//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Nightmare on Stirrup Street // by Waxworks //------------------------------// Golden Harvest trotted happily through the garden, pleased with how well the crops were growing. She had put a lot of effort into making sure there was more than enough for winter, so that she could share with her friends and family if it became necessary. It was her own personal little plot so that she didn’t have to pay the Apple’s exorbitant prices all the time. There were some vegetables she just didn’t have the time nor resources to grow because they needed more care than usual, but this time, it had all worked out. Giant carrots. Massive lettuce. Colossal cabbage. It was everything she’d ever dreamed of it being. She should be able to save up enough bits this winter that she might be able to buy those fancy gardening tools she’d been eyeing. If only her pumpkins would get bigger before autumn was over. The running of the leaves had already happened and her pumpkins still hadn’t grown beyond the tiny green bulbs. She looked at the weak little squash sadly and poked one with her hoof. Suddenly it shook, bulged slightly, and grew a few inches. Golden harvest jumped back, startled, but after it looked like it was done moving, she approached it again. She looked it over, but it looked like a regular pumpkin. She gave it a sniff, checked the vines and the roots, and couldn’t find anything out of place that might have caused the sudden burst in growth. Why did it grow, then? She leaned closer and gave it a lick. It tasted normal. Nothing weird on it. She spat just in case it was tasteless, but as soon as she did, it twitched again, bulged, then grew another few inches. “What in the world?” Golden Harvest said in alarm. It was growing so spontaneously! She looked around at the rest of the garden, and suddenly everything started growing! Carrot tops burst out of the soil, tossing dirt everywhere. Cabbage leaves spread wide, blocking the sun above her. The pumpkin turned a rich orange and grew larger and larger, reaching her own size, and continuing to swell. It got twice as big as her. Three times as big. Four times! Finally, once she had been dwarfed by her produce, the vegetables stopped growing. Golden Harvest slowly pulled her hoof away from protecting her head, and looked around. Her garden was filled with vegetables that would feed Ponyville for months! If these were properly chopped up and preserved, they’d last for years! A single happy tear rolled down her cheek and she reached out a shaking hoof to the pumpkin. “Okay, don’t grow anymore please, but this is so amazing! I won’t have to buy anything from the Apples all winter!” Golden Harvest said. “I’m going to need help canning all of this, but if I share with everypony, I can get enough help. I’ll need to ask the flower sisters, for sure. Caramel might be willing to help out. Oh! I might even be able to get jars from Filthy Rich in exchange for some of the food! I could even take you to the fair, pumpkin. I’d surely win!” She said, hugging it as best she could. She felt it shift under her hooves, and pulled away in alarm. “No no! Please stop growing! You won’t fit in my garden anymore!” She pleaded. The pumpkin didn’t grow, but it spun around to face her with a massive carved face, through which she could see a single candle burning with a blue flame inside it’s hollowed shell. The face was still for a moment, a wicked and frozen rictus grin gazing out at nothing. Golden Harvest was confused. It had just grown, why was it already carved? Its eyes eventually moved, twisting, the chunk of pumpkin making up the pupils spinning in the empty sockets to point at her. “Ah, Golden Harvest.” A cold, feminine voice said. “You spend so much time in the sun, trusting it. Loving it. Relying on it for your livelihood and well-being. I trust you appreciate what it has done for you today? Your vegetables are bountiful, giving of themselves in order to see that you might live.” Unsure how to respond, Golden Harvest simply nodded. “Of course. You are grateful, are you not? The sun provides, and you take from it. Praising it. Food grows in the moonlight as well, you know. There is more than one way to feed ponies. Why don’t we have a look?” The pumpkin said coolly. As Golden Harvest watched, the pumpkin withered and rotted. As quickly as it had grown, it collapsed in on itself. Mold grew, spreading to the other vegetables as they all collapsed in on themselves. “No, no, no! Please! I need those to eat! I can’t afford winter otherwise! The Apples will take everything!” Golden Harvest cried. The remains of the plants disappeared into the soil, and night suddenly fell. The moon’s glow cascading down on her garden. As she watched, various mushrooms sprouted on the corpses of the plants. Morels, chanterelles, maitake, and many other varieties grew, even if they shouldn’t have been able to in such a spot. They grew massive and towered over her, replacing the greens and oranges of her lovely crops. One of them turned to her and smiled what might have been an attempted comforting smile, but only came off as creepy. Golden Harvest whimpered and began crying, falling down on the ground underneath the mushroom forest and covering her eyes with her hooves. She started sobbing and the world around her started wobbling as the poor mare woke up, leaving Luna alone in a twinkling void. Applebloom’s head jerked away from her pillow. She sat up straight and panted hard. She looked out the window at how high the sun was and groaned. “Aw no! Ah slept in!” She leaped out of bed, quickly tied a bow into her hair and dashed down the stairs. Granny Smith called out as she passed. “You be careful out there Applebloom!” “I will Granny! Love you! Me and the Crusaders were gonna try our hooves at road construction!” She yelled back. Granny just shook her head and smiled as Applebloom disappeared off into the orchard. Applebloom waved to Big Mac, who silently waved back. Applejack wasn’t in sight, but she was probably on the other side of the farm. Applebloom dashed up the steps to the clubhouse and kicked open the door, startling the other two ponies who were already there. “Applebloom, you’re late! We were supposed to meet ten minutes ago!” Sweetie Belle scolded. “Ah know girls, ah’m sorry. Ah didn’t sleep too well last night so ah guess ah slept in.” Applebloom said sheepishly. “Aw, it’s cool. We’ve all had days like that. So are you ready to become cutie mark crusaders road workers?!” Scootaloo said, holding up a hoof. The other two swung their own hooves up to meet hers and they yelled together: “Cutie Mark Crusaders road workers! YAY!” The idea was Sweetie Belle’s. She’d seen some construction going on in Canterlot when she went with Rarity on a business trip. It had been incredibly boring even though she’d been told they’d go see a lot of cool sights. She’d been killing time staring out the window at the ponies rushing about. Taxi’s buzzing by. Unicorns strutting past with their noses in the air. Couriers dashing to and fro with packages. She’d finally latched on to a group fixing some broken cobblestones and had the epiphany! Road workers! The majority of roads in Ponyville were dirt. This meant that whenever they had rain scheduled, nopony wanted to go outside because there would be mud in the streets. It would get splashed everywhere, messing up clothes, gunking up carts, and generally just being a nuisance. So the Cutie Mark Crusaders could fill a need, improve Ponyville, and get their cutie marks all at the same time! It was foolproof. The first they needed were cobblestones. “Ah did some research, and ah figured out how cobblestone streets are generally made. We gotta find a big pile of round stones and then we just stick ‘em real close together in the dirt!” Applebloom said. “Okay! I know where we can get a lot of good rocks!” Scootaloo said excitedly. “Everypony come on!” The three piled out of the clubhouse and down to where Scootaloo had parked her scooter. She attached Applebloom’s wagon to the back and the other Crusaders piled in, putting on their helmets. With a buzzing roar, Scootaloo revved up her wings and they were off. They sped through town, Scootaloo deftly avoiding the ponies, carts, and obstacles as they went. While they rode through, Sweetie Belle held onto Applebloom with a pensive look on her face. “What was your nightmare about Applebloom? If you want to share.” Sweetie asked. “Ah don’t remember all of it, but ah remember ah was alone for all of it, except this… thing, following me around talking to me.” Applebloom said. “A thing? What kind of thing?” Scootaloo called back, shouting to be heard over the buzzing of her wings. “Ah don’t remember. Ah know ah didn’t ever get a good look at it at the very least. It kept telling me to spend more time outside at night.” Applebloom said, her brow furrowing. Sweetie Belle tapped her chin with a hoof in thought. “That’s kinda similar to the one I had last night. Mine had a dress telling me it would shine best in moonlight.” “That’s kind of weird.” Scootaloo called back. “Well they’re just dreams, ain’t they? Other than the mention of night, there’s really nothin’ connecting ‘em.” Applebloom said. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Scootaloo said. “No time to really wonder too much, either. We’re here, girls!” Scootaloo skidded to a stop and the Cutie Mark Crusaders pulled off their helmet, looking out at the sight before them. It must have once been a riverbed, as it was a deep, stony channel cutting through a section of land outside Ponyville. It was about as deep as Sugar Cube Corner was tall, with soft, rounded banks that sloped gently down on either side. In the dirt scattered all around were a bunch of rounded stones, worn down by the time they must have spent in the long-gone river. Scootaloo smiles proudly and held out a hoof, pointing at the river. “I found this while I was looking for good places to jump off of to practice flying!” She said. “Wow Scoots, this has the perfect kind of rocks we need! Now we just gotta collect a bunch of ‘em!” Applebloom said happily. “Okay! Let’s create a chain and start bringing them up!” Applebloom said. She hopped down off the bank and slid down a short distance. She picked up the first few rocks she found that were rounded and held one up, waving it at the other two fillies. “C’mon you two! We need to start collectin’!” Scootaloo jumped down after her and grabbed the rock from her hooves. She turned and tossed it up at Sweetie Belle, who panicked and tried to catch it. She kicked it back up into the air, dashed around in small circles trying to figure out where it would land, and accidentally kicked it back down over the edge. Scootaloo and Applebloom watched it roll down the hillside and frowned up at Sweetie Belle. “Oops.” She said with a sheepish grin. “Next time hold onto it a bit better Sweetie Belle. Just put ‘em in the wagon.” Applebloom said. Sweetie Belle nods and catches the next rock and dumps it in the wagon. The three fillies dig up a good load of them, seeking out only the smoothest rocks they can find, and before long the wagon is full of stones and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are dirty and tired. “So now we gotta drag all these back to town?” Sweetie Belle whined. “I’m tired!” “Oh come on, Sweetie Belle. All you did was toss the rocks into the wagon. You didn’t even do any digging.” Scootaloo retorted. “Don’t get so upset girls, complaining won’t get us nowhere. Scootaloo get on your scooter and start pulling, me and Sweetie Belle will push. I already know the place I want to fix up, and it’s not too far away.” Applebloom said. With a groan and a roll of her eyes, Scootaloo put on her helmet, got on her scooter, and started flapping her wings. Applebloom got on the back of the wagon and butted her head against it, pushing with all her might. “Ohhh, Rarity’s going to be so mad at me for messing up my mane.” Sweetie Belle complained, but she still started pushing as well. It took the three fillies a while, but they eventually reached their destination; a small section of dirt road just across from Sugar Cube Corner. They flopped down to the ground, breathing hard. A few stray stones fell out of the wagon. Applebloom plodded to one side of the wagon, put her shoulder against it, and tilted the whole mess onto the packed dirt road. “Alright girls, now, we just, -phew-, need to start digging.” Applebloom panted. She plopped down onto the ground, leaning against the upturned wagon. “Do we have to? I don’t think I want to be a construction worker anymore.” Sweetie Belle whined. “Me neither. My wings are sore, and my hooves still ache from all that digging from earlier. Maybe we should have brought a shovel.” Scootaloo said. She stretched her wings out with a light crackling sound. Applebloom sat there in the dirt in silence for a moment, before letting her head lean against the wagon. “Yeah, maybe you’re right, Scootaloo. Whaddya say we take a break and maybe come back to this tomorrow? With a shovel.” “I’m okay with that.” Scootaloo said. “Can we get milkshakes?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Yeah! Milkshakes for the road workers!” Scootaloo crowed. The three jumped up in a sudden burst of energy, leaving their mess of rocks in a pile, and disappeared into Sugarcube Corner, coming out much later licking their lips. “Well girls, it’s been a productive day, but ah gotta get home and help Applejack with some chores. Same time tomorrow morning? Ah’ll bring a shovel this time.” Applebloom said. “Yeah! I’ll bring some reflective vests!” Sweetie said happily. “I think I can score some road cones from somewhere.” Scootaloo said. “Fantastic! See y’all tomorrow!” Applebloom said, as she dashed off for home. Applebloom arrived back to find Applejack and Big Mac cleaning up the barn and the farm, and she got quickly put to work running errands here and there, delivering tools among the shed and her siblings, and eventually was sent inside to help Granny cook supper. She set the table, called in her sister and brother when it was ready, and they all ate a pleasant meal together. Afterward, Applejack insisted her little sister bathe to clean herself of all the dirt and dust she’d accumulated during the day’s efforts, then tucked her into bed with a kiss on her forehead. “Y’all sleep well little sis.” Applejack said, flipping off the light. “You too, Applejack.” Applebloom said. She snuggled into her blankets and was asleep within moments.