Ponies mused as a portly and lovely mare hummed expertly as she hopped towards the trail leading away from the centre village. She was known lovingly as the Belle of Ponyville. And many stallions couldn’t help but sigh at seeing her so happy. Older mares smiled brightly as she passed by, leaving the musical notes of her songs behind, to stay with them to enjoy. Younger mares with their stallionfriends only hoped to have such a strong delightful filly of their own.
And then she bumped straight into a fence and fell on her back. “GAH!” Came her harsh and scratching voice. When Sweetie, so dramatic is she, decided after closing her eyes, tongue out, to act very well dead, opened them again, she only saw the view of a few ponies looking down at her, one of which, who she quickly identified as Rosemary (Sweetie was very good at remembering names! And smells) had held her hoof out for the young white mare to accept it. She shook her head and smiled brightly at her. It shot right through Rosemary's heart and warmed up such a cold autumns day better than a bonfire.
“Thank you though!” Sweetie Belle smiled. “All of you!” And she went on her way passing the gates and the trees and a few more buildings settled at the edge of the village. The ponies had waved her a happy goodbye, as the winds whistled.
Her gallop turned into more of a gentle walk, with a few skips of excitement in there, as she noticed the ponies shaking the trees so the leaves could fall and thus the tree will become anew! She loved this process, but chose not to dabble in it herself, after shaking a tree so aggressively it snapped. “To be fair, it was pretty thin..” Sweetie said to herself. Then, pushing those thoughts aside ever so slightly, she looked towards the wide open fields and saw her favourite tree. But without it's lovely green leaves.
The smells of leaves, wet tree bark, and yesterdays rain still rung in the air, as if the winds didn’t want to let them go, not even in favour of another equally as wondrous scent. She loved it. So much in fact. She had bought six pumpkin muffins for this occasion exactly. Of course, most of it going to her and her big appetite. She did almost get very visibly distraught when no chocolate muffins were available at Sugar Cube Corner. But she reasoned that it would hardly have been autumn without pumpkin.
Seeing the tree and how strong it was even after all the years of its life filled her with giddy. She galloped faster towards it. But she wasn’t only excited about the tree itself (kind of), more so that today is Soul's Day's Eve, and she’d be keeping up a tradition by celebrating it with her fillyfriend's! Her fillyfriends: consisting of her beloved strong AppleBloom, and her energetic and clever Scootaloo. She squealed. And seeing them standing behind the tree talking amongst themselves only intensified it. Her eyes got bigger and she felt an influx of sparkles and light exhibiting from her.
“GIRLS!!” She shouted across the field, and instantly the two ponies shot their heads towards her direction. Sweetie had figured they were just as surprised to see her, first time in five days, but really, Sweetie was moving incredibly fast now, letting her excitement guide her movements rather than her wits. And the sparks of light and glimmer didn’t help calm their fears. She only galloped faster, and faster, and faster.
“S-Sweets, Slow down!” Scootaloo yelled, a hoof next to their own mouth to hopefully lead their voice to carry on further. But Sweetie, in her all sparkling excitement, didn’t hear. And sooner than they could stop, and sooner than AppleBloom could get her lasso from her fannybag, Sweetie Belle crashed into them both. Which, considering they were standing in separate directions, was quite a feat, admittedly.
“HI APPLES!! HI SCOOTS!!” And then she turned towards the tree, her eyes full of stars. “HI BELHOOF!” Belhoof, having been the name of the tree that they’ve decided. Or more so, what Scootaloo decided, and the other two not having much of another choice, agreed. “Okay!! Okay!! Let gooooo!” AppleBloom giggled, trying to fake push the mare off of her.
“Yeah, Sweets, you don’t want to make Apples blush,” Scootaloo said, smirking devilishly towards a red in the face AppleBloom.
Who, despite her embarrassment, then pushed the sparkling mare off of them and tackled Scootaloo, both rolling along the lines of the gate that showed when Ponyville technically ended. SweetieBelle laughed eagerly. “You’re both soooo cute!” She glowed. Then as she saw how much fun the two ponies were having tackling one another, she jumped onto them herself and squeezed them both.
“So so so so cute!!” She said between laughs. “Let goooo, I’m no darn squeekee toy!” AppleBloom laughed.
“The type that Winona used to chew on, right?” Scootaloo chuckled. But between Scootaloo and Sweetie's laughs, AppleBloom was stark silent. SweetieBelle was the first to notice, naturally. She let go of both of them, Scootaloo laughing themselves into a stupor down the hill. “Squeak toy!!” the pony yelled.
“Scoots..” SweetieBelle said sternly, pointing towards the red haired mare who looked almost like she was a hot pot ready to explode. Scootaloo's laughs became dimmer and dimmer, then halted altogether. They rubbed their forehoof. “Sorry about that, Apps.” then Scoots rubbed the back of the mares mane.
AppleBloom sighed deeply, and a smile crept onto her face. “Dummy” she said, grabbing Scootaloo in her arm and rubbed their head till it was fluffier.
Scootaloo looked so completely different, that when the three would walk happily down the road of Ponyville together, people would be shocked when hearing that this pony was Scootaloo! Who was once a small orange mare with bright scarcely combed purple hair. Now? They, firstly, much preferred to go by they most of the time. And had dyed (and popularised) their coat a deep pleasant brown, and has gone almost the same route with their mane - though it was meant to be dyed a deep purple, and this was the outcome. A dusty slight purple, with bright auburn stripes. Mane and tail. Messily matched, as that was their image, so they would say. Their wings were still very small, and in fact, because Scootaloo has grown, their wings looked even smaller due to that. But they weren’t that big of a pony, actually. Very below average, Scootaloo still had a secret hope that they’d grow much more later in life. And their ears were fluffy, pointed, and pierced!! Pierced of all things!! Decorated in metal and steel things Scoots would find and clean themselves. It shocked many the old mares in the village, some would talk in hushed tones about how stunt school had changed the filly. Some would shake their heads angrily.
AppleBloom giggled seeing Scootaloo's mane grow larger. It was a neat trick of hers to both frustrate and annoy the pony.
“Ah ain’t gonna stop till ya pay your penance!” AppleBloom yelled. She still had her bright red hair, but dulled slightly in shine due to not washing it quite as often as she should. It was long, and would be bigger (an inheritance from her pear lineage) if she took care of it often. But she didn’t! Not because she was lazy, AppleBloom is a hardworking pony, and has even surpassed much of the work that her older sister had done when she was her age. In terms of farm work, that is. She couldn’t count the countless savings of Equestria that her sister holds.
Her hair, which she refused to cut due to mysterious reasons for it growing so vast and quickly no matter how many times she did. Granny called it the work of a witch, but AppleBloom shrugged it off and left it as it is. “Thas just how my hair is, ma!” She would call out as she hopped up the stairs of the Apple home. Her hair dragging along with her, earning herself a sigh from Granny. Long and red, brilliantly so. As SweetieBelle is the Belle of the village and some parts of Canterlot even. AppleBloom was the belle of the countrysteads and neighbouring farms and villages that believed in a more rustic style of living and ageing. She was once asked constantly by many stallions for her hoof, for a simple date at a cafe, to help her work loading the apples into her cart for delivering - but all for naught, as she smiled softly and rejected a great deal of them. Yet she wouldn’t say why, not even to her closest friends.
The three fillies talked amongst themselves next to BellHoof who stood idly, seemingly taking leisure in their banter. “…and that’s why I think it’ll be much better if we stopped by and snuck up on Rainbow.” Scootaloo said trustfully.
“Scoots, Rainbow is like, old, we’ll give her a heart attack.” AppleBloom rolled her eyes at such a proposition.
“Hey! She so isn’t!! Have you seen her race the younger ponies at flight school??”
AppleBloom instantly regret having even joked about that, as she knew Scootaloo would, even now with her own success and fans, stick by Rainbow no matter what. “Ohkaaay, ohhkaaaay,” AppleBloom said, slouching back against the tree. She looked around until her eyes rested on SweetieBelle, who was rustling on the other side of BelHoof. “Uh, Sweets? Whatcha doin?”
But all she got in response were a few loud inconsistent bursts of laughs. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.
SweetieBelle hopped from behind the tree.
“OoOooOh” She said circling bits of oranged and red scrunched up leaves around her friends, who looked at one another (as they usually do) and smirked.
“BAH! Scary, huh? You’re soooo scared. You are soooo scared…” SweetieBelle looked at AppleBloom (the least scared of the group), to which she received an amusing laugh from the mare. SweetieBelle suddenly dropped the leaves and a slight dim green smoke carried up from the pile. She pouted and looked down sadly.
“Hokay, we get why you are excited about hallows eve,” she said to Sweetie, who had lifted her head up after seeing the smoke, and looked a bit too proud of her ability to levitate leaves for a good sturdy four and a half seconds and cause it to almost start a small fire. “But why are you excited for hallows eve?” AppleBloom turned her hoof towards Scootaloo who was leaning on the fence, eyes lidded, smiling deviously.
“Oh you’ll both see.” She said, attempting to sound secretive, if only it weren’t for her laughs there after.
“Oh, uh huh, you can’t keep a surprise even if it bit ya rear end!!”
“Oh shut it!!” Scootaloo punched Apples lightly. “You’re just upset because I have a secret plan to make our day great and you don’t.” She teased, at one point sticking her tongue out.
“We’re still going to Sugar Cube Corner though, right?” Sweetie asked nervously.
“I’ll do ya one better, let’s go see Jackie at the barn and I’ll tell you guys what I’ve got in store.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
Sweetie wanted to roll her eyes too, though she physically couldn’t make herself do so. She knows exactly why AppleBloom loved visiting her sister whenever she was off work, so she obliged, smiling and nodding her head as Apples gestured towards the path down to the farm, outside of Ponyville. Even Scootaloo didn’t protest, agreeing, but looking irked all the while.
Sweetie hopped down the path, skipping over rocks skilfully much to her delight, then looked over her shoulder at her friends. “You guys wanna sing a song from my favourite musical-“
“Please don’t make us sing Wizard of Ox again, I beg of you.” Scootaloo bent down and bowed her head, fake shaking.
“I see the spooky festivities have already started.” AppleBloom laughed.
SweetieBelle pouted and stuck her head up.
“Why do you guys always know what musical I’m talking about?”
“Because ya only mention that one during autumn, Sweets.” AppleBloom smirked.
And so they walked on, with minor stops for intense conversation and fake arguments for added excitement, like when they were younger, except with less chance of it becoming real bickering. Here and there, fall ponies would do what they did best - make leaves fall, of course. And Sweetie would stop to woo at their work, and mention again how she broke a tree in half. A story that her fillyfriends know all too well by now.
When they had gotten off work for the weeks end, Apples with her delivering service, Scoots with her Soul's Day's practice show, and Sweetie with plastering posties of her local singing gig at a bar to every businesses window, which many didn’t really approve of, it was already well late in the afternoon. AppleBloom squinted her eyes and put a steady strong hoof over them to block out the soft yellow blare of the sun. It was heading downwards, wobbly though… Most ponies knew that Princess Twilight had been given a few practice tasks to set the sun (but not Luna's beloved moon), and she was far from good at it, the light flickered wildly like a lamp. “Hm.” AppleBloom spoke. “It’ll be gettin mighty dark out soon.”
To this, she heard SweetieBelle laugh nervously. “We’re almost there, right Apples?”
Scootaloo smiled. “Of course, I can almost smell the apples, and it’s not just you, Apples.”
AppleBloom nodded her head, and they walked on… that is... Until.
”GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH”
The three ponies jumped in surprise and shock and utter confusion. Their heads snapped towards the keeper of the voice, a stallion galloping out from the forests besides them and onto the main road. “Wha?” AppleBloom said in confusion. The stallion stopped and looked at them, sweating profusely.
“Hey, you alright?” Scootaloo stepped towards him to ask. He only shook his head with wide and crazed eyes. Scoots opened their mouth to say something else of possible encouragement to calm the stallion, but he had spoken before her in a rushed manner. “T-there’s something in there!” He shook, pointing a hoof towards the GallopingThickets.
“Yeah.. bears, bunnies, bats, some birds-“ Scootaloo joked, much to AppleBloom's dismay.
“N-no!! Not just those! Oh not just those,” he shook his head and looked Scootaloo in the eyes, so close they had to scrunch up their nose at such contact with him. “Lights! Sparks! Large! All kinds of things.. but.. there is no source..”
AppleBloom, Scootaloo, and SweetieBelle looked at one another. “Uh.. sir? Ah uh.. think you’re seein typical magic. Am I right? It’s supposed to do those things.” AppleBloom asked, not noticing SweetieBelle's ears rest downwards.
“No.. no .. this is something different! It attacked me!” And suddenly a loud burst came from the forest they were standing near. There was a white strong flash, and quicker than it had come, it went. The stallion shook, bending down close to the ground, then bolted the opposite direction, yelling in fright as he went.
The three ponies stood there baffled. Both looking in different directions. “That.. was weird. You guys saw it too, right?” Scootaloo asked, looking carefully at the forests. SweetieBelle shook uncontrollably, and AppleBloom only looked towards the stallion that had ran fearfully.
The rest of the walk was a bit quiet, save for Scootaloo's chatter about her planned plans if this plan doesn’t go as planned. AppleBloom kept a steady look towards where the stallion ran from, she squinted her eyes to see better in between the darkness of the trees. “APPS! You listenin?” Scoots shoved her to the point where the mare tumbled over and rolled downwards onto the forested cart-wheeled made path. “Oh..” Scootaloo said, holding a hoof to their mouth. “Apps, I didn’t mean to-“
“Guys!! Look!!” SweetieBelle pointed to a tree that had white starry sparks shooting from it dimly, so dim that Scootaloo had to strain their eyes to see it in the darkness, despite its colour.
AppleBloom, rubbing her head and giving Scootaloo a hard upset look, gained her composure, shook the leaves from her mane, and looked at the tree. She didn’t see anything anymore, but her friend's faces said otherwise.
“Yeah, that’s a cool light show. Must be,” Scootaloo tried to run excuses in their head. “Some ponies having fun with fire sparks…”
“It’s hardly even the season for that..” SweetieBelle stated, walking, in what seemed to be a sort of trance, towards the tree. AppleBloom got up and galloped in front of her. “Sweets! We don’t just go out into weird woods that we’ve never been to-“
“But Apples!! I saw the sparks! I want to know how it’s done,” Sweetie started to speedily speak, until AppleBloom held up a hoof and whispered to both ponies. “Unless we’ve got uh plan…”
The three mares looked at one another and chuckled quietly.
The plan that they’ve created was ultimately to follow the white sparks and glows where it lead. And my, did AppleBloom (the mane plan maker) think it to be quite the good plan, so long as they stood in the shadows, much to Sweetie's protests.
“I see it…” Scootaloo whispered, pointing a hoof, with a good attempt at keeping it from shaking, towards the brightest of the sparks, leading behind a tree. The three then decided to hop from one bush to another bush much closer. There were slight blue hairs that Apple hadn’t noticed before poking from the tree. She started wondering if it were a stray dog, and her gentle heart overshadowed her wits, and she removed herself from the bush, shaking her hair away (with SweetieBelle's slight magical help with the untangle), and walked towards the tree. This, SweetieBelle didn’t know AppleBloom was going to do, and she regretted it instantly.
“APPS!!” Scootaloo hissed, flailing with her hoof to try and reach the mare who only avoided her grabs and walked on. “Why do you both keep blindly following the light? The LIGHT!” Scoots finished with a yell. SweetieBelle covered her own mouth, as AppleBloom stopped in her tracks abruptly, and the owner of the blue hair was none other than an adult mare (or so it seemed) with a deep midnight coat it dared to blend in with the shadows of the forests, and her hair of silver and blue, eyes too. She looked at them with furrowed brows. AppleBloom backed up, realising that it wasn’t a dog, and she was incredibly dim in judgment.
The mare walked heavily towards AppleBloom, not having seen the others. Her eyes furrowed, and they looked tired. Apple swallowed. “You young mare really like to pester me,” she said, walking closer towards Apple. She was now so close, that AppleBloom felt her breath against her nose. “Don’t you…” Something told her this midnight mare didn’t want an answer.