, yet there was no way it could be the wind, since neither of them had felt a breeze during the last couple of hours. The moon, which had been covered by the clouds for a few minutes, started emitting that unnaturally reddish light over again, this time far stronger than ever before that point.
“Applejack” Fluttershy sobbed while finally removing her forehooves, “I'm terrified. We need to get out of this forest. Right now!”
“Calm down, sugarcube” Applejack managed to say, clearing her throat. “There must be an explanation fer all of this.”
A sudden realization hit her. Something about this situation was very familiar.
“Rainbow Dash!” she shouted angrily, waving her hoof in the air while looking at the dark sky “If this is one of those stupid, elaborated pranks of yers, Ah swear to Celestia Ah'll…”
Both her bravery and her menaces were cut short when a macabre and sinister laugh filled the air. The earth pony gulped with her eyes wide open and began sweating. A chill ran down her spine.
Then, without any kind of warning, a monstrous, slender creature came out from the forest clearing, standing on the road. At first glance it resembled a pony, as it walked on four legs. However, its hooves made it look more like a goat and its fur was so brownish and thick that anypony could've easily confused it with a bear. Its head was a rotting, decaying horse-like skull with long pointy ears and two enormous antlers that were quite similar to a deer's. But the feature that neither Fluttershy nor Applejack would ever forget about that nightmarish being were those ghastly, eyeless face with a twisted, abnormally huge grin in its mouth, exposing a long row of gleaming, serrated teeth. And now, that skeletal and hideous face was staring at them, menacingly.
A terrifying voice from beyond the grave resonated in the two ponies' minds. “Don't leave me.”
Fluttershy tried to scream, but then decided not to move a muscle. She thought to herself that this was all just a bad dream, and she was about to wake up. The voice was calling her, and she had no way to resist its call.
“Don't leave me.”
All she could hear and see was somepony else's cries telling her-or somepony she couldn't see-to run as the quadruped monster walked slowly towards her.
“Don't leave me.”
It didn't matter. That surreal situation was clearly happening to somepony else, somewhere else.
“Don't leave me.”
It wasn't real. It couldn't be real.
“Stay away from us, y-ya dang ghost!” Applejack screamed, running towards that frightening being, willing to face it.
The creature answered by ramming her with its antlers, throwing her in the air with relative ease. A few seconds later, the farm mare landed on a nearby tree, falling unconscious before hitting the ground. The cart fell not far away from her, breaking into pieces with the jars included.
Fluttershy came back to her senses. Whatever that creature was, it had hurt Applejack, and now it was going after her. It couldn't be a dream!
“Applejack!” her vocal chords managed to pronounce.
“Don't leave me” the voice said once more in her head.
“N-No! St-Stay away from me!” Fluttershy shrieked, running into the opposite direction nonstop. She could feel her heart pounding and the air leaving her lungs. The spawn was already a few meters away from her. Nopony would come in her aid. She was alone, but she would never stop running. Never.
Suddenly, the creature finally reached her and bit her in her left wing. Fluttershy stopped and screamed in pain as the world around her turned red and her vision began to blur. The monster's teeth pressed even harder than before, trying to tear the flesh apart as its victim fell to the ground, sobbing and crying due to the enormous pain.
“Please!” she cried “Leave me alone! I beg you!”
Fluttershy knew there was no escape. She didn't even have the guts to defend herself. She tried kicking the creature in the legs, but it was futile. That thing would not stop until it had feasted on her bones. She was almost ready to accept her fate when she heard a frightful sound, as if somepony had been stabbed. The next thing she felt was those sharp teeth letting go of her wing.
As she looked up, she saw that the creature had been impaled in the head with what it looked like a big, sharp piece of wood. A small black liquid was starting to pour out of the wound. Applejack was right there, trying to bury the wood even deeper while the beast desperately tried to break free. The orange furred pony had a few noticeable bruises in her legs. Her pale, light grayish olive mane was now loose and her face denoted nothing but the fury of an animal that had been cornered and would fight till death.
Fluttershy could not stand seeing such a scene like that. She tried to think what to do, but the fear and both the beast and Applejack was stopping her from doing so. Suddenly, a voice in her head began to shout louder and louder.
“You need to stop it, and you know it.”
“No!” she yelled “I can't do it! I'm not that kind of pony!”
“It tried to eat you alive. It didn’t want to hear your pleading. If you don’t stop it for good, it will kill your friend, and then it will kill you. You know what you have to do in order to save yourself. There is only one thing left for you to do. Kill it. Kill it. KILL IT!”
“No, please! Don't make me do this!”
“DO IT!”
Fluttershy kept fighting against that threatening and demanding voice in her subconscious for what it seemed like an eternity until she couldn't take it any longer: she grabbed a small branch from a nearby tree and sank it into that grotesque creature's throat with all her might, much to Applejack's surprise. The beast let out several roars of anger as it writhed in pain, until it finally stopped moving and collapsed over a small dark river made by its own blood, lifeless.
“Fluttershy!” Applejack exclaimed as she hurried to hug her friend, “Are ya alright, sugarcube?! Did it hurt you somewhere? Talk to me!”
“Oh, Applejack” Fluttershy sobbed, bursting into tears while taking refuge in her friend's chest “What have I done? I…I've killed a living being! I'm a murderer! I promised to never hurt anypony, let alone a wild animal! I will never be able to forget this!”
“Fluttershy, listen to me!” Applejack said, looking at her in the eyes, noticing her broken wing in the process. “You are not a murderer! Whatever that thing was, it clearly wasn't alive! As far as we know, we don't know what it was, 'n probably never will! We will take ya to a hospital, and if anypony asks, we fell off a cliff and got injured. Nopony has to know about this!”
“Applejack, please” the pegasus cried, looking away from her friend's gaze. “Don't make promises you can't keep. We both know you're not good at lying. And I don't want you to lie for me.”
“Yer right, sugarcube” the earth pony sighed, slightly frustrated “Ah can't lie, but Ah can keep a secret. Ah will never let a single word out of mah mouth, unless ya want me to.”
“You….you promise?” Fluttershy asked, looking at her while trying to suppress her tears.
“Cross mah heart 'n hope to fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye” Applejack swore, with great sorrow in her heart.
“Thanks, Applejack” Fluttershy cried once more, falling over her friend's opened arms once more.
“It's alright, sugarcube” Applejack slowly replied, hugging her friend even stronger than before. “It's alright.”
The silence filled the Everfree Forest once more as the two mares embraced each other, crying over each other's arms.
Applejack and Fluttershy finally returned to Ponyville with all the flowers they could pick up from the remains of the wooden cart and were immediately hospitalized. After a few days of slow recovery, they were both discharged and returned to their daily works and activities. Aside from them, the only other ponies that knew what happened that night were Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh. They all promised to take the secret to their graves.
Thanks to the flowers' medicinal power, Angel Bunny was able to heal after a week of rest.
The beast's body disappeared and was never found. However, the legend says that every Nightmare Night, if you go to the deepest place in the Everfree Forest at midnight, the moon will emit a red blood light and a voice from beyond the grave will be heard loud and clear.
“Don't leave me.”
