Princess Luna stood on a small cliff overlooking the farm, with a small frown on her face as she surveyed the damage.
Plumes of smoke spiraled upwards into the air, and stray embers fell from the sky like rain. Far away in the distance, she watched as a few barns crackled and burned in the fire. Everything felt real, which troubled her greatly.
She normally didn’t mind when the line blurred between realities, but usually the scene was a bit more uplifting than this.
The alicorn spread her wings and glided down, landing on the dirt path below her. All around her were towering husks of dead trees, blackened and burned like pillars of death in a barren landscape. The smell of burning wood wafted into the air, thicker than blood and lighter than air.
Luna walked on, making her way through the ruined landscape. Embers and ashes continued to rain down from the sky, singing her coat and burying themselves in her mane. It didn’t bother her as much as the tiny fires in the distance.
Finally, she came across the ruins of the farmhouse. A pony was sitting on the porch, facing away from her. Luna cleared her throat, coming up from behind her. “Apple Fritter.”
Apple Fritter glanced behind her, raising an eyebrow at Luna’s arrival.
Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder. “This is quite the scene, may I ask what bothers you?”
Apple Fritter shrugged. She made a vague gesture to the burning acres around her, as if that were explanation enough.
“Do you believe this to be your fault?” Luna asked.
Apple Fritter laughed in a rough, crackling voice. Luna looked over her, noting the way the ashes clung to her coat and stained her hooves black. Specks of red fell onto the ground beneath her, pooling beneath her hooves.
Luna watched as blood dripped from her mouth and eyes, arching her eyebrow in concern. Apple Fritter tilted her head to look back at her, with pitless black holes where her eyes would have been.
And in that second, Luna was reminded that it was her royal duty to help her. No matter the cost, and no matter what had happened the nights before.
So she tried again.
“Apple Fritter. Let me save you.”
Apple Fritter blinked a few times. She absently began drawing circles in the ashes while sighing. “You can’t.”
“And how do you know that?” Luna questioned.
“Because you can’t.” There was a hole in the smoky clouds above them. Luna watched as a chorus of wraiths cried out in unison, screaming and wailing. Apple Fritter flinched in response, her ears pinning back and her body shrinking.
Luna watched as the wraiths dipped down through the air, clawing and scratching at Apple Fritter’s body. Luna watched as blood streamed from her eyes and stained the ashen ground red, and as the fires around them only grew stronger.
Then she lit her horn and the wraiths shrieked and screamed before they were forced away. Luna extended a hoof and wiped the blood from her eyes, studying her carefully. There was something brewing in those emerald eyes, a storm far greater than anything she’d seen before.
“Why?” Luna asked.
“Because it’s my fault.”
From somewhere within the wreckage, Luna heard a muffled scream followed by a distant crash. Apple Fritter paid it no mind.
“Do you truly believe that?” Luna asked again. “Because I would like to think otherwise, Apple Fritter.”
A stray gust of wind sent some dust and ash kicking up around her. They carried with them whispers from the past, and violent reminders of a life once lost. They were cries that Luna had heard before, but their presence still troubled her.
“I’ve always been to blame,” Apple Fritter said. “I always will be. If I would have been somepony else, maybe… maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
The pungent smell of smoke came back with a vengeance, forcing Luna to tune it out. Apple Fritter seemed hazy now, as if a cloud of smog had appeared between them. “I don’t think you can save me,” Apple Fritter said. “I don’t think anyone can.”
She held a lighter in her hooves and flicked it open, watching the flame dance around in her hooves.
Luna frowned again. It wasn’t usual for ponies to ignore her like this, even in the depths of their nightmares. Usually, there’d be some sort of relief, or even fear on occasion, but this time there was nothing. Something was wrong.
Apple Fritter stood up, making her way over to the corner of her house. She shifted a couple of wooden planks aside, pulling out some marked containers of gasoline.
“Apple Fritter, you are loved and you are heard,” Luna said, following. “Your life is not one that’s gone to waste.”
The pony let out a low hum. She knocked over one of the containers, the liquid spilling out and onto the floorboards. It sloshed against Luna’s hooves, leaving a cool, tingly feeling behind.
Apple Fritter took out a box of matches from her vest pocket, lighting one and letting watching the flame dance across the wooden surface.
“You’re dreaming. Do you know that?” Luna asked.
“No I’m not.” She dropped the lit match to the ground.
Faster than Luna could react, the fires suddenly spread all around her. Pillars of flames spiraled into the air with a deafening roar as the puddles of gasoline caught fire as well.
Apple Fritter watched it passively. She shrugged her shoulders and turned away from the inferno, trotting down the ruined porch and onto the ashy path.
She stood in the remains of the orchard for a second, looking around with a strange smile on her face. Apple Fritter tilted her head up to the sky, closing her eyes as burning embers hit her face and ashes covered the ground like snow.
Tears of blood streaked out of her eyes, falling to the ground like raindrops.
She laughed and kept walking.