Part 3 - Incursion
Apple Bloom stepped back for a moment to admire her creation. Over the past while, she had molded a creature of wonder. Her snowpony was the best she had ever seen anypony make.
It was about her size, although a bit smaller. Its mane was short, for Apple Bloom didn’t know of any way to make it longer and still hold together. Everything about it was lifelike, except…
The eyes were blank. Apple Bloom had tried and tried to make good-looking eyes, but eventually gave up on detailing. Therefore, the snowpony’s eyes were nothing but two blank spaces. It was slightly disturbing.
Apple Bloom mused about what she would do now – She had built her snowpony, what else was there to do? What else could she do in the time she had?
Then it came to her with the force of a speeding train: It was dark! While she had been busy sculpting the snowpony, she hadn’t noticed the passage of time. What time was it? Was her family worried? Probably not, but there was a chance.
Apple Bloom, with her returning horror of being chewed out by Applejack, said a final goodbye to her snowpony and began to exit the clearing. But right as she was going to pass over the perimeter, she stopped.
Something was close. She couldn’t place a hoof on it, but she had the uncanny feeling of being watched. It was as if there was somepony close by, hiding in plain sight, watching her. Apple Bloom looked around the area, but there was nopony close by…
She decided that it was probably because she was tired. Putting aside the feeling, Apple Bloom continued her trek through the snow, desperately trying to get back home to the warmth of the fire.
Eventually, she arrived at the barn. Stumbling through the wooden doors, she peeled off her many coats and jackets, resulting in her half-freezing in cold sweat. She quickly rinsed herself off with the hose, patted herself dry with a trembling hoof, and quietly opened the door into the main room.
The instant she crossed the boundary of the now-open doorway, the familiar wave of heat crossed her fur. Apple Bloom took a moment to relish this sensation, before entering the room completely and shutting the door behind her.
The fire was cracking in the fireplace, with the familiar cushy sofas arranged in a U-shape around it. Those sofas held many dear memories, but she couldn’t think of any at the moment. All Apple Bloom wanted to do was arrive in her bedroom and fall asleep.
She began to climb the stairs, which creaked slightly under her hooves. As Apple Bloom climbed, she remembered that her family was sleeping, and so slowed her hoofsteps to minimize the produced noise.
The door to her bedroom was shut tight, as she had expected. Silently, she hoped that her family hadn’t ransacked her bedroom in search of her, that is, if they searched for her at all. She finished scaling the last shallow step, finishing her trek up the stairs.
She approached her bedroom door, and slowly turned the knob and opened it, as if she had to open the bedroom door of a dozing foal. She found her room unchanged, with a few crayons still spread about her desk where she had left them. The wastebasket still held the now-dried wad of paper that had been her drawing.
Apple Bloom scuttled about, cleaning up her crayons and pushing the chair of her desk back in. Although she was tired, she didn’t want Applejack to get mad at her for a messy bedroom in the morning. After she was done tidying up, she approached her bed.
Apple Bloom tucked herself into her warm, soft bed. It felt like heaven. After being out in the snow for so long, she hadn’t realized just how sore and tired she really was. She laid her head on her pillow, weary with fatigue, and entered the realm of her subconscious for the night.
- - - - - -
When Apple Bloom roused the next morning, it was to find Applejack leaning over her, fury etched in every line of her face and muzzle.
"Where have ya been!? We looked all ovah fer ya!" she spat. Apple Bloom wasn't awake enough to respond.
"Well... whatevah," Applejack finished, springing back from Apple Bloom's bed and giving the filly a dirty look. "Ah don't care what ya do. Just say outta mah way. Alright?"
"Ok...ay..." Apple Bloom mumbled, still lethargic from her extremely short night's sleep. This answer seemed to satisfy Applejack, and she exited the room, slamming the door behind her.
Apple Bloom was left to ponder on what had just happened. Did Applejack really not care what she did? Would she be able to return to the clearing in peace, without trouble?
She sure hoped so.
Apple Bloom forced herself awake via a slap across her muzzle, then slowly climbed out of bed, ready to start the day. She opened her door and moseyed down the creaky wooden stairs, eyeing the various pictures on the walls. These pictures were all of happy memories - back when Apple Bloom's mother and father were still alive. She remembered them fondly, and was extremely heartbroken after their accident.
Her parents had perished in a train wreck while coming back from Canterlot. Princess Celestia herself had invited them, wishing to get a taste of the well-known, "Best Apples in Equestria." Apple Bloom later learned that the princess' response had been an absolute yes, that their apples were indeed the best the country had to offer.
Apple Bloom spent so long musing that she had stopped dead in the middle of the staircase. And to her luck, Granny Smith needed to go up them.
"Get yer whiny behind outta mah way!" she spat, forcing her way past Apple Bloom, causing the latter to lose her balance and, as if it was a curse, to fall down the stairs once more. This time, rather than slamming into Applejack, she sprawled on the floor, pain pulsing through her as if she was being stabbed with knives everywhere at once. Ordinarily she would have screamed from this much pain, but recent events had taught her to suppress her outward emotions. She simply grunted as she struck the hard wood, her head spinning.
Apple Bloom lied there for quite some time, trying to recover from her fall. But her head kept spinning, the pain continued, and she didn't feel any better. In fact, the fall seemed to have amplified the emotional effects from the Winter Festival so far.
"Whaddaya doin' down there!?" Applejack asked, leaning over Apple Bloom like a vulture honing in on its prey.
"Ah fell down," Apple Bloom responded, hoping this wouldn't spark some previously nonexistent splurge of anger. She fully expected it to, however, given that pretty much anything could set Applejack off this time of year.
"Well get up and do somethin' useful!" Applejack replied, stalking off through the kitchen door.
Apple Bloom managed to rise to her hooves, thinking that she was going to make Applejack as happy as possible today, even if it killed her. She wasn't going to help with the festival, no, but she would do anything else her family asked of her.
She entered the kitchen to find that her breakfast had already been set out. Her spirits rising slightly, Apple Bloom carefully moved past Applejack’s watchful eye and sat in her place.
The food was stone cold.
Apple Bloom sighed. She had expected as much, but the fact was still hurtful. Her family didn’t care enough to heat up her breakfast.
“Eat yer breakfast and scedattle outta here. Ah don’t wanna see ya until dinner,” Applejack said, not even glancing at Apple Bloom for a moment.
Apple Bloom had mixed feelings about this: She was still sad about her family’s uncaring attitude, but at least she would be able to go back to the clearing, no, her clearing. That area was the new light in the darkness, and Apple Bloom was determined to make it shine.
She quickly ate her breakfast, ignoring the odd feeling of shoving cold toast down her throat. After she was done, she took care of her plate, then immediately galloped upstairs to grab her coat and boots.
“Make sure ya get home before dark!” Granny Smith called out to her.
“Alright! Ah might see ya in town, and if Ah do Ah’ll try ta help again!” she replied. Of course, she meant to do no such thing, but she wanted to make her family happy.
“Alright, sugarcube!” Granny Smith replied. For the first time in what seemed to be years, Apple Bloom gave a genuine smile. Her family seemed to believe they were warming up to her again, but of course it was all an illusion; She had retained her ban on Apples for several months.
Apple Bloom completed revesting herself of her winter clothing, traveled back downstairs, then opened the door and stepped outside. The chill of the frozen winter air hit her as if a bucket of icewater had been dumped over her head. It was chilling, but she didn’t care.
Following the trail she had made the day prior, Apple Bloom began her trek back to the clearing. As she went, she took a moment to admire Ponyville and the decorations that had been set up so far.
As of the moment, the entire town seemed to be blanketed in endless banners, boxes, and streamers. In town square, there were many temporary buildings set up for games, food stands, and social places. Dotted throughout the town were several of these as well. The sun’s angle casted a long shadow over each building, making Ponyville seem less like a town and more like a large, misshapen chessboard.
After a moment, Apple Bloom turned her attention back to where she was going. Rather than following her old path through town, she had diverged to form a new path around the entire town. She wanted to avoid it as much as possible so she wouldn’t have to live up to her prior statement.
She arrived at the clearing a short while later. When she saw the snowpony, her spirits lifted. She was going to build a snow fort today. Although there was nopony else to throw snowballs, she felt that it was the right thing to do.
But as she passed by the snowpony, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but stop. That strange feeling of being watched was back again. Apple Bloom circled the snowpony, inspecting every inch of it. Perhaps she had made it a tad too realistic? No, it wasn’t just her. There was definitely something watching her, but she couldn’t tell what.
“Oh come on!” she yelled aloud, frustrated by the events. Instantly, her brain sizzled, “Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Come out! Ah’ve got ya!”
But her two worst enemies didn’t appear. Apple Bloom was glad for this, because she didn’t want Filthy Rich to have an excuse to hate her.
Still frustrated by her feeling, Apple Bloom looked up at the snowpony’s face. The eyes were still blank; Lifeless.
Yet they were watching her.
“Ah!” Apple Bloom yelled, scampering back from the snowpony. How was this possible? Her snowpony wasn’t alive…
Yet it did seem that it was staring at her unceasingly. As if it was a being trapped and wanted to escape. As if it wanted to be her friend.
“No… No…” Apple Bloom began to sob. This day wasn’t turning out like she had expected, and now she was having strange impulses of being watched! What was happening!?
But something inside her told her otherwise. Apple Bloom’s inner self was yelling, no, screaming at her that what she was feeling wasn’t just some illusion.
“…Am Ah goin’ mad?”
- - - - - -
Apple Bloom spent the remainder of that day trying to ignore the strange snowpony’s stare. It of course wasn’t actually staring at her – she had decided that long before. Even with this thought, she couldn’t help but glance back at it every few seconds, terrified that it would do… Something to her. She didn’t know what, but it scared her beyond belief.
She was putting the finishing touches on her two snow forts. They were nothing but two vertical walls, but they were enough to satisfy her.
The sun was sagging on the horizon, trying and failing to sink into the depths of the earth. Apple Bloom decided two things: That Celestia was failing in her duty to lower the sun on time today, and that it was probably time to head back. She hadn’t had lunch, so her stomach was growling.
Apple Bloom glanced back at her snow forts, satisfied with her work. She thought fondly of her friends and couldn’t wait for them to come home. She was going to have a lot of fun with them when they got back, even if it would mean being even more excluded at school for months to come.
She made her way away from the two forts, turning her direction to Ponyville. She took a deep breath, then waved goodbye to the forts and began to leave. But as she was about to enter the trees, she felt it again.
“Okay, who the heck is watchin’ me!?” Apple Bloom yelled to the night. She couldn’t stand it anymore. Something, or somepony, was watching her, but where in all of Equestria were they!? Why didn’t they show themselves?
Greatly distressed, Apple Bloom ran around in a frenzy, going mad as she attempted to locate the perpetrator. But no matter where she layed her eyes, no matter how many times she scrutinized the area, she found nothing.
“This isn’t right! This isn’t right! This isn’t right!”
Apple Bloom curled up on the ground, sobbing as the terrible feeling of being watched bore into her soul like a dragon spewing fire. It burned. It hurt. It was hot.
But then, she remembered something. Something that had been bothering her all day. Something, in fact, that she took to be impossible.
Shaking violently, Apple Bloom raised her head, heaving herself to her elbows as she looked up at her snowpony. She stared at it, willing it to explain what in the world was happening to her.
But she noticed something else as well.
“Aaahh!” she screamed, scrambling back, resulting in her tripping and plunging into the snow. It was simply impossible! No snowpony could change positions! But hers had. She hadn’t noticed…
That the snowpony had turned to face her.
This had to be a dream. It just had to be. Nopony in their right mind would make a snowpony that could move! Frosty the Snowpony was just a story! It wasn’t real!
Or was it?
With the impeccable feeling of terror still drilling into her, Apple Bloom rose to her hooves. Nothing was making any sense to her. Hoping for salvation, Apple Bloom violently slapped herself across the muzzle, trying to wake up from this nightmare. But all that resulted was her falling into the snow once again.
“Arrggh!” she cried with a muffled voice. This was going too far. Steeling herself, she rose once again, trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her muzzle. Had she broken something?
Now she was face to face with the snowpony. Eyeing it closely, she paced around it. Many times she circled, but the snowpony didn’t move again.
“What is goin’ on!?” she screamed, scrunching up her face in anger. But in that instant, she felt something change.
She slowly opened one eye, terrified at what she might see. Looking at the snowpony again, she jumped back again in terror: The snowpony was facing her again!
“Get outta mah way!” Apple Bloom let out a bloodcurdling scream, approaching the snowpony and barging herself into it. Expecting it to fall over, she let herself go loose.
The next thing she knew, she was in the snow again.
“Uhh…” she groaned, turning herself over to face upwards. The snowpony was now leaning over her, staring her down with its pale, blank eyes.
But the eyes were alive…
“No!” she screamed, finding some impossible strength to slide out from under her creation and gallop as hard as she could away from the clearing.
- - - - - -
Apple Bloom did not sleep well that night. After dinner came to a close she had gone straight up to her bedroom to retire for the night. But rather than getting the good night’s sleep she had planned, her unconscious was laden with nightmares of the snowpony.
She woke up several times during the night in a frenzy, her blanket always having been thrown off the bed. Every time she managed to fall asleep, she experienced the same dream of a giant snowpony stamping her like an ant.
When the sun rose the next morning, Apple Bloom felt even more fatigued and beaten than when she had first fallen asleep. Deciding that sleeping was hopeless, she rose from her bed and looked herself up and down in the mirror.
She looked terrible.
She really needed to take a bath. So she entered the bathroom and turned on the water. As she took her bath, she repeatedly would start and look around, as if she knew somepony was watching her. Why did she still feel this!? It aggravated her to the point where she accidentally hurt herself when she got out of the tub.
She dried off and looked in the mirror again. Much better this time, though a bit wet. Apple Bloom hung up her towel, opened the door, and stepped downstairs.
“Mornin’,” she said darkly, entering the kitchen to find Big Macintosh making toast. He didn’t even glance at her, for just then the toast popped out of the toaster. He grabbed them out with just a bit more force than was usual.
Apple Bloom didn’t know how to make her own food, so she got a glass of water and sat down across from Big Mac. He was looking at the newspaper, anything to keep from talking to her with his few words.
With nothing else to do, Apple Bloom finished her glass of water and went back upstairs. She thought of trying to draw a picture again, but the memory of her previous encounter with dancing crayons deterred her from this activity. Instead, she grabbed her winter clothes and began to put them on.
“Apple Bloom,” a voice said. She looked up to find Applejack, a glare etched on her face. “Ah don’t care what ya do, but ya need to eat first.”
“Alrighty,” she replied, and she began to reverse the process of putting on her coat and boots. Applejack went downstairs without another word, and Apple Bloom followed suit a short time later. When she entered the kitchen again, Applejack had set out another helping of cold leftover toast for her again.
Without making a sound of discontent, or any sound at all, Apple Bloom sat back in her chair and ate her breakfast. The tension increased as Applejack, and eventually Granny Smith, sat as well. Although they weren’t yelling anymore, the mutual hatred was there, and boy was it powerful.
The instant Apple Bloom had downed her last bite, Applejack looked up at her, “Now go off and do somethin’ with yer time. Same deal as yesterday: Ah either wanna see ya helpin’ with the festival or not at all until dinner.”
Apple Bloom instantly nodded, arose from her seat, and returned to her bedroom to revest herself of her winter clothes.
This time, as she walked out the front door, there was no goodbye to be had. There was no genuine smile, and Apple Bloom had absolutely no idea what to do with the day. She couldn’t go back to the clearing, because the snowpony was there.
The snowpony.
All that had happened the night prior returned to her mind with an unpleasant jolt. All of the freaky things her snowpony had done all seemed like it had happened ages ago. Maybe, just maybe, it really was just a dream?
Apple Bloom realized that she could no longer tell dream from reality. The realization sank in, literally making her sink to her knees. Was this all a dream? Which parts were the dream and which parts were real?
Still musing, she stood back up and began walking in a random direction. She had no idea where she was going, but at least she would be able to come back easily – The snow trail she was leaving behind was blantently obvious.
She wandered, lost in thought, for at least an hour – She couldn’t tell time anymore either. It could have been an hour, it could have been six hours; It could have been several days. Whatever time was correct, she came to a stop, still as a stone.
Apple Bloom had been so lost in thought that she had wandered in a completely random direction, and she did not recognize the scenery around her. Immediately thinking of a plan, she turned about face, prepared to follow her snow trail back to Ponyville.
But there was no trail to be seen.
“Wait… what!?” she yelled, trying to figure out how she had not left a trail of snow behind her. It simply wasn’t possible for her to walk through snow and not leave some kind of mark! This one was definitely a dream.
But Apple Bloom didn’t want to slap herself across the muzzle again, for she already had a bruise from yesterday, as well as a bruise on the top of her head from when she collided with Sweetie Belle. She was aching all over, and she guessed that was from Applejack and Granny Smith’s rough handling of her when she had tried to hurt, no, kill Diamond Tiara.
She felt as if her life had become a pattern: Pain, musing, more pain, more musing, dreams, snowponies, and being lost. If it kept going on like this, she was sure to go mad.
Because of these, she decided that she probably wasn’t in a dream, for if she was her realizing it would have allowed her to control, and therefore end it. But nothing had happened, and the trail still wasn’t there.
“What is goin’ on!?” she demanded of the air, but, of course, she got no response. The sun was as high as it got in the sky, staring her down like a mouse readying itself to pounce for its cheese.
Suddenly, something inside her shifted. It felt as if she was being tugged on by something. Apple Bloom frantically turned circles, trying to locate the pony grabbing her. But nopony was in sight.
However, she still felt it. The impulse was trying to tell her where to go. Apple Bloom didn’t trust her instincts all that much, for she couldn’t even tell what she was good at yet. Why did she want to turn around and start walking so badly?
She resisted the urge to walk for quite some time, trying to find out where she was on her own. But the feeling increased, and eventually became so overpowering that she could no longer bear it.
“Alright then!” Apple Bloom yelled, giving in to the urge to walk. Immediately, she turned around and began walking. It wasn’t a normal walk, either – Her hoofsteps resembled more of a robot than a filly.
She trekked through the deep snow for ages, or that’s what it seemed like to her. As she traveled, she seemed to become more and more afraid of something, to the point where she would have let loose a bloodcurdling scream if she was in control of her body. But she had realized that she could no longer change direction – her own body had betrayed her, siezing her will and forcing her to walk.
She first traveled over many shallow hills, not able to check behind her to see if her trail was remaining. Then she saw a large group of trees in the distance: The Everfree Forest. Was it possible that she was being led back to Ponyville by somepony, somewhere?
But after she had traveled through the trees for a long while, seeming to avoid all of the monsters, she became so terrified that she could no longer see. Her eyes were managing to produce tears under the pressure, but she still couldn’t control the rest of her.
But suddenly, it was as if everything that had happened to her, everything that had ever worried or upset her, left her. A rushing feeling swept through her, seeming to carry off every bad thought, feeling, memory that she had been holding in her soul. It was as if the festival had never happened; As if she was completely free.
And she was.
Not only had all of the fear left her, but the tugging that had been pulling her all this way relinquished her. She fell to the ground when this happened, trying to process everything that had just occurred. Was it possible that she had just died? If so, it was a very painless death.
But she knew that she was still alive. There had been nothing, no, nothing that could have killed her without her realizing. Unless this all was a dream and she had been killed in her sleep, she was definitely most alive. But this wasn’t a dream, for she had tried to wake up and it didn’t work.
Apple Bloom, after this had all gone through her head, stood up and looked at her surroundings. There were trees on every side, and the area was a shallow bowl devoid of trees, just like…
The clearing. The impulse to walk had led her back here. In the exact center of the clearing she saw her snowpony, with the snow forts she had built the day before standing off to the side, facing each other through the middle.
But she was no longer afraid. In fact, she was happy. As far as she was concerned, she was going to spend the rest of eternity here. Just her, the snow, and of course, her snowpony.
She walked up to the snowpony, eager to begin her fun. The snowpony seemed just as excited, and then it did something it had never done before:
It moved. Not the moving-while-unseen thing it had been doing earlier, but it had actually moved. It had straightened up, then gestured to the snow forts. Apple Bloom’s excitement intensified as she nodded and ran over to one of the forts.
Then the two engaged in the most ferocious snowball fight in history.
Apple Bloom was, by a longshot, the best snowball fighter in Equestria. Not ever had she encountered a pony that could outmatch her in a snowball fight. So she was confident that she would be able to beat the snowpony. She grabbed her first hoofful of snow, forming it into her special breed of snowball she had spent so long perfecting. It wasn’t quite circular like most want to be, yet it had deformities that would not hinder her, but improve her power, accuracy, and speed.
She finished making the first snowball, crafting it to perfection. She then braced herself against her wall, readying herself to raise her hoof and pelt the snowpony. But as she began to turn and rise, she instead received a hard pack of snow to the face.
"Ow!" she yelled. Apple Bloom couldn't remember the last time she got hit in the face by a snowball. It had been ages! Angry with the snowpony's success, she raised up and threw her snowball hard.
Only for it to be met halfway by the snowpony's next attack. The two snowballs crashed together, exploding in a snowy firework and putting on a show. Apple Bloom stared at it in awe, amazed that something so beautiful could result from failure. But then she got hit in the face by another snowball.
This time, she didn't cry out. The stoning sensation that followed, however, intensified, and Apple Bloom noticed that a welt was forming both where she had just been hit, and in the place of the first hit. She had gotten welts before from snowball fights, but never on her face, and never without ever hitting her opponent.
This snowpony of hers was a beast of snowball fights. If it could outmatch her, she would lose one of the few bragging rights she possessed. She didn't want Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to have another excuse to make fun of her.
She was going to win this fight, no matter what.
However, it soon came to the point that the snowpony had her every move outmatched tenfold. Every time she even thought of attacking, the snowpony would pelt her with another ball. It lasted for what seemed like hours, Apple Bloom sincerely wishing for the battle to end. She had lost, and it had won. But it seemed to think differently. She was so covered with welts and bruises that she resembled less of a filly and more of an abused timberwolf.
“Stawp!” she yelled once again, hoping desperately that the snowpony would hear her. “Please!”
But the snowpony was relentless. It continued to pelt Apple Bloom with snowballs as she collapsed to the ground, groaning and crying. The snowpony kept at it, beginning to cover her with a thick layer of snow. The welts stung as they were in contact with the snow, multiplying her pain further than ever.
“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!” Apple Bloom screamed, trying to signify as much as possible that she was in pain. Her shriek seemed to penetrate the snowpony to the root, as it then froze solid, as if it had just realized what it was doing.
Slowly, the snowpony walked over to her. Apple Bloom was no longer its friend. In fact, every fear and every worry that had been so miraculously lifted from her before came back with an unpleasant jolt, and she realized that she had led herself into a trap.
“No!” she yelled. “Don’t hurt me!”
The snowpony could give no reply, and it simply stared at Apple Bloom, its blank eyes boring into her brown ones like spikes. Apple Bloom could no nothing save stare back at it, and in that moment, in that crucial moment of this entire ordeal, she could only see one thing in its eyes. It had been hiding it the entire time, but recently it had been harder for it to conceal itself from its true motive:
It was hungry. So hungry.
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Definitely want more of this that's for sure. Also I figured the Snowpony would help her get vengeance for the mistreatment dealt to her.
5614672 Yeah, I'm trying to work on the story, but I've lost all enthusiasm for writing and am having a very difficult time regaining it. As for the Snowpony, there's a whole slew of timeline/backstory-ey stuff that I'm creating that explains why the snowpony does what it does. Just wait until the last 4 parts. They'll explain a lot of it.