In the dead of the night, everything in Ponyville was silent. Neither the sound of hooves on cobblestone nor the sweet sound of the crickets interrupted the silence, and there was nothing but silence from the Everfree Forest to Sweet Apple Acres. Except all was not quiet here, at least for a certain filly.
Applebloom lay in her bed restless. Unable to get some sleep stared at the ceiling hoping the boredom would eventually make her fall into a deep sleep, but that was not the case. She wondered why she wasn’t able to fall asleep. There was nothing particularly wrong at the moment and everything was normal, for Ponyville standards anyway, so there was no reason she couldn't get any sleep. She rolled over onto her side with a sigh and glanced towards her window. The curtains were shut and the window was closed. She slowly slid out from under the covers and walked over to the window, pushing aside the curtains and opening the window. A cool breeze was blowing, rustling every leaf on the hundreds of apple trees that spanned out for miles in front of her. A calm, soothing feeling washed over her as she stared up at the night sky, her eyes tracing back and forth between the stars.
Snap
The sound of a twig snapping broke the silent night as Applebloom’s head turned to face the noise, but the darkness made it hard to see more than a few feet from her window. She turned away from the window and grabbed a flashlight from under her bed and turned back towards the window. She turned the light on and shinned it outside, slowly scanning the trees to see what could’ve made that sound. She scanned a few times, seeing nothing except apple trees. She was about to turn her attention towards the stars once again, when she heard another twig snapping. She looked towards the sound and dropped her flashlight out her window. Standing where her light had been, and was still pointing despite having fallen two stories, was a tall stallion staring up at her from the tree line.
Applebloom could barely believe what she was seeing. The stallion appeared to be wearing what she assumed to be a suit, but she wasn’t too focused on that. The thing that sent a chill down her spine was the face. She couldn’t tell if it was the lack of lighting or her own mind playing tricks on her, but she couldn’t see any details about the face. Not the outline of eyes or the movement of lips. As she continued to stare at the stallion, her head began to throb and hurt, as strange static buzz growing louder in the back of her mind. She reached up and grabbed her head before collapsing to the ground. The pain grew more and more intense as the static grew louder. She was one the verge of screaming when as quickly as it came, it was gone. She slowly climbed back onto her hooves and looked out the window, only to find the stallion had left.
She stuck her head out the window, her eyes instantly being drawn to something illuminating from the tree the stallion had been standing by. She reached her head out further to get a better view, her curiosity turning to fear as she saw a sheet of paper hanging from the tree. She could barely make out what appeared to be writing on it, but couldn’t see exactly what it said. Curiosity was starting to get the best of her as she grabbed a length of rope from her wardrobe, one she had left there in case of a Crusader rope emergency. She tied it off to one of the posts of her bed and tossed the other part out of the window, knowing that sneaking out the window was the only way to avoid being caught by her sister.
She slowly climbed down the rope and landed on the soft, cool dirt below. She looked around and grabbed her flashlight from the ground in front of her. She gave the tree line a quick scan and stayed on high alert as she made her way to the tree. She made sure to keep her eye out for anything out of the ordinary, but if there was something she didn’t notice it. Once she reached the tree, she sat her flashlight down and reached up to grab the page. One she pulled it down from the tree, a sense of dread washed over her. She looked down to read the note, her dread growing as she saw that it said Help Me. It looked like it had been scribbled out by a young foal or somepony who was in great danger or afraid of something. Who needed help? What was the page doing here? Why was that pony here? Could he be the one who needed help?She thought as she continued to stare at the note.
Applebloom turned away from the tree to head back to her room when she heard what sounded like hoof steps coming from behind her. She turned towards the sound, at first seeing nothing. After a moment or two of watching, the stallion appeared before her, stepping out into a patch of moonlight. It stood taller than any stallion that she had ever seen. She noticed how skinny he was, and how the dark suit and tie he wore seemed to be too big for him even though it fit perfectly. Her eyes darted up to the face, and her heart sank at the ghostly white, featureless head that stared down at her. As she started to back away from the pony, the pain began to slowly seep back into her mind. Each step she took away from the thing seemed to make the pain grow worse.
Applebloom felt the flashlight brush against her hoof, and she wasted no time in grabbing it and darting off through the trees, the flashlight in hoof and the page hanging from her teeth. She looked back and saw the stallion had disappeared from sight, but she kept running. Even the thought of that thing being there was enough to send her into a fear filled sprint. She didn’t even bother to use the rope back to her room. She burst through the front door and slammed it shut; locking each lock as tight as it would go, even moving a stool up under the latch to keep anyone from opening it. She raced upstairs and to her room, untying the rope from her bed and tossing it out the window and locking the window. She raced over and dove under her bed when she heard hoof steps coming up the stairs towards her room. She stared horrified at her door as it started to open.
“Leave me alone, you monster!!” She said as she tossed her flashlight out at the open door.
“OW! Applebloom! Why the hay did ya’ll throw a flashlight at me!?”
Applebloom looked out from under her bed towards the door, relieved to find Applejack standing outside in her hallway, rubbing her head from where the flashlight had struck.
“Thank Celestia, it’s only you Applejack.” She said as she raced over and gave her sister a hug.
Applejack pushed her away and glared at her. “What the hay do you think you’re doing? Running through the house and slamming stuff this late at night. Ah thought we were being robbed, or that a wild animal had gotten in here!”
“Sorry sis, Ah just got scared.” Applebloom said sheepishly.
“Scared? If ya’ll were scared ya could’ve just came to me. Ya didn’t have to run through the house like a mad mare!” Applejack said. “What even scared ya?”
“Well, Ah couldn’t sleep so Ah opened my window and was looking at the stars. Then Ah saw a stallion standing outside by the trees and then my head started hurting and.. well then Ah saw a piece of paper on the tree and ah went out and grabbed it. Then that pony started chasin’ me so ah ran inside and locked an’ barricaded everything.”
Applejack looked down at her sister and could see how terrified she was. She was mad that Applebloom snuck out this late at night, even more so when there was a strange pony running around the orchard. She couldn’t believe that Applebloom would do something so stupid for lack of a better word.
She kneeled down by her sister and hugged her. “It’s ok little sis, everything is alright. But next time you see something like that, don’t go out and mess with it. Come get me and ah’ll take care of it.”
“A-alright.” Applebloom said as she nuzzled up against her sister.
“Ya’ll wanna sleep with your big sister tonight?” Applejack said. Bloom wasted no time in giving AJ a nod. Applejack stood up and started to walk to her room. “Well come on, we got a long day ahead of work ahead of us.”
Applejack walked off to her room, but Applebloom stayed behind for a moment. She looked over at the note that sat on her bed, then a last glance to the window before she walked off down the hall to her sister’s room.
Maybe ah’ll feel better tomorrow. She thought to herself.
Maybe…
