There were a lot of constants in Ponyville. While mysterious disappearances were one of them, the town was generally a happy place. Smiling ponies often met up to have dinner with their friends, and the odd time that someone would move in, a bright, bubbly, pink mare made sure they had the best welcome. Ponyville had some strange aspects to it, but at least there was one thing that everypony could count on.

Farther out from the main populated area of Ponyville, past the school and along a long path was a family-owned farm. Sweet Apple Acres, boasting, as the name implies, acres upon acres of apple orchard. The farm and family who owned it had been what sprung Ponyville’s existence, and so everypony who lived in the town had the Apples to thank for many things.

Upon visiting the farm, one would often meet at least one of the Apples working diligently on the crop. They supplied most of the town’s food, and were eager to sell it back to the community. Ask any of the four Apples who lived at Sweet Apple Acres what they thought about Ponyville, and they’d say they loved living on the farm. Once the stallion of the household came back from his delayed delivery trip, and the younger foal came over her case of severe heatstroke, the farm was back to regular operations, and somehow, the harvest was even better than before.

Yes, anypony who happened to visit Sweet Apple Acres could really see just how hard-working and happy the family was. There were never any bad harvests—thank Celestia for the good land and earth pony magic—and so the town never had to worry about it. Things always seemed to work out for the Apple family. They were friendly and cheerful, as always.

On the farm, as the month drew close to an end, however, the Apples prepared for a family event. They’d need a new scarecrow to keep the pests away.

Author's Note

And that’s the end.

First, I wanted to say hey to all my new watchers! Glad to have y’all on board. I got a bunch of people following me after I started uploading Off to the Races and I also got a bunch of new readers on Sweet, Sweet Record o’ Mine which is always nice to see :). Thanks for the watches, it means a lot.

So funny story about this story. Right now, it’s January 24th, 2021. On January 22nd at approximately 2am, I was struck with inspiration. I wanted to write something. I loaded up a prompt generator and I got “a story about a dark secret” and suddenly BAM. An idea INSTANTLY.

I started writing, and because I am a pantser, there was no planning, just writing. Skip to approximately 3pm on January 24th, 2021 and I finish writing the story. I have a TTS read it back to me, I adjust a few things. I send it to one of my friends to read. They enjoy it, it’s done. I draw a cover.

I debate whether or not I should upload it, but then the two little demons on my shoulder tell me yes I should upload it, so I do. And here we are.

I didn’t have anyone proofread this. I edited it myself, it there are any little mistakes well then oops. My friend who read it said it was okay, but they weren’t looking for errors or anything. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I hope you enjoyed this fic! I don’t usually write stuff that can qualify as grimdark, but I love reading it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Hope you enjoyed :)

Edit: Thanks to Ice Star for A. actually noticing this story disappeared and B. making me feel good enough about it to republish. :)