The House on the Edge of Town

Once inside the house, the two ponies decided it would be best to split up. It wouldn’t be a proper bravery challenge if they spent the entire time just arguing with each other. So Applejack decided it would be best if she wandered to the left of the entrance. This led her to the den.

Cobwebs covered most of the furniture, what little furniture there actually was, in the den. And only about half of it was even still intact. A thick layer of dust covered the remains of what looked to be a wooden coffee table, the couch cushions were littered with holes and dry rot, and most of the books on the mostly intact bookshelves were in various states of decay. The state of the furniture at least confirmed one thing: If anypony had been living there they weren’t keeping up with the place at all.

Continuing her search through the house, Applejack happened upon what she could only assume was a parlor. A cold fireplace with logs nearly decayed entirely sat in the center of the far wall. Dirt and dust clung to the floor as Applejack walked to the center of the parlor. There was no question about it now: nopony lived in the house anymore, nor had anypony lived in the house for many years. Well, maybe no PONY lived there. When she stepped into the next room over, the library, she gave a shriek as something swooped down at her hat.

“ACK! Bats!”

The surprise of the bats caused her heart to pound hard in her chest. Realizing that it was just a bat, though, Applejack was able to pause briefly and calm herself down. It was, after all, just, a few animals that had moved into the abandoned house. And with somepony snooping around, it was more than likely they’d get spooked.

Just as she was calming down, however, another bolt of lightning lit up the night sky. The illumination cast a shadow on the far wall vaguely shaped like a large creature. Caught off guard, Applejack shrieked again and almost ran out of the room. The feeling the wind on her mane, however, caused her to turn. What she saw calmed her almost immediately.

A broken window allowed the wind inside the house, which in turn meant that the wind was causing the curtains to blow about. The lightning caused the curtains to cast a large shadow on the far wall and dance about as if it were some large creature. Slowly she began to realize the truth: Everything that she was scared of was just the result of her overactive imagination. There wasn’t anything really scary inside the house at all, it was just old and decrepit. Which meant that the challenge would no longer actually be a challenge for her.

“There’s… ok, ok… there’s nothing in here that can hurt or scare me,” Applejack reassured herself. “Just shadows and animals, that’s all,” Applejack continued as she gave a relieved sigh, “Just shadows and animals. This will be an easy challenge to win. I can’t believe I thought this would be-”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH! HELP! APPLEJACK!”

Her thoughts and words cut off when she heard the unmistakable sound of Rainbow Dash screaming bloody murder. At first, she brushed off the scream and rolled her eyes. It would take more than a scream to scare AJ into leaving the house. But a second, more prolonged and more panicked scream told her this was no joke. Rainbow really needed help!

“What in tarnation!?”

Applejack sprinted out of the room, quick as a flash. She ran back through the parlor, then through the den, hooves clopping loudly on the hardwood floors. She rounded a corner and entered the kitchen where Rainbow Dash had wandered off. No sooner had she entered the room she froze and her eyes went wide in fear.

Applejack expected to see Rainbow Dash struggling with something or somepony. Instead, she was nowhere to be found and what she witnessed was a vaguely pony shaped blue glow floating in the air.

“Holy horseapples, it’s a ghost!” screamed out Applejack in surprise.

She stared at the glowing blue blob as it slowly floated toward her. An odd sound accompanied the glow that might have been taken for a form of communication. But with how scared she was, Applejack couldn’t make out anything resembling words. Instead, she let instinct take over and she attempted a step back. She found she couldn’t move, either from fear or from the ghost keeping her in place. A stray thought crossed her mind and briefly pushed some of the fear down back inside of herself.

“Ok, Rainbow Dash!” Applejack cried out loudly, struggling to free herself from whatever was holding her in place. “This isn’t funny! You got me, I give! You’re the braver pony! Just make this stop!” she pleaded.

Instead of stopping, the blue glow sped up its’ approach toward Applejack. She continued to struggle to take even a single step, knowing If she couldn’t free herself from where she was rooted the ghost would be upon her in seconds. Finding she was well and truly stuck, all Applejack could do was brace herself for the worst. Unable to hold back her fear any longer, Applejack closed her eyes tight, then opened her mouth to scream in fear again.

“Ahhh-!”

But the sound was cut off short by… she wasn’t sure exactly what it was at first. It felt thick, tasted like blueberries, and had a consistency somewhere between the smoothness of water and the thickness of syrup. Applejack opened her eyes and stared at the glow as it was shoving itself into her mouth. As more of the glow was forced into her mouth, her cheeks bulged out. Eventually, a portion forced its way deep enough to bump against the back of Applejack’s throat.

She struggled to keep herself from actually letting the glow inside herself, but with each prod to the back of her throat, it was hard to fight her instincts. And more was forcing its way inside! Once enough had slipped inside her mouth she was faced with a choice: swallow or suffocate. So she finally gave a swallow. The first and second swallow brought some of the blue glow down her throat. The third brought a growing hunger. A fourth swallow made that hunger insatiable. And the only food source for her was the blue glow. Spurred by the intense hunger that overtook her, Applejack set aside all her manners to loudly gulp and swallow until finally the blue glow settled inside. And just as suddenly had that hunger started, it ended. Able to move again, Applejack took a step back before glancing at her rounded belly. It lightly glowed the same color as the ghost had been.

“What in tarnation was THAT?” she asked before turning and hightailing it out of the house. “Screw it, Rainbow can be the braver pony, I’m out!”