Danse Macabre

by pokeking95


Wherever You're Going to...

        The foliage was relentless in shielding the skies above from her prying eyes.  Applejack had been stumbling through the dark forest for well over an hour now (or what seemed like it; perhaps unsurprisingly, the passage of time did not seem right in this place), regularly craning her head here and there, and she still could not find a large enough break in the canopy for her to glimpse the stars.  Moreover, it felt incredibly unnerving walking amongst the shadowy trees all by her lonesome, the grinding of her hoofsteps against fallen leaves and her steady, nervous breathing being the only audible disturbances in the otherwise perfect silence.  Another seemingly hour or two passed, and Applejack still did not have any success.  Her patience was wearing thin.

        Even more time passed.  How much, she really did not know for sure, but her frustration and apprehension eventually boiled to a critical point, and Applejack lashed out at the nearest tree with her hoof with all her might.  A loud, familiar thwack rang forth, but to her surprise, the tree remained unscathed, as if the mare had never hit it in the first place.  She had not managed to scrape off even the tiniest bit of bark, nor had she felt any pain upon slamming her hoof so haphazardly against the knotted trunk of the seemingly invincible tree.  Her rage quickly simmering down, Applejack simply stared at the spot she struck, then took a glance at her hoof, expecting to see the keratin chipped or scratched.

Her hoof was also completely undamaged.

In fact, she had never seen her hoof looking so… flawless, not in a long time.  She scrutinized her other hooves and found all of them to be in a similar state.  Rarity herself would be envious.  Applejack was perplexed, though.  While she made sure to take good care of her hooves, not overworking them during a solid day of apple bucking and keeping them in good condition afterwards, she had never seen her hooves looking so perfect before, save for one time, when she agreed to go to the spa with her friends all those years ago.  However, she had not gone even once since then!  She realized that even her coat was also clean and well-kept after giving her entire body a quick inspection, despite the fact that she had been sleeping for Faust-knows-how-long on the dirty forest floor not too long ago.  Furthermore, while she did not have a mirror or any other means of seeing her reflection, at this point Applejack did not doubt that there was not a single blemish on her face, even after hitting herself earlier.  What was going on?  The more Applejack speculated, the more cryptic everything became.

An epiphany suddenly striking like a bolt of lightning, Applejack realized that if she could not see the stars from the ground, then she could try scaling the trees and seeing them from up above.  The earth pony felt her stomach sink at this, though; there was a reason earth ponies preferred staying firmly planted on the ground.  Still, Applejack gathered that she would not make any progress sighting the stars so long as the canopy remained as thick as it was, so it was at least worth a shot, provided she did not end up breaking a limb in the process.  She had some assurance, however small, in the fact that she had climbed trees before, back on the farm, when the occasional apple stubbornly clung on to its branch too much to be harvested by apple bucking alone.  These trees were significantly taller than the apple trees back at Sweet Apple Acres, though…

Finding a suitable tree, one that could be climbed without too much difficulty, did not take too long.  Gathering her nerve, Applejack hugged and shuffled up the trunk of said tree before reaching for the bough and pulling herself up to it.  She then stretched a limb out to reach for another branch, one slightly higher up, grabbed it, and pulled herself up, rustling the leaves in the process.  The earth pony repeated the process over and over again, slowly but surely making her way up the tree.  The branches got thinner, sparser, and less likely to support the pony’s weight the higher Applejack got, and she was all too aware of this.  It was an awfully long drop to the forest floor now…  Her determination to get back home far outweighed her natural fear of heights, though.  Eventually, after much time and effort, Applejack was above the canopy at last, and she let the feeling of triumph wash over her.  Sitting on a rather thin branch and holding on for dear life, Applejack allowed herself a moment of rest to catch her breath and allow her pounding heart to relax.

Finally, after a moment’s reprieve, Applejack tilted her head skywards, eagerly anticipating what Princess Luna had painted upon her canvas.

One could only imagine the devastation and horror on the young mare’s face as she saw no stars amongst the firmaments above, none whatsoever.

It was not because there was a thick overcast or some such; there was actually not a single cloud to be seen from horizon to horizon.  There were literally no stars at all.  The sky was a simple black backdrop—plain, unadorned… empty.  Applejack’s mind was racing.  Where had they gone?  There was no logical reason behind their disappearance.  Princess Luna would not venture to even think of forsaking Her beautiful stars; they were as integral to Her night as the Moon itself.  Not even Princess Celestia dared to alter the constellations in the slightest during Her sister’s millennium-long banishment.

Her breathing quickening and her jaw quivering, Applejack desperately scanned the entire expanse of the blackness above, hoping to find even the dimmest sign of a star, her only hope for a way back home.  But she found nothing.  There was not a single point of light in the sky, save for the white disc of the Moon.  Yes, the Moon remained a constant, even if the stars were not.  Shaking, Applejack automatically, reluctantly, locked her welling eyes to the Moon, as if to ask, “Why?” but soon found herself inexplicably entranced with It, a perfect circle of pure, almost-blinding white, with nary a single pockmark or crater to be seen on Its surface.  It was magnificent, alluring… petrifying.  It was an orb, high and mighty, unreachable and unfathomable, staring down at the land below.  Lording over Its dominion, this strange forest, the celestial eye suddenly seemed to focus on the orange earth pony mare, who had dared to seek audience with It, sitting amongst the treetops, as if she were not even an ant, insignificant and infinitesimal.  Under the gaze of this Medusa, Applejack was frozen stiff; she really might as well indeed have been less than nothing.  The longer she gaped at It, the tinier she felt.  She dimly felt her grip on her branch slackening.  She was horrified but spellbound, and no matter how much she tried the mare found it physically impossible to tear her eyes away from the Moon’s horrifically tantalizing visage.

Even as she fell backwards into gravity’s cruel but welcome embrace, Applejack remained transfixed with the Moon.  She could have sworn that It was howling down at her, sneering at her, as she was cast down from Its court.  It was only until she disappeared beneath the canopy and collided with the unfeeling ground far below was she finally safe in merciful darkness.


When Applejack came to, she expected to be met with a shrieking, white-hot pain from all over her body, shattered bones wailing in protest from being shifted around, rivers of blood dribbling down her skin from deep, vicious gashes.

She felt nothing.

In fact, she felt as if she had just awoken from a refreshing nap.  Glancing across her body, the mare was, admittedly, no longer surprised to see the absence of even the smallest cuts and bruises.  She checked to see if her hat was still there atop her head and was numbly satisfied.  Applejack wondered how long she had been out, and automatically looked up at the sky to check for the time of day.  It seemed to still be nighttime.  Immediately recalling her less-than-pleasant experience with the Moon, the earth pony shuddered and quickly averted her eyes to the ground.  That Moon… That was no moon, not Luna’s Moon, at least.  Where was she, if even the Moon itself was so different, so brilliantly appalling to her?  Could she be…?

The mare sucked in a deep breath as comprehension dawned on her.

Applejack simply sat there, too bewildered to be shaken out of her reverie.  Another world?  That was impossible… was it not?  It made no sense… yet it did, in a way.  How else could she explain the strange phenomena that she had experienced?  The soundless forest?  The alien sky?  Her apparent invulnerability?  Just what was going on?  If it was not obvious that there was something not right about this place, then it was now.

But, if she really was in another world, then… then, how would she go home?  Was there any way home?  Applejack felt her jaw quiver and her eyes tear up again.  No… no.  Assuring to herself, babbling to herself.  She would go home.  She would go home and run into the loving embrace of everypony back home and never be alone again.  She would go home, back to the life she loved, on the farm she loved, reunited with the family she loved.  She would go home and cherish every precious moment with her best friends for as long as they lived.  She would go home to find her special somepony, raise a family of her own and grow old, live to see them grow old and have children of their own.  She would go home to a life worth living, not… this.

But this was all she would ever have, reality taunted her.  Her words were nothing more than hopeless drivel from a pony unwilling to face the facts.  Lost and alone in a realm beyond mortal understanding, there was nothing left for her.  The unforgiving truth was laid bare to her, and it was futile to deny it any further: there was

NO

WAY

HOME

The words roared at her, and just like that, Applejack broke.  The sound of her hope fracturing into worthless shards was barely drowned out by her screams of sorrow.  She screamed into the silence, bawling, begging for a way home, for that chance to live that life she so desperately wanted.  No longer held back by the façade of bravery, rivulets of salty tears cascaded down the mare’s face as she pounded her hooves against the mocking ground, over and over again, willing them to crack and shatter even though she knew they never would.  On and on she wailed, heaving sobs wracking her shaking body.  For the eternity she laid there as a wretched, blubbering heap, Applejack continued to wail, and no matter how much she cried the forest responded as it always did.

Quiet.