The snow crunched under Apple Bloom's hooves as she made her way deeper into the frozen grove. Her breath steamed around her face as she panted. She'd been hiking for hours now, ever since she'd left the train's last stop at Apple Valley's Harvester Depot. She'd been the only passenger aboard, and the attendant had watched her leave with more than a little concern. She'd advised her to be careful, to tend to whatever business she needed to take care of, and to be waiting there the next morning when the train returned.
"Bad enough to be out here alone on Hearth's Warming Eve." The mare had said with a tip of her cap and a smile. "You definitely don't want to be out here longer than you need to on Hearth's Warming itself."
She'd thanked her for her concern and waited on the platform until the train vanished into the rolling white hills before heading out. The Depot was abandoned, left empty in the months between planting and harvesting seasons. She'd pulled her heavy cloak and saddle bags closer to her body and departed just as the sun was starting to set. The emerging stars and gleaming full moon had been her sole company on this, her last journey. She'd followed the path Bitter Root had shown her some months prior, keeping track of her progress through notches she'd placed in the trees when he hadn't been paying attention and using the light of the moon to guide her path. As night fully fell, the cold had really set in. To her frustration, Apple Bloom could feel the strain of the hike beginning to affect her the longer she carried on. In a different world, a different life, she would have grown up on the family farm. Would have developed the strong muscles and good cardio of a seasoned apple-bucker. Instead she'd come of age in a hospital, and several hours a day in a gymnasium last updated back before Princess Luna's banishment was no substitute for early morning chores and late evening strolls in the orchard.
She saw her next landmark and felt a pang of sadness. It was the marker that Sweetie Belle had written to her about. The marble pillar was three feet high and engraved with a number of familiar cutie marks. She stepped close and ran her hoof over them reverently before brushing the top clear of snow she she could read the dedication;
This is where the magic happened. This is where the magic lived. Dedicated to the memory of Ponyville, and all who dwelled therein.
She was in the town proper now, and she continued walking forward. By her reckoning, somewhere nearby had been Sugarcube Corner, where she and her friends had spent many an afternoon after school decompressing with a cold milkshake. Just over yonder must have been Market Square, where she and her siblings would set up every Sunday to hawk their latest harvest. Which meant that just a little further on...
She stepped into a circular clearing of trees. She stopped walking to catch her breath and looked around on wobbly legs. The trees around the clearing's perimeter stretched upwards and inwards, creating a natural dome with their bare branches. She shuddered at the image of the full moon overhead shining through leafless arms that, in this light, looked like so many exposed bones. This was the place where Bitter Root and his friends had made their camp. This was the place where no matter her best efforts, Princess Celestia could not fully cover up what had happened here.
Here had stood Ponyville's Town Hall.
Relieved that her journey was nearly at an end, Apple Bloom took the last few steps needed to reach the clearing's dead center. She sat back on her haunches, lifted her cloak, and reached into her saddlebag. Slowly, reverently, she removed the only two objects she's brought with her; a candle set on an iron stand, and a book of matches. She set the candle on the ground before her, pulled one match free, struck it, and used the flame to light the wick. It sparked to life, creating a tiny bubble or orange and red light. She watched the twin flames dance for a moment before extinguishing the match with a flick of her hoof and returning the remaining matches to her bags. Now alone with her candle, she settled in. She breathed the cold air in and out. She closed her eyes.
She waited.
...
She did not have to wait for long.
She opened her eyes and saw the thing watching her from just beyond the candle's light. Most of it was hidden in the dark, but she could still make out the general shape of an emaciated mare. She could see the glinting white of her teeth, and noted how her coat seemed to glow eerily in the black. Strangely, she found that she wasn't afraid. This was what she'd come here for, right? She watched as the figure raised her hoof, took a step into the light... and smiled at her. Apple Bloom, disappointed as she might be, did her best to return the smile. "Hi, Rarity."
Rarity continued to smile, to really smile, as she sat beside the candle. The candle's light seemed to have restored the former seamstress' original shape, though the shadowy pits under her eyes still flickered in the dance between light and darkness. "Hello, Apple Bloom." Her eyes flicked up to the top of the young mare's white crowned head. "I love what you've done with your mane, darling."
"Thanks." Apple Bloom watched Rarity shiver violently, saw how thin she was now. She wanted to say something, anything, but the words just wouldn't come.
Ultimately, it was Rarity who had to break the silence. "I'm not who you were hoping to see, am I?"
Apple Bloom swallowed hard and shook her head. "She's... they're not even here, are they?"
Rarity's smile faded, but the shadow of a rictus grin remained just under the surface. "No. No I'm afraid they're with him."
"Good." Apple Bloom nodded rapidly. "That... that'll make it easier then."
"Oh, Apple Bloom." Rarity sighed. "Why are you here?"
"I'm here because... because..." She sniffled, and not just from the cold. "Because I'm so tired of bein' alone. If... if he comes and he takes me, then at least... at least I'll be with them."
Rarity shook her head. "But you're not alone. You weren't the only one to get away, were you?" She looked back in the direction of the marble marker. "I saw Sweetie Belle not too long ago."
"You..." Apple Bloom wiped her muzzle. "You saw her?"
"Of course." Rarity smiled sadly. "We're always here, Apple Bloom. It's only on this night that we become knowable. That we can be seen and heard." The corners of her eyes crinkled, but no tears would fall. "She's grown into such a lovely young mare, hasn't she?"
"I... I haven't seen her." Apple Bloom admitted sheepishly. "Her or the others."
"Whyever not?" Rarity tittered, her form vibrating for a moment before she seemed to catch hold of her better self once more. "Apologies."
"It's not like I don't want to see her. Or Button Mash. Or Diamond Tiara. I'd love to see 'em. But..." She sighed, and stared at the ground. "But I can't."
"You can." Rarity admonished her. "There's no reason that..."
"It's my fault!" Apple Bloom screamed, and suddenly the clearing was filled with shadows. She couldn't make out their features, but she could see them. She could hear them. Their laughter. Their tears. Their agony. It ripped at her, tore at her, and she jumped to her hooves and spun around, trying to face and confess her sin to every stallion, mare, and foal she'd condemned. "I was the one who begged Applejack to let me have friends over that night! I was the one who split everypony away from their families on Hearth's Warming Eve! If I hadn't insisted, then everypony would've been safe at home! You all could've partied your hearts out and then come home to your little ones and had the best Hearth's Warming ever! But I was selfish! I was selfish and... and you... you all..." She fell next to the candle with a thump, weeping openly. "My fault." She whispered. "All my fault. If Silver Spoon hadn't been forced to come over, she wouldn't have started the fight with Scootaloo. And he... he would've just passed us by..." She coughed hoarsely and looked at the wraiths around her. "So that's why I'm here. I can't live like this anymore. I can't move on like Button Mash and Sweetie Belle have. I can't learn to live with it like Diamond Tiara did. I... I deserve to be punished. More than any of you did. More than my family did. I... I deserve... I deserve" She slumped. The words wouldn't come anymore. She looked up at Rarity. "I'm so sorry."
Rarity reached through the candle's flame and touched a hoof to Apple Bloom's head. It was freezing, but the young mare didn't shrink away. "You can't torture yourself over the past, Apple Bloom. You can't agonize over whys and wherefores and maybes. What happened, happened. No amount of hating yourself now could ever make up or undo what happened then. So you say that us being here is your fault?" Rarity looked around at her fellow wraiths. "Even if that were the case, there's not a one amongst us that would blame you. That would hold anything against you. You were a child, darling, and not even a bad one at that."
"I... I was selfish..."
"And who isn't a little selfish at this time of year? Take it from she who bore the Element of Generosity, Apple Bloom; it's okay to be selfish sometimes. Unfortunately..." She shuddered again, her form wavering with the rapidly diminishing candle. "Unfortunately we chose to be selfish at the worst possible time. But you? You're all grown up now." She withdrew her hoof. "It's time to stop being selfish."
Apple Bloom reached for her. "How am I...?"
"You were given a great gift, Apple Bloom. Life is the greatest gift of all. Your friends... Sweetie Belle... they haven't squandered that gift. You shouldn't either." A cold gust of wind rushed through the trees, nearly flattening the candle's flame. The Rarity she'd known was gone for a moment, and the eyeless, grinning ghoul that she was now stared at her from the darkness. The flame righted itself, and the mare was whole once more. "Applejack gave her life trying to save yours. Would throwing that life away now be honoring her memory in the slightest?"
Apple Bloom shivered. The air was getting colder. "N-No... No, it wouldn't."
"So go." Rarity's smile was as warm as the world around her was cold. "Go and live. Live for us. Please."
Apple Bloom looked around at the mass of shadows at the edge of the light. "Is there... is there really nothin' I can do for you? Nothing I can do to help you?"
Rarity's smile faded, but the rictus grin beneath became more pronounced. "I don't think there is. But knowing that Sweetie Belle is out there, that she's happy and thriving... that little bit of warmth will make this frozen hell worth it. And who knows?" She shrugged. "Perhaps one day he'll let us go." Her tone was flat. Not even she believed what she was saying.
"D-do you..." Apple Bloom coughed. It was freezing now. Every breath she took in felt like it was spreading icicles in her throat. "Do you want me to tell her anything?"
"Just that I'm proud of her. And I miss her terribly." Rarity's eyes, already fading away, flicked up and into the distance. "Apple Bloom..."
Apple Bloom heard the bells on the wind, and childish terror flooded her heart. "It's..."
Rarity bent towards the candle, now desperately fighting against the wind to stay lit. She gave Apple Bloom one last sad smile. "Run." She blew out the struggling light, and the haunting thing she had become vanished into the sudden darkness.
The bells became a cacophony of noise... and something landed behind her with such force that all the snow fell from the trees with a whoosh.
Apple Bloom ran.
She ran into where she knew the wraiths were, but she passed through them like a freezing mist. She could feel them. Their sorrow. Their misery. Their bitter tears soaked through her skin and she wept as she ran through them. She heard a sharp whine behind her and she ducked on instinct. Something long and covered with bells cracked the air where her head had just been and she doubled her speed. She left the clearing and felt the last traces of the citizens of Ponyville fade from the air. She ran, not knowing what direction she was going but only knowing she had to get away from what was behind her.
A foalish giggle came from her right, and she chanced a glance in that direction. A silver filly was keeping pace with her quite easily, running close enough that she could see her clearly in the moonlight. The filly giggled again as she turned her eyeless gaze on Apple Bloom, tears still running past the frames of the glasses she no longer needed. Apple Bloom stared in horror as Silver Spoon galloped alongside her.
And she was not alone.
Apple Bloom's ears were suddenly filled by the mixed laughter and sobs of a multitude of fillies and colts. She looked around wildly, praying that she would not trip over her own running hooves. They were all around her. A veritable herd of foals, the ones taken and made into his helpers, were running with her in some kind of marathon from hell. Their hooves made no sound in the snow, and she knew without looking down that they weren't even denting the white powder. It must have been a trick of the light, but she swore she could even see little shadows bounding from branch to branch in the trees around her. Her thoughts raced, trying desperately to figure out her next course of action. These childish things would never tire. She knew that. They would run her down and drag her back to...
The ground left her feet, and she cried out as she fell into open air.
Her flight didn't last long. She hit the slanted earth and grunted as the air was knocked from her lungs. She rolled along the snow, her cloak tearing as she collided with twigs and rocks. She finally slid to a stop and lay there, panting and moaning in pain, trying to catch her breath. She quickly realized that her panting breaths were the only sound she could hear. The helper's laughter was gone. So were their sobs. Somehow she'd lost them in her tumble down the hill. She knew they would find her quickly, though, so she forced herself to her hooves and shook off the snow. She had to get her bearings. Running in a panic like that had been stupid, but what else could she have done? All of her previous thoughts of surrender and suicide had been consumed by the stark terror of reality. The beast of her nightmares was once again breathing the same air she was. He was here. And, somehow, she knew he remembered her.
She briefly wondered if he kept some kind of list.
The thought made her laugh a little, and she coughed as he reached into her saddlebag for a match. She had to figure out where she was. Then she could make her way to the train depot and wait there until the morning train came. There were plenty of places to hide there. And maybe he wouldn't even pursue her there at all. Surely he had other foals to traumatize tonight...
She struck the match... and nearly shrieked when the grinning face of a ghoul shot at her from out of the darkness. It's rictus grin seemed to widen as it zeroed in on her, drawn like a moth to the flame she held. It came fully into the light... and stopped. It cocked it's head and giggled. It let out a kind of choked sob that somehow sounded like a sound of recognition. Then, before Apple Bloom's eyes, it changed. The light of her match seemed to paint over the emaciated frame, restoring it to that of a healthy pegasus filly. Violet eyes that Apple Bloom had not seen outside of dreams in almost ten years sparkled in the light. The thing smiled, really smiled, and extended a hoof.
Her terror forgotten for the moment, Apple Bloom did not hesitate in touching her free hoof to Scootaloo's.
The restored filly's ears flicked to the left, and her smile vanished. "I'll lead them off." Her voice was wavery and distant, like she was far away. "Keep quiet. Hide." She turned away from the flame, and from her friend. Her flank still bore no cutie mark. It never would. "I miss you."
"Scoots..." But she was gone already. Apple Bloom dropped the now sputtering match and wiped her eyes. She grabbed another and struck it, looking around for a tree she might have marked. She cursed under her breath when one did not appear, and she resolved to walk a hundred paces before trying again.
She quietly inched her way through the woods like that, using the matches as sparingly as she could. She lost track of time and distance. She froze at every snapped twig, strained her ears at every gust of wind. She vibrated with adrenaline, and sang snippets of Hearth's Warming carols under her breath in between whispered prayers to whatever powers might be listening.
A sudden rush of wind carried the familiar jingle of bells. Her breath caught in her throat, and she backed against a nearby tree in fear. To her surprise, she sank into it somehow. "It's hollowed!" She gasped, and before she had time to reconsider she had shoved herself fully into the hollow trunk. She wedged herself as far in as she was able and froze. She waited. The bells did not ring again. A cloud began crossing the moon, and total darkness began spreading through the woods. She started reaching for a match...
...and he appeared as the last of the light was vanquished, emerging from the shadow like he was part of them. She had a brief moment to recognize the midnight blue fur, the hooves black as pitch, and the impossibly huge horns that crowned his head. Then he was gone, and all she could see were the blazing embers of his eyes. She looked into those eyes for the first time since her foalhood, and she remembered, truly remembered, what it was to be afraid.
"Grogar..."
It came out as a choked moan, but still he seemed to hear it. The red eyes turned in her direction, and she heard the heavy trod as he took a step towards her. She heard the chains and bells singing their hellish song as he took another step. She was in the barn again, she realized. But this time Diamond Tiara wasn't here to help her spark friendship's flame. This time her older sister wasn't there to buy her time. This time there was nothing between the dark spirit of Hearth's Warming and the one who got away.
Grogar took another step, then stopped. The eyes that still looked in her direction narrowed, as though in confusion. He stayed that way, and she began to wonder if this was some new part of it. Perhaps it was the predator playing with its food. Another minute passed, and still the great ram did not move. Grogar rumbled deep in his throat, though what it meant she hadn't a clue.
A foalish giggle came in response, followed by another, and another. Apple Bloom stifled a gasp at how close the sounds were. It sounded like they were right next to her, right beside the tree in which she hid. The giggles became sobs and then were giggles again. Helpers. At least three, from the sound of it. And they were standing between her and Grogar. She couldn't see them. Try as she might, no matter how hard she strained her eyes, she couldn't make anything out in the darkness save the ram's fiery red eyes. What was happening? Were they somehow... blocking Grogar from seeing her? Standing between him and his prey?
Time stretched on. It might have lasted hours. More likely it was only a few seconds.
The great ram snorted with obvious irritation. He roared, a horrifying bestial noise that shook the very air. That roar seemed to fill the entire world. And then the eyes lifted into the sky, the belled chains cackling and clanking as Grogar took to the sky. Their laughter faded... and silence filled the night.
Apple Bloom let out the breath she'd been holding and started when the awful mixture of laughter and crying once again made itself known. She wasn't alone yet. Whatever had stopped Grogar from taking her was still there, mere inches away. She thought about reaching for another match, but her legs wouldn't move. The adrenaline was wearing off, and she could feel the mental and physical exhaustion of the evening crashing down on her. She didn't move as the trio stood there, unseen, filling the night with their sounds of joy and misery. One of the chorus broke away and came even closer. Apple Bloom closed her eyes and waited for whatever was to come, be it salvation or damnation.
"Be..." The voice of the filly was cracked from years of misuse, was younger than she'd ever heard in life, but she still knew it from the first syllable. "Be... good."
"Applejack..." Apple Bloom whispered, and then she was gone. Darkness took her, carried her down into the abyss where she knew no more. Whether it was sleep or death, she was beyond caring. Her sister's last whisper followed her as she descended.
She slipped into the night.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Apple Bloom shifted as she dozed, then slipped from her hollow hiding spot and plopped into the snow. The sudden damp cold shocked her awake with a gasp and she looked around wildly. The sun was rising, casting the grove of apple trees in the orange-red of dawn. Her whole body was sore and stiff, and she groaned as she willed herself to stand. Despite her sleep, she was tired. More tired than she'd ever been in her life. She took a step and winced as her muscles screamed at her, but she still forced another one. And another. The going was slow, agonizingly so, but became easier as the blood flowed through her and the stiff joints began to loosen. She headed back the way she'd run, following the trail of broken branches and other evidence of her flight. Going back up the hill was the worst, but she managed to muddle through, somehow.
The sun had fully risen by the time she reached the clearing once again. She found the candle-stand covered with melted wax right where she'd left it, and she looked around for evidence of the others she'd seen the night before. There was nothing. Not a mark in the snow. They were gone, and yet she knew they were really all still here. Unknowable for another year. She sniffled as she returned the stand to her saddlebag. "I won't forget." She promised them. "I swear to you. I will never forget." A cold gust of wind rustled the branches above her, all the response she knew she'd ever get.
Something fell from above and sank into the snowbank. Intrigued, Apple Bloom trotted carefully over to where it had fallen and reached for it, lifting it to her eyes for closer inspection.
It was a bell. Shining and golden. It was cold in her hoof, and she shook it slightly. It made no sound, no ring. Engraved along the rim was a repeated phrase she knew all too well.
FOR GOODNESS SAKE
Nodding her understanding, Apple Bloom reverently placed the first gift she'd received on Hearth's Warming morning since foalhood in her saddlebag and set off for the train depot. As she made the long trek back, she wondered if the train was running late because of the holiday. And, if she indeed had to wait to for the evening stop to get aboard and begin her return journey to Manehatten, she wondered if she might be able to find some food stores in the depot to tide her over. She felt ravenously hungry. She took a deep breath of the crisp morning air and hummed a song to herself as she ambled on to her destination.
When the depot came in sight, she realized that the train indeed still ran on time on the holidays.
Deja vu washed over her as she approached the snow covered platform. She carefully stepped over the razor sharp icicles that had burst from the floorboards. She looked at the train, now covered in a thick layer of frost and ice, and desperately hoped that they had just been trying to get their run done early. She prayed that they hadn't returned early, before the sun rose, just in the hopes of surprising her and picking her up as a Hearth's Warming morning gift. How could they have known what had been waiting... and what a wrathful mood he must have been in at once again being denied his prey.
The engineer hadn't made it very far. All she could see was one of his legs sticking out of the snow that now packed the cabin. The attendant however, the one who had sent her off with a smile? She had apparently tried to run. She'd had enough time to know what was coming. She had been frozen mid-jump as she'd tried leaping from the train. Her rear hooves hadn't left the ground.
The look of fear etched forever on her face was something that Apple Bloom would never forget.
One last gift from Grogar.