//------------------------------//
// Welcome to Sunny Town 
// Story: Story of the Blanks 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ONE USE OF AN ANTI-INDIAN SLUR.

Apple Bloom looked around her in a panic. The landscape had changed. There was no longer any light anywhere. The sun had gone, and the sky had turned grey. The trees seemed to encroach on her, and a mist rolled in across the terrain, blanketing everything in grey cloud. It was like Apple Bloom had stepped onto the set of a horror film, and she expected to find a creepy old cabin in the woods any moment now. She looked about her, the terrain hostile and unknowable. Where was she? How far away was Applejack? She honestly couldn't tell. In the dark, everything looked the same, and that was what frightened her. She had no clue where she was, and nobody had any clue where she was.

"Sis!" she called out, into the gloom and the mist. "SIS! ARE YA THERE?"

Nothing.

Apple Bloom began to step backwards, away from the path, when suddenly she felt something brush against her back and roll along her shoulder, like ghostly fingers running across her body. She shrieked, and turned around, to see all she had walked into was a set of tree branches. But out here, the trees seemed to be malevolent. It was just then she noticed there were no plants on the ground, and the trees had no leaves. Everything out here was dead.

There was brief, childlike laughter behind her, and Apple Bloom swung round in the direction in which it had come. "Show yerself!" she shouted. "This ain't funny!" At that very moment, Apple Bloom saw the girl again, who seemed to wave to her, and then run further into the forest.

"Hey! Wait up!" Apple Bloom called to the girl, and sprinted after her. The fact that following this girl may not have been the best of ideas did not occur to Apple Bloom, and onwards she went through the trees, following the rustling noise the girl's footsteps were making on the ground. As she ran onwards, the air seemed to grow colder and harsher, the temperatures starting to drop as she sprinted forward, causing the girl to wrap her arms around her chest to try and stay warm. As she went along her way, the trees grew dimmer, their forms looking ever more dead and decayed. Courpses, and there were no leaves and plants. The light also grew worse as more mist rolled in, blanketing the scene in darkness. It got to the point that Apple Bloom could barely see where she was even going. Only a mysterious light could be seen in the distance, and even that was problematic to spot, as it seemed to be getting further and further away from Apple Bloom. The girl puffed and panted as she began to run out of breath, lactic acid building up in her legs and starting to cause her pain.

"Slow... down!" she gasped, moving forward as best she could, when at last the light stopped moving. She at last ran across the threshold, over a bridge, and stopped in confusion.



What was on the other side of the bridge seemed to be exact opposite of what had come before, and couldn't have constituted a greater or more jarring contrast. Before her the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there was no fog at all. The landscape had been cleared out, and before her sat a village, which looked as though it was some sort of living museum, consisting of old homes with mixed timber and brick construction, as well as a porch out front and back, which caused some of them to resemble the home she knew so well at Sweet Apple Acres. This sense of living history was reinforced further when a man began walking towards her, dressed in a manner that looked like he had just stepped off a wagon on the Oregon Trail; jeans, a chequered shirt, boots, and even a Stetson not disimilar to the one her sister wore. He smiled as he walked over.

"Why, howdy there youngin'!" he called, in a warm accent that Apple Bloom couldn't quite place. "Your not from around here, are you?"

"What makes ya say that?" Apple Bloom asked. This question was baffling; surely she was still in California!

"You're dressed like a man, that's all," the man answered. "Did you come up from that mining town, Canterlot?"

"Yes Ah did," Apple Bloom answered. "Where am Ah?"

"Where are my manners?" the man asked. "I'm Grayson Nash, welcome to Sunny Town!" He extended his hand and shook Apple Bloom's. "And you're just in time for the party as well!"

"What party?" the girl asked again. Something here was very confusing, and she intended to find out what, and thus be less confused.

"We're celebrating our town's founding today," Grayson replied. "We have been here for 3 years now, and don't intend to leave our little patch of paradise."

Something seemed off to Apple Bloom. If they were dressed like they were from the 1850s, why were they only just marking their town's third anniversary? Something wasn't right here, but Apple Bloom pushed that thought to the back of her mind and decided to ask another quesion instead. "How often do ya get visitors?"

"Not very often," Grayson replied. "Now why don't you go and introduce yourself, miss..."

"Apple Bloom."

Grayson smiled. "Not the name I'd have picked for you, but if that's your name, that's your name. See you around, Apple Bloom!"



Apple Bloom wandered about Sunny Town, taking a look at all there was to see in the town. It seemed a normal enough place, even if some of the locals had a baffling lack of knowledge of recent events, not knowing of the American Civil War, World War 2, and several claimed that the President was Franklin Pierce! Apple Bloom attempted to check a few facts on her phone, but that plan went out of the window pretty promptly when it emerged she had no phone signal. She also spoke with a woman called 'Scarlet', who only said that "he hasn't spoken a word to me all night," before sighing. The fact it was daytime seemed lost on her, as well as the fact she never established who 'he' was. Apple Bloom assumed it was her husband, before heading onwards into the town. Along the way, she helped a few townsfolk with their problems, such as recovering a missing present, and other myriad things, before encountering a man who looked to be an Army officer, judging from his blue uniform. He was tall, gaunt, and grey, so seemed to be quite old.

"Howdy!" Apple Bloom called to him. The man turned around, looking a little shocked.

"Young lady, whatever are you doing dressed like that?" he asked.

"My apologies," Apple Bloom replied. "Ah ain't from around here, and Ah wondered how long you've been here."

"Three years," the officer continued. He spoke with a clipped British accent. "We first settled this place in 1852, and have been here since then."

Yet another person who didn't seem to be aware the year was 2014. His dates were 159 years off. Apple Bloom shrugged it off. "Apologies," the officer said. "My name is Captain Gladstone. I command the US Army contingent that guards the town from threats, be they errant animals or Indian raiders."

"The Buffaloes?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Indeed," Gladstone sighed. "Bunch of savages if you ask me. Well, life has been pretty kind to us so far, although one of the men claimed to have seen dead walking around. More likely he'd drunk too much at the saloon!"

Suddenly, Apple Bloom saw the girl again, and went after her. "Hey! Wait up!"

Gladstone called after her. "Madame, wait! That way lie Indians!" He sighed. "Children."



Apple Bloom followed along the path, before the fog suddenly descended again, and the darkness swallowed up the land in a miasma of despair. As she ran along, the previous comfort she had felt evaporated like water droplets, and she felt worried and confused. What was that about their being Indians this way? She only hoped they wouldn't find her, but if it came to that, she could always point out that she and her family supplied cider to the reservation. Just then, she reached an old, ominous building that resembled an Antebellum mansion, similar to ones she had seen in Natchez, Mississippi. She went up to the door, to see a sign marked Chalmer's home. She then tried the door knob.

The door wouldn't budge.

"Darnit!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, as a chill washed over her. "The door is locked!" Just then, she spotted the well, and walked over to it. At the bottom lay a shiny object, but the crank was broken, which she would need to lift the bucket with the shiny object in it out.

So, Apple Bloom backtracked her way to Sunny Town and went into a large barn that was near the edge of town from where she had entered. She walked in, and found the crank for the well lying on the floor. She picked it up, and then heard crying, which she headed towards. Lying there was a woman, who had wet eyes with tears flowing out like waterfalls.

"It is not right. This is not right! The same thing over and over and over again!" she repeated, over and over and over again.

"Excuse me ma'am, are ya OK?" Apple Bloom asked, concerned. The woman didn't reply, simply saying the same thing over and over again.

Apple Bloom headed back to the mansion, and inserted the crank into the bucket mechanism on the well. It took all of her strength, but at long last she got the bucket out, and in it was a key!

"Yeah!" she cried, taking the key out and walking over to the door. The key fitted perfectly, and Apple Bloom opened the door, having no clue what she would find in there...