An earsplitting shriek broke the silence of the still morning air, mingling with the crow of the rooster to make an eerie sound. A small pink filly had awoken, drenched in sweat, from the most terrifying nightmare she had ever experienced. The house of Big Macintosh Apple and Pinkamena Pie-Apple now roused a bit more hastily than it normally would have.
The first to arrive in their daughter’s room was her mother, for not only was she the fastest pony over land in Ponyville, but what force could part a loving mother from her child when that child was in danger, or afraid? The door flung itself open to allow a pink blur to pass through, which then hugged her daughter very tightly, rocking her back and forth slowly and gently. For the first time in a long time, the little filly welcomed her mother’s embrace, and cried deep sobs into her shoulder.
Soon after came her father, moving quickly but remaining calm as he always did. He hurried up and knelt next to his wife and daughter, extending a hoof to rest on his daughter’s shoulder—silently letting her know he was there. The filly let out a few short breaths, still clinging tightly to her mother, but her breathing now steadily slowed.
Last on the scene was of course, the ever-watchful alligator, Gummi. Sliding in through the door, he curled his vast length around all of them—a great shield from any new attacks, not that any new threat would come. It had only been a nightmare after all. The filly would feel better soon, but for now, his presence would help her feel safe.
~ ~
It had been only a dream. Ink Blot cried choking sobs into her mother’s chest, trying with every effort to laugh at the nightmare she’d just had. It was cruel irony that crying and laughter could sound so similar. Ink Blot smiled and managed a chuckle, then opened her eyes.
The nightmare was gone. She was lying in her mother’s hooves, with her father right beside, and Gummi. Gummi was such a silly name for something like an alligator. Ink Blot laughed, heartily and out loud this time. Her mother should be proud.
“Mom,” she began, smiling wide through drying tears.
“What is it, Inky pie?” her mother replied, her face a mirror image of Ink Blot’s.
“Gummi has a really silly name,” She laughed.
Everypony in the room joined in the laughter now, even Gummi, a deep rumble sounding from somewhere deep in his lungs.
~ ~ ~
Breakfast went as it would have on any other morning, though perhaps a bit earlier than usual. Ink Blot had a heaping plate of pancakes, piled high with maple syrup. If there was one thing the Apples did right, it was cook food. The pancakes were so fluffy, filling up her entire mouth with their rich flavor—apple, of course. What Apple family member in their right mind would cook pancakes without apples in them? There was a cupcake placed next to Ink Blot’s plate as well, compliments of her mother. She gobbled it up gratefully, enjoying the sweet sugary taste.
Then the doorbell rang. It wasn’t really a bell; more of an imitation of a party noisemaking horn, but what else would be expected at the house of Pinkamena Pie-Apple, lover of anything fun or funny, and party planner for nearly all of Ponyville? Nopony partied like Ink Blot’s mother could when she was younger, or so Ink Blot had been told. It was strange to hear her mother describe these events as though they were in her past, but if she truly had mellowed out since then, Ink Blot didn’t want to think about how irritating her mother must have been in her prime.
“I’ve got it.”
Ink Blot answered the door to Apple Bloom, who looked as awake as if it were the middle of the day, and not sunrise. Leave it to a true member of the Apple family to appear wide awake even before the sun came up. A little too awake. Her eyes were wide open as though she hadn’t actually slept—or perhaps couldn’t.
“Hey there, Ink. Feeling okay?” Her aunt asked, smiling slightly.
“Yep, I’m fine. I remembered to giggle at the ghosties,” Ink Blot answered, giggling a bit. She stood up, pressing her chest out proudly. Apple Bloom smiled fondly, then continued on.
“Terrific. Sorry I disappeared yesterday. Zecora and I needed to check on something important...” She trailed off, looking over her shoulder at something distant, then turned back to Ink Blot. “Say, Ink, um, did you sleep okay last night?” She asked, tilting her head a bit. The wide eyed look she held now began to look a bit creepy.
Ink Blot’s eyes also widened for a moment. “Uh, yeah. Why? Is my mane tangled?” Ink Blot quickly began running her hooves through her mane to straighten it out.
Apple Bloom frowned, though her eyes remained wide open. “Uh, no. I just thought uh,‘yknow, better check, right? Wanted to make sure you weren’t havin’ any funny side effects from that poison joke and all that, hehehe.” She scratched the back of her head with her hoof, and pulled her lips back into a tight, wide grin.
Something was off. Poison joke wasn’t a dangerous plant, and Apple Bloom wasn’t the type of pony to worry about something needlessly. Then there was the strange way Zecora had warned her about avoiding poison joke in the future. ’What are you hiding?’There was definitely something going on that Apple Bloom wasn’t telling her.
Of course, she was hiding something from Apple Bloom, but the dream was just that, a dream. Apple Bloom didn’t need to know about that, and while Ink Blot might not need to know what Apple Bloom wasn’t telling her, she was pretty confident it involved her. She’d have to ask Twilight. The town librarian always seemed to know everything.
~ ~ ~
Her dad left with Apple Bloom to help their sister on Sweet Apple Acres—after giving Ink Blot permission to go see the town librarian. Her mom had decided to go on a trip completely out of the blue, and invited Ink Blot to come with her, saying it would make for great mother-daughter bonding.
“Sorry, mom, but I was kind of hoping I could check out a book at the library. You go ahead. I’ll still be here when you get back.”
Her mother had tried to hide her tears, but her melancholy “okie dokie lokie” betrayed how she really felt. She smiled weakly and hopped off—as energetically as would seem normal to anypony who didn’t live with her—to some magical mystical flower forest somewhere. Leaving Gummi to watch the house, as he always did. Ink Blot said goodbye to Gummi, and left for the library.
It only took a half hour to gallop down into town and then to the library, giving time for Ink Blot to admire the unusual weather. Rain and sunshine, at the same time! Rainbow Dash had elected and trained a new head weather pony after she’d joined the Wonderbolts. Having her time spread so thin had forced her to find a replacement, and her choice was certainly excellent. A young mare who’d moved here from Applewood. Rainstream made it rain more often than not, but she rarely let it just pour. There was always a personal touch to it that Ink Blot just couldn’t help but fall in love with. She was so caught up in it that by the time she reached the library, she’d almost forgotten why she came down here. Oh, right. She needed to see Twilight. She knocked on the door with her hoof, and waited. A small purple dragon opened the door.
“Hi there, welcome to the Ponyville Library. Can I help you with anything?” She’d met him several times, but Ink Blot still couldn’t get over how… young Spike seemed. In pony years, he ought to be a fully grown stallion by now, but apparently dragons aged very slowly.
“Oh, hi, Spike,” Ink Blot spoke up, finally. She must have been staring blankly at him for a good while, because he wore a strange and curious expression. “I was just looking for Twilight. Is she around?” she asked.
Spike leaned his head back and glanced upward into Twilight’s study. “Uh, she’s a little busy right now, but if you want to come in and look around, I can probably help you find what you’re looking for.” He opened the door a bit wider and stepped back to allow her in.
Ink Blot stepped forward into the large, round, hollowed out area that made up the main room of the library. There was something aesthetically fitting about a library of books being carved out of the wood of a living tree. She smiled as she looked around at the way everything fit together without anything getting in the way of something else. The side wall of the staircase even served as another set of shelves. Ink Blot could hear the soft ‘scratch scratch’ of quill on parchment coming from upstairs. Twilight must be taking notes up in her study.
“I’m not sure if you have a book on this, but I was hoping you could tell me a bit about poison joke.” Ink Blot said at last, not looking directly at Spike. “I fell in some yesterday, and Apple Bloom’s been freaking out since.”
Spike shrugged. “Eh, she gets like that sometimes. Apple Bloom’s always been fussy over plants and stuff since I knew her, especially poison joke. I never figured out why though.” He stared up into space for a moment, clearly lost in thought, The library was completely silent for a few moments, and then he looked back to Ink Blot. “The only thing I know about the plant is that it only grows in patches in the everfree forest, has blue leaves, and causes hilarious side effects.” He snickered a bit as he finished, as though recalling one particularly funny incident. “What were you doing in the Everfree anyway?” he asked, returning to a more serious state. He started walking toward one of the taller book shelves.
Ink Blot shot him a half bemused look and took a step closer to the shelf he was climbing. “I was chasing down your thieving bird, actually.” Spike winced at the accusation, confirming that he knew about Peewee’s thievery, and gave her an apologetic look. “I chased him out past the old abandoned barn, way back into the woods there. Don’t suppose you know where he stashes his stolen goods, do you?”
Sweat ran down the little dragon’s face, and his eyes darted around for a few moments. But he was rescued from Ink Blot’s icy glare when a loud thump came from upstairs, as though somepony had dropped a rather large book. Then came the sound of rushing hooves over wood. A purple aura surrounded a nearby saddle bag, and several scrolls and quills as Twilight Sparkle came racing down the stairs at a full gallop.
“Spike, I need you to watch the library for a bit. I just need to check on something really quickly.”
An enormous book the size of Ink Blot and Spike combined suddenly glowed purple and flung itself from the shelves nearby, forcing Ink Blot herself to dive out of the way as it soared past. She rolled over and raced to follow Twilight and her enormous book out the door.
“Wait, Twilight, I need to ask you something!” She called.
“Sorry!” came the retreating reply “I’ll have to answer it later. This is really important!”
Fortunately, Ink Blot was the daughter of Pinkamena Diane Pie, master of pursuit. And as such, she had her innate ability to follow anypony wherever they went, and at whatever speed, though she lacked her mother’s keen ability to beat her target to their destination. She followed Twilight along with little effort at a heavy jog—apparently unicorns couldn’t run as fast as earth ponies. They were heading toward the farm hills on the far side of town—near the old barn.
What in Equestria did Twilight have to check on out here, and so urgently? Twilight skidded to a halt in front of Ink Blot’s new mural. A look of surprise, then shock and horror, filled her face.
“No.” She began shaking her head, backing away slowly. “No, no NO!”
Ink Blot frowned. The mural couldn’t be that horrifying. Twilight turned and saw her, and her face instantly turned to anger and rage.
“What did you DO?!” She screamed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Twilight’s horn lit up, and Ink Blot felt herself lifted into the air. Then, the unicorn seemed to regain her composure, and let the filly down. But not without letting out a shriek of rage and frustration. Steam literally blew out of Twilight’s ears as she shouted her loss to the world. “Agh! It’s hopeless now!” She turned and raced off, tears streaming down her face.
Ink Blot watched her go, deciding to follow her in a minute, but first she wanted a better look at the mural. Something about it seemed to have frightened Twilight. Was it the phoenix? The blue leaves on the vines? Perhaps the red blotch that made out the shape of a stallion, walking through the vines? Wait, what?
Ink Blot blinked a few times, then took another look. Yes, she had painted in scarlet, a pony figure walking through the vines of poison joke. That might have been a bit creepy, but surely it couldn’t have frightened Twilight so much? She decided to investigate.
Ink Blot tracked Twilight all the way to Zecora’s hut. It really wasn’t difficult to catch up with her. Apparently unicorns just ran really slowly. When she got there, she could hear Twilight’s panicked voice coming from the hut.
“But we got rid of those. I— I burned them all!
“Fear not, my friend, of tragedy. She has received your remedy.”
“The new one? With all of the herbs I added and modifications I made? I need to be sure this isn’t going to happen again. I can’t let it happen again. I thought I’d never get over it the last time, and now it’s come back to haunt me again!”
Twilight came bursting out of Zecora’s hut, and nearly ran into Ink Blot on her way back toward Ponyville. The unicorn’s eyes went wide in horror upon seeing the filly, and she skidded to a stop, backpedaling her forehooves in an attempt to scramble away.
“No, no no! Oh, it’s all so wrong. This can’t be happening!” Her horn lit up, and in the next second, she was gone.
~ ~ ~
With her mother gone and Twilight vanished, Ink Blot found her hooves carrying her over to Sweet Apple Acres. A good spot to check; maybe her father or her aunt could offer some insight as to what was going on. She considered asking Zecora, but the thought of that disgusting bath she’d been given was a bit too revolting.
She found her father pulling an apple cart.
“Hey, dad, have you seen Apple Bloom around?”
He shook his head. “Nnope.”
“Oh. Well, do you know much about Miss Twilight? She’s actin’ a little weird.”
He tilted his head a bit. “You might ask AJ. She knows Twilight pretty well. She’s over by the barn.” He continued on to wherever he’d been taking the apple cart, so Ink Blot took his advice.
Her aunt Applejack was bucking trees near the barn—like her father had said—and wasn’t hard to find. Ink Blot trotted up to her slowly, shuffling her hooves a bit. Ink Blot didn’t actually get to speak to her aunt much, because she was always working the farm, and often busy. It was a little funny, actually, because the rest of her mother’s friends were easy to get a hold of, except for Rainbow Dash.
Applejack looked up as she approached and smiled. “Well, howdy there, little miss. What brings y’all by the farm this afternoon?” Applejack’s face softened a bit, and her smile faded. “Everything alright, sugarcube? Why the long face?”
Ink Blot stopped walking. Her chest felt heavy, but she let out a breath and spoke.
“A—Aunt Applejack?” Ink Blot gulped. “You know Twilight and my mom pretty well, right?” Her lip quivered a bit. It was one thing to watch her mother cry, and see Twilight afraid. But to come to terms with it enough to actually say it out loud? This was proving to be far more difficult than Ink Blot had thought it would be. Mom never cried, and Twilight Sparkle wasn’t afraid of anything, so this had to be something big. Her knees began to shake a little.
Applejack stopped mid buck, lowering her hind legs softly to the ground. She looked somewhere between worried and… no, just worried. “Well, I... ain’t quite sure what’s got to ya, but why don’t you come inside and we’ll talk about it over cider, eh sugarcube?” Abandoning her grove of apple trees, Applejack walked Ink Blot over to the main farmhouse, staying close enough that Ink Blot could lean on her shoulder if she wanted to. Her aunt’s fur was only slightly comforting.
“I knew your mom a bit longer than I did Twilight, but we’ve always been the closest of friends,” Her aunt started when they entered the house. She went to the kitchen, pulling two mugs from the cabinet and filling them with cider from a faucet. “Ain’t nothin’ like cold cider to help loosen the lips a bit. So, what’s got you so down you could dig for grub worms?” She took a seat on the couch and tapped the cushion beside her with her hoof.
Ink Blot climbed up and let out a long, deep sigh, staring at the ground in front of her. What could she say? She didn’t even know what was going on. But that was why she was here, wasn’t it? Her aunt would know best what might have frightened her mother, and Twilight as well, so it seemed a good place to start. Ink Blot took a deep breath and finally spoke the question that had been bugging her since she got here.
“What do you know that would frighten Twilight or my mom so bad they disappeared?” A small tear escaped her eye, and Ink Blot then realized she was actually afraid herself. She shivered, despite the summer heat.
Applejack nearly choked on her cider, and quickly set down her mug. “Pinkie? Afraid of somethin’?” Deep lines set into her brow and she rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Twilight’s always been jumpier than a grasshopper in a cornfield on harvest day, but Pinkie ain’t never been afraid of nothin’. ‘Least not on the outside. Why, she’s the one who taught us all just to laugh at our fear to make it go away.”
Her aunt let out a slight chuckle and stared up into space as though remembering something, then let out a sigh and relaxed into the couch, her face neutral. “If Pinkie’s really afraid of somethin’ that bad, I think I’ll eat my hat.” She leaned over and put a hoof on Ink Blot’s shoulder, smiling comfortingly. “Why don’t you just tell me what happened in the last few days and we’ll figure it out together.”
Ink Blot took a deep breath and began to recount the events that had happened in the last two days, starting with Peewee and her paint brush. Throughout the telling, her aunt’s face formed just about every expression Ink Blot thought it was capable of producing. She chuckled a bit when Ink Blot mentioned the poison joke, but frowned when she told her about Zecora’s odd brew. She looked a bit disapprovingly at Ink for breaking into the fence around the old abandoned barn, but her disapproval turned quickly to fear when Ink Blot began describing the painting of the wall. By the time Ink Blot had finished describing the nightmare she’d had the previous night, her aunt’s face was completely white, and she had dropped her cider mug on the floor.
Eyes as wide as they would go, Applejack shakily got off the couch, gathered up their two mugs, and took them back to the kitchen, where she began washing them with a bit more effort than seemed necessary. Ink Blot forgot her story for a moment as she became curious about why her aunt had been frightened as well.
“Um, Aunt Applejack? Are you alright?”
Applejack turned around for a moment, eyes still wide. “Huh? Me? Uh, I’ll be fine. Just, uh, keep going.” She snapped her head back to its original position and continued to frantically scrub the mugs of cider. Ink Blot thought for a moment, and then went on to tell her about how her mother had left for some pink flower forest. Applejack stopped scrubbing momentarily, then resumed. At the mention of Twilight’s actions, and what she’d said at Zecora’s hut, she actually dropped the mugs. “no” She said, soft enough that Ink Blot almost didn’t hear.
“Um, Aunt Applejack?” Ink Blot started. Her aunt’s head slowly turned to face her. This time, her eyes drooped and she stood a bit shorter, head hung low. She reached up and pulled her hat off, clamping it firmly between her teeth. Ink Blot’s eyes shot open as her aunt slowly tore a section of the hat off, chewed, and swallowed. Then her aunt let out a long sigh.
“This… isn’t a story meant for fillies.”
~ ~ ~
“Ink Blot! Come on, Wake up!”
Ink Blot snapped awake as a hoof slapped her sharply across the face.
“Huh? What?” Ink Blot was lying on her back. Her aunt was standing over her.
Why am I at Aunt Applejack’s house? She thought, blinking groggily. Wait, wasn’t she about to tell me something? Something about Mom, and Twilight.
Her aunt was sweating, and her eyes were stained with tears, but she looked relieved for some reason.
“Oh, thank Celestia. I thought we’d lost ya for a minute there.”
Only slightly relieved; she still looked very concerned about something. Ink Blot rolled onto her hooves and stood up weakly. Her knees shook as she struggled to remain standing. What’s going on? Why am I so weak? Her head swam as she took a step forward, and stumbled. Her aunt caught her.
“Come on. We’ve gotta get you to Zecora’s. Maybe she can fix this.” Applejack quickly tossed Ink Blot over her back, and headed for the door. There was a large pink smudge on the floor, and a pool of liquid at the center.
Is that… blood?
No. Blood isn’t pink.
Why do I feel so wet?
Ink Blot tried to ask her aunt what was going on, but only a gargled moan escaped her lips.
“Just hang on, we’ll get ya fixed up in no time at all. Don’t you worry.” Her aunt took off out the door at a full gallop. Only Ink Blot and her mother could possibly match this speed.
She sounds really worried.
Ink Blot noticed her hooves were dripping with whatever that pink stuff was. She felt really ill now.
Wait, that’s—
Ink Blot screamed as loud as was possible, but her mouth could no longer form words. Air from her lungs bubbled out through the spot where her lips now hung limply, half liquified.
Aunt Applejack, what’s happening to me?
Everything began to sound muffled. Her ears were now half formed lumps against her skull, and her hair had become a thin film of… ink, covering her head.
A loud, peircing noise broke the throbbing silence. Ink Blot looked up as well as she could manage. A bright crimson shape was heading toward her from the sky. Fast.
Peewee?
She could feel the talons sink into her back, and she was wrenched from her aunt’s back like a fish from a stream. It didn’t hurt. She could hardly feel anything now; she simply melted out of the way. The ground beneath her blurred together, soon becoming one swirling mass of color.
She was dropped into a large silver basin, staring up at the crimson bird perched on the rim, savoring his victory.
Damn you, Peewee. Damn you to hell.