Author's Note
I still remember getting chain mail as a kid and it scaring the crap out of me- and after some thinking I wondered how that would go in the world of ponies
//Posting first chapter to see if it motivates me to write more of it//
The Letter
"Heya Applebloom,"
"Yeah, sis?" Applebloom called back to Applejack who was situated in the next room over.
"Could ya do me a favor a get the mail for me? The mailpony should have stopped by already and I'm expecting a letter from Braeburn `cause-"
"Yeah," Applebloom interjected her sister as she slid from the dining room chair. She didn't really need to know the semantics of why she had to get the mail. "I got it." She had been drawing a particularly nice poison joke flower (if she did say so herself) but she supposed that she should help her sister out- lest she get an earful from both AJ and Granny Smith.
Applebloom opened up the screen door to the outside and began to walk down the dirt path that lead from their house to the main road. It was a pleasant weekend morning; the sun was shining and the sky was populated by the occasional white and fluffy cloud. Even the smell of the early morning dew still hung in the air. It was the kind of days she loved to embrace- usually with her friends Scootaloo and Sweetiebell- she had often spent a morning like this alongside them as they all tried to obtain their cutie marks. Now that they had them however, they could spend this time just doing things that they enjoyed.
The filly reached the mailbox and peered in to how much mail they had received today, which turned out to be a sizable stack.
Bills, bills, Granny Smith's Knitting Digest, AJ's letter from Braeburn, Plowing Monthly- she had guessed that was Big Mac's- more bills and- wait- a letter for her?
Applebloom took a closer look at the envelope that was addressed to her. "Oh, it's from Babs!"
She was quite excited to have gotten a letter from her big city cousin, ever since they had reconciled after the incident of bullying the first time Babs Seed came to town, her and Applebloom- as well as the other two members of the Ponyville Cutie Mark Crusaders- had grown fond of the filly. Maybe she's writing to tell me about how her division of the Crusaders is going back in Manehattan, Applebloom thought.
She excitedly trotted back to the farm house, dropping off Applejack's letter along with the rest of the mail- save for her own letter- on the dining room table. Applebloom then continued her energetic pace up to her room where, upon closing the door, she ripped open the letter.
Unfolding the two pieces paper within, she saw large writing on the top piece of paper. I'm sorry, Applebloom it read.
Sorry? Applebloom thought, confused. What is Babs sorry about? She hadn't done anything of recent and had already apologized for her past actions, so why would she be sorry?
She moved onto the second piece of paper- one that was noticeably more worn and aged, like that of a library book- and began to read the shaky wall of script.
If you read this, you are now cursed.
There is a legend about an earth pony named Spring Dawn who never gained her cutie mark. Even as a young mare, she never developed one. She was deemed worthless by society for she had no special talent. She was bullied relentlessly and cruelly by all those around her- especially by a group of five ponies that had known her since school.
One day, that group of five ponies devised a way to shame Spring Dawn even more. In the guise of kindness, they invited her to a party out at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Over her better judgment, Spring attended. Upon arriving, the five ponies convinced her to step into the forest, claiming that if she were to go touch the base of the large gnarled tree deep within the Everfree, they would stop bullying her. At first she declined but they refused to take no for an answer.
Desperate to be rid of the bullies, Spring Dawn agreed and made her way into the Everfree Forest towards the tree, but unbenounced to her, the five ponies followed after her with their plan in motion.
As Spring Dawn touched the tree a hidden snare synched around her back hoof she and hoisted into the air. As she hung there upside down she saw the bullies emerge from out of the surrounding trees, laughing. The group then left her there for the night as to embarrass her when they brought back others to mock her in the morning. However, when they returned in the morning, they were met with the sight of her corpse. She was still hanging in the same position but she was completely disemboweled and her organs laid in a head below her.
After she was taken down and her death was ruled as a wild animal attack, one by one, each member of the five pony group went missing, only to show up days later hanging from the same tree disemboweled and their cutiemarks cut from their flanks.
You must share this story with three other ponies. You have 24 hours to have another pony read this story. Each pony you show it to gives you another 24 hours to complete your overall task. It is said, that if you fail, Spring Dawn will come for you and you will meet the same fate the bullies did.
Applebloom set the letter down, eyes wide. She could barely begin to process what she had just read.
She had been cursed? Applebloom had heard of curses before, often through Princess Twilight Sparkle's rambles for she often studied such things, but she had never spoke of ones such as these. Ones that were bound to the reader and only broken through the act of spreading the word...
Tears began to well up in Applebloom's eyes as she paced in her room, her small, yellow hooves tapping on the wooden floorboards at a worried pace.
She didn't want to die! She was only a filly for Luna's sake! She was supposed to live for so much longer than this! And she had just gotten her cutie mark too and had so much to live for and so much to do- so much she could do for others too!
The speed of the little pony's breath was increasing at an alarming rate as she paced back and forth over the scuffed flooring she had known for all of her short life. Her mind was racing with the questions. What was she to do now? What were to happen if she didn't follow through with what the letter had instructed? What would happen if did follow through with what it asked?
She paced back and forth even more rapidly now, but then came to a sudden stop.
Or maybe it was a prank?
Maybe it was all fake and Babs had just wanted to give Applebloom a good scare. She did like to still pull pranks every-so-often. It could have been just one of those that got a bit out of hoof.
As Applebloom considered this possibility, she took gulps of air as to slow her racing heart and gain some clarity to her thinking.
"Yeah..." Applebloom said to herself shakily, leaning against her bedpost as for her knees were still weak from the initial fright the letter had garnered her. "Its gotta be a prank... There's no such thing as cursed letters, not even Twilight has heard or talked about such a thing." She began to gain a sliver of confidence as her mind began to follow the train of logic, "This might even be something Applejack has seen before! Why, it might have been a prank from when she was a filly!"
Maybe I should show it to her? Applebloom thought, mostly convinced that the letter was a fake. It would be a risk for if the letter were to be real, Applejack would be in great danger, just like herself. But, how likely was that to be the situation? As she had reasoned before, there has been no recordings of such "curses" that she had heard of, not even from Twilight.
She stood there debating the decision of showing the letter to her older sister, ultimately deciding upon bringing it to AJ's attention so her worries could be quelled and she could rest easily. Applebloom shoved away the cover letter from Bab's into her bedside dresser, thinking to save her cousin a scolding from Applejack or Bab's own parents, and took the "cursed" letter downstairs to her big sister.
Applebloom came trotting down the stairs, some of her anxiety having been already washed away due to the reasoning session she had with herself minutes before. As she got to the bottom, she could see that Applejack was still where she was when she called for Applebloom to get the mail.
The young filly continued her trot into the kitchen, finally seeing that Applejack was working on making a batch of apple tarts. Sprinkles of flour laid out on the counter as AJ kneaded the dough on top of it, the tart tins to one side of her and a bowl of what was likely a cinnamon-apple mixture that was the tart filling. The orange mare's hat was missing from her head, being that it was hung on a coat rack closer to the front door. The lack of her hat allowed Applebloom to see how furrowed AJ's brow was, her green eyes focused in concentration as she continued to knead the dough for the tart crust. Her intense concentration likely caused her to not realize the specks of flour that had settled on her face, making it seem like she had more freckles than normal. It also caused her not to realize her fast approaching sister to her side.
"Hey Applejack?" Applebloom asked through the letter in her teeth.
The sudden, yet muffled, sound of somepony startled AJ, causing her to knock some of the tart tins off of the table. "AH! Applebloom! You gotta warn me before you come and startle me like that!" She yelped as she turned to face Applebloom- who had, thankfully, been out of the trajectory of the bouncing tart tins.
"Oh, sorry" Applebloom replied, still through the folded letter in her mouth.
"Ah, it's all right" Applejack sighed as she leaned down and began to pic up the fallen tins and place them back on the table. "I'm just gonna need to wash these few again. Somepony put an order in for apple tarts for their party so we can't go using dirty tart tins." Putting down the letter on an unused part of the counter, Applebloom offered her assistance, seeing as she was the one who startled AJ.
"That'd be might fine of you, Applebloom. I'll wash and you dry." The two ponies walked over to the nearby sink, Applejack with dirty tins in hoof and began to clean. "So what was it you came in for?" AJ asked as she pumped some soap into a tin and began to scrub it with a sponge. "You bored or somethin'? Cause if you are, I've got some chores you can do" she laughed.
As AJ handed Applebloom the first tin to dry and began to scrub down the next one Applebloom replied somewhat casually, "Oh, I just got this letter in the mail and it was sorta... weird? It seemed like it might be a prank or somethin' and I wanted to see what you think about it, or maybe if you had seen something like it before?" She finished drying the first tin and took the next from her sister.
"Tell yah what, once we get done cleanin' these and I can seal up the dough, I'll take a look at it with yah."
Applebloom and Applejack both sat at the dining room table, Applejack- still speckled with flour- held the letter as she read its contents.
"What in the haystack is this, Applebloom?! A filly as young as you shouldn't be reading stuff like this! Who sent this to you?"
"I'm not really sure-" Applebloom lied, wanting to spare Babs from getting into trouble. "It was just in the mail and addressed to me. It scared me at first when I read it but then I thought it was a prank..." Applebloom trailed off as she saw her sister begin to get worked up even more.
"That's one rotten prank, that is" A disgusted look was on Applejack's face. The fact that somepony would play such a horrific prank on her little sister was infuriating to Applejack. Nopony was to mess with her family and cause that kind of worry.
"So, do you think it's real?" Applebloom asked cautiously, not wanting to contribute any more to her sister's already fuming state.
"Celestia, no! There ain't no curses like that that I, or the rest of my friends, have heard of. And I haven't heard of no Spring Dawn neither. It's completely fake sugar cube, don't worry your sweet little head none." That statement from her big sister brought Applebloom the reassurance she was looking for. It wasn't real. Nopony is going to die. It'll all be fine. She took a big mental sigh of relief. "Now time to get rid of this horrid letter." Applejack stated, getting up from the table with the letter in her own teeth and walking towards the trashcan in the kitchen.
"Wait, what?" Applebloom squeaked in mild surprise a her sister's sudden action to get rid of the piece of paper.
"Young foals like you have no business readin' this kind of horrific stuff. And I don't need you showin' this to other fillies and colts neither. It could get you into a lot of trouble for scarin' the wrong pony and it'd be just plain mean to do so too." She said as she dropped the letter into the waste bin, the lid of it making a satisfying clunk noise as it closed.
"Makes sense I suppose."
"I'm gonna finish making these here tarts now, if you wanna come help." Applejack stated from the kitchen.
"I think I'm good," Applebloom replied back. She had just remembered her self-proclaimed "great" drawing she had been doing before the whole letter incident and thought it would be a great time to continue her work on it. She moved back to the seat in which the drawing and the crayons she was using still sat and began to work on the poison joke picture once again, the letter being the furthest from her mind.
Applebloom stirred from under the covers as the sounds of a rooster's call drifted in through her cracked window. She grumbled at the thought of getting out of bed but sat up to face the incoming sun rays with sleep filled eyes.
She had had a decent sleep it seemed; the memory of the weird dream she had about Applejack going off into the forest to harvest- something- with Cheerilee was faint in her mind but that was the nature of dreams sometimes. Rubbing the gunk from her tired eyes with one of her small hooves, she slid out of bed and got ready to do her daily morning chores.
...
Upon finishing the last of her chores- the last being scattering feed for the chickens- she returned to her room to grab her saddle bags- she and the other two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders had big plans for their last day of the weekend and they wanted to get a start on it as soon as possible. She came down the stairs, bags over her back, and called out to whom ever was awake and in the household.
"I'm goin' to go hang out with Sweetiebell and Scootaloo, I'll be back before dinner!"
She paused. No response. Applebloom knew Big Macintosh was already outside plowing some of the fields and Granny was likely still asleep- in her old age she had become real hard of hearing and slept heavier than a dragon on a pile of treasure. But Applejack was usually within earshot around this time in the morning. Perhaps she had already gone into town without Applebloom noticing or was out helping Big Mac with the fields.
She shrugged, they weren't likely to worry too much if she went out without saying, it was almost a given that if she were to be out she would be with Scootaloo and Sweetiebell. But, just in case... she grabbed a piece of scrap paper from her bag as well as a pencil and scribbled hastily what her whereabouts were to be. She replaced the pencil into her bag and slid the note under the bowl of fruits that sat on the dining table. With that, she shifted her bags into a more comfortable position and left to meet up with the two fillies at their clubhouse.
