Living the Dream

“Oh…fuck…”

While Sweetie Belle might not have exactly shared the orange pegasus filly’s profane appraisal of the experience, she certainly had to agree with the awed sentiment behind it. After her magic finished floating off the wrap-around headset from over her eyes and setting it down, the unicorn gingerly―but covertly―checked beneath herself on the cushion that she was laying on. Once she’d confirmed for herself that nothing genuinely tragic had happened, she let out a relieved sigh and a tittering laugh that betrayed how quickly her heart was beating. “I am actually surprised I didn’t wet myself,” she admitted. “Because I know I did it in the simulation at the end…”

Laying in the treehouse beside her, Applebloom was setting down her own Dream Machine headset with her hooves, casting the ivory-coated colt with them a withering glare. “Fer the record, Jess…that was really messed up.”

“If by ‘messed up’, you mean: ‘metal as fuck’!” Scootaloo countered before leaping off her cushion and tackling her coltfriend to the floor with a sloppy but passionate kiss. “You really outdid yourself this time~”

“Heh, yeah, well, you know,” the young unicorn licked his lips and cleared his throat. “The Dream Machines do most of the work,” he admitted in a slightly abashed tone. “I just set a few of the parameters and such.

“Most of it’s driven by your own thoughts and fears and stuff.”

“No kiddin’,” the earth pony filly said with a small shudder. “Honestly, weren’t nothin’ scarier fer me ‘bout all that than the whole ‘losing the farm’ thing.” She took a steadying breath. “I feel like I need ta ask AJ an’ Granny ta see our books jus’ so I know it weren’t all real…”

“Well I feel like I need to ask why Jess was Sweetie’s coltfriend and not mine,” the pegasus said with a tone of mock indignation as she looked accusingly between her friend and the colt she still had pinned beneath her. “Is there something going on I should know about?”

“Uhhh…” Jessant’s brain appeared to lock up as he struggled to come up with the ‘correct’ answer to his fillyfriend’s question.

“Er, um,” the unicorn filly squirmed uncomfortably for a moment before her eyes locked onto Applebloom and she spied her salvation. “What about Applebloom losing her virtue to Tender Taps in the orchard?” She blurted out hastily. “I think all of us would rather hear about that!”

“Actually, yeah,” Scootaloo’s eyes darted to the earth pony, “what was up with that? I didn’t know you two were an item.”

“We’re not!” Applebloom insisted through the sudden flush in her cheeks. “We haven’t even held hooves!”

“Really?” The pegasus asked skeptically. “Because it sounds like you’re ready to skip right past hoof-holding and let him buck you sill―”

“You were a filly-fooler!” The earth pony blurted. The treehouse was silent for a long moment as the four friends all stared at one another in shock. Then they all cracked into laughter almost simultaneously.

“I’m not sure how much stock we should be putting into a toy anyway,” Jessant commented as he gently moved his fillyfriend aside so that he could get back up onto his hooves, giving her a quick peck on the cheek as he did so. He began to gather up all of the headsets and the central console that they connected to and returned them to their box.

“It was really cool of your parents to get you one of those,” Scootaloo said as she set about collecting the pillows that they’d been using.

“Yeah, well, you know Dad; Celestia forbid he doesn’t have whatever everypony in Canterlot is fawning over…” The last was said with a note of annoyance, which went unremarked on by the fillies. Each of them was well aware of how self-conscious the colt was about his parents’ opulent wealth and how brazen they were about flaunting it.

“I mean, Fancy Pants isn’t that bad about it,” Sweetie Belle defended hesitantly. “Rarity seems to like him.”

The colt winced at the mention of the name and gave the unicorn a sour look. “Please don’t bring up your sister around me.”

“Sorry.” The alabaster filly turned away, looking abashed.

“Hey now,” Scootaloo shifted to place herself between Sweetie Belle and her coltfriend, favoring the latter with a critical look. “You know she didn’t mean anything by it. And you know that Rarity isn’t―”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” the colt huffed, waving off an argument that he’d heard before. “I know it, you know it; but Mom doesn’t know it. Or at least she doesn’t believe it,” he all but spat. “Her name’s practically a curse word in our house.

“So just…please don’t say it? Hearing it aloud never leads to anything good back home…”

Sensing a profound shift in mood that needed to be remedied, Applebloom took it upon herself to redirect the conversation that her friends were having. She cleared her throat to get their attention. “We should probably get going. AJ said she wanted us at the farm before seven to help with the maze.” She started heading for the treehouse’s exit.

Her three friends agreed that there was nothing to gain from continuing with the topic at hoof and followed her outside into the early evening Ponyville air. It wasn’t long before they spotted the signs of the farm’s preparations for Nightmare Night. Pumpkins, paper bats, bedsheet ghosts, and cardboard Mares-in-the-Moons were arrayed all along the fence leading up to the barn.

Across the street was the hay bale labyrinth which the four of them had helped Applebloom’s elder siblings assemble over the past week. They’d all put a lot of work into it and were proud of what had been accomplished. The four young ponies all shared a chuckle as they noted that what they’d made would be way scarier than the corn maze that they’d explored in the Dream Machine.

“Yeah, well, Sweetie was right that it was just there to make you let your guards down for the Nightmare Moon vampony hoard attack twist at the end,” Jessant admitted. “I didn’t put that much effort into it on purpose.”

“I’m still wrapping my head around you putting a Dream Machine simulation inside a Dream Machine simulation!” Scootaloo said, resting a wing over the back of her coltfriend as she pressed in close to his side. “That was trippy aye-eff!”

“You kind of did catch us all with that one,” Applebloom admitted, giving the colt a good-natured hit with her hoof to the shoulder.

“I want to know how I knew how it worked,” the unicorn filly asked, her brow furrowed. “I’ve never used either kind of Dream Machine before, but somehow I knew what needed to be done? How?”

Jessant shrugged nonchalantly. “They work by interacting with your thoughts,” the colt explained. “And the interaction goes both ways. I mean, that’s how it makes you believe you’re seeing a house, or hearing a sound, or anything else,” he pointed out. “It has to send your brain the information. There’s no fundamental difference between the machine telling your brain that you’re seeing a blue house, and it sending you knowledge on how to work some random piece of equipment.”

“I mean, I guess…” The white unicorn filly still sounded uneasy. “It just feels really weird that I knew something I couldn’t have known about something that wasn’t real. Like, it still feels real to me right now…I remember using one of those fake Dream Machines with you to―erm…uh…”

“Build a house of cards with?” Scootaloo teased, poking her tongue out at her friend as she reminded the other filly about the paper-thin deflection she’d made earlier.

“Yeah. That.” Sweetie cleared her throat and was very pointedly not looking in Jessant’s direction.

“Tell me about it,” Applebloom said, her own eyes darting furtively towards the farm. “Ah swear I recall sittin’ with a lawyer pony while they told us all about how we couldn’t sell Zap-Apple Jam no more…” She shook her head as though to clear away the intrusive thoughts.

“Really? Weird.” Scootaloo said in something of a more tight-lipped fashion than her words suggested she should have. “I certainly didn’t have my head filled with all sorts of knowledge and memories that I can’t explain that caused me to question my heterosexuality. Nope.” Her wing visibly tightened around her coltfriend. “I like kissing colts. And doing other things with colts. And I certainly don’t know what mares taste like―kissing mares is like!”

Scootaloo abruptly stopped in her tracks, grabbed ahold of Jassent’s face with her wings, and brought him in close for an uncomfortably long kiss. At least, it was uncomfortable for the two fillies standing nearby. The colt looked to be enjoying the pegasus’ attention quite thoroughly.

When she was finally forced to come up for air, the burnt orange flier leaned her forehead against his and smiled. “Sorry. Just…needed to reaffirm a few things about myself.” She cleared her throat and then gave his nose a little peck along with a wink. “Just a heads up: we’re going to affirm a few more things later tonight~”

“...Okay.”

Applebloom rolled her eyes and looked over to exchange a glance with Sweetie Belle, only to find the alabaster unicorn nibbling a little too longingly at her bottom lip as she regarded the pair of lovebirds. When Sweetie became aware of the earth pony’s stare and her raised brow, the other filly looked promptly at her hooves. “Sorry,” she said under her breath so that only Applebloom could hear. “Just…wondering how much the simulation version would be like the real thing…”

The buttercream filly shook her head. “Yeah, we’re never usin’ that thing again,” she declared fervently. “Way too realistic.” She started rubbing at the back of her neck absently…and may have checked for teeth marks while she did so.

“Let’s go,” she said, gesturing for her friends to follow her once more.

The four of them finally reached the barn a couple minutes later. The brightly lit interior was filled with even more Nightmare Night decorations, along with several tables brimming with snacks, candies, and plenty of cider―both soft and hard, for foals and adults respectively. Applebloom’s older brother and his wife were bringing in the last few trays of treats from the house.

“Hey there, Applebloom!” Sugar Bell waved at her sister-in-law as she waddled up and gave the younger earth pony a firm hug, which the filly returned; though she did so mindful of the pregnant mare’s condition. When they parted, the purple mare pointed a hoof towards the corner of the barn. “I put your costume out over there for you.”

“Thanks, Sugar. Hey, you know what? Why don’t you send Salted Caramel out to help the rest of us with the maze? I know he’s really excited for it.”

The older mare cocked her head as she regarded Applebloom with a confused expression. “...Who?”

“Salted Caramel? Your son?” The buttercream filly snorted. She stuck out her hoof. “This tall, green coat, can’t catch a hoofball to save his life but Celestia bless ‘em he tries?” She allowed herself a chuckle as she recalled the little colt’s most recent efforts.

Then she noticed that everypony was staring at her with stark confusion, even her friends. Sugar Bell attempted an uneasy laugh as she looked around to try and gauge if she was being subjected to some sort of practical joke. When the older mare saw no sign that anypony else seemed to know what was going on either, she once more looked at the smaller earth pony. “Bloom…Big Mac and I don’t have a son. Yet,” she added with an aside glance at her husband, who was wearing a small knowing smile of his own. She then placed a hoof over her rounded belly. “Our daughter is about a month or so off though.

“Remember? Apple Butter? After your mother?”

Applebloom’s face blanched. “Right. Right!” She let out an uneasy laugh. “Sorry. Got confused. Don’t know what I was thinking, heh.” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “Right. Yer still expecting yer first. Y’all don’t have four foals…”

“Four? Goodness,” Sugar Bell shared another look with her husband. “I think that’s just a tad ambitious for us.” Big Mac was looking a little paler as he swallowed and mouthed the number. “We’ll see how this one goes first, alright?” There was a vigorous nod from her husband.

“Yeah, no; long day,” Applebloom excused herself to go and collect her costume. “Just got some things confused in my…head…” Her words trailed off as the young earth pony beheld the black and red cape with a high upturned collar hanging off of a pitchfork tine. Her mouth went instantly dry.

“Right…” She heard herself say under her breath as she reached out a shaky hoof for the garment. “Ah was goin’ as Jackula this year.” The earth pony glanced uneasily over her shoulder at her friends, who were all dining their own costumes. They didn’t seem to feel anything was amiss.

Before she lost her nerve, the earth pony pulled down the cape and tossed it over her back, quickly fastening the collar around her neck. The filly became aware of something solid pressing against her ribs. She patted the cape with a hoof and felt something in the fabric. She sat back on her haunches and lifted the cape, spying a pocket sewed into it on the inside. Dipping her hoof into it, she withdrew a set of plastic vampony teeth. Again Applebloom felt her mouth go dry. Her other hoof went reflexively to the back of her neck. She swallowed and licked her lips, gingerly setting the false fangs down on a nearby table.

“Maybe…not the fangs this year,” she said sheepishly to herself.

Her friends were all wearing relatively simple costumes as well. A pointed hat, black dress, and fake nose made Scootaloo a suitable witch. A bedsheet with a trio of holes transformed Sweetie Belle into a passable ghost. And an eye-patch and tri-corner hat with a skull on it denoted Jessant as a pirate. Their costumes donned, the quartet of friends left the barn and crossed the street for the hay bale maze.

“You feeling okay, Applebloom?” The orange pegasus watch asked her friend.

“Ah really don’t know, Scoots,” she admitted, massaging her forehead. “Ah swear I remember all four of Big Mac’s an’ Sugar Bell’s foals. Ah was right there when Caramel said his first word! Ah remember Bailey’s first day o’school!

“Ah was there; it happened―!” Her words caught in her throat and the earth pony needed to stop, sit down, and take a long shuddering breath to collect herself. “...But none of it was real. Was it?”

“I…” Now it was Scootaloo’s turn to pause too. “I remember them having four foals too,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t remember any details though. I think…I think the machine just wanted me to know enough to not question your story in the simulation?”

The pegasus glanced over at her coltfriend. “Jessant wasn’t in there though, so he’d know what was in the simulation and what’s real, right?”

The ivory unicorn colt nodded and sat down beside Applebloom, rubbing a comforting hoof along her back. “Sorry, AB; but you don’t have any nieces or nephews. Not yet, anyway.”

Applebloom took another shaky breath and let it out slowly. “Right. No nieces or nephews yet.” A ghost of a smile touched her lips now. “But boy am Ah lookin’ forward to them now! Makin’ real memories just like these…not real ones.” Her features instantly soured. “Ah really hope those simulation memories fade though.”

“Me too,” Scootaloo intoned ruefully a second before she cringed. A second after that the pegasus all but shoved Applebloom aside as she again sought to ‘reaffirm’ herself with her coltfriend again. The bedsheet that was Sweetie Belle simply shook her head and sighed before resuming heading for the maze. At least they’d have the evening’s festivities to keep them occupied and hopefully distract their thoughts.

An hour later, all four friends had their hooves full guiding foals and their parents around the maze. The air was filled with the pleasant sounds of foalish laughter, punctuated by the occasional enthusiastic scream of feigned and elated terror. It was plainly evident that a great deal of fun was being had by all and Applebloom was finding herself feeling a great deal better than she had been earlier.

She was just ushering another family into the entrance of the maze when a ghosticorn trotted up. “Heya, Sweetie; what’cha need?”

“Do you know where the extra barrels of soft cider are kept?” The bedsheet asked. “There’s just the one left in the barn that I can find. I’d ask Big Mac, but he’s somewhere in the maze with Sugar Bell.”

“Yeah, sure. There should be more barrels in the barn’s cellar,” the earth pony said, pointing back across the road.

“Neat, thanks!” Sweetie Belle turned around and started to trot away, only to trip and fall a few steps later. “Oof! Oww, what the hay?!”

“You okay there, Sweetie?” Applebloom asked with concern as she knelt down by her fallen friend.

“My costume got caught on something,” the unicorn said as she picked herself up off the ground, promptly causing the both of them to hear the sound of tearing cloth. “Oh, fiddlesticks! My costume!”

Applebloom bent down to get a better look at whatever it was that had managed to mangle her friend’s costume. There shouldn’t be anything particularly dangerous out here, as she and her older siblings had spent most of the first day building this maze specifically scouring the ground for anything which might injure young foals wandering through.

It was easy enough to find the culprit, as it was still clutching on to a piece of white linen. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both cocked their heads in shared confusion as they beheld a tiny little black tendril of a vine adorned with thorns. Applebloom was fairly certain that it hadn't been there a day ago. Or even an hour ago considering she’d been wandering all over this area and hadn’t noticed it before.

“Um…Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle began in a nervous tone, “is it just me, or does that look a lot like one of those vines from the time Discord―”

Whatever else the unicorn was going to say was cut off as the otherwise innocuous bit of bramble suddenly shot up out of the ground like a striking cobra, ensnaring the unicorn by the neck with several deft wraps. The ghost filly let out a strangled cry of fear and pain as her hooves shot up to her neck and tried desperately to remove the constricting vine. The pristine white sheet was staining scarlet where the sharp thorns were biting into her neck.

“Sweetie!” Applebloom cried out, bolting towards her friend, trying frantically to bite and tear away the black tendrils with her teeth. She fought through the impulse to scream as she felt the razor sharp thorns cutting into her tongue and soft palate. “Er’ve gert yer, Swerts!” She yanked and pulled and ground her teeth on the vines, doing all she could to saw through them and free her friend. All the while the unicorn filly continued to let out choked attempts to plead for aid.

The earth pony was forced to relent though, spitting out the blood that was filling her mouth from the lacerations that she was incurring. She tried to go back in and resume biting the vines, but the pain was just too great. It felt like her mouth was on fire. “Sumpuny! Halp!” She called out, her words slurred as the result of a tongue that felt like it had already been half cut out of her mouth by the cursed brambles.

It was only now that she realized her pleas were not alone. They were merely joining a macabre chorus of terrified screams for assistance. The buttercream earth pony instantly realized that they were not faced with a singular remnant of Discord’s seeds. It was a full on resurgence!

Applebloom turned her attention back to her unicorn friend and once more tried to tug at the vine holding her throat. The bedsheet was more red than white now, thanks to a mixture of both Sweetie Belle’s and her own blood. The choked gasps for air were all but silent now, the unicorn’s hooves pawing more lethargically at her neck.

“Hol’un, Sweats! Hol’un!” Applebloom bit down on the vines once more. Her eyes stung with tears from the pain as she felt the thorns biting into her gums. She was sobbing. Partially because of the intense pain that was clawing at her mouth, but mostly because she could feel that she was about to give up. The agony she was feeling was just too much. Her jaw muscles simply refused to heed her calls to use their full force in the wake of the grievous injuries she knew she was inflicting on herself with the effort.

“Hol’un…plez…” Applebloom was openly weeping now. Because she could feel that Sweetie Belle was no longer trying to draw breath. As though conscious of their cruelty, the earth pony filly felt the vine release its grip on her friend’s corpse and slither away. She glared at it through her tear-filled eyes. She challenged it to attack and kill her too.

But it did not. It merely hung there in the air, mocking her. Reveling in her grief as she held her dead friend in her hooves.

“Applebloom!”

The filly’s head turned at the sound of her sister-in-law and spied the rotund earth pony mare cantering awkwardly towards her. Her simple orange costume, which encircled her belly and made her look much like a pumpkin with purple legs, showed thin bloody tears along its side where she’d clearly narrowly avoided being snagged by other vines deeper within the maze.

The jet black tendril looming next to Applebloom quivered and seemed to almost turn to regard the newcomer, as though aware of the newcomer. Fear gripped the young filly’s heart. “No! Sugar Bell, stay back!” But it was too late.

The vine next to Applebloom was not the first to strike. Instead, a second length of thorny bramble snaked in from behind the pregnant mare and darted at her. Sugar Bell collapsed mid stride as the vine snagged her from behind, wrapping itself around her midsection just in front of her stifles. She gasped in pain, instinctively turning to look at what had hold of her. That was when the other vine struck.

The bramble next to Applebloom lunged for its hobbled target, ensnaring the older pony at her shoulders. Sugar Bell cried out again, her attention bouncing between both areas where she had been caught, as though unable to decide which was the more pressing concern.

Then both vines went taught.

“No!” Applebloom cried out.

Something snagged her cannon, sending a bolt of pain shooting up through the filly’s leg, accompanied by a sickening popping sound as her hip slipped from its joint. She collapsed to the ground with a gut-wrenching scream. Ahead of her, Sugar Bell was also screaming as both of the vines which had hold of her continued to pull in opposite directions. Applebloom tried feebly to pull herself towards her sister-in-law, but all she accomplished was to dig shallow furrows in the ground with her hooves. Pained sobs wracked her body as she continued to mumble out pleas for help through her sliced up mouth.

Something was slithering along her throat, but she paid it no mind. Her thoughts were wholly on Sugar Bell. Even when she felt the vine tightening around her throat, she continued to stare, bleary-eyed, at the purple pony. All the while, the Sugar Bell’s screams reached a frantic pitch as her body was drawn fully taught…and still the vines continued to pull with all their might.

Only now did Applebloom close her eyes. Her body quivered with silent sobs as her own windpipe was slowly closed off. She was faintly aware of a dampness in the fur around her neck. No doubt she was bleeding now in much the same way that Sweetie Belle had been. Those were just passing thoughts though. The majority of Applebloom’s attention was still focused on the sounds of Sugar Bell’s frenetic wailing. Her cries for Big Mac to come and save her―to save their daughter.

Applebloom refused to open her eyes though. She knew that Big Mac would not be coming. Nopony would be coming. Everypony else was already fighting for their own lives…or already dead.

She sobbed as she heard her sister-in-law’s weeping too. As she heard the shrill shriek of a mare reaching the limit of what her brain could process by way of pain. As she heard the sudden cessation of those shrieks amid the wet tearing of flesh and the popping of bone. Applebloom kept her eyes firmly shut through it all and wept.

…Until her own life finally left her too.