The main room inside Mitta’s house was very dark, and to Apple Bloom, quite spooky. Then again, this was a lone house in a mysterious village deep within the Everfree Forest. It wasn’t exactly as sunny as the name of the town implied. That was the vibe Apple Bloom felt as soon as she entered the building where she saw a pony’s skeleton lying in a fireplace the day before.
All was silent as the filly walked throughout the house. The only thing she could hear were her own hoofsteps clopping quietly against the hard, wooden floor. It looked like any plain, wooden house, not counting the fact the indoors were unnaturally so dark. The expectation for something to just pop up out of nowhere sent chills up Apple Bloom’s spine.
There was a creaky floorboard just in front of her, though she did not notice it due to the combination of the darkness that made it hard to see and her trying to be aware of whatever else was around her. When she stepped on it, it made a long, creaky sound, which made Apple Bloom jump and scream in fear.
Though her scream only lasted half a second, it echoed around her as if she were in a large hallway, though strangely enough, she was in an almost empty room. Based on past experiences, she thought it looked like the living room of the house, but it looked anything but living. Some of the things she noticed were framed pictures on the wall. Though the darkness made it hard to see, the light that peered through the windows provided more than enough to see what they were.
The light made it only visible enough to see two of the three frames. The first one showed a picture of the entrance of Sunny Town. In the middle of the area, seven ponies were seen posing for the camera. Five of the seven ponies were the same ones Apple Bloom met earlier, when she first arrived in Sunny Town, and only a few minutes ago. One of the other two ponies looked like the mare she saw in Roneo's house the day before, crying and saying things about something happening again and again.
But the one remaining pony, Apple Bloom did not recognize at all, and from the angle the picture was taken, it was hard to get a good look at her. However, a clearer image of that pony could be seen in the second frame, which Apple Bloom shifted her attention to. It showed the two aforementioned ponies side by side sitting in front of a house.
Both mares had grey coats, similar to Grey Hoof. One of them had dark red ruffled hair that went down to her shoulder. She looked rather young, yet somewhat older than most of the ponies she met, even Grey Hoof. Next to her was a grey filly, about two years older than Apple Bloom as far as she could tell. Her hair was more neat than the other pony's, orange with a plain yellow streak going down the middle.
The two ponies looked genuinely happy together, but Apple Bloom was anything but. These may have looked like happy memories, but the filly looking at them thought that the fact they were kept inside such a depressingly dark house told her there was something behind the meaning of the images. Apple Bloom had second thoughts about coming inside in the first place, and contemplated going back.
Before she could do so, she heard hoofsteps coming from the doorway she entered the room from. This alarmed her, and so she scrambled for the door on the opposite of the room. She managed to open it as she saw a hoof out of the corner of her eye. She let out a loud scream before hightailing it out of the room.
As soon as she left the room, she ran through the hallway to her left, which wasn't as dark as the rest of the house, but not exactly light either. To her left, she spotted the door out of the house. She bolted straight for it, her small heart beating rapidly from the fright of being chased. But right before she could reach it, the dark figure from before stepped in through an adjacent doorway, blocking access to it. That was the only chance Apple Bloom had at escape, and this pony was blocking it.
"S-Stay away from me!" she cried, backing away while the pony stepped forward. With the way its eyes were looking, it looked like it was haunting the filly with the intent to kill. After hearing Apple Bloom's voice, the figure stopped in its tracks. Apple Bloom was confused as to why it didn't keep walking toward her, but she was still more frightened than surprised.
"You're the filly... the new one that has been forced to join Sunny Town."
Apple Bloom gulped, shivering in place while staring at the pony, who she could now confirm was a mare by her voice. She would speak if the mare weren't intimidating her with the creepy atmosphere and mood.
"If you're wondering who I am, think about the only pony you haven't formally met yet. Besides, I am the one who really tried to protect you, unlike Grey Hoof..."
Apple Bloom didn't know what she meant by that, until she started to think hard. Putting what Grey Hoof said about this house earlier, plus the fact that she met every pony in Sunny Town, except one. Then it came to her.
"Y-You're Mitta...? The one who tried to save me?" Apple Bloom's voice was shaky when she muttered those words, but the mare knew better than to scare the filly any further. She nodded without a word, and Apple Bloom stopped shivering.
"Yes, I'm Mitta. I was the one to let you escape Sunny Town when Grey Hoof and the others tried to chase you. Unfortunately, you didn't make it, and they converted you anyway. That makes you the second filly to suffer such a horrible fate..."
Mitta hung her head in sorrow, causing Apple Bloom to lift her own head in wonder. She seemed less frightened now, though the dark atmosphere still made things not very comfortable. She figured it was safe to move forward, so she did, seeing as Mitta was friendly, unlike the others. At least, she was friendly in Apple Bloom's sense of the word.
"S-Second filly? Was there somepony else?"
Mitta sighed, and walked forward Apple Bloom before walking past her. "Follow me. It is only fair that I show you, as well as give you information about this place."
Being the naive filly she was, Apple Bloom followed the older mare, unsure of where this was going. She had no idea what else to do, and if this was the mare that tried to save her, it was much better being with her than with Grey Hoof and the others that actually tried to kill her the other night.
After about a minute or two of walking, the pair ended up in a moderately-sized room. It was filled with a single window on the wall opposite the door, a bed on both side walls, and a chest past the foot of the bed on the left. Unlike the other ninety percent of the house, this room actually had a good amount of light.
Mitta dragged her hooves over to the window and stared out of it. Apple Bloom followed, but was unsure about the grey mare. Something also caught her attention, and that was the second bed. If Mitta lived alone, then why was there a second bed? That question formed in Apple Bloom's mind.
“Umm, Mitta? Why do ya have a second bed? Is there somepony else who sleeps here that Ah haven't-”
She was cut off by Mitta putting a hoof over her mouth and giving her a cold stare, which brought back the frightened feeling Apple Bloom felt earlier. Her eyes were like daggers shooting into Apple Bloom's face, but as quickly as they appeared, they softened down. Mitta retracted her head and sighed in a low tone.
“Sorry. That bed... belonged to my daughter.”
Apple Bloom tilted her head. “Belonged?”
Mitta shook her head sadly. She faced the bed and walked toward it, putting a hoof on it. “Yes. She is no longer with me. She was murdered.”
Apple Bloom gasped upon hearing the sudden news. If she was horrified earlier, she was devastated now. “What happened to her?” she asked.
“I'm going to tell you a story about my daughter, and the curse of Sunny Town. Get comfortable, because this is a long story.”
Apple Bloom hesitantly nodded before walking toward the bed and jumped up onto it. Once she planted her rump onto the soft sheet, Mitta cleared her throat.
“About one hundred years ago, everything in Sunny Town was peaceful. Grey Hoof was always obsessed with his parties, Roneo was his natural goofball self, Starlet was as timid as ever, Gladstone was the ever so charming stallion, Three Leaf was the cheeriest pony around... all that sounds like today, doesn't it?”
Apple Bloom slowly nodded before Mitta shook her head in disagreement. “That's because they all tried to forget the past. I remember it perfectly, and it still haunts me today. The difference between then and now is that back then, I was actually happy. We also had one other pony living here...”
“Your daughter?” Apple Bloom asked, taking in all the information.
“Yes, her. Her name is Ruby. She has a grey coat like mine, and beautiful, orange hair with a yellow streak as well as gorgeous yellow eyes.”
Apple Bloom's eyes widened. That exactly matched the description of the other pony she saw earlier in that second picture frame. That had to mean that the picture had to be taken about one hundred years ago since that was how long ago Mitta said Sunny Town was peaceful.
“She made you happy, didn't she?”
“She was my everything,” Mitta answered while taking her hoof off the other bed. “I loved her dearly, and she was the number one thing that ever mattered to me. Of course, all the other ponies were my friends, but Ruby stood high above all else in importance to me. That bed you're sitting on was her bed.”
“So that's why this bed's here,” Apple Bloom replied after looking down at the bed.
“Back then, both of us were the happiest of ponies. I loved her as a daughter as much as she loved me as a mother. She used to always have fun with all of the others. Sometimes, she would bake stuff with Three Leaf, or listen to a story read by Starlet. She always enjoyed Grey Hoof's parties, too. That is, until the worst party to happen occurred...”
Apple Bloom was scared to even ask what happened to the poor filly that was Mitta's daughter. But she didn’t have to, for Mitta opened her mouth to speak more.
“It was one day when Grey Hoof threw another one of his random parties. He does it every two weeks on Saturday. I was helping out Three Leaf with her garden. Back then, she was my best friend, but look at her now. A cruel monster, just like the rest of them.”
Apple Bloom didn't have to be told that twice. She witnessed that nightmare already. Three Leaf was the first of those repulsive zombies she saw, and it was a mental image she would never forget.
“Anyway, while I was helping her, Roneo ran up to us, asking if either of us have seen a small ruby. It used to be his most prized possession, and it was also, what he calls, a good luck charm. He would always carry it with him wherever he went like it was his life force.”
Apple Bloom didn't exactly have a prized possession of her own, unless the bow in her mane counted, but she could understand why anypony would love keeping something so close to them around all the time.
“I haven't really seen it, and neither did Three Leaf. Roneo started to panic, going around and turning everything topsy-turvy just to find it. Well, at least in his own home. Outside, he was just asking everypony if they have seen it. Even my daughter Ruby haven't seen it. She was just going around, acting like her cute self. Sometimes, she would walk up to Gladstone and ask him a few random questions, which he was always delighted to answer. But even he did not know where Roneo's ruby went.”
While Mitta was explaining her story, Apple Bloom noticed another picture on the wall about two feet over Mitta's bed. It showed a picture of Mitta and Ruby sitting happily next to each other with Three Leaf posing in the background. It seemed Mitta liked to keep around things that reminded her of life before that fateful day.
“It wasn't until a few minutes later that my precious little Ruby came up to me, holding a beautiful ruby in her mouth. It turned out that was what Roneo had been looking for. I told her to give it to Roneo like a good filly should, so I began to follow her to Roneo's house. When we reached it, there he was sitting on his rump, picking at the grass on his front lawn like a depressed loner. You wouldn't believe how ecstatic he was when Ruby presented him with his gem, and she ran back to me with a cheery smile. Then, something happened...”
Apple Bloom returned her attention to Mitta, whose voice was uplifting for the past few minutes. The happy memories seemed to have distracted her from the earlier spookiness of the situation she was in before entering the room.
“I praised Ruby after helping out Roneo, and after we hugged, I noticed a small picture on her flanks. We looked at it closely to see that it had been a picture of a magnifying glass.”
Apple Bloom's ears perked up suddenly. A small picture of a magnifying glass on her flanks only meant one thing.
“She got her cutie mark!” she shouted, which surprised Mitta to the point of making her jump a bit. Who could blame her? The room they were in was mostly quiet save for Mitta's voice, which wasn't very loud to begin with.
“She got what?” Mitta asked while she rubbed the sides of her head.
“Her cutie mark,” Apple Bloom explained. “It's a mark a filly or colt gets on their flanks when they discover what makes them unique. Like, their special talent. It's somethin' Ah've been tryin' to get for a while now.”
Mitta stared at Apple Bloom for a few seconds with her mouth agape as if she heard the most surprising thing. Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow when she saw Mitta hadn't answered her.
“Are you ok?”
“It's just that...” Mitta started, “that mark has been seen as a disease for a long time. A long time ago, our ancestors received many of these cutie marks before they all acted crazy. They all started doing things those marks represented. It was out of control.”
Apple Bloom coughed to get Mitta's attention. “Cutie Pox. It's a disease alright, where a pony gets a lot of cutie marks out of nowhere and starts doin' those things. There is a cure, though.”
“That's what it was?”
After Apple Bloom nodded to her question, she facehoofed, thinking just how stupid she and the rest of Sunny Town must've been for not realizing this mistake.
“If we had known that, my daughter would not have been lost... and this curse would not have befallen Sunny Town.”
“What do ya mean?” Apple Bloom was now curious. She wanted to know what Mitta had actually meant by this curse she kept bringing up, though she had a pretty good idea what exactly she meant. She just didn't know how it was caused.
“After she received that mark... or, 'cutie mark' as you say, the other ponies saw it, and they thought she was going to fall under the influence of that disease. They wanted to get rid of her.”
Apple Bloom gulped. She wasn't going to enjoy hearing what she was going to hear next.
“I tried to defend her, but the others were claiming that she was going to suffer the disease, and was going to spread it to the rest of us. What did they want to do? They wanted to banish her to the forest to fend for herself. She didn't want that, and neither did I. Unfortunately for us, none of us knew that this disease actually had a cure. I tried to tempt them to change their minds, but none of them were listening to reason. They still wanted her gone, just so they wouldn't get the disease themselves.”
Apple Bloom was visibly shaking with fear again. Her teeth were bared against each other, and she had an expression of worry on her face. It was as if she was listening to a scary story, except that the story actually was real, and not just another made up tale.
“Just then, Ruby ran past everypony and they all gave chase. I tried to protect her, but I suddenly tripped on a small rock while they all ran past me. I didn't suffer any sort of bruising, but my front right leg had a bit of pain. Either way, I got up and kept going just to get to my Ruby. She eventually led them to the small shack at the back of the town.”
Apple Bloom knew what shack Mitta was talking about. It was that same house she saw that pony skeleton in, just before Sunny Town became a shadow of its former self.
“When I got there, they all had my little Ruby cornered, telling her to leave and to never come back. She was just innocently shivering there in that corner, scared for her life. I faced Grey Hoof, and told him that we didn't have to do this... we didn't have to banish her anywhere. Perhaps there was more to that mark then what we heard about our ancestors.”
“B-But there is more!”Apple Bloom retorted. “It's like Ah said, they are cutie marks. They represent a pony's special talent.”
Mitta shook her head mournfully. “He just wouldn't listen. To make matters much more drastic, since neither I nor Ruby would listen to him, he ordered the others to... attack Ruby, and kill her. That way, the so called 'disease' wouldn't have a chance to spread.”
Apple Bloom gasped very audibly. Mitta could hear it perfectly, but she anticipated it. Apple Bloom had never heard of any sort of case where a pony was killed, much less by the hooves of another pony.
“Before I could do anything, Roneo, Starlet, Gladstone, and even Three Leaf, started to pound down on my daughter... she screamed and yelled, telling them to stop over and over again, but they kept up their assault, no matter what. I begged them to stop, and even tried to interfere myself, but they ignored me and Grey Hoof kept me held back. He even went so far as to push me down to the floor.”
Mitta lowered her head and bared her teeth. Apple Bloom could hear soft sobs coming from her as the grey mare shuddered in the memories. She was feeling rather sympathetic to this, and her heart suddenly felt like it was beating slightly slower than usual.
“After they stopped, she just laid there, but she looked horribly disfigured... some of her limbs were crushed or bent out of shape, and she was bruised all over. Both of her eyes were blackened, and her nose was bleeding profusely... she was whimpering in the corner in her greatly injured state... and I cried out to her as she was calling me...”
Apple Bloom slumped down on the mattress as she was hearing the story. This was too sad, depressing and heart-wrenching to listen to, and it was making her heart ache with melancholy.
“Right before my eyes, Grey Hoof looked down at Ruby, lifted up his hoof... and struck her hard on the head. I could hear nothing but a hard stomp and the fracturing of her skull. Then the room fell silent as we all stared at her now dead body. That last blow did her in...”
The more Mitta told of the story, the worse her voice got. She was visibly shuddering beside the bed in front of Apple Bloom. She didn't take bad news well, especially something as deep as this.
“I did nothing but cry my eyes out... how could they do this to Ruby, my daughter, my only child, my own flesh and blood? They even went so far as to think the disease could still spread, even if the body still stayed around, so they stuffed her body in the fireplace. After they left, I just... stood in front of the fireplace, watching as Ruby's body burned in the fire... after a while, I couldn't watch anymore, the tragedy of her murder... so I left toward home, and cried the rest of the day...”
The story was enough to bring Apple Bloom herself to tears. Nothing was worse than a filly with watery eyes. The depressing atmosphere soon shed on the room again, and left them in silence. A minute or two passed before Apple Bloom hopped off the bed and proceeded to wrap her arms around Mitta as much as she could. A hug couldn't really fix anything, but she hoped it could at least make the mare feel a bit better.
But Mitta merely separated herself from the filly, turning away from her. “Please, little filly... I just want to be alone right now...”
Apple Bloom was going to interject, but she decided against it, and simply turned her body away and dragged her hooves across the wooden floor toward the doorway.
“My name's Apple Bloom, by the way, Miss Mitta... Ah'll leave ya be,” she spoke before leaving the room.