Rotten Apple

by Princess Lyla

Somepony, Wake Me Up!

"Hello? Anypony here?" Braeburn trotted into the train station, it being the only standing building left in Appleoosa. "Where is everypony? What happened here?" He squinted to see somepony walking towards him. "'Oh, thank Celestia. I thought I was the only pony here."

"You are. Well, we are," The other pony smiled menacingly. "And you are the cause of it."

"What do you mean?" Braeburn tried to understand, but nothing was making any sense.

The other pony stepped out of the shadows. "I tried to tell you. You should have seen this coming. You did this. Everypony is dead. And it's all your fault." He removed his hat, revealing the stallion underneath. "If only you had listened to me."

"NO! GO AWAY! YOU DID THIS, NOT ME! IF THIS WAS ME I WOULD'VE KN-" Brae stopped, realizing what he was about to say. "I would've known about it... I knew why everypony was gone. I knew why the houses were destroyed. I did do it after all."

"It's about time you payed attention."

"No."

"What?"

"I said 'No'." This has gone far enough! Braeburn thought to himself. "I will not let this get out of hoof! I know this is a dream, and you know it too!"

The other Braeburn sighed and said his last words for the night. "Fine. This might be a nightmare, but the next time, you won't be as lucky."

"Next time? What do you mean, 'next time'? I already know how to control you! I already know how to stop you!" What am I saying? I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing... Braeburn tried to wake up, but nothing worked. "No." he tried harder. "No!" harder. "NO!" with one last try, he was still asleep. "HELP! SOMEONE, HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEPONY, WAKE ME UP! I DON'T WANT TO SEE THIS ANYMORE! PLEASE! HELP!" Braeburn gave up trying and looked down at his hooves, which were starting to turn grey the more he looked. "What the?" he stood up and trotted to a window. "That doesn't look right..." Brae's reflection did not show him or evil him, but somepony completely new. He did a quick 360 to check and make sure he didn't look like the reflection. He did.

"You are not the only one, young Braeburn." an easy to recognize voice mumbled over his shoulder.

"Princess Luna?!" Braeburn turned around to see the princes of the night. "What are you doing here?"

"I felt a disruption of dark magic coming from you, so I came to make sure everything was okay." Luna looked nervous, as if the thought brought back bad memories, nightmares, to be exact. "Have you gotten these dreams often?"

Braeburn nodded. "They aren't exactly dreams anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I think the nightmares are becoming real. I was forced to kill an innocent pony, and there was nothing I could do to stop it."

Interested Princess Luna wrapped a hoof over Braeburn's shoulder and hinted him to continue.

"I didn't know what it was at the time, but as I thought about it more,I-" Braeburn stopped, seeing another alicorn in the distance slowly disappear. "Who was that?"

"You will understand later." Luna replied, before disappearing into the night sky.