The forest loomed overhead, the gnarly and twisted branches of the trees, more akin to a snake nests' than actual nature seemed to point directly at her, her hooves, her eyes, her throat, her heart.
How things can take a turn for the worst so fast was... kind of amazing, really.
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After receiving the Overseer from Canterlot, Applejack realized that overseer was, maybe, too strong of a word.
Poor filly looked fresh from a panic attack and ready to have another, and while Fluttershy was, well... Shy, she could at least maintain a conversation with her animals and open up little by little, the purple pony looked scared of the sole concept of meeting others and making friends! She was ready to pass out by the end of the presentation of the whole family.
Of course, having an enormous extended family meant that Applejack wasn't a stranger when it came to shy ponies, despite their famous hospitality and outgoing nature the Apple family had their fair share of introverts, so she already knew what to do.
Up until that point everything was going smoothly, she tried not to bother Twilight with many questions, mostly focusing their conversation with the preparation of the feast, something Twilight really appreciated, since she was more than eager to talk about it while sampling the food, Applebloom was helping in her own way, making conversation with the young dragon, none of the Apples had ever seen a real dragon, so it was becoming a show of its own, driving attention away from the unicorn.
Little by little, Twilight went from the main topic to her time so far on Poniville, opening up a little about how was her day before arriving in the acres and, by Celestia, Applejack could relate.
It was a funny story really, after that rainbow guided her back to the farm, apparently a new pony had moved in, they met in a party, organized by Pinkie Pie of course, another new arrival, and Applejack bumped with the white unicorn, quite literally after Dash dared her to do a trick with her rope.
While she, as ponies often do, didn't appreciated having another pony almost trample over her, her demeanor quickly changed after giving a good look at the Orange mare, rushing presentations, and giving her little to no time to present herself, Rarity went over how pretty she was and magically teleporting a sketchbook from nowhere, going over designs, colors, types of fabrics and accessories, all the while Applejack was desperately trying to get her attention or make her scape from the fashion enthusiast.
Both failing horribly when the unicorn picked up Applejack with her magic and dragged her outside the party towards what would now be the location of Carrousel Boutique, it took more than sweat and tears to scape and since then they barely crossed words.
By the end of the story Twilight was actually chuckling a little, and to Applejack that was a victory.
After everything was set and done, she sent Twilight towards the cottage near the Forest, with a word of seeing each other again at the festival and a warning to not scare the shy Pegasus.
Now, that was when things truly went straight to Tartarus, for her worst nightmare had come to pass.
To be honest, that was only half the truth, she has never dreamed of the return of a Mad Demigoddess who happened to rule over the moon and had a vengeance against the Princess, but she knew the consequences of not having a sun above their heads and helping the plants grow, most of the sources of food would be gone in a matter of months without any hope of replanting them, her farm would go down with everything else, she had to do something.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one with that idea, nor the only one without a plan, Rainbow Dash almost dived hearts first trying to pick up a fight against the Nightmare Moon, that is if Applejack hadn't stopped her from what was certain death.
Who seemed to have an actual plan was Twilight herself, at first it was suspicious that she knew so much about the Alicorn and how she recognized her instantly, but by the way she crumbled under the hard gaze of the Queen it was obvious to see she wasn't on her side.
Of course, Applejack was scared of the Mare from the Moon too, but she still rushed to put herself between Twilight and Nightmare, of course the Moon Goddess saw right through her and chuckled, mocking her cheap attempt at heroism before turning into starry mist and disappearing through the window, leaving everyone stunned and frozen on the spot.
Nobody moved for a while, until something shifted behind her, Twilight quickly recovered, pushing herself upright once more, she murmured something to no pony in particular and rushed towards the main entrance of the hall, pushing the wide gates open with her magic and running in the direction of the library.
Of course, Rainbow jumped to conclusions before asking questions and was ready to play bad guard with Twilight, Applejack arrived just in time with the rest of the group to stop her.
Explanation where in order and with the knowledge necessary they entered the Everfree, ready to stop the Mad Queen and bring back the Sun.
-
The Forest was just as expected, but even more eerie somehow.
The furthest Applejack has ever gone was just a few meters once she accidentally threw a toy ball too hard and had to look for Winnona before she harmed herself inside the woods, and she bolted with tears in her eyes a few minutes later, fortunately Winnona was unharmed and unaware of the possible danger, that had happened when she was only a little filly, no older than Applebloom, but reliving that experience sent shivers down her spine still.
The unnerving feeling was made worse every time her gaze dared to go upwards into the sky, she saw the moon full and bigger than ever, but despite the natural beauty of a dark sky that she adored so much, this felt... unnatural, like the Moon itself had become an eye.
One giant eye focused on her friends and her, and every drop of water in the pastures, leaves, rocks and flowers was a mirror, rendering hiding futile, giving the Queen a full view of her quarry with ample opportunity to strike without resistance.
Her hat was low on her brow, trying in vain to make her stop gazing towards the moon, but each step was getting heavier and her breath was shallower, all the eyes felt like needles just barely brushing her coat, one wrong movement was enough to pierce her pelt, it felt like Nightmare Moon was right in front of her, judging the movements and bringing a sharp wing closer and closer to her neck, she tried to swallow the lump on her throat, but it only served to make her feel like choking.
A sharp intake of breath was drawn once she felt something colliding with her, breaking that downwards spiral of dread and her trance of the invisible Moon's Eyes, Rainbow had just pushed her?!
"Hey, don't need to get nervous, you girls have ME helping!" she said as she made her trot towards the front of the group where Twilight and Rarity illuminated the way using their horns.
Applejack snorted loudly, was she making fun of her or what? she resumed her trot behind the group, her fear now forgotten and replaced by the beginning of anger, she knew RD was a bit cocky and overconfident, but that was just plain rude, if looks could... set manes on fire, Rainbow would look like Spitfire now.
"D-don't get mad at Rainbow, she may come off as brash at times, but I’m sure she means well" Fluttershy spoke walking closer to her, her voice, normally barely above a whisper sounded clear in the eerie quiet atmosphere of the forest.
Despite her previous, almost up burst, she couldn't be mad at the gentle look of Fluttershy, so she took a deep breath and released a long sigh
"Mighty sorry 'Shy, don't know what came over me" now she was reflecting on her fear, where had that come from? her mind was starting to form theories about an effect the moon might now have thanks to the mad alicorn influence, maybe being under the moonlight caused a sort of paranoia.
"Don't worry, we all are scared, and we might be facing against something truly scary and dangerous... b-but we are all together, so there is nothing to worry about!"
Despite the dark dip in the middle her enthusiasm was contagious, and she was right, helping each other was key, no need to start malcontent between them all.
With renewed vigor Applejack was smiling despite the situation, this was possible, she didn't know why or how, but they will save the day, quite literally.