Applejack sighed deeply to herself as she stood outside an old abandoned house on a street close to her home. She couldn’t believe she had actually listened to Rainbow Dash about having a look here.

The house was of a dark grey colour, with its paint having faded at least fifty years ago. The rotting wooden walls that supported its roof up looked about to give way with just the slightest touch, but yet, this house stood here, abandoned and untouched for years. Four windows were positioned on the second and first floors facing her, all shattered, cracked and absolutely grimey. It was a sorry sight, this house.

Applejack really didn’t think anyone could live here, not even that clown.

But she had to be sure.

Walking up the steps to the old and decrepit house, Applejack looked in through one of the windows. It was so smudgy that it took her a while to figure out what was inside. She could vaguely see a set of stairs leading up to the second floor, along with roots of plants coming down from the ceiling. There were chairs scattered around the room, some knocked on their side; nothing seemed out of the ordinary just yet.

Applejack was still looking around when she noticed something seemed to shift past the doorway of the room, which led into the hallway towards the front door. From how dirty the window was, she couldn’t tell if she had seen something or if it was the reflection playing a trick on her.

“No, uh uh.” Applejack leaned away and shook her head. “Ah didn’t see no nothin’. A trick of the light, yeah that’s what’s up.”

She decided to inspect the front door. It was still boarded up as it always was, so surely no one was coming in and out of it. Or perhaps if that clown could really change shape, then maybe it could get through the planks.

“Argh, real or not real?” Applejack grabbed her head in exasperation. This clown business with her friends was driving her nuts. Each of them have had an encounter with it. Even Sunset Shimmer. That couldn’t all just be a coincidence.

Deciding to go around back, Applejack pushed through a thicket of uncut bushes and shrubs to get to the fence, which had quite the big hole in it; it was wide enough for her to crouch through.

“Ah must be crazy.”

To even think of walking into the decrepit house was mad enough, but to prove that this clown wasn’t real seemed even nuttier.

The backyard was, to no surprise, overgrown, with the grass reaching almost to Applejack’s waist. There was an old rocking chair on the porch in the backyard, which was old and looked like it could fall apart any minute. The door there was smashed in two places, just barely hanging off its hinges, which meant that was a way in.

Applejack put one foot on the bannister and looked into the darkness. She could see light coming in from the boarded windows in front, but everything was still in the house. There was not the slightest sound, not even the rustling of leaves.

That’s odd…

It reminded her of the calm before a storm. A huge storm. A pit suddenly formed within Applejack’s gut and it felt like she was about to drop during a rollercoaster ride. Applejack couldn’t explain why she felt like that, but it was an unmistakable feeling of dread. She only felt this when she was about to chase off the bats that ate her apples.

Applejack didn’t like bats. She didn’t like them one bit. Their tiny beady eyes and their needle-like fangs in their mouths, along with their jet black wings in the night, she couldn’t stand the sight of them, much less their fangs sinking into her skin. If they had to deal with bats at the farm, she’d normally leave Big Mac to take care of the varmints.

Steady yourself, Applejack… she said in her mind. Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen. It’s just an old house that’s dark and gloomy with the chance of clowns. Ain’t nothin’ to be afraid of here…

As she crept inside the house, she inspected the floor and the walls, trying out some of her detective skills, taking some inspiration from Rarity. She looked for any footprints or even marks on the walls, seeing as how dusty they were, but there was none. The only footprints she could see were her own and this only helped to solidify her claims that the clown just couldn’t be real, even if the rest of her friends had seen it. Perhaps it was just another case of that mass hysteria she’d heard about.

Last week, she had read reports of people being gassed somewhere over at the city of Mareoon, which the media eventually concluded was mass hysteria. Everyone claimed they saw the gasser, but no one could prove he was actually there. Perhaps this was just another example of something people thought they were seeing.

Applejack didn’t know. She was really never one for fairytales.

A shattering of glass cut Applejack from her concentration and she looked back up into the dark house. It sounded like a vase had fallen off the table and crashed on the floor, but that was a little odd, seeing as there was no wind, unless…

She was no longer alone.

The cowgirl heard it before she saw it. It was a gust of wind blasting out the door at her, and the beat of wings that numbered at least a hundred. A beat of wings that was all too familiar to her.

She covered her head and held her hat down as a rush of bats blasted through the cellar door, tearing it right off its weak hinges and smashing Applejack in the face with them. The girl fell back on the dirty floor in a heap and rubbed at her nose, her hand coming back with some red, but Applejack was too focused on the bats to feel the pain. There they were, those varmints, out to get her and her apples. She shivered as they bared their tiny fangs at her, each of their eyes glowing a deep red. They were looking right at her and they looked hungry.

“No, no!” Applejack grabbed a piece of the door and protected her face as the swarm of bats descended upon her, biting at what flesh they could get.

Applejack had always been afraid of bats. When she was younger, she’d see their eyes in the dark, watching her every move as she helped get the apples down from the trees. She had imagined them coming out from the dark unknown to eat her whole, a childish fear, she knew that, but now, she wasn’t so sure.

They bit at her fingers and it was hard to keep the door pinned up against them. She had to think fast. Pushing the door against the wall, Applejack tried to get back to the porch and started in a sprint. A cluster of bats were stuck behind the door, but many still flew after her, biting at her neck and fingers as the cowgirl waved her hands wildly above her head, trying to ward them off to no avail.

As she neared the backdoor, a group of them descended between her and freedom and their mass blocked out the light coming from the exit, plunging the hall into darkness.

In front of her, the mass began to take shape and it looked like their skin was bubbling and melting, like some kind of sick soup. Two jet black wings stretched out from the sides and from within the central mass, two red orbs flared into existence, staring directly at her as a gigantic maw opened below them, revealing four large fangs as long as her forearm.

Applejack scrambled back and to the front door, hoping to get it open as the creature rose up on two muscular legs. Unfortunately, it was boarded shut and she wasn’t going to get the planks out of the way in time. Doing the only thing she could think of, she sprinted upstairs as the gigantic bat followed, all the way whimpering and panicking as she did so.

As she began climbing the stairs, the bat creature slammed its whole head against the wooden railing and splintered it, spraying Applejack with tiny wooden shards, some of which nicked her skin as she fought to get away.

“No! Leave me alone!” Applejack screamed as she ran.

She arrived at one of the rooms and to her relief, the door was open. Rushing in, she shut it and locked it behind her, pressing her whole weight against the door.

She could hear the bat’s claws scratching on the old wood outside and it sounded like it was taking its time approaching her, each step a torment to her ears and heart. It knew it had her.

With her heart pounding in her ears, Applejack looked around the room for any way out. It was a barren room with completely nothing in it, except for disintegrating leaves and dust. A single window stood against the wall, its surface caked with grime, but it showed a tree that Applejack remembered stood in the backyard. It could be her way out.

She was about to leave the door when someone pounded on it hard, knocking her to the ground. Applejack wiped dirt from his face and first looked at the door. It was still in one piece, but there was no way it was going to hold. Getting on her feet, she rushed for the window and dug her fingers under it, trying to pull it up.

Behind her, the the door bulged forward again, this time pieces of it falling off, revealing a menacing red eye on the other side.

Applejack shrieked and pulled harder, doing her best to get as far as she could from that thing outside, but still the window would not budge. It was jammed tight.

There was a scratching sound and when she turned around again, she could see a long black claw reaching in through one of the door’s new holes and it jabbed itself into the door’s lock.

She was out of options now.

Applejack turned back to the window, tears blurring her vision and she thrust her elbow against the stained window, cracking it. As her second blow extended the crack further, the door knob was turned and the door popped open, revealing the bat creature smiling at her, its mouth hanging open as though it were looking at something delicious.

“N-No!” Applejack threw her third strike and this time, the entire window shattered outward.

She wasted no time in climbing out, cutting her arms and legs as she scampered through, but she didn’t care about the pain or the blood. She had to get away from here as quickly as she could.

Applejack spun herself around and landed on the porch and fell on her butt, but she didn’t stop yet. Turning, she gave it her all as she threw her legs forward, one after the other, racing for the fence’s hole.

Above her, a swarm of bats blasted out of the window, spiralling up into the air before descending down upon her like a mad wind.

“Stop! Please!” Applejack cried and dove under the fence’s hole.

She expected to slide all the way out, but the edge of her skirt caught on to one of the fence’s splinters and her escape was halted. She tried to pull herself from the fence, but the splint wouldn’t budge. As the bats got closer and closer, their hideous fangs at the ready, Applejack curled up, covered her head, and prepared for the worst.

There was a shout from somewhere ahead of her and then she felt arms grab her under her shoulders and began to pull.

“My skirt’s stuck!” Applejack cried out when she was still going nowhere.

There was a shuffle of footsteps, followed by the fence’s grasp on her skirt disappearing.

“Come on!”

Applejack recognized that voice. Opening her eyes, she watched as Flash Sentry hauled her up and helped her race towards his car, which was left in the middle of the road, its driver’s side door wide open. He must’ve gotten out in a hurry.

The bats flew over them, biting at what they could, but Flash removed his jacket and flicked it over their heads, knocking away what he could. When they were close enough, he yanked the car’s back door open and practically threw Applejack in and shut it behind her. He dived back into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut, catching a bat between it with a crunch.

Before Applejack could even let her heartbeat go down, the rush of wind that followed the bats was gone. Outside the car, it was all calm, except for one oddity. Just in front of the fence stood a clown, bouncing a red ball. He had a demented smile plastered across his face and he pointed at Applejack.

“Step on it!” Applejack pushed Flash’s seat and stomped a foot on the floor until the boy peeled away from the old house, speeding back towards the city. She watched as the clown waved to them, eventually disappearing from sight as the house disappeared around the next hill.

“You okay, AJ?” Flash looked at her through the rearview mirror.

The farmgirl nodded. “H-How did y-ya know Ah was here?”

“Oh, I happen to be driving by,” he explained. “Sometimes I take drives down towards your farm, because the road is long. Good for a little racing. Glad I came by today, huh?”

She nodded again. So the clown was real. Everything her friends said, they had all really gone through something like this. The face of the bat monster smiling at her came back to her mind and she shut her eyes and shivered as Flash entered Canterlot City. It wasn’t something she wanted to see again.

When she finally had time to breathe, Applejack cried out and released her pent up fear, shivering as her emotions pooled out. For once, it felt good to cry.

Author's Note

Sorry, I've just been so busy lately, I haven't been able to type as much, plus this story takes time to execute as well.

Hope y'all enjoy! Cheers!