All day long had the sun been burning on their backs and the land been good to them. Both Applejack and Big Macintosh watched over the setting sun with a smile on their faces. They gazed a little bit over the orchard. During the whole of the day had the two been working on the apple trees. They would have harvested them, as well as maintaining them. It was something that they had been doing since the day they were old enough to walk.
It had been their life ever since and nothing would ever be changing that fact for the both of them. “Sis, we just did a mighty fine job out there,” the red stallion replied to the cowgirl. Who in return flicked her hat backwards. She gave a simple nod in return while her back leaned against the trunk of a tree. The both of his forelegs were placed over the fence.
“E’yup, bucked apples the whole day, sales should be going through the roof tomorrow. Some of them apples looked juicy as could be. Now just hope them fruit bats ain’t coming again… ‘Member last time they paid us a, little visit?” Applejack spoke to her brother. Her green rimmed eyes looked towards the setting sun.
“Oh yeah, don’t have to tell me ‘bout that. Ah was there first hoof for yar information. Almost a quarter of the Acres just gone in the clap of a hoof,” replied Big Mac. He remembered that ungrateful night all those years ago. “Silent night it was, until those vermin came along. It's their time again, Ah feel it in the air and Granny has it in her bones again.”
“Well, at least we now have those spells from Twi to protect us a little bit,” the cowgirl smirked to her bigger brother after she had turned her head over to his side. The red stallion looked back at her and nodded softly on his own. “So we should be safe, right?”
“Can’t tell for sure, not until that thing rises the following morning.” He nudged his head into the general direction of the sun. His sister almost immediately understood the silent message. “Shall we go in? Granny’s been cooking up again. Not to mention, Ah reckon Apple Bloom is going to have trouble again with the shower.”
Those words managed to rise some curiosity within Applejack. “Hm? Still not fixed that waterline, Mac?” the cowgirl asked with a questioning gaze in her eyes. It had been a problem that was plaguing the farm for quite the while. Something or somepony seemed to be draining their water supply and it made each of the family members everything but happy.
“Working on it, but Ah think it are those Diamond Dogs that are at it again. Need to ask Rarity sooner or later to sniff ‘em out for me. Ever since she got captured by them, her nose seems to be smelling them,” Big Mac said. He turned himself around and left the fence for what it was.
Applejack on the other end just removed herself from the tree trunk and landed upon all four of her hooves again. Slowly she turned her body over to the farm house in the distance and took the first few steps. Yet listening to his words, caused her to smirk a little bit. “Ya sure it ain't going to be a date with that drama queen?” she spoke up in a teasing tone. A tone that was almost guaranteed to make Big Mac nervous.
Within seconds had the stallion turned his head around with a bright red blush over his own red coat, followed by an awkward smile. “Maybe,” he said in his typical tone. As much as his sister could tease and pester him, he could return it fair and square to her.
“Ah’m telling ya, if she comes to live with us at one point, Ah ain't picking her excuses ‘bout not working on the farm,” Applejack spoke up before they both erupted out in a laughter and Mac wrapped one of his forelegs over the back of his sister.
“Sis, Ah’ll make sure she never gets to live with us,” Big Mac returned to her. All of the sudden was Applejack pulled in a bit closer for a tight hug. “Besides, Ah already have enough mares Ah need to keep in check ‘round here. Granny, Bloom, you.”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Applejack countered almost right away after she heard his words. “Are ya implying what Ah think ya’re?”
With the semi-serious look that was given to him, Big Macintosh couldn't do much else than to release a well meant snicker to his sister. The look that she gave in her eyes was just something so priceless, that he even had to wipe away a small tear from his eyes. “Ah ain't implying anything here, Jackie. Just telling ya the truth. One stallion and three mares to look after, it ain't exactly the easiest job in the world. Especially when one is as stubborn as an honest mule.”
On that moment did Applejack’s face drop itself a little bit. Just before she chuckled herself. “Oh, yeah, ‘bout that, hehehe. Perhaps Ah am a little bit stubborn, sometimes,” she then countered. It didn't matter anymore to her though. She had been made black by her bigger brother already. So the only thing she really could do was to just go with it. Not to mention the fact that she knew he didn't mean the words he spoke against her. Sibling rivalry on a smaller scale was it often referred to by others. Especially the friends of Applejack.
“Ah’m starving, ya know what’s for dinner by any chance?” Applejack asked as they had almost reached the front porch of the house they both called home for so many years.
But in response to the question, all she received was a shake of his head. “Nope, Ah’m afraid Ah don’t know that.” Then his nose started to do some work as he sniffed the air a couple of times and couldn't truly believe the thing he smelled. “Potatoes? Well that’s gonna be interesting.”
Applejack shook her head a couple of times as she almost didn't believe the words that he spoke. “P-Potatoes? Now Ah've seen everything,” she mumbled to herself before proceeding through the door and into the house. Little did she knew, just what would have been served on their dinner table that very evening.
~~~~
Time came and went when Applejack leaned against the sill of her bedroom window and sighed a little bit. The skies were filled with the stars and the moon shining brightly there was a faint smile could be found below the muzzle of the mare. She seemed to have been content with her life as it was. Who would disagree with that fact? She had everything her heart would have desired.
The smile was cracked up a little bit further even before she jumped away from the sill. Slowly she wandered over to her bed to get some much needed rest. The following morning would be a busy day for her, as well as her little sister. Though the next day seemed to be so far away within that moment in time. There was no need to trouble herself with it just yet.
Applejack had crawled inside of her bed and took her hat off of the blanket for a moment. She just held it in her hooves. That very hat had determined her personality for years already and through time, one usually didn't saw the other without. It had seen its fair share of adventure and every time she thought it was about to fail her, it managed to keep itself together.
Almost as if it was a true wonder hat. Not that the mare complained about it though. She had so many fond memories thanks to it already, but there would be coming just so many more if she wanted. That was the very spirit that the cowgirl had. She wanted to gain more memories, she wanted to do more things. There was a lot that could be said about Applejack, but both honest and determined were two words that would describe her at best.
The smile still occupied her face as she placed the hat on her nightstand and snuggled in against the blankets and her pillow. She was tired as all ponies could ever be. While her green rimmed eyes closed themselves off from the world, it didn't took her all too long before she was off into the realm of the dreams. Dreams that were created by nopony else then the princess of the night herself. But little did she knew, that there were going to be turn and twists everywhere.
~~~~
The night came and went fairly much like every other day and without any nasty surprises. Weren't it for the fact that Applejack woke up a bit more tired than she usually would. Though it wasn't anything to bow down or new for her. It was the biggest day of the week for her and preparations just had to be made by the lots. The cowgirl managed to hoist herself out of bed and calmly left her room in order to make the small journey to the bathroom.
She would locked the door behind her and started on her early morning routine. Everything got done from her teeth to the mane and tail. Applejack almost looked like the role model farmer after she left the bathroom again. She then glanced out of the only window on the hallway. The darkness still consumed the land and it indicated her that everything was still going on schedule. Not to mention that a splash of cold water to the face seemed to have done some miracles as well. For she felt herself everything but tired anymore.
Though the time to think about it wasn't there. Applejack made a rather quick and simple breakfast for herself in the kitchen. One slice of bread with cheese and a glass of apple juice would have been consumed in order to start the day, it had been her morning starter for years by then. It didn’t seem like she would be changing it any time soon though.
Every single pony inside of the house and in pretty much the whole of Equestria still being vast asleep. Applejack was one of the very few who was wide awake and ready to work. Which began by loading the sacks of apples on the cart for the market that would be starting in an hour or six. Her hooves had managed to carry her over to the barn with a small hop into them. She felt herself truly on top of the world and if she could be taking on both the celestial and lunar guards with nothing but her bare hooves.
~~~~
It was something that had showed itself in the speed with which she managed to fill the cart up. Everything seemed to be done as quick as possible, because when the cowgirl was done, she wiped some of the sweat off of her forehead and leaned against the side. Only to look right past the doors of the barn and into a still darkened Equestria.
It was something that caused her to smile and chuckle at the same time. “Well who would have thought! Woohee, never got the job cleared that fast, not with this amount of bags anyway,” the mare spoke proudly to herself before bumping her chest with a forehoof. The scene almost seemed like she gave herself a well-deserved pat on the back. Though the massive amount of work that she had moved in apparently such a short amount of time had caused her to run on nothing more but just fumes of her breakfast. All the energy she had gotten was already spent.
The work she had moved had made her tired again. With the moon still out there, a quick little shuteye didn't seem to be all that harmful in her eyes. Which was in fact the thing she was going to do. After a small yawn was released, the body of the mare had dropped itself in a stack of hay and she curled up into a ball of fur. Mere seconds later did the soft snoring of Applejack fill the barn. If any of the family members needed her, she wouldn't be that hard to miss.
Though during her sleep, there was the sudden feeling of something being wrong. Something almost fundamentally wrong that caused her to turn and twist in her sleep. It wasn't anything that she normally had when being asleep. Normally she would have been too tired to even more a muscle, let alone think. But that time it was different, something didn't add up for her and it drove her crazy to say the least.
From time to time she shocked up out of her quick sleeps but with the moon still being up even after the fifth time. The mare had begun to wonder just how long she had actually slept between each of the waking. And why was there that faint hint of burned wood in her nose? It couldn't be explained by anything, but it was just there and didn't sat her well.
So in order to get rid of any paranoid ideas or hallucinations, Applejack began on the work that was usually reserved for her brother to be doing. A thing which happened to be plowing the land. It was a tough job for certain. It would at least would keep her busy until the sun would rise once more. If it would have risen up to begin with.
Applejack strapped herself inside of the harness. She used every ounce of muscle power that she had in order to move the plow through the soils. The mare crawled forth inch by inch while her eyes were often looking at the stars. Instead of the distance she still needed to be going. Perhaps it was a good thing that she did that. Every single that that she looked up towards the stars, there was another, little thing that was revealed to her.
“What in all hay’s name is going here? Unicorns at it again?” the mare muttered after she had noticed something unusual about the skies. Something that made her stop plowing all together and even step out of the harness. Everything that Applejack saw in the heavens high above her, were almost the exact same as they were on the moment that she went to bed the other night.
It caused for utter confusion inside of the cowgirl as she started to turn around and look at the different corners of the wind. Applejack was almost certain that she had been standing in the wrong way and thus read the directions wrong. But her feelings of direction were all too perfect. She wasn't standing in any wrong direction or anything but the moon and the stars just hadn't moved in hours to end. “Now what in tarnation’s going on here?! Luna been pissed again?” she questioned to herself while going after the available information. But with the moon locked in its position, it also caused the entire feeling of time to have just disappeared from the earth pony.
Perhaps that was why it didn't feel like much time had passed between the naps she had made in the barn earlier. Perhaps that was why there was nopony else out there. They all must have thought about the same thing, that the moon was still out and that it was still in the night.
It seemed the most logical answer to her. Though the moment she looked away from the moon itself and to the house where the rest of her family was still asleep, two sapphire blue irises revealed themselves among the stars up high. As if they had always been there, but their light was only visible for the fraction of a second. After it, it was all just dim again.
“This ain't Luna’s work, now is it? Luna wouldn't be doing such things, would she? Nah, this, this has to be a trick played by Nightmare Moon or Discord. Ya never know where it goes with that clown,” mumbled Applejack to herself. It was done in order to give herself some answers to the seemingly impossible questions. “Ah need to warn the others, now.”
With those words spoken into the thin air had the cowgirl left the land and plow for what they were. Her green rimmed eyes moved themselves over to the house and gave a powerful nod to herself. Before she even knew it, her hooves were galloping over to the place. All while that scent of something being burned pierced itself deeper into her nose.
A scent that was being excused by something that stood on the stove for far too long and would in fact be, the first thing she wanted to find out once inside.
~~~~
Her legs carried her over to the kitchen of the house in the darkness and could still smell the burning scent. But the moment she looked on both the stove and inside of the oven, there was nothing that Applejack could see that could possibly be leading to the source. “…What in tarnation?” the mare mumbled to herself before the search continued further on. At least the gas was off in the kitchen. Which meant that it wasn't Granny Smith who had tried cooking again in the early morning.
It still didn't felt good to her at all. “Gran? Mac? Bloom? Any of y'all hearing me?” she called out from the kitchen in a raised voice. A voice that would be powerful enough to travel through the ceiling of the building. A voice which thus came over to the rooms where the other family members were asleep. At least, that was what she thought in her head.
In silence from her own had Applejack waited a couple of seconds before she called out to them again. Though once more, there wasn't nopony who heeded her call. It was beginning to scare the earth pony a little bit. Or perhaps more than she would have liked to admit to what was going on. The silence wasn't something she was used to, or ever would get to, for that matter.
Then did Applejack gave her ears the opportunity to do the thing they were really good at. That thing was to listen. They just listened for even the smallest sound that was being made inside of the house. It was just as silent as the grave in every last little corner. Not even the mice nor Winona the dog could be heard. It was in that stone cold silence that Applejack gained a stone cold shiver down her spine. For the situation only looked more and more somber from there on out.
“What’s going on here..?” she question to not only herself, but also the house. Yet the only manner of finding the truth to any kind, was to go on an investigation of her own. Whether she liked it or not, it had to happen. She was determined to find the proof of what just had happened to not only herself, but her family as well. Applejack needed to inspect the upper levels. In fact, she needed to inspect the rooms that they slept in. “What’s going on here, for real?”
Inspecting their room wasn’t something she was looking forward to. Though it did mean would be having some more confirmation of the events. With a deep sigh had her eyes turned back up again before another nod was given. It needed to be done and she knew it all too well. Whether she liked it or not, it was the only way.
Her hooves brought her all the way up the stairs. Applejack walked almost at the tips of her hooves during her ascend. The house was filled with silence. She tried to be as silent as possible as well. Probably before fighting for her life just to get back out. “For crying aloud, Ah can be in a cheap movie flick for all Ah know,” was just one of the few comments Applejack whispered to herself before she was finally at the top of the staircase.
The green rimmed eyes looked to both sides and noticed how the only two doors that were actually open. Two doors which happened to be the door leading to her own bedroom and the bathroom. All the others were closed, indicating that they hadn't even come out of bed yet. It was a thing that gave the earth pony a mixture of feelings through her mind and soul. At one end she was happy that they still could be inside of their rooms. But the other one was a bit more sinister. With the scent of a fire or something burning still filling itself in her nose, who knew just what she would be finding behind the doors?
All that the cowgirl could be doing was to hope for the best and pray on a miracle to happen for her. One that would be in her favor, that was. With a shake of her head did the mare turned herself over to the room where her beloved grandmother slept. She walked quietly over to the door she resided behind. Applejack didn’t wanted to disturb any privacy that the elder mare. So the mare first placed her ear against the door. She then closed her eyes in order to just listen to any sound.
She was hoping to hear the sound of snoring to come out of there. A thing that had caused the mare to set the hopes high already. Though all of those hopes were being crushed within an instant. Not even a breeze that went through the room could be heard. It truly unsettled the cowgirl. As a final resort before breaking into the room, she decided to look through the keyhole.
When she looked through the hole was the darkness of the room and just a little bit of moonlight could be seen. Though it wasn't enough to determine whether or not Granny Smith was still in the room or not. So the option that she didn't wanted to do, had to be done. Her hoof placed itself on the doorknob. Which it began to turn it to the other way. With a soft click had the door opened itself. Applejack released a small gulp before she continued to open the thing even further.
What she was presented with was the room of Granny Smith as she had known it for years. A room fairly much unchanged through time itself and the cowgirl took a couple more steps into the room. Her eyes looked all over the place in the vague hope to find her beloved, aged grandmother somewhere. But in a room of that size, one not much bigger than a standard bedroom with one exit, losing somepony inside of it seemed to be impossible. It resulted in Applejack having to come to the conclusion that her grandmother wasn't just gone, but had vanished from the face of the land.
With the realization that had hit her, the mare had almost immediately left the room. She left the door behind her open just before she lowered through her hunches. The feeling of vomiting was the one that dominated her stomach. Yet the strength was there to keep everything inside. It just didn't add up to her mind whatsoever. Everything that she saw, everything she smelled, it just didn't add up in the equation that was going through her head.
Having her grandmother gone was one thing, if even her older brother and younger sister were gone, she would be in the most terrible kind of trouble than she could have ever imagined. But that still left the questions unanswered, and more added to the pile of them. “O-Okay Applejack, gotta keep yarself tough here. Perhaps, perhaps Gran’s gone to the market already. Ah mean, the moon still in the skies like that while time goes on…” It was just another excuse to deny the facts to herself though.
~~~~
With the courage returning to her mind and body, the mare walked over to the room of her bigger brother and repeated the process done before. Only to also having to open that door as the sounds and sights didn't prove anymore. Gently filled the screech of the hinges the haunted atmosphere and had the mare looking up at them. “Definitely some kind of horror flick, great. What’s next? Ghosts of previous land owners? Puh, let’m come, Ah be needing some tough words with 'em.”
Even though the words were tough, they only concealed the fear that was racing through the earth pony. For the exact same result was given to her once again. Once again she encountered an empty bedroom with not a single trace of the owner. Much like Granny Smith, even Big Macintosh himself had vanished from the face of the land just like that. Though it wasn't something that was truly right in the mind of the cowgirl. “Okay…if there are any ghosts involved in this madness, Ah want a word with y'all, right now, right here!” she almost yelled into the thin air.
Next to fear had anger also been boiling up inside of her. An anger that would be needed to vent through somewhere, somehow. It would taking quite the bit of time before she would have been normal again. Though there still was that one last room that she had to investigate. With that thought did the cowgirl released a couple of deep sighs through her nostrils before she left the room of her brother a lot less angry than she was before.
Though that never took away the fears she had. For the final room of the building she needed to check, was the room of her beloved little sister. It was the room that scared her the most to even as much consider to enter, but the mare knew that she had to set aside her fears and tackle the situation head-on, even if she didn't wanted to do such a thing.
After having listened to the door of Apple Bloom’s bedroom, Applejack once again heard nothing coming out of it. Which meant that there was only one more option that she could have done. One final thing before opening the door. She had to peek through the keyhole once again. Every single time that Applejack did such a thing, she couldn't help it but to find herself almost being a burglar that was about to break into a place. Inside of her own house.
Privacy was something each of the family members was accustomed to and each of them respected that. So the chance was truly there that that caused some massive issues when thought about it. With another deep sigh that left through her nostrils had Applejack lowered her eyes to the hole and looked straight through it. Hoping to find something, if not anything.
A shimmer of darkness came by without a warning. A mare with a black coat or cloak could be seen standing right before the keyhole. To make matters worse, it was Applejack who tried her utmost best to keep her mouth shut. Though the body of the being lowered itself towards the keyhole. Seconds later did Applejack stood eye to eye with the eye of the creature on the other side. Applejack’s green rimmed eye was staring right at a sapphire rimmed, cat-like eye. For fractions of seconds that seemed like minutes had they stared, before the other eye disappeared into thin air.
The cowgirl didn’t wanted to waste a second had the mare just bashed through the door and stepped inside to sniff out the intruder. “Where are ya, ya little vermin?! Ah know yar in here somewhere!” she shouted into the room. Her eyes became fixated into finding the being that had glanced straight into her soul. But as per usual that night, there was nothing that she discovered. Nothing at all could be seen within the room.
The same could even be said for Apple Bloom. Not even the little red maned, yellow coated filly laid in her bed. To that had Applejack taken her hat off and placed it against her chest. Her head dropped itself before she released a deep sigh through the nostrils. “This ain't happening, not to us,” the cowgirl whispered to herself just before the eyes had shut themselves. She was almost drowning herself into the sorrow and guilt that had moved up in her heart.
It almost seemed that she placed all the blame for the entire family’s disappearance on nopony but herself. There was nothing she could be doing or could have done though. She continued on with her life while the world around her stopped and its inhabitants vanished into thin air. “Am, am Ah the only one left?” Applejack questioned herself. She left the room of her little sister without a further sound or word. With the hat still against her chest, the orange coated, blond maned earth pony walked over to her own bedroom and dropped herself on the bed.
~~~~
The hat was finally released and it fell upon the blanket as Applejack just closed her eyes. She didn't even wanted to know what was going on anymore. She didn't know what to believe anymore at that very point in time. Whether or not she was living a dream or real life was unknown. If it was a dream, why wouldn't she just be woken up? Yet if it was real life, what had truly happened to her family and why, why was she still present? Why was she left there, while the rest was gone?
Only one answer could be found in her mind and it was a truly radical one. One that literally could have declared her crazy almost on the very spot. “Mah element,” Applejack spoke in a whisper before she sat up right on her bed. “Mah element of harmony…” It seemed farfetched but given the circumstances of the events as they had happened it made a lot of sense to the cowgirl. That the power of her own element, the harmonic element of honesty had protected her from the purge that caused time to stop and the ponies to cease to exist. A truly insane idea but at the moment it was all that she could think of.
Yet the courage to go to her friends simply wasn't there. At the moment, she didn't believe in the magic of friendship anymore. Not with her entire family being somewhere not even Applejack could be understanding. Nothing, literally nothing in her mind had added up to find any logical explanations to the matters. Though the matter wasn't laid to rest yet. As every secret eventually had to surface, even Applejack knew that all too well.
The secrets she was involved in had to be revealed preferably sooner than later. “What in the name of everything, has happened to this town?” the orange cowgirl questioned herself. There was another deep sigh that was left through her nostrils.
All of the sudden and out of nowhere did the bells in the clock tower of Ponyville began to chime. They didn't gave indicate specifics of time or date. No, the chiming of the clocks were for something that heralded something much more saddening. The tune they were playing was the one as they would have been doing during a funeral.
The ears of Applejack perked themselves up in an instant at the sound. She rose up from her bed with both eyebrows raised. The silent thought of the tower being operated meant that there still would have been ponies around. Though perhaps the oddest of things had to be the fact that the chiming became louder in her ears when seconds passed by. All the way to the point that made it seem, like the tower was standing right next to the house.
The chiming became almost deafening for her and drove her even further over the edge of insanity itself. She seemed to have gone crazy and jumped off of her bed. The rhythmic banging of the bells wasn't something the mare was fond off to begin with. She only wished it would have stopped. She cursed the words out like only a sailor could do before as she slammed her door shut. It was just a faint attempt to escape the infernal sounds.
But just the door wouldn't have been enough. The window in her room needed to be blocked off as well. With a small gallop did Applejack arrive at the window and had her forehooves already curled up around the curtain before she had a glance outside. The scene that was presented to her was everything but the thing she had hoped for. For the mare saw four tombstones standing at the side of the pathway that was leading up to the house.
Disbelief was the emotion that was first going through her body. Out of everything that she had seen so far and with the clock tower still going, could it have been that she was watching her own funeral? Or at least her own tombstone? Frightened for her life had the mare carefully released the curtains and slowly walked back as if she was facing a manticore. She needed to go down, down to the pathway up to the house and discover just who laid buried on those exact places.
~~~~
Not much later stood Applejack on the porch of the house with the scent of something having burned entering her nose once again. She didn't wanted to believe what she saw yet the cowgirl did a step forth without her hat. Watery lines had already formed themselves below the eyes of the mare. The distance between her and the stones was being shortened with every step she took.
Every single step she took felt like she carried a ton of extra weight with her. Every last bit of her became as heavy as it could have been. Unbelievable was it to say the very least. The sadness that she felt while she approached the stones, the chiming of the bells still ringing in her ears. The moment of truth was there and then, she could read each of the stones that were placed along the pathway and instantly knew, that they were tombstones. But the question remained, for whom?
It was a question that had a rather grim answer, even for a mare like Applejack. Each of the stones held the name from one of the family members. Granny Smith was the first, followed up by Big Mac, who on his turn was followed up by Apple Bloom. All three had died at the same date. Though the cause was never written down upon the stones. It only adding up to the pile of mystery.
“This, this ain't happening! They can’t have died, all at the same darn day! It, it is not possible and Ah won’t believe it! This, ain't, happening, ya hear me!” Applejack screamed at the top of her lungs. Her voice reached even louder than the chiming clock tower itself. Sadness and anger had taken over her mind again, preventing her to think in any logical manner of speaking and acting. But everything taken into consideration, there still was that fourth tombstone. One whose name wasn't clearly to be read, but it seemed to have at least a bit more explanation on it.
“Ah’ll get you for this, Rainbow Dash. Only you are so sick to come up this kind of prank, vermin treatment for ya. No longer welcome on the Acres…” Only after those words were spoken did Applejack turn her head over to the remaining tombstone. She began to automatically read the text on it. “Here lies, something, something, something, who was the last body to be recovered from the raging fire that destroyed the farm formerly known as Sweetie Apple Acres and therefore stopped the Apple Family bloodline in the serene town of Ponyville..?” The mare blinked a couple of times before she rose her eyebrows again. Confusion wasn’t even going to cover the feelings that went through her. “What in tarnation? Ah ain't dead yet and there certainly wasn't any fire, Ah just walked through the place before that bell started to, hold on a minute.”
The cowgirl began to listen a bit deeper to the sounds around her and made the rather shocking discovery that the chiming of the bell tower had stopped. Total silence was the thing that dominated her nearby area, though it was curiosity that filled her. She wanted to know to whom that last name belonged.
With a couple careful wipes of the dust, had the cowgirl managed to dust off the name. At the discovery of it, her eyes had begun to water up and a hoof was placed before her mouth. She gasped for air. The very name that stood on the final tombstone, wasn't just any name. No, the name that she read below the dust was nothing else but her own name. “N-No! This, this ain't happening for real! Ah ain't dead! Ah ain't dead!” she shouted towards the skies high above before her eyes turned themselves over to the farm house.
It only confirmed the story on the stone. The scent of something having burned suddenly fell right on its place. The green rimmed eyes of the cowgirl looked at a still smoking and burned out Sweet Apple Acres. Everything she once stood for was just gone in the breeze of a flame. A flame that didn't only claim her own life, but that of her family as well.
Everything she had been working just so hard for over like that, and she didn't even know. Knowing it was all over, the mare just turned herself around. She had begun to walk away from the scene all together. The only words that she spoke up were the once said already.
~~~~
“Ah ain't dead yet!” Applejack screamed up while she flung all four of her hooves violently from side to side. The blankets of the bed were flung right off of it. Both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked horrified to the bleak cowgirl. Whatever she had been dreaming about, it must have been equally as bad as the other two.
It had taken Applejack ten minutes to wake up after Fluttershy. Pinkie had started to see a pattern in the waking. Though with two mares still deeply asleep, it was only a matter of true time to see if she had it by the right end. All she could be doing there and then was to let Applejack come by from her frights.
Something that would be easier said than done. The cowgirl had turned herself around and dumped her face in the pillow. She was sobbing a bit to herself for as long as she could. Fluttershy couldn't speak a word because of how terrified she was. Pinkie had not a even clue of what she could be doing. All they could be doing was waiting for both Twilight and Rainbow Dash to wake up. If they would be waking up to begin with.