Return to Bittersweet Apple Acres

Four days after the escape

It had been a long four days since Flora had been left alone in her life, and the scars of the night that changed her life had haunted her like a lingering shadow weighing on her mind.

She'd heard the screams of her friends, seen visions of her mother on the couch, dreamed of being tortured in the farmhouse, and had felt the pain of the cuts to her flesh and hits to her face.

She'd barely slept, ate, or even smiled in her grieving for her friends and mother, and she felt like she would never overcome this feeling. Everytime she'd try to do something to break her lingering fears and paranoia, the laughter and image of that headless demon would haunt her.

It was like she'd never left, and she felt like she was still wandering eternally in the hellbent dimension, every turn manifesting another unspeakable horror that she'd never forget. She feared that she was on the brink of going insane, and that scared her more than anything.

She couldn't sleep.

She couldn't eat.

She couldn't even go for a walk to clear her mind, due to her thinking that Applejack would be there to capture her, even though that was impossible.

She was lost and unable to think clearly, and the police hadn't made it any better. After she'd been brought home from the station, she'd been visited by the police again about an hour later.

To supposedly keep her safe, she was provided a censor bracelet that alerted the police officers monitoring her house of any intrusion. If she were to leave the property unannounced, it would alert the police to act immediately, but Flora knew it was a waste of time.

There was no fillynapper, so she was practically under house arrest for a week for safety concerns. It was probably the worst thing for Flora right now, because being bound to one place made her feel the same as when she was in that maze.

But she couldn't tell them that, so she just lived with her constant paranoia and fears. Three more days and it'd be finished, and she could finally go as she pleases.

That was her motivation as the days passed, and if she could survive a relentless serial killer's pursuit, she could do this. To pass the time and escape her constant paranoia of those two demons watching her from the shadows, she just wrote her thoughts in her diary she'd abandoned since before she had met Trevor and Sarah.

It was her way of coping, and she had done the same when she was still unstable from her past demons. Therefore, she'd written and vented her thoughts in her coping mechanism over the days, and it had somewhat managed to help her temporarily escape her hell of a life.

It was around 8:45 pm by the time she'd finished her latest entry, a half-eaten dried up peanut butter and jelly sandwich off to the side on her nightstand being her dinner for the night. Her lamp was the only thing that lit the room, and that was enough for her.

Between her unstable state of mind and contant fear of Applejack somehow breaking into her reality to take her back, the dark was the least of her fears.

The message pinned to Henry's chest wasn't a case of salt being added to a fresh wound; it was a clear assurance. It was something that had burned her curiosity, seeing it was a very brief but effective message.

Applejack had intentionally let her go out of the cruelest intent. Three of her friends were now their's to keep and torture for eternity, and that bitch knew that was enough to destroy Flora.

She didn't need to kill Flora to win, because she'd already won upon killing Trevor. She read Flora's innocence and used it as a tool of mental torture, destroying her by destroying what held her together.

That was more cruel than a knife to her heart or slit to her neck, and Applejack had won despite her escaping back to reality.

That, along with promising Henry in his last moments of life, was what was driving Flora to put Applejack and her demented farmhouse of horrors to eternal rest, and to free all the ponies who are trapped there for good.

The sad truth however, was that she had no idea where to start, and, in her current state of mind, wasn't sure if she could save anypony. She needed to find balance before she could do anything, and that could take years.

Time she didn't have, knowing that her friends were suffering in that place, and she didn't want them to suffer anymore.

Shutting her diary, she slid it under her bed and pulled her bedsheets over her. She knew she wouldn't sleep long, but she needed to try and get sleep back that she'd lost.

Upon reaching for her lamp, something made her stop, a sudden flash of light engulfing her bedroom like a mini explosion. Throwing her covers off and preparing to dart for the door, she instantly stopped upon seeing who had invaded her room, her mane of pink and radiant green eyes being enough to confirm their identity.

Princess Flare stood at the foot of her bed, her eyes glowing in the dim light a pair of glowsticks. She wasn't guarded or attended by any other pony, and that struck Flora odd; royalty is ALWAYS under heavy guard and protection.

She had no idea how to take this sudden visit, and just froze in place in the presence of her princess.

"Princess Flare?" Flora spoke in confusion.

Flare's eyes shifted to her subject, making contact instantaneously. She was no taller than Flora and seemed like a teenage mare, but Flare was more around her early or mid-twenties, aging for royalty being different from casual ponies.

She held a warm smile upon her gaze meeting Flora's.

"Hello Flora," she greeted graciously. "It's a pleasure to meet you at long last."

Her voice was less like her mother's and more of a teenager's, her tone being slightly higher than a casual adolescent.

"No no, your highness! It's a pleasure to be in your presence!" Flora scrambled. "However, I must say it's odd that you have decided to visit me at this hour and unannounced."

"Yes it is, my dear," she agreed. "However, I'm here not by any accident or mistake. I'm here, because you've become a pony of interest to me, and I just had to meet you."

The way she spoke didn't sit well with Flora's senses. While she sounded sincere, there was an underlying tone of something that Flora couldn't explain. However, it could've just been her paranoia, so she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Me? I'm a pony of interest to you?" Flora questioned.

"Indeed. After all, you've become quite the talk of the town. Three friends missing, your mother dead, and now, you are probably the most lost and unstable pony in my entire kingdom. I must say that I am truly sorry for your loss dear, considering that I too know how it feels to lose a mother, but I must also ask why you've been dreaming of the things you've been lately?"

Flora froze. The way she had asked that was a clear statement that she had suspicions of what she and her friends had done on Nightmare Night. Her matriarch continued, furthering Flora's fear.

"Some sort of maze, your friends dying very horrid fates, some sort of slab that radiates evil energy, and, the most curious aspect of all, two ponies that shouldn't even exist in your mind, because I snuffed them out of history entirely. Tell me, Flora Bloom, why are such things lively in your young mind?"

She scrambled for a lie to cover up the suspicions her matriarch had, even though, deep down, Flora knew her ruler could read through lies like a book. Regardless, she tried something, hoping it would work.

"Oh that! It's because of a book my friends dared me to read recently!" she lied. "I imagined my friends as the victims in the story, and it scared the daylights out of me.

This always happens after I watch a scary movie or read a scary story, but I'm sure I'll eventually get over it like I always do, your highness. It's nothing to be worried about from your position."

Not even a flinch. She hadn't even convinced her princess the slightest.

Flare giggled.

"Dear Flora, do you seriously think I'd fall for such a ridiculous lie!" her tone shifted from happy to angry upon the end of her words. "You should know as much as me, that you can't fool somepony as experienced as I. I've seen your dreams, and I know what you and your friends did Nightmare Night.

Just like the many other countless fools, you and your friends went snooping around where you shouldn't have, and, as a result, paid the ultimate price for your curiosity. However, the one thing that surprises me is that you somehow escaped from wherever the curious ponies that go onto that property end up during a blood moon.

A much rare occasion, given most don't return. That assures me that you are definitely stronger than most ponies, but it also raises problems. You know of things you shouldn't, and that, in my eyes, is forbidden. I can see your ambition, rage, and grief in your eyes, but I assure you that whatever you are planning won't save your friends."

"You don't know that!" Flora pleaded. "I've seen things you haven't, and there's a potential chance to finally end those monsters' continued reign! We both have been hurt by the Apple family, so I know how you feel and what you desire! If we work together, we can potentially destroy what killed our loved ones!"

Flare chuckled again.

"Hurt? Hurt isn't even the right word for what that family did to me! In less than a week, I had to fill my mother and aunt's shoes, come to terms that they were gone, and become an adult while I was still a child!

When I removed that massacre from history, I swore to never go back, and I intend to keep that promise, dear. Ponies like you are the reason I still remember the sight of my own mother being carried out on a stretcher as stiff as a statue!

I'm sick of ponies bringing the past back, and I'll do everything I can to make sure that massacre stays where I left it the day I forged the Abolishment Decree! Even if that means putting ponies like you away where your voice will never be heard!"

Flora knew now that she was talking to a wall, but a ping of emotion stung her heart at the tone of her ruler's voice. She was angry, sad, and hurt deeply, and the massacre was the cause of it all. She wanted to help Flare to heal her clear aching wounds, but, judging from the demeanor of her princess, it didn't seem like she could.

"Princess, please listen to me! I feel your pain and know that what the Apple's did to you was horrible, but trying to hide it isn't the answer! My friends were all killed in horrible ways at their hooves, and now, I can't go a day without feeling guilty! The true way to overcome and bury those monsters forever, is to do what we can to end their reign!

If we work together, I truly believe we can free your mother and aunt's souls, but only if you give me a chance!"

Flare's demeanor didn't change, and upon her response, Flora knew her words had fallen on deaf ears.

"Enough! Flora Bloom, there's no way to stop what's already been done, because the Apples' and my mother are already dead! Death is everypony's final stop in this world! There's no afterlife or alternative worlds!

The farmhouse was demolished decades ago and left to rot! That's where it ended and will remain! The only reason the Apple's have any existence, is because ponies like you can't keep your mouth shut! But don't worry, you won't have to worry about that old horror story anymore, because you won't be around anymore to speak another word of it!"

She had lost her sense of direction, and was intending to end Flora's life, to which Flora started to get scared, and started to look for any escape routes. Flare may have been experienced, but Flora wasn't just going to lay down and die like a coward.

Before Flare could get close enough to potentially kill her, she rolled across her bed, towards the only window in her room. She didn't think and just threw all of her strength into the window with her right front hoof, shattering it and giving her an escape.

Several cuts had adorned her leg, but the pain was all but mute to her in this fight-or-flight situation. She had move fast before Flare could act, having surprised her with her actions, so she carefully moved past the sharp edges to avoid a severe cut, and attempted to lunge out of the window.

Just as she was about to catch air, she was stopped by a tug on her back leg; the one that had been broken during her night in Hell. She felt the bone break upon the tug, causing her to yelp in pain, and upon her collapse to the floor, her breath was knocked out of her.

She had a hard time regaining her focus, allowing Flare to corner and pin her. She was pinned by some magical force too powerful for Flora to even budge, scrambling and looking around for anything to use as a weapon.

It was no use, and as she awaited her fate, the sounds of her friends' screams and Applejack's taunting laughter played in her mind like a deafening ring.

"I must say, you definitely are full of surprises, Flora Bloom," Flare spoke as if she were in a casual conversation. "Too many surprises for my liking, and enough for me to not have any hesitation in silencing you permanently.

It was a worthy effort, dear, but we both know you are no match for a princess. Now, without further ado, I bid you farewell, my subject."

The pressure from the magic grew to the point where she couldn't breathe, the force slowly starting to crush her lungs and airway. It was just like when she was a foal on the night that her father had nearly killed her, black dots starting to fill her vision and her body starting to ache from the lack of oxygen.

Her vision started to fade like a movie's end, and her life started to flash before her eyes in rapid succession, up until she heard something beyond her growing void.

"Hooves up!"

Then the pressure released all at once, and the void started to dissipate, and, through her blurry vision, she saw a familiar face.

"Step away and put your hooves behind your back!"

It was Detective Blackhorn, his gun drawn and pointed at Princess Flare.

Flora had been saved from assured death yet again, her lungs burning for air as she regained her breath and vision. Flare didn't resist and backed away from Flora, causing Blackhorn to jump in surprise upon seeing his matriarch as the culprit.

"Princess?" He questioned, still holding his guard. "What are you…why are you…

Flare didn't even flinch, to which Flora knew wasn't a good sign.

"That's what they always ask before they die," she spoke coldly. "Before they get what they deserve."

Before Blackhorn could even act, he was engulfed in a magical aura and flung hard into the wall several times. The sickening sound of his nose breaking was audible upon the hits, blood immediately staining the wall and carpet. Blackhorn had no hope in his situation, already nearly dead upon his collapse to the floor.

He attempted to crawl from the mad matriarch, but was pinned by her before he could even move. Then, once Flora saw the gun in a magic aura, she knew Blackhorn was finished.

She couldn't do anything, being too weak from her initial suffocation, and upon the sound of a boom and her ears ringing, she knew he was dead for no reason except doing his job.

After Flare had finished her business with Blackhorn, she walked back over to Flora with the gun still in her magic. Flora assumed she was just going to kill her, up until she spoke something else.

"I have other ways of silencing you, and killing you will only raise trouble for me. Farewell, Flora Bloom. Enjoy the rest of your life behind walls so thick that nopony will be able to hear you ever again."

With that, Flare finished her work with a simple swing to Flora's head with the pistol, knocking her out.

Present day

That had been enough for Sassy to draw her conclusion; the gun had been placed to make Flora look like the shooter, and through manipulating the case, had landed her with a sentencing of four murders she didn't commit.

Flare had twisted everything to her preference, and now, Flora rots in a cell where her voice is permanently silenced from everypony outside these walls.

All except for Flora's one hope in this place; the one pony who believed her and had worked out a plan behind the scenes to get her out tonight.

"It's wrong what she did to you, and knowing how stubborn you can be, I know you can do this," Sassy said, returning back to reality from her thoughts.

Flora nodded with a smile.

"Is everything set to go? We've only got one shot, so we have no room for error," Flora asked.

"Everything's ready. There won't be any issues, because I've made absolute sure that these assholes will not get in our way," Sassy assured.

"Alright Sassy. Just to be sure, let's go over the plan one more time. First, I make a distraction to end me up at the nurse's station, then from there, you sneak me out in a laundry basket and drop me down one of the chutes that leads to the side fence that you've purposely left unlocked."

Sassy followed from there.

"By then the medication I've slipped into the main staff's drinks will kick in, and I'll be able to get outside to meet upp with you and to ride you all the way to Ponyville."

Flora nodded, grabbing her juice box and holding it in the air as a practical toast offering. Sassy followed, grabbing her chocolate milk and holding it up high.

"To a long awaited vengeance," Flora stated.

"To your hopeful success in hanging that bitch," Sassy contributed as well.

Their beverages touched, and the two mares enjoyed a long sip of their respected drinks, everypony among the entire lunch area completely unaware of what was to come within only a few more hours.