Sunset and the Long Horse
The first thing Sunset noticed was that her home smelt like cinnamon. It was strange but not bad as the former Unicorn never had a problem with cinnamon.
Then the dreams started.
One-night Sunset found herself standing at the top of her stairs and what looked like the top half of a horse’s skull staring at her from the bottom. She could see a white neck attached to the skull, bending out of sight. Sunset tried to tilt her head to see the horse’s body, but all she saw was darkness.
“Um… hello…?” Sunset slowly said as the horse looked up at her. “Is there something you want?”
The horse didn’t say anything. The only response Sunset got was the sound of its neck bones creaking.
For what felt like forever the two just stared at each other. Sunset had the strong feeling that the horse was trying to tell her something but just couldn’t.
Then Sunset jolted awake as her alarm clock ringed. She slammed it hard in annoyance to shut it up.
(‘Uh… what a strange dream…’) she groggily thought as she sat up and stretched her arms. (‘But still… it was only a dream…’) she added to herself as she got out of bed.
… Not knowing that this was far from over.
“Oh, come on!” Sunset muttered as her locker got jammed for what felt like the umpteenth time today.
It had been one thing after another ever since she got up that morning. First, she got splashed by a passing car on her way to school, then the school’s front door was slammed into her face and misfortune kept happening throughout the day.
“You’re having a rough day, huh?” Applejack, who was standing behind Sunset, asked in concern.
“Whatever…” Sunset grunted as she was finally able to yank the locker open to grab her stuff, “I’m just glad it’s over.”
“You sure this isn’t some magic doodad messing with ya?” the farmgirl asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Honestly Applejack, I’m just having a bad day.” Sunset said as she closed the locker and turned around to leave.
“Well… ok…” Applejack said, sounding unconvinced, “But, just remember that if something is happening you can tell us.”
Sunset stopped for a moment, wondering if she should mention the strange horse she dreamt about last night, but decided not to. After all, a dream can’t affect the real world.
(‘It can’t. Right?’) Sunset silently questioned herself as she and her friend left the building.
“You again?” Sunset asked from the top of the stairs, looking down once more at skeletal head and long neck of a horse.
(‘Was it that long last night?’) Sunset wondered as she could have sworn that the horse’s neck was longer than it before and it had more bends in it.
The only answer to her question was the sound of cracking and a silent gaze from the horse.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Sunset began to sweat out of nerves.
“Did you cause everything that happened to me today?” Sunset asked in concern.
Creak, creak, crack, creak.
Sunset clenched her fists, “Are you from Equestria?” she asked in slight anger.
Crack, crack, creak.
“This is getting us nowhere.” Sunset said, rubbing the bridge of her noise, “I can’t understand you and I’m not 100% sure if you can even understand me. AH!”
The creaking and cracking got louder and it was hurting Sunset’s ears.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! CRASH!
Sunset threw the alarm clock across the room in annoyance. She was breathing hard and was still sweating. She could still smell cinnamon.
“What is going on?” she muttered rubbing her head. Then she looked up at the smashed remains of her alarm clock, “Oh, well that’s just perfect.” She groaned to herself.
“Do I even what to know?” Applejack asked as Sunset walked up to her at the school’s entrance, a complete mess.
Sunset’s right eye was black, she was holding an icepack to her head, one of her sleaves was torn, she was dripping wet and overall, she looked miserable.
“Just one thing after another.” Sunset almost growled as she readjusted her icepack, “First I broke my alarm clock, then I got this!” she pointed at her blackeye, “When I was taking a shower. Then a neighbour dropped a planet pot on my head!”
Applejack looked at Sunset’s head, “Then where is the dirt from the…?”
“I’m getting to that!” Sunset half snapped, “Then on my way here, my sleeve got caught in a doorway and torn. Then, just a block away from here, I was splashed by another passing car!” Sunset stopped and began to take deep breaths to calm herself down.
The two of them had been walking inside and to their lockers during Sunset’s rant.
“Finished?” Applejack asked, her arms crossed.
“Yeah…” Sunset panted out, “Sorry for snapping at you. I’m just really…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say.
“Stretched thin?” AJ offered.
“Yes, that.” Sunset said.
“Sunset…” Applejack put her hands on her hips and used the tone of voice she only used if Apple Bloom had misbehaved, “Are you sure that-?”
“Yes, I’m sure that this isn’t magic.” Sunset interrupted the unfinished question.
Applejack was about to ask something else when the bell for next period rang.
“Sorry AJ, got to go, don’t want to be late. See ya!”
And with that Sunset ran off, almost bumping into an open locker as she did. Applejack just stared after her.
“That girl is hiding something.” She muttered as she began her way to her own class, “Why does she think that she needs to handle everything by herself?”
“Alright, that’s it!” Applejack said the next day, grabbing Sunset and dragging her behind the bleachers during PE.
“Hey! Applejack! What’s the big idea?” Sunset asked when the farmgirl let her go.
Applejack just put her hands on her hips and looked Sunset up and down.
The black eye from before hadn’t healed yet, Sunset said that she had been splashed by ‘yet another’ car on the way to school, her hair was a tangled mess of twigs and leaves, some kid had blown an airhorn right in her ear, and she even had some bruises on her back now.
“Sunset, whatever is going on with you, it’s getting worse. Just talk to me.” Applejack’s tone was almost as sharp as a kitchen knife, “You’re making me and the others worry. You don’t have to deal with this on your own. So, please, talk to me.”
Sunset was ready to just say that it was nothing and she was fine, but the look on her friend’s face made her stop, before sighing in resignation.
“Ok, I’ll tell you. I’ve been having these weird dreams every night.” Sunset explained, running a hand through her messy hair, “I have no idea what it’s all about. It’s always the same one. I’m in my home, at the top of the stairs and that… thing is staring up at me.”
“What… thing?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I have no idea, that’s the problem.” Sunset said as she began pacing back and forth, “It looks like a horse, or at least a horse’s skull on a very long skeletal neck. It never says anything. The only thing I get out of it is the sound of its bones cracking and… AJ? What are you doing?”
Sunset stopped pacing when she noticed that Applejack had gotten her phone out and was looking something up on it.
“Sunset…” Applejack held out her phone to show her friend, “Is this what you saw?”
Sunset’s eyes widened when she saw a picture of the thing that was haunting her dreams. The caption read, the Long Horse.
“That’s it!” she exclaimed, pointing at it, “I’ve been seeing that in my dreams for days now! Just one question…”
She looked at Applejack who raised an eyebrow.
“What is it?”
Applejack facepalmed.
“It’s called Long Horse.” She explained, “Those cracking sounds you keep hearing are his way of communicating.”
“So, this thing is trying to talk to me, I gathered that much already, thanks.” Sunset said, sounding annoyed, then she straightened up, “Wait… is this thing responsible for everything that’s been happening to me lately!?”
“No! No, quit the opposite actually.” Applejack quickly explained, “Long Horse doesn’t cause problems, it tries to warn people about them. And, Sunset, if Long Horse has been appearing in your dreams like this, then that means-”
“What are you two doing under there!?” Came the sound of their coach yelling in their direction, making both girls jump.
“Nothing! Coming back now!” Sunset called back, hurrying back to the field, she looked back at her friend and said, “You can explain this thing to me later AJ, we’ve got to get back to class!” before running off.
Applejack stared after her before sighing and putting her phone away and following her while finishing what she was saying under her breath.
“Something bad is going to happen.”
That evening, Sunset was at her wits end.
The idea of seeing that horse in her dreams again, and what might happen the next day as a result, was scaring her.
She hadn’t had the chance to talk to Applejack after PE. They had had separate classes after and the farmgirl was almost dragged home by her grandmother before she could tell Sunset anything.
Vice-Principal Luna had also asked her to come in early to make a start on the upcoming Halloween decorations, and Sunset had excepted out of habit. She preferred the name Nightmare Night, but Sunset was in no place to complain about naming.
“If I don’t sleep it won’t get me.” Sunset muttered to herself, making a cup of coffee to help her stay awake. She needed it as she was already feeling tired form everything else that had happened to her the last few days.
“I don’t know what you want Long Horse…” Sunset muttered before taking a sip of the hot beverage, “But I won’t let you get me. You hear me!” She spoke louder, “You won’t get me!”
“Keep it down!” came the angry voice of one of her neighbours.
“Sorry!” Sunset called back, before saying in a whisper, “You won’t get me!”
Hours passed and Sunset was struggling to keep her eyes open.
The moon was high in the sky and the sounds of night drifted into the room. They did nothing to help her fight off sleep.
She had already run out of coffee and her energy was running on fumes. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost midnight.
Sunset slapped herself in the face.
“No! No sleeping!” she snapped at herself in a whisper. She might be trying to fight her drowsiness, but her neighbours weren’t. “If you fall asleep Long Horse will get you…”
Sunset had tried as many things as she could think of to keep herself awake, without bothering her neighbours. Listening to music through headphones, reading some graphic novels, organising and reorganising the books on her shelfs, and anything else she could think of.
Another wave of drowsiness washed over Sunset and she rubbed her eyes, wincing as she accidently rubbed her black eye.
“Ow! Come on Sunset!” she told herself, slapping her cheeks. “Don’t fall asleep! You can do this!” she walked over to the sofa and sat down, “You can do this! You can… do…”
The sofa was so soft that Sunset couldn’t stay awake any longer, and she passed out.
Sunset groaned as she opened her eyes. She rubbed her head to shake off the remnants of sleep.
Wait…
“I fell asleep!” Sunset sat up straight, looking around in a panic.
Sunlight was coming through the window and as Sunset saw the clock and the time, she freaked out.
“I’m 3 hours late!” She yelled, running out of her apartment, not bothering to change clothes or brush her teeth, but she remembered to quickly lock her door before running out of the building.
The fire-engines were the first thing Sunset saw when she arrived.
“What the heck…?” she muttered as she staggered towards a crowd of people she recognised. Her heart was racing from running all the way from her apartment to here. “What happened?” she asked once she was close enough.
“Sunset!” Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy cried out, almost knocking the girl over as they hugged her.
“Woah, woah, woah! What’s going on?” Sunset asked, gently patting Rarity and Fluttershy’s backs, Pinkie was on her knees with her arms around Sunset’s waste as she sobbed.
“Something caused a fire in the school.” Luna explained as she made her way over to Sunset, looking flustered, “I don’t know what started the fire and I don’t know why you weren’t here on time, but it’s a good thing you didn’t get here sooner. The spot I wanted you to work on was hit the hardest.”
Sunset’s eyes widened in shock, she was in such a stupor that she didn’t notice Rarity and Fluttershy pull away from her in slight disgust.
“Oh my, no offence Sunset, but did you wash this morning?” Rarity asked, her noise wrinkled.
Sunset finally looked over herself and realised that she was still in her pyjamas.
“I was up late last night and overslept. I was in a hurry to get here.” Sunset admitted, rubbing the back of her head, “Oh and Pinkie?”
“Yes, Sunset?” Said girl asked, looking up.
“You can let go of me now.”
“Huh?” it took a second for Pinkie to remember that she was still holding onto Sunset’s waist, “Oh! Right! Sorry.” Pinkie let go and got to her feet.
“Well, safe to say, that until this mess is cleaned up…” Luna began explaining out loud to all the nearby students, “All school activities will be postponed.”
Some teens looked happy, others disappointed, Sunset just went into deep thought, trying to figure out if Long Horse had something to do with this. She was snapped out of it when a hand landed on her shoulder.
“How about you come over to my place to get cleaned up, sugercube?” Applejack asked as she began pulling Sunset away from the crowd, “And maybe you can explain why you were staying up so late.” She added with narrowed eyes.
Sunset gave a nervous chuckle.
“You were staying awake to stay away from Long Horse?” Applejack almost demanded.
“Keep your hair on! I was on edge for hours! I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Sunset admitted as she dried her hair while sitting on AJ’s bed. She was wearing some of the farmgirl’s clothes for the time being. “And what was it you were trying to tell me yesterday?”
“I was trying to tell you that Long Horse wasn’t the cause of everything happening to you!” Applejack snapped, standing in front of the other girl, “He was trying to warn you about them!”
“…wait, what?” Sunset asked, pausing in her hair drying and looking up.
“Long Horse only appears when something bad is going to happen and he tries to warn someone about it.” Applejack explained, calming down. “He’s never hurt anyone; he’s even been called the Patron Saint of Forewarning.”
“Wow…” Sunset breathed, “Now I feel bad for thinking so badly of him.” She slumped her shoulders.
She looked up when Applejack sat next to her and wrap an arm around her shoulders.
“Well…” the farmgirl said with a smile, “There is a way to appease him, if you want to apologise to him.”
That night, Sunset walked down her stairs towards the now much shorter Long Horse, who was waiting for her at the bottom.
“Hey…” Sunset slowly said, shifting uncomfortably, trying to avoid looking into Long Horse’s empty eye sockets, “So…” she finally looked at the skeletal dream being, “You were just trying to warn me about all that weren’t you?”
Long Horse gave a silent nod.
“In that case…” Sunset reached into her pocket and pulled out a bright red apple, “Sorry for mistaking your good intentions for something sinister.”
Long Horse moved towards the offered fruit and it rotted and withered away. The bones in its neck softly cracking.
“If you ever show up again, I’ll be sure to listen a bit more closely.” Sunset said with a smile.
Long Horse just made a few more cracking sounds before fading away, until it vanished.
“All good?” Applejack asked with a smile the next morning at Sugercube Corner.
Sunset still had her black eye, but it was healing nicely and should be gone in a few days.
“No cars splashing me, no plant pots falling on my head, nothing.” She said with a smile, “If it wasn’t for Long Horse, then things might have been a lot worse.”
“Told you that he wasn’t evil.” Applejack said taking a bite of her treat.
“Yeah, you did.” Sunset admitted, fiddling with the straw of her drink, “I should have told you what was going on earlier. It would have saved me a lot of stress.”
“True.” Applejack nodded with a knowing smile, “But if you hadn’t been so stressed, you wouldn’t have stayed up late and you would have got to school on time and got caught in that fire.” She chuckled, “Even if he’s not straight forward, Long Horse always knows what he’s doing.”
“Huh… you’re right.” Sunset realised, eyes wide, “I never thought that this world could have something like that.”
“Don’t go thinking that Long Horse was the only one.” Applejack said with her eyes closed, “With things like Siren Head and Cartoon Cat running around, we could use a little forewarning.”
Sunset was silent for a second, then…
“How many of these things are there?”
The End
Author's Note
Had this in the works for ages! So glad to have it's done! I also have no idea how to write Applejack's accent, so sorry about that.
🎃 Happy Halloween! 🎃
