I was standin’ at my apple cart, tryin’ to pass the time on what was shapin' up to be one mighty borin’ day. Not much excitement, just a customer here and there—nothin' special. As usual, I was doin' my best to sell the finest apples in all of Equestria, makin’ sure every pony knew they were gettin’ the best.

Then, outta the blue, I saw Mountain Camp gallopin' like he was runnin' from a pack o' timberwolves. That was odd, seein' as how he was supposed to be campin’ with his colt, Safe Camp, somewhere safe in the Everfree for the whole week. He looked downright terrified, but he was in such a hurry headin’ towards the town hall that I didn’t think much of it at first.

I went back to sellin' apples, cheerin' myself up with the good harvest. These sure are the best apples, I thought, as I sold a few more here and there, happy to earn the bits that keep Sweet Apple Acres goin' strong.

A couple hours passed, and things had been goin' smooth—well, as smooth as it gets on a slow day—when I finally sold off an entire barrel o' apples. As I started gettin’ ready to set up another, I heard someone hollerin’ my name.

“Applejack! APPLEJACK!” The voice was loud, breathless, desperate. I turned to see Mountain Camp barrelin' straight toward me, lookin' worse than a rooster who got his tail stuck in a door.

“Howdy there, Mountain! Ya lookin’ for some apples?” I asked, a bit nervous from his wild appearance. “Don’t you worry now, I’ve got plenty. I was just about to set up the next barrel!”

But he wasn’t listenin’. His eyes were wide, full of fear like I ain’t never seen on him before.

“Applejack! There’s no time for apples—there’s a horrible monster in the Everfree!” Mountain’s voice was shakin’, and he looked so panicked that he slammed his hooves down on my apple cart, rearin’ up like a mad pony.

“Whoa there, easy now!” I said, reachin' out and placin’ my hoof on his to calm him down. “Now listen here, Mountain. If you don’t calm down, all you’re gonna do is make me nervous too. Now take a deep breath, and tell me what happened. I’m listenin’.”

He glanced at my hoof, and it seemed to help some. Slowly, he lowered himself back to the ground, takin’ a few deep breaths.

“Sorry,” he said, his voice still shaky. “It’s just… I’m so scared, Applejack. I don’t know what else to do after what happened yesterday in the Everfree.”

“Now, now, it’s alright. You can talk to me. What happened in the Everfree that’s got ya so worked up? You said somethin' ‘bout a monster?” I was skeptical, of course. Sure, the Everfree's full o' strange creatures, but Mountain Camp was an expert. He could handle manticores, timberwolves, and cockatrices—so what in Equestria could scare him this bad?

“Yes! I swear, I saw somethin' terrible, something I’ve never seen before!” His voice trembled, and his body was still tense. “I’ve seen manticores, timberwolves, and cockatrices. I know how to avoid them, even scare them off if need be. But this… this thing, this monster, was unlike anything I’ve ever come across!”

Now he had my attention. “A monster? In the Everfree? What did it do? Why was it so scary? You’ve dealt with plenty of beasts before, why would this one be any different?”

“It’s not just any beast, Applejack! This thing was... It had a mind—something dark and twisted. It was... smart, Applejack. Too smart.”

“Smart?” I tilted my head, not sure I was followin'. “Now hold on, ain’t timberwolves and manticores already kinda smart? Timberwolves hunt in packs, and manticores know how to pick their fights.”

Mountain shook his head, eyes wide, breathin’ fast again. “No, no, not like that. Those creatures have instincts, sure, but this thing… it thought, Applejack. It was cunning, like you or me—but with an evil logic behind it.”

I frowned, tryin' to keep calm. “Alright, so what exactly makes you think this monster was intelligent? What did it do that was so different from the other critters?”

By now, a few ponies had gathered ‘round, listenin’ to Mountain’s story, curious like me. He seemed to take a breath, gatherin’ himself, but his eyes stayed fixed, like he was still seein' whatever horrors had unfolded in the Everfree.

“It was its behavior,” Mountain began, his voice lower now but still full of terror. “It was calm. Too calm. You see, when you’ve been in the Everfree as long as I have, you learn how animals act. You can predict their moves. But this… thing... it wasn’t like that. Its actions were calculated. Logical. As if it was planning something. This monster…”

He trailed off, his hooves trembling again, and I couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down my spine.

“Well… can ya at least describe it? What did it look like?” I asked, trying to keep him on track, though the way he was actin’ was startin’ to make my skin crawl.

Mountain’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Imagine a bear… but smaller, thinner, like it hadn’t eaten in weeks. And instead of fur, it had… clothes.” He shuddered, his eyes cloudin' with dread. “It had clothing, Applejack—clothing soaked in dried blood. I saw it standin' there, holding a massive, sharp rock in one of its strange, spidery appendages. It didn’t have claws, but it was holdin’ that stone like it was part of it, with those long, thin… things.”

He raised his hooves as if showin’ me, but it didn’t make much sense to me. "What do you mean, spidery?"

He nodded, eyes wide. “Thin, long, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Its forelegs didn’t end in hooves—they had these… things, like soft spiders or thin branches. It held that stone so naturally, Applejack, like it knew exactly what it was doing. And the worst part… the stone and its appendage were already stained with blood.”

I could feel my breath hitchin’. I leaned forward, my voice trembling despite myself. “Wait, wait… you came face to face with this thing? What happened? How did you end up so close?”

Mountain swallowed hard. “I… I don’t know. I thought it had already left the campsite, so I went back to retrieve our gear. I had Safe Camp wait and look for the creature while I went to gather our supplies from the tents.” His voice quivered, on the verge of panic again.

I could see he was gettin’ worked up, so I nudged him a little. “Alright, alright, let’s take it from the start. What exactly happened? Start from the beginning.”

Mountain closed his eyes, his whole body shakin’. “It was our second day of campin'. Safe wanted to play by the river, so we crossed using the stones, keepin’ to the safer paths. I had a bad feeling, though. You learn to trust those in the Everfree, especially when I saw a dozen rabbits runnin’ toward us—terrified.”

“Rabbits? You thought it was timberwolves, then?” I asked, tryin’ to piece it all together.

“At first, yes. But timberwolves stink of rot and decay, and there was no such smell in the air. No, what I smelled was faint, like ash or smoke. Timberwolves don’t hunt rabbits in packs. Something else was comin'.” He shuddered, his voice goin’ even quieter. “Something I’d never known before.”

“...So you crossed the river to get away from it?”

“Yes,” he whispered, his eyes vacant as if lost in the memory. “I thought the river would be safe. But I had no idea what kind of horror was comin’ our way…”

I handed Mountain a fresh apple, tryin' to help him regain his strength. But whatever he’d seen, it had rattled him down to his core.

“Well, after a few minutes, Safe was still playing by the river, unaware of the danger. I stayed alert though, watching... Then I saw it.” Mountain’s voice shook as he continued, his eyes distant as if reliving the moment in his mind. “It wasn’t like any predator I’ve ever seen. Most animals, they cover their scent, they try to blend in with the forest. But this thing… it didn’t have fur. It had… clothing, Applejack, like what ponies wear, but soaked in old, dried blood.”

I had to swallow hard at that. Somethin’ about clothes and blood made me feel sick to my stomach. Creatures in the Everfree weren’t no strangers to danger, but clothes? That was somethin’ else entirely.

"Clothes covered in blood..." I muttered, shakin' my head, tryin' to make sense of it. "Mountain, yer sure about this?" I asked, hopin' maybe, just maybe, he was wrong.

“Yes… absolutely sure.” Mountain’s voice grew quieter, his breathing quickening as he recalled the events. “It approached our camp—our tents. I could tell right away it was... different. It wasn’t acting like an animal, Applejack. It didn’t just wander into our camp like some curious creature. No, it looked around, like it was... claiming it.”

"Claimin' it?" I repeated, feelin' my heart skip a beat. "Like, what, like it thought it owned the place or somethin'?"

Mountain nodded grimly. "Yes. It yelled. No reason, no warning. It just screamed into the sky, and then… it did something worse. It knew how to use the tents, Applejack. It knew what they were for. It didn’t just rip them apart—it opened them, went inside, searched through everything as if it was looking for something... not just food."

I felt my hooves lock in place. “Yer tellin' me this thing—this creature—was smart enough to figure out how to open yer tents? Did ya leave ‘em open, or…?”

Mountain shook his head, his voice growing more frantic. “No, it opened them itself. Like it had done it before. Like it knew what it was doing! And it didn’t stop there. It stayed inside the tent, Applejack, for a long time, rummaging around as if it was hunting for something more than just food. Safe, he noticed too. He asked me what it was, what we should do…”

Mountain’s voice cracked then, his eyes welling with tears. “And… for the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to tell him. My own son, lookin’ up at me for answers, and I had nothin’.”

Mountain’s voice cracked, and I saw him fightin’ back tears. His son, his little Safe Camp, askin' him for answers, and he didn’t have a clue what to say. I felt a lump rise in my throat, tryin' to imagine what I’d do if Apple Bloom was there instead of Safe. “Mountain… Ah get it. It’s mighty hard not knowin’ what to do when somethin' like that happens, but—”

He cut me off, his voice sharp and panicked. “No, Applejack, you don’t get it. You weren’t there! That thing… when it came out of the tent and saw us… it knew we were watching. It knew. It turned its head and checked behind it, just to make sure we weren’t looking at something else. No animal does that. No beast has ever acted like that.”

I could feel the sweat startin' to build under my hat. My hooves shuffled nervously, but I had to ask. “So… what happened next? What did it do?”

Mountain’s breath hitched, and his voice started shakin’ even more. “It… tried to talk. Not in our language, but it made noises, like it was trying to figure out how we speak. It gestured with its strange limbs—long, thin appendages, like legs but smaller, more... dexterous. And… and Safe…” He stopped, his voice catchin’. His eyes welled up, and I knew what was comin’. I braced myself. “Safe… thought it was friendly. He wanted to go near it.”

“Mountain!” I gasped, my heart jumpin’ into my throat. “Ya can't be serious. Safe tried to go near that thing?”

He looked away, tremblin’ all over. “Yes… He… he thought it was something harmless. Something to play with. And it… it knew how to attract him. It knew how to lure in a foal…”

I felt a chill go down my spine, colder than any wind I’d ever felt. All I could think about was Apple Bloom, wonderin’ if she’d be drawn in just the same. “This thing… sounds like it’s from Tartarus itself. Why didn’t ya run right then an’ there?”

Mountain’s face darkened, his eyes turnin’ hollow. “We didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t attacking us. I thought… I thought maybe it would leave. But then, it disappeared into the trees. We waited… waited for a while. But I couldn’t leave the camp behind. I went back to pack up, to take our things before it returned. Safe stood guard, like I asked…”

He paused, his breath catchin’, and when he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper. “And that’s when it came back. Safe… Safe said to me, with a happy voice, ‘Daddy, the monster’s here.’ ”

I could barely breathe. “And then what? What in tarnation happened?”

Mountain’s voice trembled so bad I could hardly make out the words. “I ran out of the tent as fast as I could… and there it was. It stood over my son… painting him with blood.”

The crowd around us gasped, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. “Paintin' him… with blood?” I managed to whisper, my voice feelin' weak.

“Yes… from a bird it had killed. It was holding the dead bird in its strange limbs, its head crushed. And it… it smeared the blood across Safe’s coat, like it was marking him. And my son… my son was laughing, thinking it was a game.”

I couldn’t think, couldn’t move. The horror of it all washed over me like a wave. I barely heard Mountain as he finished.

“I… I kicked it. Hard. Right in the stomach. Then I grabbed Safe, and we ran. We didn’t stop ‘til we got home. I washed the blood off him, but I can’t wash the image from my mind. I... I came to you, Applejack, because... I don't know what to do. I don't know how to protect him.”

I felt my throat go dry, my hooves tremblin'. “Mountain… Ah—Ah don’t know what ya expect me to do. Ah’m just a farmer…”

Mountain’s eyes were wide, desperate. “Your family lives so close to the Everfree… Please, Applejack… you have to know something that can help us. Anything.”

I swallowed, my voice barely above a whisper. “Ah… Ah’m sorry, Mountain… Ah can’t…”

Author's Note

And so we return to this story! I’m truly glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate all your lovely comments.

Many of you have shared your thoughts on Fluttershy’s behavior, mindset, and ideals, and I completely understand. I will work on this further to add more depth to her hypocrisy and double standards regarding the carnivorous animals she cares for.

In any case, I’m grateful for the interest in this book that I conjured up from thin air.

Any ideas, comments, concerns, or suggestions will be warmly welcomed!